The precinct was surprisingly quiet for 2am on a Saturday night. The detective sat at her desk, typing on her computer, her eyes blurring with exhaustion. She wanted nothing more than to be at home, but another robbery had occurred hours ago, pulling her in at the tail end of her shift.
The only reason it had been discovered was because the manager had come in to do night inventory before a high profile client came in the next morning to access their safety deposit box in the vault.
When the manager had opened the vault they had found each and every box opened and emptied. All the money, jewels, and precious items were gone. No alarm or safety protocol had been tripped. Somehow nothing had been found on the cameras because they had all gone blank.
There had been two more robberies exactly like it in the three months prior, and not only were the banks getting antsy, but the police and city brass were getting farther up Detective McNair's ass to find the culprit, and fast.
She rubbed her eyes and finished her notes on the case, saving her work before shutting down the computer. Tugging her jacket on, she walked over to the elevators and pushed the button, closing her eyes as she waited for the ancient machine to rise.
When the elevator finally shuddered to a stop and the doors dinged open, she stepped inside and pressed the button for the garage. Keeping alert as she stepped out into the garage, she waved to the patrol cops heading out for their shifts and to the men and women coming back.
It had been years since she had come off patrol, but she remembered the stress and danger all too well. This job took a lot from a person, but it gave her a sense of pride to know she was helping people. She hadn't made a lot of friends when she turned in dirty or aggressive cops, but she had refused to be someone who turned her back on a broken system.
As she drove home through the streets of Boston she yawned, feeling her jaw pop. "Christ" she muttered, rubbing a hand over her face. She was practically falling asleep at the wheel.
When she turned into her apartment complex ten minutes later, she sighed with relief. Parking her car under the large streetlight, the detective slung her bag over her shoulder and jogged up the stairs to her apartment, her hand on her gun the whole time.
Despite living in a safe neighborhood, she knew the crime statistics for every part of the city, and being a woman at night made her instinctually aware of danger at all times. Locking the door behind her, she kicked off her boots and smiled, looking around her home with pleasure, happy to be home as always.
-Beep Beep-her phone chirped. She pulled her phone out and sighed, she had a voicemail from her sergeant at this hour? That couldn't be good. Unlocking her phone, she put the voicemail on speaker and listened, "Detective McNair, I know you've just left and will probably be asleep soon, but we're holding a meeting with top brass and bank officials tomorrow morning at 8am. We'll be at HQ, and we need you there." There was a pause as the woman sighed, "Avelina, you've done good work on the case with what you have, but people aren't happy. We need to do more. Be prepared for tomorrow."
The recording ended and Avelina stared at the phone, frowning. Her sergeant was giving her a heads up that the people in the meeting were going to try and throw her under the bus. Sergeant Cross didn't have to do it, but she was a good officer with a sense of honor.
Avelina sighed and walked back to her bedroom, tugging her bobby pins out of her hair, pulling it out of its style and down around her shoulders. Quickly stripping her clothes off, she pulled a tank top on and slid beneath the covers of her bed, sighing when her aching head hit the pillow.
No sooner had she stretched and rolled onto her side was she asleep, breathing softly and evenly, her phone still clutched in one hand.
SCREEEE SCREEEE SCREEEEE
Avelina sat straight up in bed, hair mussed around her face, looking for the source of the awful screeching sound, until she realized it was her alarm, coming from her phone.
"Ughhh god" she groaned, rolling onto her stomach and fishing under her pillow for the phone until she found it and silenced the alarm. 6am. Excellent. Tossing back the covers she went to her bathroom and showered quickly, dressing in nicer clothes than her standard outfit.
After blow drying her hair and applying makeup she grabbed her bag and holstered her gun before slipping her blazer on and running out the door. As she drove to HQ her stomach grumbled, reminding her she hadn't had coffee or food. Hopefully the meeting would have one or the other, or she would be one grumpy participant.
As she pulled into the parking garage, she saw Sergeant Cross exiting her car. Hurrying to catch up, she called out, "Sarge, wait up!"
Cross turned and saw Avelina approaching and paused, giving her a ghost of a smile. Avelina jogged up to her and nodded, "Thanks. So how bad is this going to be today?" she asked quietly.
Cross looked hesitant and then shrugged, "I know the banks aren't happy with us making so little progress. We need to come up with a plan."
Avelina sighed, "I'll have us do a thorough review of the evidence and look for anything that's the same at all scenes. I don't think we missed anything, but it's possible. I want forensics back at each scene to do another sweep. I know we released the scenes of the earlier two, but we can use the photos to look for anything we might have missed. We'll re-interview everyone again too."
Cross nodded, "Good. That's what they want to hear. I have faith in you McNair."
Avelina looked across the elevator at the older woman in surprise. Cross was tightfisted with praise; she wasn't mean, but she made you work for her praise and respect. To have her faith and belief in her work, that meant a lot.
"Thank you Sarge. That means a lot. I won't let you down." Avelina nodded and smiled at her.
Cross gave her a wry smile as the elevator doors opened, "You better not. It's both our asses if you do."
Avelina sighed and nodded, following her boss down the hall, noting all eyes were on them as they approached the large conference room that was, surprise surprise, filled with mostly men. Avelina held her head a little higher and prepared herself for the steel wall of misogyny she was about to encounter.
As she shook hands with the top brass of Boston's police and bankers, she saw the appraisal in their eyes, saw the men looking at her figure, the tattoos peeking out on her neck, her no nonsense boots, and her shark smile when one man asked her how she had made detective "so young".
"By working my ass off sir. I knew no one was going to believe that a woman that looks like me would be able to do it, so I made good CI's, made arrests, and then took the test. If you want to know my score, I'd be happy to tell you" she offered with a sharp smile.
A number of the police brass covered smiles and turned away, leaving the banker to his own defenses. Shortly after the meeting was called to order, and everyone was seated. Avelina was happy to see coffee and breakfast food on the side table, filling a small plate before sitting.
The banker who had questioned her looked sidelong at her until she raised a brow and smiled sweetly before spearing a piece of pineapple with her fork and biting it delicately. He quickly looked away and turned his attention to the meeting.
Avelina smirked and turned her attention to what was being said, taking notes between bites. When the Police Commissioner called on Cross to ask what was being done to improve the situation and how they planned on catching the criminal, Cross leaned forward.
"Thank you Commissioner. We have already released two crime scenes, so we won't have an easy time getting reliable evidence from them. We will however still be able to use crime scene photos to see if anything was missed, and another sweep will be completed. My detective, Avelina McNair will be able to tell you what else she has planned."
Cross turned to Avelina who nodded slightly at her before turning to the group, "As Sergeant Cross said we will re-sweep the original two crime scenes. We will also compare all evidence gathered at the crimes and see if there are any pieces linking them. We will re-sweep the most recent scene and look for anything new. We need to look at all the banks and see if they use a similar security system and see if that's a factor for why this person is choosing these banks."
She looked at the bank heads, "If you can get us that information, along with information on every person who had boxes that were robbed, who worked at your banks-that goes all the way down to janitors, and lastly, any details about the robberies that you know that you didn't think of before now that you want to share."
The men nodded and murmured softly, writing notes or typing on their phones. The meeting continued another fifteen minutes before all parties were marginally more satisfied. As Avelina made a movement to stand, she caught Cross's hand motion, urging her to stay.
Sitting back down, she looked curiously at Cross, but was interested to see the other woman not making eye contact and looking at her phone. When the room had emptied of all but them and the Commissioner, the man came down to their end of the table and sighed, "Cross, you wanted to talk?"
Cross looked up, "Commissioner, I wanted you to meet Detective McNair. Despite what some people had to say, she's done what she could with this case. She's also the one that linked the robberies."
The Commissioner turned and stared at Avelina, raising a brow. "Well Detective. I trust you know that getting a good word from this woman is rare?"
Avelina's head bobbed and she swallowed hard, "Yes sir. I just wish I had earned it. I haven't done anything on this case. I can't find any evidence to catch this person. They're going to do it again."
The Commissioner tilted his head and frowned, "Why do you say that?" he asked.
Avelina sighed and looked around the room, "Do you have a map?" she asked.
He looked surprised but nodded, turning and opening his laptop, quickly projecting a map of Boston onto the screen behind them.
Avelina pointed to the screen, "Okay, can you put the first two robberies up?"
When the two dots appeared she nodded, "Okay. So with the first one, it was a poorer district, he hit it three months ago, and got mostly tax documents, birth certificates, and family jewelry. The bank hadn't been doing well and didn't have a lot of money in the vault. His take was less than $20k."
She pointed to the second dot, "The second one, that's a month ago. We assume he took that time to plan out the heist, spend the money, whatever. This time he moves into a more affluent area, and gets a bank with a full vault. Nearly a million dollars."
She pointed to the screen, "Can you put the last dot up?" she asked. When the last dot appeared it was in the center of town, "Okay, so now he's got the wealthiest of the wealthy. The vault had over 5 million in it in jewels, deeds, and cash."
The Commissioner nodded, "So he got a big hit. What makes you think he'll be back?"
Avelina pointed to the screen, "He won't hit a regular bank if I'm right. He'll go big. The state treasury." She watched as the Commissioner and Cross's faces went pale, looks of horror crossing their faces.
It was the same look that must have crossed her face when she had realized this possibility during her drive to HQ, driving past the Treasury had been like a slap in the face. The Commissioner turned to her and blinked, swallowed and then asked, "How sure are you?"
Avelina shook her head, "Definitely not 100%. But if you wanted to make best guesses, I would put guards in the vaults at the Treasury. We don't know if or when he'll show. I'm going back to my precinct to start working on this."
The commissioner nodded, "Go, we need to have evidence to lead us. But I'll alert the mayor and god…the Governor too." Avelina winced; she wouldn't want to be in the Commissioner's shoes for those calls.
Cross nodded, "We'll update you when we have evidence to guide us." The Commissioner nodded and walked them to the elevator.
"I'm counting on you two to find this guy. My ass is on the line here." The Commissioner looked tired and serious.
Avelina nodded, "We're on it sir." He nodded and waved them away, the elevator doors shutting on his craggy profile. Avelina turned to Cross, "Well shit. Did I just fuck that up?" she asked.
Cross shook her head, "No. If you hadn't said anything and this guy robbed the Treasury, that would have been fucked up. You did good."
Avelina nodded and followed her out into the garage. "I'll see you back at the precinct" she called out, waving as she got into her car. The drive back to the precinct gave her time to think about the case, and about just how this person was getting into the banks.
It made no sense. None of the alarms were triggered, none of the cameras were physically broken, but they all went blank at the time of the robberies, and there appeared to be no physical evidence of the crimes.
Sighing, Avelina hoisted her bag onto her shoulder and locked her car, heading into the precinct. Dropping her bag on her desk, she shrugged her blazer off and hung it on the back of her chair with a look of distaste.
Unbuttoning her sleeves, she rolled them up and walked down to evidence holdings, waving to the officer on duty. "Hey Frank, how's it going?" she asked.
"Not too bad Avelina, how 'bout you?" he asked, pushing the sign in log forward. Avelina shrugged and signed in.
"Spent the morning with brass, hearing what an incompetent little woman I am, and answering how I can do better. Luckily I know how to tell people to fuck off so they actually enjoy the trip." She grinned at Frank as he guffawed, opening the cage door for her.
"You're one hell of a woman, you know that?" he said, still laughing.
Avelina smirked, "Yea, I try." Waving, she walked back the rows until she found the boxes for the robberies and stacked them on dollies, rolling it forward to the door. "Hey Frank, I need to check these out."
He nodded, "Okay, sign for 'em." She quickly filled out the paperwork, chatting with him about his wife and kids, smiling as he showed her a picture of his toddler daughter.
"She's gorgeous Frank. You should bring her to the next party. I'd love to meet them" Avelina said smiling at the older man.
Frank nodded, "I'll bring 'em round at the next potluck. Julie keeps pretty busy with our little girl, but I know she'd love to meet y'all."
Avelina nodded and waved, "Alright, I'll see you later Frank!"
Frank waved and smiled, "Later Avelina."
Avelina stared at the three whiteboards she had set up, holding all the crime scene photos from each crime. There had to be something connecting them….
Taking another bite from her takeout container of Thai, she stared at the boards, her frustration growing; feeling like the answer was so close, fluttering at the edges of her vision, like a hidden 3D picture in a book she needed to cross her eyes to see.
Her phone ringing broke through her trance, startling her into dropping her loaded forkful of thai down her shirt and onto her lap. "Shit!" she muttered, picking it up with one hand as she answered the phone with the other.
"Detective McNair here" she snapped.
"Detective, this is the crime lab. We found something at the crime scene. We checked the air vents and found feathers. Does that mean anything?" the tech asked.
Avelina paused in wiping the Thai off her pants and looked up at the crime boards, her brow furrowing. "Did you say feathers?" she asked.
"Yes. Bright yellow feathers. We're thinking a canary, but we need to test them to figure it out." The man sounded confused but hopeful when he asked, "Is that helpful?"
Avelina stood and stared at the boards until a smile grew across her full lips, "It just might be. I need you to test those feathers. I'll be by with some that were found at the other two scenes, and I want you to test them as well."
"Yes ma'am."
Avelina hung up and stared at the boards, shaking her head, not quite believing that she had missed the feathers. But who would believe that feathers would be the thing that linked these cases together? Certainly not her.
Rooting through the evidence boxes she found the feathers in bags and stuffed them in her bag before locking the room and jogging down to Cross's office. Knocking on the door before she stuck her head in, she smiled at Cross, "Hey I think I just got a break on the case."
Cross raised her brows, "Really? With what?" she asked.
Avelina shook her head, "Feathers."
Cross's brow furrowed into confusion, "What?"
Avelina grinned, "I'm thinking this guy wears something with feathers and it sheds. I'm taking them to the lab for testing and we're going to try and figure out where they're from, track him down that way."
Cross sighed, "Okay, well it's something. Go!"
Avelina nodded and waved turning and jogging to the stairs, not bothering to wait for the elevator. She drove quickly to the lab, making it in record time, despite the afternoon traffic. Wrinkling her nose at the light rain that had begun to fall, she ran inside and showed her badge to the guard at the desk.
Making her way down to the lab she knocked on the door and smiled at the young Hispanic man who opened the door for her. "H-Hey Avelina! It's g-good to see you!" he declared, his cheeks flushing beneath his honey skin tone.
Avelina smiled softly, "Hey Antonio, It's good to see you too. How's the crime tech biz treating you?"she asked, settling on a stool.
Antonio blushed and shrugged, "It's good. I h-had to t-testify last week, t-that was a-awful."
Avelina sighed softly; Antonio had anxiety and didn't like being the center of attention, his stutter only got worse when he was. "I'm sorry. I don't like it much either" she said softly.
He looked up at her from where he was working and gave her a small grateful look, knowing she was being nice.
Avelina had met Antonio three years ago at a crime scene when another officer had cornered him and asked him a question, discovered his stutter and begun making fun of him.
By the time Avelina had arrived and heard the situation, Antonio was nearly having an anxiety attack. Avelina had felt a wave of cold rage pour through her and had turned to the officer, pulled out her phone, taken his picture, and sent it to internal affairs with a detailed note on what he had done.
When the man had called her an interfering bitch that didn't know her place and had threatened her, she had smirked and thanked him, showing him that she was recording the whole incident. His partner had needed to restrain him from attacking her and had pulled him away.
Avelina had sat with Antonio until he had been able to collect himself, holding his hand, saying nothing. Their friendship had grown, and it was known by the whole police force in Boston that no one should mock or otherwise mess with the stuttering crime tech for fear of Detective McNair.
Antonio smiled, "S-so, w-what can I do for y-you?" he asked. Avelina pulled the bags of feathers out of her purse and handed them over. Antonio raised a brow, "Hmm, these g-go with the other r-robbery evidence?" he asked.
Avelina nodded, "Can you test to see what type of bird it is, if it was part of some clothing, if there was adhesive, if there are fingerprints, DNA…anything that could help."
Antonio nodded, "Y-you got it."
Avelina sighed and smiled, "You rock Antonio."
Antonio grinned, "T-tell me something I d-don't know."
Avelina laughed and shook her head, "Okay smartass. How about this; it's your turn to buy dinner!"
Antonio groaned but laughed, "F-fine! How about p-pizza?" he asked.
Avelina nodded, "Sounds good to me. Be at my place by 8, I get to choose the movie." She waved goodbye to Antonio, smiling happily at her friend. She knew Antonio harbored a small crush on her, and while he was a good looking man, she would never cross that line with him.
It was hard enough doing this job as a woman, to have people think that she got her work done by sleeping with people-that was something she would never be able to live with.
Avelina popped two beers open and set them on the coffee table in front of the TV, smiling as the doorbell rang. It was ten minutes to 8pm—neither she nor Antonio were late to anything, they were always perpetually early.
Checking the peephole quickly, she smiled and pulled the door open, ushering Antonio in out of the steady rain. The day had quickly gone from grey to outright gloomy.
She quickly took the pizzas and set them on the counter, serving up slices and settled onto the couch, waiting for Antonio to join her after he had hung his coat and kicked off his shoes. They had long ago established a routine, and it needed no words.
Avelina held up the movie, grinning, "How's a little V for Vendetta sound?" she asked.
Antonio smiled, "Great! I l-love that movie."
Avelina fist pumped, "Yesss! Let's do it!" she whispered excitedly, turning on the movie, pulling the blanket off the back of the couch and settling in.
As the movie began Antonio grabbed the remote and paused it, "Wait! I f-forgot. I need to t-tell you about the f-feathers."
Avelina choked on her piece of pizza, "Mmph! Oh my god, you actually have something already?" she asked excitedly.
Antonio nodded, "There weren't any f-fingerprints, b-but there was DNA. I'm r-running it now. We should h-have it by m-morning. The f-feathers come from a c-canary, like the other t-tech told y-you."
Avelina grinned, "This is incredible. Do you know if it's from clothing?" she asked.
Antonio shook his head, "It doesn't look like it."
Avelina frowned, "Hmm, well call me first thing when you have the DNA?" she asked.
Antonio gave her a look, "S-seriously? Like I w-would do anything else."
Avelina laughed, "True. Okay, let's watch the movie."
When the movie had ended and they had eaten nearly all the pizza, Avelina waved goodbye to Antonio, watching from her door to make sure he got to his car safely. After cleaning up she went to bed, exhausted after two long days with little sleep.
The DNA results came back the next day around lunch; a man named Thomas Yard. He lived on Dorchester Ave, and patrol units were being sent to his location immediately. Avelina pulled on her bulletproof vest and quickly tied her hair up into bun before pulling into traffic, her lights and sirens going.
She radioed to the patrol units to turn their sirens off three blocks away and approach quietly; they didn't want this guy rabbiting. As she approached, she turned her sirens off and parked near another patrol car, approaching the group of officers.
"What do we know?" she asked softly.
One of the men turned and nodded to her, Jameson- a man she knew was a good officer, "One of our guys got his number and called, pretending to be a flower delivery service, and he said he's there. He seems pretty suspicious though, demanding to know who they're from, wanting to know how we got the number…I think he's going to run."
Avelina nodded, Jameson had good instincts, he was probably right. "Right, I'll go up as lead, I want every exit covered. If he can jump out a window, I want those covered too. Rooves; cover them. This guy isn't getting away."
The officers nodded and began to spread out, the team going inside following Avelina. She unsnapped her gun and had her hand near it as they approached the second floor. Reaching out to the suspect's door, she knocked and listened, waiting to hear movement.
Her brow furrowed when she heard nothing. How was that possible? They had the place surrounded and would have seen him leaving….
"Mr. Yard, this is Detective McNair with Boston PD. Can you please open the door?" she called. When there was no response, she waved to the officers carrying the ram and called out again, "Mr. Yard, I'm going to break down your door if you don't answer."
After a long moment she sighed and shook her head. She reached down and jiggled the door handle—always better to try before you break a door down-she thought. To her surprise, the handle turned and the door opened.
Unholstering her weapon, she stepped forward slightly and grinned at the officers with the ram, "Guess you boys won't need that" she whispered. Turning back to the apartment she began to walk quietly through the rooms, followed by the other officers, clearing each room.
She looked around in amazement, the apartment was completely empty….of their suspect anyway. Of jewels, cash, and other stolen property, it was full.
Avelina held up a diamond and emerald necklace whistling softly before setting it back down. Where the hell did he go? She wondered, looking around at all the stolen loot. Why would he leave it behind? Even knowing that the police were coming, he still could have taken some with him.
Avelina walked through the apartment and shook her head, unless he did take stuff, bit by bit, to someplace else, in case this place was ever found. "Shit" she whispered; that would make this all a lot more complicated.
"Hey Detective McNair, check this out" one of the officers called out. Avelina raised a brow, with all the swag in here, whatever the man had found would have to be interesting to catch his attention.
She walked into the bedroom and found the man holding up a postcard. Avelina looked at Jameson, "You serious? It's a postcard" she sighed.
He nodded, "I know, but look; it came in the mail today, and look what it says on the back." He held it out and showed her on the back where it was written in bold letters- COME BACK.
Beneath that were a set of numbers. Avelina's brow furrowed and she snatched the postcard out of Jameson's hand, turning it over to find a picture of a clock tower and the words, "Greetings from Storybrooke Maine!"
Avelina stared at the postcard until everything around her fell silent. This was it; this was where the thief was from, and where they were heading to. This was where she needed to go.
Storybrooke.