Title: Here Comes Trouble - Part 4

Needless to say I've been to a few crime scenes, but this is a different experience for me. It's amazing how a detective badge and plainclothes changes how the other cops on the scene treat you versus being in blues.

There's still that look of curiosity, but there's an air of seriousness at the scene that's far different than how they look at me at the precinct. I'm sure Nora's reassuring presence helps. They obviously know her and respect her immediately.

I follow her in, envying the way she moves through the crowd of cops, robbery detectives, and crime scene specialists like a fresh breeze in a stale room.

She walks up immediately to a tall, balding man, who's spent a bit too much time behind a desk. He easily towers over Nora and myself, but she stands there like she's the one in charge, and now that we're here she is, and she knows it.

"Detective Bouvier," she greets him. She's got an 'all business' tone to her voice now, at least so far. I already know she's not fond of the men in Robbery.

"Detective Delaney," he responds and his tone is definitely condescending. I immediately decide I don't like him on principle.

"This is my new partner, Nikki Beaumont," she motions me surreptitiously to her side.

I smile politely and nod, reaching out at his outstretched hand and shake it, not surprised at the overwhelming pressure but refusing to let the discomfort show. Then I put my hands on my hips, and pointedly check out the room we're in professionally, following Nora's lead and letting her talk to the big oaf. I get a good grasp of the tenants lives and background just by looking around.

Despite the infamous history of the Ninth Ward, I personally know that there are more of 'just plain folks' than the more disreputable citizens of neighborhood. This house is well kept and proudly at that. Clean, well maintained. An old 'shotgun' style, named because it's said that a person could shoot a shotgun from just outside the front door and it would go straight through the narrow house and out the back door. It's an architecture perfectly suited for New Orlean summers with several rooms all in a row off of the long hallway. Each room has high ceilings and large windows, so the air flows better through the entire house. This particular home was once a double shotgun. By knocking down that shared wall, they've doubled the size of the smaller rooms and now have two hallways that run along the outter walls.

I always fancied Orleans architecture, and this is a very good example of the period it was built in.

You can see the well worn but cared for furniture, the personal objects lay around haphazardly, lots of framed pictures of family. A colorful afghan on the sofa, a well-loved black Barbie doll that hints to at least one child here. The room gives me a warm feeling despite the way the room has been tossed.

Someone, or several someones, have gone through every drawer, under every cushion, through every possible place people might place a valuable object.

As I look around, I make sure to keep an ear on the conversation.

"Vics are in the bedrooms, two in the first door down the hall. Main bedroom, so they're probably Ernest and Nina Dupont. Another in the second room," Detective Bouvier has a slight hitch in his voice I note when he mentiones the second room. It never bodes well when an experienced officer makes even a small emotional slip like that.I don't think I'm going to like what I see in there.

"Who found them?" Nora asks.

"Daughter named Ellie Dupont," he answers back sounding bored.

I look over to him and speak up, "She have a daughter?"

A small frown shows his displeased at being interrupted, "Yes. Lizzy Dupont." He turns back to Nora and I resume looking around the room.
Nora however picks up my hint, "She here?"

"Mothers in the back yard with the first officers on scene," he pauses. "The granddaughter is in the second bedroom."

I nodd to myself, not surprised. Not pleased, but not surprised. I can hear Nora breath deeply through her nose, steeling herself for what she's going to see. I do the same myself, putting my mind completely in that mental state I have to get to in order not react to what could be a very bad scene.

"She see anything?" My partner prompts Bouvier. She's obviously used to having to pry information out of the man, good for her.

"Nah. Charlie is here, says he's not quoting time of death yet, but lividity puts it several hours ago. She got here 45 minutes ago, saw the front door unlocked, came in, no answer, saw things trashed and called 911. Then she found her parents, daughter," he quotes, reading from his notepad.

"What's she say on the 911?"

I was curious about that too, because if Robbery was called before us, it had to have been a short call.

"Short call. Just saying that they'd been robbed. Officers got here and..." he clears his throat and looks around making sure who is within earshot. "Patrol Officers Dillon and Harris. Harris is a fresh rookie. Dillon is just plain lazy. He hadn't checked out the house well enough when he called in, so me and Gill were dispatched. The rookie however did check out the house, but his partner wouldn't call that in. Haven't asked him why yet." He looks at Nora pointedly, telling her wordlessly that the chore was part of her job now.

"When Gill and I got here, the rookie pointed out that there were bodies in the house. We took a look and called it in. Haven't touched anything, been waiting on you. Charlie is the only one that's touched the body besides checking for pulses," he finishs.

Gill is his partner, obviously, probably in the back with the daughter.

"Thanks Bouvier. Anything else I should know?" Nora asks politely, being thorough. She looks over to me, probably to see how I am reacting to a little girl being in the house.

I look her straight in the eyes and I'm proud I have my best cop face on, showing nothing but professionalism. Points for me, I hope.

She looks away, back towards Bouvier and slaps him good-naturedly on the shoulder. "Thanks for your help. We'll take it from here and keep you appriassed. You and Gill handle the neighbors?"

"Got uniforms there already, making sure they stay around till we get there," he answers, putting his lil notebook in a blazer pocket.

"Dan says you think it's a home invasion gone bad, why?"

Good question, I thought. True it looks like someone has tossed just about everything that can be tossed, but it looks more staged to me, not really engergetic enough. Every scene I've been at where the place as been gone through and looted has destroyed furniture, pictures. Here, it's as as if they're just making the place messy but not really searching.

"Well my detective skills aren't as polished as you all in SCU, but seeing how this place looks like a tornado went through it, I would have thought that was obvious...Detective."

Bouvier's answer is so defensive and gruff, that my head snaps around to him so fast that I'm surprised I don't have whiplash.

Nora's eyes glance over to me for a split second, having seen it, but go back to the detective in front of her, her body language relaxed as if she didn't hear the aggressiveness in his voice.

There's nothing like inter-office relationships to drive up a persons blood pressure.