Book 'Em, chapter 2
A/N: Hello, my lovelies! Welcome to 2015! *INSERT STREAMERS AND CONFETTI* Alright, let's get down to business. I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of this fic, and I am grateful for 'Smiles Burn In The Styx' and 'XxTheBookWormXX' for your reviews! And thank you to all whom already favorited/followed this fic! I hope you enjoy the next installment of this story! Also, I am not scientist, so I guessed like half these uses and looked it up, and I apologize if my science is wrong! I'm sorry if I piss off any science majors/geeks reading this!
Annabeth raps her knuckles impatiently against the desk, her glare seemingly darker in the low fluroscent lighting. Hazel Levesque, forensic scientist, looks up from her microscope, smiling gently at one of her best friends.
"Are you sure you don't want to go get coffee or something, Annabeth?"
"No, I want to know for sure that what you found in that shoe was sulfur, and not anything else." She snaps, obviously tired. It's about ten in the evening, and having been called out at nine in the morning was no easy feat. She usually got up late, but this case was taking away from her well deserved rest time. At the moment, Luke was filing a missing persons report and taking care of the details, getting a proper idea of this Jason Grace who's gone missing. Annabeth had stayed behind at the station, wanting to get a better idea of what was left behind.
"Well, it is sulfur," Hazel replies, after a few more minutes of staring and twiddling with her microscope. She pulls off her latex gloves and removes the sample from underneath the microscope. All that was on the sheet tray was some bright yellow powder, "Definitely not anything else, but it's weird, though. Why sulfur?"
She picks up a sheaf of papers on the desk and hands them to Annabeth. Annabeth studies them quietly, staring at the pictures that were taken on the crime scene. Yellow powder in the shoe and on the seat as well, minimal amounts. Hazel had supposedly gone to the crime scene after Annabeth and Luke left, and gotten these samples, and collected some other powders that resembled it. There were the results of the experiment, having tested the powder with water, and some non-incidenary substances, and found it's sulfur. Annabeth looks up as she's done reading Hazel's final conclusion.
"Sulfur is usually found in black gunpowder," Hazel reads off from another sheet of paper, "Matches, and fireworks. Well, there's black gun powder in fireworks, too. Insecticide, fumigant, and used as a bleaching agent. In the making of rubber, oh, and a fungicide." She shrugs as she sets down the sheet, running a hand through her wild, dark brown locks. "I'd like to strike off insecticide, and fumigant. And a bleaching agent. Because whoever took Jason from that car had obviously been working with sulfur, and in insecticides, fumigants and in bleaching agents, it's melted down. And fungicide, as well. And in the environment where rubber is made, engineers who work with rubber-"
"Would have to clean themselves off, so they would have to get the sulfur off." Annabeth finishes, her eyebrows creasing slightly, as Hazel crosses off those possibilities. "So the only possibilities are the fireworks and matches, huh?"
"I think I'm forgetting one more," Hazel frowns to herself, scratching the back of her neck, "There's one more use for sulfur, but it's fuzzy. I don't remember. Anyway, those seem like our best shots." She circles the words 'fireworks', 'matches', and 'black gunpowder'. "You and Luke are going to investigate the campus where Jason lived in, right?"
"Yeah," Annabeth replies, taking the sheet from her, "So we'll be looking for someone who works with these materials?"
"Probably look for a pyrotechnic," Hazel smiles, as she shuts down her computer and puts away her microscope, washing her hadns, "Or students studying mechanics, or something of the sorts. Goodnight, Annabeth." The two walk out of the lab, both obviously exhausted.
"Goodnight, Hazel." Annabeth offers her a tired smile, brushing a blonde lock of hair behind her ear that fell out of her bun, "Thanks."
"It's my job, remember?" Hazel snickers, and Annabeth finally gets a sense of progress with this case. She had a good feeling about it. All they had to do is find someone who works with pyrotechnics, and they might find who took Jason Grace.
The next day, Annabeth and Luke parked their car in front of San Francisco State University, their badges gleaming in the bright sunlight. After getting a permit from the head office, they walked along the campus. Most of the kids didn't make eye contact, Luke and Annabeth knowing why. University kids were amongst the guiltiest suspects in a case. Anyhow, walking through the campus, they headed to the dormitory where Jason Grace stayed, where students milled around. It must be around time for lunch, because it seemed a lot of kids were just sitting around, eating. Annabeth knew university kids were mostly broke, so they tried to limit the times they ate out. She offers a small smile to a student who nervously trips over her own shoelace, and helps her pick up her books. Luke merely glares at the student, and gives Annabeth a questioning look
"Hey, give 'em a break." She nudges his shoulder playfully, "We were all broke college kids at one point."
"I wasn't."
"Luke, I was there when you were in that stupid frat party and nearly got arrested."
"Shut up, Annie 'I Got Drunk And Sang Tomorrow' Chase."
"...point taken."
After walking aimlessly around the dorm rooms for a bit, they located the one where Jason had lived in. Knocking on the door sharply, they wait in the halls, awkwardly avoiding eye contact with the other students, before the door swung open. From what they could see, it was an extremely dark and musty room, with the smell of sea salt and brine in the air. Annabeth is slightly surprised to see a student, slightly younger then herself and Luke. He's wearing an old, wrinkled t-shirt with a surfboard on it, and a pair of green board shorts. His black hair has what seems like traces of Doritos in his hair. He blinks slightly, his eyes adjusting to the light, before focusing on Annabeth and Luke. He jumps, and takes a step back.
"Officers?"
"Officers Chase and Castellan," Luke interjects before he could ask, "We're here to ask you about your roommate Jason Grace?"
"Oh...right." The boy's face turns crestfallen as he lets them into his apartment. He kicks a few pieces of garbage aside, as though that would make the officers more comfortable. He quickly hurries behind the small kitchen, looking into the fridge. "Uh, make yourselves at home, I guess...can I get you anything? Water? Coffee? Uh...Red Bull?"
"No, thank you," Annabeth replies, "So would you mind telling us your name?"
"Percy Jackson." He replies with a somewhat cocky grin, "And you are?"
"Watch yourself," Luke quickly interrupts, glaring at the boy, "We're here for information and information alone. So what do you know about Jason Grace?"
"The guy's pretty cool, I guess," Percy replies, taking a seat on the worn out futon couch, "Maybe a little too orderly, sometimes. Gets on my case about my socks. Can you believe a guy washes his socks every day? Anyway, the guy went out with his girlfriend, Piper, two days ago, and I haven't seen him since. Is he alright?"
"Unfortunately, no." Annabeth hands him a flyer that was beginning to circulate in the media. "He went missing two days ago, when we found his car and his girlfriend near Lake Merced. Did you seriously not hear about it?"
"I slept in to avoid going to class."
"Wow, what an overachiever," Luke replies sarcastically, "Anyway, have you noticed Jaosn behaving strangely in the past few days?"
"Strangely? More specific, please."
"I mean, has he acted overly suspicious? Maybe paranoid? Out of character?"
"Well..." Percy scratches the back of his scalp, "I guess...he acted kinda paranoid. He kept looking over his shoulder while he was walking around. And he didn't want to go home alone after we had a few drinks at the bar three days ago. Usually, we don't worry about that, but he wanted me to come back with the apartment with him. Giving some bullshit excuse about having too many drinks, when the guy could walk in a straight line."
Luke and Annabeth share a look, raising an eyebrow at each other. Having a silent discussion, Annabeth clears her throat after a moment, and speaks again.
"Percy, uh, we're looking for someone who could have dealt with, um, fireworks. Black gunpowder, of the sort. Or matches. Can you think of someone?"
"I...uh," Percy stammers a moment, squinting at the ground profusely, "Um...gimme a second..." He snaps his fingers as he racks his brain. "Oh! Leo Valdez! He's a guy we know from the bar. We see him every other week, and from what we know, is a genius with fireworks. He's a good guy, really. The guy works with gunpowder and matches like every other day."
"Thank you, Mr. Jackson," Luke replies sharply, the pair of them standing up from the rotty futon couch, "The Police Department of San Francisco thanks you for your information and we will try our best to update you when we can."
"Hey, anything for Jason," Percy replies, getting up to open the door for both of them, "And uh, if there's anything else I can do, I'll be around."
"Good." Luke leaves the room quickly, and Annabeth offers an apologetic smile for her partner's attitude. He stops her quickly, grabbing her elbow. Her first reflex is to punch him in the face, but she relaxes.
"So, is there any chance I can give you my number?"
She stares him down, her cool grey eyes staring into his own. She relaxes, and rips her elbow out of his grasp, her demeanor of kindness fading away in the unwanted attention. She didn't like it when people caught her by surprise, and forced her to stay somewhere she didn't want to be. She isn't afraid to punch someone in the face, in short. This Percy kid is nice, but she didn't need the distractions at the moment. She had to give her attention to her case, and missing persons are important to her. Her own mother had gone missing years ago, and the Police Department hadn't given enough effort to find her. And she had to do what someone hadn't done for her all those years ago.
"Maybe when this shit storm is over, I'll give you a call."
After failing to find Leo Valdez, they decide to head back to the campus the next day, as Leo wasn't at the bar or his dorm room. And they didn't have enough proof that Leo was their culprit. They return their visitor passes and head back to the police car. Picking up some coffees from a cafe nearby, they lean against their police car, sipping at their coffees. They're both a little too quiet for comfort, before Luke speaks up.
"You shouldn't have let that kid talk to you like that."
"Luke, you're getting weird again," She jokes, smiling as she sips at the sandwich, but it fades away when Luke continues to frown. "Hey, you can let up, you know. He's just a kid."
"I mean, I didn't like that, not really. He should know better then to shamelessly flirt with an officer on duty!" He crushes the coffee cup, throwing the cup into the trash can nearby. "We could've arrested him for...for...something." He lets out a frustrated groan."I mean...I just don't like it when kids try to mess with something they have no knowledge about."
"Luke, it's nothing personal, really." She replies softly, shaking her head. "You still worry about me like a sister. I can take care of myself. You know that." She crushes her own coffee cup and throws it in the trash. Tossing Luke the keys, she's about to open the side door when a small post-it note with scrawled writing catches her attention.
She peels it off the car door and squints at it, having to stare at it for a minute to make out the writing.
"Stay out of this case if you want to keep your lives." She reads aloud. Luke grabs the note from her, before stuffing it back into his pocket.
"Looks like someone doesn't want us to find Jason, don't you think, Annabeth?" He questions her. When she nods, he can't help but smirk, before both of them get into the car and shut the door firmly. He starts the car up, the engine roaring and ringing in their ears.
"Well, then we'll have to work even harder to find him, huh?"
"Obviously."