Jim tends to offend a lot of the officers in the precinct.
Today, I had to take over an officer's paperwork on this kid who fell through a restaurant's window. The officer was insulted by Jim and didn't want to cooperate with him.
I worked on getting all the paperwork on the kid finished. That way, I could work with him instead and move things faster.
Oh, how quickly they relent when you offer to do their paperwork.
I let Jim talk to the boy as I finished the paperwork. Once I'm done, I walk back over.
"You're gonna tell me the truth!" Harvey yells at the kid.
Yeah, they probably didn't believe the boy's statement. He had said he was running from kidnappers who used pins to subdue his friends. He also got stabbed by one of the pins, being disoriented when he fell through the restaurant's window.
Since he was a street kid, the cop who first had the case thought he was on drugs and made up the story.
"It was you, wasn't it? It was you who killed that poor old man. It was you. Now, you're going to tell me the truth, or I swear to God, I will beat it out of you!"
"Detective Bullock," I put my hand on his shoulder and pushed him away from the kid, "I'm going to ask you not to threaten the boy with violence. They are a minor."
"You stay out of this, Lopez."
"I can't do that; I'm in charge of the kid here until this is finished." I look over to the boy. "Do you have anyone who could collaborate on your story?"
"Cat was there. Cat saw the whole thing. You can can ask Cat." He shook his head.
"Who's Cat?"
"Hey, I'm the one interrogating him. You're not part of this investigation." Harvey pushes me away from the kid.
"Interrogating? You're trying to scare him into a confession." I raise my hands, seething.
I'm used to him being an ass but to a child?!
"Watch your mouth, Rookie. Go do someone else's paperwork before you get your ass handed to you." He says in his most threatening voice.
"I'm shaking." I'm unable to hold my sarcastic-filled words back.
He lunges at me, but Jim pulls him away before he can hit me.
They have an angry, whispered conversation between themselves. It ends with them pushing each other and Harvey stepping on someone's shoes.
The man says something to Harvey, and in anger, he kicks him in the shin. Then walks away, glaring at me and Jim.
"Lopez, in my office!" Captain Essen calls out from the balcony.
I let out a sigh. I gave Jim a half-hearted smile before going to her office.
"Captain." I greet her as I enter her office.
"What the hell was all that about, Lopez?"
"Detective Bullock was threatening a minor, Captain. I couldn't let him. We disagreed."
"It sounded more like a brawl. I could hear it from my office. I thought you knew better than to be instigating fights."
"He was threatening a boy! And he's the one that lunged at me. Ask Jim." I raise my hands.
"It's not your case, you can't be making-"
"You want me to let me hound on a poor boy who has no one to stand up for him?! All because this is Gotham, and things are done shadily?!" I shake my head.
"That's enough, Alec." She puts her foot down.
I look down, "I'm sorry. I understand this is Gotham. But shouldn't we try a less aggressive approach before jumping to uglier methods?"
She didn't say anything. She called for Jim and Harvey and waited for them.
"Now, what's going on between both of you? Fighting like children."
"He's saying he has a right to stop me from beating on a mope." He points at Jim.
"Damn right, I do."
"How am I supposed to work with this?" Harvey points at him.
"Look it, Jim, it's not like I can order you to break the law, but this is Gotham. You don't bend, you'll get broke."
"I understand."
"I thought you were with the program." She shakes her head.
"He is.", Harvey tells her.
"Well, let's get back to work. Lopez here will be joining you with your investigation."
"What?" I lift my head, shocked.
"No, Essen, please. I have enough to deal with as is."
"I've made my decision, Harvey. End of discussion."
"I'll do my best, Captain." I nod.
"You better; I want no more fights." She turns to Jim, "Now, where are you at?"
"Well, if the boy we have is telling the truth, there's a couple of kidnappers out there abducting homeless children in numbers. They lured them close with a food truck from the mayor's Homeless Outreach Project. And they drugged them with a jab from a big pin."
"Why would anyone want to abduct scraggly-ass orphans in bulk? I mean, where's the market? They're out on the street because no one wants them anyway." Harvey argues.
I held my tongue.
"If they were snatching cute girls, I'd believe them. But what would anyone want with a lard-ass like Macky?"
"They could be stealing them for organs, which there's a demand for, on the black market.", I suggest.
He glares at me.
"What is it, Ed?" She tells Ed, who is lurking outside the office's window.
"Guess what I found. I did a blood test on him, and he had high levels of ATP. What's ATP?"
Jim raises his brows.
"It's a fast-acting knocking drug. They used to use it at the old Arkham Asylum to bring down troublesome patients. It's hard to get. No recreational use."
"Okay. That's interesting." Harvey nods.
"Anything else?" Sarah asks Ed since he is still standing there.
He smiles and shakes his head.
"Thank you, Ed." She tells him.
Jim clears his throat.
"Thank you, Ed." She says again, more aggressively.
He nods and leaves.
He is awkward, but I'd rather deal with him than Bullock any day.
Sarah stands up, "Get to work. And keep this quiet. No press. Not a word."
"Shouldn't we tell the public what's going on? Warn them?" Jim says.
"Department policy. We don't advertise this kind of stuff. Causes panic. The headlines will read 'Gotham's Kids Snatched.'" Sarah shakes her head.
"Which would be true."
"No press. That's an order."
"It could alert the people we're trying to catch, make them go in hiding.", I tell Jim, trying to give him a good reason to keep quiet.
"Follow up on the drug, the ATP, and the Arkham connection."
"Arkham's been closed for, like, ten years." Bullock shakes his head.
"Yeah, 15." Sarah sits back down.
"Drug suppliers might still be in business."
"Oh, uh, this happened on Fish Mooney's turf. Do you want to see if it's safe for us to go back there, or is uh... she still mad at us?" Harvey asks.
"That's a good question."
We head over to Mooney's club. Harvey goes in, holding his hat to his chest.
"Harvey. Jim. How marvelous. And you brought your friend. I didn't catch your name before."
"Officer Alec Lopez, Ma'am." I nod.
"Seems the GCPD added some eye candy to their lineup." She smirks.
"You still mad at us?" Harvey asks.
"No. Please. I'm quite fond of you, and" She looks over to Jim," you intrigue me. I knew I'd regret killing you as soon as I gave the word. But you know me. I'm feisty."
Harvey puts his hat back on.
"What do you know about a man and a woman abducting street kids on your turf?" Jim is quick to ask.
"No foreplay with you, hmm? Figures, but you got with the program. You killed Penguin your own bad self. I was surprised. Straight arrow like you."
"I guess you misjudged me."
"I guess I did. You're just a little sinner like the rest of us. I'm almost kind of sad about that." She moves closer to him.
"We're looking for a man and a woman, middle-aged, white, targeting children under 16."
"They use a poisoned pin if you can believe it.", Harvey adds.
"Oh. Used to be there was only a market for nice-looking girls."
"That's what I said."
"But now there's a new buyer overseas that will take anyone young and healthy."
"Overseas where? Who's they?" Jim continues spitting out questions.
"Nobody knows."
"What do they want them for?"
"Nobody knows. And no one cares to know."
After work, I went to 'Dona's Flower Shop'. Then went to the apartment of Gertrud Kapelput.
The guilt has consumed me so much I needed to find a way to... apologize.
"Who is it?" A woman said with a German accent as she opened her door.
She had big blue eyes and frizzy-white hair.
"Hello, ma'am. My name is Alec Lopez; I know your son."
"Oh, hello, are you one of his friends? Come in, come in." She waves me for me to come inside.
"Uh- these are for you." I handed her the bouquet of apology flowers.
"Such gentleman." She walks over to grab a vase. "I'm sorry, but if you're looking for my son, he's not here."
"No- I came to see you. I heard he hadn't come home in a while. I know how devastating it is for a mother to lose their child." I nod.
"He'll come back. He always does, my Oswald. Whatever painted slut has taken him won't have him forever. He'll return to his mother, you'll see."
Uh-
I shake my head, "I should get going. Have a good night, ma'am."
I shouldn't have come here. What was I thinking?
"So soon?"
"My grandmother is waiting for me. It was great meeting you, Miss Kapelput." I grab her hand to shake it, but she grabs it and bows.
I smile and nod before walking out the door.
"Come back anytime."