PoliceForcestuck: The Bookstore 3

Officer Harley seats herself in a large, green armchair in the empty room. Only a few other similar armchairs fill the room along with dim lighting. Ms. Lalonde turns on a tall lamp and sits facing Jade.

"My boss has a few of these rooms issued to provide stillness to read in," she explains
resting her hands on her crossed knees. "I imagined that this environment would suit you
best for our conversation."

Jade tries to sit comfortably in the chair but finds it a little too stiff, "It's an
interrogation," she corrects.

The woman across gives a snuffed laugh, "Indeed." Rose smiles and awaits the officer's
next move.

The brunette suddenly jumps in her seat, "Oh hold on for a second please." Officer Harley
reaches into her bag she had left on the floor. She mutters to herself as she pushes
through the camera and spare ammo. "Ah-ha!" Jade grabs a small recording device from her
bag. She presses a button at the top, and a light blinks on, "Would you mind if I record this?"

"Not at all."

Jade grins, "Thanks, now you understand that you're being recorded, and that could be used
in court?"

Ms. Lalonde continues giving Jade a slight smile, "Of course."

"Alright now let's go," Jade holds the recorder between her and Rose as they talk. "So
you've given me the names of everyone you saw and recognized, correct?"

"Correct."

"And none of them carried anything strange?"

"Not that I could see."

Jade ponders this response, "Oh! What about that other guy?"

"Dave?"

"Yes him," Jade places the recorder on her lap, "Full name please."

"Dave Strider."

"Great now what's your relationship with him? Is he your boyfriend?"

Rose suddenly blushes a light red, "Of course not, he's just a friend. What is this, an
interview on the morning talk show?"

"Alright sorry about that," Officer Harley apologizes. "It was an easy mistake seeing how
much he seemed to care about you-"

"Dave Strider and I do not have romantic relations," Ms. Lalonde huffs louder. She
recognizes the mistake of the outburst and adjusts her thin hair band to help the awkward
silence.

Jade watches her slightly frightened, "Okay, I'll just move on then."

The blonde straightens her blouse and skirt, "Yes perhaps that would be best."

Officer Harley gives a small fake smile, "Okay now-" A range of high pitch sounds and
gurgles are made inside Jade's bag. The word "squiddles" can be heard.

Jade turns red in the face and dashes to her bag; she quickly pulls out a cell phone and
shuts it off. The noise stops. Officer Harley gives a forced laugh, "Haha, wow I forgot to
turn my cell phone off, stupid telemarketers."

Rose tries to prevent a real smile from appearing, but fails, "You have a Squiddles
ringtone?"

"Yeah, I watched the show as a kid, and still love it." Jade throws a hand over her face,
"Oh I am messing this up, aren't I?"

"No, you're doing fine," Rose comforts, "I actually watched the show as a child as well,
but my affections for the tentacle creatures evolved for their originators."

"Originators?"

"Yes Officer Harley, did you know that the Squiddles were inspired by the Eldritch gods?"

Jade leans forward in her seat, "No way!"

Rose chuckles, "Yes way, and ever since I found out I have loved studying those beings."

"That's awesome!" Jade claps her hands like an excited child, "Hey do you remember that
episode where Princess Berryboo rides sea ponies with her friends and they get lost?"

"Indeed, but I always thought that they should have done the basics of survival instead of
freaking out," Rose reminisces.

"Isn't it funny how kid shows forget that kind of stuff?" Jade and Rose lean forward to
talk more about their favorite childhood show.

Five minutes later.

"Argh Princess Berryboo!" Jade yells standing on her armchair and holding her arm out like
she carries a sword. "You'll never stop me from stealing all of your little friends!"

Rose stands behind her armchair bracing for action, "You'll never win Captain Plumbfoot!
The power of the tangle buddies will always defeat you!" Rose stops bracing herself and
looks seriously at Jade, "Shouldn't I be Captain Plumbfoot? You'd make a better Princess
Berrryboo."

Jade pouts, "No way! I'm always made Princess Berryboo. At least I'm wearing a uniform
like Captain Plumbfoot, and you're dressed in pink and purple!"

"It's lavender Officer Harley," Rose corrects.

Jade lightly laughs, "Hey feel free to call me Jade- what time is it?" Officer Harley
looks at the room's clock, "Shit! We lost track of the time." The brunette quickly tries
to gather her stuff back into her bag. She finds her recorder and glances at Rose, "So you
have no idea who could have done it?"

"None at all."

"Great," Jade sarcasms. She quickly turns off the recorder and stuffs into the bag with
the rest of her stuff. Jade looks at Rose and a quick thought hits her, "Can we exchange
phone numbers?"

Rose looks at her confused, "What do you mean?"

"Well I had a great time just hanging out," Jade explains, "I don't have many friends
here, so um yeah." Rose amused gives Jade her number, and Jade does the same.

The two women leave the quite room, and Jade finds Officer Vantas shoving Dave Strider out
the door. Officer Harley turns around to Rose to say that they'll call her when the case
is over. Rose complies and says she'll try to get her boss to be questioned. Ms. Lalonde
exits the bookstore soon afterwards.

Officer Harley walks over to Karkat who is watching the other officers gathering evidence
from the corpse, "How'd it go?"

The troll looks over at the human and lights a cigarette, "You want to know how it fucking
went?"

Five minutes earlier.

"I'm not talking without a lawyer," Dave says to the troll. The human lounges in a hard
chair, positioning his feet on top of a wooden table.

Karkat rubs his face, "Strider I just want you to tell me who you fucking saw. I've asked
five times!" his voice raised itself in the end.

"I ain't telling you shit. Knowing the cops, you'll just turn it against me and send me in

jail. So some asshole can then coddle me at night and say how sexy I am. I already know
that I'm a fucking sex god. I don't need someone to tell me." Dave gives a quick look at
the troll, "You might need to pay someone for that though."

Karkat shoves his hands into his face and screams.

Dave watches the troll's tantrum, "Chill man, you'll die faster if you're like that. And
you don't look like you have many years left."

Present Time.

"The ignoramus ended with the shittiest rap I had ever heard, and I've heard Gamzee rap,"
Officer Vantas explains. "At least tell me you were more successful that I was. I need
something to keep this stress vein from popping in my think pan."

Officer Harley sweats a little, "Yup! I totally got a great interrogation and stuff!"
Karkat looks at her suspicious. "Okay, I got nothing new. I really doubt that either of
them know anything about this."

Officer Captor walks up to the duo, "Sup."

Karkat gets straight to business, "Did you find anything?"

Sollux presents a plastic bag with a wallet inside, "His name is, or was, Taylor Williams:
black hair, blue eyes, age thirty-two, human and he lives in the city. We have his address
written down." Officer Vantas looks confused.

"You found nothing else?" Sollux shakes his head, and Karkat scratches behind his horns,
"Hmm, well that's going to make this harder."

"There's going to need to be a few days for a full autopsy," Officer Captor explains, "In
that time I think you guys should talk to his family."

Jade turns to Sollux surprised, "Family?"

"Yeah, I had Kanaya look him up, and he has a family." Karkat starts to say something, but
Sollux cuts him off, "Yes I'm making you two see the family. It's your case, so you deal
with it."

Officer Vantas glares, "Seriously Sollux? You know how I feel about that. It fucking
sucks."

The lisp-y troll only shrugs, "Someone needs to do it." He hands Jade a small piece of
paper, "That's the address, and I suggest you leave now."

Karkat turns around and leaves the building with Jade following shortly behind. All the
troll can think about is finishing this meeting as soon as possible.

After a mute drive to their destination, Officer Vantas and Harley pull up to an
attractive two-story house in the residential area of Skaia. After both officer exit the
cop car, Karkat pulls his partner aside.

"Listen Harley, just let me do the talking. You've never done this before, right?" She
nods. "Yeah just watch them to make sure they don't do anything fucking crazy." Karkat
walks ahead and finishes his cigarette before smashing it into a well groomed lawn.

A loud, low beeping noise starts in Karkat's pocket. He grabs out his cell phone and turns
it off, "Fucking telemarketers. Don't they know that I have a life?"

The troll presses a figure on the door bell and waits to be answered. A raven-haired woman
in her early thirties opens the door. She becomes nervous upon seeing the two officers,
"Anything I can do for you, officer? Is it the annual fund raiser?" she says to Karkat who
stands closest to her.

He responds, "Are you Mrs. Williams?" She slowly nods her head. "I'm Officer Vantas and
this is Officer Harley. May we please come in? We have something important we need to talk
to you about."

Still nervous, the woman lets the partners into her house. Inside the house is well kept
furniture, and a floor littered with plastic toys, "I'm sorry," Mrs. Williams pardons,
"Philip is still in school and hasn't cleaned up yet. Oh little boys." She gives an
awkward laugh.

Karkat finds lounge seats and suggest that they take them. The woman now sits in a leather
armchair; while the two officers share a matching loveseat.

"Mrs. Williams," Officer Vantas begins, "I regret to inform you that your husband is
dead."

She stares at him, ". . . What?"

"We found his body in a bookstore on First Billiards Street. We aren't a hundred percent
sure of who or what killed him, but we intend to find out." The woman doesn't say
anything, so Karkat continues, "We need to know if you have any idea what could have
killed him."

The woman continues to look at the troll. Not moving, not talking, and barely breathing.
After a minute of this silence does she make a sound. And it's laughter.

She cackles in the house, filling up the room, "Oh you almost had me there. Am I getting
pranked on television or something?"

Jade tries to move to comfort the woman, but Karkat stops her, "No Mrs. Williams, you're
not."

The woman continues to howl, "Of course I am, Taylor is going to pick up milk tonight.
Besides, he is supposed to be on the other side of town." She slaps Karkat's knee, "Are
you an actor?"

Karkat rubs his knee that was slapped a bit too hard, "No Mrs. Williams, I'm Officer
Vantas of Skaian police. I need to know if you can give us any leads at all." The woman
just laughs at them.

Jade watches the woman petrified, it was remarkable how much this woman would deny her
husband's death.

Karkat jerks on Jade's shoulder, "We should go," he whispers. Jade agrees and follows him
out. When the two are entering their car, Mrs. Williams calls out to them while leaning on
the door frame, "You two make sure my husband comes home," she laughs loudly into the
street. "Oh and make sure to kill the bastard who's keeping him from me. Promise?"

The troll sighs, "Mrs. Williams I can't promise-"

"You fucking promise me right now!" she screams into the street.

Karkat looks at the woman frozen in a stance, "We'll try our best."

The officer quickly climbs into the car and drives away from the woman. Jade takes deep
breaths, "What was that?"

Her partner hastily lights a cigarette, "Stages of fucking grief. Everyone is different,
but she was really into denial. However it seems that she recognized what was going on in
the end. Somewhat. Just be glad that we didn't see anger back there. That is seriously
fucked up."

Frustrated, Jade pulls on her hair, "We still have no leads!"

"Hopefully the autopsy will reveal something for us," Karkat reasons.

"But it'll take a few days right?" Jade asks. Karkat gives an affirmative noise. "Then
we'll just have to wait until then," Jade looks out the window dramatically while thinking
about the corpse.

Karkat chuckles breaking her concentration, "At least it beats whatever Vriska is doing."