Notes:
Warning about implied domestic violence.
Dark chapter, if not your thing please skip it. I promise next chapter will be lighter.
Hernandez hated these types of suspects, they always thought they were smarter than everyone else.
"Mr. Cooper."
"Doctor Cooper."
"Right. Dr. Cooper." Hernandez sighed in annoyance while sharing a look with his partner. Anderson looked ready to throw this guy in a cell as well. "We just need you to tell us if you know the location of Leonard Hofstadter."
"Cooperating with us will go a long way Mr. Cooper." Anderson added, while her good looks and smooth voice usually endeared her to the suspects, on this occasion it seemed to have the opposite effect.
"I'm not Mr. Cooper. I'm Dr. Cooper." The suspect narrowed his eyes and ground out.
"Of course, my apologies. Dr. Cooper, do you know the location of Leonard Hofstadter? You were one of the last people that saw him." Hernandez thought that Anderson was being too soft. Security cameras show that Dr. Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter were the last two people in the Physics wing of the university that Friday night. Leonard and Dr. Cooper were seen entering in the morning and only Dr. Cooper left late at night.
There were security cameras at every entrance but sadly none inside the actual building.
"Could you please loosen these?" Dr. Cooper lifted his handcuffed hands. "I bruise easily."
Hernandez had enough and he slammed both hands against the interrogation table. Anderson flinched but Dr. Cooper remained calm. "Okay, that's it you son of a bitch! You clearly know something and you're going to tell us or I swear that you will never see the light of day again!"
"I know something? Well that's true. I know that I had my right to make a call. Which I did, and now we're just wasting time until someone with more authority comes and lets me go." Dr. Cooper looked bored as he boasted that.
Anderson laughed and Hernandez knew that she had switched from good cop to worse cop. "I'll enjoy seeing you break." True venom in her voice.
Dr. Cooper blinked at her. "Detective Hernandez." It was creepy that he addressed him while looking at someone else. "Allow me to tell you something that I know."
"Go ahead smartass." Hernandez spit out.
"Did you know that last year, in 2015, in just one day there were over 2000 adults and children seeking support due to being victims of domestic violence? Less than 50% of those cases received timely support. And in those cases that do make it to court, over 75% of them fail to receive a restraining order in the first hearing."
Hernandez turned to look at Anderson and saw that she looked as confused as he felt.
"Don't you think it's disgraceful that 35% of women in California suffer from some form of abuse? That's 1 in every 3 women." Dr. Cooper shook his head in disgust.
"Dr. Cooper, what are you-"
"1 in 4 women suffer severe physical violence from their romantic partner and only about 30% seek medical attention for their injuries."
Hernandez felt like the shoe was dropping, he turned to look at Anderson and she pointed at the file in her hands.
Leonard Hofstadter had been dating his neighbor until she requested police intervention due to violence. The responding officer claimed it was a lover's quarrel and refused to detain Leonard.
"Dr. Cooper…is…was?..." Anderson didn't have the words and she turned to him for help.
"Dr. Cooper. Sheldon. Was your roommate abusing his girlfriend?"
Dr. Copper glanced at his wrists and ignored his question. "Intimate partner violence accounts for 15% of all violent crime. Isn't that a ridiculous number?"
Anderson was reading Leonard's file in more detail. The cops were called a second time on Leonard, this time because of stalking. His ex-girlfriend claimed that Leonard was harassing her at work.
Once again the police failed to act.
"Dr. Cooper…what did you do?" Anderson didn't sound angry, just shocked.
The door opening suddenly prevented Dr. Cooper from answering.
"This interview is over." A rough looking guy wearing an FBI windbreaker entered the room and turned off the recording. "We're taking over this case. I'm agent Cohle and that's my partner, agent Hart." He pointed towards a smirking older man that entered the interrogation room.
"Now, hold on a minute!" Hernandez tried to protest but agent Hart shoved a bunch of papers in his hands.
Agent Cohle removed the handcuffs from Dr. Cooper and the man rubbed at his wrists while grimacing a little.
Hernandez skimmed the contents of the papers and then passed them over to Anderson.
"Dr. Cooper. Your friend is waiting for you, we took the liberty of calling them."
"Thank you agent Cohle." Dr. Copper glanced at Hernandez and gave him a short nod before moving towards the exit.
"Everything's in order." Anderson muttered low at him.
"That man is a suspect in a missing person's case!" He yelled at the FBI agents once Dr. Cooper left the room.
"We'll take your concerns into consideration for our investigation. Now, drop it before you suddenly find yourself without a pension." Cohle told him bluntly.
"We'll also be taking everything you have on Dr. Cooper." Hart added still with that smirk on his face.
Hernandez wanted to tell them to go to hell but he thought of his children, of his bad knee and about how close he was to finally pay off the mortgage. "Goddamn it." He spat out and moved to go smoke a cigarette on the rooftop.
He didn't need to look to know that Anderson was following him.
Once at the rooftop he struggled to light his cigarette until Anderson did it for him. He was shaking in anger and impotence.
"Look." Anderson leaned against the wall and pointed towards the parking lot.
Taking a drag of his cigarette he did just that and saw Dr. Cooper and a blonde girl talk as they walked towards a car.
The girl suddenly turned and even as far away as they were, both Anderson and Hernandez couldn't mistake the yellow-green bruise that adorned half the girl's face.
Hernandez sighed and crushed the cigarette under his shoe. "Let it go Anderson."
"But we know he did it!" She argued.
"Did what? There's no body, no evidence, no crime scene, no confession…we got nothing."
"So we're just supposed to let go?"
"Yes. You don't want the feds as your enemy. Trust me."
"I…This isn't why I joined the state police."
"Think of your kid, Anderson. You don't want her to live in a world where you're behind bars."
Anderson sighed. "This is bullshit."
"Another day, another dime." Hernandez moved to head back into the building. He was getting too old for this shit.
"But…" Anderson started and he turned to look at her. She was looking at where Dr. Cooper and the girl had been. "But I guess that I can understand why Dr. Cooper did it, if some asshole touched my daughter I truly don't know how I would react." A conflicted look on her face as she turned to face him.
"I know. I don't…I don't know either."
"I thought growing up would mean things would get easier…what a fucking joke." She spat and moved to follow him.
"Tomorrow is another day."