Warnings: Discussion of criminal activity, child abduction (potentially), possibly some talk about previous criminal cases from either Criminal Minds or Sherlock. There's always the possibility of discussions involving murder or gore or Unpleasant Shenanigans when it's some crime solvers getting together.
Status: Closed/Match-Up
~*~
Walking downtown in Madison tended to be easy with a modest flow of pedestrians and wide sidewalks which were rarely crowded. Derek wasn't sure what was happening ahead of him, but the bottleneck of people and the flashing police lights from the three cruisers parallel parked in the fire lane told him whatever was happening? Wasn't good.
Slowly making his way through the crowd to the police tape, Derek took in the scene. There was a woman he didn't recognize holding a doll. Tears had streaked her makeup beyond recovery and two police officers wearing detective shields were talking to her. An ice cream cone lay smashed, melted from the heat on the cement in front of the huddle, and Derek noticed a child-sized footprint in the sticky mess.
"Missing kid?"
Derek asked the crowd, not really expecting an answer. He took in all the details he could as he surveyed the scene from the only vantage point he had behind the line. It was strange for him to be on the other side of the tape, kept out of the action, away from the crime. Madison tolerated its refugees better than the old days, but they still weren't interested in having a refugee on the police force. It was a shame because he could tell no one had noticed the flies buzzing around a sticky smear at the front of the alley behind the main scene.
"Flies. Kid could have grabbed for the side of the building. A sticky hand print would draw flies. Anyone check the alley? Stranger abductions are rare enough much less in a place as isolated as this."
No one was interested in the alley from what Derek could tell. He wondered how much heat he'd catch if he skirted the crowd to check it out on his own.
"Seriously, anyone see the cops look in the alley?"
Derek wasn't going to jump into a boiling pot of water if he could avoid it. He was curious and wanted to help. Being arrested for interfering with official police business? That was not on his to-do list while in Madison Valley.