Adventures In Parodyverse: Bright Lights, Big City Part 2

Part 1

Adventures in Parodyverse - Bright Lights, Big City Part 2

    Vicky was handling disappointment rather well that day, Detective Jack Burns thought to himself. First she was given a near unsolvable case - and at first she obsessed over the file before realizing that Jack gave it to her for the long haul - there would be no solving it quickly like the rest.

    Second, she discovered that new detectives were essentially apprentices, officially 'probationary detectives'. They didn't have the rights and priveledges of a full detective like Jack - for instance they couldn't interrogate suspects alone, and they couldn't initiate case files.

    That disappointed Vicky when, that morning, officers brought in a suspect in one of Jack's 'conspiracy to murder' cases. That was the fancy name for the charges used in gangland killings. The man brought in was dressed sloppily yet weathly, wearing a leather jacket, an expensive watch, and several valuable rings and necklaces.

    "I could sweet talk him," Vicky tried again to convince Jack to let her interrogate the gangster solo.

    "Not the way you're dressed," Jack replied, pointing out that she was pretty well covered up in jeans, and a mock turtleneck shirt under a sweater. "To this guy it just screams 'Not your type'." He glared at another detective that passed who nearly opened his mouth to comment.

    "Wait a sec." Vicky folded her arms and smiled as a realization came over her. "You don't have enough evidence to keep him, do you?" she asked. "You have to trick him into saying something or he'll skip bail for...what was it he was brought in for?"

    "Assault and carrying a concealed weapon," Jack quoted from the arrest report.

    "Ohhh, so he kicked someone's ass in a bar and was carrying a gun." Vicky nodded. "Not exactly the kinda thing that can keep him in jail for more than a day." She looked at Jack and tilted her head slightly. "If he sees you he'll go silent. He's probably smart enough for that. I can probably get him bragging--" She stopped talking when another detective stuck his head in the door.

    "Jack, your wife is calling, line four." the detective said. He looked at Vicky and asked, "Don't you have school or something?"

    Vicky thought about rudely asking him if he had a grave plot to order, but then she remembered what Jack said about making things more difficult by angering all the other detectives. Instead she smiled and decided to use what she was so generously handed. "Yah, you'd like to see me in a school uniform wouldn't you?"

    The other detective smile blissfully for an instant before he realized Jack was glaring at him. He quickly shuffled out of the office and shut the door.

    "Perv," Vicky grumbled to herself.

    "Nice one, you're learning." Jack complimented her as he reached for the phone on her desk. "Mind if I take the call here?"

    "Sure," she replied, sounding distracted. She eyed Jack as he selected line four on her phone. Vicky knew something was up...she decided to confirm it. "Want me to step out for a sec?"

    "No, no, this will only take a minute."

    Now she knew he was up to something. Jack's wife was named Deanna and she taught high school. Poor woman must have endured years of jokes during the later Star Trek franchises. He called her Dee on the phone, though, as he chatted with her about boring things like picking up drycleaning on the way home from work. Vicky heard her name and looked up from the magazine she was looking at so it didn't look like she was listening.

    "Dee wants to talk to you," Jack said. He was still cheerful when he said that, meaning either it was good news or Jack was more sadistic than Vicky thought.

    "Yah?" she asked as she took possession of the phone. Dee was invited her to dinner. How old fashioned, Vicky thought. "Tonight? Sure, okay," Vicky agreed. She looked up at Jack as she added, "Could you, y'know, tell Jack to get a cell like everyone else? This place is like a prison grapevine every time he gets a call."

    Dee laughed at the other end and said, "see you at dinner."

    Vicky hung up the phone and kept staring at Jack. "Is this gonna be, y'know, me going into the lion's den? Or is this cool?"

    "You'll be fine," Jack replied calmly. "Dee just wants to meet you is all. I told her about you. I bet Chrissy will like you too."

    Chrissy was Jack's daughter. He also had a much younger son named Jordan, but his age was still measured in single digits. "I guess I should pick something up for you guys," Vicky said in a soft, subdued voice that sounded so responsible and kind.

    "You do that," Jack replied half-dismissively. "Meanwhile though we have work to do."

    "I thought you weren't going to let me interrogate--" she began, but then she figured out what he meant. "Oh." she concluded sadly as Jack handed her the case file's paperwork.

     "Don't feel too bad," Jack said. "Sooner or later you'll get to interrogate. Meanwhile I'll put you in the observation room while you're doing the paperwork so you can see how it's done."

     "Observation room?" Vicky asked.


---

    The observation room was essentially a small isolated office with a giant window. The window faced the interrogation room, and was actually a mirror from the other direction. Audio was piped through a one-way speaker. It was used so a third party could observe an interrogation without being noticed by the interviewee. The observation room wasn't well lit, to make sure nothing transmitted through the one-way mirror.

    Vicky sat down at the table there, putting her feet up, and mockingly gave Jack a thumbs-up through the window though she knew he couldn't see her. The suspect brought in earlier was leaned back comfortably in the metal chair opposite the door.

    "Good afternoon," Jack greeted him as he sat down calmly and dropped a folder on the table.

    "I'm not talkin'," the suspect said right away. "I told the rest of them, I'm not sayin' a word till I get my lawyer."

    "About that." Jack folded his arms and leaned back. "You know that if you bring a lawyer in we have to file formal charges against you? Otherwise he'd demand your immediate release. Of course we'll file charges anyway but if you're cooperative maybe you can get the ball rolling on a deal."

    The leather jacketed suspect rolled his eyes. "Do you think I'm stupid?"

    "Look...you've been arrested." Jack noted. "If you go to jail you're not going to survive the night unless you're protected. If you get out of here you'll still die. Whoever hired you isn't going to just let you live."

    The suspect frowned, finally losing his amused smile. Jack hit a sensitive spot. "I was the second choice for this job, you know. First choice was this Asian ninja chick they heard was in town a couple times but no one could find her."

    "Who is 'they'?" Jack asked.

    Vicky sat up as she watched the suspect lean back and smile again. She knew the next words out of his mouth would be a lie, even before he spoke. That was the way of a convincing lie - tell a truth followed by an untruth, and most of the time people would believe it.

    "This Frankie guy of the Zoot Suit Gang. Now can I go?"

    "He's lying!" Vicky whispered in a high pitch, hoping Jack would somehow pick up the signal though he couldn't see or hear her.

    "From what I hear Frankie likes to handle everything in-house," Jack pointed out calmy. "He doesn't hire outsiders."

    "Maybe he's gotten desperate, I dunno." The suspect shrugged.

    "Or maybe you work for--" Vicky started.

    "--the Lynchpin," Jack finished, without ever hearing Vicky say the same thing in the next room. "He'd love to see us try and break up the Zoot Suit Gang."

    "The Lynchpin's in jail, stupid," the suspect laughed.

    Jack slid his chair back and stood. "Wouldn't be the first time he tried to run his crime family from inside. Whether it's him or not at this point...you've got nothing for me. I guess you can have that lawyer now." He turned to leave.

    "I bet Deanna and Christy will be proud of you," the suspect said just as Jack reached for the door.

    "Oh, shit." Vicky could practically see the chill run up Jack's spine. "Oh shit!" she exclaimed louder as she watched Jack let go of the doorknob and turn on the prisoner.

    She knew very well that she wasn't allowed in the interrogation room. She was probably supposed to call for help but she didn't have time. Instead she raced around the corner and burst into the interrogation room.

    Being much shorter and weaker than Jack, all she could do was grab onto his shoulders as he strangled the suspect, hoping the weight on this back and her calls of "Stop! Stop!" would finally get his attention. Finally they did, and she dropped back to her feet, while the suspect fell to the floor laughing.

    "Laugh it up, dickless!" Vicky fumed at him. "You're lucky he didn't put a bullet through your brain! And if he did? I'd cover for him. Your life is worth less than shit, loser!" She turned on Jack and shoved him out of the room to the best of her ability, grateful that he didn't resist.

    "I'm sorry, I lost my temper," he said as Vicky shut the door to the interview room. He looked into her angry eyes and added in a muted voice, "In all my years here I've never had anyone threaten my family before. At least not with such detail. He knew my wife's name, my daughter's name--"

    "Their birth names, stupid." Vicky corrected him impatiently. "He coulda gotten that easily. If he was close to your family he woulda called them Dee and Chrissy. And he totally forgot about Jordan."

    Jack calmed slightly and said, "You're right. He probably has my home address, though, and my wife's work address."

    "Give me a shot and I'll find out." Vicky replied with a sunny smile.

    Jack bit his lip. He really wanted to know, but he also could get into serious trouble allowing Vicky to interrogate a suspect alone. Especially if something bad happened. He looked into her hopeful eyes, and saw an intelligence in there he always saw...if she really concentrates on something she's smarter and more disciplined than any of the detectives in the department.

    "Sure," Jack said, "Two minutes."

    "Two minutes," Vicky echoed. "Gotcha." She quietly entered the interview room and stared over the table at the suspect, who was sitting leaned back in his chair looking satisfied with himself.

    "Hiya," Vicky announced as she turned the opposite chair around and sat backwards. "What's your name?"

    "Jimmy," he replied, seeming amused at her appearance. "So Mr. Detective Burns decided to send in his daughter to talk to me, eh? Some kinda sympathy plea?"

    Vicky's smile widened. That meant Jimmy never saw Jack's daughter before, which means he wouldn't recognize her if he saw her. "Yah well...you have a big mouth," she scolded him. Having given him no clue who she is, she could tell he was searching his own mind trying to figure it out. She wouldn't give him the chance - instead she rose out of the chair and quietly left the interview room.

    "Someone told him your wife's and daughter's names," Vicky reported to Jack. "No way he's seen them before. Meaning he doesn't know your address."

    "You really unnerved him," Jack told her. "After you left the room he got up and started pacing."

    "I knew it!" Vicky exclaimed swinging her right arm triumphantly. "He was bluffing."

    Jack's smile disappeared and he sighed sadly. "I only wish we could be so sure. Even if he doesn't know where to find my family someone he knows might."

    "Yah." Vicky echoed sadly. "Guess we have to get some of your guys to watch your house, eh?"

    "It's being arranged." Jack nodded. He looked into Vicky's bright blue energetic eyes and his heart sank as he realized he would have to make her bright smile disappear with some serious talk. "How about you?" he asked. "What if one of his people finds out where you live?"

    Vicky shrugged. "I live alone, and I have a gun and a dog."

    And an attitude, Jack thought to himself. For his own amusement he wondered if he'd feel sorry for anyone who tried to break into her place. "I'll take you home tonight after dinner," he offered. "If anything seems suspicious overnight call me."

    "Okay." Vicky nodded. "So off to the lion's den, eh?"

    "Huh?" Jack asked, unsure if he was following the conversation.

    "Dinner, remember? Dee invited me? I'm supposed to have dinner with your family?"

    "Oh. Right." Jack smiled and nodded. "I remember. Sarcasm isn't necessary, Vicky."

    "It's not sarcasm. It's me pointing out you're getting senile in your old age." Vicky smiled triumphantly as she led the way downstairs.

    Jack thought to himself that Vicky would definately get along with Chrissy. After all, they sound a lot alike.


TO BE CONTINUED?

-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2007 by Jason Froikin, and may not be
-- reprinted without permission.
-- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow
-- Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin
-- Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin

Post By Anime Jason Fri Feb 09, 2007 at 01:11:53 pm EST	Subject Adventures In Parodyverse: Bright Lights, Big City Part 2

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