Trooper Station, Friday

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

Ray and his bandaged hand were at the station. Ray and his bandaged hand were reading the reports on the whole freaky general-slash-Stark deal. Ray and his bandaged hand were not really happy about the way this investigation had gone.

Ray smelled something fishy. His hand, having no nostrils, didn't. He dumped his feet on the table and flipped through the file again.

Hey, it was actual policework, he was not gonna back down on it.

[ open station! ]

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[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Good morning detective," Dale said stopping by on one of his many coffee trips. "How was your holiday?"

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"My holiday? Full of turduckens," Ray answered, sipping his cup with his uninjured hand. "Couldn't escape the damn things." He shoved a bag in Cooper's direction. "Leftovers?"

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Thank you, but I had my fill of poultry," Dale said holding up one hand and putting his hand on his stomach. "What happened to your hand?"

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Um, knifewound," Ray said, shrugging as he pulled the bag back. "Nothing big, doc Tam took care of it. What's the coffee of the day, Cooper?" If people paid no attention to the hand, he might just get away with this.

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Ray was not getting away with anything.

"What happened, Detective?" Dale said putting down his cup of coffee.

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Just a thing with a knife," Ray muttered, irritably. "It's over, hand got fixed up, case closed."

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Dale sighed.

"Detective... Ray. Don't make me pull rank," Dale said with a weary sigh. "Tell me the details of what happened."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"There was an incident somewhere not here in which a knife landed in my thumb," he summed up, scowling at Dale from over his desk. "The perp--" Stupid, stupid damn carrot, "Was dealt with," and it hadn't even tasted good, "And then I got my hand stitched up pronto. Now can I get back to work?"

Not that he'd been doing a particular lot of work except poking around the damn Stark file, but it was the thought that counted.

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"And who was this perpetrator and why do I not have a report on the incident?" Dale asked seriously.

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Not here," he repeated, "Not our juridistiction." Unless they covered vegetables now. "I got paperwork, Cooper."

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Which can wait until you answer my questions," Dale replied evenly. "What happened, Ray? Details."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

Well, emergency manu-somethingorother. Getting Cooper off the subject. There. Nice, and witho the big words. "I'm kinda interested in details myself." Ray held up the Stark file.

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Dale's eyes flickered to the report and then back to Ray. "I haven't had a chance to look over the report just yet," Dale admitted. "Can you give me the highlights?"

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"That's the thing. There's no highlights. Day didn't get anything outta him," Ray said, eying Dale with a big ol' frown. "Something's queer."

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Dale thought about that for a moment and nodded. "I got the end run from one of his employees last week when I went there for an interview," he replied. "You think they're stonewalling us?"

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Definitely." Ray tossed the file back on his desk. "Never seen anybody play that kinda hopscotch unless they were hiding something. I say we bring this guy in pronto."

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Dale pursed his lips in thought and then nodded in agreement.

"Make it happen," he replied. "If need be get a material witness warrant to bring him in."

He paused for a second before giving Ray a meaningful look.

"Right after you type up an incident report about your hand. Please include the Doctor's report from the hospital."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Oh, will you just trust your cops?" Ray shot back, "I say it's nothing, you can trust me that it's nothing." Shut up, he totally had a point here.

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Ray? I trust your instincts and your invetigative abilities," Dale replied. "As an officer of the law I trust you to do your job. However when I became sheriff, your welfare became my responsibility."

He tapped Ray's desk with his index finger twice. "Get the report to me before the end of the day."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

Oh, to hell with it. "There was a problem," Ray snapped, his eyes flicking around to see if any of those damn squirrels were grabbing this. Satisfied with his investigation there, he continued, "With a, uh, carrot." A pause. "A smelly one."

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Dale took a sip of his coffee and did not smile. A bit. He wanted to smile but he wasn't going to tease Ray if he felt that embarrassed about it.

"Very well. Then I guess a report is unnecessary at this time," Dale said officiously. "Go ahead and work on getting Stark in here for questioning and let me know if you hit any snags."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, um, snags," Ray muttered, ducking his head low and focusing intently on that file. "I'll get right on that. Thanks, Cooper. Um, Sheriff." Lieutenant. Whatever.

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Not a problem, Detective," Dale said in his most professional manner and headed back to his office and closed the door before he even thought of cracking a grin.

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

Daisy didn't really care if it was too-damn-good for station coffee, she was having a cup of it anyway; she needed it. Since it was too-damn-good coffee, she hovered a little around the coffee maker, savouring it because it was just as much a crime not to properly enjoy good coffee as it was to jaywalk or loiter, just without all the official stuff to back it up.

And it did make her feel a little better, at least enough to give a nod and a "'Morning."

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Morning, Day," Ray greeted back. He was actually trying to do paperwork for once, but, well, it was almost impossible to do with his wrong hand. Which, as far as he was concerned, was a good enough reason not to actually do paperwork, so he punctuated the statement by tossing his pen into the ring.

As it were.

It landed in his empty coffee cup.

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

"What happened to your hand?" Daisy had to ask, now that coffee allowed her to actually see the thing and notice it. "Get in a knife fight?"

Oh, the best irony occurred when the person using it was utterly clueless to their usage of it.

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. Knifefight. You should see the other guy," Ray rattled off. Could they please not focus on the hand, could they please not-- "Um, how was Thanksgiving?" Wait, wait, she was a Brit, they didn't do Thanksgiving or something. Bad one, Kowalski. Still, he managed to straightface it by sheer force of pig-headed stubbornness.

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

"Spent most if it oh so handwavily here," Daisy admitted with a small, slightly wincing grin, and she shook her head. "Stark interview didn't go so hot, if you haven't seen my report yet. Like talking to a brick wall." Or, in this case, a very shiny and slick sheet of skyscraper glass. "I highly recommend either you or Coop doing a follow up."

It chagrined her to admit to the utter flop that it had been, but she had a pretty strong feeling that someone with different gender chromosomes was going to fare better. And if not...well, my, my, how interesting indeed.

[headkickpoet.livejournal.com]

He kinda loved Daisy in that moment. No fuss, this one would fly straight back to the rest of the 'embarrassing moments of Stanley Raymond Kowalski' pile he didn't wanna think about. Stupid carrots. But that feeling quickly went away as way more pressing business turned up.

"Yeah, I read the report," Ray said, nodding at his desk. "I say we haul him in for questioning. Something smells fishy, and it is not Rick's lunch." Ralph shot him an utter death glare. He ignored it.

[justice-beat.livejournal.com]

Daisy wondered a moment who Rick was, and then she nodded, despite questioning Ray's use of the term 'haul.' "Good idea," she agreed. "Change of scenery, maybe get him out of his element a little."

He could hardly ask her upstairs at the station, after all. There did come to play a little scene in Daisy's head which involved the broom closet and a Why, Mister Stark, I thought you'd never ask, but she quickly shook it out of her head.

Rather, she beat it away with a billy club.

"I don't think," she added, "it would hurt to maybe see his assistant, especially if he continues to be uncooperative and if those papers he told me would be sent in suddenly seem lost in the mail."