Chapter 47

"Why are you arresting her?" the blond woman asked. "She's the one that saved me from that, that monster."

"It's protocol ma'am," Lieutenant Marvin Branagh sighed. "We've got to investigate any signs of this for evidence that she didn't just murder him after saving you."

"I know how this works, Marvin," Jill said as she set her Samurai Edge down. "I'm not going to make it hard on you."

"Thank you," Marvin said with a sigh as he signaled for Kevin Ryman to cuff the STARS member. "I promise I'll see to it that this investigation is done right."

"There's a maintenance room down that way," Jill nodded her head down the sewer tunnels. "You might want to check out what's in there as well."

"Noted," Marvin replied as he actually pulled out a notebook and began writing details down. "I need CSI to get down here and start piecing the scene together. Ryman, I want you to take Jill down to the Precinct and ensure she gets a cell alone. I then want you to guard her until I relieve you personally. I don't want anything to go missing or wrong here."

"Got you," Ryman said as he escorted the woman to his patrol car. "I'll make sure she gets out of here safe."

"I'll let Mark know what happened here," Alice told Jill as she got into the patrol car. "You want me to pass along a message?"

"Nah," Jill shook her head. "I'll tell him myself when he posts bail."

"Alright detective," Marvin said as he knelt down, gloves on his hands. "Walk me through what happened here."

"Looks like Valentine followed Irons down here," the detective started. "I've got her bootprints in the dust over there. "They then walked down that way," the detective indicated the scrape marks on the concrete. "And found the room that my partner is currently going through. They probably heard the struggle and prevented Irons from raping the blond. From there, it gets a bit fuzzy. Irons has a knife in his hand, and it looks like he tried to move while Valentine was holding him at gunpoint. She probably didn't see the weapon, but given how much larger Irons is, it wouldn't have mattered. She shot him once, center mass, no exit wound, so she was probably using hollow points. I'll have to get forensics down here for a better picture of everything, but it doesn't look like this favors the late Chief at all."

"I'll get a judge to pull a warrant on the Chief's home," Marvin said as he sighed heavily. "If those bodies are any indication, it looks like we've found the source of the murders that started last month."

"I thought I said not to get into any trouble," I said to Jill as I sat down across the glass from her.

"What can I say?" Jill asked with a shrug and a smile. "It must be my magnetic personality."

"Must be," I snarked back. "You're going to have to spend a few nights in lockup while they sort out the case though."

"I know," Jill replied. "Marvin's had round-the-clock security on me just in case someone tries to do anything."

"Good," I said with a smile. "Just make sure it's people that you actually trust. I'm not sure some of the cops around here are trustworthy."

"Right now it's rotating between Kevin and Aaron," Jill said with a shrug. "I know those two at least are trustworthy enough to not try anything."

"Just keep your head on a swivel," I said as one of the officers signaled that my time was up. "I don't want to have to go and avenge your death or anything."

"Just make sure that they actually find the evidence that exonerates me," Jill stated. "I don't want to be stuck in here."

"I'll do what I can," I said as I stood up. "You be careful in there."

–

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"Thanks for meeting me," Acting Chief Douglas Raymond said as I entered his office. "I wanted to extend an offer to you now that Chief Irons is no longer able to prevent me from doing so."

"What's the offer?" I asked, my arms crossed.

"I want to offer you your job back, we're in desperate need of people who know what they're doing," Douglas replied. "And we're willing to offer an immediate bonus if you're willing to step in and do the job."

"I'm currently guarding Raccoon City Elementary School," I replied. "While I would like to accept the offer, I also don't want to leave the kids unguarded."

"I'll assign or hire a new guard myself," Chief Raymond said. "I've freed up a large portion of our budget now that we're not spending money on useless art projects or artifacts."

"I want someone who's actually good at their job then," I said firmly. "No one who'll leave at the first opportunity to do something else."

"I'll see what I can do," Raymond sighed. "I'm offering a two grand bonus if you rejoin the department in the next few days, we've got SWAT operators who need their medic back on the job."

"Let me speak to the principal," I said. "I'll have a response for you tomorrow at the latest."

"Thank you," Chief Raymond replied. "We're trying to get things worked out in the Irons investigation ASAP so we can extend the same offer to Valentine," the man looked exhausted for a moment. We're drowning here, and Chief Irons seems to have been making things worse instead of working to improve them."

"I'll head over and discuss things with the Principal now," I replied. "I'll have an answer for you tomorrow."