. ✧ . * . ˚ GOOD FUCKING GRIEF , thomas did his best to hold back an exasperated groan. he’d been in the force for long enough to have seen this before , he’d even say that he respected the route she took. he reached forward for the folder and flipped it open , yawning as he thumbed through the pages of this , mariposa hernandez : brought in countless times but never doing time in a cell. granted , everything listed was rather petty — nothing short of a violent thief and a misunderstood soul.
he noted her sarcasm , the thick layer of protection she had after all these years of getting what she wants — as it were. “ go on , get it all out. ” he spoke as though he were bored , after all he really was bored. mariposa was nothing new to him , thomas nam : the seasoned detective that’s been subject to nearly becoming a victim of a serial killer , a man who’s been abandoned in the forest and tied to a trunk for three days before he was found. people didn’t go to these extreme measures — even if it were petty stealing or something as harmful as assault — unless they felt as though they were RIGHT. to her , clearly — everyone else must be wrong.
“ throw your temper tantrum and tell me why you’re above the law. when you’re done , i’ll get you a juice box. and then —— ”
his voice , it had gone from monotonous to deeply grave. he flipped the page to look at photos , his stomach tightened and he closed the file — keeping it in his lap as he looked up at mariposa. disgust ran through him as he thought back to the countless victims he’s seen — STRIPPED from their lives and treated like numbers. he craved the taste of a cigarette : the taste of an old habit always accompanied his worst memories. and to think , did she really believe she was above the law — doing it all for the greater good?
detective nam was known to hate the system , to be the one to fight the system that he had been struggling with all his life. penetrating the dark pit of criminal justice and rising through the ranks without sucking up to a single grubby leech , no — thomas nam had morals. morals he vowed to keep. just like the law that he vowed to protect.
“ —— then we can talk about why you were spotted at the crime scene two hours prior to the murder of a seven year old girl, eight year old boy, and their single mother. ”
posie grew up knowing what it was like to miss meals so her younger siblings could eat, knowing the sound of gunshots echoing against the concrete, knowing that injustices would happen every single day no matter what she did and knowing beyond a doubt that the last people she could trust were the men with the shiny badges. everything she’s ever knows has taught her to hate the law and those who pretend to enforce it; the assholes playing cops and robbers over the corpses of the disadvantaged people they were supposed to protect.
that’s why she doesn’t take this investigation seriously. she walked in that door knowing damn well that there wouldn’t be any justice served no matter what she did. if she says she did it ( a lie that everyone in the damn precinct should know is true ) then they get another star on the good noodle board and she rots in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. if she says she didn’t do it, they’ve interrogate her for hours and maybe turn off a camera or two to coerce a confession out of her. she’s seen it before and she’s sure she’ll see it again, but she’s not about to break anytime soon.
it’s not until he brings up the details of the case that her cocky smile fades into a glare, anger directly a lot further than just some idiotic investigator in the room with her. “sure, let’s talk about it,” she hums, but it’s more of a metal on metal grind than a purr this time. “julia, mary and danny were sweethearts. just the most precious little things; i personally delivered their groceries twice a month when julia couldn’t because of work. such a shame when her husband got sick a few years ago, leaving her all alone with two kids and a dog. poor fucking dog too, right? your idiot cops stuck him in a pound instead of finding the home of a friend and now he’s suffering too. but hey, you guys love sticking anything behind bars right?”
there’s a pause, icy glare focused straight on him before she gives a laugh devoid of any mirth. “oh, wait, sorry, let me start again. i murdered those random motherfuckers in cold blood because i’m a terrible awful person and i just love murdering. give me the murder weapon and i’ll stick my finger prints all over it so you can get a pretty little conviction and fuck off back to arresting people of color for smoking weed,” she snaps, never dropping the eye contact. “that’s what you want right? a nice, pretty, ribbon on top of a messy inconvenience. don’t pretend you actually give a fuck about the victims - it’s embarrassing.”
