Joel Kulseth (aviatorshades) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2017-02-10 13:51:00 |
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Entry tags: | # 2020 [02] february, jane rusten, joel kulseth |
Who: Joel Kulseth and Jane Rusten
Where: Patrol car; on their way to the Greenbelt
What: Rusty & Kulseth talking, venting, and heading for the scene of the latest fire.
When: 2/4/20, morning
Civilian concern, civilian attitude, and another goddamn fire. Not the way that Joel wanted to start his morning. There had been a neat file on his desk when he’d gotten in, and another meeting scheduled with the fire chief for the afternoon. Like they made a difference. Unless his men and the fire department had found any leading evidence at the new scene they were sitting at the same fucking square that they had been yesterday. He wanted to go a round with the punching bags in the gym. Joel had never felt so ineffectual in his entire career. Sure, there’d been hard cases, long cases, and the Olinger years, but these arson cases were quickly approaching ridiculous levels of ineptitude. Enough to shake him out of his morning routine. He texted Jane to meet him at the patrol cars before his secretary, or another inter-departmental meeting waylaid him from checking the scene out himself. “You know where we’re headed, Rusten,” he said when she came striding up to the car. There was a cardboard drink carrier with two coffees balanced on the hood. “Let’s see if we can’t put two and two together.” Probably patrol the rest of the Greenbelt, just to see if they were missing any other signs, but only after he saw the newest fire scene for himself. “Been out to that hellhole often enough so I sure as shit should know where we’re going,” Jane groused, her eyes on her phone as her partner approached. Normally, the chief joining her to check out a crime scene would be cause for a celebration but today, Jane was pissy as hell. She wasn’t mad at Joel, obviously. She was mad at the stupid, goddamn arsonist that got his rocks off by causing a shit ton of property damage around the Greenbelt. She didn’t look up as Joel came up to the car and plucked his coffee from out of the carrying container; instead she concentrated on her phone as she tapped out a message on the freenet. She wanted to word her reply to the jabroni implying the APD and the AFD were sitting around with their thumbs up their asses with the right mixture of indignation, professionalism, and profanity. When she felt satisfied she had accomplished this feat, she posted the comment and shoved her phone back in her pocket. “I don’t know why we’re even bothering to go out there,” Jane grumbled. She took her coffee out of the carrying container, tossed the cardboard carrier in a nearby trash can, and slid into the driver’s seat. Once Joel was situated at his rightful place in the passenger seat she turned the key in the ignition and eased the cruiser out of police headquarters and onto the familiar route to the Greenbelt. “Seeing as everyone and their mom thinks they know how to solve this case better than us.” He sighed, and ran his free hand through his hair. “They’re just frustrated and taking it out on us,” he reasoned, although his tone made it pretty clear that he was just as frustrated as Jane was. “Wouldn’t mind if they all minded their own goddamn business, though.” The message on the freenet earlier, for one. Despite what civilians were thinking, their department was trying their best to piece together what little evidence they’d been able to gather. “Uh, yeah,” Jane agreed emphatically. Even though she knew the public questioning their authority came with the badge, that didn’t mean Jane had to love it. “It’s not like we’re dealing with teenage vandals.” He took a long drink of his coffee to calm down his anger for a minute. Jane, recognizing the signs of Joel’s rising ire, didn’t rush to fill the silence. She let him feel and curb his frustration and waited for him to continue. There wasn’t any reason to start shouting in the patrol car, even if it was the only place he felt like he could let some of his professionalism drop. “I’m so fucking sick of the meetings that go around in circles.” Getting out of his office had to be good for him, right? It wasn’t really like he’d had a previous chief to bounce questions off of, so he was operating blind as far as how he should be doing his job. “I get so sick of those four walls, Rusten.” Joel’s forthright, earnest exasperation cut through Jane’s fog of bitterness. She turned to look at her partner, her expression softening. “I know you do,” she replied with a sigh. Jane knew it wasn’t just the added responsibility of the chiefdom that weighed on Joel, but also the seemingly ineffectual nature of the position. While Jane was well aware of how much good Joel had done for Austin in his short tenure as head honcho, she knew he missed being out on the job, interacting with the community, and doing the kind of grunt work everyone in the bullpen liked to bitch about but actually secretly enjoyed. There was a satisfying immediacy to working a crime scene, interrogating suspects and chasing down perps. Being the top dog had to have its fringe benefits but Jane knew it was an often thankless job, to say nothing about the miles and miles of red tape Joel had to wade through on a daily basis. It was no wonder he had offered to come along today. It wasn’t exactly like old times but close enough that Jane was both comforted and bolstered by it. “I know you have to do your due diligence with the boring boss bullshit,” Jane said, reaching to the console grab her coffee. “But, being the boss means you can make your own rules. No one says you can’t take a day or two to work cases like we used to. I hardly think anyone would bitch about it. Besides, if they do, you could always just fire them.” Jane grinned; a wide, genuine smile cut through her grim countenance. Snorting a laugh, Joel angled a look at his Sergeant. “Because dictatorships always go over really well,” he commented dryly. Some of the tension bled out of his posture though, as the familiar Austin landscape passed by through the windows of the patrol car. He disliked thinking of his office as a cage, but lately, and with nobody to blame but himself, it had begun to resemble one. “Touche,” Jane allowed, feeling satisfied she had drawn a chuckle out of him. “But you have a point. I should trust my officers not to set the department on fire if I choose not to sit my ass at my desk for a couple of days.” He appreciated Jane’s perspective, he missed her counsel on things. Not that it would be fair to pull her in on everything, she had more than enough sitting on her plate. The densely populated city slowly gave way to the more sparse Greenbelt with each block, and Joel thought he could see a haze from the smoke still hovering in the distance, but that could have been his imagination. “You know, it would be nice if the title came with a manual. I’ve got nothing to work with but how each chief I worked under operated.” He’d had his share of good and bad experiences. “And a whole lot of judgment riding on my decisions, no thanks to the last guy.” He adjusted his aviators. “Thought I knew what I was getting into.” “You can only do the job the way you know how,” Jane reasoned. “I know it’s rough forging ahead without having any sort of precedent to look to but, let’s be real here. Having any of our previous chiefs around to guide you would have left a giant skidmark on your legacy. They were motherfucking asshats. I can’t imagine they’d give any sort of advice that you couldn’t improve on in spades. You’re making your mark on this town and you’re doing it blind. That’s some impressive shit.” He inclined his head in what passed for a nod. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to let Jane know that he agreed with what she said. Austin had been painfully slim on authority that had been doing their job right. He still felt like some days he could be doing more to make up for that. Joel had been left holding the bag and had been forced to make palatable lemonade out of some pretty shitty lemons when the last chief was ousted. Even though Jane would have been biased to his excellence in the position no matter what, her partner’s positive impact on both the department and the city was easily seen by cops, the government, and civilians alike. That approval rating had slipped somewhat during the current arson investigation but that wasn’t a reflection of Joel’s abilities so much as a growing frustration and fear among Austin residents. “When we catch this firebug,” Jane said, like it was a forgone conclusion. When she talked about this case with anyone, she always made sure to sound assertive, like catching the perp was already in the bag. She liked to think it generated confidence in the force by the public when, really, it was more to reassure herself that they’d get the job done. “Austin will throw a damn parade for you. Shit, the dogs might even let you ride one of their fancy pants Harley’s. You’ll have so many people shouting your praises you’ll beg for them to shut up already.” Jane sniffed to stifle a chuckle, only to catch the faintest whiff of acrid smoke coming through the car’s vents. She frowned and turned the dial to stop the heat from blowing in. She’d rather be cold than hotbox the cruiser with Dog Park smoke. She was quiet for a moment and then spoke. “Do you think it’s karma? The fires?” Even if the arsons were some sort of retribution for the past atrocities the dogs had committed, Jane knew they had to investigate and put the perps behind bars, because it was the right thing to do. Still, it was hard not to draw the obvious conclusion that someone was still sore about the blanket amnesty deal the MC had brokered. It was hard to think anything was karma really. If that was the way the world worked, Austin should have been nothing but street brawls and fires by now; there weren’t that many people - the police department include - that weren’t paying for sins, theirs or inherited. “No,” he answered. “I think it’s retaliation for something. Just haven’t figured out what yet.” Of everyone in Austin, the Hellhounds carried around the longest list of enemies, or civilians unhappy with their presence. “Like trying to find a needle in a haystack.” “Well, when you put it that way, all we need to solve this thing is one helluva magnet,” Jane deadpanned. God, wouldn’t that be convenient? Finding the one thing the firebug wanted and dangling it under their nose to draw them out. Jane knew it was the epitome of wishful thinking but a girl could dream. Jane stopped their patrol car just shy of the police tape that had been strung up to try and keep curious civilians away from the fire wreckage. There were still personnel mulling around, documenting the scene, but Joel hadn’t figured they’d have cleared out that quickly. “Looks like Foster left most of the guys,” he commented. Their forensics people were still thin in numbers, but it wasn’t their fault that they hadn’t found any solid evidence that would give the department a lead. “Don’t see him anywhere in sight, though,” he added with an undercurrent of frustration. Joel would have liked to have been able to pick his brain a little about the current scene, see if it differed from the other fires any. He’d probably have to wait for the report to hit his desk. “Why need Foster when you have me,” Jane asked with more bravado than she felt. Joel laughed a little under his breath, grateful for her bravado because he felt his slipping. There was no mistaking Foster’s face-to-face input would have been helpful and that Jane, having arrived on the scene the same time as Joel, would not have any new or varied information to give. Still, she hoped her presence would be helpful; she knew she felt more confident with Joel by her side. Jane reached over the console and nudged the chief with her elbow to emphasize the point but something was lost in the familiar gesture. Now that they were here, facing the damage the arsonist had caused on Hellhound land, she felt her sour mood from earlier start to return. With a deep sigh, she heaved herself out of the squad car. She met Joel’s eyes over the hood; her expression was hard, determined. “You ready, partner?” “As I’ll ever be,” Joel replied, straightening his shoulders while he adjusted his aviators. “Let’s see what kind of shitshow we’ve got today.” Not the most chiefly statement, but hell, if he couldn’t say those kinds of things to Jane without getting backlash, who could he say it to? If nothing else, maybe his presence on scene would get any slackers to pick up their game. That was another thing about being chief that he was still getting used to - the way people had a tendency to put on a better show when he was in the room. “We’ll start with the fire inspectors and work our way to the officers.” He gave Jane another tight-lipped smile as he came around the front of the car, where he paused a minute before striding towards the scene itself. He couldn’t control everything, and some days he definitely just felt like he was juggling plates, but at least he still had a solid partner in Jane. He just needed to remember that, and maybe do like she said and make up a few of his own rules about how the Chief of Police operates. If only to keep some of his sanity intact. |