Disclaimer: I don't own Fake, Sanami Matoh-sama does. Welcome to the wonderful world of FanFiction! It's addicting, get used to it (I quite the addicting substance known as coffee at age 15, but do not suggest or even think that I should quite FanFiction. IT WILL NOT HAPPEN (even if I own nothing).).
Warning: Now it really goes without saying for a book about a guy who isn't sure and the Bi man that pursues him restlessly. Besides the main pairing is Drake and JJ so this fic DOES contain SHOUNEN-AI (meaning two guys Kissin' and Cuddlin'!) and possibly YAOI (meaning an explicit sex scene(s) between two guys).
Author's Note: I'm at College Yay! I don't own a lot of things in this chapter for ex. d-Con, Trident Tropical Twist, I kinda got half this murder idea from CSI (the Las Vegas one), Visa, or CASIO.
I needed Jim Campbell in this fic for his overwhelming personality and ability to read others so well. But since he is the lab tech for the Bronx Station I had to come up with a way to get Drake and JJ there, and I realize what I did (you will soon read) is a bit (oke a lot) far fetched sorry!
Did I ever mention I know nothing of New York City or well New York in general?
For My lovely Reviewer in Belgium: When you need a break from those September Exams (That start in August) here is something to read (and it helps your English!) Viel Glück!
Happy Reading!
Na
Three Packs a Day: Queer Revelations (that Defy All You Know)
Chapter 3: Coffee (Major Health Hazard)
Both Drake and JJ stepped off the stairwell onto the fourth floor of the 27th precinct; they had met in the first floor break room. After getting their respected coffees and a couple Danishes, they made their way up the four flights of stairs (needed to burn off that Danish and all).
Either it was just there luck on such a calm and clear Monday morning that on their way towards their shared office they would run into Rose who was about to drop off a new case folder instead of handing it to them himself. But now since the partners were a good minute early to work they would receive the files with all of Rose's commentary.
"I've got a weird one for you," said Rose handing the file to Drake.
The partner's looked at each other, the folder and then back at Berkley. JJ asked, "What do you mean?"
"Body in an ally, no weapon wounds, track marks, or signs of a struggle," replied Berkley, "He was by the looks of it, and the once over done at the scene of the crime in perfect health pre-mortem."
"So he just died of old age, while walking through an ally, "replied Drake with a shrug.
Rose smirked, "He was 23."
"Maybe not," said Drake.
"Well you look into it and go down to the lab to see if the body has been processed yet," replied Rose as he walked off to his own office. Drake and JJ just glanced at each other before going into their currently empty office.
Drake dropped his thermos of coffee next to his desk, draping his jacket over his chair and loosened his tie more, (even though it was loose enough to allow the top two buttons to be undone already). Lounging back in his chair Drake propped his feet up on the very edge of the desk, and took the first sip of his muggy (shouldn't even be honored with the name coffee) coffe.
Meanwhile JJ laid his own jacket across the back of his own chair and begun to organize their new case file out on Drake's desk so they can look it over. As an afterthought JJ placed a few pieces of Trident Tropical Twist on the desk for Drake's morning Cigarette that was between his first and third cup of coffee, (They had found the combination of coffee and mint was rather grotesque, but the subtle refreshing taste of orange in the Tropical Twist gum left a better after taste). Lastly JJ situated himself on the opposite corner of the desk from Drake's own feet, and picked up a picture of the body.
"23 year old Caucasian male; Jason Langley, body was found in an ally around six o'clock this morning. Among his personal belongings was his wallet; that contained: $47, a state ID, debit card, Visa card, and a construction site pass for the downtown construction site of the strip mall. A good 30 minute walk from the corner of the street he was found by. Also on his person was a set of house keys, and a CASIO watch. It is assumed that the hardhat found three feet from the body on top of a pile of cardboard is also the victim's," read Drake glance over the rest of the report of Jason Langley.
JJ sighed, "Well it wasn't a robbery than. Perhaps he had a heart attack, a cat jumped out of a trash can or something."
"Well he is belly down, so it rules out a frontal assault of any kind. I guess we'll have to wait for the lab tech to tell us the cause of death," replied Drake tipping back the last of his mucky caffeinated water and in one fluid moment scooping up the piece of gum, throwing away the trash, and popping the gum in his mouth.
"There must be an ulterior motive, a grudge of some kind," said JJ as he watch Drake stand up and begin to pace (his I need a morning cig, and the gum wasn't enough sign), "But still how was he murdered, or is this whole thing purely accidental?"
"Poison," Drake suddenly said, "He could have been poisoned."
Flipping through the crime scene photos quickly JJ frowned, "There is no signs of discoloration around the mouth or nasal passages to suggest poison."
"Absorbed through the skin?"
"No abnormal coloration under or around the fingernails-"
"He didn't have to touch the poison himself JJ," Drake cut his partner off, "He works construction perhaps years of inhalation of sawdust and fumes, that a 30 minute walk was too much for his heart and lungs?"
The blue-haired detective was about to answer when there was a knock on the door a second later Ted popped his red head in the door. Drake's pacing forgotten he turned towards the new detective, "Hey Ted, need anything?"
Ted smiled, "I was just down at the lab. It would seem that our precinct coroner was not in today. So all our bodies, actually only your body, was sent the Bronx station coroner, and he sent his report and stomach contents, etcetera to the Bronx station Lab Tech guy. So you guy have to go over to pick up the reports."
The blond detective growled, "Oh great! Thanks for the heads up Ted."
Drake suddenly found a thermo cap full of his coffee and a stick of Trident in his hand. He looked over to see JJ an irritated twitch above his right eyebrow, "Let's go Drake-senpai, better than guessing how the victim died. Next time Ted-senpai, have them send it over, we shouldn't have to make up for their mistake." The thermo cap was drained, and replaced. The stick of gum disappeared as Drake's jacket and thermo were picked up and both partners left Ted in the office.
The quick ride over to the Bronx station was done in quiet, and Drake was sure that if he wasn't driving than he would have fallen asleep. He kept trying to tell himself that it was jet lag, because he slept so well in California. But in the back of his mind he knew that if it was jet lag the comfortable setting of his own bed would lull him to sleep in seconds and not the bouts of insomnia that he was having.
After a few suspicious looks JJ and Drake found themselves outside the office of one Jim Campbell. The silvery-blue haired man lifted his hand and knocked twice on the door. After a moment they heard the slightly muffled "Come in."
JJ opened the door and walked in followed by Drake. Jim was sitting at his desk hunched over a pile of papers. Pushing up his glasses he turned to see his visitors, his long ponytail spilling over his shoulders, "Oh hello JJ, Drake so this case is yours? I was just looking over the coroner's report while waiting for the analysis of the stomach contents to print out."
"Hey Jim, long time no see," greeted Drake.
"Yes Jim-senpai, so you have our report?" added JJ as he was handed a file.
Opening the file JJ was accosted with pictures of a corpse on a slab only covered from the waist down. The whole torso of the victim was covered in light purple bruises. The bruise-less or lighter skin clearly had pinprick sized purple-redish dots that covered most of the body. Blue eyes looked up to meet Jim's, "What caused the bruising? Was he beaten?"
"Internal bleeding, I got a hunch but I'm not going to say anything until the print out is done," replied Jim and as if on cue the printer near Drake spat out a fresh chemical analysis.
Drake looked at Jim for the OK to pick up the report. Receiving a nod he picked up the paper and glanced over it. It was a simple set up of the most prominent substance to the least. Drake began to read through, "Hydrochloric Acid-"
"That's easy Stomach acid," added JJ.
Grey eyes skipped over the rest of the components in stomach acid, "Okay so, phenolic polymers, polysaccharides, chlorogenic acids, Hydrogen dioxide, caffeine."
"Coffee," answered Jim.
Drake nodded and continued reading his eyes bugging, "3-3-4'-bromo(1,1'-biphenyl)-4-yl-1,2,3,4- what?" JJ looked over his shoulder his eyes also going wide if that was a single chemical he had no clue what it meant.
Jim moved swiftly over to a white board on the far wall and wrote out "3-3-4'-bromo(1,1'-biphenyl)-4-yl-1,2,3,4- tetrahydro-1-naphthalenyl-4-hydroxy-2H-1-benzopyran-2-one" underneath the first chemical he wrote, "3-3-4'-bromo(1,1'-biphenyl)-4-yl -3-hydroxy-1-phenylpropyl-4-hydroxy-2H-1-benzopyran-2-one" and finally, "3--acetonylbenzyl) 4-hydroxycoumarin."
JJ nodded, "Yeah, all three of those are on the sheet."
"Brodifacoum, bromadiolone, and warfarin the three deadly chemicals used in Rat Poison specifically d-Con," answered Jim placing his glasses down on the desk and rubbing the bridge of his nose before replacing his glasses.
"I was right he was poisoned," replied Drake as Jim snatched the print out from his hands.
"And for a minimum of two weeks," absently added Jim.
Blue and Grey eyes looked shocked at Jim, "What?"
"Rat Poison works like this: it is composed of poisons and a few other chemicals for aroma and dehydration. A rat eats the poison and than becomes thirsty and goes in search of water, ultimately leaving your house. A week later the poison sets in causing massive amounts of internal bleeding and the rat dies. To poison someone's coffee the lethal amount of rat poison could not be slipped into a single cup without notice. And that in it's self is the beauty of rat poison it doesn't have to be consumed in a single sitting. So a percentage of the lethal amount can be slipped in your morning coffee every morning for a week. One week later you die. Judge buy the fact that there is fresh poison from today the murderer put reduced amounts of poison in the drink for the grace period to assure that the victim's system was still poisoned. Warfarin causes in human's at the very least bleeding, and the redish-purple pinpricks. It can enter through the skin, ingestion or inhalation. So I'd say if you drink some of this toxic coffee you need to self-induce vomit, and get to a hospital ASAP," concluded Jim.
"Well it was carefully planned, I remember in LA a girl down the street thought that d-Con was candy or something and ate a lot of it and she didn't live a week after," added JJ thinking over the new information.
"Well yes. I believe that the seven day grace period is given for a single rat that eats a complete package," added Jim.
"So basically we are looking for someone who has the knowledge to change this poison to rat ratio to work on humans. And of course they had to have ample opportunity to slowly poison one Jason Langley. We should be looking for a female chemist, I guess," added Drake, absently taking a sip from his thermo (Poisoned coffee and Drake doesn't even worry about his own.)
"Male," said Jim, both detectives looked at him and the evidence bag in his hand, "Hair sample found on the victim: three inches long, dyed blonde hair, perfect sample DNA match XY but no match in our database."
"Perfect you say? There shouldn't be a hair sample on the victim at all," answered JJ diligently.
The Lab tech nodded, "I agree with the female speculation, so much careful planning and the wait, just doesn't sound like a male, perhaps framing a boyfriend, brother or co-worker."
Drake looked up from the coroner's report he was leafing through, "Was there any witnesses?"
"Our initial report had mentioned that the forensics team arrived on the scene thirty minutes after the liver temperature said was the time of death. And that a Lindsey Nicole Abraham was the person who found the body supposedly ten minutes after the death of the victim. A home address is also written here," read JJ as he looked at said report.
"Wonder how I missed that," absently said the blond.
JJ chuckled, "It was most likely between your first and second cup of coffee." Drake deafly nodded and took another swig of coffee (all the talk of the drink was reminding him that it was in his hands).
"Well I guess we should be going, question the witness," commented Drake.
"Hey can I talk to JJ a moment before you guys go?" asked Jim, removing his glasses to hang them from his mouth.
Drake shrugged, "I don't mind, I'll go get some coffee. The coffee here is better than the precinct."
Both JJ and Jim chuckled, "And I thought our coffee was the worst, I don't even want to try yours." Drake turned to leave the small lab office, before he left JJ slipped a piece of gum into his hand; the wrapper was thrown away before he left the room.
The sound of the door clicking shut echoed though the suddenly quiet room. Jim wasted no time, "You like him."
It was not a question in any form, but the tone of voice demanded an answer. JJ fidgeted a bit, blue eyes darted around the room never meeting Jim's own eye, "Yeah."
"Wow this is a first!" replied Jim smoothing back his long hair.
Blue eyes went wide with confusion, "What is?"
Jim laughed lightly, "When you guy's were here before all we ever heard was and I quote, 'Dee-senpai!' So it is safe to assume that you gave up on Dee. But to see you a bit apprehensive about this new infatuation is strange… dare I say queer." Jim burst into bouts of laughter at his own poor joke. JJ knew from Dee's slight complaints before that Jim wouldn't be stopping anytime soon.
"Dee's bi, Drake's straight. I don't want to loose him as a friend because my feelings run deeper than that of friendship," replied JJ as he turned and left Jim's office, with the files in hand.
A slightly downhearted dragonfly detective, closed the door to the lab tech's office, laughter could still be heard. Blue eyes stayed down cast as he walked down the hall. "JJ? You all done with Jim?" JJ looked up and immediately cheered up eye's shining with their normal luster.
"Drake-senpai!" JJ half-glomped his partner being weary of his thermo and fresh-ish cup of coffee, and what looked like a strawberry frosted donut.
"Yes, now look I even pilfered you a donut they didn't have chocolate, but you do like the strawberry over vanilla right?"
The silvery-blue head nodded and a slender hand took the donut, "Let's go talk to the witness. And go to lunch, your treat."
"We'll split the bill fifty-fifty," replied the blond as they left the Bronx station.
Blue eyes glanced over the car to look into grey, "What if I have a more expensive meal?"
"Fifty-fifty," the elder said as he buckled he seat belt and started the car, "now where is this witness?"
The car was filled with lunch time chatter although it was three hours away, while JJ navigated and Drake steered their way to the witness' first floor apartment. Finding the apartment wasn't hard but the witness seemed to be ignoring the bell, (although they asked the land owner and he said that Lindsey Nicole Abraham was in).
After long moments of standing in the still, white hallway. One of the light fixtures blinking precariously as if to say "I'm about to go out", the hallow brown door opened. A tall lanky woman with short blond hair and large sleepy green eyes stood in the door way wearing a pink terrycloth robe.
"Can I help you?" asked the woman.
The detectives held out there badges, "Yes I am Detective Drake Parker and this is my partner Detective Jemmy Adams, we would like to ask Lindsey Nicole Abraham some questions about the body she found."
"Yes, yes that's me. I'm sorry about my state of dress I work the Early Bird at the Diner on the Corner, and was asleep when you rang. What would you like to know?" replied Lindsey Nicole.
JJ pulled out a pad of paper and looked up at the girl, "Could you please stat your name, age, and how you found the body?"
"Lindsey Nicole Abraham, I'm 28 years old. Like I said I work Early Bird at the Diner on the Corner which is eleven at night till six the next morning. So when I get off work I walk the fifteen minutes home sleep till noon and attend some afternoon course for Art and sociology at the Community College. I came upon the body in the alley way, and I yelled 'Hey Mister!' a few times, and I remembered that if you don't know first aid don't try, so I called 911. I guess it helps that the hospital is only a couple blocks away right?"
Drake just deftly nodded, "Did you know the victim?"
"I didn't get a good look at his face; I just kind of waited for the ambulance to show up. And when it did I answered their question and went home to bed," replied Lindsey Nicole.
"Well thank you for your time we are sorry we woke you," said JJ offering his hand to the lanky blond.
"Yes, we'll keep in touch," added Drake also shaking the girl's hand.
Lindsey Nicole smiled, "It was no problem, have a nice day." The blond girl slowly disappeared back into the apartment and soon the two detectives were faced with the hallow brown door.
They mutually agreed on going to brunch, just to see if Drake was true to his word. It was decided on that the two Detectives would go to a hodge-podge buffet type place that had everything from rich Japanese teas to lavish French desserts. This of course through JJ for a loop since he couldn't decide if he wanted to eat from the best Mexican food New York had to offer or one of the best Chinese food New York could offer, so he requested a plate for each buffet and sat down at the table. One plate piled with soft corn tortilla shells and a combination of rice and black beans. The other had a heaping pile of Lo Mein and Egg Rolls.
JJ looked at Drake's own plate to see that he had a generous portion of Röstli, Bratwurst, and a small bowl of Birchermüesli that was acting as dessert. Since it was ten dollars a plate at whichever type of food you chose at that moment JJ was getting one of his meals for five dollar, if Drake still kept up his fifty-fifty deal.
"Is that all you going to eat Drake?" asked JJ as he tore off a piece of tortilla and scooped up some rice and beans.
Drake looked up from his own meal studying JJ's expression for a moment, "I happen to like Swiss food, it is strangely filled with carbohydrates and yet the whole country is no where near as over-weight that our country is."
For a moment they ate in silence, just enjoying good food and great company. JJ felt a bit off he didn't know exactly what to talk about when it was just the two of them in casual conversation. When it was a group of them at the precinct, JJ would just sit contently listening to the others talk about sports and girls. When it was just the two of them they would talk about work, or JJ would ramble on about 'Dee-senpai'.
"Hey JJ," said Drake suddenly.
"Yeah Drake?"
"Do you know if you have plans for Christmas?" asked Drake as he pushed away his clean plate and started to eat the Birchermüesli.
The blue-haired detective thought about it for a second thinking over all the things that he would have to do for Christmas, he had already gotten a present for his parents and left it in LA now all he had to do is figure out what to get for Drake, but the actual holiday would be spent in his apartment alone or working. Shaking his head, "No I can only get to LA for one holiday, so I guess I'll just give into Marty or Ted's ask to take their night shifts."
"Well I was thinking if my family tricks me into going to see them for Christmas (even though we're working early shift the 24th and late the 25th ). That you could come with and make Upstate a bit more entertaining," said Drake, completely thinking 'an eye for an eye'. It wasn't that Drake's family was terribly horrible and neither was JJ's family, it was just both Drake and JJ had to suffer the oppression of the Adams'. They would have preferred Drake to have been JJ's boyfriend or better yet a girlfriend. Drake's family on the other hand was well much like JJ's parents; they wanted grandchildren. They also constantly talk up Sophie and her accomplishments as a mother and a working woman, at an Auction House.
"Sure Drake-senpai, I don't have a sister or nephews and nieces so it would be nice to you with yours," smiled JJ, Drake just groaned. JJ typed back the last of his soda and stood to leave. They both walked up to the register to pay. The bill came to $35.18 and as the two walked back out to the car Drake divided the bill in half in his head.
Just as the car started, Drake announced, "You owe me $17.59, but 17.50 is just fine JJ."
The smaller man started fishing out the money he owed Drake. He was rather surprised that the normally free loading blond was actually paying for his own meal plus about five dollars of his own meal.
"Why don't you come over to my apartment for dinner I don't think you've been over yet," asked JJ there was a small trace of uncertainty.
The blond thought about it for a minute but in the end he could not fathom a reason not to go or even a reason not to want to go, "Sure when do you want me to come over?"
"Seven is good; you remember where I live right? Apartment 306," replied JJ, Drake nodded, "okay so what is our next move in this case?"
"Talk to the Supervisor of the Construction Site, maybe it was a coworker that poisoned Mr. Langley. And than tomorrow we can hunt down family members," replied Drake as he easily guided the car towards the downtown to be strip mall.
Flashing their badges at the front security the two detectives parked the car and went in search of the supervisor for the project. It did not take long for them to find the supervisor. When detective come through security (not to mention two men walking around in a hardhat zone without hardhats), the supervisor was not far behind.
Once the men were bustled into the easily collapsible mobile home that he was using as an office, they were offered a hand, "Hello, I'm supervisor Charles Bauer, what can I do you two for detectives?"
"We wanted to talk to you about Jason Langley," answered Drake
Charles nodded, "Good man, young but a hard worker. Always on time and if he was going to be late he would always call. But I haven't seen him all day; he didn't show up for his shift at 6:30 or call."
The blue-haired man quickly flipped through the report to double check that Mr. Langley died at 6:00 and was 30 minutes walking distance from the construction site. This would efficiently get him to work on time.
"Yes, well Jason Langley was murdered early this morning," said Drake as he gauged the reaction on the supervisor's face. Brown eyes went wide; one hand removed the hardhat as the other brushed through dusty brown hair.
Placing the helmet back on, he said, "Really? I can't think of a reason why anyone would dislike the kid, he is a good hard worker."
"Does he drink coffee at work?" asked JJ, looking down at the short stout man, while offering the blond some spearmint gum.
"I'm not sure but if he does it would be from that coffee pot over there," replied Mr. Bauer while he pointed to the large coffee pot in the corner.
Drake took the offered piece of gum, happy that it was spearmint, another reason not to tempt him to drink more coffee, "We would like to take a sample of the coffee if that is all right with you?"
The supervisor nodded as JJ left the building to retrieve a sample cup from the car, when he returned he proceeded to fill it up with coffee. He handed the cup to Drake, who in turn inscribed the sight name and date on a label, before placing it on the sample.
JJ and Drake made the next few moments very court gathering there things and leaving the hard hats and the construction site. Dropping off the coffee sample at their own lab the two detectives clocked out and headed home.
Seven o'clock rolled around and Drake found himself outside of the dragonfly's apartment, with a DVD in hand. The blond wasn't quite sure what to expect usually when he went to other guys houses it wasn't for dinner, but to get wasted. And JJ never seemed to get into that tradition it was always him Ted and Dee (until Dee moved in with Ryo of course). So now he was about to have dinner with a flamboyantly gay silvery-blue haired guy, what would happen? Nothing more than a wasted bi man Drake was sure, and that was nothing. What really worried Drake was that he didn't know what top expect he certainly can't talk about girls with JJ. None the less his free hand reached up and knocked on the sturdy wood door.
So was it good or bad give me your opinion please, either way one thinks is fine, Merci!
Na
