Participants:
| Scene Title | Morrie's All-Occasion Liquor |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Coren calls Felix from Morrie's All-Occasion Liquor to get him right down there on account of Cassidy being abducted. They find her some time later on the top of an apartment building a number of blocks away. The superintendent of the building is found dead in the entranceway. |
| Date | August 28, 2009 |
Morrie's All-Occasion Liquor - Lower East Side
Coren arrives at Morrie's All-Occasion Liquor. It's been only a few minutes since Cassidy suddenly went quiet and dull, like she does when she's asleep. Given the state of the back of the store, all he can do is call out her name and hope to hear something, even though he's quite certain she's gone from the store. After he calls dispatch, requesting assistance, he drives his fist into a display case, sending glass everywhere. "Son of a bitch." He'll have to mention that to the police when they arrive. He can't investigate this one. But he can call Ivanov, which he does. He rattles off the address to Morrie's Liquor and says to meet him there now, then hangs up.
Then he gets to wait.
Ivanov isn't far. Not at all. He appears in a few moments, in a polo and khakis, like any yuppie fool interrupted at his dinner. "Shelby, what's up?" he says, as he appears.
No matter how quickly Ivanov shows up, it feels like hours to Coren. He spent most of his wait pacing back and forth and resisting the urge to down at least one bottle of Scotch to calm his nerves. If he makes it out of this nightmare alive, it will be a miracle if he's not an alcoholic. When Felix shows up, Coren looks at him with eyes that could kill by the fury that burns within. "Azrael has absconded with Cassidy." The name alone should give goosebumps to anyone involved in the case. "After killing the entire staff of this place." Coren punctuates his statement with a wave of his arm towards the back where the ordinarily checkerboard tiles are all red and their source bodies lie. The smell of copper has already started to overtake the scent of alcohol that normally permeates the place. Coren was at least smart enough to flip over the open/closed sign and turn off the neon 'open' sign.
Felix's nostrils flare, and his lips tighten at the sweet metal tang of blood. He doesn't look like he's going to lose his lunch, though. He's seen….as bad, before. "Your nemesis, huh?" he says, grimly. "You called in homicide?"
"They're en route. It's pretty bad having to take a step back from my own case," Coren says. Like he wants to be on administrative leave. AGAIN. "This bastard's gotten me more time off than I've taken since I started in law enforcement," save maybe when he was forced into retiring from the FBI, "but this … this crosses the bloody line." If he were holding anything, he'd probably break it given how hard he's clenching his fists. "Nemesis is terrifyingly appropriate." He raises a finger to his head, "It's like she's asleep, the quiet she is right now." Of course, Felix over the course of the investigation was made aware of the empathetic link. One of a select few who know of it.
"How…. Is that link directional?" Fel says, turning away from the charnel house that is the back of the store, in favor of eyeing the other cop thoughtfully.
"I wouldn't call it directional per se, but there's definitely a pull towards her. I consider it more like a dowsing rod, though. I know she's closer if I can hear her thoughts. If she's far away I feel her emotions, and if she's really far, I only get this vague sense that she's still alive. But when she's asleep, it's so muted. I won't be able to get a fix on her until she's woken up," Coren explains. He rubs at his neck. He hasn't looked into the back since he called dispatch. This part simply won't be his case. No, this is a week off just waiting to happen.
Felix shakes his head. "So. Once she's up, we can use you as the bloodhound," he says, quietly. "Why you? What is it with this guy and you? He comes back after all this time…"
"I suppose you could put it that way." However crude, it's accurate. Coren shakes his head, "I ask myself that very question every minute of every day. And I've got nothing. We chased him, we never figured it out, and now he comes back and makes it obvious."
"Sounds personal. What'd you do, insult his mother, kick his dog?" Fel wonders, quietly. And then he saunters back, to take a better look at the mess in the back. To satisfy his curiosity, at the very least.
"I've wondered that from time to time, myself." It's only while Felix is off inspecting the hastily slaughtered bodies that the sound of sirens approach. That's when Coren realizes, "The son of a bitch has my car!"
Felix freezes, turning awkwardly in his half-crouch, from examining one of the bodies. "What?" he demands, straightening.
"I sent Cassidy in my car to get a bottle of wine for dinner. It wasn't here when I got here, and I know he said they were going for a ride," Coren says. "Son of a bitch stole my fucking car." Which would have been a useful thing to mention to dispatch ten minutes ago had he not been worrying about Cassidy having been stolen as well. He pulls out his phone to update dispatch. "If only the thing were new enough to have GPS."
"Call in the plates, do it now," Fel says, curtly. "Put out an APB, and pray he stays with it long enough before he ditches it."
"This is Detective Shelby. I need an all-points bulletin put on on a black nineteen eighty-three Chevrolet Malibu coupe, license plate number…"
"She's awake."
The wind rustles noisily — too noisily to be street level. And it's cold too — very cold. There's only the distant sound of cars to give any indication that she's still somewhere in the city. Of course, once she's properly come to, she'll notice that she's perched upon a rooftop, dangerously close to the edge — close enough to fall.
Coren? One minute she was standing up to Azrael, the next Cassidy slowly forcing her eyes open. What the hell just happened? Confusion rules her for a moment.. What did he do? The wind blows red strands of hair across her face, obscuring her view. Swaying a bit in place, she reaches up to try and brush the strands away. When she does, her arms feel like lead… Like when she tries to do some weight lifting at the gym. In fact, her whole body feels overworked. What the hell?
As she brushes the strands away it becomes suddenly clear what the bastard had done, which wakes her up completely. Her whole body goes colder then it already is. She does what no one should…. She looks down which makes her suddenly sway dangerously. With a shriek of terror, Cassidy's arms fly out to her sides and flail some as she works to try and right herself, her pulse thundering in her ears as her fear drives her heart faster.
Just when she thinks she's righted herself, one of her shoes slips over the edge. Her instinct is to crumple down with her body twisting to grab at the brick edging, her other foot catching on it as will. She ignores the bending and snapping of her finger nails as she clings for her life on the brick, the roughness tearing at the pads of her fingers , her body is so tired.
Not here, not now. goes through her head as she starts working to pull herself onto the roof. Arms shake with exhaustion, but slowly she manages to get herself to the point that she can spill over onto the roof with a triumphant cry. Of course, once there, she just lays there trying to calm her breathing and her heart.
What reaches Coren is little more than a whisper, but he can feel her. He slips past the uniforms and the officers in the liquor store. "You drive, Ivanov. I'll navigate."
That little gold badge, while not quite of the 'Do Whatever I Want And Get Away With IT' variety, can take you far. And in this case, it lets Felix slip quite neatly through the cordon to his own ancient BMW. He pops the lock, nods curtly at Coren, who's called shotgun.
Coren gets into the car and immediately says, "Go," before he buckles himself in. He leans himself forward and rubs his eyes with his fingers, concentrating. For once, he wishes it were his ability functioning and that somehow, maybe, he could extend it to be more useful. What he sees from Cassidy is vapourous at best, despite how strong he can feel her terror — for it's gone well beyond fear — and so he finds himself forced to rely on feeling only. "Turn right." Cassidy, look around. Because he wants to find the rivers to figure out where she is.
Felix proceeds as fast as he dares - but it's really something of a creep, considering. He's white-knuckled, sweating as he grips the wheel, glancing to Coren nervously now and then.
With a groan from her overworked body, Cassidy rolls up to her knees and then slowly to her feet. Both hands, shaky and sporting scratches from what just happened lift to comb through her hair and the hold it back from her face so that she can looks around her. Her hands drop away, and her fear fades to worry and confusion. Her pace is slow as she makes her way around the building, looking out at the skyline trying to make out where she is. Where the hell…? When she comes back to the bottles she inches forward slowly to try and glance down, but the fear of what just happened comes surging back and she backs away from the edge.
She glances out at the city again she can feel that pull as well, her eyes move to look that direction.
Hang on, Cassidy, I'm coming. Coren rolls the window down and looks out and around. Sure, it's not safe, but he needs a better vantage point. "Wait. Turn left. Get us onto Avenue C." A few things tumble through his mind as he pulls his head in. "She's near Tompkins Square Park on a red brick on the corner of East sixth and Avenue A. Son of a bitch knows my cases. First homicide I investigated as an NYPD detective was on that building. Somebody found a body on the roof."
Like a dog, panting in the window. It'd be funny, if it weren't so desperate. Felix peels around a corner, having reached out to slap a flasher on the dashboard. One of the little perks, you know. "Fucking with you again," he says, in a strained sing-song.
Yeah… // Cassidy glances at the ledge she was just on. //Already done that. The words seem bland to even her. Her stomach gives a little twist at just thinking about what she almost did. Not much else she can do really, so the red headed detective lowers herself to sit on the roof, knees drawn up and arms crossed against the chill and wind.
Once they hit the curb of the parking lot, Coren's already out of the car and walking up to the apartment building. He can feel her better, almost as good as when they're in the same room with each other. After all, she's only on the roof. His eyes travel straight for the intercom panel when he hits the door, rightly expecting it to be locked. He presses the button for the superintendent. "This is the New York Police Department…" His voice trails off when he notices something through the glass doors into the entrance vestibule, his gaze having wandered from the panel. Having only fifteen stories between them, there's no way she can possibly miss Coren seeing the mangled and bloodied body in the vestibule. Cassidy, I want you to look yourself over. Make sure you're not missing anything.
And Fel's right there, peering over his shoulder, like a child ogling a Christmas window. "God-fucking-damn-it," he says, like he'll portmanteau all the obscenity he can into one concentrated can of blasphemy. "I go first on this one," he says. "You navigate." As if there were any doubt.
She sees it.. She sees it though his eyes. There is a sharp inhale and her whole body goes cold, easy to say not to panic when you are realizing what might have happened…. Swallowing back bile, Cassidy slowly pulls her arms away from her body and her legs drop too. She doesn't want to look down, Oh my God. starts repeating over and over in her mind, at least til she does. Then Coren gets flooded with her relief. But then the realization of what's happened to her really hits. She has to screw her eyes shut against the sight, as the words whimper in her partners mind. Please, hurry. She's trying so hard not to think of what could of happened.
"I'm sure there are stairs inside, not sure how much navigating will be necessary," Coren says, looking through the glass door at the dimly lit main corridor. "The better question is how we intended to get inside." Because busting a glass door in, while easy, would seem to be an easy way to contaminate a crime scene, not that he expects anyone would find anything useful there.
"Well," Felix…he doesn't look -coy- does he? That couldn't be right. But out of his pocket, on his keychain….there's a suspicious little gadget. Not quite a multi-tool. "This is an old lock. I can deal with it." Not lockpicks, surely?
"Well, don't those come in handy," Coren remarks as he waits for Felix to pick the lock, and then enters behind the Fed. He's as careful as possible as he tip-toes around the corpse, making certain not to step in the pool of blood. Once through the inner doors, he immediately spots the door to the stair well and the elevators. "I say we take the elevator to the top floor, then the stairs to roof. No need to climb sixteen flights of stairs."
"I am a man of many talents," Fel says, with maddening superiority. And then the door's yielding with an acquiescent 'click'. He pushes it open oh-so-gently, fingertips splayed wide on the glass. "Right." And then he creeps through the lobby to the elevator, tread surprisingly silent.
It's all right, luv, I'm coming. I'm almost to you. It's the slowest elevator ride Coren has ever had if only because he wishes it were instant. It doesn't help that it's an old elevator, but in truth it's not much slower than the ones at work. Once the elevator reaches the top, Coren is out and proceeding directly into the stairwell, where he climbs the last flight to the roof and — without waiting for Ivanov to do it, because that would simply be maddening — he opens the doorway to the roof.
The pull lessens, telling Cassidy he's getting closer, she can't help but sigh in relief. By time they get to the roof and the door opens, Cassidy is throwing herself into Coren's arms, practically knocking him back as she cries in his head. Coren! He possessed me! She may be stating the obvious, but the images of her near death experience are fresh in her head. She wants a hot shower.. a VERY hot shower. Several probably. Though at the moment she just wants to be held by the one person she trusts the most and know that, yes, she is still alive.
A touching reunion. And Fel has his gun out, and is peering around, making sure the expanse of the roof is clear, before he holsters it. The villain has left, in more ways than one, and he finally turns back to eye the pair expectantly.
And Coren was ready and waiting. Touching reunion it is, in more ways than one was, as he prods and examines his partner while hugging her. To make sure she's quite all right and doesn't have anything more than a few sore muscles and the psychological damage of having had her entire body violated so. Once he's quite satisfied she's physically unharmed, he pulls her down towards the ground, where he's seated himself, and rests her head against his chest, his hand gently stroking her hair. It's then that his mind turns to the booze, and his eyes go to the bottle of wine and Scotch still sitting on the rooftop edge. "As much as I'm sure we could both go for a drink, I think we should pass on those particular bottles."
Her hands are scraped up, some nails badly broken, and probably the back of one leg, but nothing that needs medical attention, over all Cassidy is fine. She's even holding back her emotions some trying not the think too hard about what happened. However, when he pulls her down to the ground, she drops herself into his lap so that she can curl up there, wrap arms around him, head on his chest… But it's the hand stroking her head that undoes her and Cassidy actually breaks a little. "He touched them. You saw Coren. He touched them." The words are strained and she chokes a bit when she says 'he'. The prints are probably not there.. but who knows. "I was standing up to him… I'm sorry. I should have run, but I didn't.. I.. I.. confronted him cause of Liz. He knew where she was." She babbles on a bit, like she can't stop it, until she says. "I almost fell. My foot slipped."
Felix rounds on Cassidy at that comment. "What? Who knew where Liz was? Your rider? And where -is- Liz?" Felix demands, startled out of discretion or any real forethought.
"Azrael visited Elisabeth while she was held captive by Humanis First," Coren answers for Cassidy in between attempts to calm her. "Last we heard from her she was safe." He leaves out the part where they shot her. "We don't know where she is, though, which might be for the better." Only after he's replied to Ivanov does he nod. "That's right. We'll want those bottles searched for prints. There's a good chance Azrael touched them. Granted, if he just hops bodies, it would be mostly pointless, but it's something."
There's a weird sideways lurch in Felix's stride at that comment. "Humanis First? And no one fucking -told- me?" he demands, as if he'd take it out of Coren's hide, personally. Not threatening him, exactly, even though his hands curl into fists.
"She's safe that's all I know. She called me, she's alive." Cassidy glances at Felix, tears slipping down her cheek. She's still babbling a bit, "I'm sorry. I should have told you. I'm sorry." The tears are getting worse. "But the terror… the panic." It might sound weird to him, but it makes sense to her. She lived through all that emotionally.
"Believe me when I say keeping this all under wraps for the three days we've known has been like shitting tacks," Coren remarks, trying now to shush Cassidy before she completely breaks down. "Suffice it to say, I think we can all agree that shit is hitting the fan faster and faster now. Problems are growing by the minute. Azrael visited me in Illinois when I went to Megan Manning's funeral. He approached Elisabeth while she was in captivity. And she visited and abducted Cassidy tonight. I can't help but see a very disturbing pattern. Now more than ever, we have to watch out for each other."
"He's not in league with HF, is he?" Felix really wants to sit down, now, yes, he does. And he simply folds himself down onto the gravelled surface of the roof.
"Lord, I hope not. Granted, given their position, I'm not entirely sure they'd use an evolved like that. He seems too Hell bent upon us, I am going to operate under the assumption that this is personal, or something. I'd still like to know why us, though," Coren says. More and more, those two bottles of liquor become ever more tempting. It's a pity they're evidence. If only they were back at the liquor store. "We should probably call this in. Get paramedics to look Cassidy over at least. There is a dead body downstairs."
She goes silent knowing Coren can handle it, cause her teeth are chattering a bit as her body shakes from her trying to hold on to her emotions and not cry anymore then she is. When he mentions paramedics, Cassidy shakes her head. "I'm f-f-fine." She stutters between chattering teeth. "I j-j-just want to go home." Her arms are latched firmly around her partner, her head moves, red hair fanned lightly across her face, she looks at him pleading "I j-j-just want a shower and bed." Please.
"You need a hospital," Fel says, with complete assurance, once he's pried himself up from the surface of the roof.
"What she needs is a stiff drink to calm her nerves," Coren says as he brushes the tears from his partner's eyes. "Otherwise she's just scratched up a bit from — I'm not going to remind her. Suffice it to say, beyond maybe a Valium, she just needs to go home." And by home he means his own apartment. "God, I hope I turned the stove off."