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Chapter 11-

Detective

Summary:

Alec thinks about Magnus more, and the case comes to a conclusion

Notes:

Alright, as I said I don't know about forensics or anything like that, I doubt most of the things I throw in make sense and am totally just making it up as I go along, but I think, it makes sense enough to work at least.

Also I chose Lacey for the name of the suspect because it means 'Cheerful one', and once you read the chapter you'll see just how ironic that is

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"That was amazing Magnus!" Simon babbled, for what to Alec felt like the hundredth time

"It's really not that fantastic darling, at least not until it actually leads to something…but thank you again just the same."

"No, but, it really was! Like you just got that out of nowhere, she wasn't even in the file or anything! You just, like, divined it and knew everything, stuff that didn't even have any record! It was…"

Alec tried to tune him out and focus on his driving. He kind of wished his partner had decided to ride with his boyfriend. Raphael had said he'd drive separately so if Alec actually had to take the suspect in he and Magnus would have a ride back. He seemed fairly sure about Magnus's tip, like it was obviously going to be right.

Simon seemed set on switching between staring in amazement at Magnus and babbling on about his psychic abilities. It was really getting to be a bit much.

He glanced at the other two people in the car.

Magnus was smiling at Simon, chattering back, but he was doing that thing like he had with Izzy; seeming much more subdued, verging on modest…like he wasn't even sure he deserved the praise, like he wasn't used to it…at least not for this.

It threw Alec; the man was so confident and self assured in everything else, verging on cocky at times, though nowhere near Jace level. It wasn't that he was vain or self absorbed; he just knew exactly who and what he was and if someone didn't like or approve of it, he really didn't care.

That level of confidence in yourself? Honestly, Alec found it rather intimidating.

It had kind of caught Alec off guard when he'd first met Magnus; during his attempt at an interrogation.

That... that was just something elseentirely.

Something he really tried not to think about; He really blushed way too much around theguyalready, no need to add that awkwardness to it.

Magnus had completely stunned him, leaving him a blushing, stuttering mess, until, thankfully, Garroway and Dax had come in the room. Once they arrived Magnus had totally changed, he seemed friendly and helpful towards Garroway. Then Dax had tried to intimidate him; Alec had never seen anyone so completely, effortlessly, shut somebody down.

He had picked back up the interview, now on better footing. Thinking that now he actually had a bit of a read on this guy… and, once again, he had been wrong.

After his confrontation and subsequent break up with Dax, he had to admit that Dax was kind of right on one thing; Magnus was flirting with him, he seemed like he'd been working Alec a bit.

But the thing was, Alec really didn't mind.

The guy was beyond gorgeous, sharp and exciting… unlike anyone he'd ever met. He had actually really thought about trying to get in touch with him again, but that was hardly professional. Bad enough to start something with his partner. Hitting on a guy who he met as a potential suspect? Yeah, that was unprofessional on a whole other level.

He doubted Magnus would even be interested in him anyways; the guy had to have better options. He figured he'd just put Magnus out of his mind, try to forget about him, and that would be it.

Then Magnus had oh so cheerily informed him they'd be workingtogether…

Which sort of threw his 'just forget about the gorgeous, fascinating, totally out of your league guy out the window.

And now, here they were, on their way to interview a suspect that, had Magnus not been a part of the case, wouldn't even of been known.

Hell, if he wasn't involved they'd of ended up writing it off as a suicide, none of them would have been the wiser, and a murderer would have gotten away totally free. He shook his head, trying to come back to the case, but couldn't stop glancing over at Magnus once more.

Magnus saw him looking and gave a reassuring smile

"Alexander, darling, don't worry, I truly think this will be the key to solving the case"

Yeah, Alec kind of thought so too.

That's what scared him.

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They pulled up in front of the house, making their way up the drive. Alec reached the door first knocking firmly, the other three just kind of lined up behind him. Magnus fought off a chuckle; they probably were quite a sight.

The door opened revealing a woman. She was about average height and fairly skinny, with shoulder length, most definitely bleached, over processed hair. She was wearing a pair of blue men's track pants and an ill fitting tank top from some kind of concert, thought the image was too faded to really tell what it was.

She looked over the group with a fairly condescending gaze, which briefly looked like disgust when it landed on Magnus, before moving on, finally settling back on Alec.

"Yeah, what do you want?"

So many pleasant people in this case

Alec fought down a rather rude remark and instead decided to try to be professional

"Good morning, Ma'am, are you Lacey Gresham?"

She rolled her eyes with a bit of a huff

"Yeah, that's me."

Alec nodded,

"Ms. Gresham, we have a few questions regarding your ex boyfriend, Curtis Orson?"

She gave a spiteful laugh, folding her arms

"What's the loser done now, finally off himself or something?"

God, I hope it's her Alec thought before continuing

"Actually, Ms. Gresham, it appears far more likely that he was murdered."

She snorted, shaking her head

"Murdered? Please, the man was suicidal for months."

"Well, the evidence doesn't really point to that, Ma'am; can we come in and talk about this? Unless, of course, you would rather us just take you into the station to clear this up."

She glared a bit, then just huffed, stepping to the side

"Fine, whatever, come in, don't know why you'd be looking at me, wasting your time, bunch of morons."

She looked over them again with distain

"What are you anyways? You I guess are a detective, that crappy suit says that much, but the rest? What, figured you'd grab a few stupid looking freaks to make yourself look better?"

Please be her

"You are just lovely, aren't you?" Magnus said all false sweetness

Simon looked annoyed, but not particularly upset

The smile Raphael fixed on her kind of sent a chill up Alec's spine, he really didn't want to know what that was from.

"I'm Detective Lightwood…Actually I'm the head detective for the SBPD. And my partner, Detective Lewis. This is Magnus Bane, he is an especially skilled psychic detective currently contracted with our precinct, and his…colleague, Raphael.

Magnus has really been quite invaluable to the department; we actually have him to thank for finding you."

Alec chanced a glance over at the others;

Simon looked kind of surprised and was smiling faintly

Raphael looking far less murderous, caught his eye and sent a slight nod to Alec

Magnus was staring at him with an expression that he had not yet seen, but that made his heart race and him feel slightly light headed,

Wow…I don't really know what I did for that; but I definitely need to do it again… a lot

"Psychic? Really?" She scoffed

"Ha, you guys are really that desperate?Though that does explain the ridiculous outfit, I guess. I don't believe in that crap; can't believe an actual detective would buy it.

What…you sleeping with him or something? Is that why you're letting him prance around a crime scene? I mean, Really…What actual information could some overdressed, prissy, palm reader tell you that would be in anyway useful?"

Magnus seemed to snap out of whatever he was thinking, turning his gaze from Alec to Lacey; instantly he seemed to change, it was somewhat startling.

Everything became calculated, sharp, his gaze becoming almost piercing. He stepped forward a bit, moving gracefully, assertively, looking her over, taking in everything about the woman, much the same way he did when he was 'reading' Jace. Only there, he had had an air of playfulness about him.

Thinking back Alec suddenly realized he could almost see Magnus trying to work what he wanted to say into a way that would suitably subdue Jace, but not really cause any true lasting harm. His smile had been sharp, and a bit dangerous, but nothing like the look he currently had. Alec saw none of that restraint in Magnus now

Magnus smiled

Alec kind of held his breath

"Oh, sweetie… there is so much I can tell them, I simply don't know where to start. You are very cold, very vain, you have an absurdly high opinion of yourself; most of which you got from your father, who always treated you like a 'princess'. You got used to everyone fawning over you, doting on you, giving you everything you could have possibly wanted. Anything you weren't handed, you merely took. You thought nothing of anyone else's opinion, just going after what you wanted, regardless of the cost.

That, in and of itself, is not a truly bad quality… in fact in most I'd admire it. But honestly you just took the selfishness and narcissism to a wholly unhealthy, bordering on sociopathic, level.

You began seeing Curtis when he started at your fathers company; I don't really think you actually cared about him, but he had access to the accounts and you manipulated him into giving you access to corporate funds. You flirted and led him on, eventually moving in with him. He actually grew tired of the games a while ago, I'd say…oh, aboutfive years ago.

He told you he was going to leave you, but you really couldn't have that. You told him you'd tell your father about the relationship, I've no doubt that you'd of embellished, telling him all about what a horrible person he was; you also threatened to tell your father about the embezzlement, putting all the blame on poor Curtis."

Magnus slowly circled her; she turned as well keeping her eyes on him, glaring, furiously

"You don't know what you're talking about"

"Oh, but I do; and were not even close to done. You see, after that? After you realized that you had him completely at your mercy, then you really showed your true colors. You cheated on him, constantly, and were blatantly obvious about it. You didn't even bother trying to hide it. I think you found it quite amusing, tormenting him so.

Then, of course, there was your drug habit"

She shook her head

"That's not true! You are lying, just making this up!"

"No, I'm not, you know it as well as I. That was the main reason you wanted access to the corporate accounts in the first place. Your father knew of your, issues shall we call them? He would give you nearly anything you wanted, but he wouldn't stand for that. He cut you off financially, about two years after you started up with Orson. That was really the main reason you stayed with him. You used him to support you, and, of course, your habit. Having him keep taking money from the business. He was quite useful, at least until you found a better option;

Which you did, about three months ago."

Magnus looked around the room, eyes settling on a pack of gum sitting on an end table. He'd seen that same exact pack before, at the lab.

"Really, I almost feel I should congratulate you. A handsome, young lab tech at one of the most innovative pharmaceutical companies in the country is a good deal better cash cow than a down on his luck bookkeeper… I'd almost be impressed, you know, if it didn't end in murder."

Magnus paused here, looking back at Alec with a raised eyebrow

Oh wait, he had to do something

He shook himself out of the shock of the scene, grabbing his phone

"This is Head detective Lightwood, send some uniforms over to Metamorphosis Dynamics, have them bring in Todd Irving on the Orson homicide."

Magnus smiled at him, nodding before turning back to Lacey, once again seeming to shift personalities,

"So, Todd killed Curtis? Huh… that's too bad, guess he just got jealous of our past." She said with a shrug

Magnus scoffed, shaking his head,

"No, he didn't kill Curtis out of jealously; he did it because you asked him to."

"That is ridiculous, why would I want to kill Curtis? He was a loser, I ditched him a while ago, I had moved on, he was nothing to me, never really was."

Magnus nodded, raising his eyebrow consideringly,

"Yes, I quite believe that part, you were perfectlyhappy to be rid of the man…at least until his luck turned."

"What luck?"

"Him hitting that money? That must have been a total shock to you. You leave a man totally broken, before you left, just for the hell of it, you told your father about the embezzling, getting him fired, just because you could, ensuring that he would be totally destroyed. I almost wonder if you were actually trying to get him to kill himself, just to see if you could.

Then, out of nowhere, just three months after you broke up he's suddenly a millionaire."

Magnus gave a bit of a cruel laugh

"The bachelor party he was at when he won? It was for a mutual friend; someone there called you, told you about it; it may even have been Curtis himself, I'm rather fuzzy about that, but the fact remains, you knew of the windfall.

You ran to him the second he got back; turned all your charm, well, all the charm you think you have, on him telling him what a mistake it had been, how you realized you were still in love with him." Magnus paused, smirking, raising his eyebrow,

"He turned you down cold, didn't he? Pretty much laughed in your face"

Lacey looked furious glaring hatefully

Magnus was undeterred

"You told your new boyfriend about it…I don't know if he really wanted to go along with it or if you were just blackmailing him much the same as you had Curtis, since he'd been stealing drugs from work for you for quite a while…but the fact remains, he helped you.

When you told him of Curtis's heart medication he knew that his boss was working on a new, far stronger version. He brought the pills from work, and you swapped them out with the ones in his actual prescription bottle. You still had your key and Curtis never changed the locks."

She scoffed, rolling her eyes,

"Right, he turned me down? Please, you are delusional,psychic. Besides, I haven't seen Curtis in months I haven't been over to his place, and you can't prove that I have"

Magnus smiled again, tilting his head slightly; there was nothing nice about this smile. He glanced behind her at a coat rack in the corner.

"Do you have a cat, Lacey?" Magnus asked curiously, in an almost conversational, vaguely friendly, tone

Lacey snorted,

"What? No, I can't stand the damn things"

"Mmm, really?"

"Yeah, god, are you hard of hearing, or just stupid? I don't have a cat"

He tilted his head curiously,

"And you don't like them?"

"No, moron"

Magnus raised his eyebrow a bit

"So, why, exactly is there cat hair on your jacket hanging right there? Black cat hair, to be precise…quite similar to that of Curtis's cat?"

She shook her head quickly

"That's not cat hair."

"I am quite certain if we test it it will be…and I do believe they can match it to a specific animal."

She looked kind of nervous now, for the first time since this had started. She huffed, shrugging,

"Oh, whatever, it probably does belong to it. I picked up a bunch of my stuff from his place about a month ago. That damn things hair was everywhere, it was disgusting, glad I left, I had to wash everything."

"Oh is that so?"

"Yeah"

"I thought you said you hadn't been to his place in months?" Magnus asked,

"Oh, so I rounded up a bit,who cares? That still doesn't prove anything."

Magnus grinned, dangerously

"Actually, sweetie? It kind of does

Curtis just adopted the kitten when he got back from Reno. He'd barely had her for two days. You couldn't have got it when you begged him to take you back, he didn't have it yet.

I do believe he went and bought her as soon as he kicked you out of his house, knowing your distaste for the creatures, as a kind of final screw you. That's probably also why he used your favorite jacket that you left to make a bed for the dear thing." Magnus chuckled, shaking his head a bit,

"I think I may have rather liked this Curtis… in any case, you went to switch out the medication and grabbed your jacket as you left."

She folded her arms, raising her eyebrow, challengingly,

"Oh…and how are you going to prove that?Huh? He could have got the damn thing at any time."She finished with a smug smirk.

Magnus sighed a bit, rolling his eyes

"Really? That's your argument? He still had the carrier from the pet adoption agency; it has a cute little note on the side with the date and time of the adoption.

I do believe you're out of excuses, dear"

Alec nodded reaching for his cuffs

"I agree; Ms. Grisham, I am placing you under arrest for the murder of Curtis Orson, you have the right to remain silent… Please use it, otherwise this is going to be a very long trip back to the station" He glanced at Raphael

"We'll see you guys back at the station" he turned faintly focusing on Magnus, he nodded and gave a bit of an appreciative smile

"Thank you, really impressive work, detective."

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Okay, so that was the big Finale of the actual case. I do have one more chapter, but it is really just some fluff and nice little wrap

O21O

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