Cops! John and Dave

The fleeting moments of consciousness were a lover's kiss, the hazy, muffled moments of voices and flashing lights. A burning taste filled my mouth as the flashing lights filtered through my eyes, I could hear far of voices and the ground thumped with the booming music people no doubt either dancing, mourning at the bar, or grappled together in a dark corner. The pungent smell of hormones and alcohol melded with sadness that hung in the air like a life line.

I wanted to get up but it was if I couldn't move my limbs, they were like heavy pieces of lead that only pushed me down rather than supporting me as they would usually do so. I closed my eyes, and felt the vibrations running through the wooden floor, my tongue was thick and deemed useless as it no doubt rolled around in my mouth the scalding taste of whiskey and bourbon was the last thing that I managed to recognize even in the half-dead drunk state I seemed to be in, drowning in alcohol, drowning in sorrow.

My eyelashes were long and brushed my cheeks as I closed my eyes, one last time.

Getting called out to a club was not what he had signed up for when he decided to be a cop; he had come in searches of femme (He'd go male at this point) fatale, explosions, corruption, exclusion, unveiling, locked room murder, and of course he had always wanted a cheesy love story. A couple of years ago he had it all planned out, he didn't want to be staring at the dead bodies of some alcoholic on what was supposed to be his off day.

"So why call me out? It's just some alcoholic, maybe a druggie maybe an accident I can give you those, the only strange thing is the white eyelashes." He had to admit the woman was probably beautiful when she was alive. Short brown hair curled up around her narrow but rounded face, plump lips and cinnamon eyes which were decidedly then pulled open, no doubt to check for any possible evidence. Poison did sometimes mess with the eyes.

"Retinal toxicity from hydroxychloroquine is rare, but even if the medication is discontinued, vision loss may be irreversible and may continue to progress. It is imperative that patients and physicians are aware of and watch for this drug's ocular side effects. And before treatment is initiated with hydroxychloroquine, a complete ophthalmic examination should be performed to determine any baseline maculopathy." Turning to his partner he raised an eyebrow.

"On examination, a telltale sign of hydroxychloroquine toxicity is a bilateral change in the retinal pigment epithelium of the macula that gives the commonly described appearance of a bull's-eye. This is a late finding, however, and too late for screening to be useful." The man walked over sunglasses dangling on the edge of his nose, he quickly pushed them up the sloping arch.

"Right?" He didn't know as much about poisons as Dave did an unnatural amount but he trusted his partner's input and the target that was imprinted in her eyes was obvious, small black rings unnaturally spread from her wide pupils. "That seems just about right, but anyone could have slipped her something…do we have cameras?" When he saw the man shake his head he felt a looming sense of frustration.

"Your cousins a jerk ya' know, bossing you around to impossible cases 'cause he's the boss isn't fair…" The blonde haired took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair a moment. "S' just rude, gives something for us to do at least, and this might take a while…"

"How do we know this wasn't random and we can't track them down?" Dave let out a puffy laugh before responding. "She was completely clean, but slipping hydroxychloroquine into a drink seems pretty purposeful to me considering she takes a medicine for mild schizophrenia that just happens to be Thioridazine which also reacts badly with alcohol the three together is a trip DOWN, and I would say that the bartender saw another guy chatting her up all night, a guy who she seemed to know and recognize who she tried to avoid; a guy who was last seen with her and left only a couple minutes after the presumed time of death."

"She was a schizophrenic?" His partner turned to him with an unbelieving look on his face. "You are not surprised I said that in almost one breath, you're not amazed by the fact that I gathered all that information without looking online….all you care about is if she was schizophrenic, but yeah she was it never caused much though she's taken meds for it since she was little and it never caused anything."

"Well that scenario sure does seem purposeful, I have to guess she doesn't just tell people she's a schizophrenic you'd have to know her to do that, and from my understanding hydro-c just causes eyesight damage normally."

"Yeah, now let's go ask the bartender a couple more questions."

"Can you describe the man?" The bartender was a wiry man, tall and slender. He had a narrowing face and whittled eyes that seemed deep in thought with his white hair he looked more like a respectable rich man from the west side and less like someone who lived in the eastern slums. "I didn't see much of him, just that he had a large intricate set of tattoos on his arms, like some ancient tomb or something like that ya' know, real weird." Jotting the notes down he returned to ask another question.

"Is this all?"

"No he had very…frizzy hair, he might've been a troll, he was pretty tall and I think he might've had yellow eyes, grey skin, it's just…the lighting obscured my vision. Oh yeah, he also had this weird…clown thing on his jacket, he was like…I'm not sure about this, but the clothes, were, or at least seemed to be, bright purple."

Nodding he grabbed his bag and gestured for Dave to do the same. "Well I'll keep in touch if you remember anything else, please call."

Walking out with the new knowledge they were ready, ready to tackle this case head on.

This is all unchecked so if you see anything please review and tell me.