Chapter Four: An Almost Clue
Kowalski furiously typed away, attempting for the fifth time that evening to hack into what the police had documented on their case. He used to be able to do so with ease, but their security system had certainly updated over the last few years. Dr. Blowhole, the corrupt police chief who had ties with the CIA, had never been fond of Skipper or his team, and always liked to flaunt his role of power over them. Kowalski grit his teeth. Why did the bad guys always have the best security?
Julien had sent him a rather lengthy email, complete with missing punctuation and grammatically incorrect English. Kowalski hadn't even bothered to look through it; a biased witness account would do nothing to aid them in putting Parker in prison. Really, what was Julien thinking? If he knew anything about how the law worked (which he must've, if he was in the business Kowalski was sure he was in), he would have known that it would have only made him look desperate. Kowalski was, of course, still a bit bitter about Skipper publicly reprimanding him, but then he was also slightly smug about having known that Skipper would fall head over heels for Julien.
Kowalski had studied up a bit on Julien before approaching Skipper with the case. Julien was actually rather well known in the underground crowd. He was often referred to as the 'king of the lemurs', a title he earned from both his Madagascar-ties (not only was he an immigrant, but his last name literally meant 'ring-tailed lemur' in Malagasy), and his sense of regal presence. He was the star of the show down at Park Zoo and was often times the main reason patrons attended, if only to catch a glimpse of his alluring dance moves. Julien was a modern day sex symbol.
It was interesting to him that a man had managed to pull off such an attractive appearance, but then, he realized no one really questioned it because they were far too busy being entranced by Julien's aura. Men and women of all sexualities and backgrounds could, at the very least, appreciate his attractive qualities. Kowalski was relieved that even Skipper could melt in his presence. Anything to get his brother out of his eleven year long mourning… It only seemed to get worse with each passing day.
Hans was dead and gone, had been for years, and Skipper needed to get over him. Kowalski himself had spent his time mourning over Hans, and was done with it, had moved on. The same applied to Rico and Private. Skipper, on the other hand, had a very interesting relationship with Hans. The two of them were closer than anyone else; Hans had made Skipper laugh and smile in ways no one else could, and the same applied from Skipper to Hans.
Kowalski would have ventured to say that the two of them were in love, and had never got to explore their relationship to the fullest, which was why Skipper could be found drinking himself to sleep on most nights, staring yearningly at Hans' picture that he kept on his desk. Even in his most unguarded states, he'd refrained from telling others what had truly happened that fateful night in Copenhagen. All Kowalski had discovered from case files was that there was some sort of terrible capsize that left Skipper without his foil and caused him to be far too scarred to ever set foot on a boat again.
But here was Julien, a hot sort of sexual icon to fix that. Sure, Skipper had lost his first love, and honestly, Kowalski knew the feeling - perhaps to a less tragic extent, but he grasped the concept. But Skipper didn't have to live his entire life in misery. He could find love anew, find something within Julien. Or at least - since Julien seemed to be somewhat of a floozy, perhaps even a prostitute - Skipper would at least come to the realization that it was never too late to try again. With or without Park Zoo's crown jewel.
What did strike Kowalski as odd, however, was that Julien seemed to particularly target Skipper with his affections. He addressed Skipper by name, even though Skipper had never introduced himself - which could be chalked up to the fact that their names could all be found on their website, but it was still very strange behavior. As was how Julien seemed to genuinely return Skipper's infatuation immediately, as though he'd already felt that way. Kowalski didn't mull over it too much, though; it made his life easier if the two of them would couple, and besides that, he didn't particularly grasp the notion of romance as well as others. Ask any of his ex girlfriends...
"Aha!" Kowalski exclaimed when he finally managed to break through the firewall.
He returned to his quick typing, knowing that he didn't have a lot of time. All he wanted was to get to the police files concerning Parker and get some intel that could hopefully prove the shooter guilty. As he managed to navigate through the intricate system, he found himself surprised when he reached his destination.
The files were surprisingly meager, almost entirely empty. Parker hadn't even been taken to jail over this, hadn't been interrogated, hadn't received a mug shot, hadn't even gone to court. In fact, he had suspicions that the police officers at the scene hadn't even held him for further questioning. His thoughts were proven correct when he looked further. Kowalski outright gasped when he found that there weren't even crime-scene pictures. The incident report was ridiculously succinct, reading:
At 5:45 PM Dispatch received a 911 call regarding a shooting at local club Park Zoo. (SENTENCE REDACTED). Police arrived at the scene at 6:05 PM and discovered the Clemson Gidro's body in the main room. (SENTENCE REDACTED). After confirming that the victim was deceased and identifying the shooter as Parker (SURNAME REDACTED) via a witness report from Maurice Hira (person 2), body of the deceased was given custody to (NAME REDACTED) and was removed from the scene at 6:12 PM. (SENTENCE REDACTED). The scene was unsealed at 6:30 PM and citizens were encouraged to carry on as usual.
A man had been shot! How was it that there was almost nothing?
Clearly there was some foul play going on. Then again, he surmised the police may have seen Clemson's death as a good thing, more or less. He was most likely the leading source of drug contraband in the city. His death meant less drugs for the underground crime rings, so maybe the police were happy about his death. Still, that only made things harder for them. Suddenly, that forty thousand dollars on the line didn't seem as reachable.
Kowalski squinted as he discovered something even more perplexing. He clicked on a file and found that the gun wasn't actually Parker's. It was registered under someone else's name. Before he could check who's it was, however, the door opened.
"Kowalski!" Skipper exclaimed. "You're not doing what I think you are, are you?"
"N-no sir!" Kowalski, startled, closed the program harshly, before cringing at the realization of what he'd done.
Skipper was clearly not convinced, sending him a wary glance of disapproval. "You know I don't like when you hack into the police system. Blowhole's always looking for a reason to put us out of business. If he found out…"
The man at the computer sighed. He knew that Skipper and Blowhole had always had a very… Strained relationship. Blowhole was another commanding officer in the CIA at one point and had always gotten into arguments with Nigel, particularly over the Red Squirrel - a long-time mutual enemy. Because his commanding officer had never liked Blowhole, neither had Skipper, and the feeling was rather requited. Even though Dr. Blowhole also functioned as a police chief, he also still had quite a bit of liberty in the CIA, which meant that he was always keeping an eye on Skipper in case he was ever given the opportunity to get rid of him.
"Yes, yes, I know. But I was just looking over what the police got on Parker, and you should know - they basically don't have anything on him!" Kowalski explained, trying to appeal. "Which, you must understand, is weird. I'm sure there's something going on here."
Skipper was evidently unconvinced. "You know Blowhole would put us out of business if he could, don't you? That damned madman has to stick his nose into everything, and when he hates someone, he despises them. I wouldn't be surprised if he'd kill us, first chance he could!"
Kowalski internally rolled his eyes. Skipper's paranoia tended to leak out at the most inopportune times, like when he was on the verge of discovering something that may or may not be critical to the case. Still, he relented. "Aye-aye, Skipper, I understand. I won't do it again."
Skipper rose a brow. "Really?"
"Really." Kowalski nodded.
A total and complete lie, but it was for Skipper's own benefit. He couldn't do very much to discover something on such a latent case aside from build from what evidence had already pooled, and the police had the most of it (even if it wasn't very much). He could very easily erase his digital footsteps and Blowhole would be none the wiser, but of course, Skipper wasn't quite tech savvy enough to understand that. He was smart, yes, tactically brilliant, but major hacking still bewildered him in the same way that Rico's tendency to knit sweaters in his sleep did Kowalski.
Skipper stared at him suspiciously for a moment or so, before he seemed to feel satisfied. With a resigned sigh, he spoke up once more. "Very well… Since you were snooping around, I may as well ask. What did you find?"
Kowalski resisted the smug grin that wanted to pull at his lips, knowing it would have annoyed his boss and brother. "...Not much, like I said, but that in itself is very strange. They didn't hold Parker for questioning of any kind, and boy! You should have seen the incident report. No crime scene pictures and almost every other sentence had been classified. It was very weird."
Skipper thought over this critically for a moment or so. "...That is strange… But I'm sure it has to do with Clemson's illegal behavior. The police were probably pretty happy to know that one of their threats had been wiped out."
A sigh and a nod. "I guess so, but it still does seem… Wrong, to me."
"Well, that's why Rico and Private are going back to Park Zoo to look over the crime scene again, to see if there's anything the police looked over. Which, I'm sure there is." Skipper leaned on the door frame.
Kowalski was slightly alarmed by this. "...You let Private go to Park Zoo… With Rico?"
"God knows we can't let either of them go by themselves," Skipper scoffed. "I would have gone, but I had… Important business to take care of here." His eyes slid back to the hall ever so slightly.
Knowing exactly what Skipper was really thinking, Kowalski's eyes narrowed. "You're not cheating on Hans by seeing Julien. Hans isn't-"
"Kowalski!" Skipper snapped, loud enough that it actually startled his brother. "I'm not seeing anyone, and don't you dare say what I think you were going to say."
Kowalski's visage turned somber and sympathetic as he attempted to be compassionate. "...Skipper… You know it's true. Hans…"
Skipper looked at him so bitterly for a moment that Kowalski thought he hated him. "Shut up, Kowalski. That's an order."
Kowalski looked down at his knees, saddened enough that he listened briefly, before his voice arose once more, this time melancholy and earnest. "...It's okay to fall in love again, Skipper."
His surrogate brother, boss, and best friend looked at him as though he wanted to murder him. He had nothing more to say and instead turned on his heel, briskly stomping away from the room. Kowalski winced when he heard the door to Skipper's office and bedroom slam shut violently. He sighed, shaking his head.
...Hans isn't alive.
