Briefing | Tim Bradford | The Rookie
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(Y/N) lifted the travel cup to her lips, finishing off the final dregs of her coffee, before placing it back down onto the desk. Tim sat next to her at the front of the room as they, including Nolan, Harper, and Chen, waited for Grey and Lopez to arrive. His arm was slung over (Y/N)’s shoulders, pulling her into his side.
She closed her eyes, trying to drown out the chatter from her colleagues. Relaxing wasn’t something (Y/N) ever really succeeded in, she was hard-wired to always think of the worst outcome, and multiple times her panic and worry had caused her to lose focus on what was really important. She tried to focus on her breathing as a way to not start to worry. It had been a habit Grey had gotten her on to, inhaling for two seconds, and exhaling for four.
Putting focus on her breathing meant that she could silence out the rest of her surroundings. She could feel Tim’s breaths as she leant on his, his arm pulling her closer. She could feel the slight stubble he had grown rub against her hair as he rested his head on hers.
“Hey, sweetheart,” Tim whispered into her hair, “It’ll be okay.”
(Y/N) just nodded into his chest, enjoying the moment until it was interrupted by the sound of Grey coughing. She whipped her head up, bumping Tim’s as she moved.
“Are you two done?” he asked, looking less than impressed. “Because if you are, we have business to solve.”
The two split up, keeping a respectable distance, but Tim still kept a hand on her thigh as they both turned their attention to Grey. The other officers all gathered round the front tables as Grey stood at the podium.
“Right, so we all know why we're here, there have been a couple of developments in the Diaz case and the threat it poses to us.” Grey opened the file in front of him, flicking through the pages until he found the interview report. “Starting when Bradford and Lopez interviewed one Damian Barrett.”
“Yeah,” Lopez took over from where she was perched on a table, “He was questioning over a store robbery, I thought he was innocent but (Y/N) noticed that he had a familiar tattoo. She had seen it on a waiter in some Italian restaurant, La Fazenda.”
“Wait what?” Tim interrupted, taking his hand back as he turned to his wife, “Why did you not tell me this?”
“I didn’t think it was important.”
“Not important? Your life is in danger, and you think that seeing something like that isn't important enough to tell me?”
“Look. I thought it was nothing, this is the first I've heard about it since.” (Y/N) looked down. She reached over to place her hand on Tim’s shoulder but he shrugged her off.
“Well clearly it was something,” Tim snapped, before taking a breath, trying to regain his temper, “look, just next time, tell me. No matter how minute.” He turned back to Lopez, “Anyways, continue.”
“Well I ran another, more detailed background on him. He was in some deep financial trouble which seemed to disappear when he was released from jail two years ago. He was held at the twin towers jail before he was sentenced. Which is where we believe he met Diaz.” Angela moved towards the chalkboard at the top of the room, grabbing the chalk and writing down names as she continued to speak, outlining her theory. “Barrett came from a family of crooks, including a sister who was serving life at Central California Women's Correctional Facility.”
“So he took a bribe? Or is he being paid to do someone’s dirty work?” Harper asked.
Angela nodded, writing the initials R.D on the board. “I think someone brought him out. And he has to comply to pay off a neverending debt.”
(Y/N) shifted in her chair. “I’m not following. What does his sister have to do with this?”
“The handwriting analysis came back to me, we had a match to an inmate at the Central California Women's Correctional Facility. It also gives us some form of motive, revenge. This station and some of its officers got on this inmate’s bad side. They want to make us suffer.”
“What are you getting at Lopez?” Grey asked, crossing his arms.
“I have it on good authority that R.D was not Regina Diaz, or anyone posing to be her. I believe that R.D is Rosalind Dyer.”
As Angela finished speaking, the room fell into silence as the officers tried to process the words spoken. (Y/N) had heard of Rosalind Dyer, everyone in L.A had, but she couldn't understand why she would target them in particular. On all accounts, Dyer was sociopathic, surely she would want to target all cops in the city and not play cat-and-mouse with a select few. (Y/N)’s mind was spinning so fast that she barely noticed Tim’s hand grabbing hers again or Chen’s almost sob from the other side of the room.
(Y/N) blinked, bringing herself back into the room. “Why is she after us?”
(Y/N) did not understand what she was missing. Clearly there was something that they all knew. Something serious. Tim turned in the chair, still holding her hand, so that his body was facing hers, inadvertently blocking her view of the rest of her colleagues as he began to recall the story of what Dyer had done.
He left out a lot of the minor details, but he told her about Caleb and what he had done, how they had Dyer come and show where more of the bodies she killed were, he spoke about the torment Lucy went through. Lastly, he told her about Nick Armstrong’s betrayal.
“Detective Armstrong?” She asked, the information she had been told spinning through her mind as one link suddenly became clear to her. “He was partnered with my case worker before. Kade Sullivan. Do you think that was how she managed to get her information?”
“It’s a possibility.” Grey moved from the podium and towards his officers, “If we are dealing with Rosalind Dyer, we need to be hyper-vigilant. She will be watching us and she will know that we are watching her. Our only trump card will be that there is a chance that she doesn't know that we have figured out who's behind this. Do not trust anyone outside of the room with this information. We will all need to work together to overcome this, but Chen, I do understand if you would want to take a step back from this.”
Lucy swallowed the lump that had grown in her throat. “No Sir, I’m right where I want to be.”
“Okay then. We will meet back here tomorrow morning after roll call. We will need a cohesive plan, but for now all of you go home and rest. You will need your energy as these next days or weeks will be intense. You're all dismissed.”
“So why did Dyer go after the precinct in the first place?” (Y/N) pulled back the duvet as she got into bed. “I get that she wanted revenge on Armstrong, but the rest of us? I mean what did we ever do to her?”
“She is sick in the head, that’s why. She plays mind games, and questioning why she does stuff means she wins.” Tim said, joining her in bed.
“Look Tim-” (Y/N) started, stopping herself as the words didn’t come forth. She took a breath, trying to regain some composure before starting again. “I’m sorry. I should've told you about Barrett. I just didn’t want you to worry.”
“It’s my job to worry.” He said, shuffling down in the sheets, opening his arm up for (Y/N) to cuddle into him. “I will always worry about you, but you need to be honest.”
Instead of responding, Tim just placed a kiss onto (Y/N)’s head as he shuffled down to sleep.
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