Captain Sharon Raydor's silver colored car rolls to a stop outside a brightly colored big top tent. Sitting there a moment without speaking.
"I've never been to the circus. Is it fun?" Rusty Beck grins, gazing at the big top.
"I'm being hazed."
"You've been there over a year. Why would they haze you now? Isn't that something that is done when you're new?"
"Usually, but I put nothing past Lieutenant Provenza." Sharon bites her lower lip gently, her skin pale.
"Something wrong?"
"I'm..." She sighs heavily, "I'm terrified of clowns."
Rusty laughs a little, the pauses when she doesn't join him, "Wait, you're serious." He watches her still, "Want me to go get Amy? She can brief you out here and let you know if there are any clowns inside."
"I'd...yes, that would be most helpful. Thank you, Rusty." Sharon nods, watching as the young man climbs from the car.
He smirks walking under the police tent. Since he was usually a regular fixture at crime scenes with his foster mother, most officers knew him. Provenza catches sight of him and waves him inside.
"Where is Raydor?" Lieutenant Louie Provenza dons a pair of black rubber gloves, looking over around the main floor. "Guys, there is some blood splatter over there. I want pictures before you collect samples." He turns his attention back to Rusty, "I asked you a question."
"She's in the car." Rusty nods, "Um, where is Detective Sykes?"
"Home with the flu. What's this about?"
"Uh..." He laughs a little, "I'll ask Flynn to brief her then."
"She wants a briefing before she even comes in?" Provenza furrows his brow, "She needs to come and see the body and-"
"I'll brief her. It's not a problem." Lieutenant Andy Flynn hears his friend giving the kid trouble, "Come on, Rusty. Show me to the car, would ya?"
Rusty nods quickly, waiting until they're out of earshot from the older man and the rest of the squad, "Thanks for saving my ass back there."
"It's no trouble. Don't worry about it." He smirks, "Why is she not coming in?"
"She's afraid of clowns." The teenager blurts, "So...don't tease her."
"Wouldn't dream of it, but it is going to make this case a lot harder on her." Flynn nods, "Go ahead and sit on the bleacher inside. Its starting to rain." When he watches Rusty run off, he leans down, gently knocking on the Captain's window with his knuckle.
Raydor jumps slightly, motioning for him to enter. Once he closes the door behind himself, her head gently leans to the side, "Where is Detective Sykes?"
"What? I'm not good enough?" He feigns emotional hurt, but smirks after, "Home with the flu. I'm what you've got."
"Okay, what can you tell me?" She clasps her hands in her lap, knuckles white.
"The victim is mid-forties, male. Tightrope Artist with the circus company. He has been so since he was sixteen. He recently became the company president or leader, I don't know what the hell they call it. Head carney. Anyway, his wife wasn't real upset, but her twenty year old daughter was. You'll see that when you come inside."
"How long were he and the wife together?"
"Few years. Not too long though. She's been with the company about ten years in all, joining and leaving here and there." Andy nods, "Are you, uh...coming inside?"
"Are there..." Sharon pauses, tilting her head from side to side, "Any of them in there?"
"Any of what?"
She sighs heavily, defeated, "The people with the white faces and red noses? Floppy shoes?"
Andy grins, laughing, "You really are terrified, aren't you..."
"When I was younger, my father would dress as a...as one of those for my birthday party. Ages three to fourteen-"
"You had a clown at your birthday party when you were a teenager?"
Sharon nods slowly, "He would wake me up with his face painted and in full costume." She swallows, "You can only imagining opening your eyes in the morning with something like that staring at you, squeaking his red nose, and using a ridiculously high pitched voice. It's..." She takes a deep breath, "It still conjures nightmares."
"Sharon, you'll be fine." Flynn nods, "I promise." He smirks, motioning to the tent, "Rusty is inside, there's a dead body, there's other things that are usually at crime scenes, there's the rest of the team."
"And no-"
Flynn shakes his head slowly, "You'll be fine." He opens his door.
Raydor nods her head, climbing out of the car. Her heels sink slightly in the grass, "I wore the wrong shoes." She mumbles, mostly to herself.
"I'll trade you." He offers with a smirk, walking inside with her.
"We don't wear the same size." She smirks, glancing over and seeing Rusty, "You okay?"
Rusty nods, "This is cool. There are elephants backstage. I saw elephants, Sharon." He grins broadly, "And girls in skirts that stand on horses. Did you know about this?"
Sharon tilts her head to the side, sensing his excitement, "You found all that out in the little amount ot time-"
"I searched it on my phone...the horses part. The elephants I saw. They're huge. I mean, You know they're gonna be big from when you're little, but you have no idea until you're standing next to one." He nods, "Can I go back and look at them more?"
"Of course, but please, I beg of you, please be careful." She smirks, watching him run off again. Raydor turns her attention to the sheet covering the victim, "Lieutenant Flynn briefed me."
Provenza nods, "Took you long enough. Victim's name is Thomas Birch. We think he was hit with a blunt object here and the body was dragged this way." He motions to the marks and blood splatters, "There are no cameras running when there are no shows occurring. There were no witnesses."
"Kendall," Sharon looks to the young black man, "Do you have a liver temperature?"
"Yeah." Kendall nods, "Liver temp puts the death at about ten this morning."
"That early and there are no witnesses?" She looks between Flynn and Provenza, then back to the sheet, "Can I see the body?"
"Of course, Ma'am." He pulls the white sheet back.
Sharon quickly moves away from the body, turning her back and covering her chest with her hand. Her heart races and she can feel a rush of blood fill her cheeks, "Not funny, Lieutenant."
Flynn sighs, "I had no idea our tightrope walker was a clown, Captain."
"Hard ass Raydor is afraid of clowns?" Provenza begins to laugh.
"They creep me out too, Captain." Sanchez nods.
Raydor trembles slightly, "Thank you, Detective." She answers quietly.
Flynn shakes his head, moving closer to her, "I swear. I had no idea. I swear it, Captain."
"Could um...Could someone let Rusty know we're leaving?"
"I'm on it." Sanchez nods, walking away from the group.
"This was cruel...I told you, in the car, how..." Sharon waves her hand a little, "No, you know what, I'm just...I'm going to wait until Morales cleans the body up. I'll be in the office. If I find out this was some sort of prank between the two of you, you will both regret it, immensely."
Rusty jogs out from behind the stage, "Hey, everything okay?" He stands next to her, noticing the trembling and how nervous she appears, his eyes drift to Flynn and Provenza, "What did you do?"
"What the hell makes you think I did anything?" Andy shakes his head.
Provenza looks to the boy, "Take her home. You drive, kid. She's a wreck. You need a few hours to calm down, Captain. Go home, have some breakfast, watch some morning television."
Rusty nods, taking her arm gently, "I'll drive."
"That's supposed to relax me?" Raydor glances to her ward.
"I'm not that bad." He shrugs, walking her away from the scene.
"You knew what was under the blanket." Provenza waits until she's out of earshot, mumbling to Flynn.
"Yeah, but I thought she'd react better if she knew it was dead." Andy looks to his friend, "There's a few others to interview and we can go."
He nods, "I'm right with you."
Rusty pulls out of the grass parking space that Raydor had created for herself, he glances to her hands, "You're still shaking."
"I'm fine. Please, keep your eyes on the road, Rusty." Raydor swallows, watching the road ahead of the boy, mostly staring.
"Were you like...tortured by clowns?"
"You can say that." She sighs, "No, but...it isn't something I'm willing to talk about right now."
The young man shrugs, "Why did you make me come with you today?"
"You are on summer vacation and I don't necessarily want you to just stay home and-"
"Did you want me to protect you from big bad Bozo?" Rusty smirks.
"I thout you would enjoy seeing the animals." Sharon answers quietly, knowing full well her fear would be easier dealt with if he were at her side, "Though, we could go to the zoo for that."
"I don't like zoos." He answers quietly, biting the corner of his mouth.
"Oh God, I'm sorry. I just...I completely forgot, Rusty. I do apologize." She looks to him, concern painting her face.
"I'd be willing to try though, maybe. If you came with me, we could try to go," Rusty's voice I hopeful, not wanting to have a fear not only from the traumatic incident of his mother leaving him there, but of such a childish place.
"I would love to do that with you in the near future." She smiles softly, "I really would."
"I mean, you know, when I get older and have kids and stuff-"
"Much older."
"I want to be able to take my kids and not think about waiting out front the LA Zoo for like...four hours. I called from their office and they...they finally caught wind that something was wrong, but I was able to blow them off. So I walked back to the apartment and I used my key." He nods, "All the stuff was gone. All their clothes. Some furniture. Some pictures."
Sharon listens intently, her gaze shifting back to the road, "You've never really talked about this with me."
"It isn't something I like to talk about." Rusty answers quietly.
"I'm not stopping you. I am always here to listen to whatever you need to talk about." She nods, "Whether it be about that or things that are occurring at school, or things when you were younger. Whatever you need."
"Thanks." He smiles a little.
"Good, now, please slow down before you hit that small tortoise crossing the road." Sharon points.
"Sharon, that's like...eight hundred feet away. What makes you think I would," A thump is heard and he goes silent, "I hit the turtle."
"We should see if he's okay. Pull over."
"It's a turtle!"
Sharon shakes her head, "I don't care if it were an axe murderer, you still hit a living creature and we're still going to see if they are able to function." She points to the shoulder of the road, waiting until he rolls to a stop to climb from the car.
Rusty grips the steering wheel for a moment, leaning forward and hitting his head against it before getting out of the automobile as well, jogging over to her, "Is it dead?"
"No, but he may be injured. He's moving very slowly."
"Well, it's kind of in the description of what a turtle does."
"It's a tortoise." She corrects him.
"How can you be so sure?" He raises an eyebrow.
"When I was a teenager, I used to work at a zoo part time. I just know." Sharon crouches down, watching it, "This one is probably at least eighty years old."
"And still that small?"
"Yes. It's a female. Not that it matters, but the species can live longer than the two of us combined."
Rusty's eyes widen and his eyebrow raises, "Interesting."
Sharon rises, smiling, "Really? I could tell you more-"
"Not really, no."
"Oh." Sharon nods, "We should take her with us."
"And put her where?" Rusty shakes his head.
"Good point."
"Maybe she's trying to commit suicide."
"Never know." She sighs, "Good luck, Ms. Tortoise." Sharon speaks to the hard shelled creature slowly moving across the road before walking back to her car, "I'm driving."
"Not fair!" Rusty walks behind her.
"No, it is not. However, I can't risk you hitting something else today. A dog, a beggar, a giraffe, a bear..."
"A beggar? People still say that?" He raises his eyebrow.
"I believe I just did." Sharon smirks, opening the door and climbing behind the wheel.