Toe Steppin'

Participants:

cassidy_icon.gif coren_icon.gif minea_icon.gif

Scene Title Toe Steppin'
Synopsis Minea comes to sniff and stick her nose into a case, Cassidy is pleasant, Coren is preemptively rude just because she's Homeland and the case deals with a co-worker. Eventually though at the end, there's less cranky and more co-operation.
Date May 3, 2009

NYPD Headquarters

The New York Police Department Head Quarters is an old stone building, rennovated many times over the years. The plaster walls are not as cracked and in need of repair as the various Precinct buildings around the city. The fluorescent lights give the room a rather sterile glow. Old posters, civic reminders, duty rosters and newspaper clippings are tacked up on the walls, rustling every time one of the doors opens. A high, wooden desk sits on the north wall, manned by two clerks, who records all visitors and arrests.

The way out to the street lies to the south, while doors to the offices of the Head Quarters lie to the northwest.


Leg work: (Noun) Running around the office like a madman trying to find answers. At least, that's how Detective Shelby would define it. Since yesterday, when he and Cassidy talked to April Bradley, they have acquired a warrant and executed that warrant to acquire video surveillance of the Homeland Security agent at work, and that surveillance has panned out as proving her alibi. But that doesn't explain how her fingerprint got on Gustav Svenson's credit card. They also got a warrant to compel a hair sample from her, and the two uniforms Coren sent to do the job have just returned to inform him that she's not at home and she is not at the office. When he finally returns to Cassidy at their desks, he has been to the ADA's office, again, and requested another warrant, this time for phone records. It was hard enough getting the other two warrants on the weekend, it's unlikely they'll get the third until Monday.

Coren sits down in a huff. "That bitch skipped town." Does he usually swear? No. That would be Coren slowly unraveling at the seams. "She's not at home or at work, at any rate. I don't really care if her alibi checks out, she was involved somehow. We have her fingerprint in a very unlikely place and she provided no explanation. I talked to ADA Lyle, but we probably won't get a warrant for her phone records until tomorrow. I don't think the judges like having their weekends interrupted by us lowly law enforcement officers. God forbid justice be served on the weekends." He rummages through his desk drawers until he finds a powerbar, which he tears open and takes a bite out of. "I seem to recall in a night of drinking, encountering another Homeland Security agent who was interested in this case. She didn't pry too much at all, really, but I could tell she wanted to know more than I was inclined to give. Minea Dahl. I think we should track her down and see what she can tell us about Miss Bradley, provided she hasn't flown the coop too. Somehow I don't imagine Homeland Security being too helpful in helping us arrest one of their agents. Bad press." He takes another bite of the powerbar. "Actually, I think she brought Brooklyn up before I did."

Cassidy is in the process of adding an unhealthy amount of sugar to her coffee as Coren drops into his seat. She arches a brow as him as she shakes the last bit of sugar from a packet, before tossing it into the trashcan. "Well, not everyone takes peoples safety as serious, sadly." She says with a sigh, stirring her coffee with one of those little straws. "That or they actually have lifes outside the office." She says it like having a life outside of work is unusual. "What is it about the cases we're getting. Just can't catch a break. Between this and that Greenwich case of mine…" She gives a heavy sigh and sips her coffee. "So she skipped town.. Dunno that sure makes me wonder. If her alabi check out… why leave." She gives a slow shake of her head. "Call it my gut feeling.. But I think there is a lot more then we're seeing."

Can he remember what she looked like? Dahl that is, because said Homeland agent is actually standing outside the doors to the room their in, blackberry out and recording an address for an officer that she's looking for. How was she to know that Bolivar was on inactive duty right now. She's got an answer to his question. So right now, she's finding out where the hell to find the man before she thanks the guy and turns towards the room the two are in. There's a rap on the door with her knuckles before she opens the door. "Doctor Coren Shelby?" She knows it's him, but still, she's going to be polite and ask. Hair loose, khaki's, white button down, fitted jacket, the Homeland agent nods to Cassidy. "Special Agent Dahl. Do you have a few moments?" Ask Coren, and ye shall receive. Perhaps the law enforcement gods are shining down on you?

"There's an understatement. Skipping town when you know your alibi is going to check out is the sign of a guilty person. You don't run if you're innocent. Though, I suppose she could be inadvertently involved, in which she could be running because she's afraid of something, but it's — more often than not — a fear of getting caught." Coren tosses the empty powerbar wrapper in the steel garbage bin under his desk. "Which makes no bloody —" Then Minea Dahl appears. "Speak of the devil. Agent Minea Dahl, my partner Cassidy O'Shea." He swivels his chair to face her properly, "I was about to ask you precisely the same thing, only you've saved me the legwork of actually having to find you, first."

"Dunno." Is all Cassidy get's out as the other woman walks in, though it seems like she had something else. She turns a friendly smile to the the Agent and gives a curt nod. "Nice to meet you." She glances at her less then stellar desk and adds. "Ignore the mess been clocking long hours. Come on in sit." She motions to the empty seating as she picks up her coffee mug to take another deep drink from it.

"Don't pay attention to the news do you? Could have found me in the hospital" Minea lets herself in fully, closing the door behind her before she moves towards the other two. She walks like someone who's been shot, but not back to full capacity and offers her hand to Cassidy. "Minea Dahl. Homeland. This includes you now too I suppose and I won't mind. Looks just like my desk" and it doesn't seem a bad thing. "I've been assigned to a case you picked up in Brooklyn, near Red hook. I would have been in sooner" But a immortal decided to use me to send a message. "But I was laid up." Her hands then offered to Coren. "Before there's complaint, I'm not here to take the case away from you. Think that we can work together with as little toe stepping as possible?"

"I"m afraid I don't. Too busy doing my job." Coren remains silent as he shakes Minea's hand, firmly, and the he leans back in his chair. "Of course it's always a pleasure to have a case commandeered by the very organization whose agent is the prime suspect." Coren looks down at his desk. "Worded like that it almost sounds like a conflict interest…." He looks back up at Minea, "So, what is it I can do for you, Miss Dahl?"

"News? Lord, no. No time, plus the lot of them blow everything out of proportion.. not to mention… well.. that's not relevant here." Cassidy stops herself and sets her cup down and takes the hand briefly and firmly. "As he said. Cassidy O'Shea. His partner. Recently NOPD.. Been NYPD for…." She glances over at the calendar. "a few weeks." She let's go of the hand and quickly takes back up her coffee. "Well, glad to see you are still among the living." She offers with genuine concern. At the Minea's little announcement, she glances at Coren brows lifting a bit.

"So it seems, just by breathing in your direction, I'm stepping on toes. Nice" A smile from Minea. "multi-agency co-operation. ruined by those who have paved the way before me. I guess your selective hearing neglected to let through the part where I said I wasn't here to take over?" Little bit of unhappiness at Coren's attitude. "Conflict of Interest is if it was her standing here. Last I checked…" Minea opens her jacket and peers at the inside lapel as if it might have a name written on it. "Nope. Minea Dahl. Yup, that's me"

The Homeland agent looks over to Cassidy, offering a faint smile. "Welcome to New York. You've come after all the fun stuff. but I'm sure the criminal element will dig up something appropriate to welcome you if they haven't already" But with that, Minea takes a deep breath, then lets it out rather stop and go-ish. Right. Don't do that. "I'm not here to stick my hand up your ass and puppet you, I'm not even going to ask that you hand over the file and" her fingers come up on either side "Secret it away, never to be seen again. I just want to know what the NYPD has so far. Homelands sticking their nose in it and the regular person who should be doing it, my partner, got killed. So how about we try and make an effort to put the bullshit to the side and solve the case. If special Agent Bradley did it. Then by god I'll haul her ass in for you to handcuff. I don't like crooked cops, or crooked agents"

"I heard you just fine actually," Coren notes. "Whether or not she was directly involved is questionable, but she knows something and by not sharing that something, she is interfering with a criminal investigation. She's not being looked at as the mugger, only because the evidence at present won't allow us to pursue her as such. But she was involved, one way or the other. We have a finger print on one of the stolen and now recovered items." He takes a long drink of his long cold tea, which has been sitting on his desk since before he heard news that April was nowhere to be found. "We tried to execute a warrant to collect a hair sample from Miss Bradley to get a mitochondrial DNA profile to compare it to the one we have from three hair shafts found on the victim's clothing, but … oddly, she appears to have vanished."

"Thanks for the welcome." Cassidy says meaning it, even if her expression closes down a bit as she studies Minea. "That aside, you can't blame us for being a bit jumpy. History has shown that two agencies working together get's a bit dicey. The toe stepping is bound to happen, but…" She salutes with her coffee and adds. "As long as you don't suddenly make me get you coffee and bagels, I'm sure I'll live." There is a touch of humor to it, a small lifting at the corner of her mouth proving it.

Cassidy glances over at Coren and frowns a bit, her expression thoughtful. "Yeah… I… really don't think she did it. Did she seem rather surprised at the news to you?" She gives her partner a look as if she's having a hard time explaining something. "I just have this feeling she didn't do it for sure. Course that doesn't help clear her, but I think your right. I think she knows something." She remembers that Minea is sitting there too and offers her a bit of a smile.

"Shape shifter" Minea offers up to him, though there's that spike of surprise in the Agents emotions at the knowledge that April's disappeared. ENough so that she unclips her blackberry, thumbing through some things. "You went to her place of residence this morning. I know that much" The brunette presses her lips together and in, as she racks her brain. "You have proof of her at the scene, but we have proof that she was somewhere else to. I was going over what little I was told on the way over here. I think we might have a shape shifter actually. When did this mugging take place?"

"Yesterday morning, yes. And today, she's not there, nor is she at the office. It's too suspicious for me to assume she's out grocery shopping," Coren notes. "We don't have proof of her at the scene unless she gives us a hair sample and there's a match to the mitochondrial DNA. What we have is proof that she was involved, assuming there was no shape shifter involved. The wallet of the man who was mugged on April eighth turned up Friday. His credit card had Miss Bradley's fingerprints on it. None of the cards were used and there was no cash in the wallet when it was found. Sometime between April eighth and Friday, Miss Bradley can be assumed to have handled that wallet and its contents."

"Shape shifter?" Cassidy seems disbelieving when she repeats the word at first, but then her head tilts at Minea a bit. "Your not joking? Are you?" She says out of the blue, sounding almost surprised. She glances at Coren and frowns a bit. "Can they duplicate someone so closely? So much so as to duplicate fingerprints?" She sounds a bit uncertain of that as she turns back to Minea. She nods a bit at what Coren says. "It would be nice to take her off the list." She says truthfully. "But she's made it a bit difficult by leaving." She adds that a bit blandly.

"It's a little disconcerting to think so, but there might. One tends to not bandy that particular thing about because then you'll have criminals who actually do commit crimes and saying 'It wasn't me, it was the shape shifter who stole my DNA' try defending that in court. But I'm not ruling it out. I'm in the Shape shifter camp. But" Minea shifts in spot, taking the weight off her right leg and onto her left. "Can I propose a trade? I'll secure DNA evidence in the form of hairs for you, if I can have one of the hairs you have for evaluation and testing in our labs. Not that I think either of you two would deliberately frame her for something that I don't think and believe that she's done, but I wouldn't put it past others here who have a hard on to stick it to my co-workers. I'll provide a chain of custody even to ensure that there's no trickery being played. If she's involved and she's hiding something, I'll pry it from her and if it can be shared, i'll share it and if there's charges to be laid, I'll hand her over, if she has take off and we can find her" Easy enough to find the woman.

"I wish it were that easy," Coren says. "Unfortunately, without taking the sample directly from her head, we can't be certain it's hers. Even if Homeland Security is somehow in the habit of keeping hair shafts in some freezer somewhere, there's no guarantee it's not been tampered with." He rifles around his desk and pulls out a requisition form. "I'm not high enough up the chain of command to just go handing evidence over. You'll have to requisition it from one of my superiors." He holds the form out, "I'm not sure they'll be happy about the matter, or if you'll even manage to get it in the first place, but my hands are tied."

Cassidy turns thoughtful at the agent's words, going over it all in her mind slowly. She frowns a bit and glances at her partner again, uncertain how to answer the request. But since he seems to have a handle on it, she does offer. "No. I can definitely say I have no interest what so ever in setting her up. I never met before the other day." She says honestly. "Not my thing. I dislike dirty cops as well." She starts to pick up her coffee and notices it's empty. She puts the cup down with a sigh. She glances over as the paperwork is passed. "Yay, red tape." She says a tad bland even thought she has a bit of a smile. She nods her head at the paper. "I hope, should you get the sample by some miracle, that if anything comes about that you let us know?"

Homeland no. But the Company is in the habit of maintaining DNA profiles (i think). "Well, then we have something in common Doctor. We both have the limits of our bound hands and security clearances." Minea nods to Cassidy. "I will, and hope that you both do the same. If there is a shape shifter out there pulling this stunt, over a simple ring and a jacket and whatever else, then… " Well it goes without saying. "Is there a place where I can sit down and read the file. I can sit here and read it over if it's preferred. Make sure I don't walk off with the case" last part is a joke, really. It is. Okay, possibly bad one.

Coren pulls the file out from under a stack of papers and hands it over, "You can read it right here." He then downs the rest of his cold tea with a distinctly bitter face, likely from the over-steeped tea. "I'm going to make more tea. Anyone else want something?"

Cassidy gives Coren an amused look at he makes her read it there. "Actually…" She stands, picking up her coffee mug, giving it a bit of a wiggle. "I could use another cup of coffee, I didn't sleep much last night." She glances at the cup and moves to join him giving him a smile. "I know for a fact you don't know how I like it so I'll just go get it myself." She glances over at the agent and gives her a smile. "I don't think Agent Dahl is gonna do anything funny, while we do. Are you?" The last asked jokingly.

"I'd take a cup, if I'm welcome to one. If not, some water" The file is taken with a grateful look and she pulls a chair up so that she can ease down into it. "Nope. I can't even run out the doors with the file without popping some stitches so and i'll do my level best to restrain myself from rifling through desks Detective O'Shea. I'll be right here" There's a wink to the woman before she drops her attention to the folder and flips it open to the first page.

Coren comes around the desks and snatches the coffee mug. "Two scoops of sugar and French vanilla powdered cream from the top shelf cabinet. Blue container…." he says and turns away rather quickly to make the coffee, a perplexed expression on his face. He drops a tea bag into his own mug and then pours coffee into Cassidy's, making it to the exact specifications he just said out loud. "Does all of this sugar and cream somehow make this wretched concoction more tolerable?" Obviously, he doesn't care much for the office brew. He takes one of the little Styrofoam cups and fills it. He brings the two cups of coffee back first before going back for his tea, which he settles down on the little cork coaster on his desk. "I warn you, Agent Dahl, that stuff can degrease an engine."

Cassidy looks just as perplexed at Coren as he turns away, her hand stil up as if it's still holding the mug. She hand finally drps and she gives a little shake of her self. "Wow, did know you were paying attention." She moves to drop back into her chair, still looking at bit caught off guard. "Barely makes it tolerable, but it does the job of keeping my butt awake, so I can't complain too much." She takes the cup and gives him a grin. "Thank you, sir." And takes a sip.. Oooh yeah.. Thanks indeed." She looks past her mug to the woman beyond and watches her… well… read.

"I wouldn't be surprised Doctor" though,s he'd asked for tea but hadn't specified so she'd drink the coffee. "You're not SCOUT. How'd this land on your desk" Papers are lifted, browns drawn down in some puzzlement. "Agent Bradley creates and manipulates forcefields, she's not Telekinetic. The victim didn't see any silvery shape in front of him?" She looks to the two, expectantly.

"Can you see your own neck, Agent Dahl? Rather difficult to see, I know I can't see mine, and probably wouldn't try if I were being strangled," Coren comments. "I had originally assumed telekinetic, myself. I don't pretend to be an expert in the abilities evolveds might have or the ways they might be able to use them, but forcefield manipulation sounds like it could still produce the very effect we were looking for, so I can't rule it out. The sooner we talk to April Bradley and get a hair sample, and get her explanation of how her fingerprint ended up on Gustav Svenson's credit card, the better. If it's not her, I'd rather not waste the next week looking for her."

"Doctor Shelby, really. I'm trying to be nice and cordial, I'm trying to not be a god damned homeland agent you guys seem to be getting. Less churlish comments would be really nice. Because I'm pretty sure I've been nice. I'm asking questions that don't seem to be in here and since I've seen Special Agent Bradley in action, I was asking. Her tell tale that she's using it is a reflective shine silver in color. If it was just around his neck, then we won't know. But I don't think that she has the fine tuned manipulation to pull off imitating telekinesis imitation with her ability. I can look into that too. And as i'm sure this isn't your only case that you're both working on, leave the tracking down of her to me. It's odd that her fingerprints were on the card, have you considered showing the victim a picture of Agent Bradley and seeing if he recognizes her?"

"I have a tech putting together her photo with several others of her same overall appearance to see if he can pick her out. Short of an actual line-up, it's our only option. Left the guy voice mail to come in at his earliest convenience to look at some photos. Hopefully his earliest convenience is today, but if it has to be tomorrow or Tuesday, so be it, we do have other cases to work on." Coren says. He takes a sip of his tea, and endures it, despite it still being scalding hot.

"Good" More papers being flipped, looked at, studied. Eventually though, the file is handed back to Coren. "There any odd cases sticking out, around the red hook area of Brooklyn? Things that aren't making sense? Something seeming off maybe?"

Coren takes the case file and buries it once again under a mound of other papers. "Just this one, but then, we're not the only ones who investigate crimes in the Brooklyn area. You'd have to ask some other detectives here or in Crown Heights, since they get most of the Brooklyn cases. I still don't know how this one landed on my desk." His eyes narrow slightly, "Clearly you think something's off, which begs the question of what you know about what's going on in Brooklyn."

Cassidy is pretty quiet as she watches the two converse, not much for her to say that her partner hasn't. She pulls her notebook close to her and writes a few things in it, the mention of the silver reflective stuff and so on. "Look, Agent Dahl.. I know your really annoyed right now… And I'm sorry.. but look at it from our angle. Just that bit about how it looks when she uses the shield is more then we had." She motions towards Coren. "As he said we're working on getting her ID'd.. but it was done at a distance. So even if she says he recognizes her still doesn't rule her out." She gives a bit of a smile and settles back in her chair. "Is there anything else that comes to mind that could be useful?" Echoing in a way Corens own question. "That won't get you in trouble with your own brass?"

"Which is why you got me Detective O'Shea. Because I'm stuck on desk duty till cleared, and because I'm an impartial person and new to my homeland badge. I can show it to you, it's still shiny, not a single tarnish on it yet. I intend to keep it that way. Silvery reflection is the key to her, it's like wearing mirrored glasses" Now the coffee is taken up and Minea eyes the two. "I haven't put it in my reports yet. I don't want it in yours yet. There does seem to be some shape shifter out there, going all happily fucks-sa-daisy in the city. For good, or bad, I don't know. But I came across it. I want some more pieces to the puzzle first, before I toss everything into one pile. You have Bradley's fingerprints and hair, but we have her placed firmly, elsewhere at the time if your incident. I have confirmed that she was somewhere else at the same time that I came across the shape shifter, what I'm considering to be a shape shifter for now. I don't want to go slap it down on paper and give it to my brass before I know that whether really, honest to god, it's not Bradley. But Bradley.. was surprised as hell when she visited me in the hospital"

"Wonderful," Coren comments. "Sodding evolveds." Sure, he's an evolved, his partner's evolved. "No offense," he adds. "They just have a tendency to complicate things.

Cassidy nods a bit and glances at Coren before she says. "Kept under the hat til we got more." She flips to a page in her little note book and jots some phone numbers down for her and her partner. "I'm sure we all want to see this thing closed so…" She rips off the paper and offers it to the Agent. "Keep in touch with us and vice versa I'm sure. And hopefully I can start my time here at the NYPD on an up note." She gives a lop-sided smile. She gives Coren a grin. "Speak for yourself. I don't even know what I can do, so I can't complicate a thing yet."

"More than you can imagine" She's the only non-evolved in the room right now, not that she knows this. Minea puts her coffee cup down, looking between the two of them. "Just, don't put it down yet. But keep your eye out, and your ears. I'll see what I can do about her coming in and giving you a hair sample if she hasn't actually ran off. If she has. Well" The ripped off piece of paper is taken, looked at and then folded up as she reaches for a card holder in her back pocket, producing two business cards and putting them on the desk. "Can reach me at those numbers. If there's a nerdy guy who answers, slightly droning, just leave a message, he's my new partner"

"We'll keep in touch, Agent Dahl," Coren says kindly, which is possibly the first time today that his tone has been anything remotely close to warm. "We'll let you know if Mister Svenson gives a positive identification on April Bradley's photograph. If he can say without a doubt that it was her, it may give more credence to your shape shifter theory."

Carrie takes one of the cards, making sure to look at it with a small nod. She pulls out a thin wallet and slides the card into it. "Well.. I can't think of anymore. Thank you for your time Agent Dahl." She checks her watch and with a soft curse she rises to her feet quickly. "Forgot I had an appointment to look at apartments." She pockets a few things quickly. "I'll be glad when I finally find a place." She waves at Minea. "Nice to meet you." She points at Coren. "Need me for anything before I go?"

"Tell me if he makes any comments on the hair. I'll explain later, if he does. For now" She needs to get up, finish off the coffee and gather her stuff. "I have an Officer Rodriguez-Smith to go find now. I swear I'm more busy after I'm shot, than when I didn't have holes in me" With that, and a sorta salute, the homeland agent makes her way out of the room and let them discuss apartments and how evil homeland is.


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