Gathering the Pieces...

[dorian]

Dorian got the call and the text. He fought with himself on whether he could be removed enough to do the job. He knew that it was Steves address. He sat looking at his laptop as several zip files of information popped up in his mailbox from Steve. Sighing he waited for the files to download completely and saving them to a thumbdrives. Finally sure that the information was downloaded he hid them and rushed out of his house. He prayed that Steve had pulled off another oneof his miracles. As the knot in his stomach went form cotton to granite he knew that he was wrong. He began praying that Steve had scooted across the boundary of the pearly gates before the devils that haunted him caught up. Dorian took a few minutes in his car to compose himself as the circus of the crime scene steves house was in full three ring mode. He spotted Cord and Chance and Rayvan and Takanashita. But he also saw the supposed doctor that Takanshita had his meeting with. It made his bile rise. Maybe Steve was right they were everywhere. Damn no good preternaturals stinking up even the foulest stenches. Choking back the hate that squeezed his heart Dorian got out of the car and made his way over to the team flashing his badge to get pass the barricade. He made his way over to Chance as he and Cord began making his way to the remnants of the building that had been Steves house. "Sorry for being late captain. Hey Chance. What do we have was Steve inside?" Their answer now would determine whether he could stay on his feet.As it was Dorian was barely standing. There was no way a fire like this could have happened and trapped anyone inside without foul play. He knew that those damn monsters had done this. Steve may not have been his assigned partner but he was more of a partner than Jay had been and more than he thought anyone else could be. If he was inside he would all out lose it. But he had to know. He had spotted his car but he hadn't seen him. Maybe with any luck he was in one of the buses that had pulled away. He knew it was a foolish hope but it was all he had.

[Deleted]

Cord watched as Blackstone strolled through the barricade. He was haggard looking. Cord knew it was moments before the man collapsed. Damn. He felt a bit guilty for having thought badly of the man. Even as he was berating himself Cord couldn't help shake the feeling that Dorian knew something. It was more than likely nothing but he couldn't lose the feeling that Dorian whether he knew it or not had some information that was pertinent to the fire.

Nodding to Chance Cord moved to Blackstone side. throwing his arm over his shoulder brotherly, to pull him further away from the building. It would do him no good to go into the building. "Its bad Dorian. Chance has the initial walk through. Tell me what was Steve working on. You were his partner for so long you'd know him better than anyone."

[chance]

Chance took the nod and ran with it, walking up to the ranking in the fire department and conferring with him in hushed tones. They moved off together, Chance tugging off his gloves. This was gonna be bad, and he knew it, but there was nothing for it but to do it. He steeled himself, knowing that he had to hide whatever reaction he got from reading the scene.

They stopped at several points as the fire captain showed him the signs of arson and the care that had been taken to assure that no one escaped. This scene had Max all over it, the same feel as he'd gotten from the mirror in the bathroom at McDonalds. And, when he got to the half collapsed floor where Crusinski's apartment was, his hands shook as he touched the blackened crumbling walls. Yeah, Crusinski had been in there. So had Jay. And Crusinski had been looking at... No, it had been Jay who had been looking at the pictures all over the walls. God, what had been going on here and how had Max known about it?

Swallowing hard to force down the stomach that threatened to rebel, Chance and the fire captain moved off, checking the rest of the building. It wasn't pleasant. By the time they finished and Chance moved back toward the others, his face was ashen pale.

[sales]

D'arcangelo didn't like getting involved but he knew intimately the burden of such strains. It was obvious that the Detective was going to have a rough time. He knew that by lending aid unasked for he would be bound closer to the detective but sometimes being human meant taking the lumps. He affixed his credentials about his neck and strolled through the barricade. using the growing chaos of the scene to remain mostly unnoticed. He shielded himself from Takanashita in an effort to keep from becoming even more personally embroiled in the mess of this place. It would help some but once he offered aid he would be up to his eyes in whatever came of this.

Looking to all the world like any number of the gathered officers he moved surefootedly through the periphery. It was one of the greatest most underestimated acts of concealment.. Acting as if you belonged. As most of the officers had seen him at various crime scenes their first instinct would be that he belonged. It would be the new officers that might question him. Even those with his credentials apparent they'd only do a peremptory check. Mykael was not above using their newness and a few well timed name drops to remove them from his path.

He could feel the death of the place even through his shields. Unbidden the events of the various shades and specters of the place came to him petitioning him by means of exemplifying their deaths. It always hit him hard how much death was wrought in this world. He would head back to his sanctum and mystically scrub the stench from himself. First however he would do what he could.

Moving into the shadow of the Detective and the Fire Marshall as they entered the building Mykael closed all but the most necessary of his spiritual eyes. The bombardment of death frustration and grief was nearly overwhelming. Once he saw that the detective was a talent he retreated to a safe distance. His essence would skew whatever he was picking up from the scene. He'd wanted to help but if he got too close he would through at the barest minimum a false trail into he detectives way. Waiting patiently for the detective and the Fire Marshall to emerge Mykael fell into step with them. The fire marshall was a lifer and had known of D'arcangelo for some six or so years he didn't bother wasting his breath he merely nodded a gruff hello.

Mykael saw that the effects of the building were wearing heavily on the detective. He knew he shouldn't but he pushed a bit of his reserves toward the detective as he introduced himself. "Detective Mayhew I'm Consultant D'arcangelo. Is there anyway I can offer my assistance?" Extending his gloved hand he expected the man to not bother with niceties but old habits died hard.

[Deleted]

sabin was taken aback by the sterio effect of the woman's voice both inside and outside his head. the muscles in his jaw flexed slightly into a small smile.

"i see. to be honest i assume he wanted me to review and process scene and tell me what i thought. "

sabin thought about a myrid of possible reasons that he could be there but he knew why and she could guess why. sabin understood she was a psy of some type but which one was the issue. he thought his next answer.

you can call him if you want, but if you do tell him i said hello. also he owes me a cold one.

sabin began speak out loud again just so that if anyone was listening there would be no silences or breaks in conversation.

"while my expertise is in the medical field, my interest are as varied as the snowflakes in a snowstorm."

what do you really know about what happened here because of your link to hiero ill fill you in what what i could gather so far. im going against my nature but i know i can trust him.

sabin pulled his phone and texted hiero three fast words wolfbean friend foe while he waited for a response to know how far to extend his help.

[rayvan]

Rayvan let just the corners of her mouth tilt upward as she noticed his smile, she had gotten his attention anyway. She knew by his thoughts of Hiero that he was more than just a friend to her mate they were more like brothers, family. Mate? She couldn't really be considered his mate could she? She would have to ask him at some point but that wasn't what she needed to be focusing one right now.

She nodded to Sabin's words, "So you know Tak then? How well?" She wondered why she even bothered asking that, it wasn't pertinent to the case but she thought she might be able to get a bit of incite. Could she tell Sabin that she didn't trust Tak? She would have to talk to Hiero first before she made that determination.

Oh, I can do that. Will I be invited for the cold one? Her eyes danced with the silent conversation going on behind the verbal. "So you're a doctor? What kind and if you don't mind my asking what other interests?" She had a feeling he was a shifter already, she just wasn't exactly sure which kind.

What I can gather so far is that not one but two of our department were in that building. Someone deliberately set it afire and trapped every single soul inside. I just don't know who yet or why. She watched him text something and wondered who he was sending it to, only for a moment though as Hiero once more floated to the top of his mind.

"So have you got everything you needed from here? I'll walk with you back to your car, get you out of the barricade easier maybe."

[Deleted]

"that would be most helpful detective a pleasent stroll to the car. "

sabin spoke aloud whil continuing the conversation in his head he thought tak is a business deal and assoiciate.

"as far as what happened here it was an obvious case of arson to..."

sabin's blackberry vibrated to life "one moment please." he saind as he looked at the screen from behind it's plastic case. reading the text he returned back to the detective.

this was done by a very powerful being detective. not a 'lycan' or vamp. be extremely careful. tak will not say so because he feels he can deal with him, but watch yourself around Max your comrades had to be ambushed which is how he did it. need to see some footage to make sure but something is not adding up yet. toren the mob under boss seemes to have helped a ambush by being a get away driver. it doesn't add up

sabin mind reeled at the thought of how close this psy detective was to the violence of their world. she walked way to close to so many different dangers. that one day someone would come after her.

"sure let heiro know and we can have an outing. have him call me on this number."

sabin passed her a card "have him call me." it seemed innocent enough that he would pass her a card, but sabin assumed that she followed the clues and that he would fill in more details when less people were around.

[chance]

Chance looked up at D’arcangelo’s words. He had been considering what he had discovered and the more he thought about it, the more it bothered him. It was Max, of that he was sure, but why? And what, if anything, did this have to do with the Arcadian that Max had ‘killed’? What was Max’s game?

He stuck his hand out and shook the Consultant’s. “Glad to meet you. Just what, exactly, do you consult on?” He wasn’t unfriendly, but he was tired; though, to be honest, he felt a bit better just as D’archangelo approached. “Sorry. It looks like we lost two of our own in there.” Chance shook off the residuals of the vision and took a good look at the man. First a Fed, now a consultant. Was the squad under that much scrutiny?

[tolow47]

With Sabin and the other officer's kicking in, and the fire being put out, Tak wanted to work the damage control angle. Without some quick band-aid patch up work this case, and the whole department would be under investigation. Tak went over to Ms. Sikorski and told her that a the number one suspect Max Logan is believed to be the cause of the fire. She gave her a simple MO and picture of Max. Tak made it very clear that she owed him a huge favor, and she was to do it for him, as long as she wasn't in danger.

Tak talked to the general media. What he gave them was two RPIT Officer's were missing possibly suspected to be in the fire. The cause of the fire is unknown at this time. RPIT is looking in on a possible homicide, no further information would be available until a full fledged investigation by the fire department is conducted. A head RPIT Officer will conduct a media conference to give an update when the department is ready.

With that Tak walked over to Chance. "This is our guy, this stinks of Max's dirty work. With Crusinski, and Jay out of the picture, I don't officially have a partner. Blackstone is hurt and he will slow me down. Blackstone is also no good because this is personal he should not in my opinion be put on this case. I'll need to work more closely with you both. Otherwise I run this solo."

Tak stopped Max could be watching now. Tak wrote down on his notepad so they could read. "I want to use bait to lure Max in. I know his M.O. so I know what he looks for in women. Its time to bring the taskforce down on this guy. Excuse me I have to get an update from the doctor.

Something was wrong. Max was going out of his M.O. into a whole other dimention. Something had to be done to stop this monster. RPIT would suffer if he wasnt' stopped.

[Deleted]

Cord got Blackstone out of ear shot then had a uniformed officer get him away form the cameras. It was obvious that the guy was hurting all over. He'd be no good as he was maybe a good stomach emptying retch would help and that he'd have to do away from the cameras and the crime scene as a whole.

Making his way over to the detectives he gave D'arcangelo a look that could cut glass. Him and all his rules. As useful as he could be his split responsibilities made him a liability in a lot of ways. If he could just focus on his police consultancy things like this would never happen. Shaking his head as Takanashita began in with his spiel Cord cleared his throat.

"First off everyone lets get back to the station house we need to talk. That includes everyone. There is no going cowboy on this. Lets game this out in private where we can lay everything on the table. We have six hours to get a working profile of this scene and how it fits if it fits with our ongoing investigations. Takanashita as you're point man on this get the uniforms working. D'arcangelo I expect something by the time we get to the station. We need to work the systems already in place as well as those that are not. Wheres the doctor and Rayvan?"