ph_logs | [Closed Log] Above and Beyond

[Closed Log] Above and Beyond

Who: Cerrit Agrupnin and Leon Kennedy
What: File Organization
When: A weekend in March
Where: Enforcer's Office
Warning(s): None yet

Cerrit can't remember at this point, whose idea this was, but he's all in for it. Honestly, the idea of getting his eyes on information, even if it's scattered and piecemeal, excites him. He's already pulled the boxes of files out of storage, brought them to the office that now holds the new filing cabinets. Beside the boxes, there's a table set up in the corner with drinks and snacks. Because this is going to be a long process.

Cerrit's brought his own backless stool to perch on (most chairs aren't made for fellows with wings), and set up space for Leon to work as well.

"Alright, we're going to approach this systematically. One box at a time, starting from the oldest and working forward."

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Leon seems pretty excited about the notion too, even as he tries to play it cool like he usually does. Clerical work isn't the most glamorous, but, well. There's a reason he came out top of the class back in police academy, and despite his marksmanship and general athleticism it was not because he was the strongest or fastest or sharpest-shooter. No, he got there by being well-rounded, and that in part meant knowing the value of attention to detail and organization.

Organization that the Pumpkin Hollow Police Department seemed sorely lacking. Not for any lack of trying on the part of the surviving local police officers, but with the incidents stacking up faster than they could keep up with it was bound to happen. With the lull in activity after the end of aurora season, though, there's no better time to start fixing that.

He settles down in a chair across from Cerrit, nodding resolutely. "Got it. You take odds, I take evens, we re-file them in this empty box in order as we go, right?"

“To start. Everything into the cabinets eventually, either alphabetically or by year.”

Cerrit grabs for the first odd-numbered folder, settling in with his wings tucked neatly up against his back. There’s a notepad on a nearby table, for notes he’s certain he’s going to want to make, even if he’s not quite sure about what, yet.

There are plenty of mysteries to this island yet unsolved.

Leon nods and grabs his own file, flipping it open and starting to scan it over for anything that seems misfiled, out of place, or otherwise interesting. He's got his own pad and paper next to him, scribbling down a brief summary of what he finds as he goes.

This one's pretty straightforward - disorderly conduct at the Empty Pockets, broken up before it turned into a full-on brawl - and Leon imagines many if not most of what they'll find will be like this. But, there is the possibility of finding something more unusual hidden in the stacks of unsorted files, and that makes it easy to stay motivated through the drier stuff.

Cerrit finishes his file, moves to the next. There's a montage here, probably with some jazz music in the background, that's what suits detective work, even the boring kind. A few piles in, Cerrit pauses and stands to get a ~~glass~~ bowl of water. What, did you think drinking normally would happen with that beak? Not so much. It probably looks a little silly.

The bowl of water gets a curious look from Leon, only for the realization of how actually that makes perfect sense to dawn once Cerrit dips his beak in. To cover for the staring, he clears his throat and speaks up.

"Find anything interesting yet?" he asks. "Most of what I've got so far is just petty theft, but I guess there was an incident a ways back where someone staged their own murder to get out of some kind of social obligation?"

He gestures with the file - thicker than most of the others and heavily tea-stained.

"The detective on the case had an, uh. Interesting way with words."

"And a sweet tooth. See how syrupy those stains are? From the sugar drying to the folder. Left-handed as well, judging from the handwriting and how the ink smeared as they wrote. I wonder if they're still around?"

He has a +13 to Perception, and sometimes shows it off for fun.

It's admittedly Leon's first instinct to assume Cerrit's pulling his leg, but he glances at the folder and sure enough, the tea residue is sticky to the touch and the handwriting smudged from left to right.

"Huh," he says, clearly impressed. "Sounds like Detective DuPont, to me. Maybe I'll ask her about it if I get the chance, later."

It's an interesting case, if very stupid. Turns out when death doesn't stick people start getting really weird about the seriousness of faking it.

Cerrit's crest fluffs slightly. "Leon, I'm not the smartest person in town, or back home. Not the fastest or the best fighter. I'm not the most charming. But what I am is damned observant. If I'm stating something as a fact, it's something I'm pretty damned certain of."

A pause, a glance at his file box. He clicks his beak quietly, a sound Leon may have heard on patrol when Cerrit's frustrated or thinking very hard.

"And if there's something I'm not saying, that's worth paying attention to, as well."

And then he picks up his next file.

Wow, that sure is an interesting thing to say. Leon raises his eyebrows at that, looking back up at Cerrit and scanning his features for any hint as to what he could mean by that. Unfortunately even after patrolling with him for going on a month now, it's still a little hard for Leon to read his body language at times, so after a moment he just nods, seriously.

"Got it. That's good to know. I'll be sure to trust you with that kind of thing."

And he picks up his next file, too, able to focus on it though with the niggling fear that what Cerrit is trying to tell him is going to be something like what was going on in the Raccoon City Police Department. The odds of the chief of police here being a serial killer or anything of the like feel low, but they definitely aren't zero.

Cerrit nods slightly. "Thank you."

And then he goes back to work, but there's a second pile he starts putting a few files in, on the part of the desk nearer to Leon, without comment.

Leon watches carefully as the pile between him and Cerrit starts to grow, glancing up at the other officer with eyebrows raised before surreptitiously sliding one of them over to his to-read stack. Normally he wouldn't be so bold, but the hint seems pretty clear.

He doesn't jump into it right away, working through the one he was already in the middle of first, but after a few minutes he gets there.

What does he find?

The first folder is simple. Mundane. Jasper Leeds reporting some graffiti (teenager with an attitude variety) on his boutique. Nothing attention grabbing at all. There's another in the pile, a complaint about a teenaged Dahlia Leeds practicing knife throwing using a neighbor's squash as targets.

There is nothing major about most of the stack, except that they're all about the Leeds family. Perhaps the most interesting one references a harassment case Neil tried to build against Japhet Leeds, which was dropped quickly.

Cerrit is pretending he hasn't noticed Leon reading the pile.

Interesting. Leon's still getting his bearings when it comes to town politics - it takes until he runs into the name Dahlia before he remembers where he's heard the surname Leeds before here - but a few major players jump out at him here and there. Neil West's name catches his eye in particular. Isn't that the man he keeps hearing about around town? Some kind of therapist, with controversial methods or views or something. People who've been to see him as patients seem to love him. Many others, less so.

Either way, the point seems to be the Leeds family. He combs over each file carefully, no matter how dull or mundane they seem at first glance. Clearly Cerrit thinks there's something in here for him to find.

Cerrit makes no indication, continuing to work quietly. He comes across those Important Files, and makes sure those go on the pile in chronological order, so Leon gets the story in order. The harassment case, the necromancy, and then later Linette's disappearance.

"There was a shared dream situation a while back. All of us newcomers to this world lived a day in 16:45, September, as if we were natives of the island, in the time before the barrier rose. Several of the events we experienced in the dream actually happened, though not exactly the same, because we weren't there."

What that has to do with anything at all is anyone's guess.

Leon listens to that carefully, watching Cerrit as he talks and glancing down at the case files once he's done. September of 16:45, huh? Would've been a little before the harassment case Neil West filed against Japhet Leeds, with Jasper being exhumed by Elias Coldwood-West after. Maybe that's not the connection Cerrit wants him to draw, though. It could be more generally about the Leeds family.

"Weird," he says, because it is. It's tempting to leave it at that, since his suspicion is Cerrit is going to remain tight ~~lipped~~ beaked as long as they're somewhere anyone could overhear, but Leon figures he can at least see how much it's safe to say here and now. "Why that day in particular, do you think? Do you know why it happened?"

Important questions with probably big answers, but ones that could just as easily be shrugged off with an 'I don't know' or some other speculation if what he wants to say is too sensitive. At least, Leon thinks so.

"I don't know for certain. There's parts of that day I remember vividly." His crest flicks upward and he lifts his wing to tuck his beak under it in what's a sheepish sort of gesture that even a human can read. "Some aren't for discussing on work time, and I'm not sure you'd want to hear about them anyway."

Like sucking Watson's cock while he had a human mouth, for example.

"There was a notable event that day. And I remember mention of a monster I haven't encountered in the present, the Grinning Fox. I wonder if that was what..." and when he trails off, there's a moment of strain, as if there was more to be said and he's physically unable to.

A pause. A silence.

"There are others you can ask, about that dream and that day."

The sheepishness gets a puzzled look out of Leon, blinking at Cerrit obliviously for a long moment before it suddenly sinks in.

"Oh," he says. "Yeah, maybe save that one for another time."

And he's not sure why Cerrit would even bring it up obliquely, until he goes on to try to explain and then doesn't, at least not as fully as he seems to want to, and in fact is physically attempting to. That's... definitely strange, but now he thinks he gets where they're going with this.

"Yeah. I'll look into it. You got any ideas about where to start, or should I just ask around?"

“Ask about the events of that day. I’d say ask Ianto, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen him. Bart, Jean, River. There’s any number of people who might have insight.”

Cerrit pauses. Gives Leon an aquiline stare. He trusts his partner to dig properly. And he still doesn’t regret the deal he made, even with its limitations on him.

“There’s plenty more cases to go through, that are easier to discuss, though.”

"Got it. I'll see what they have to say next time I see any of them, or anyone else that seems trustworthy."

Or at least like they might have an interesting point of view, which isn't always the same thing. He makes a mental note of things - the Leeds family, September of 16:45, and maybe things that might physically prevent someone from discussing specific topics? If that is what's going on.

Leon pauses, frowning, and decides to test that.

"Hey, can you remind me of something, real quick? I'm getting a lot of names thrown at me at once and need to keep them straight - is Japhet Leeds Jasper's father, or the other way around?"

Cerrit opens his beak to speak, stops. And then shakes his head slightly. "Japhet and Jasper Leeds were related. One was the father of the other."

Well. He's apparently not unable to speak about the Leeds family at all! But he can't share information with someone that they don't already have. Can't confirm or deny theories, nor share theories of his own.

(Which is why talking about the day of Jasper's funeral is such a pain in the ass.)

Okay. That's fascinating. Leon watches Cerrit's face carefully for a moment before lifting his hand from where it had been covering the case file regarding the exhumation of Jasper Leeds's remains and glancing at the names again to remind himself of the answer.

"Right. I think I had it backwards - it's Japhet that's Jasper's father?"

At this point he's almost certain Cerrit actually knows the answer, but couldn't share it with him for whatever reason. If he can confirm it now that he's watched Leon read it for himself, that could have all sorts of weird implications.

"That's correct."

Cerrit sounds vaguely amused. Not in the sense that this is fun for him, but seeing Leon nibble around the edge of the matter, seeing how he approaches it, is fascinating. Yes, this is a good partner to have.

Leon nods, tamping down a subtle smile so as not to seem too pleased with himself for figuring it out. So it's not that Cerrit can't talk about the Leeds family - but he can't tell Leon anything he doesn't already know. Or something close enough to that, at least. There's probably more nuances to it, but they can work that out over time.

"Got it. Thanks for the help. I'll get back to putting these -" he nods to his own, unrelated pile of folders, "- back in order. If I find anything else interesting, I'll let you know."

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[Closed Log] Above and Beyond

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cw: passing discussion of police corruption, serial murder

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CW: sexual content discussed

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