"Alright, got it. Thanks, Harris. Nope, still not buying you a donut. I'm gonna hang up now," Tara chuckled as she disconnected the phone call.
"Can't you just buy that poor guy one stupid donut?" Julian shook his head in amusement. "What's the address?"
"Here. It's not far away." Tara passed him the small piece of paper she wrote the address on. "And no, I'm not going to buy him a donut. It's a matter of principle," she said as she stared out the passenger window, watching the colorful buildings of Los Angeles fly past as they drove through the downtown streets.
"Yeah right. Just admit it, you're penny-pinching," Julian teased, earning him a playful smack on the arm. "Hey! I'm driving."
"Then shut the hell up and drive," Tara retorted good-humoredly. She had known Julian since the first day of police academy and they had helped each other through countless of hard times, on and off the clock. If it wasn't for Julian, she knew she would be alone in the increasingly depraved world. She had lost her family years ago. One by death, the others by choice. Julian however felt like home, like the older brother she had always wanted and the best friend she never knew she needed.
They pulled up in front of a rather torn and tattered red-bricked apartment building ten minutes later. "This is it." Julian announced as he turned to his partner, turning off the ignition. "Let's do it."
Tara nodded grimly, clenching her jaw as she repeated the well-rehearsed speech in her head. She had gone through this process numerous times and thought she would be numbed by now. Instead, her heartache only intensified. She slammed the car door shut and then jogged to catch up with Julian, who was already walking up the steps to the entrance.
They climbed the narrow staircase up to the fifth floor and went their separate ways to find the apartment.
"Found it!" Tara called out as she pointed to the door in front of her. Julian strode up to stand next to her and they stood outside, staring at the number '5F' on the wooden door for a brief moment.
"Ready?" Julian asked as he raised his closed fist, knocking on the door once Tara gave him the affirmative.
They heard scuffling from inside of the apartment before the door opened. An older woman with greying hair and soft features greeted them. "May I help you?" she asked as she smiled gently at the two strangers.
"Are you Mrs. Osbourne?" Tara asked. She could feel her heart tightening as she asked the question. The old lady gave the two of them a hesitant nod, a frown working its way to her face.
"Is there something wrong?" she questioned tentatively as she looked at the duos dejected faces, a sense of foreboding overcoming her.
An older man with thinning orange hair walked up to stand behind her, putting his hands on either side of her shoulders as he looked earnestly at the visitors. "Can we help you with something?"
"I'm Detective Maclay and this is my partner, Detective Wallace," Tara said somberly as she produced her badge to the couple. "We're with LAPD homicide."
Tara didn't get to go any further. The woman's lower lip started to tremble as she stared broken heartedly at the two detectives. She knew what was coming next, call it a mother's intuition, but she had to ask anyways in the hopes that the sinking feeling in her stomach was wrong. "Is Daniel okay?"
Tara's throat tightened as she looked at the distraught couple. She didn't want to do this. She didn't want to be the one who told these parents they would never see their son again. This was the part of her job she hated the most. Telling families that they will never be whole again. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Osbourne, but…"
"No. No," Mrs. Osbourne repeated, not wanting to hear the words about to spill forth from the detective's mouth. "No, you're wrong."
Tears were beginning to flood the old lady's eyes, as well as Tara's. "I'm terribly sorry … but your son was found dead this morning." Her voice was soft, cracking towards the end of her sentence.
Mrs. Osbourne's legs gave out as she collapsed down to the ground, sobbing. Tara and Julian moved quickly to help steady Mr. Osbourne as his body started to tremble; his own lips quivering.
*
After an indefinite amount of time and comforting, the four of them finally managed to move into the apartment. Tara and Julian sat on the couch opposite the victim's parents. The old couple held each other's hand in their own, lending support and courage to one another.
"Do you know anyone who might want to harm Daniel?" Julian asked softly. "Was he hanging out with anyone that maybe could've gotten him into trouble?"
"Danny is a good boy, always has been. He was never in trouble with the law, not once." Mrs. Osbourne tried bravely to fight back hitching sobs as Mr. Osbourne rubbed one hand up and down her back soothingly. "Who would do such a thing to him?"
"He got along so well with others, never once complained about anyone before." Mr. Osbourne spoke up, his voice slightly hoarse. "At least not to us."
"Does he have any close friends that he may have confided in?" Tara asked, keeping her emotions in check. She wanted nothing more than to find the killer and bring them to justice. An overwhelming sense of righteousness started to burn fiercely within her.
"Well, maybe Verruca might know something. They have been dating for three years now. She's a really sweet girl, they just got engaged. Oh poor Verruca, she's gonna be so heartbroken!" Mrs. Osbourne broke down in tears again as she clung desperately to her husband. Realization was starting to fully set in. Her sweet boy was never coming home.
Tara and Julian shared a knowing look. "We're so sorry about your son, Mr. and Mrs. Osbourne. Don't worry; we'll catch whoever did this to him." Julian assured. The old couple merely nodded sullenly in response. "If you need anything, anything at all, you give us a call."
*
"Damn," Tara breathed out as soon as they exited the apartment building. "I hate being the bearer of bad news."
"Yeah, that was rough." Julian responded, his expression grim.
Julian's work issued phone began to ring before either of them could continue with the conversation. He pulled his phone from the front pocket of his dark-blue jeans and flipped it open. "Wallace."
"Hi Detective Wallace, its Dr. Rosenberg, I found something. You and Detective Maclay can come down and have a look." The voice on the other end of the phone said.
"That's great news. We're coming over right now. Thanks!." Julian replied and smiled to himself before flipping the phone shut. Even though the redhead had always politely turned down his dinner invitations, stating it was best not to mix business and pleasure, he had a feeling that Dr. Rosenberg was starting to warm up to him. After all, his boyish good looks and charming personality always worked for him in the past.
Tara arched an amused eyebrow at seeing Julian smiling foolishly at nothing in particular. "What is it?" she asked, curious about the sudden change in mood in her partner.
"Oh, nothing," he shook his head dismissively. "It's just Dr. Rosenberg. She wants us to go down to the morgue. She said she found something."
"She better have," Tara quipped. Instantly, she raised both her hands up in surrender when Julian shot her an annoyed look.
"Would it kill you to be nice to her?" Julian question as he walked towards their patrol vehicle.
"Actually, it would." Tara retorted, going around the front of the car to the other side. "Besides, she was the one who started all this hostility, remember? Acting all high and mighty on the first case we had with her, only to snap at me on the proceeding one. She started it…" Tara continued, coming close to whining like a little kid. But if she was completely honest, although she would never admit this to Julian, she knew damn well that she had been the one to start this ongoing feud which manifested itself out of jealousy.
Julian had gone on and on about Dr. Rosenberg after first meeting her, claiming he felt like she could possibly be 'the one' and was going to build up the nerve to ask her out. Jealousy and a sense of foreboding instantly washed over her. She had been present for many of Julian's conquests, but never had she heard him talk with such devotion about a woman before. It scared her. If her best friend started dating the pathologist, all of his free time would be consumed by the redhead, and that inevitably would leave her alone in this seemingly darkening world. She hated herself for being so petulant, but she was scared to lose her best friend and end up alone.
Even though her first time meeting Willow occurred almost two years ago, she still remembered the incident as clearly as though it had just happened.
They had been sent to a boat yard where a body had washed up on shore.
Walking down the embankment toward the scene of the crime, Willow ducked under a yellow crime scene tape that was partially held up for her by the officer guarding the entrance to the dock. Snapping a pair of blue, latex gloves out of her pocket, Willow approached Detective Julian Wallace who was standing by, awaiting her presence.
"Good morning Dr. Rosenberg," Julian said brightly, his jovial tune seemingly out of place for an active crime scene.
Giving a demure smile, Willow nodded politely at the rust haired detective in lieu of a greeting. "What do we have here?" she asked as she slid one hand followed by the other into the pair of gloves.
Raising the clipboard he had in his hand, Julian scanned over the notes jotted down by the initial officer who received the call. "Female jogger, Angela Swanson, age 28. Trauma to the back of the head and traces of foam in her mouth. CSU is upriver trying to search for where she went in." Julian prattled off as he read through the notations. Glancing to his left, he looked at the medical examiner who appeared to be deep in thought before continuing. "Coroner stated that the liver temp is 95.1 and water temp is 64."
"Two hours more or less," she replied without looking at the detective, her concentration focused completely on the deceased woman, covered by a yellow sheet, at the end of the dock.
Circling the body, Willow positioned herself on the deceased woman's right side before reaching down to remove the tarp. Kneeling next to the jogger, Willow visually examined the corpse, her eyes flickering over the woman's slightly parted mouth, noticing the beginning signs of a blue hue before lowering her gaze to bare shoulders.
At the sound of old wooden floorboards creaking under shoes, Julian looked up from the victim to see his partner approaching. "Ah, Tara, you're here, good." Pointing with his pen to the focus driven redhead, he introduced his partner to the medical examiner. "This is Dr. Willow Rosenberg. I don't think you've pulled her before. She's the one who helped Harris and I on that fry-cook case last month"
"Oh, no I haven't, but I've heard all about Dr. Rosenberg," Tara replied sardonically as she came to a stop beside her partner, the man who had not stopped yammering on about the redhead for the past three weeks. "This must be our lucky day."
At the detectives mocking words, Willow slowly raised her head to get a look at the newcomer. She gazed up into shockingly beautiful blue eyes, the woman's beauty catching her off guard for the slightest of seconds. Keeping her face as impassive as possible, unwilling to give the brunette the satisfaction of seeing her falter, Willow recanted with sarcasm of her own. "Look at that … already we agree on something."
At the brunettes scowl, the medical examiner gave a tight lip smile while cocking her head to the left slightly, watching in amusement as the detectives eye twitched. "Our victim has blunt force trauma to the back of the head, preliminary indications of drowning. No scrapes or abrasions. No signs of defensive wounds. She went into the river clean after being hit. Liver temp puts it at about two hours ago." She gave the brunette one more pointed look once she glanced up from her note pad which she had been scribbling feverously on. "And whoever attacked her did it on the west side of the river."
"How do you know that?" Julian asked inquisitively with a soft shrug of the shoulder.
"She got some sun this morning." Willow replied nonchalantly as she peeled the used gloves off of her hands.
"So?" Tara questioned accusatorily.
"So, two hours ago the east side of the river was in shadow." Willow replied professionally, her tone even keeled the whole time.
"That's it?" huffed out Tara factitiously, her pen wielding hand waving about in front of her as she let out a short chortle. "You haven't caught the murderer yet?"
"No, detective, but give me time" the redhead said through a tight lipped smile, her expression conveying her displeasure for the woman standing before her. Stepping over the lower portion of the corpse, Willow walked away from the two detectives, calling over her shoulder in the process, "Autopsy, two hours".
After their first unsuccessful encounter, three weeks went by before they ran into each other again. Tara and Julian had been handed a case by their Lieutenant, sending them to a natural history museum when one of its employees was found deceased inside one of the exhibits. Willow, once again, was already on scene, examining the body when the detectives arrived. The two of them approached her to get the physical details of the homicide, which led to Tara pointing out a peculiar bruise on the victim's inner thigh, asking Willow, not so politely, to check it out. That was when the redhead snapped at her. "Would you like me to tell you how to do your job?" All hell broke loose afterwards. Since then, whenever they worked on a case together, sarcastic off handed comments and snarky remarks would be exchanged in-lieu of polite conversation.
"That doesn't mean you have to continue," Julian rebuffed. He was stuck in the middle, between his best friend and his crush, unable to pick a side. It wasn't a great position to be in. "Get in the car, Maclay." He said annoyingly as he got into the black BMW coupe and sat himself in the driver's seat; turning the key and starting the engine.
Tara rolled her eyes dramatically before opening the car door and getting into the passenger's seat.
"I saw that," Julian said flatly once Tara settled into the car..
