2010-04-29: Guys and Dolls

Starring:

Shen_V5icon.pngMaggie_V5icon.png

Date: April 29th, 2010

Summary:

Detective Powers, with the help of the new recruit who seems to look up to her, questions the most useful witness in the Battery Park shootout.


Previously on Heroes MUSH… Heads Will Roll

"Guys and Dolls"

Manhattan

The sun has long since set. Battery Park is sequestered with yellow police tape reading: CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS. Witnesses have been moved across the street from the park so they can be interviewed, their information collected, and the police can ascertain what's going on. There's roughly twenty people who all heard or saw something earlier this night; all with entirely different stories. Some have insisted that there was crossfire between several Caucasian men. Others have insisted there were Asians involved. Others mentioned dolls while others still insisted that one of the shooters just disappeared. All of it seems impossible. And all of it is convoluted. All testimonies are all over the map.

Finally, Detective Gigi Darcy leads Maggie to yet another witness. "I like you asking the questions! You're really good! I mean — I've heard amazing things about you, and how badass you are, but MAN, I didn't know you were this badass, you know?" She furrows her eyebrows before shaking her head. "So what do you make of it all? The story seems really really random." She frowns just a little before turning to their next witness, "Hello. I'm Detective Georgiana Darcy and this is my colleague, Detective Maggie Powers — we have some questions we'd like to ask you — "

Shen has her arms wrapped around herself. It's a bit cooler now, but this is more certainly a delayed reaction to the earlier shootout. Tucked under her arms, her hands can't shake nearly so bad. She had watched the injured boy be taken care of and then been herded over to where she was expected to wait for the police. Long since ready to go home, she gives the detectives a look of relief as they draw near. She glances from one to the other, finally nodding at Maggie.

Maggie can only watch Gigi slightly wide eyes on the way there. She only just has enough time to give the oh-so-badass response of "Um— " before they make it to the next witness.

Not preceded by the arrival of another police car and flashing lights, and wearing plainclothes (emphasis on the plain: a worn, brown leather jacket, grey shirt, dark blouse), the woman who strides next to the younger detective isn't immediately obvious as an authority. She wouldn't be, at least, if it weren't for her introduction, and to some extent, her air of grim-faced poise now that she focuses. That, and as she extends her hand to Shen, the badge clipped to her belt flashes. "Hey there," she greets, voice soft; the girl looks shaken. "I know this is rough night for you, I'll try to make it painless as possible, I promise. What's your name?"

Gigi clucks her tongue as she pulls out her pad of paper to scribble some notes down for Shen's answer. She presses her lips together into a thin line as her eyebrows furrow in concentration. She is ready for any information Shen can divulge.

Shen pulls a hand free to give Maggie's hand a quick shake. She looks uncomfortable as she does so, and the hand is soon tucked back under the woman's arm. "Shen Liu." she answers, after clearing her throat. A quick glance goes from Gigi and back to Maggie. "Will the little boy who was shot be alright?"

Maggie's grip is firm while it lasts, but not rough. She gives the young woman a small smile of apology, wishing she could answer better than she can. "I don't know, I think he was being taken care of when I got here," she says, showing some compassion. The detective has a kind voice for Shen and it doesn't seem to be put on. "As far as I know, the wound wasn't fatal. He should be at the hospital by now. Did you see him get shot? Why don't you tell me everything you saw."

Shen nods her head, taking a long breath. Purposefully she untangles her arms, slipping her hands into her hoodie pockets. "I..we were doing tai chi, here in the park this afternoon. A bunch of us from Chinatown, just for the exercise. We'd finished, and I decided to walk in the park. It was a nice day. There was a man, he looked….homeless. Dirty, maybe? Scruffy. He was selling those bobble-headed dolls. They looked like geisha women."

The older of the detectives changes her demeanor a little, something, somewhere, in Shen's explanations piquing her suspicion. But, while her features become more hardened, more grim, her voice doesn't suffer for it; she goes on as calmly and as kindly as moments before. "Okay. He was selling them; did you see anyone buy one of the dolls?"

Shen shakes her head. "I offered to buy one. He said he was closing up shop, that they weren't for sale. He had an accent. Um…irish?" she shrugs. "Then one of the bobble dolls blew up and the man jumped over a bench and started shooting his gun at someone and I ran. I hid behind a tree. Then there was another man coming around the tree while people were all shooting." She adds, sounding very sure "He was Japanese."

"Irish?" Gigi repeats while glancing at Maggie. "And the bobble doll blew up?" Her eyebrows furrow further as she scribbles a few quick notes. "So we have Japanese and Irish men. Are you certain they were Japanese?" She scribbles down a few more notes before asking, "Which tree did you hide behind?"

More bits and pieces information call out to Maggie above the others this time, too. She gestures, expressively, with her right hand as she adds after Gigi, "You're the only person so far to have seen at least one of the possible shooters close-up." It's a clearer testimony than most. She doesn't want to overwhelm Shen with questions, yet seems propelled to ask more herself; normally, she might give the girl space to breathe, to answer, but instead, she holds her other hand out toward Detective Darcy in a quiet for now motion while she looks very intently at the witness. "The doll— " she starts more firmly, knowing her line of questioning is going to sound a little bizarre. " — did you see anything inside of it?"

Shen nods quickly, turning to point to one of the trees. "There. There's a bullet in it. The man was Japanese, or Korean, maybe. Definitely not chinese. Was wearing a hat, with the brim down. Pointed his gun at me so I held real still, then he left." Her voice, which had been steady, speaking quickly, goes softer and speaks more slowly. "I thought he was going to kill me." After a long pause, her brow furrowing, she nods. "Powder. White powder in the geisha that broke. I didn't really think about that, till now."

Gigi's eyes dart from the witness to Maggie and then back again but she stays quiet just like the hand indicates. Being a lackey sucks sometimes, but it does mean she gets to learn from the best. Tilting her head she imagines herself in Maggie's shoes. Literally. With the faint makings of a smile, the younger detective considers cutting her hair to look like Maggie's and to invest in blue contact lenses. With another tilt of her head she tries to imagine herself with blue eyes. She'll have to get a khaki-trench coat if she's going to pull off the look — WAIT! — FOCUS. Her eyes narrow at Shen as she scribbles a few more notes down.

A suspicion confirmed, Maggie nods to Shen and gives her a flicker of a smile in thanks. She looks to Gigi, and though she doesn't explain her thought process — yet — she does say, "Make sure the ground around the bench is swept if CSU isn't already on it, I want to know what was left behind." She quickly turns to Shen. "Thank you. And— what about the man by the tree?" The detective instinctively looks over her shoulder, across the street, before refocusing calmly on the woman. "He didn't kill you — I mean— thank God. What happened?"

Shen shrugs. "I think they decided it was time to go before you got here. I didn't move, he didn't say anything. He decided to let me live." she says softly, glancing back at the tree as if expecting to see the Japanese man appear there to kill her at last. "So I looked around and everyone had gone and the boy was laying there hurt. There were sirens. So I ran over to check on him. I mean, he was only a kid."

With a sigh, Gigi, the lackey, disappears to talk to CSU and ensure that anything around the bench is swept and taken into evidence. The younger blonde disappears into the crowd, wondering what it would feel like to walk a mile in the older detective's shoes.

"Okay, Ms. Liu," Maggie says to Shen, her features softening into a smile that sticks around a little longer. "He was wearing a hat, but did you get a good look at his face? What about the Irishman? We might need you to come in to help us get on ID on them. Would that be alright?"

Shen swallows, giving Maggie a wide-eyed look. "Um, I can go in. But I couldn't tell you exactly what they looked like. I mean, the Japanese had his gun on me, so I was mostly just trying not to get shot. And the other man, he was white. But I don't remember what he looked like very well. I wasn't paying very good attention." she says in an apologetic tone.

"You'd be surprised what you remember," Maggie responds with an encouraging smile, nodding her head along as she says so. "We hold onto all sorts of details we don't realize we know. But the sooner the better. I can bring you into the station tonight and then you can go home and relax."

Shen looks as if the prospect of a trip to the police station is not one she relishes, but she nods her head once. "Very well." Her hands wrap around herself again, the woman giving Maggie an uneasy look.

Gigi returns finally after having consulted with the CSU team. She smoothes ehr hair as she approaches her superior. "They're in process of sweeping the area for evidence and will write up a chemical report for you, Detective Powers." Powers. Like powerful. Oooo. That's such an awesome last name. Gigi should change her last name…

"Thanks, Detective." Maggie turns away from Shen and gives her a small 'one moment' gesture while she steps closer to Gigi to speak in more hushed tones. "A couple of other witnesses mentioned the man who looked homeless, but none of them could actually remember him giving any of his dolls up. They might not have remembered, but if he was involved in the shoot-out — something tells me whatever he was selling wasn't legitimate. I'm taking Ms. Liu to see a sketch artist. Do you have it covered here Darcy?"

"That makes sense," Gigi nods a little. She glances at the CSU team. "They'll get your report to you as soon as it's out. I'll stay until things are totally clear and manage things on this end." She frowns and then nods, "I wonder what they were dealing~" She shrugs. "Regardless, I have things under control, ma'am!" She issues Maggie a salute (why? because she's a nerd who doesn't know how to act around the woman whose life she wants!) and turns back to deal with some CSU stuff.

Shen nods, though she still appears apprehensive. She watches the two detectives quietly, untucking a hand to rub at an eye.

The response to Gigi's salute to Powers is a somewhat silly quirk of her eyebrows and a smile. "Great," she commends more seriously. With that, Maggie gestures Shen over with both a wave of her hand and nod of her head down the street. "It's a short ride. Right this way, Ms. Liu…"

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License