/ / / 12 \ \ \
Nick drove past his house in the morning on the way back to work. His mother's door was closed and he left a note asking her to call him when she woke up. Nick wasn't sure if he expected her to actually call him or not.
Thirty minutes after he came in Renard called Nick into his office.
"Captain?" Nick said as he knocked on the door.
"Come inside and tell me what progress we are making on this case."
Nick outlined what they were doing to try and find out the identity of the latest victim, including looking into the people that were connected to Samuel Bertram and the other victims, and that they had the sketch from Gracie and were planning to have her come in later that day for her formal interview. Nick had told the officers watching her to wait until she woke up – she didn't get to sleep in an actual bed very often and he wanted her to enjoy it.
The captain nodded his acceptance and then looked at Nick carefully. "Samuel Bertram had those strange coins didn't he? He was the one who swallowed them."
"Yes, Sir," Nick replied tightly watching Renard carefully. "They were stolen by Farley Kolt."
"Except Kimura came to my apartment looking for them."
"And mine," Nick said. "Strange that he would pick the two of us."
"He also went after Hank," Renard said quickly.
"Who he knew had held the coins, they were strange coins," Nick said carefully – he knew that Renard was fishing but he didn't know how much the other man knew and suddenly Nick realised this was his moment. "Dangerous too, for all sorts, even regents."
Renard barely reacted…barely, but Nick had always been good at reading people and Renard had tried to hide the reaction though he had not done a good enough job to keep Nick from noticing.
"And who is that?" Renard asked finally.
"I don't know exactly what they are," Nick said. "I've only just heard about them but apparently they are a part of this precinct and I am beginning to wonder about their agenda since they have been playing things close to the chest for so long."
Renard smirked at him and Nick knew this conversation would continue to remain pure conjecture. "Distance has been known to ensure things are done the right way."
"Whose version of right?" Nick asked without pause.
"The one out there catching the criminals of course," Renard reclined back into his chair. "Allowing people to know everything about you is dangerous and forming alliances has been known to force a person's hand in a very grim fashion."
Nick clenched his jaw against a smile. "Well, so long as all parties do understand that they are officers of the law, first and foremost, and that is the most important thing not any personal agendas."
"The police officer's moral code is an excellent thing, Detective. I know that everyone takes it very seriously."
"And a grim view is taken only when a law has been broken."
"As has been the way for centuries," Renard said with a slight head tilt. "For police officers of course," he added after a pregnant pause.
"Of course," Nick said.
"Out of curiosity, Detective Burkhardt, who informed you about this…element…within this precinct?"
Nick took a moment to think of the best answer overly aware of the weight of Renard's gaze upon him. Nick didn't want to mention his mother, but he did want Renard to know that he had gained the information from another Grimm.
"I was told about the position of regent by a grim individual who is involved with regents in other law enforcement situations."
Renard folded his hands over his stomach and rested back into the chair. "I assumed as much, something about the recent activities lead me to believe that there may be outside forces involved. I do hope you understand that past behaviour should be just as much of an indicator as whatever you have heard from this person."
"That really goes both ways," Nick said leaning forward in his chair to be closer to Renard to be sure that the other man was really paying attention. "Because what I have heard is neither positive nor likely to be repeated in this precinct."
Renard smirked at him. "Understood, is there anything else about the case we need to discuss?"
"No," Nick said. "Though I am uniquely suited to this case."
"I know," Renard said and nodded. "I would like to be kept informed about any advancements in the case."
"Of course, Captain," Nick said standing up.
He felt better about both Renard being a Regent, they may not have had an open and honest conversation about it and Nick may not have been able to find out exactly what Renard intended their future relationship to be but at least they were on a somewhat even standing now. Nick would like to know exactly what Renard's objectives were but he felt better having at least told Renard that he would not be moved from his current moral standpoint.
"Nick," Renard said just as Nick was about the open the door. "I understand that those coins were lost, and probably for the best. I do hope though that whomever has them knows how to hide them from everyone, absolutely everyone."
Nick shrugged with a smile. "I'm sure they are somewhere well hidden, Captain."
"Excellent," Renard nodded once and let his eyes flick to the door.
Nick turned and left the office, he smiled at Hank and they settled down to work. By lunchtime they had a name for their latest victim and Gracie was coming in for her interview.
/ / / \ \ \
"Hey, Gracie. This is Hank, my partner, we're just going to ask you some questions about what you saw."
Gracie smiled at him. "Okay."
"To start could you tell us why you went into the building and what you saw up until the point where the police arrived?"
Gracie took a deep breath. "I had camped out at the warehouse a couple of days ago, and I'd stashed some stuff in one of the rooms since it was supposed to be raining. I went back to get it and walked into the hallway when I saw two men. One of them was lying on the floor, he was bleeding and moaning. He was asking the other man to stop. That's when I left to phone you, I was gone about five minutes and when I was coming back," Gracie started to talk very slowly now and Nick wished he could reach out for her hand and comfort her but he couldn't do it now – not until she had finished this. "When I was coming back…I…I heard a scream and it was terrible. I looked and the man, I don't know who he was but he was holding a gun and the other man…he was dead. The man who killed him checked on the dead man but there was so much blood and there was no way he could have survived and then the man put his gun in his pocket and left. I was scared and I didn't follow him."
"It is a good thing you didn't," Hank said jumping in. "You never know what a man like that may do."
Gracie looked worried and turned to Nick.
"We will protect you," Nick said. "Don't worry; you and Hansen will be safe."
Gracie nodded once decisively and then continued with her story. "Then Nick arrived and the rest of the police."
Hank pulled out the sketch that Gracie had put together with their police artist. "Is this the man you saw with the gun?"
"Yes," Gracie said though she only looked at the sketch quickly before looking back down again. "That is him."
Nick smiled at her reassuringly. "Why did you call me?"
"I knew I could trust you," Gracie said. "And I knew that you would believe me."
Nick smiled. "Did you see anyone else, when you were coming or when you placed the phone call?"
"No," Gracie said. "There was no one anywhere."
"Did either of the men say anything?'
"The one on the ground was groaning and he asked the other man to stop but I wasn't close enough to hear anything else so I'm not sure."
"Would you be willing to testify should this case go to court?" Hank asked.
"Yes," Gracie said. "But, it is hard to get in touch with me."
Nick smiled. "I promise that I will find you."
Gracie smiled and they went through their end of interview procedures until Nick was able to walk Gracie back to the police officer who would take her back to the safe house.
As they were passing Nick's table he saw a couple of officers standing, very innocently, next to his desk. Only one thing made the officers pay attention to any desk like that – there were a number of girl, or boy, friends as well as spouses around the station who knew how to bake or cook and could be relied on to provide batches of biscuits and cakes to make the days go a little faster and the only person in Nick's life who ever baked for him, or the precinct, was Elly. He could see her now sitting in his chair with a grin and offering pieces of cake to the men and women around her.
"Come on, Gracie," Nick said. "Have a piece of cake before you leave."
"Is she your new girlfriend?" Gracie asked.
"She is a friend," Nick said. "Elly, she's the one I was going to ask you to stay with if we hadn't been able to organise the protective custody."
"Ah," Gracie said slowly. "I would love to meet her."
"Hey, Elly," Nick said when he came to his desk. Elly smiled and handed him some cake. "This is Gracie, the young woman I was talking to you about last night."
"Hello, Gracie, would you like some cake?" Elly said with a bright smile.
Something about the way they were looking at one another made Nick distinctly nervous but in the same moment his phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket. His home phone number flashed at him and he gave Elly a tight smile before he excused himself to somewhere private to take the call.
As he walked he realised that everything Gracie had told them well and truly cleared his mother – she had not been there. Even though everything had pointed to her being involved before he couldn't stop the sigh of relief now that he knew that she was innocent.
/ / /
I am doing a better job of updating...see. I shall try to keep it up!
