#bezthreads

location @ two streets from the station @boneyardstarters [ 0 / 5 ] limited

Behrooz ran down the street, heart racing in their ears as they bounded down another. They'd caught an officer red-handed, taking money from some low-life who was certainly connected to one of the crime families. They were certain they hadn't been spotted, but they couldn't be sure, and they needed to report this. They had to. Corruption ran rampant in the halls of the law, and they knew that, but that didn't mean they had to accept it. They weren't going to get any medals for this. Perhaps they'd even be pushed back. But they---

The collision was instantly.

The skateboard had come out of nowhere, rolling down the street, skitting rapidly as some kid had lost their ballance, and their foot connected with the board, sending them flying into the stone sidewalk, catching their fall with a hand and scraping the skin on their palm, chin, and knee.

Dazed, Bez sat up. A quick sorry mister! was yelled from the direction of the rolling skateboard, a honk of ongoing traffic that started up again as soon as the kid was out of the street, and life continued.

Bez blinked. For a moment, they'd forgotten what they were doing again. They winced at the ugly scrape on their hand. "Oi, can you lend me a hand?" they asked, not unkindly.

Bez had never been a big fan of the American snack called the Donuts growing up in the UK. They preferred a good oily Burfee. But Ohio hadn't had any of the food they'd brought up with, thus barely a year into their career as a police officer, they'd caved. And donuts here were indeed much better than the ones they'd ever had at home.

Thus now almost every morning they stood leaning against a wall, a package of three donuts - a pink one, a chocolate one, and whatever was in season, in this case Pumpkin Spice - and a large cup of coffee. They surveyed the streets, always hoping that something would draw their attention, slow mornings were never their thing. They drank their coffee scalding hot, better to drink it right away than to forget all about it, with five packages of sugar and two large servings of milk.

They heard a clear 'stop! thief!' from further down the road, eyes caught to the scene of a single individual running down the street they were standing on, two others ready to start their pursuit, along with the person who had just been robbed.

Behrooz stepped out of the light of the bar, arms crossed, cheeks slightly flushed from the heat of the place as they got back into the cold streets. They almost collided with a figure taller than they were, there was a presence to this one that they quickly noticed. Bez was aware of most of the criminals of Sin City, though there were few that they had actual evidence against.

And those they had evidence against would never amount to anything because too many detectives and cops within the system were corrupt.

The look of most who had any soldier-y role was much the same. And Behrooz' face turned stoic and annoyed as realisation came over them.

"Excuse me," they said. "I don't suppose you're here to commit any crimes," they suggested. "It would be most welcome. Even if I'm not on duty."

Bez was well aware of there being some kind of creeper crawler out there with a thirst for blood and an eagerness for killing. Of course, Vampire seemed unlikely and even laughable, but they’d heard the rumours. Believing in ghosts was one thing - and Bez did believe in ghosts. But Vampires? No, that was gothic crap. Not at all in the list of questionable beliefs their grandmother had settled them up with. 

Now, with Vampires, there were also the rumours of those hunting them. And Bez already had plenty of issues with people chasing the same killer as they were - and those trying to stop them - that hearing of new people in the game filled them with irritation. Sometimes they missed the kid they had been, who would rejoice in getting some help. But they didn’t need people bull-shitting about Vampires and other creatures of the night. 

When they managed to corner the supposed Vampire hunter, it was past the end time of their shift, they were hungry, and in a foul mood. It was a miracle they even managed a kind smile. “Rosalin Helladious?”

Behrooz was running on steam. It was easy to run ahead and only realise they were going over their limits every moment when it was already to late. It was often already too late. It took a lot more energy to be the good cop, because the bad cop could just let things go, while they were actually trying to solve cases, and solve them correctly. No false statements, no allowing anyone buy their silence.

They stood near the location of the Lagoon event of the day before, twitching from the amount of coffee they'd consumed - usually they tended to forget at least two or three cups, and could then continue to focus and function. Now they were a complete mess. They'd attempted to let it go, to ignore the fleeting pain. But they'd liked Seokmin, even if he was a criminal. And now he was gone.

And with him the Neon Drifters. They should be rejoicing, instead they were trying to figure out if there was anything that lead them to a satisfying answer.

"This is an active crime scene!" they called over when they saw a figure standing nearby.

It was Bez' job to be suspicious of people, especially when those people had been in one way or another connected to crimes commited. And they'd been in the game long enough to know that even if you went completely by the books, there was still a huge chance that someone would go free. That the culprit was never found, that there wasn't enough evidence to convict. Or when there was, that someone might find a way to get the ruling overturned on technical mistakes.

It didn't mean that Bez wouldn't eye them with all the suspicion that they had in their being whenever they saw them.

Gritting their teeth, the homicide detective walked down the road, two cups of coffee in their hands, sipping from either. They were in desperate need of the caffeine after the lack of sleep.

It was purely by accident that they almost ran into another possible criminal - as if Las Vegas wasn't filled with them. At least their personal life was filled with good people, because the constant irritation couldn't be good.

"You're Theo Lemieux, aren't you?"

After the whole event, it was back to normal for most people. Not including overworked homicide detectives. Especially not after bodies had been found, at said event. They hadn't been the one to find them, but that didn't matter.

There was too much going on, and that was just what life was on the regular. Which was already hard, but felt even harder for Bez when they weren't on their medication.

They'd left home early, dropping their ward off at out-of-school daycare, and were waiting for the medication to kick in, while on their fourth cup of coffee. They worried that their warnings couldn't get through to Mac and Alice on searching for answers. Meaning it would lead them to another visit to the corroner. They'd promised information in return for their silence, but was that enough?

Gritting their teeth together as they moved away from the scene, they spotted a familiar face. Familiar in how infamous she was. They stopped dead in their tracks and frowned. Why was she here?

Behrooz took another step forward, worried she might spot him and run off. The red tape was still there, but no cops on the scene. No cops aside from them. "Hold it there!" they called.

Bez had taken the day off, after the shitshow of earlier, they thought they deserved it. Not to mention Sundays were their only day where they could really spend it with Amelie. All the other days she was either in school or they were working.

They gotten some burgers and fries - all Halal -, and hired an age-appropriate movie at the video store. Bez was reading the back while Emelie ran ahead to hold the doors open to the appartments. She stopped there, huge smile on her face as she called someone's name that got Bez' attention.

"Ivy!" The seven year old sounded enthusiastically. She always had the tendency to be even kinder to those who seemed to be awkward around her, as if she could make them like her more. They knew it was because she worried losing them.

Bez took a few quick steps to catch up with Emelie. "Ivy, hi. How have you been?" An odd question given the situation, but Bez couldn't know if they had any connection to what had happened.