*-*-*-*-*-*-*- MagnusBane:PsychicDetective*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Chapter9-
So Close Now
(Eli Young Band)
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Simon-Simon-Simon-Simon-Simon *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*Okay, he could do this; he could totally do this…
Wait… what was it Magnus said?
Oh, yeah,
Be confident, that is key; if anything else, if you seem to believe what you're saying, others will too…
Yeah, easy for him to say
Just stick to the truth as much as possible, try not to babble…
No problem,
Right, cause that's totally something he has control over…
No, don't think like that,
Raphael believed he could do it…
So did Magnus…
He could totally do this, had to…
It was for Alec…His partner, friend and mentor,
It was the only way to get Alec to stop doubting himself,
He could do this for Alec...
Okay, he was ready, he totally had this
He did…
…
M-Maybe…
Simon shook his head, giving up on his ineffective pep-talk, figuring he had to try, as he was literally, the only option for this part of the plan.
Going though the information in the files coupled with what Magnus picked up from the owners they'd come up with a theory, but had nothing tangible to back it up. That depended on him and Alec…only Alec had to figure it out on his own.
And it was Simon's job to get him there.
Cause he totally could…
Maybe…
He sighed, rolling his eyes slightly at his indecision, before pulling himself together and nodding resolutely.
Enough; he had to just go and do it.
The guys were probably right, it would be fine…
Plus he'd been sitting in his car outside the station talking/arguing with himself for, like, the last five minutes, and someone was bound to notice pretty soon…He took a deep breath, climbing out of his car and heading into the station.
Well, here goes nothing…
Simon took a deep breath,putting on his brightest, most confident smile and walking as self-confidently as he could through the door and right up to Alec's desk.
"Hi, Alec! Good Morning!"
He greeted, rather loudly, and with WAY too much enthusiasm.
Alec seemed to startle, looking up at him with a somewhat concerned look
Oops…
"Uhh, hi Simon? Morning, you okay?"
Simon nodded quickly, reminiscent of a bobble head
God, he is SO bad at this!
"Y-yeah, yeah, everything's great! Why wouldn't it be? It's a great day and I have a great job with a great partner and a great boyfriend and great friends so why wouldn't it be a great day? I just know we'll totally crack this case, cause we are a really great team...so, uh, yeah…everything is…uh…?"
"Great?" Alec supplied, raising his eyebrow, still looking pretty concerned
"Yeah!" Simon exclaimed, with an enthusiastic nod
Okay, take it down a notch, and for god's sake, stop saying 'great'!
"S-sorry, I'm just in a really gr-good mood…I talked to Raphael last night and I think we got it all sorted and I really think it is going to be okay, that our relationship will really be okay, and I am just really, really happy that it all worked out, cause I was really worried that it might not, you know?"
Oh, great, now he was stuck on 'really'
Alec tilted his head understandingly,
"That's good Simon. You two are probably the best couple I've ever seen, I know every relationship has issues, every couple fights, I'd just never seen that with you two."
Simon nodded
"Yeah, it was our first real argument, I honestly didn't know if we'd come back from it."
Alec looked surprised
"Wow, I had no idea it was that bad of a fight…I don't mean to pry, but can I ask what happened?"
Simon looked away slightly,
"I just thought I knew everything about him and I found out I didn't and it just really threw me, and I kind of didn't know if I could trust him…"
He trailed off slightly,
Alec nodded sympathetically,
"Yeah, I kind of get the feeling there's a lot about him that we don't know, but I don't think he'd be hiding things from you just because. I saw him during the hostage situation; I swear, at first I thought he was in shock. I know that he loves you, and has for quite a while; if he didn't tell you something, he may have just been afraid it might bother you more than the lie would."
Simon looked at him, slightly shocked
He didn't know the secret, did he?
Magnus hadn't said anything about telling him, maybe he just suspected?
"W-wait, do you know what it was about?"
Alec shrugged slightly
"I don't know, I figured it was something to do with how intimidating he is. I mean, I know you never see it because he's always so sweet around you, and I think he purposefully doesn't do it around you because he doesn't want to scare you, though you're about the only one he doesn't do it to…"
Simon startled, eyes wide,
"Dude!Are you actually scared of my boyfriend?!"
"I-no, not exactly 'scared', I wouldn't say that… I just don't think I ever want to end up on the guy's bad side…"
Simon couldn't stop a slight laugh, shaking his head a bit. Alec gave him a bit of an affronted look. He quickly put up his hands in a placating gesture.
"I wasn't laughing at you, I swear… Just, when we made up I asked him if there was anything else he needed to tell me and he told me that he was, like, scary, or whatever, and I didn't believe him, cause, he's like the sweetest guy I've ever met."
Alec shook his head
"Yeah I guess from what you've seen of him it'd be hard to believe; but he does scare the hell out of people, kind of a lot…I still don't know what he said to Raj, but when Raphael waved to him he nearly ran into a wall he was trying to get away from the guy so fast."
Simon rolled his eyes slightly
"I still think that was just because he'd tried to ask me out."
Alec raised his eyebrow a bit,
"He did?"
Simon nodded
"Yeah, it was an honest mistake, I told him I had a boyfriend and he dropped it."
"And…Raj found out Raphael was your boyfriend?" Alec asked, lip twitching into a bit of a smile,
"Yeah, I pointed him out at the warehouse"
Alec shook his head slightly,
"Now wonder…"
Simon tilted his head in confusion,
"Huh?"
"Nothing, I just get why he was in such a hurry to get away from the guy…" Alec gave a slight almost chuckled, before sobering faintly,
"Umm, so, if it wasn't about that what was it he lied about?"
Oh, crap!
"U-uh…Umm…w-well, h-he s-sai-…Umm…"
Okay; less is more, stick to the truth, be confident, omit what you need to, keep it simple…
Crap…
"W-well, it was about something from before we got together, and telling me would mean betraying someone else's trust, so he really didn't know what to do… cause either way he was hurting someone."
Alec nodded sympathetically,
"Man, that would be pretty rough, there isn't really a right answer to that."
Simon sighed, giving a faint nod,
"Yeah, I know…and I do understand now… it was just really heard at first. I mean the fact that he was lying about something for the entire time we've known each other, for as long as we've been together…It was just really hard to get past."
Alec nodded faintly,
"Yeah, that would definitely be hard to get past… I'm glad you guys worked through it though."
"Me Too." Simon said, giving a bit of a relieved smile
Then he paused…
Wait… He believed it!
It worked!
He might actually be able to do this!
Okay…Be cool…
Simon shook his head faintly, leaning casually against the desk, glancing down spotting the files from the case,
"So…uh anyways… I-I was thinking about what you'd said the other day about the case…"
Alec looked confused,
"What? That we have nothing?"
Simon nodded frantically
"Y-yeah, exactly, we don't really have anything, but there has to be something, right?"
"Uh…yeah?" Alec said slowly, looking concerned once more,
Simon nodded quickly once more, bouncing slightly,
"Yeah, exactly! S-so maybe we just missed something our first time around?"
Alec gave a faint, slightly disheartened shrug,
"Probably…the stores are back open, now, though…"
Simon pointed at him animatedly,
"Exactly, they're open, so we can just go over and have another look, with fresh eyes, see if anything jumps out… great idea, Alec." He finished with a far too enthusiastic grin
"Uh…Thanks?" Alec said, vaguely confused before giving a slightly careless shrug,
"Eh, couldn't hurt…We can't possibly have less to work with."
"That's the spirit!" Simon said enthusiastically, patting him on the shoulder a bit too hard before hurrying towards the door
Alec trailed along, slightly bewildered…
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Alec-Alec-Alec-Alec-Alec *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*Simon eagerly bounded up to the store, pretty much as soon as the car stopped. Alec followed along, shaking his head slightly. He had chattered all the way to the store, deciding to go through them in a different order. Simon thought maybe mixing it up a bit might help. Alec didn't really see any fault in that…
He pointed out that Lekan's was the third, out of five. Simon had jumped at the idea, enthusiastically telling him again and again how great of an idea that was. It was a bit excessive, really, but it did make Alec smile slightly. He really didn't know how great it was, but it seemed as good of place as any to start.
They walked in the door, Alec spotting the owner at one of the jewelry counters. Torrance Lekan seemed a bit of an odd one. He was rather tall, and rather thin, with reddish blond, severally overly styled hair, and an overly precise, bordering on fussy air about him. He'd gotten rather annoyed when they'd been examining the crime scene, hovering around; convinced they would end up breaking something.
He'd seemed pretty nervous when they had interviewed him the last time, but everything they saw of him seemed to suggest that he was just a fairly nervous person in general. He looked up from his conversation with the customer, spotting them, seeming to startle. He gestured over to another employee to come take care of the customer and hurried over to meet them,
"Detectives? What are you doing back here? Have you found a lead?" he asked
Alec shook his head slightly
"No, Mr. Lekan, we haven't yet. We were hoping to have another look around, see if we can see anything we may have missed, if that is alright?"
He looked nervously around the store
"U-umm…well…I suppose that would be okay, so long as you don't break or damage anything. Though the store is open now, I can't have you bothering my customers and my employees and I are really quite busy, trying to recoup our losses from the brake-in, you understand…"
Alec gave a quick nod,
"Of course, we won't be a bother, just a few minutes, thank you for your cooperation, sir" Alec reassured him, turning to find Simon, who'd wandered away to another part of the store
"Hey, Alec look at this…" Simon called eagerly,
Alec sighed shaking his head. He really liked Simon, and his enthusiasm was usually pretty encouraging, but it seemed to be cranked up to eleven today. He supposed the guy was just happy, having everything with Raphael sorted, but geez, he seemed to be bouncing around like a puppy, Alec could barely keep up.
It was just way too much enthusiasm for one person…
"Hmm…what is it?" Alec asked curiously, glancing at the case Simon was standing next to that seemed to have caught his attention.
"Well…This was the only case that wasn't broken in to, wasn't it?"
Alec nodded
"Yeah…I wonder why they left this one alone."
Simon shrugged,
"I don't know, maybe we should ask one of the employees" he suggested, gesturing to a pretty young brunette cleaning one of the cases
Alec walked over to her
"Hello, excuse me, Miss, can I ask you a few questions?"
She glanced up at him with a perky, bright smile
"Oh, yeah, of course! Hi! I'm Annabelle, how can I help you?"
Wow, that was a LOT of energy…
"Umm…we were wondering about this case over here…" he said gesturing over to where Simon was standing
He saw them and gave a cheerful, slightly animated wave.
Annabelle returned it.
Oh, dear god, there were two of them…
They walked over to where Simon was standing
Simon turned to address her, smiling brightly,
"Hi, Miss…?"
"Annabelle"
"Oh, that's really pretty, nice to meet you Annabelle, I'm Detective Simon Lewis, and this is my partner, Head Detective Alec Lightwood" he introduced proudly
Her eyes lit up and she grinned, clapping her hands
"Aww! That's so cute! It's so awesome you get to work with your boyfriend. So, what were you guys looking for? Anything specific, or were you just browsing?"
Simons blushed brightly, shaking his head
"Oh! No, N-not that kind of partner, I mean like, work, detective type partner, not like, life partner…Not that I don't want one of those, but it wouldn't be him…
Not that there's anything wrong with him! Cause he's really great and is really attractive and all that, and he should totally have one of those too, just one that isn't me…
I just don't think of him like that and I know he doesn't think of me like that, well… I don't think he thinks of me like that, I hope he doesn't think of me like that, cause I have a boyfriend who I think I might think of like that but later on though cause it's WAY too soon to think like that and he'd kinda afraid of him which is…umm…Wait…What…?"
He trailed off, looking over at Alec. Alec just covered his eyes, shaking his head slightly. He glanced over at Annabelle.
She gave a quick nod,
"I got it; you're both gay, but not together, you have a boyfriend, he's single, you're work partners, and he's afraid of your boyfriend, right?"
Simon nodded gratefully
Alec gave her a kind of surprised look
She shrugged
"What? My girlfriend's a bit of a chatterbox too, I'm used to it."
Alec nodded, but added
"Okay, but I am not afraid of Raphael."
She tilted her head slightly
"Uh huh…So, if you're not here shopping what are you here for?"
Alec jumped in, before Simon could get going again,
"We're actually here working on the robbery from a few weeks ago and wanted to come and check a few things out."
She gave a slightly apologetic look, shaking her head faintly,
"Oh, well I really don't know how much help I could be with that. I actually just started a few days ago. I guess a few people left not too long after that."
"Really?" Alec asked, interested,
That seemed like it could mean something
She nodded quickly,
"Yeah, I guess two of them up and quit, like right after."
"Do you know who? Exactly"
She thought a minute, then shook her head
"Uhh…I really don't know for sure…I just know they quit, like right after, sorry." She trailed off with a slight shrug
Simon waived her off, giving her a reassuring smile,
"That's okay; we'll ask Mr. Lekan about it. We were actually kind of curious if you could tell us about the things in this case, it might help." Simon suggested
She nodded slightly, moving closer, looking in the case
"Hmm…Well, this is where he keeps most of the items we just got in. Why did you ask about it, specifically?"
Simon shrugged,
"Well, it's just this was the only case that they didn't break into and it seemed kind of unusual."
She looked surprised, giving a slight laugh,
"Well, that's kinda lucky, isn't it?"
Alec raised his eyebrow
"How do you mean?"
"Well, like I said, this is all the stuff we just got in, most of it's not insured yet, it has to be appraised and all that first. If they'd of taken this stuff it would have been a total loss, at least the stuff that was taken was all insured."
"Hmm…that is lucky" Alec said, considering-ly, raising his eyebrow at Simon, who gave a faint nod,
He glanced over towards where the owner was talking quietly with another employee.
"So…Umm, has the owner said anything about the brake in?" Simon asked
She shook her head,
"No, he didn't, he really hasn't said much about it at all. Just that hopefully he'd get the insurance money soon, and at least it would cover everything."
Simon nodded slightly, looking back at Alec
"Well, that actually worked out really well for him, didn't it?"
Annabelle looked a bit unsure
"Umm…It was, like a string of robberies, wasn't it? I mean, like you don't think he had something to do with it, do you?"
Simon gave a slightly apologetic look and shrug,
"Well, we don't really know anything yet… but honestly, you may want to look for another job."
She nodded, glancing over at Mr. Lekan,
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Well I should probably get back to work, otherwise he'll get suspicious. Look around, if you have any questions or whatever, just let me know, I really don't want to work for someone like that...Good luck, guys, nice meeting you."
She gave one more small wave, before drifting over towards another customer. Simon turned slightly, nodding towards the other side of the store, so they could talk a bit more privately, Alec gave a faint nod, following him over.
"So, what do you think?" Simon asked,
Alec gave a slight shrug, glancing over at Lekan
"I think he had something to do with it, but I don't know how that would tie into the others. I mean, I guess he could have heard of the other robberies and tried to make it look like he was hit too, for the insurance, maybe…
And if that's the case then maybe there's no connection to the other stores… It's a long shot, but it could be something. It might not solve all the cases, but it would be a big advancement just the same."
Simon nodded
"Yeah, that seems like a really solid theory"
He leaned against the wall, his hand nearly brushing the edge of a light fixture
"Hey! Don't touch that!" Lekan snapped, hurrying across the room towards them,
"Huh? Oh, sorry dude" Simon said apologetically
"Well, be careful! That's really delicate and I don't want you to break it!" he huffed,
Alec shook his head, putting his hand up placatingly,
"Sir, it's fine, he didn't touch the light, we did, however, have a few questions for you."
Alec said glancing back at the light, looking a bit closer at the fixture, just to be sure nothing was damaged. A slight glint caught his eye.
"Hey, what's that?" He asked,
"Nothing! I'm sure it's fine, let's just move over here and I'll answer your questions" Lekan said somewhat frantically
Alec leaned closer, carefully examining the fixture
"Is this another camera?" Alec asked
Lekan paled slightly, scratching nervously at his neck,
"Umm…Yeah, that's uh, that's just for a little extra protection, that's all, I don't really turn it on much, just every once in a while."
Alec raised his eyebrow, tilting his head,
"Like, say, after closing?"
"Umm…N-No, uh…well, sometimes…"
"Uh huh…And was it, by chance, working the night of the robbery?" Alec asked, folding his arms, staring the man down,
Lekan started to shake his head, fidgeting slightly, tugging at the sleeve of his suit jacket, glancing away,
"I-I don't think so, it-it was probably knocked out by the interference, I didn't even bother trying to check it"
He said nervously, he was sweating slightly, and looked almost ill. Alec gave a slow, considering nod,
"Well, we will have to check it, just to be sure, I'm sure you have nothing to worry about"
"I-I umm…I don't think I really want to do that…"
Alec quirked his eyebrow,
"Well, you can refuse, that is your right…and we can call the station and have an officer come down here while we go get a warrant, if you'd prefer?"
Lekan shook his head agitatedly, eyes wide, beginning to stammer, before giving a loud, aggravated huff,
"I-it, well, oh, fine…I never should have went along with it anyways, it was a stupid plan, those two are idiot's"
Alec froze
"Who are idiots?"
"Oh, Julian and Oberon, it was all there idea, the rest of us just came in later."
"The rest of you?" Alec asked slowly raising his eyebrow,
Lekan huffed again, rolling his eyes, shaking his head again, gesturing agitatedly,
"Yeah…See, Julian was getting behind on payments, the store just wasn't cutting it; he wanted the insurance money, but they'd been watching him like a hawk since a few years ago he ended up having a fire and a claim and they thought it was arson, so the insurance agency would look really closely at anything he filed.
Him and Oberon had been friends for years and Oberon got it in his head that if his store was hit first, then Julian's was just another target in a string of robberies it'd never be tracked back to them...
So they asked Zillah and he agreed to do one at his store too, you know, make them all look the same, well, Zillah told one of his employee's and he told one of my guys when he was meeting here, but they didn't know I had the camera so they didn't know I saw, so I approached them about it and they agreed to let me in too..."
Alec stared at him, slightly shocked
"So, all of you were in on it?"
Lekan huffed slightly
"Well, no…Jael wasn't; he's too straight-laced for that kinda thing. Ophelia, his girlfriend, actually set it up at his place, she wanted the extra money, and figured it wouldn't hurt anyone. She's Julian's sister, he told her about the plan, because we all thought it would be smart to have a place not linked to any of us."
Alec shook his head, holding a finger up, trying to be absolutely certain what he was hearing,
"Okay, so just so I have this straight; you four, along with this Ophelia, plotted together to rob your own businesses and make it look like a string of break-ins to throw off the cops, to get the insurance money figuring that no one would be the wiser?"
Lekan nodded
A quick flash of something popped into Alec's memory, something from one of the files, that seemed really similar to something he'd just seen in one of the cases,
He tilted his head, curiously raising his eyebrow,
"So who's idea was it to sell things from the other robberies in the other stores?"
Simon turned to him with a look of amazement and pride,
Lekan shrugged, flushing slightly,
"Well, that was mine. The other's thought we should just wait for a while, till the case fizzled out a bit, then do it, but I got kind of impatient. See I had a client looking for something just like what I got from Oberon's so I just decided to put a few of them out early."
Alec shook his head, giving a slight laugh,
"Well…Mr. Lekan, you probably should have listened to them…" he reached for his cuffs
"Torrance Lekan, you are under arrest, you have the right to remain silent…"
Simon tried to hide his grin as Alec went through reading Lekan his rights, before quickly radioing into the station to have officers go to the other locations and pick up the remaining suspects
He'd done it! Alec had solved the case, he really had no idea they'd helped! Well, he knew Simon was there, obviously, but so far as Alec knew Alec was the one who found the leads, he'd found the suspect, he'd found the evidence…
He'd even got a full confession! That wasn't even part of the plan!
Simon quickly looked around the shop, spotting Annabelle, he gestured quickly for her to come over.
"Hey, Annabelle, do you know where the security feed goes?"
She nodded,
"Yeah, it's in the back room," she pointed towards a nondescript door,
"Thanks" He said, just as a couple uniformed officers came in the door, approaching them
Simon recognized them from the station right away. Officers Phineas and Wayans, they were the biggest gossips at the station,
They couldn't have planned this better if they'd tried…
"Hi Detective Lewis, Detective Lightwood" Wayans greeted
Simon smiled brightly,
"Hey, thanks for getting here so quickly guys. We're going to take the suspect down to the station. Can you guys get statements from all of the employee's? Also, the footage from the wireless camera Detective Lightwood found in the light over there? It should have footage of the robbery in progress.
Plus, can you please make sure they get the feeds from the store for about the last half hour? I'm pretty sure detective Lightwood actually got a full confession of the crime, and we have it on video, I think he pretty much wrapped everything up perfectly on this one."
The officer's eyes widened faintly, they nodded shooting impressed, faintly amazed looks at Alec.
"Of course, detective Lewis" Phineas said before turning to Alec
"That's truly remarkable work, Detective"
Simon grinned proudly, clasping Alec on the shoulder
"Yeah, I know, what can I say? My partner's the best; there's a reason he's head detective." he boasted,
Alec blushed slightly, trying to hide a smile, But Simon caught it. He crossed his arms to keep from doing anything stupid, suspicious or embarrassing, like a fist pump or really uncoordinated victory dance,
But it was a close thing…
He couldn't help it, this turned out so much better than he'd expected. They had the suspects, they had the evidence, and, hopefully, with any luck, Alec would have his confidence back.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* _End Of Chapter Notes_ *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*Name Game:
Torrace: Soft or Tender
Lekan- My Wealth Is Growing
Ophelia- Serpent
Phineas: Brazen Mouth
Wayans: Immature
Annabelle- Adorable
O36O
*-*-*-*-*-*-*- MagnusBane:PsychicDetective*-*-*-*-*-*-*-