Neil (piezoelectric) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2017-12-04 01:29:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | #september 2017, neil, neil x ty, ty |
Who: Neil and Ty
What: Crime
Where: Castle View Crossing
When: Wednesday evening, 9/20
Status: Complete
Warning:
Going home these days was a chore. Neil's paranoia hadn't been quelled even if a few days had gone by without incident. Of course nothing would happen for a while, he knew that, it would be too suspicious if he went missing so soon after Nicole and Naomi supposedly left town but it was only a matter of time and he knew it. It had reached a point where he seriously considered getting out of town - or at least renting a room at Juniper where he might potentially be safer... though doubtfully.
Driving home from work had his mind reeling with ideas and worries and the damn rain beating down on the car wasn't helping. He was a nervous driver, barely seeing a thing made that about ten times worse. He was reluctant to get out of the car when he'd gotten home, both because of the rain and, well, going home. He couldn't stay in the car forever of course so eventually he grabbed his umbrella and got out, hurrying up to the building. He was a few feet away from his door when he looked up and froze. The door was ajar, as if someone had kicked it open. Neil did not investigate, he backed up slowly then turned on his heels and ran back to his car locking the doors as soon as he was inside. Slipping down in the seat and trying to be as invisible as he could he carefully called 9-1-1, holding the phone underneath the dashboard to keep the light from the phone from illuminating his face while dialling. Then he waited, heart pounding in his chest as he watched the building and checked the mirrors obsessively.
Ty was out patrolling when dispatch came on the radio. There’d been a possible break-in at Castle View. That sounded at least marginally normal, so it was kind of a relief. Ty radioed back to confirm he was on his way, and turned the cruiser around to head in that direction. He was hating all of this goddamn rain, it made him a little edgy, and the forecast said it wasn’t letting up all week. It was a small gripe, considering, but it still sucked. He hadn’t turned the siren on, but he had to blue lights flashing as he pulled into the apartments’ parking lot and made his way to the right building. Ty parked and considered the distance between his car and the breezeway, then decided against the umbrella. He got out of the cruiser and jogged across the sidewalk to the shelter, then started looking around for the man he was supposed to be meeting.
The police cruiser wasn't exactly the most reassuring thing in the world to Neil since he always suspected the police were either In On It or absolutely powerless to do anything about It - whatever it was. Still, seeing this one put a tiny dent in his hysterics and he got out of the car again, rushing to meet the deputy. "I didn't go inside," he said as soon as he reached him, huddling under his umbrella and side-eyeing the door nervously. "They might still be in there, I don't know." He recognized Tyrone Solomon of course, the one black cop in town. He'd heard things about him, mostly just old people being a little racist, but it still made the name stick. Black or not, he was a sight for sore eyes on this shittiest of evenings.
The door that had been kicked in was pretty obvious, and then the apartment resident was hurrying up to him. Ty vaguely recognized the guy -- from the hospital? The library? One of those. He glanced toward the door again and his hand moved to his gun belt to unsnap his holster. “How long have you been here?” he asked. He seriously doubted that whoever had busted the door down was still hanging around, but he would check it out anyway.
"Eight minutes," Neil told him shakily. It felt like hours but he'd glanced at the clock as often as he glanced everywhere else, counting down the seconds until someone came to help him. "I called as soon as I saw it. Well, no, I called from the car. So I guess... Nine minutes." Why that small detail was important he wasn't sure, there was comfort in numbers right now and it never hurt to be thorough. "They only sent you?" he asked then, a new surge of fear going through him at the thought of someone still being in there and this young deputy getting himself killed because of something that had nothing to do with him.
Ty didn’t need the exact number of minutes, but there was nothing wrong with knowing, either. He gave a brusque nod to Neil. “Just me,” he confirmed, turning his attention toward the door. “Stay here.” He walked toward the apartment, keeping his body behind the wall as he nudged the door open with one knuckle, his other hand on the butt of his gun. Ty looked and listened for a moment, then carefully walked inside. The living room was devoid of people, and as he made his quiet and methodical way through it, Ty found that the rest of the apartment was equally empty. In fact, it didn’t even look like a break-in. He didn’t know the usual state of this man’s place, of course, but everything seemed neat and orderly and untouched. Frowning, Ty made his way back to the front door and stuck his head out. He beckoned Neil over. “Come inside. Don’t touch anything, but ... come look.”
Neil had not known what to do with himself while he waited. He wanted to keep the front door half open so he could run away faster if something happened in there but he also feared someone would come and get him while the cop was out of sight. It seemed no matter where he went he was in danger and he felt both hysterical and exhausted which all lent itself to a very strange mood. When Ty came back out he gave him a worried look before doing as he was told, hesitantly poking his head inside the apartment. Everything looked... Fine. Just the way he left it. The book he'd been reading was even in the same spot as before. This did not calm him in any way as it just meant they'd been there for him. The upset this caused him was clearly visible as he started shaking a little more, chin wobbling with annoying emotions. They were never going to stop.
Ty was watching the man’s face carefully for his reaction. There was something about this that was off and wrong, and he was hoping for a clue. What he got -- the immediate near-tears instead of any sort of relief -- only compounded that feeling. While part of him hoped this wouldn’t evolve into full-on hysterics because he didn’t want to deal with that, it said more about the situation than Neil might actually be able to. “Does anything look out of place besides the door?” he asked quietly after a moment or two, pulling his notebook out of his back pocket. Ty pulled a pen out too so he could take some notes. This wasn’t an ordinary robbery, he could already tell.
Neil shook his head. Of course he hadn't looked in his bedroom or the bathroom or been through any of the closets and cabinets, but everything looked the same at first glance. "I don't know-" he started saying, then took a deep breath as he tried to steady himself. "Who do I talk to about fixing this door? I can't leave it like this overnight." Ty was a cop, he had to know since he had dealt with these kinds of things before - or similar things at least. Maybe the sheriff's department had someone on retainer who fixed things up, though Neil doubted it. If he had learned anything it was that he usually had to take care of things - and pay for them - himself.
“I’ll get a couple of 24-hour locksmith phone numbers for you,” Ty said as he jotted down a couple of notes. He might end up having to buy a whole new door, but someone could at least get the apartment secured for him. “Can I get your full name, sir?” His dark eyes ticked back up to Neil’s face. He was glad the dude hadn’t burst into tears, but something about this was still bothering him. “Do you have any idea who might have done this? Any enemies? Anyone who might want to intimidate you?”
Neil shook his head again and he was holding it together okay enough but his throat still felt tight and his nose stung. He wasn't lying, he told himself. He had no idea who had done this. Dr. Byron Wilkes was long dead as was most of his team and Neil had no idea who or what he had been working for. He thought about pointing the finger at the young man who had come to the library making thinly veiled threats but if he worked for Them then that would only cause trouble. "Just another strange event in this shitty town," he muttered tightly before forcing himself to snap out of it and answer the man's question. "My name is Wainscott. Neil Wainscott," he said and looked back into his apartment. "Can you... stay here? While I pack some things? I don't intend on sleeping here tonight."
Ty wrote that down, though he was kind of guessing at the spelling of the last name. He could look the guy up pretty easily once he got back to the station. He made a note that Neil wasn’t owning up to knowing any possible suspects, but he didn’t seem to believe it was just another strange event, either. That was just conjecture, of course, with nothing he could do about it if the man didn’t want to pursue pressing charges on someone, but still, you never knew what might come in handy later. Ty looked up at him again and gave a slight nod. “Probably a wise decision, Mr. Wainscott,” he said. “Take your time, I’ll be here.” Ty flipped his notebook shut and tucked it back into his pocket, then turned toward the door to have another look at it.
Neil hurried inside and even if Ty had gone over the apartment he still felt ill at ease. There could be cameras there now, or Ty could be exceptionally bad at his job and someone could be hiding under his bed or in the closet, just waiting to jump out and murder him. Neil couldn't even think of all the things that could go wrong but he had tension in his body that wouldn't go away as he hurriedly packed his things. It didn't help that he had pot in the house. Here he was with a cop waiting right outside as he shoved his little box in his suitcase and hoped Ty wouldn't somehow magically figure out he had it. He wasn't even sure where he was going to go. Juniper's probably, he didn't really want to deal with his parents or his brother and going there might even put them at risk too.
Ty checked in on the radio while Neil went to pack his stuff, then crouched down for a minute to look at the doorjamb. It didn’t even look too badly damaged -- which probably spoke more to the shittiness of these apartments’ security than any skill on the part of the intruder. But why just break in and then leave? They hadn’t even turned the place over. Not a robbery. He mentally chewed on it while he waited, nibbling at his bottom lip at the same time. He didn’t like to accuse the citizens under his watch of lying, but his instinct told him Neil had some idea of who might have done this. But it wasn’t an issue he would press. Maybe if it happened again ... Ty straightened up again as Neil reappeared in the living room, tucking his thumbs into the front of his belt. “I’ll recommend extra patrols in the area for the next few nights,” he offered. “In case they come back around.”
One thing that could not be said about Neil Wainscott was that he had a good poker face. He briefly smiled in a derisive manner at the mere thought that a police cruiser was any kind of protection against what he as up against before he caught himself and nodded. "Thank you," he muttered, his knuckles going white as he squeezed the handle of his suitcase. "Could you call the locksmith? I would rather not stay here much longer." At the moment it was hard to imagine ever coming back. A big part of him wanted to get in his car and just drive until he ran out of gas far away from Point Pleasant. It was naive to think that would solve any problems though so he would stay.
That smile didn’t sit well with Ty either, and he half wondered if this was some kind of insurance scam. Nothing was missing though, so he wasn’t sure how that could be, and Neil seemed pretty intent on leaving tonight, like he was genuinely worried someone might come back. “Hang on,” he muttered, and pulled his phone and notebook out again. Ty flipped to a clean page and opened up his phone contacts. He jotted down the three numbers he had in there to locksmiths -- only one actually in town, but they weren’t too far away -- and tore the page off. Ty offered it out to Neil. he wasn’t going to make the call himself, fuck no, that was up to the tenant. “Call us again if anyone suspicious comes to mind,” he added.
Neil nodded and then, more out of spite than any reasonable reason, he muttered, "There was someone. A young man at the library. He made somewhat vague threats, acted very strangely. I don't know why he would do this though." It wouldn't lead anywhere, if the man was linked to Them the cops would never be able to touch him, but maybe Neil could cause him a minor inconvenience and that made it worth it. If They were going to take him down, he might at least annoy Them on the way.
Ty’s brows lifted and he flipped back to the page he’d been taking notes on. ‘A young man at the library’ wasn’t very much to go on, but it was better than absolutely nothing, he supposed. “What kind of threats? Did you get a name? Description? What day and time was that?” he asked. He kept the questions slow enough that they weren’t rapid-fire, but he did need the information if Neil had it.
Neil hadn't gotten the man's name but he could tell Ty a few things he remembered. "It was about a week ago," he started. "He came in looking for information about the history of Mercy Hospital and got very agitated when I wouldn't answer all of his questions, as if he assumed I knew something more than I do. He started talking about some very crazy things and then he said he'd be back." That didn't sound very threatening so he repeated it, pointing a finger at Ty as if to mimic how it had gone down. "I will be back," he said, though he wasn't all that sure if that was exactly what had been said. "I'd never seen him before so he's clearly new in town. Black hair, taller than me, not quite as tall as you I don't think... Early twenties."
Ty was busy making notes. The chances were slim he would find the guy unless he came back around to the library saying more weird things and Neil called them again, but being thorough was part of the job. ‘New in town’ didn’t even narrow it down much -- Point Pleasant seemed to have people coming and going all the damn time. “Can you describe the nature of these crazy things he was talking about?” he asked, his gaze ticking back up to Neil’s face. Ty knew he was keeping the man from calling the locksmith, but he couldn’t care much.
Neil could tell him exactly what he'd been talking about and that made it harder. If he didn't know a damn thing he would have just listed off what he remembered and been as bewildered as Ty about it all, but he knew. "Well," he started and that familiar feeling of anxiety rose up in his chest, clutching at his heart and lungs as if they were about to fail him. "Something about the hospital and his grandmother working there, something about children." That hadn't been about the Mercy Hospital, of course and thinking they had been talking about The Institute the whole time had been Neil's mistake, one he sorely regretted. "He talked about his mother, it honestly didn't make much sense."
None of that sounded ‘crazy’ to Ty, but who knew how much sense the guy had been making at the time. He’d dealt with plenty of rambling lunatics in his time, he knew they could be scary. Probably especially to the kind of guy that Neil Wainscott seemed to be. He made a couple more notes, then nodded a bit. “Okay, well ... If you see him again, or get any weird phone calls or anything else suspicious, please give us a call,” he told Neil. “In the meantime we’ll keep an eye out in the area.” He knew that probably didn’t sound too satisfactory, but there wasn’t much more he could offer.
Neil wasn't expecting more so he was hardly disappointed. He simply nodded and pulled out his phone to call the locksmith. He hated this and wished the policeman would have called for him but no such luck. At least Ty seemed to be waiting around while he made the call so that was small comfort. He didn't even know what to say to the man, his door was ruined? He needed it secured? He managed to babble something about what he needed, tripping over his words a little and feeling his face heat up. So maybe it wasn't great that Ty stayed there during the call. He was getting flustered and frustrated when the locksmith told him he'd be on the way to check it out and Neil said his goodbye somewhat tersely before hanging up. "Have there been any other incidents like this one?" he asked and wondered if Jane or anyone else had the same thing happen or if this was personal.
Ty didn’t really want to hang around, especially for the locksmith to actually get there, but this guy was jumpy and Ty didn’t want to abandon him, either. At least not unless he got called away to something else. He half listened to Neil’s side of the phone conversation, idly poking at the door’s deadbolt a bit more to assess the damage. He hoped this wouldn’t take all damn night, he was kind of getting bad vibes here. “Not that I’m aware of,” he answered Neil’s question. Ty pulled out his own phone and checked his notifications. There was nothing, so he shot a little text off to Jared. Boring night, wish you were with me. Ty kept his poker face as he tucked his phone away again, but he felt a tiny bit warmer just having done that. Like a for-real boyfriend. “Did they say how long?”
"He said he was on his way," Neil sighed, knowing full well that people in that line of work were unreliable and it could take hours before the man got there. "I'm sure it would have carried more weight if you had called him but let's hope he's a man of his word." He wasn't trying to be testy with the cop but it came off a little brittle and he cringed a bit at the sound of his own voice, hoping Ty wouldn't leave earlier. "I appreciate you staying," he hurriedly added, just in case. "I just hope he doesn't leave us waiting for too long."
“Nah, they don’t get in a hurry for anybody,” Ty murmured. He was a little irked at the tone, but he didn’t let it show. He knew he didn’t have to wait with Neil, but being a very-small-town cop came with some extra annoying responsibilities. It wasn’t like he could say he had to rush off to some other law-emergency, not without some kind of backup from his radio. Ty was tempted to stroll further into the apartment and flop onto the guy’s couch, turn on his TV and start flipping channels, but that was rather unprofessional. After a moment’s consideration, he cocked a brow at Neil. “Wanna wait in the cruiser? I can start writing this up.”
Neil arched his brows in some surprise and considered it quickly. He almost suggested he could wait in his own car and that it would be okay if Ty just stayed but he could too easily imagine him driving away if Neil wasn't actually in the car with him. "I... guess," he said though it sounded more like a question than an answer. He shook his umbrella out and gave his apartment another nervous glance. "I'll put my suitcase in my car and... join you." It would be weird to sit in a police vehicle. He just hoped Ty wouldn't make him sit in the back like some common criminal.
Whether Neil stayed in or out or in his own vehicle, Ty didn’t really care. He was just ready to not stand around in a stranger’s apartment and do nothing. He could listen to the police radio better in the car, and get his report started. The locksmith would hopefully show up before too long -- Ty could always give them another call to nudge them to hurry up, if it started taking forever -- and then he could be on his way. “Sounds good,” he said briskly. Ty headed out into the rain again, ducking into the driver’s side of the cruiser and hitting the button to unlock the other door too. Tempting as it might be, he wouldn’t make Neil sit in the back.
Neil hurriedly put his bag in the trunk of his car before hurrying back to the cruiser and getting in the passenger seat. As soon as he was there he realized this was probably going to be a very awkward wait since he had no interest in speaking to the officer and he had no doubt the feeling was mutual. He rested the umbrella against his foot and pulled out his phone to occupy himself until the locksmith showed up which would hopefully be before his phone battery ran out.