diversified | just like everybody else does. [ psl ]

Entry tags:

just like everybody else does. [ psl ]

WHO Chris Halliwell (

aggrandize), Nicholas Rush (

waxwingedflight).
WHAT MAGICOPS
WHEN Late 2020s according to Charmed timeline.
WHERE Victim's apartment.
WHY because Leo is a terrible dad ~~wait what~~

I'll fill this in later, let's just transfer our comments for now.

Threaded | Flat

There were a good many things Nicholas Rush didn't like and one of them was the fact that he was getting a new partner. He had been quite content not having to deal with somebody getting in his way while he was investigating, but it seems fate and the captain had other plans and had tossed him some kid to teach the ways of the cop. He had refused, of course, but no matter how much arguing he did against it, there was no budging and he was stuck with the kid for the near future.

So now they had a case, one of the weird ones Rush always seemed to get stuck with because nobody else wanted them, and they were heading to the crime scene now, Rush not wanting to really talk with the kid about anything because no matter what anybody else said, they weren't partners and never would be. Rush's partner was dead and buried and nobody else would be able to take her place as long as he stayed on the force.

There wasn't a whole lot Chris could do to prove himself at this point, but boy was he eager to. He was well aware that he was the new kid and had no friends at the precinct yet except for the teacher from academy who had helped him get his position in the first place. The hard part had only just begun and it seemed like the captain had a truly dark sense of humor to stick Chris with the blob of anger and frustration that made Chris look like a growling puppy in comparison. For as much as Chris wanted to prove himself, it was hard not to rise to any of Rush's snide comments or angry silences and it wasn't getting him anywhere.

Then again, they hadn't actually worked together yet. All they'd managed was circling around each other at the department a few days before they had been given their first case. It wasn't exactly cut and dry, but Chris wasn't expecting anything to be easy. What he hadn't expected was the comments around work about being lucky enough not to get sucked into Rush's rather odd branch of casework.

It wasn't until they were on the road toward their scene that Chris broached the subject as he read the file for himself. (It had been his first chance considering how quickly Rush had left with barely any time for Chris to keep up.) "So what the hell is a weird case to these guys if they keep giving us the stinkeye for it?"

It was like being stuck in a holding pattern the first few days and Rush had been itching to get on a case so that he didn't have to deal with Chris. When they actually got a case, it was with much relief that Rush took it and nearly left Chris behind. He was almost disappointed that Chris was able to keep up enough to come along.

While Chris was reading the file, Rush was already trying to figure out where the pieces of the case fell together in his head. This was always much easier with Gloria there to help him figure out how people other than him worked. He was so caught up in the file and driving that he nearly missed what Chris said, but thankfully he didn't and instead glanced over towards him. "Unexplained phenomena. People dying from seemingly natural causes at perfect health, bodies torn apart in way that could only be attributed to animals but nowhere near the woods, situations that make absolutely no sense."

Chris ripped his attention from the file (definitely looking weird so far) to stare at Rush with incredulity. "You're kidding... You're not kidding."

Cases like those sounded exactly like everything Chris was already used to, which was the exact opposite of what he had been hoping to find when he had joined the police to help save and better innocent lives. Voice rife with skepticism for a number of reasons, Chris turned reluctantly turned his attention back to the file and asked, "And you actually solve them? All of them? Some of them? Any of them?"

As far as Chris was concerned, cases of unexplained phenomena were pretty much outside the reach of any normal investigator. Whatever resolution they ended up coming to would do nothing to remove the root of the problem. And from word around the water cooler, Rush tended to get cases of this sort more often than not... which meant Chris might have just landed himself in a new day job and a new night job. Fabulous.

He didn't even dignify the first part with an answer, his focus back on the road as Chris kept going. It looked like Rush had the upper hand when it came to knowledge, knowing more about Chris than it seemed Chris knew about him. That was a good thing and something that'd he use to his advantage for the near future until Chris finally clued in on what was being said in between the lines.

"I solve what I can," he answered easily, not giving away much in the way of information. Rush knew that he thought that he was normal and thus had no idea what was behind the cases. That wasn't the truth at all, but Rush was happy to let Chris think that until he pieced things together on his own. "Just as we'll do with this case. Do you have any thoughts on the subject or are you going to continue asking about old cases or why my coworkers shy away from them?"

Chris made the mental note to check into all cases handled by one Detective Nicholas Rush once their current case was done. If this guy handled magical cases and actually managed to close some of them, Chris wanted to know what messes he would need to clean up in the aftermath of true culprits getting away. Mortals just weren't equipped to deal with the true causes of crimes like these.

"Got plenty of time to ask around," Chris allowed easily. This case itself wasn't exactly cut and dry but he was already beginning to see a pattern; some of the preliminary casework had already been done before it had been foisted off on them when the original investigators had realized it wasn't exactly their kind of case. "Despite all the knife wounds on the body, they weren't enough to exsanguinate the victim. Tox screens came back negative for poisons or drugs and there's no other external signs of distress to explain why she died."

Chris went silent for a moment. He knew what it sounded like to him—magic, a spell or a power both—and he wasn't quite sure how to get that across to Rush without sounding crazy. Then again, if his new partner handled cases like this on a regular basis... Chris shifted in his seat and turned to watch the city go by around them. "Could be our guy did something internal without leaving an external trace. Autopsy hasn't been done yet, right? So that's the only option left."

Rush listened to everything before he decided to speak. He could tell that Chris was trying to keep himself from outright saying magic and it was amusing how hard he was trying. There were already theories forming in Rush's head, but he wouldn't be able to test them out until they got to the crime scene.

"We'll leave any questions pertaining to the body until the medical examiner has done her autopsy and given us her report," he said easily enough. He'll examine the body himself later to see what exactly had been done with it and the autopsy wasn't going to screw that up. "Right now, we focus on the crime scene and see if there's anything the original investigators missed."

His words were timed well because he pulled up to the scene and parked the car. As he got out, he looked over to Chris and frowned slightly. "Who were the ones that passed the case over to us again?"

"Scott and James," Chris answered after a momentary pause to check the front of the file. He hadn't quite gotten the hang of everyone in the department yet, but it was a pretty quick process considering how many people were approaching him to give their condolences for his first partnership. Some had been teasing, some had been genuine, and some had merely been excuses to meet the new guy. Scott and James, if he recalled, had been relatively neutral on the matter. They just didn't seem to care to waste their time on things they wouldn't be able to progress on.

He stood with Rush and surveyed the area. It was still something he had to do, rather than habit, to check things out with a cop's eye. Much as he had been fighting a war all of his life, it had been a very different world between magic and mortal. Regardless, nothing seemed particularly out of place on the street which meant that they were probably missing something or their killer had operated in one place and one place only.

"Where would you start?" he asked. Chris wasn't above asking for opinions from those more experienced. Just... sometimes he didn't agree with them once they were given. "Work your way inside or out?"

At the names, he sighed and shook his head in disappointment. They were good cops when they focused, but they tended to be easily distracted by each other a good portion of the time. That just meant more work for him in the end, but he could also use this case to study Chris' methods firsthand and see what he would have to fix.

He allowed himself a moment to check around the area and didn't see anything out of place. That was to be expected and thankfully, the nosy onlookers have long since left, so he didn't have to worry about dealing with them. He headed towards the scene, not motioning for Chris to follow since he figured the kid was smart enough to follow his lead.

"I work my way out," he started, pulling a notepad and pencil out to start writing something down as he walked. "Going outwards from the body gives everything context that we can work with. From my experience, going the opposite way tends to confuse things, especially in complicated situations like this. Was there any signs of forced entry?"

Being that it was still a crime scene in an active investigation, the home they were entering hadn't been touched. Most attention they got were a few kids watching them in between tossing a ball at each others' heads, which Chris ignored while he fell into step alongside Rush. He stole a glance to see what the other was writing before he looked up and took deeper stock of the area.

"No," he said decisively. Although the report had said as much, he was confirming it with his own eyes at the same time. "No, they assumed it was someone she knew or someone pretending to be a public servant because no one heard or saw anything and I'm not seeing anything to prove otherwise."

It was hard to tell what exactly Rush was writing because not only was his handwriting a bit of a mess, he wasn't writing in English. He snapped the notepad shut and pocketed it once more to focus on the crime scene instead of the notes he was taking. Walking over to where the body had been, Rush grabbed a pair of gloves somebody from forensics left for them and put them on.

"I highly doubt it was either of those or if she knew her killer, it wasn't a friendly relationship," he said as crouched down next to the outline and studied the room carefully. "Now, tell me what you see that you think is off about how this room appears."

Chris took the gloves as well, letting Rush examine the exact point of the crime while he inspected the room itself. He wandered for a minute, checking out the furniture and baubles, the everyday life that had been cut short by some depraved demon or warlock. He couldn't even tell if the woman had been a witch or just an innocent life snuffed out for some unknown plot.

After a moment, he shook his head and turned back to Rush. "Everything is moved around," he said after a moment. Although nothing was haphazard, there were signs of previous placement abounds and nothing seemed to quite fit. Like someone was trying to remake the room into what they wanted. He glanced over at the body, the stain of blood that marked the victim as clear as any white chalk did. "Maybe it was a psychopathic interior decorator that got her. You know, because her drapes didn't match her couch or something."

Edited 2014-11-09 06:53 (UTC)

"Yes, everything is moved around," Rush agreed as he stood back up slowly. That was definitely hell on his knees, but it helped get him a different perspective on the scene. "There was a fight and our killer covered his tracks by moving things so that they appeared not to have moved, most likely to make it appear that it was someone she knew."

He moved away from where the body was to investigate things more clearly, examining things carefully before he moved on to the next. "But he didn't get it quite right, which means he might have left something that might clue us in on his identity."

Chris merely watched as Rush stood, making no offer to help the older man. Something told him the guy wouldn't appreciate it, anyway. He was making good points and Chris started to look over the room once again to see if there was anything that didn't look like it would belong. While Rush got the things in easily reachable areas, Chris got down on his knees and started to investigate underneath. Movement of furniture entirely spoke to either something lost that the culprit couldn't find, or something he couldn't get rid of and needed to hide.

"His identity, or even his method," Chris agreed. One was a simpler lead than the other, but both would help further their case. He reached under a recliner and snagged something with his fingers, pulling out a feather duster. He wrinkled his nose at it and set it back down once it appeared to have nothing to do with the matter at hand. "He definitely didn't know the victim if he couldn't put things back in order afterward, or there's something forensics missed that he had to hide."

"Or both," he responded distractedly as he went to the bookcase and started looking at the books on it. Some were romance novels, others were reference books alongside an old textbook or two. After a moment, he paused and studied one shelf in particular longer than he had the others.

"Or perhaps he was hiding something he took with him," Rush said as he moved away and pointed at an empty spot on the shelf he had been looking at. "There's a book missing from this shelf. While we're searching for anything else, let's see if we can find our missing book. If we can't, then I believe we have somewhere to start."

At that, Chris got up and came over to inspect the spot that Rush had pointed out. He looked at the surrounding books, but nothing of their organization told him what could have been where it no long was. He glanced around the room, eyes catching on a few pictures of friends, family and get-togethers. He stood back and pulled out his phone, tilting it up toward the bookshelf to snap a picture. There had to be plenty of them in evidence already, but Chris liked working with his own tools and it would be easier to compare them later.

"She had a cell phone, right? Think I read one was entered into evidence," he said by way of explaining himself. Plenty of technology had gone back to the precinct, actually, considering how much peoples' toys watched them without their realizing. That would take time to process, just as the autopsy would take time, too. Right now, Chris wanted to follow the lead they may have just found before it got even colder. He started to form a text while he occasionally glanced up at Rush. "Think it might have just been a casualty of the struggle?"

"Yes, there was a cell phone logged in as evidence. Once forensics have finished with it, we'll take a look at it," he said, his attention on the photos around the room. Then something clicked and Rush moved to look at each picture individually, muttering softly in annoyance when he didn't seem to find what he was looking for.

"It's possible, but I don't think that's the case. In cases like these, sometimes the smallest thing could be our biggest clue in solving what happened and who did it," Rush answered as he moved around the room, looking for something in particular. "Christopher, we need to look for any photographs of what this room would have looked like in its original positioning and move everything back to the way it was. There's something missing here and I cannot place it."

Chris watched Rush from the corner of his eye and smirked to himself. It looked like they had the same idea, but Rush was a bit more old-fashioned in figuring it out. Nothing wrong with it, old-fashioned was a part of every witch no matter how modern they were, but sometimes you just had to keep up with the times. Especially when your job was to figure out people who had done the same.

"I'm already on it," he said, waving his phone to make sure Rush saw. "That Wallace kid? He put his number in my contacts, so I'm gonna make him text me any pictures the victim had of the room on her phone. We'll piece it together from there and, if we're lucky, see what the missing book is."

When it came to his job, Rush was definitely old-fashioned, but only because he knew that even in these times, his methods worked just as well as the more advanced technological means. He could use cell phones and texting if he felt the need to, but up until that point, he had no plans on doing so and instead use what he was more comfortable doing.

"Ah, Eli must have gotten to you when the precinct was introducing themselves to you," he said with a slight tone of amusement in his voice. Eli would definitely be able help them with getting pictures off the phone to see if they could find the book. If it was what Rush thought it was, then it would be very bad if it fell into the wrong hands. "While we're waiting for that, let's see if we can find anything else here."

It was a good thing Chris was around to take the more convenient, useful methods when they presented themselves, then. At the faint, indirect approval, Chris nodded and put his phone away to start looking for anything else that might help them get a head start. It was slow-going considering that the most to have been figured out about the scene was that the death hadn't been obvious and the attack had made it inside without breaking anything or making obvious signs of a struggle. All he had apparently left with was... a book.

Brow furrowed, Chris inspected the shelf one last time. If this was in fact demonic involvement, then it would stand to reason that the only book one would look for would also be magical in nature. Chances were that their victim was not an innocent, but a witch struck down for some part of her family's heritage. Shaking his head, he turned and continued investigating the room around them; whether it was her Book of Shadows missing or her recipe book, Rush would find it out and the significance would likely pass him by. That wasn't the important part.

"Like what? Somewhere for prints or something else he might have grabbed?" asked Chris.

"Yes, and anything to give us more information about our victim," he said with a slight nod as he looked around the room. They weren't going to find much else here and the best idea would be to get away from Chris so that he could use his power to try and catch a glimpse of their killer.

"We should check each room in the house and see if any others have been touched by our killers." Rush started walking towards the hallway as he said that, turning to look back at Chris. "Eli should have some information for us by the time we're done here and we can work on that angle some more then."

"If you wanted information about her, you just had to ask," Chris said, brows raised and obviously a bit cocky. "Clarisse Huntington, twenty-eight years old. Lived on her own, single father, no relatives. She worked from home but we haven't determined what business she was in yet."

Yeah, this was all he had read from the file on the way over, but if Rush was going to act like they didn't know anything then he wasn't going to treat him any different. Maybe he was still looking for a chance to show off, too. Whatever. He raised a hand in a partial salute to the instruction and headed to the hallway to branch off from Rush. His hand was hovering near his gun just in case, but he didn't really expect anything to jump out at them after all this. "Call me if you find anything," he said in agreement.

"Find out if she was in a relationship with someone or what she did specifically for a living and I might actually be impressed," Rush said as he leaned against the opening and watched Chris go down the hallway. He knew that once they were separate, both were going to use magic to find out what they could.

He went his own way and found a room to settle down in where Chris wouldn't walk in on him. Looking around for a long moment, he could tell that everything was undisturbed and hadn't been touched by the killer at any point in his attack on the poor girl who lived here. Thankfully, he wasn't in there to investigate normally. Instead, he was going to do something incredibly dangerous and possibly stupid.

Sneering off in Rush's direction, Chris made his way through the house until he found Clarisse's bedroom. Orderly, but unkempt like she wasn't in the habit of cleaning up after herself as she made her daily messes. He began to pick through various items and her drawers, looking for hints to her life or relationships hidden between the cracks anywhere. Although he did find a few business cards rubber banded together, some with personal numbers on the back, he didn't have much luck in locating anything else. Either she kept her life entirely digital or entirely private — if she was a witch like Chris suspected, he could understand not keeping everything laying around in the open. The kitchen was probably where he would need to look, brewing ingredients hidden amongst the more mundane.

Before he left the room, he stopped inside the adjoined bathroom and located a necklace that seemed the most worn out of all of them. This wasn't going to be going into evidence, but he would need it nonetheless. Scrying worked better with an object connected to the person or otherwise being searched for.

"Not much in here," he called as he left the bedroom. "Any luck on your end?"

Using his power took a lot of concentration, so Rush sat down on the floor and placed his hands next to him so as to keep him upright while he did this. Closing his eyes, he activated his powers and started hopping through mortals, searching for the demon or warlock who stole the book. It was quick hopping, only staying on a specific person for no more than a couple seconds to find the next target to leap into and move on. By the time Chris had called out, Rush had already gone through hundreds of mortals in his search.

"Nothing so far," Rush shouted back in response, having to pause his search while in a jogger running through a nearby park. With mortals, Rush didn't have to worry about anyone noticing his borrowing of their vision for any sort of time. It was different with magical beings as they tended to pick up on him after anything longer than a few seconds and he didn't like to dwell in anybody who noticed him. "Be patient, Christopher. Cases take time to solve, as does searching through a person's home to find any clues."

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