Fantasy Coincedences

[kevintheradioguy]

The past can't hurt you anymore. Not unless you let it. <...> There are no coincidences, only the illusion of coincidences.
(A.Moore)​

​

Any casual observer would say that the crowd surrounding the crime scene wasn't getting any smaller. Luckily, it wasn't getting any bigger as well. It seemed like each time some rubberneck decided he had enough and left a scene, his place was immediately taken by another gaper, curiously poking around and bothering the police. The police that was tired of explaining anything at this point, or asking people to move away, and just silently controlled the masses, pushing the most curious away. Luckily for Ella, she had height and weight enough to snake around much bigger men and women pushing around the scene; even if someone would not hear her asking for passage, she could just flow between bodies and get to her destination anyway. She arrived at the scene fashionably late - whether it's because of the traffic, or since it was past midnight, and she was almost six hours since gone home.

As soon as the young woman crossed the police line, blinded by the colourful lights on top of ambulance cars, she was met by overly eager waving about a dozen metres away. A smaller figure hurried towards her: a tanned, simple-looking woman. Genna Marie - shorterend to Gem - was a rather recent addition to the team, and by perceived enthusiasm it was clear that she had to force herself up before getting here. The woman was short - few inches shorter then Ella - and looked stout, but from what Ward could tell, there was little fat under her clothes - mostly, it was thick bones and muscles, seeing how easily she took a role of an intimidating enforcer. In the department many said that she is supposed to sit home, raising kids, and not jump head-first into fireball-throwing maniacs, but those who knew her better realised she was not a family person. Maybe a flick or two, but family and Gem never actually stuck together from her friend's point of view. This stubborn, protocol-loving lady was being overly active and friendly only after a lot of stress, lack of sleep, or too much energetics. Ella could suspect that the latter took place now.

"Ella!" She called put, almost bouncing closer, and bumping into a fellow officer, almost ripping his sleeve with her shiny badge with 'G.M. Antonelli' on it. She didn't even say 'sorry'. "You're late. Traffic?" Gem asked. She held an old notebook in her hands, tapping her fingers over it. Nodding to go after her, she started trotting forward. The secured area was huge - a part a road (blocked at this point), few officers guarding alleyways, and a large area at a small stadium, often used by street performers, but, judging from the amount of beer cans and crumpled colourful paper lying around, there was some other event taking place here. "This is a weird one. There's this um... mess, I have no other word for it. That once was a person." She paused, biting her lip. "At first, they called it a road accident. The driver says that a girl just jumped into traffic and he had no time to hit the break, but it looks like she just exploded on the impact. Like a blood-filled ball. Poof!" He made a gesture, putting two fists together, and then quickly pulling them apart, fingers spread, imitating an explosion. "After a while, some other guy turned up, and blamed someone pushing her, started pointing fingers, but we were... not very successful in dragging the information out of him. Carmine managed a little." She pointed her pencil to a wide, rough-looking man with some distinct orcish descent in his blood. Seeing them, he nonchalantly waved, and turned back to his conversation with paramedics.

It was easy to make fun of Carmine Buonarroti, seeing how his fancy name was not consistent with brutish look, but no one did. He spoke with immense Italian accent, and didn't seem to want to change that, thus, sounding like mafia in police hide. In LA many people considered this to be a bad sign, however, he was a good addition to the team. Despite stereotypes, it was a calm and diplomatic man, besides, having a unique talent - he tend to... sense magic. Possessed some sort of sixth sense. Him and Ella had weird relationships lately, seeing how few years back Carmine had spent a few months, making moves toward the partner Gem took a place of - Erik Grey... with no success. Little people knew about it... in fact, Ella was probably the only one who did after an awkward scene of running into them in the hallway. Carmine seemed to be afraid that this was the reason for Erik's resignation, but no complaints were made, so he only carried the echo of embarrassment each time he met detective Ward. Last Ella heard, he settled with some woman he was planning on marrying, but that didn't help to ease the tension. He was the youngest in the team, however, due to the ancestry, both matured and aged faster, not feeling behind much older colleagues... even If being in his early twenties. "...bu-u-ut not too much as well." Gem continued. "He seems to be curious about this. Carmine, I mean. Says it doesn't matter what exactly happened, why was she jumping on the roads, and such.." Genna Marie pouted, clearly not liking this. "He's sure there was some magic involved. A curse, or potion, or any other whatnot. That ain't right, Ella. If someone drove her into the traffic, pushed her, or was chasing her, we should look into it, not just dismiss because she... well, exploded!"

 

[zooka]

Traffic had, in fact, been the culprit behind Ella's tardiness. When inquired about it, she gave her partner a flat look as if questioning whether the woman had been taking a nap during her entire existence in L.A. At any given hour of the day, cars were crammed into ever nook and cranny on every road like crooked teeth and sirens were so common place that, even if people had the room to move around for them, they didn't always. And, as Ella neared her destination, the traffic thickened up. There had, quite obviously, been some kind of event happening around here and it was clearing out now that there was a crime scene out front.

Ella took in all of the information Gem gave her quietly. Her eyes scanned the scene like she was memorizing it. Bloody scenes, one after another, but Ella could handle it. Or, at least, she had been. She dedicated a lot of brain power to looking at, memorizing, and analyzing grotesque things that most people couldn't look at for more than a couple of seconds. Things people thought only existed in exaggerated horror films, vomiting gore at the audience to get a reaction.

Her eyes snapped back over to Gem at her last statement. She was going to look into it, of course. More than that. She'd solve it. Carmine's interest in it alone was intriguing enough and, even if it had been mundane, pushing someone into traffic was murder and people didn't just get to get away with that sort of thing. They'd figure it out. Instead of voicing all of that to her partner, however, Ella just started to do her job. Actions spoke louder than words, after all. Her eyes drifted up to the building behind them. The marquis would suggest that this is where the show had been. The discarded alcohol all around suggested it was a rowdy one, too.

"If they were arguing, they might have been drinking with the crowd here. Worth checking out. Any traffic cams or security footage from the businesses across the street?"

 

[kevintheradioguy]

There was a traffic jam to the right of the concert hall, a few traffic officers trying to keep the flow of cars at bay, but the fact that three of four lines were blocked, didn't help. There were two ambulance cars covering the scene from Ella, but if what Gem said was true, there was hardly anything to see there: maybe a big red spot over the pavement.

"Well, yes and no." The dark-haired woman bit her lip, thinking over the question, and then pointing to the left of the building. "There are cameras over the staff exit over there. Recorded the... artist..." She struggled with coming up with a name to call him - Gem was not very musically inclined person, and she din't know the right way to refer to him at the moment. Was he a witness? A suspect? "...coming out. But they didn't catch the scene. There are a few cameras on the other side of the road - none recording that direction, but we're getting to the owners to check anyway. I wouldn't place my bets on anything before tomorrow morning, though. Closest traffic footage is from the crossroads at the back of the hall - chances on getting anything are slim, but we'll get them anyway. A-a-and the ones over here." She pointed at the main entrance. "Will take time to look through them, there was... quite a crowd."

Over them two, in the night, the large, brutalist-styled building towered, lit up by the electric-blue and soft yellow lights. It was all weirdly curved, with a honecomb-like dome of a roof, exterior all metal and glass fibre, showing off the halls on the inside, and the opaque walls inside. To the left of it was a four-way road, curving around a small plaza in front of it. To the right - pedestrian trails, going down into a park, and a newly restored quay popular among tourists. Surrounded by darkly-dressed crowd, a few of more confirming citizen could be seen here and there, curious about what happened. A small group of what looked like proprietors, were standing at the entrance, giving their statements. Although they seemed to be inside when whatever happened - happened, they all looked guilty. Slouched, and gloomy, and even from this distance it was obvious they were mumbling. This was in stark contrast with the witness-suspect-artist, which Ella was not yet aware of. However, he looked more irritated than scared or guilty. Irritated by the police coming over. In fact, the low, bark-like "I'm fine!" echoed through the square, and disappeared in the rumble of the crowd and the hissing of a small fountain, coming from the backs of one of the ambulances. Carmine visibly pursed his lips, but said nothing, continuing to write something in his notebook, thick fingers barely being able to operate a pencil. He managed to calm the man down, maybe get onto his good side, but that was hard on its own. The large man decided this was just shock, and maybe in the morning they'll get something else.