Private Bad Boys Bad Boys, What Ya Gonna Do?

[Deleted]

Location: Coruscant. Club District

A man was running down the dark alley, gasping for breath. He took a quick right and stopped, panting and clutching his knees.

Behind him the sounds of the busy street drifted in the neon lit night air. He couldn’t hear any footsteps. Maybe they weren’t following.

He pushed off the wall and started walking at a brisk pace, still on edge and listening for footsteps behind him. There were none.

He rounded a corner and stopped in his track. His follower wasn’t behind him.. but in front, blocking the path through the alley.

“Please…”

A blaster bolt and then the man’s smoking body fell to the ground.

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Location: Coruscant - 8th precinct : Basement Gym

Kaylee ducked just in time to avoid the punch thrown by her sparing partner in the ring. A few of the other security force officers were standing around the ring wolf whistling, but most were getting their afternoon physical fitness demands out of the way. The afternoon had been slow for the detectives. Most of the street cops were stuck writing traffic tickets or finishing long overdo paperwork. Kaylee had her own stack of paperwork that she didn’t even want to think about.

“Hotch! The Chief wants to see you!”

“Aww man. I was winning.”

“In your dreams Duke.”

She unstrapped her boxing gloves and grabbed her water bottle, shaking her head in laughter at the comment. Duke hadn’t won a match yet but he had the ego of a heavy weight champion.

After a quick shower she was knocking on the chiefs door and being instructed to sit.

“I’m putting you on the Romerez case. “

“Great!” She felt a rush of gratitude to have a new case, and only a twinge of guilt for the paperwork that wasn’t likely to get done anytime soon now.

“Yes. We don’t have any new leads but you can start by talking to the medical examiner. Oh and I’m assigning you a partner. “

“WHAT? No! Chief come on!”

“I don’t want to hear it! He is a decorated officer with a lot of experience so you better find a way to get along. Actually he should be here any minute.”

Harvey Denson

 

[Harvey Denson]

Location: CSF Precinct 8 | Soundtrack: Fire Flies

a few hours prior …

“You’re, uh- you’re fething around, right?”

“I am not. And you’ll mind your tongue if you aim to keep it, Denson,” the Chief warned.

Harvey held his hands up defensively, leaning back in his chair as he contemplated the news. He was being reassigned to a new case, with a new partner, in a backwater precinct he’d only ever graced with his presence once. A coy smirk cracked on his face.

“What about Lim?”

“He’ll be fine.”

“Did he get a new case, too?”

“No.”

“He put you up to this?”

“Does he have a reason to?”

Touché. Harv dropped the rapid-fire shakedown with a sigh, running frustrated fingers through his unkept hair. The Chief’s glare was unwavering.

“Fine, who’s the lucky man? Better not be Rax, that guy’s weird as fe-“

“Officer Hotchner.”

Silence fell between them as Harvey looked over the Chief in disbelief. Hotch? The kid?

“Chit.”

As if on cue, Detective Denson rounded the corner with a sluggish gait. He crossed the gym, offering the occasional nod to the others as he made his way to Kaylee Hotchner and the Chief.

“You promised me caf,” Harvey grumbled to the senior officer. He looked to Kaylee with a smirk.

“He promise you a hot cup, too?”

It was about all that could get Harv moving this early.

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Tags: Kaylee Hotchner​

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[Deleted]

"He promise you a hot cup, too?"

Kaylee smiled a little uncertainly and then glared at the chief once more. True that wasn’t the worst greeting she had ever received. In fact compared to some of the other officers Denson was being a charm, but she wondered if he felt the way so many of them did. She had advanced to detective quickly, sparking rumors she slept her way there or was some kind of whiz that was all work and no play. The truth was she was just motivated. Motivated by a cold case with no new leads in over a decade.

She closed her eyes briefly and mentally kicked herself. Now wasn't the time to think about her past. They had a job to do.

“It’s nice to meet you.”

Just then the chiefs comm unit rang and he answered gruffly. Kaylee wasn’t following the conversation but became interested when the chief slammed the unit back on the desk.

“Damn! There’s another body. Club district. “

“Guess that’s our cue.”

She wondered if Denson would want to drive as she opened the office door to head for the garage where the police speeders were kept.

Harvey Denson

 

[Harvey Denson]

Location: CSF Precinct 8 | Soundtrack: Fire Flies

“We’ll grab the caf on the way,” he returned, following a few steps behind Hotch. He mouthed a disgruntled ‘you owe me’ to the chief as they disappeared from the rec room.

“That one,” Harvey said with a whistle, pointing to one of the older speeders. It was visibly aged, at least a full model or two behind the current-issue police speeders. It was his, these days. Like one of those cheesy police holos. The cops at his home precinct knew exactly which car was Harv’s.

“Club District’s my scene. I know some people out that way. I’ll drive.”

The detective eased into the pilot seat, his stiff muscles still protesting him being awake this early. Or was it technically late?

Harvey was used to the lower reaches of the Underworld, where it always felt like nighttime. He worked the night shift, but the warm buzz of neon and never-ending streams of traffic made twilight unrecognizable from daytime.

His glossy eyes looked to Hotchner as he shifted the speeder into gear.

“Alright, first things first: I’m Harvey. No need for all that Detective Denson stuff. I’m Harvey.”

He glanced over his shoulder to confirm the rear was devoid of any passersby, then lifted the craft and floated it backwards through the garage. Without turning back to her, he offered the second part of his spiel.

“Next, there’s a, uh- beverage receptacle beneath your seat. Thin, metal, screw-on cap? Yeah, that’s it,” he said, taking the flask. He gave the top a spin, took a heavy gulp, then passed it back to the young woman.

“I like a little liquid courage to take the edge off the day.”

He pulled the speeder around to the door and shifted to park just at they neared the street access.

“The Romerez case, huh?”

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Tags: Kaylee Hotchner​

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[Deleted]

She followed the detective out to the garage and paused when she saw the speeder he drove. Would that old bucket of bolts even start? She started to say as much, but decided it might be too early in the partnership for ball busting.

"Alright, first things first: I'm Harvey. No need for all that Detective Denson stuff. I'm Harvey."

She watched him for a second and then nodded. “Call me Hotch.”

She pulled his flask out and watched as he sipped what was presumably alcohol. Did he always drink on the job? And he knew the club district? Was this guy a dirty old man? She was going to kill the Chief for this mess.

"The Romerez case, huh?"

She sat his flask down without indulging and pulled out her datapad so she could pull up the file.

“Looks like this is the third body in four weeks. First kill had 2 weeks between but its only been 1 week since this body. He’s accelerating. “

She hoped they weren’t about to have a spree on their hands.

Harvey Denson

 

[Harvey Denson]

Location: CSF Precinct 8 | Soundtrack: Fire Flies

“He’s definitely feeling some pressure.”

Harvey pulled out of the station and rose to merge with the air traffic. He held his hand out for the datapad, but figured it’d be better just to ask for the details he wanted to know. Hotch wasn’t used to his antics the way Lim Caliber was. Couldn’t get away with as much.

At least she didn’t turn him inside-out over his morning whiskey.

“Gimme the facts,” he said, turning the old speeder around a curve along the way. Traffic was heavy, but they were making decent time. Decent enough for an outdated squad car at least.

“Do we have an MO yet?”

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Tags: Kaylee Hotchner​

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[Deleted]

She gave him a hard look when he opened his hand for the datapad, but he seemed to think better of it. Texting and driving was just downright dangerous. After you scraped a few kids off the road it changed you, as many of the officers in their department would verify.

“So far we have 3 victims. One has been identified as Ron Romerez. He was 42. All of the victims have brown hair and are athletic so our guys got a type.”

She scrolled on a bit, looking for anything interesting.

“It looks like they all died from a single shot to the head, but the bodies were cut up post mortem. He … “

She swallowed hard as she re-read the sentence.

“He removed the hearts. They haven’t been found… so he must have kept them.”

They had a psychopath on their hands.


Harvey Denson

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((feel free to add any facts you want. Very open))

 

[Harvey Denson]

Location: CSF Precinct 8 | Soundtrack: Fire Flies

Harvey scrunched his nose, flashing Hotch a sideways look that begged her pardon.

“Hearts?”

Damn. He’d seen lots of mementos over the years, like hair or jewelry. The unofficially-named Casino District saw a killer who took fingers a few years back, kept them in a cigar box like some sort of twisted joke. But hearts?

Damn.

“Okay, so, he kills athletic brunettes who like to hit the clubs. Takes their hearts. Sounds like a personal vendetta. Maybe a tall, handsome gent took his old lady!”

Harv’s eyes were on the air-lane, but he was clearly engrossed in his spin of the case facts. Like a teenager who took a high school rumor and ran with it. He glanced to Hotch, almost wounded by her lack of enthusiasm for his narrative.

“… I’m just thinking out loud,” he said defensively.

“Fine. Just the facts. Ron Romerez. What do we know about him, other than his dashing good looks and soft brown hair?”

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Tags: Kaylee Hotchner​

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((Sure! I’ll spin some stuff when we’re to the scene.))

 

[Deleted]

Hotch laughed at the remarks from her new partner and considered them. He might be on a roll.

“It could be our guy had a past with an athletic male. It would explain why they are all similar.”


She scrolled a little to Romerez.

“He was a bartender. So the unsub could easily have talked to the guy. Looks like Romerez gambled a lot. He liked to bet on the races. Other than that no family we know of.”

Harvey Denson

 

[Harvey Denson]

Location: Club District, Coruscant | Soundtrack: Fire Flies

“Awe, damn! Not the bartender…”

It was a shameless gripe. Harv doubted she knew just how hard it was to find a decent bartender in the Underworld. Harder than finding their killer, he’d wager. They catch killers every day.

Good bartenders? Not enough stars in the sky to wish on.

“Okay, so he’s either been crossed by the dark, handsome type… or he’s into ‘em?” Harvey took the next turn on their immediate right, a few blocks short of where the speeder’s navigation was directing them.

Harvey carried on, as if it were all part of the plan.

“Alright, I’ll take that. So let’s say the perp has it bad for the gents. Is he killin’ exes, or just blowing off steam until he finds the real target?”

He hoped the unies hadn’t botched the job yet. Maybe there’d be something they can work with at the scene. Harvey took a sharp left, another right, and veered through what Hotch would certainly suspect is a one-way lane before arriving just three minutes shy of the navigator’s ETA.

Harvey flashed her a childish grin.

“Nobody’s faster than Denson,” he said with a laugh, reaching for his coat in the backseat. Time for the real fun to begin.

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Tags: Kaylee Hotchner​

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[Deleted]

"Alright, I'll take that. So let's say the perp has it bad for the gents. Is he killin' exes, or just blowing off steam until he finds the real target.”

“We need the identities of the other two victims. Then we can cross reference and see if they overlap anyway. That might tell us where he meets these guys. Let’s drop in on the medical examiner after we inspect the scene. Whoa!”

She grabbed the side of the speeder as the driving got reckless and fast. They made it in one piece however.

“You’re lucky the traffic guys usually won’t pull over one of their own. Otherwise you might have a box full of speeding tickets.”

Maybe he already did.

They exited the speeder and headdd down a small alleyway that was alive with forensic teams. An officer noticed them and came over.

”Harvey! Good to see you.”

She wondered if Harvey knew a lot of the people in the job. He must have worked at one of the other precincts. It all overlapped.

Harvey Denson

 

[Harvey Denson]

Location: Club District, Coruscant | Soundtrack: Fire Flies

A wave here, a nod there. Harvey knew more than a few of the guys from the neighboring precincts. He was known to get around, in the work sense. Take on difficult jobs from the tougher parts of the city. If for no other reason, the unies liked him because he lowered the case load.

"Harvey! Good to see you."

“Hey, Tannik!” he said, giving the man a rough pat on the arm.

“How’s the wife? And the girl, ah… Tara? Tara! How’s your kid, man?”

The officer smiled, going on about his wife’s new job and their daughter’s schooling. Drab stuff, but Harv seemed strangely interested. He wasn’t known for his habit of making friends, but when he slipped the flask from his coat and offered a swig to Tannik, it became apparent: Drinking buddies.

“Alright, buddy, give me the 411,” he said as the personal semantics were buttoned up.

“Right. Well, the vic was found over there, just a little while-“ Tannik was saying, leading the way past police tape and nosy spectators. Harvey looked amused when he turn to Hotch.

“I’ve never met his daughter, but I do know his wife.”

She liked to drink. Or she used to. He took a few steps before he realized the way his words sounded out loud.

“Aw chit, I mean I know her. Personally. From the bar? You know what, forget it,” he said with a dismissive wave.

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Tags: Kaylee Hotchner​

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[Deleted]

Hotch raised her eyebrows at the wife comment. Had her partner just admitted to sleeping with a married woman? Was he back peddling now? Or was he genuinely worried about what people thought of him? She thought back to the speeder conversation. He did seem to want to make a good impression, and worried when he said something that could be taken the wrong way. Maybe he just put his foot in his mouth a lot.

They walked over to where the body was found. The area was taped off but the body itself had been moved. Nobody had made the connection that this was serial until two more bodies showed up. People died in the club district all the time. But not like this.

“So this was the first body found with its heart missing?”

“That’s right. We thought maybe just animals got to the stiff.”

“And only removed the heart?”

“Look kid my guys do the best they can.”

“I’m sure they do. Are all the bodies with the same medical examiner?”

“Yes. His names Munor. “

Harvey Denson

 

[Harvey Denson]

Location: Club District, Coruscant | Soundtrack: Fire Flies

Animals? He half-expected Hotch to bust the guy’s balls a bit, but she kept it professional. Harv pursed his lips, but kept the snide remarks zipped up for now. Tannik would have it coming at the next get-together, though.

Animals… pfft. Wait, Munor? Harvey cast the officer a curious glance, like he’d heard the name of someone who died years ago.

“That’s funny, I thought you said Munor was the M.E.”

“I did,” Tannik said with a shrug. “What’s the big deal?”

“What’s the big- Munie? Tall guy, grey hair, wears the stupid glasses? That Munie?”

Tannik shrugged again. Harvey waved him away, pulling Hotch to the side. He didn’t give her much time to ask what his problem was. Harv was already whispering a mile a minute.

“We’re dropping this case, kid,” he said. For the first time all morning, good ole Harv was serious. It was uncanny.

He glanced over to Tannik, waved awkwardly, than took Kaylee a step further away from earshot.

“Trust me, Hotch, there’s plenty of cases around here. Plenty. This one…? It’s not the one.”

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Tags: Kaylee Hotchner​

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[Deleted]

“Wait what?”

She was pulled even further away from the other officers by her new partner who was suddenly acting like a nut bag.

“What do you mean dropping it? We have multiple bodies with hearts missing. What’s going on?!?”

She stared at him with her eyebrows raised. What did he know she didn’t?


Harvey Denson

 

[Harvey Denson]

Location: Club District, Coruscant | Soundtrack: Fire Flies

Harvey shook his head, shutting out any room for questions. He knew how this looked, how he sounded, but any flak he caught for it far outweighed waking up with unfamiliar stitches where his kidneys ought to be.

“Trust- me- Hotch,” he said, deliberate and unwavering. He cast another glance at the rest of the scene. They needed to shove off, before anyone started taking notice.

“This isn’t a case you want.”

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Tags: Kaylee Hotchner​

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[Deleted]

"This isn't a case you want."

“You’re right. The case I want is on some beach planet where I can sip rum all day, but I’m a cop. I don’t get to decide what cases need worked. So unless you have something to share with the class it’s time we go visit Munor the medical examiner.”

She was starting to wonder if her new partner had slept with a lot of peoples wives and had to navigate the city planet safely. That or … no… he couldn’t be on the take. He didn’t seem like a bad guy. Did he?

She waved at the officer that met them and started back towards the ancient speeder.

“You coming?”

Harvey Denson

 

[Harvey Denson]

Location: Club District, Coruscant | Soundtrack: Fire Flies

"You know what? Fine. Be my guest, kid. But when you-" he stopped abruptly, tossing a hasty look-about before bringing down his volume and checking his tone, "-when you wake up with your spleen missing, I don't wanna hear it, alright?"

Harv stormed off, past the officers still working the scene. One of them made to ask the man a question, but he tossed a hand up as he went by. He ducked into the speeder, shut the door hard, and started it up. He looked to Hotch with what might have been a flicker of concern.

"This is a whole mess of chit you're about to unbox."

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Tags: Kaylee Hotchner​

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[Deleted]

Whoa. He was serious. She watched him storm to his speeder and realized some of the other officers were watching them. She rolled her eyes, hopefully indicating this was just a fight between new partners still working their stuff out. It seemed to work. A few smirked in a knowing way. Everybody hated breaking in a new partner.

Hotch walked over to the speeder and got in.

“What’s going on? You cant tell someone they might be missing an organ and not elaborate.”

She watched him for a second and then added “partner?”

He might not want to tell her, and he and everyone else might hate breaking in a new partner but they all knew that loyalty, especially to the one person who would take a blaster bolt for you, was important to this job.

Hotch sat there watching him. She could tell she had pissed him off but she had no idea why and she wasn’t about yo apologize for wanting to do a good job.

Harvey Denson

 

[Harvey Denson]

Location: Club District, Coruscant | Soundtrack: Fire Flies

Harvey sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he contemplated what to say. How much to say, that is.

He hadn't earned the friends he has by spreading their chit around like fresh manure in a crop field, but he didn't want to see Hotch killed for her ignorance. Or worse. He sighed again, turning to face her as he backed the speeder away from the scene.

"Munor's dirty," Harvey said matter-of-factly. He raised a finger to prevent any questions on his source. He wasn't sharing more than he had to.

"Man's a damn good M.E., but he's even better at sneaking parts out of the vics. Sells 'em on the market to the highest bidder, slides a cut to the precinct in the form of 'operational budget infusions,' and keeps the rest for whatever the hell sickos like him get off on. Spice, women, booze, who knows."

He pulled an uncomfortably sharp turn, clearly still frustrated by his new partner's insistence on getting them killed.

"If you wanna take him down, fine by me. He's a bastard. I'm not defending him. I'm just saying... consider who else is standing beside you when you decide to throw chit at the fan."

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Tags: Kaylee Hotchner​

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