Kym was on the verge of defeat when the explanation hit her.
She shut the binder she was holding, closing her eyes and leaning her weight on the dusty wood of the shelf. Figured.
It was almost funny, really, how well everything fit together when she thought about it. The conclusion of all the evidence she had and the analysis she had done was bright and clear, unlike the room, which seemed to have been cast in shadow.
She'd never wanted it to be this way.
She slumped slowly as the weariness hit her. What a world.
"Officer, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-"
Kym yelped at the tap on her shoulder, jumping about a foot high from her slump, flailing her arms for all she was worth. One windmill struck directly at the papers in Kieran White's grasp, which tumbled end over end in every direction, which would have been only a minor disaster if not for the fact that the other windmill, holding her binder, had struck directly at the haphazard tower of paperwork she'd pulled out of those bookshelves, which swayed dramatically, first one way and then the other, before falling as a mass just shy of Kieran, who executed a superb dodge to avoid most of the collapse, except for one book which somersaulted out of the pile to land squarely on his head, in sharp contrast to the huge cloud of dust billowing out from what seemed like every inch of the room.
Kym, breathing heavily, couldn't bring herself to apologize despite the hours she'd probably added to his work day. She reached an arm out to pull him to his feet in a flurry of coughs.
He must have seen the extent of despair in her expression, because he only asked, "Is something wrong?"
Perceptive man, and emotionally aware too. She couldn't even begin to explain the avalanche of deductions that broke her down, however, so she just shrugged and said, doleful, "The raccoons got into the precinct watermelon stash and took a bite out of all my watermelons. I just figured out that the person who let them in was… Lauren."
Which is how the 11th Precinct came to break a number of records: first precinct to hold a formal duel in three hundred years, first precinct to have a proxy step in for a duel in case of absence (Detective Sinclair having absconded after the raccoons), first precinct to have a duel fought over the sanctity of watermelon, first precinct to log watermelon-related self-inflicted injuries (Lieutenant Hawkes, on both the giving and receiving side of a facepalm), first precinct to be overrun with raccoons twice in one day, and first precinct to settle a conflict in the form of a watermelon-eating contest (Kym won, of course.)
[this is probably super tonally inconsistent but i like it and so it goes up. it may also end up on ao3 at some point. anyway this is part of a sprawling crackfic in my head in which kym ladell solves every single problem in ardhalis through the power of watermelons. and in case it wasn't clear, kieran bravely stepped in in place of lauren to face the music, or the watermelon, as the case may be.]
