Log:A Conflict of Interest

The Madness of David Flyte 2020/02/17 	 Night Marshal|Carpenter Grimm

23

Monday morning briefing is in full swing, and Captain Landry is handing out cases. Detective Lewis gets a robbery case. Detective Lewis is picking up on Detective Halloway's murder case to follow up on some daytime leads. Then Landry drops a folder in front of Detective Carpenter. "It seems there was another attempted murder on James Porter. Which automatically makes this your case, Carpenter," Captain Landry says with a smirk.

Hearing the name Porter gets Jack some unenvious looks from his fellow detectives.

Carpenter sighs quietly. "Porter again? Really? Why doesn't the guy take a vacation someplace warmer? Like...many miles from here?" He then looks up at Hannah, "Thank, Captain. I'll get on it this morning."

Hannah shrugs. "He's rich enough to. And it'd make all our jobs easier. Hospital said he's still mostly unconscious still, and that someone teleported in and dropped him off, but nobody knows how he was almost killed." She starts to walk to the next desk, but halts to give Carpenter a wry, "Good luck." And then she finishes handing out cases. The briefing wraps shortly after.

Carpenter shakes his head and mutters as he looks at the brief report thus far, "The guy was probably trying to make tea at home, and his stove exploded on him."

Carpenter heads out after the briefing to head to teh hospital to check on Porter's status.

The report has some statements from the officer who was first called to the hospital. James Porter was brought in non-responsive by a female, caucasian, black hair, about 5'3". The victim was teleported in, both covered in blood. ER doctors were able to resuscitate him, but he was in critical condition.

At the hospital, there's a main lobby desk for guest check-in.

Carpenter shows his badge at the desk, "Detective Carpenter. I'd like to talk to someone about James Porter? He was brought in last night, I believe?"

The front lobby employee checks the badge. "Sure thing, Detective," he says, looking over his holoscreen and typing in the name. "Let's see. James Porter is currently recovering in ICU room 313 after being admitted through the ER. There was a nurse or two still on shift in the ER who were there when he was admitted. It looks like Dr. Rushmere is the attending physician.

Carpenter nods. "If I could speak to the doctor or the nurses, that would be great. Ideally, I'd like to speak to Mr. Porter himself as well, but I realize that might have to wait until he's able to have visitors."

"Sure. Dr. Rushmere is working the ICU right now, and...hmmm...Nurse Tall is in the ER," the front desk person points towards the ER signs leading down the hall. "The elevator bay is over there," he points out as well.

Carpenter smiles. "Thank you kindly." He finds himself going to tip his hat to the person at the desk, and remembering...he's not wearing a hat right now. Clearly he needs more coffee. Jack shakes his head and makes his way over to the elevator bay to head to the ICU first to speak to the doctor.

After talking to the head nurse for the ICU, Dr. Rushmere gets paged to come to the main desk for this floor. He walks over in a white coat with a name badge and a tablet.

Carpenter shows his badge for the doctor, "Dr. Rushmere, it's nice to meet you. I'm Detectice Carpenter, CBPD. I wanted to ask about James Porter? He was brought in yesterday. I received word that it might have been an attempted homicide, so I wanted to get some details."

"Detective," Rushmere nods to him and looks up after adding a final note to his tablet. "Yes, his arrival was reported due to the nature of his injuries. Mr. Porter is very fortunate that it is only 'attempted.' For the moment. He remains in critical condition and only recently emerged from emergency surgery."

Carpenter nods, "Can you give me some additional detail? Who brought him in? What kinds of wounds did he have?"

The doctor flips through his notes. "His injuries were extensive: multiple lacerations to the chest and abdomen. Deep enough to damage or break several ribs; punctured lungs; lacerated liver, spleen, and stomach; perforated intenstines... He was all but eviscerated ... There was minor trauma to his back, likely from impact with the environment."

He looks further through the paperwork. "He wasn't signed in by anyone, but arrived directly into the ER waiting room. There is note of a young woman arriving with him and departing promptly. Security should have the appropriate video.."

Carpenter nods. "I'll check with Security in a bit. Do you have a rough idea when Mr. Porter might be able to answer some questions? Or is it too early to tell at this point?"

The doctor purses his lips, glances back towards room #7, then back to Carpenter, lowering his voice. "He is fortunate to have survived this long, or at all. He crashed four times before the OR and twice in it. I'm sorry, but we're not certain at this point that he'll regain consciousness at all, much less when."

Carpenter nods slowly. "Thank you, Doctor. Oh...you might want to see if the meta ward has some healers that can come down here. I know they have some folks that can work wonders with just a touch." He pulls out a card and hands it to the doctor, "If you come across anything else that you think might be useful for my investigation, please give me a call."

"Yes, we're aware, and we'll do all that we can," the doctor nods and accepts the card. "If we discover anything new that's pertinent, or if his condition changes, I will let you know."

Carpenter nods. "Thank you." He then excuses himself to go talk to the security folks and get some of the footage...to hopefully learn more about who brought in Porter in the first place. Someone must know something. If Porter's not talking, that person might.

Getting pointed in the direction of security, Carpenter finds his way to a door with a sign that say Security: Employees Only.

Carpenter knocks on the door. After all, just barging in won't do him any favors with the security officers.

One of the security guards opens up. He's in uniform. Behind him is another guard monitoring the camera feeds. "Can I help you?" the guard at the door asks.

Carpenter shows his badge again. "Detective Carpenter, CBPD. I wanted to see some security footage from when a particular patient was brought in yesterday. Mr. James Porter."

"Yeah, sure. Do you have a time frame?" The security guard asks as he steps aside to allow Carpenter in. The reports mentioned it was around 8:30 AM.

Carpenter nods and steps inside. "8:30 AM. Showed up in the ER. Rather suddenly, based on the reports I read thus far."

Sitting down, the Guard nods. He checks the top left monitor and starts scrubbing back until the time code says 8:30am. There's a sped up reverse glimpse of Porter and some sort of dark spot. When the security guard finds the right time of the the start of it, he hits play.

The ER waiting room is reasonably busy and as calm as can be expected. Then a black, uneven, vaguely humanoid shape appears before fading to reveal Porter bleeding out and unresponsive with eyes open, held by a panicked looking woman with dark hair wearing a black t-shirt and gray pajama pants. She's covered with blood, too. She looks around calling out, but there's no audio.

The camera catches a glimpse of Gabrielle Grimm's face as she calls for aid. Doctors and nurses rush a gurney over and take Porter away, working on reviving him immediately. Another nurse takes Grimm off to another room.

The guard checks other monitors, trying to see if he can follow where Grimm went. Though after a few minutes, the original camera that's still playing shows Grimm being escorted by the nurse back into the waiting room and to a seat. She's been cleaned up a bit, but there's still stains in on her clothes. After the nurse leaves, Grimm curls up in the seat, drawing her legs up and resting her head on her knees for a while. She remains there for quite some time.

Carpenter takes a deep breath. . o O (At least I know who brought him in. Unless that's a shapeshifter or...whatever. There's been a lot of that lately.) "How long does she stick around?"

The guard scrolls forward. Speeds it up. Grimm hardly moves from that spot, just curled up and shut down. Then after a few hours according to the time stamp, she lifts her head up from her knees and vanishes in shadows once again. "Looks like she was there for...man, five hours?"

Carpenter nods. "Thanks. I appreciate it. That's a solid lead."

The guard nods. "Let us know if you need anything else."

Carpenter nods. "Will do." He then makes his way out. He heads outside the hospital, and calls Grimm directly.

Gabrielle notices the call from Jack and bites on her lower lip, debating on whether to answer. It rings several times before she picks up. "Hello?" she says in a heavy voice.

Carpenter says, "Gabrielle, it's Jack. I got a report that you brought Porter in to the hospital. Do you have some time to talk about what happened? We could meet someplace."

Gabrielle hesitates to answer. She's been struggling to decide what to do. She had considered turning herself in, but that could be dangerous given her situation. She considered going to Charity to fix it once and for all, but Frank the Fox spirit talked her out of that. "Is this for an official case?" she asks cautiously. She sounds sad and reserved.

Carpenter nods slowly, "It is. I just need to find out what happened. I'm not coming into this with any preconceived notions, mind you. I just want to hear your side of what went down."

Gabrielle should know better than to talk to him. "I think...I'd like to talk to a lawyer," she says after some hesitation. It feels so weird. This is her friend. She's worked alongside him on several cases over the years, and now she's the one he's after.

Carpenter sighs. "I had hoped to keep things informal, in case this was some of the weirdness surrounding you right now. But we can go the official route if you want. Stop by the station with a lawyer, and we can get a statement on record."

"It...it is involving that. That's all I think I should say. I'm...I'm sorry, Jack," Gabrielle says in a hurt tone. "I'm not even sure what to do about the informal route."

Carpenter nods. "Alright..go ahead and call a lawyer. And...please come down to the station voluntarily for a statement. I dont' want to have to come searching for you."

"I understand. I don't want that, either," Gabrielle says quietly, having difficulty speaking. "I wish I could just talk to you about it. But...it's an official case. You know informal isn't really informal."

Carpenter looks around to make sure no one else is around and listening to his half of the conversation. HE turns to face a blank wall of the building, and he gets quiet, "I was serious about it being informal. I know you. And I know there must be a good explanation."

Grimm hesitates as he gets quiet. She knows Carpenter's a damn good detective. And he has a job to do. Which makes it so difficult, since he's a friend. Against her better judgement, she relents. "Okay, Jack. Informal. No lawyers," she relents.

Carpenter takes a deep breath, "If you want to bring a lawyer along to meet with me personally, you can. And I won't record the conversation. I promise." This is sounding...a little like he might be letting the conflict of interest get to him. But...maybe he can help?

"It's...it's okay. No lawyer," Grimm offers again as a sign of trust.

Carpenter nods. "Okay. Where do you want to meet? And when?"

Grimm debates that, not wanting it to be near the station. "Near your home neighborhood? Is there a park we can meet at after dark?"

Carpenter raises a brow at that. There's a delay, "Yeah, there's a small one near The Towers."

"Okay. Does that work for you?" Gabrielle asks quietly, her tones still reserved.

Carpenter nods, "Yeah, it does. Tonight, then. Say...8 PM?"

"Alright. I'll see you then," Gabrielle replies.

Carpenter nods again, "Sounds good. See you then." He then hangs up. He takes a moment to run his hands over his face, as he tries to figure out what exactly he's going to do about this. Surely the answer is 'Porter fell on a knife 43 times by accident', right?

Next: Log:Speaking Frankly