"You, Me, Whipped Cream and Handcuffs. Any questions?" Deputy Sachs interrogated dreamily to the pastry in his hand as he stood in the almost empty Balboa County Sheriff's Department during lunch hour. It was quiet, and often the rest of his team were out doing patrols around the High School and usual tourist hot spot locations where pickpockets liked to operate along the boardwalk. All part of the city councils new 'Safer at any time of the day' initiative after the brutal slaying of a local college student a week ago. It also meant that he had been left alone to man the phones because it was Deputy D'Amato's day off.
"Interrupting something?" Keith smiled in greeting as he held the most recent bail jumper by the cuffs. Habitual pothead. A con, a liar, a thief and a fraud. Garrett Dixon was the last member of the gang who had been robbing the Neptune Grand Hotel and the Serenity Inn.
"Oh… hey Sheriff! I—I mean Keith… Mr Mars" Sachs smiled nervously as he returned the donut to the small plate beside his computer and went to the reception desk.
Deputy Sachs wasn't a tough cop… but he was a good cop…
With a history rooted in scandal, Keith Mars wasn't exactly thrilled to be back in the town of Neptune's Sheriff Department. He remembered all too well what it was like to be tabloid fodder but it was also the only way to get the cases signed off officially so he could get paid.
"Hey Deputy" Keith smiled as he handed over the appropriate paperwork and Sachs called through to Deputy Lionel Cooper to come and collect the latest prisoner for processing, and a few minutes later two of the Deputy's came in from being out the back.
"Keith… how are you?" Deputy Cooper greeted as he sported a wide grin on his face.
"Commiserating… I saw in the paper this morning that approval came through for the demolition of Shark Stadium from the City Planning Commission. Damn shame" he sighed, shaking his head as Cooper took hold of the paperwork from Sachs and Deputy Duke White grabbed the suspect by the arm and handed over a new set of cuffs to Keith from his belt, he was a chubby little fellow with ginger hair and always smelled like some kind of processed sweet snack food.
Officer Twinkie is what the PCH Motorcycle Club junior members called him…
"Yeah… although it's not like there's been much worth cheering them on for ever since Fairchild traded out to the San Francisco Giants" Deputy Cooper countered before he took hold of Garrett's other arm and he was taken off towards the interrogation room and evidence processing.
"This is true!" Keith nodded.
"Uhh Keith… since you are here… that footage you requested came through today" Deputy Sachs said as he went to the export box and began to rifle through the contents.
"The CCTV footage from the Neptune Galaxy Resort?" Keith asked eagerly, he had been waiting for the release of the footage from Daisy's murder for almost a week now. His lunch yesterday with his friend Nadia Harper from the County's Medical Office had provided him with a copy of the coroner's report for her autopsy that was safely tucked away in his box labelled Playboys and not in the safe in the Mars Investigations Office for Veronica to go snooping through.
"And from the City Network Surveillance Systems" the deputy nodded.
"Thanks Reggie, this… this is appreciated" Keith said quietly. He knew that although he was a private investigator, access to the Neptune Network of Surveillance Systems was strictly controlled and it was probably something that Deputy Leo D'Amato had done without Sheriff Lamb's knowledge. Corruption was bad inside the police department, but there were still the few members of staff on the payroll who respected him enough to pull some strings and look the other way when needed. He really hoped there was something in these tapes that could help him because this recent case had him stumped.
The detective slid the package into his satchel and took the confirmation of apprehension slip from the deputy and tucked it into his jacket. He would have to hide these someplace where his daughter wouldn't see them, she was struggling to overcome her life's memories… the only reason he had allowed her back into the office in recent days was because he'd been unable to figure out the new filing system that had been implemented in recent months.
I want my daughter out of this life…
"You forget your office isn't in here anymore Mars?" Sheriff Lamb asked as he returned, snacking on an apple as he wandered through the doors. Deputy Sachs looked immediately uncomfortable and started to put things back into the export box and shuffling through papers to look busy. "I know… Cops, Cakes and Coffee.. Real Police work… nothing like that playing detective you get up to lately" he chided, puffing his chest up in front of his macho buddies, Deputy Briar and Ryan as they snickered and headed towards the staff entrance towards the break room.
"No Donnie… just doing my civic duty… solving a few crimes… closing up a few cases… you should try it sometime… does wonders for the complexion" Keith smiled sarcastically. His relationship with his replacement had always been wrought with tension, before the emergency recall Election that lost his position as Sheriff. Keith had been trying to remove the crooked Deputy Lamb from his department due to his involvement in the drug cartel he suspected he had been feeding information to before arrests could be made. He'd always suspected that Lamb had been the one to release the crime scene footage of Lilly Kane's murder… but he'd never been given the chance to prove it.
"Yeah well it couldn't have been much better than your sleeping on the job…" Lamb retorted and threw the discarded apple into the trash can beside the door.
"As opposed to just sleeping with the Victims… and ignoring their murders" Keith seethed and he watched as the other man bristled. Tough, wary, Keith felt like the walking wounded, the loss of his intern was still too raw of emotional baggage, he had thought with this latest arrest he would finally get some answers… but there had been no connection to the Galaxy Resort Hotel and the thieves he had been investigating with Daisy were part of a high stakes gambling syndicate that was pulling the strings.
He still didn't know why she'd been in that part of town… whatever it was… he knew she was on the trail of something that involved deceit, secrets and risk-taking.
"Daisy Blossom was the victim of an unfortunate mugging gone wrong… Should have gone to see the Wizard Mars… asked for a new Magic 8 ball… then you wouldn't be stuck doing the job of disproving all these Charlatans and Psychic Mediums" the Sheriff snarled.
"She's the victim of an incompetent Sheriff" Keith countered, trying his best to keep his professional cool.
"Incompetent FORMER Sheriff... Careful Mars… someone might mistake you as a former lawman carrying a badge...and a grudge" the younger man warned. "It's not like she was some helpless weak defenceless simpering maiden in need of rescuing… she was a grown girl with a thing for cartoon pyjamas… and what did anyone really expect? She had a hard upbringing and wanted better for herself rather than end up trapped in the horrors she witnessed growing up. It's a vicious cycle. A young woman.. a good girl who falls for a no good biker who becomes her knight in leather. Danger, violence, drugs, abuse… running with all the wrong kinds of people… even in High School… it becomes an unsafe environment" he taunted and it was then Keith knew that it was useless expecting any help from the Balboa County Sheriff.
It was no secret that Daisy had past traumas that had still haunted her, her upbringing hadn't been easy. She'd been raised by her mother's best friend Lucinda Grimes after her death when she'd been 14 years old and she had never known her father. Professionally and privately and had absorbed herself in being the balance in a shady town like Neptune, to say Keith was usually closed off was an understatement. Watching your Wife disappear into a bottle before vanishing, abandoning him along with their teenage daughter, having his friends and colleagues turn from him and losing everything had that effect. Daisy had a way of piercing his armour… of getting through to Veronica in a way that he hadn't been able to manage since the death of Lilly Kane. She'd crept into his chest, and now this town was trying to bury the truth of what had happened to her all because it would affect the bottom line?
Although they loathed the thought of working together, these circumstances should be compelling them to join forces but instead Sheriff Lamb was more than happy to bow to the Mayor's pressure to just rule it out as an unfortunate mugging gone wrong and pin the blame onto someone like Winston Livingstone, the chief suspect in a yacht robbery that occurred shortly after the time of her death, even though both men knew in their gut that he was innocent. The Lines blurred in Neptune, it was a complicated little web of pretty little lies and ugly truths that the brutal slaying of a local college student… only mattered to the privileged elite when it affected the admission numbers and the local tourist trade.
It hadn't mattered that Daisy and Donald Lamb had been having a romantic liaison for the last few months. Danger, greed, lies and corruption within the power structure of Neptune it always amazed the Elder Mars that such a strong, muscly, powerful man who looked every bit like some kind of Disney Prince was too much of a coward to do anything about it… they were conflicting forces grappling for that knockout punch. Lamb swallowed hard under his former mentor's hard gaze… Keith Mars had been a decorated Officer before his little coup, but an investigation like that would for him to tread the thin line between what he felt for her, and his duties as an officer. She'd been hot as hell the night he and Deputy D'Amato were the officers to respond after she accidentally tripped the security system while closing up the Legal Aid Firm Offices where she was doing her work placement. It had been until a few nights later that he had met her again at a house party Deputy Myers had thrown using the kegs confiscated after that underage rager in the Gant residence.
There had been smoking hot chemistry and flirty sexual discovery but it didn't matter. Some battles just couldn't be won and he wasn't about to leave behind the safety net of his beloved city... Men like Keith Mars were fighting a losing battle... it was adapt or die...
"Now if you don't mind Mars… I got to get back to keep the community safe" Don Lamb grumbled before the other man could respond and headed off to his office.
"Safe? Is that what you call it?" Keith called after him.
How did a fiercely intelligent girl like Daisy get involved with Neptune's Finest Example of a Douchebag like Donald Lamb?