Just a GPSL NPCs (birthrightnpc) wrote in birthrightrpg, @ 2021-03-02 20:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | jd cartwright, npc |
Next of Kin
Who: JD/NPC Laura (Written By Jess)
What: Notifying
Where: Police Station and Cafe
When: February 15th, 2021
Ratings/Warnings: Mention of death and violence
Laura Doherty had received a phone call that showed up on her screen as being from the LVPD. She had assumed it was her ex-husband calling from his work, possibly a question about taxes or other mundane tasks he had never seemed to master on his own after their split. Instead, it was a calm-voiced woman informing her that something had occurred with Rob and to come to the station.
Her queries about why he wasn’t calling her himself were brushed aside. She called a taxi service — Laura didn’t much care for Uber or Lyft — and arrived at the precinct about forty minutes later. Her dark hair was swept back in a loose ponytail, a look of worry evident in her green eyes. She crossed her arms almost protectively, a handbag slung around her shoulder, a camel-colored jacket swaying as she approached the desk.
“I’m Laura Doherty,” she stated briskly, as if arriving for some trivial appointment. The brunette wasn’t sure why she adopted that tone. Coping mechanism, maybe?
JD had been at the Morgue, the body of his colleague and friend a stark reminder of just how things can go, if ever there was one. Murder was sadly commonplace, whatever the reason. But the murder of a cop was for some reason bound to hit closer to home, and that of a colleague right on the money. As he walked back into his office he looked at the chair there, empty, and for a brief moment saw Rob sitting in it. He rubbed at his eyes and face and shook his head, the phone on his desk breaking the silence in the precinct with its jarring ring.
He walked into the reception area, recognising the woman standing there, not just from her stance, but also from a photo Rob had shown him of a younger couple, smiling at the camera. There was no smile now, just an expression JD had seen on the faces of partners before. He inhaled deeply and adopted a stance he’d come to train himself into over his twenty years of being on the force, and having to deliver bad news.
“Laura?” he said, a soft smile topped with a lift of eyebrows, disarming, as if hoping he had guessed correctly. “I’m Detective Cartwright,” he added, holding his hand out to her.
She turned at the sound of a deep voice speaking her name, catching the strap of her bag as it slid down her arm. Laura held out her other hand automatically, on some kind of politeness auto-pilot. “Detective Cartwright,” the dark-haired woman repeated, looking him up and down. “Where is Robert? I want to speak to him.”
Even as Laura asked this question, her eyes betrayed what her subconscious already knew. Something terrible had happened, and it was dredging up long-dormant feelings of guilt, resentment, and even love. Because she hadn’t really stopped loving him, though exasperation and wariness had become the prevailing emotions when dealing with her ex-husband.
JD took her hand and held it for a moment, his eyes on hers as she looked him over, seeing the realisation reach them and feeling a real pang of sorrow for what she must be going through. He knew their divorce was due to Rob’s obsession with his brother’s case, which made this even worse in a way - the room where JD had found Rob’s body being testament to just how much the detective had been consumed with it.
“Can I take you some place else?” he asked, the burble of daily life in the reception area of the precinct impinging on his consciousness, and not exactly providing the privacy he felt was warranted in this instance. He’d have preferred to do this differently, but the machinations of the department were a mystery to him at times, moving with the speed of a heavily drugged tortoise at times, and then a startled gazelle at others, like this. “Do you drink coffee?” he asked, indicating the front door and starting to shepherd her through the tide of life toward the escape.
Before she could really process what was happening, she was being ushered away. “Um, I do,” Laura answered as she followed him, “but not station coffee. I don’t know how you people swallow that stuff.” It was the kind of conversation that could almost pass as normal. None of her questions had been answered, which was sending her stomach into paroxysms of anxiety. Still, she wasn’t exactly eager.
He huffed a laugh, glad of another subject as they made their way across the road. A rather enterprising partner of a former Chief had opened a coffee shop across the road, knowing there was always going to be a ready supply of coffee consumers desperate for a decent cup any time of the day or night. Java Joint was now managed by the couple’s two youngest kids, both now in their twenties, the eldest three having followed in dad’s footsteps in joining the force. “Takes years of practice and an iron stomach, sort of helps with the job, y’know? The endless hours of sitting in a car eating takeout, chugging countless cups to keep awake,” he said as they crossed the street. He’d never been so glad there had been a gap in the traffic that allowed them to keep walking, reaching the door in record time. “This place helps though, can get one of the best roasts in town, and in so many different ways it’ll make your head spin!” The takeaway counter was heavily populated, but the cafe seating was only sporting a few patrons, to his relief, and he selected a table by the window, giving her the seat with her back to the rest of the room.
Laura slipped out of her coat and hung it carefully over the back of her chair. She was wearing a deep moss-green colored blouse and jeans. She sat down and picked up a paper menu, but put it down when she realized it gave away her trembling hands. Instead, she looked up at the detective across from her. He looked around the same age or maybe a little bit younger than Rob, or maybe it was that he was less distracted-looking. Less frown lines. “I don’t know if I can take it anymore,” she said, and her voice was lower than she intended it to be.
“Is he gone?”
The sad reality of being the spouse of a police officer was that every day there was a greater chance that a knock, or a phone call, or a meeting at the precinct would be bad news. It didn’t make it easier for any party, the deliverer of the news, or the recipient. And like most officers he knew, JD hated this part.
“Yes, Rob passed away,” he told her, looking her in the eye. His words were carefully chosen, the term ‘gone’ carrying too many interpretations, ‘dead’ too abrupt, and ‘murdered’ simply brutal. He was about to continue when he noticed a waitstaff member approached with the obligatory wide smile. His eyes darted up and he gave a small frown and then nod, and thanked the waitstaff gods that this one had a clue. The smile disappeared, but they continued to the table, placing the water glasses in front of the two sitting there and asking if they were ready to order.
“I’ll have coffee, thanks.”
She felt like the air had gone out of the room, like a vacuum had sucked all of it out, and the only oxygen she had was the small amount left in her lungs. Laura held her breath, counted to fifteen, then slowly and quietly exhaled. Her eyes never left his face. “Was it -- ?”
Then she noticed the employee, the water being set down in front of her. The normality of it made her temper rise in a hot, red flash but she swallowed it. Laura looked up at the grief-less expression on the server. “A large Red Eye, please,” the brunette ordered crisply with a nod, play-acting. Once they were gone, she turned back to JD.
“Was it on the job?”
This was the part JD knew could go one way or the other and why he'd wanted to get her out of the precinct. An officer killed on the job was one thing, but this? JD’s suspicions were already panning out. Between Rob’s obsession with his brother’s murder, the information they’d found in the home office, the fingerprints that weren’t Rob’s, or in the system, and his odd behaviour around the supposed new CI, Micha, JD has started piecing together a puzzle that was nearly ten years in the making. And given how the department looked at things, he was prepared to massage the truth a little to make sure Rob, and his ex, were covered.
“Yeah, a cold case,” he said, eyes darting to one side quickly before returning to hers. “His brother Graham,” he said, watching for her reaction.
Laura felt like the room had suddenly gotten smaller, hotter. She noticed the way his eyes darted away. Graham. Of course it had to do with that. All roads lead back to that. “I’m confused,” she said, after a long sip of cold water that seemed to help bring her back into focus. “What exactly happened?” Her gaze dropped to the table, her eyes following the swirling pattern of the fake wood finish. “How did it happen?”
Knowing that Rob’s obsession with his brother’s case had been a main factor in his divorce JD was a little unsure as to how much he should say. But given she might know things that could help him solve her ex-husband’s murder he felt he had to share some of it - just how much he’d have to gauge from her reactions.
“He was at home,” he started, “he had a home office there, information he’d been working on, and from what we can tell he was attacked, but by someone he knew. There was no forced entry, there were two glasses, only signs of a struggle were in the actual office.” He paused, letting her absorb the information before continuing.
“I used to tell him that his obsession would kill him,” Laura said quietly, her eyes still on the table. “I didn’t think it would be like this.” She took a deep, wavering breath. Their coffees were set down on the table by the thankfully silent server. She watched the steam emanating from her mug.
“Rob wouldn’t have let someone in unless he knew them or trusted them,” the brunette told JD, looking up finally.
JD nodded, breathing a silent sigh of relief that the initial shock hadn’t sent her into spiraling grief. She appeared to be pretty grounded, which when he thought about Rob made sense. “Yeah, that’s what I thought too,” he agreed. “He was a good cop, and sure loved his nephews,” he added, realising for a brief moment that might be a bad thing to say. “When was the last time you heard from him?”
Laura brought the steaming cup to her lips and took a sip. It was boiling hot, but she couldn’t feel it. She couldn’t feel much of anything, at the moment. “Last week,” she said, leaning back in the chair. The handle of her purse was looped around her foot. “It was an odd conversation, but I didn’t think much of it at the time.”
The brunette looked down at her ringless ring finger. “He called me and told me that he was grateful for me. And apologized for being a less than stellar husband. He sounded drunk, so I wrote it off as that.”
That made JD take note, and his eyes followed hers down to the bare ring finger of her left hand. He’d thought Rob’s behaviour had been different leading up to the night he’d taken him out for drinks and they’d run into the ‘new CI’, Micha, and Laura had noticed something too.
“Has he… done that before? Called you and said these things? Or called when he was drunk?”
She shook her head, wisps of hair that had escaped her ponytail trembling near her temples. “No, usually he would only call for me mundane things like help with the taxes or where to find some paperwork. I organized everything for him before we...before I left him.” Laura couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if they had stayed together. Would she be dead now, too? Or would her presence have somehow kept Rob from making some impulsive decision? She felt her stomach twist.
“But he’s had a problem with drinking for a long time. Not enough to affect his job, but enough to always keep me worried. I guess I thought...maybe it’s getting worse. But what can I do? He’s a grown man. And honestly — “ She cut herself, her voice growing thick and eyes shining. “I didn’t want it to be my problem anymore. He made me tired.”
JD sipped at the coffee as she spoke, watching her describe Rob. It was always interesting to see a colleague from the ‘other side’, that side the spouse sees, knows, lives with, outside the precinct. When that colleague was also the victim of murder it helped him piece together things. Small things, like him needing help to organise his paperwork, and yet he was focused and thorough when it came to his cases. Mostly. The burden of paperwork hadn’t lessened that much with the introduction of computers, but it had become a little easier to track things down.
And the paperwork he’d seen in Rob’s home, the files now sitting in JD’s office for the detective to go through, had been extensive, if a little disorganised. He’d been about to start sorting through them all, after his visit to the Morgue, when the call had come in that Laura was there.
As Laura spoke JD felt a pang of remorse for both her and Rob. He had come to recognise the obsession in the other detective, and could easily see how that would have driven a wedge between the two. He wanted to reach over, take her hand and offer some comforting words, but also didn’t want to seem over-familiar. It was easy to see there was still love for the man in his ex-wife, a depth of caring that hadn’t diminished with time. He grabbed a couple of paper napkins from the dispenser and held them out for her when he saw the tears well up.
“Yeah, I get how he could do that,” he offered in a soft tone. There’d definitely been a tiredness about Rob himself in the last few weeks, the gradual slope to where they were now only really discernible with twenty-twenty hindsight, something JD was still silently kicking himself for not having noticed earlier.
“How did you two meet?” he asked, an attempt at redirection, to steer her away from the burden of the current day’s situation.
She accepted the napkins with a quiet, mostly mouthed ‘thank you’ and dabbed at her eyes with the rough paper before wrinkling them in her fist and letting her hand drop into her lap. The story of how they met. Laura let out a muted snort. “Well, this always sounds terrible, but I dated Graham in high school. He was older, popular. A great athlete. A giant cliche, I know.”
In the retelling, she almost smiled. “The problem was, the more time I spent at his house, around his family, the more my feelings for Rob grew until I felt completely guilty and horrible and broke up with Graham. But we didn’t get together right away, afraid of how it would look. We managed to wait four months and then we became a couple. We ended up getting married while we were still in college.”
Laura shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Impossibly young. Dangerously, naively young. We were convinced we would be together forever.”
JD couldn’t help but smile as she spoke, imagining again for a moment about Graham, and how he’d seemed to capture the attention of people. “Maybe you would've been, if … things didn’t go the way they did for Graham and his family,” he offered gently. He took another sip of his coffee, the sting of heat not quite so severe now. Details of that case again rose in his mind, questions he wanted to ask, but had no-one to ask them of, pieces of a puzzle that was growing around the edges and he hadn’t been able to find where they fit, but knew they belonged in there, somewhere.
As he lowered his cup back down he eyed the contents for a moment, then looked up at her again. “Is there anyone else we should contact? Anyone you would like me to tell?” he asked. He knew Rob hadn’t been seeing anyone, still in love with his ex-wife, and his parents had passed and he had no other siblings.
Laura shook her head, lifting her mug in both hands and drinking the extra-strong coffee. “No, I can’t think of anyone,” she said. “I don’t know if he had any friends outside of work, besides that Micah guy he mentioned.”
JD managed not to react to her comment other than to pick up his coffee again before asking, “I met him one night, what did Rob tell you about him?” before taking another sip of the dark hot beverage.
“That there was something special about him,” Laura replied, her voice going slightly distant as she stared out of the cafe window. “That Micah had helped him ‘figure it all out’, though he didn’t elaborate on what that was, exactly.” She set down the coffee cup and turned her gaze back to JD. Her eyes were pained, and something else, like she was preparing for being admonished.
“Should I have asked more questions? Acted more interested?” The brunette’s head twitched like she was clearing water from her ears, her ponytail shaking. “He made me so tired, JD. Even up until the end.”
JD’s head shook as he frowned with concern. “No, absolutely not!” he told her firmly, hoping to reassure her. “You’d seen it for what it was, an obsession,” he continued, his voice softening , knowing what he was saying was the truth, but feeling a little bad, as if he was letting a colleague down. But this was the person who knew Rob the best, knew who he was before Graham’s death, and watched him become who he was when JD met him. He shook his head again, this time more with sad resignation as he placed his cup down again.
He had no idea if the separation had made a pivotal difference to Rob’s final direction, but he did know it didn’t matter now. Rob was gone, nothing was going to bring him back, and she didn’t need to blame herself any more than JD did, for not having forced the issue and made the other detective open up more about what he was doing. And he was clearly doing something that had led someone to cave his skull in.
“The simple fact you’re here, still caring for him, that he still turned to you for all those everyday things, that’s enough, you did more than most ex-wives would do, and I know how he could be. If anyone should have asked more questions it would be me,” he admitted, eyes darting to look outside, across to the large bulk of the headquarters building. “This Micah, there was something about him,” he added, the cogs almost visible as they turned again, looking for connections. He quickly realised it and looked back at her. “And don’t worry, I will be,” he told her.
Laura took a deep breath, and it actually happened to be calming. It felt good, hearing that. Not enough to erase the grief and sadness, but enough to carry her through that night, at least. And it felt like it was going to be a long night. “I trust that you’ll do everything you can to find out what happened to Rob, who did this to him,” she told him sincerely. “But I feel like I have to warn you…” The brunette took another sip of her coffee before continuing.
“Don’t make the same mistake he did. Don’t make this your entire existence.”
He looked at her over the rim of his cup as he downed a large mouthful of the coffee, looking a little guilty, but also realising her warning was striking a chord. While he’d never been told that, he’d also never had anyone to tell him that before.
He shook his head, eyes dropping from where he’d been looking at her to the inside of his cup as he lowered it again. “I won’t,” he agreed.
She nodded, then took out her phone and checked the time with a sigh. All she could see was a long, sleepless expanse of hours ahead of her, with plenty of room for thinking about Robert and all the things she could have possibly done to prevent this outcome. And with that came a flash of resentment toward her ex-husband, which on the face of it seemed ridiculous and misplaced. Who gets angry at someone for being murdered? But Laura understood why she felt that way.
“I think I should be getting home,” Laura told JD. “But let me give you my number so you can reach me.” She picked up her handbag and rifled through the disorganized contents before finding a receipt from Albertsons and a pen. She flipped over the flimsy piece of paper and scrawled her name and number before sliding it across the table to him.
“Thank you,” she told him with sincerity in her green eyes. “For everything.”
Again he nodded, taking the receipt and holding onto it. “No, thank you, for coming in,” JD returned, glancing down at the number then back up to meet her eyes. “I’m sorry we had to meet like this,” he said, his mouth twisting into a sad smile, “you know, under these circumstances and all.” He paused, his mind going through a tug-of-war briefly before adding, “I’ll let you know how we go… with the case… if you’d like?”
Laura stood and put on her coat, seeming to linger over the buttons. After a moment, she nodded. “Yes, um...if you have any updates, you can call me about that, too.” The brunette slung her purse over her shoulder, looking as if she was about to say something else, then changing her mind. “Try to get some rest tonight, will you?” She gave him a wan smile before turning and exiting the cafe. Maybe she would try Uber, after all. Laura didn’t much fancy sitting on the corner waiting for a taxi.