Conflict of Interest Part 2
Dick couldn't say he was in a particularly good mood when he got to the station, actually he was feeling pretty sour. The night before had been rough. Patrol pretty much went south that night after the comms went down. It normally wouldn't be much of a problem but then Damian got ambushed and fell down a sewer grate and nobody could find the kid for several hours. He was fine of course and he made those robbers wish they had chosen better career paths but having to make sure Bruce didn't strangle every crook that stood in his path to death while trying to find the little demon was more tiring than any world altering threat he ever faced.
This was the third time in the past week that the comms cut out. And after it's over, its as if nothing was ever wrong. Babs and Tim were pulling their hair out trying to figure out what could possibly be causing it but so far there were no leads that they haven't followed already and it was starting to look like switching to a new comms system wouldn't fix anything. As far as they could tell? Some sort of magic. But every magic user they knew claimed to have no part in it and when they tried to reverse whatever it was, they said there was nothing going on that they could reverse.
Either way, Dick maybe got a half an hour of sleep before he got called in to deal with one of his cases he was working with. He didn't really know much yet, all he really knew was that a woman's husband went missing and she was acting as though she knew more than she was letting on. Others in the station think she did it but he had asked to talk to her about it before coming to his own conclusion. What he wasn't expecting was the moment he said that, they dragged her out of her home for an interrogation and now he was rushing to the office to try to make sure she didn't sue for malpractice.
"She's in the room already Detective Grayson," he heard an officer say as he pushed his way through the precinct. He couldn't even begin to imagine the damage they might have caused. If she really did know something there was no way she was going to come clean about it now. And if she was innocent, there was a chance that this could have traumatized her more than before. Not to mention if she made a complaint about the treatment.
"I will handle her myself. We will be talking about this later Carl," he said before putting on a pleasant face to step inside. If there was one thing he learned from being Boy Wonder, it was how to smile when shit just hit the fan. And it very much just did.
Dick made his way to his seat, pulling out his chair and taking a seat. As of yet, he wasn't positive what her demeanor was so hopefully he could just play it off. He hadn't even gotten a chance to open the case file to look it over again. Which... he might as well do that now...
"Mrs...." he looked at the file. Oh yeah, he forgot this was the lady with the obviously fake name. Not a single goth woman in the world didn't know about the works of Edward Gorey. He's heard Jason rave about his books and his take on psychological horror, "Gorey. I'm sure you know why your here."
He looked up from the file to see her roll her eyes. It had been about a week since he had last seen her but... he couldn't help but take a good look at her. A product of training with Bruce for so long maybe. But he did. He took in the details.
She was a beautiful woman. That much didn't take effort to deduce. He may have been a detective but he was also a man. Her face was slender, her jaw sharp and her cheekbones high. She wore heavy makeup, a pale base with intricate, expertly done eyeliner and shadow, and a black lip with purple shimmer. It was smudged a bit, Dick guessed from the officers being more rough with her than they really needed to be. The purple in her lip brought out the natural color of her eyes. At first Dick assumed them to be contacts but no, those were naturally purple eyes. He had never seen anything like it and the first time they had met, he was taken aback by how beautifully haunting they looked. Like they held something inside that was far more ancient than the young woman in front of him.
She was dressed head to toe in black, lace adorning her neck and arms into bell sleeves that complimented her black corset decorated with subtle purple embellishments that made it shine. Her skirt was several layers of flowing fabrics, a black lacy belt on top of it all. Her body may have been remarkably small compared to other women he took notice in but he couldn't fault her for being slightly sickly when her file clearly stated she was chronically ill after some sort of incident that he couldn't quite find records on.
"You think I had something to do with my husband's disappearance," she replied, her voice calm, "You think I killed him."
Dick just studied her for a moment. It was sentences like that one that made others in the precinct think it was her. They didn't tell her anything about the fact that they believe he might have been murdered. Although given that look in her eye, he supposed it was something she could have deduced easily. This woman was smart. That, he could plainly see. Maybe that was what made him want to keep looking at her. She looked like she was reading him, trying to figure out what he was thinking. Just as he was doing with her. There was definitely some PR training of some sort within her, as her face gave away nothing he could use against her. But it also meant he couldn't do anything for her. He was going to have to change tactics.
After a moment, he ran a hand through his hair, putting on an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry, let's start over. My name is Detective Grayson. I'll be conducting the investigation on your husband's disappearance. I just had a couple of questions about what you remember and any details that you can provide that might help me move forward."
Dick watched as her lips curled into a smile, "Of if that's all you need, of course I'm happy to help. For a moment I was worried I was being charged with something." She was playing dumb. He could work with that for the moment but eventually he was going to have to wear her down at least a little. Because it was obvious from her demeanor that she knew something that she didn't want him to know. Unfortunately for her however, he was trained by someone far more efficient than any one in this police department.
"I'm sorry you were misled, what led you to that conclusion," he asked, leaning back in his chair to try and seem relaxed and unthreatening. If he could catch her in a lie, it would be much easier than having to watch her movements later on. He doubted she would take the bait, especially considering there was a lot of valid things to lead her to the conclusion that she was being seen as a suspect.
The woman shrugged, "Oh nothing. Just being cuffed to a table. And one of your officers took my cane." She held up her arms, her wrists getting snagged when the chains ran out of slack. She kept her face controlled but Dick could practically feel how smug she was internally. He had pretty much set her up for that one, albeit unintentionally. She was smart. Where most would have faltered, their minds drawing a blank when their guilt makes them unable to tell what they can say, she found a way to spin it on him. Which led back to that lawsuit problem he was trying to avoid.
Dick's face slipped a little. There was a camera in the room and the words were aid out loud. This was gonna be on a tape that the court might review later. Any sign that he personally had any sort of animosity with her could lead to a mistrial before he got a chance to say anything at all. A wave of guilt washed over him, taking a look at her restraints. He wasn't aware her chronic condition involved the need for a mobility aid. If it was true that they took it from her, that was sure cause for a lawsuit.
"I wasn't aware of your disability, I apologize for how my officers have treated you," he finally relented, waving a hand to the fake mirror behind him. He needed to fix the situation immediately while making it clear he did not ask them to do that, to build a rapport with her. Moments later, an officer was walking in with a set of keys and her cane.
The officer quickly unlocked her wrists, though it was obvious he wasn't happy about it. Dick was going to have to have a talk with him later. He watched as Mrs. Gorey graciously accepted her cane, leaning it against the table where she could easily access it, "Oh don't worry about me, tensions were high and I'm sure I wasn't as nice as I could have been." Dick would have almost disappointed if she hadn't put up a fight. That fire in her eyes was unmistakable.
He nodded, pretending to just accept her answer, "Is it alright if I go ahead and ask you a couple of questions then? I don't want to take up too much of your time. Which was true. Trying to keep her here for too long would be detrimental to the department if she were to file a suit. But on the flip side, he wanted some questions answered while she was here so that he could at least get some idea of what they were working with. When officers originally answered the 911 call, he had been off duty and he wasn't handed the case until after the fact, which he wasn't happy about.
Mrs. Gorey smiles sweetly, "Oh of course! Take all the time you need, I've got nowhere to be."
Dick could tell from the tightness in her jaw that was in fact not the case. She was probably in a hurry. But wherever it was she was trying to go, she had no plans of telling him about it. Which of course only made Dick more intrigued by the case.
He gave her a smile, and he knew that she knew he could see through her to an extent. But there was something he was missing and that part was what she was keeping locked up behind her mask. He could see her playful smirk behind her kind smiles, her gaze scanning him for answers he wasn't going to give her either.
"Well I feel like we should start from the beginning. I apologize, I know you've been over this already with the officers from the scene but I want to hear it from you rather than draw conclusions from a piece of paper," he explained, making sure he had on his best smile.
That was the moment her mask broke slightly, a real genuine pain on her face, "Yeah- of course we can go over it again. Do you want me to start at the beginning? When I reported him missing?"
Mrs. Gorey took a slightly shaky breath before she looked down at her hands, "Well... it was a few days ago. When I called. He just... never came home and I guess I got tired of waiting for him to come back." Dick watched as she refused to make eye contact, fidgeting with her wedding ring. She was obviously keeping some key details to herself but she was playing the part of a concerned wife well. And part of the pain in her eyes was real as far as he could tell. But not the uncertainty. She knew what happened, she just couldn't say.
Luckily for her, he was willing to work with that, "I see. Can you tell me why your husband left the house in the first place? Was there a fight or someplace specific he was going to?" He kept his voice gentle, hoping to coax some information out of her.
“D-um Bill left a lot. It wasn't because he didn't love me or because of fighting. It was just something he had to do and I understood. Sometimes he would be gone for a few days but he always came back. This time- it had been over a week so I guess I just assumed something must have gone wrong," she sighed.
Dick thought about that. She wasn't lying and that accounted for why it took so long for her to report him missing but that left more questions unanswered. Like why it was that he left so often if not because of marital disputes or why she very obviously stumbled over his name. Of course, he couldn't ask about the name thing yet, they didn't have enough of a rapport. But he could at least try to get more information about where he might have been going.
He took a moment to write down what she had said into his personal notes in the margins of the file before looking back up at her, "Did he say anything about his plans before he left?"
Mrs. Gorey's face changed to one of a bittersweet smile, "No, after I got hurt, he stopped telling me about it so he wouldn't worry me. He knew if he told me too much I would want to go with him and that doesn't really work given how I can't even walk without my cane anymore. He knew that the pain wouldn't take the fight out of me."
After the words left her mouth the room got a bit cold. Dick didn't mention it but he did take note of it. And how she looked over her shoulder for a moment as if she had seen something. She recovered from it quickly, acting as though she never saw anything. Which meant it was something he was going to have to circle back to. What he was more interested in was the mention of fighting. She spoke almost as if they were involved in something dangerous.
"Can I ask what you mean by fight? Is it related to how you got hurt," he asked.
"I'm not allowed to talk about that. It should be in my file." Mrs. Gorey's face clouded over, her walls back up. He believed her. But the problem was, it was in fact not in her file.
"I'm sorry, but I really shouldn't answer anything else..." she said as she carefully pulled herself to a stand, leaning on the table for support until she could grab her cane.
This was all he was going to get from her. Clearly he was going to have to do some research before asking her anything else. Something bigger was going on here and he was going to have to figure out what that was. But she wasn't going to give it to him and there was no reason to keep her here legally.
"Of course, I'm sorry. It seems our files are incomplete at the moment," he said, giving her an apologetic smile as he stood as well to help her. He reached his hand out so she could get her balance but before she could stop herself Dick noticed how she shied away from the physical contact. He put his hand back down.
"Have a nice day Mrs. Gorey."
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