Dipper POV
My eyes started to sting about an hour ago. I felt like a kid trying to follow the flight pattern of a fly the way I was watching the words swim on my screen.
All of it hurt my head, I had at some point detached myself from knowing Bill looking at these files as if they were about someone entirely different.
Someone who was homeless from his unknown birth date till he was caught shoplifting a jacket from a mall at the age of 13.
Then caught stealing food from three different grocery stores and a gas station only a few months later. He was put in juvenile detention for a few weeks before he was bailed out by the owner of the area's teen center owner who bailed out 3 other teens at the same time.
He lived in the teen center for 2 years before running away.
He lived on the streets of California for another year. Petty robberies around town that went without an offender were accounted to him.
Then the cops picked him up sleeping in a local park. He wasn't in the foster system long enough to run away, only two days after being registered he was adopted by the Northwest family.
From there his records were sealed and other than a few runaway attempts he's been clean ever since.
Nothing other than his location ties him to any gang activities let alone Tad Strange.
None of this reads like Bill to me, the man I know is possessed like he's always lived in the lap of luxury, he doesn't bat an eye at the world below his pay grade and he wears a suit like he was born in it. I can't picture him sleeping on park benches, or stealing food and clothes.
I know I'm too close to this, which is ridiculous because I was brought in to be a fresh pair of eyes. Yet somehow I ended up right in the middle of this shit storm.
There was a very soft knock at the door.
Prying my eyes away my head throbbed right behind my eyes, blurring my vision a little for just a moment. Wendy leaned against my doorway, like she was watching a wild animal.
"Hey there, not a good morning I guess.." She muttered.
"No, not really."
She curled her fingers around her waist. "I've never had to- do this with fellow cops, let alone detectives in my own team. I'm sorry we could be better at this."
I was already shaking my head before she finished talking, "It's fine, really I can't blame you I would be doing the same thing in your shoes, I'm reading his file right now and seeing in real time how close I am to this case. It's bad I should not be on it anymore."
She stepped into my office, closing the door behind her. "That's not it. Gravity Falls may be a city but it's very very small. Everyone knows everyone here. We are all too close to this case." She sat down in the chair on the other side of my desk but she pulled it close and leaned over the desk a bit. "You are a damn good cop, I've seen the case files for the cases you've solved before, we really need someone like you on this. Don't back out now."
"You know he asked me to be his boyfriend last night." I can't really hide it from them forever.
She nodded, "I thought you guys had gotten together sooner. I'm sorry again. I know I wouldn't want to be looking at my partner in this light." Her eyes reflexively flicked out the window to Robbie. I didn't point it out to her.
"Yeah."
She felt the conversation drop awkwardly, I had practically thrown it on the floor and was happy leaving it there.
"Just stay on the case ok, we will try and go lightly through all the stuff that has to do with Cipher ok."
"No, don't do that, if you tread lightly you'll only be treading over evidence and ignoring it." I looked at my screen with his information still open on it. "We have to do this right. No matter my personal connection to it."
There was a soft knock at the door, I could see Leo watching us throw the window. He had a paper in hand.
Wendy looked to me for approval. I was starting to hate the amount of pity in her eyes. What the fuck is so bad about letting him in that she needs my approval for it.
Breathe in. Breathe out. This is your office. She's looking for an answer from you because it's your office. Breathe in, breathe out. The burn of fire in my veins died down under forced breathing, I might have a bit of anger issues and recently I can feel it only getting worse.
"Door's open Leone." I shout just loud enough for him to hear through the glass.
He let himself in.
"Don't mean to interrupt anything, but you both should see this." He put the page down on my desk facing me, Wendy leaded forwards to read upside down.
It was a job application copy, filled out by Bill. It was his handwriting but the first line, first and last name, read as William Northwest.
The company he was filling out for was the same company Strange had come into ownership of in California. The form was filled out oddly though. Bill had put that he was 23 but the year marker on the paper showed that he would have only been 18, but it got even stranger the further down the form it went. Under references for previous jobs he had listed places he had stolen from but the cops at the time couldn't pin to him. Under skills he had written things like, "can adapt to any situation" and "good with persuasion".
There was no more, not a cover letter or even an address for the company or himself, he didn't even put down his or his family's phone numbers.
"There's no record for Bill ever getting a job, or filling out any other applications than this one. Which got lost in the mail with no send address or return address. But Bill did start getting paid somehow, he got himself a debit card, under the Northwest name and soon got his license and a car. The car was purchased in full under Auldman Northwest card, but Mr. and Mrs. Northwest was out of town at the time of purchase." Leone started to recite like he had memorized it all and gone over it twice before coming in here, which he probably did.
"William?" I asked reading it again as if maybe I miss read it.
Leone nodded, "When he was arrested prier to being adopted by the Northwest his name is filed as Bill Cipher, but there isn't a legal birth certificate, that's just what he gave the officers. So when the Northwest family adopted him they had gotten him a legal certificate and put William Northwest as his legal name."
Wendy took the application into her hands and read it over herself. "When was Strange's body found?"
This he also knew off the top of his head, "July 3, 2020."
She turned my computer towards herself without asking and started looking for something. "Bill moved to Gravity Falls in 2023, and he gained ownership of his company in 2021 in California."
"Strange's company went under after his disappearance and death, and so far it hasn't been picked back up." Leone stepped closer to look over her shoulder. I begrudgingly stood and rounded the desk to see what she was doing. She had the contract paper for Bill's work open alongside old records of the now abandoned company Strange ran. There was nothing in common with them, the first company was labeled as an independent labor company who leased out their trucks and forces to other companies. Bill's company is a tech support and analyst outsource.
"I'm going to get Robbie, something here might link for us, if it does it'll be enough for a warrant." She got up quickly and left.
Leo looked at me.
I stared at the screen trying to make sense of why Bill had been so secretive about his work if it was just a tech corp.
Neither of us spoke, I didn't have anything to say and apparently neither did he. That was till my desk phone started ringing, making both of us jump and reach for it. He flinched back when he saw my hand and I picked up the phone.
"SSA Pines." I answered.
"Detective, this is first responder Cormac, my team just responded to a call about a woman found on the side of west N street. Sir it's Detective Soleil."
"Is she alive?"
"Yes Sir, she's still breathing but she's been rushed to the hospital. My team and I did our best to preserve the scene for your team. I'll be here at the sight, my team is already on route to the hospital." He explained.
"Thank you, my team and I are on our way to you." I hung up and Leone watched me.
"We have to go now." I snapped at him grabbing my jacket and headed out the door of my office with him on my heels.
"Who is it?"
"Hestia Soleil, she's a part of my team but went missing after the raids, they just found her."
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Found Wifi in a different cafe so whoho.