11:58 A.M.
The autumn wind carried a bite that seared the lungs, a dry, cold burn that tasted of decaying leaves and distant winter. Davon Deshaun stepped out of his Honda Civic, the door groaning shut with a sound of tired metal. His eyes were drawn upward, not to the imposing LAPD complex, but to a single, skeletal oak tree fighting a losing battle against the season. Its last few leaves, brittle and brown, were being ripped away one by one by the relentless gust, spiraling into a chaotic dance before skittering across the asphalt. It felt like a portent.
He shoved his car keys into the pocket of his worn leather coat, its familiar smell of coffee and old rain a small comfort. His gaze swept the garage, inventorying by habit. His Civic, a silver Camry, and then—a Porsche Cayenne, sleek and dark as a panther. His stomach tightened. Gerardo and Claire were already here. He was late.
He ran a hand through his hair, a chaotic mess of black curls he'd given up on taming before the sun had even risen. The black polo shirt and faded jeans he'd thrown on felt insubstantial against the chill, or maybe it was the dread. With a final, hesitant glance at the tree, he walked into the building.
The squad room was a hive of low-grade chaos, a symphony of ringing phones, clicking keyboards, and the low murmur of voices strained by fatigue and cynicism. The air smelled of stale coffee, cheap perfume, and ozone from the old photocopier in the corner. He moved through the maze of desks, offering silent, tight-lipped nods to a few officers. Their returned glances were a mix of sympathy and amusement. They knew where he was headed.
A young uniformed officer, his face still fresh with academy zeal, peeled away from a water cooler and hurried over. "Davon. Ortiz is breathing fire in there," he said, his voice a conspiratorial whisper as he checked his phone. "It's thirteen hundred hours. You're on the hot seat."
"I was busy," Davon said, the excuse sounding hollow even to him. His phone buzzed insistently in his pocket. He pulled it out, the screen illuminating with a string of texts from Claire.
Where u at? Ortiz is getting impatient. He's pacing. It's scary. Seriously, Davon. Get here. ...
"Shit," he exhaled, the word a sharp cloud in the cool air. He didn't reply, just jammed the phone back into his pocket and made for the elevator, stabbing the 'up' button with more force than necessary. The doors slid shut, enclosing him in a tomb of sterile silence and Muzak. He watched the floor numbers light up with agonizing slowness. Five. He just had to make it to five.
He tried to distract himself, pulling his phone out again. The news sites were a circus. The press had indeed made gold, as he'd feared. "BRENTWOOD BUTCHER STRIKES AGAIN?" one headline screamed, next to a grainy, unflattering file photo of Captain Ortiz. "LAPD CLUELESS IN SERIAL INVESTIGATION." He swiped away, checking his personal chats. Nothing from his sister. Nothing from his dad. Just a void. "Nothing new..." he breathed, the words swallowed by the elevator's hum. The doors slid open with a definitive ding that felt like a starting pistol.
He took the hallway, his boots making soft, purposeful sounds on the linoleum. Left turn. Second door. He paused for a fraction of a second, gathering himself, then pushed it open.
The office was an island of oppressive calm, a stark contrast to the squad room. The air was thick with the scent of lemon polish and expensive cigar smoke, clinging to the lush Persian rug. An immense oak desk, polished to a mirror shine, was surrounded by mahogany bookshelves filled with leather-bound law books and accolades. In a high-backed swivel chair sat Captain Vincent Ortiz, a man in his mid-fifties built like a retired linebacker going soft in the middle. His size was still formidable, straining the seams of his crisp white shirt and black tie. His hands, resting on the desk, were a landscape of power—thick fingers adorned with heavy gold rings, the knuckles dotted with faded blue tattoos from a life before the badge. His hair was a retreating silver mane with stubborn, defiant streaks of brown, framing a flabby, deeply lined face that was currently flushed a dangerous shade of crimson.
Claire's back was to him. He could see the tension in her shoulders, held rigid under her smart blazer as she tried to weave a spell of calm. "Captain, I assure you, we're pursuing every possible—"
"Heyyy, Mr. Gerardo. Nice seeing you?" she tried again, her voice artificially bright as she shot a desperate glance over her shoulder at Davon. It was a terrible play, and they all knew it.
Ortiz's eyebrow, thick and silvered, arched into a steeple of pure skepticism. Even Davon felt a flush of secondhand embarrassment.
"There is nothing nice about this day," Ortiz boomed, his voice a low rumble that vibrated in Davon's chest. The Captain's tan skin was mottled with angry red patches. "You two have no viable leads, the press is feeding us to the wolves, and my phone is ringing off the hook with calls from city hall. What do you have to say for yourselves that doesn't sound like a rehearsed pile of crap?"
Claire opened her mouth, a fresh apology ready on her lips, but Davon cleared his throat, a sharp, deliberate sound. She clicked her mouth shut, her eyes wide with a warning he chose to ignore.
"Well, Captain," Davon began, his own voice deceptively calm, a flat lake over a deep, cold current. "I'm sure we all want progress on this case. But screaming about the press and the clock won't solve anything. It's just noise. And it's counterproductive." He met Ortiz's gaze steadily, feeling Claire's horrified stare burning into the side of his face.
The room went utterly silent, save for the faint tick of a brass clock on the shelf. Claire looked like she'd been slapped. Ortiz simply stared, his jaw working silently before a twisted, humorless smile stretched his lips. He leaned back, the chair groaning in protest, and steepled his ringed fingers.
"Since Davon's got balls of steel," Ortiz said, his voice now a silken, dangerous thing, "I'll match them with an ultimatum. One month. Thirty days to put a bow on this and get me a name. And just so we're clear," he added, his eyes glinting, "I already have another, far more competent person in mind to take over when you two bozos inevitably mess this up. Don't think I won't pull the trigger. You're both dismissed."
They filed out, Claire closing the door with a soft, precise click that felt louder than a slam in the tense hallway.
The moment they were clear, she whirled on him, her professional mask dissolving into sheer, unadulterated fury. "Good job, Davon Deshaun. A truly masterful performance. You just had to take a tricky situation and superglue it to the ceiling."
"What did I do wrong?" he asked, genuinely perplexed. He ran a hand through his already disheveled hair. "I just stated a fact he needed to hear. The man's a pressure cooker. Someone had to point it out before he exploded."
"Now that's what you did wrong!" she hissed, keeping her voice low as a pair of officers walked by. She offered them a strained, fleeting smile before turning her laser focus back on him. "You weren't supposed to be that blunt! It doesn't help. It never helps. It just makes him dig his heels in deeper." She waved a hand in frustration. 'This lady operates like my life is a script she's directing,' he thought, a familiar resentment bubbling in his gut. He sighed, the sound heavy with exhaustion.
"Look, Davon. Hmmmm." She searched for the right words, her nose scrunching slightly. "You're just... I don't know? You lack tact? You're a human bulldozer?" He scoffed, turning away from her. "You can scoff all you want, but I will still say it to your face. If you tried, for just one single day, to be a little softer around the edges, things would actually work out for us. For the team."
"I'm nice," he insisted, the defensiveness in his voice surprising even him.
A short, sharp laugh escaped her. "Who told you that lie? Your mirror?" He snorted, shaking his head. "And I'm not here for your disgusting expressions." The barb landed, sharp and precise, and he felt it like a physical prick. His face darkened, the easygoing mask crumbling to reveal the storm beneath. "Like yesterday... you were incredibly rude to Clifford. The man was just doing his job, and you treated him like a suspect."
"I ain't got time for any more of your lectures," he bit out, the words clipped and final. He turned on his heel and stormed off towards his desk, a small, cluttered island of organized chaos in the corner. He snatched his coat from the back of his chair and his phone from its charger, ignoring the way his knuckles were white with tension.
Claire was a persistent shadow, her footsteps quick behind him. "Davon, we need to talk about this. We can't work like this." Her words were a buzz in his ears, a fly he could swat away. He didn't break stride, pushing through the heavy doors to the garage, the cold air hitting him like a welcome slap. He didn't stop until he was at the driver's side door of his Civic.
He paused, his hand on the cold handle. He took a deep, steadying breath, forcing the anger down. It was a struggle. "Care for coffee?" he asked, the question thrown over his shoulder, abrupt and devoid of warmth.
She stopped short, her tirade cut off. She frowned, studying the rigid line of his back, before her expression lightened with cautious surprise. "That's... a welcoming improvement, Davon." A small, tentative smile touched her lips.
He said nothing. He simply unlocked the car, walked to the passenger side, and opened the door for her. The moment she was inside, he slammed it shut with a concussive thwump that echoed in the concrete space.
"Jesus, Davon!" she yelped, flinching. "You want me to go deaf? What is wrong with you?"
A smirk, thin and devoid of real humor, flickered across his face as he circled the car. She was already sulking, arms folded tightly across her chest, staring pointedly out the windshield. He slid into the driver's seat, the familiar space offering no solace. The scent of her perfume—something clean like lemongrass and sandalwood—invaded the car's usual ecosystem of old coffee and leather. He gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles white again, and stared straight ahead for a long moment before finally looking at her.
"Where to, milady?" he asked, the smirk returning, a shield for his own awkwardness.
"Starbucks," she said, her voice tight.
He scowled. "Of course." With a sigh that seemed to come from his very bones, he started the car and pulled out of the garage, leaving the shadow of the precinct behind.
---
The Starbucks was an oasis of forced cheer, a jarring contrast to the grimness they'd just left. They parked and walked across the patio, the iron furniture empty and cold in the autumn air. As they passed a large, decorative planter, Davon's detective instincts, always humming in the background, flared. A figure, seated in the shadow of the building, was clad in an oversized black cloak, a hood pulled so far forward it erased any hint of face, gender, or age. The fabric was baggy, swallowing the form within whole. Something about the utter stillness of it, the intentional anonymity, set off a quiet alarm bell in his mind. He filed it away and followed Claire through the glass door, the warmth and the smell of roasted coffee beans enveloping them.
"Did you see that cloaked figure outside?" he asked her once they were inside, his voice low.
She looked up from studying the pastry case, her expression blank. "What figure?"
He scanned her face, looking for any sign of recognition. There was none. Just mild curiosity. "Never mind," he muttered, shrugging it off as a trick of the light, a symptom of his own hyper-vigilance.
They moved to the counter, where a young barista with a bright, blonde ponytail trapped under a green apron greeted them. Her smile was practiced but genuine, her blue eyes crinkling at the corners. "What can I get for you folks today?" she asked, her voice possessing a pleasant, husky quality.
"Double espresso shots for both of us. And nothing else," Claire said, all business. The barista nodded, her fingers flying over the screen.
"Name for the order?"
"Claire."
They moved down the line to wait. Davon leaned against the counter, his eyes doing another automatic sweep of the room. A couple murmured in a corner, a student was buried in a textbook, a man in a suit talked urgently on his phone. Normalcy. It felt alien.
"Order for Claire!" the barista called out, handing them a small paper bag with two tiny cups nestled inside. They paid and walked back out into the biting wind. Davon's eyes immediately went to the planter, to the shadow where the figure had been.
It was empty. Just an empty chair.
A faint, cold prickle ran down his spine. His phone buzzed in his pocket, shattering the moment. He fished it out, frowning at the unknown number. He answered. "Davon Deshaun speaking.... Oh, hey, Clifford." His face tightened, the muscles in his jaw clenching. He listened, his gaze drifting from the empty chair to Claire, who was looking bored as she sipped her scalding espresso. "Yeah. We'll be there soon." He hung up. "We're needed at the ME's office. Clifford says it's urgent."
"Aww," she pouted, a genuine look of disappointment crossing her features. "I wanted to see your house. See what kind of cave the great Davon Deshaun hibernates in."
The comment was meant to be light, but it felt like another intrusion. He was already walking briskly to the car, not waiting for her. "Another time," he said, the words lost to the wind.
She hurried after him, and they slid back into the Civic. This time, there was no conversation. The only sound was the roar of the engine and the whine of the tires as he pushed the car faster than necessary, speeding through the lat
e afternoon traffic, racing toward the cold, silent truths waiting for them on a stainless-steel slab.