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NephilimPermalink Reply by ✓ Cornelia Hael Bradford on May 30, 2019 at 19:54

Lounging back on her chair as she finished the last of her paperwork, Cornelia glanced at the wall clock, noting the time to be just past midnight as a heavy yawn left her lips realising that she had yet again let time slip while she was at work, and completely forget about the teenager back at home. She remembered texting Jem that she would be late, but this was beyond acceptable. She needed to learn how to balance her work with her home life now that she had a child under her care, but the task was much harder than she cared to admit.

Getting up from her seat, she took the leftover boxes of takeaway she finished hours ago and disposed them off into the garbage can at the corner of the room. Cornelia loved her work, she almost worshipped it and after putting it first for 10 years it was hard to transition into a homely life smoothly. She tried her best to take days off whenever she could and give her attention to Jem but she couldn't shake away her work from the back of her mind even during those times.

When she made her way back to her chair, she felt weariness almost hit her in the face, another big yawn escaping as she brought the back of her palm to her lips. Deciding it was smarter to take a short nap before driving back home, she pushed back into the comforts of her chair and tilted her head back, her vision closing around the ceiling as she quickly drifted into sleep.

It wasn't until there was a knock at the door that Cornelia was startled awake, rubbing her hand through her face as a head of an officer popped in, "Murder at the downtown strip, you wanna take it?" It took a few seconds for the female to register the words before she nodded, taking in a deep breath to shake herself awake before rising to her feet. Gathering the paperwork she had finished a couple of hours ago along with her bag and coat, she walked out of the small office, dropping the files on the Captain's desk before leaving the precinct.

The parked car was a short walk away from the backdoor as Cornelia put on the large overcoat, the spring breeze chillier than she had anticipated before getting into the Chevy Camaro and driving off to the location of the crime scene. The roads were empty for most parts except the occasional cars that zoomed past filled with screaming young adults enjoying the night life and the few groups of teenagers that drunkenly walked their way home down the sidewalk.

Upon arriving she noticed the ambulance and set of first responders, unsurprisingly already present. Getting out of the car the female walked up to the officers, showing her badge before being given the details of the crime scene. The officer in charge pointed her towards the man who had made the call, he was apparently one of the security guys at the club. Under the dim street lights she could've sworn she recognised the silhouette and upon closer look she realised why.

Cornelia didn't know Dominic beyond the few meetings she had with him as Siobhan's boyfriend or the occasional bump-in at meetings in the Ailward Manor. However, the surprising aspect was that she would find herself questioning the male. Usually people who called in a crime scene were the first and only suspects until there was more information. But the idea of questioning the partner of someone close to her was oddly unsettling. Nevertheless, not wanting her bias to cloud her judgement, the female walked up to him and cleared her throat. "Detective Bradford." The female introduced herself, just in case the Therian Guard didn't remember her, "Not how you'd want a late night shift to end, huh?" The female started, simply trying to ease into the conversation. "Can you tell me what happened here, Mr. Howlett?"

Ailward GuardPermalink Reply by ✓ Dominic Howlett ~Mod~ on June 6, 2019 at 20:23

Dominic leaned against his truck in the eerie quiet of the night while he waited for the police and medics to come. The only sound was that of his phone while it attempted to dial Tommy again for the fifth time without anyone picking up the other end. His eyes kept darting to the body that lay in the alley not too far away as if expecting the man to move at any moment and this was all some sort of mistake. It was a very strange circumstance to be in. "Goddammit," he muttered, pocketing his cell in frustration just as the ambulance arrived.

The sound of the sirens was jarring as the scene had suddenly turned from absolute silence to chaos as more and more people were beginning to arrive. He waved down the ambulance and nodded with his head towards the body, watching as the scene unfolded. It was obvious to him that the medical team wouldn't be necessary, but protocol was protocol as they checked for signs of life. One of the EMTs shook his head and signaled for the police officers to begin taping off the area for processing.

He sighed in slight annoyance as he knew what would be coming next. Dominic had had his history with police officers. They were either there to do the job they were getting paid for with integrity or they were a bunch of power hungry assholes who got off on having a gun and making others feel less than. He'd seen his share of both before and after his time in jail. Being a bouncer meant you had a pretty close relationship with the precincts since they were sometimes called out to the clubs to handle some of the fights that were more serious than just throwing all parties out of the establishment. Hell, he'd even made friends with some of them and called them to the club just to have some food while they were patrolling at night.

A uniformed officer came over with a small notebook in hand to take his statement, one in which Dominic needed to be careful about. One wrong bit of information or trip up and the spotlight could be on him if his story didn't stick. He kept it simple; to the point. No names and lots of shrugging to indicate he had no idea what went down and that he was the one that happened upon the body after leaving work for the night. Easy. Or so he thought. 

His hues went over the head of the shorter officer as he scribbled more notes and across the line of yellow tape as another unmarked vehicle pulled up. Anyone in a car like that was either a government official or a detective, but as the woman stepped out and flashed a badge, he knew it was the latter. "Excuse me for a moment. Just stay here and we'll have one of the detectives speak with you shortly." Dominic nodded in response to the officer and watched as he went over to fill in the woman. He studied the interaction between the two to see if he could get a read on anything they might be saying when he noticed the uniformed officer point to one of the security cameras outside of the club. "Shit." He'd forgotten about them, but as he casually glanced over his shoulder towards the body, he didn't think they would've gotten a clear view of whatever had happened. Any good police work would still have someone going over all the footage the cameras inside and out recorded that night, but he knew it would take a lot of time. Eventually, they were going to see the fight that he'd had to break up earlier involving the victim and Tommy and no doubt come asking him more questions.

Dominic watched as the woman came under the tape and made her way over to him. Despite the darkness, there was something very familiar about her and then it dawned on him as she came closer and the features of her face were illuminated by the flashing lights of the police cars. Cornelia Bradford. He'd met the nephilim before through passing and had heard many stories from Siobhan about how great of a detective she was. Dominic wasn't sure if he should be glad or worried. 

As she walked up to him and introduced herself nonchalantly, he raised a single brow. "Yes, I remember who you are." Never in a million years would anyone guess she was a detective by her looks, but she held an air of confidence that screamed cop. Or maybe lawyer. There was something about all Bradford women that exuded that they took no shit from anyone as he thought of her sister Clarissa who he'd become fairly close with over the dangerous situations they seemed to always find themselves in. When she asked him to give the story of what happened again, he let out a sigh and began to repeat the words he'd said to the officer a moment ago. "Was just coming off my shift and locking up when I came around to my truck and noticed the guy on the ground. I ran over to see if he needed some help. Wouldn't be the first time someone who had a little too much to drink or took something passed out outside after we closed. I turned him over and saw all the blood and obviously how badly he'd been beaten. He wasn't breathing when I found him. That's when I called you guys to get out here." Short. Sweet. To the point. He folded his arms over his chest and watched the coroner place a sheet over the body before looking back to Cornelia. "Listen, is this going to take much longer? I really would like a seriously long shower to get this blood off. You guys can call me tomorrow if you need me. I work at the garage on the border of therian territory, right off the main highway on the big dirt road." Yes, he did want to get the blood scrubbed off his skin as soon as possible, but it wasn't like that was his main focus as he felt the weight of his phone in his back pocket. All he really wanted to do was get in contact with Tommy to see what the hell was going on.