Guilty Until Proven Innocent Who: Reintroducing Detective Jacob Mitchell, Harrison Barnes, and Lilah Morgan. Plus, NPC Thomas Cleary Where: LAPD police station, then Joe's Bar, then some warehouse When: Early to late Thursday evening
He watched his suspect through the one way glass a moment before barging into the interrogation room. Slapping down the file folder he had with him, Jacob smoothed the tie he wore into place and then said, "Good evening, Mr. Cleary." He smiled hurmorlessly at the man that was cuffed across the table from him, "Do you know where you were between the hours of 3 AM and 6 AM this morning?"
The hand cuffed man looked over at him. "I was home." He answered.
"Really?" Jacob sounded genuinely surprised as he sat up a little, "At home? So then, I'd guess you'd find it surprising that a witness saw you fleeing the scene at around..." The detective checked his notes, "... 4:30? Could you explain that, Mr. Cleary?"
"I want my lawyer." Mr. cleary replied, waiting to be able to make the call.
The detective smiled, "Oh, sure. Sure... you can have your lawyer. In fact, they're on their way as we speak." Jacob smiled dryly, "Lawyers are like sharks, Mr. Cleary, they can smell things a mile away. But..." the detective pushed back his chair, walked around the table with the file folder, "There's no law that says I can't tell you my theories..." He pulled out a photo of a very large pool of blood on concrete. Jacob slapped it down on the table, "Did you know, Mr. Cleary, that with a blood pool that size that the woman that was killed bled out in minutes? Only a skilled person with a knife could've done that. Come on, Cleary..." Jacob moved back around the table, opening Mr. Cleary's sheet, "It says here you've been arrested numerous times for carrying concealed knives and you've served time for at least one murder you're lawyer couldn't get you out of." Jacob spread his hands, "So, you can see where this gonna lead, right?"
"I'm not saying anything until my lawyer gets here." Cleary responded. He'd fired the last lawyer that hadn't been able to get him off on all charges.
"Of course, Mr. Cleary. I'm just theorizing here, remember?" Jacob smiled and adjusted his glasses, "Here's what I think happened. You found the girl on a street corner, she gave you her spiel and you two, ah... went down the alley." He pulled out the crime scene photo of the alley entrance, placing it front of the man, "Only when you dropped your pants, things didn't go too well. She laugh at you, Mr. Cleary?"
"I wasn't in that Alley." He said.
"You're fingerprints are all over her, Thomas!" He pulled out another photo, this time of the hooker who's throat had been slit ear-to-ear, he slapped it loudly down on the table. Jacob then said, "What happened, Tommy? You couldn't get it up for her? Or... maybe you weren't man enough for her." The detective straightened, and smiled, "I know! She called you Little Tommy, didn't she."
"I'm telling you I wasn't there! It had to be somebody else!" He shot back getting up from his chair, just as Lilah walked into the room. Tom smiled at the mere sight of her.
Jacob's attention was still on Cleary, his hand hovering over his weapon on his hip until he was sure that his suspect wasn't going to get aggressive. His gaze then slid to the door and the sight of Lilah Morgan standing in the doorway, turned his expression grim. Much grimmer than usual when a suspects lawyer finally showed up. Damn it! he thought. Jacob smiled humorlessly, "Ms. Morgan." The detective then started gathering up the crime scene photos.
Lilah smiled at Tom and then at Jacob. "Detective..."
He took the files and glanced to Cleary, "I'll leave you two alone. You know where to find me if your client decides he wants to confess." Jacob looked at Lilah and before excusing himself out of the room.
Once he left Lilah sat down across from Tom and set her briefcase down on the table. "So what was it this time Tom?"
"Eh... just like that detective says." Tom grinned, though, "Only, he can't pin this on me because he can't find the murder weapon." He cackled.
"Just because he hasn't found it yet, doesn't mean a damn thing. I would've thought you learned that from your little stint in prison."
Tom just shrugged, "What? It's not like you can't make this go away, Lilah." He smiled, "You have ways."
"I can, but the Partners are getting tired of having to clean up your messes Tom."
His smile disappeared and Tom jerked forward, "With the kind of money I pay you people, you should be falling all over yourselves to defend me!" He shouted.
Lilah didn't even bat an eyelash at his little outburst. "Tom, the Senior Partners only keep clients that don't give them any large headaches so to speak, and your nasty little habit of killing hookers is getting tiresome."
"Detective Mitchell's so called evidence is circumstantial. My prints are on her. So what? That only says I touched the girl and since they didn't find the murder weapon on me or in my home, they can't pin this on me."
"Fine then you get to skip jail again, but if I were you I'd find a new hobby Tom." She'd only been his lawyer for a few months and his last one, Gloria had been a little more than just his lawyer.
Tom merely snorted in reply, shrugged, and stood. He held up his hands and shouted, "HEY! Can someone, uh ... help me out here?" The man grinned as Jacob returned a few minutes later and uncuffed Tom.
Jacob didn't bother sticking around, with a shake of his head, the detective headed back to his desk to grab his sport coat. Glancing at his watch, he saw that it was close to the time to meet Harrison down the street for dinner. Shrugging into his coat, Jacob picked up the phone and dialed the bar, asking the bartender, Manny, to tell Harris he'd be running late and started working on paperwork.
Lilah walked with Tom out of the police department, passing Jacob's desk on her way out.
Jacob watched her and Cleary pass him on the way out, shaking his head again. He returned his attention to the paperwork at hand.
Lilah got in the waiting limo with Cleary.
With a noise of frustration, Jacob dropped his pen and hurried after them. Skidding to a stop next to the limo, the detective knocked on the window.
Lilah had the driver stop and she rolled down the window. She looked at Jacob. "Yes?"
He glanced to Cleary and then focused his attention on Lilah, "We both know he did it. Convince him to give up the murder weapon and I can make a deal with the prosecutor."
"What kind of deal?" Lilah asked glancing over at Cleary.
"Instead of doing 25 to life, he can get out in 20. Fifteen if he's a good boy." Jacob smiled briefly at Cleary before returning his gaze to Lilah.
"He'll think about it." She answered for Tom before he could open his mouth. She then rolled the window back up.
"I'll be at Joe's Sports bar for the next hour!" He said loudly, to be heard through the window. Jacob straightened, watched the limo a moment before heading down the block to meet Harris.
Once the window was shut again, Lilah looked over at Tom.
Tom looked at Lilah and after a moment, he said, "... What? No deal! I'm not going back to jail!"
Lilah sighed. "Tom you should take the deal."
He laughed, "That's not what I pay you for, Lilah. No deal."
"Fine, then we better make sure he never finds the murder weapong."
Jacob arrived at Joe's ten minutes later and found Harrison at the bar drinking a cup of coffee. He was pleased to see that the psychic wasn't drinking something harder, although Jacob's feeling soon lowered as soon as he got close to the other man. The detective could smell the booze on him and Jacob refrained from heaving a sigh. The two men exchanged pleasantries and Jake ordered some coffee, too, along with whatever Joe was cooking that evening for the both of them.
After getting Tom back to his place Lilah went down to the sports bar to see Jacob.
Jacob and Harrison were watching a game on one of the televisions in the bar when the detective noticed Lilah Morgan enter. He caught her attention from the table that he and Harris were sitting at.
Lilah walked over to them and smiled.
Jacob gestured to the wavy haired blonde man, "Lilah Morgan, Harrison Barnes." At the sound of his name, Harrison turned to Jacob, "I'm sorry, what?" Clearly, the man hadn't been paying all that much attention to the game. Then he turned when Jacob indicated to the woman standing at the table, "Oh." A polite, yet sad smile curved his lips and slight waving gesture, "Hello."
"Hi." Lilah said as she moved over to the table and took a seat.
Jacob studied her as she took a seat, leaning back in his own while picking up his coffee mug. "So, counselor, your client change his mind?" The detective took a sip.
"Yes, he's willing to take the deal."
The detective slowly smiled and then pulled out his notepad from his sport coat pocket along with his pen, "Okay. Did he tell you where the murder weapon is?"
"Not yet, but he will."
Jacob sighed, scratching his fingers through his hair, "Lilah, without knowing, I can't make any promises." He shrugged, "Does he know or not?" Harrison then spoke up, "He knows. But he won't tell you." The psychic turned his attention to the two of them, "Ms. Morgan was only half right about the deal."
"Excuse me?" Lilah said looking over at Harrison.
"You're lying about Thomas Cleary wanting to deal, but," said Harrison, "Your bosses want you to feed him to the wolves." The psychic smiled, "I think you used the word, tiresome?"
Lilah frowned and looked at him and then Jacob. "Great you're a psychic."
Jacob looked at Harrison like he'd grown a second head. That was the most he'd heard the man say in months outside of a work situation and the detective had to clap his mouth shut before his glaze flitted to Lilah again, "Uh... y-yeah. Harrison consults every now and then." Jacob cleared his throat, "So, um... is it true? About Cleary, I mean."
Lilah just shrugged in answer to his question.
"Yes, it's true." Harrison piped up, sipping his coffee while watching the game. Setting his mug back on the table, Harrison looked back at Lilah, "The question I have is... why hide that fact? Clearly you want to get rid of the scum bastard, why not just say so to the detective?"
"My bosses have a thing about trying to keep our problems in house." Lilah explained.
"Ain't that the truth," Harrison said and turned his attention back to the game. Jacob chuckled at his friend and said to Lilah, "Without the murder weapon, the prosecutor won't make the deal."
"I can get you the murder weapon." Lilah told him with a small confident smile.
Jacob shrugged, "How?"
"I have my ways." was her only reply.
The detective nodded, and shrugged again, "Fair enough. You've got two days to contact me about the murder weapon."
"Fine." She handed him her card and turned to leave the bar.
Jacob took the card, stuffing it into his front shirt pocket. Harrison turned again, hastily setting down his mug to loudly call after her, "Bye, Lilah!" Jacob looked at him oddly and then laughed, "Man, Harris. What is with you today?" Harrison slumped in his chair, "She's irksome. People like her irk me."
Lilah rolled her eyes at his parting comment and walked back to her car.
"She's irksome."
Harrison nodded, "Yes. She works for some very evil people, Jake. That is irksome to me." He shrugged again, "Besides, she'll just call me later and ask for my help."
Lilah went back to the office and went to work on trying to get Tom to hand over the murder weapon.
Jacob shook his head again, smiling and then asked, "You here or out at the house tonight?" Harrison sighed, "Here. Penny says I have a client to meet in the morning so I might as well stay and make myself presentable." The psychic said his goodbyes and got a cab back to his apartment in the city where he flopped down on his couch and promptly fell asleep 15 minutes later.
After at least two hours of hunting Lilah finally found where Tom had stashed the murder weapon.
Harrison didn't sleep long before he was woken up by his usual nightmares. When he'd gotten himself under control, the blonde man splashed water on his face and checked the time. He was very surprised that Ms. Morgan hadn't called him yet. Well, maybe he'd help Jacob out by locating the weapon himself. Shrugging back into his suit coat, Harrison headed out into the night, making his way to the location he'd been able to get off the woman.
Lilah was already there when Harison showed up at the place where Tom had stashed the weapon.
Harrison smiled upon spying Lilah in the warehouse district. As he approached her, hands stuffed in the pockets of his suit coat, he smiled, "Well, well, well. Fancy meeting you here, Ms. Morgan."
Lilah rolled her eyes and sighed. "Are you all this annoying?"
"I'm sorry, all who?"
"Psychics." Lilah said.
"Oh, well," Harrison shrugged, "I can't speak for the rest of them, but I'm only annoying around evil predators such as yourself." He smiled again.
"Right.." Lilah folded her arms over her chest and took a look around.
Harrison stood still, watching her a while before finally saying, "Ah, you're cold." He gestured with his hand still in the suit pocket, "You might want to check around there..."
Lilah moved to where he was guesturing.
Amusement curved his lips and he watched her search and then after a while cleared his throat. Pulling one of his hands out of his pockets he gestured to her right, "A little more that way..."
Lilah sighed and turned to look at him. "Why don't you save us both a long night and aggravation and just get the damn thing yourself seeing as you already know where it is."
Harrison had been looking around the warehouse, turning his attention back to Lilah when she spoke. His eyes crinkled when he smiled again, chuckling just a tad while he moved to the spot. The psychic paused long enough to pluck the hankerchief from his breastpocket free and used to pull at the edge of a breaker box, revealing a bloody knife wrapped loosely in an equaly bloody piece of material. Softly he turned back to Lilah, a grin on his face at the discovery, "Ta-daaa!"
"Great, so, if you'll just hand it over, I can call it a night."
Using his hankerchief again Harrison reached for the knife and picked it up. His movements slowed to a stop, his expression becoming blank as he saw the gruesome murder unfold before his eyes.
Lilah stood waiting for him to hand over he knife, arms still folded across her chest.
Harrison watched as Thomas Cleary grabbed the retreating woman by the hair, pulling her to him and slit her throat. The psychic forced himself out of the trance, literally shaking himself and handed over the bloody knife. He stated quietly, "Thomas Cleary is an evil man. I don't understand how you can defend men like him." He cleared his throat, "Excuse me..." The psychic started walking away, flapping his hankerchief once before folding it and stuffing it back into the breastpocket of his suit coat.
Lilah looked at him and shruged. "I'm just doing my job." She took the knife from him and started back towards her car.
Harrison whirled, pointing a finger at her, "Your job is detestable, Ms. Morgan and you should be ashamed of it."
She just shrugged. "Maybe, but it pays pretty well."