#( * interactions | ft. nadia zahedah. )

[roman-han]

who: @nadiazahedah where: tonopah pd station, conference room

"It's been too fucking quiet around here," Raf grumbled over the lip of his mug of coffee. For fuck's sake, his first week in town had consisted of an event that was raided by fucking paratroopers, caused a stampede and traumatized Katy Goddamn Perry. And other than a few situations that have popped up since, it had felt eerily quiet knowing how rare that was for the town. Perhaps he was jinxing it, he knew many other first responders would punch him for even thinking the 'Q' word, let alone saying it. But maybe at this point he didn't really give a shit. He would do just about anything for a fresh lead. "---At this point I'm about ready to go knocking on doors just to ruffle some feathers."

[roman-han]

"I understand that, and I believe it too. But between his father and sister, and some instances I'm looking into, I'm concerned. Especially considering his time acting as Chief. If he was compromised and he had that much access, well I obviously don't need to tell you how fucking bad that would be." Perhaps it was a misjudgment on his part, but he didn't picture Zahedah running off to tell Decker about his suspicions. While she let her own opinion on the matter be known, he could tell she wanted to get to the bottom of this fucking problem as well, and wasn't about to interfere in that way by doing something like that. "I already have a meeting scheduled with him. And I guess we'll just have to go from there."

Nadia raised a brow. Of all the people he was worried about, Detective Decker was the one she had least expected. Sure, his sister being a successful defense attorney who had gotten a number of people they'd tried putting away off with little to no consequences, but she hadn't noticed anything about him. "People aren't their families," she started, leaving unspoken the reminder to not allow that to cloud his judgement. "He's been part of the force for a long time, though, and he's still only a detective. I don't know if that's by choice or if there's something else there. When Chief Donovan was on injured leave, Decker was acting Chief for a few months until he was shot. I know he was the first one to believe the deaths in these cases were related, but how he came to that conclusion, I couldn't say. It might be worth asking him directly."

[roman-han]

He waited with a raised brow to see what the detective's reaction would be. While he didn't need the help of the force here, it would certainly make things easier. He had already burned a few bridges out of necessity, but this particular one he thought it would be helpful to cross instead. "Decker," he replied, looking to see what her reaction might be. "Everyone tells me he's a good cop, but between his worrying relatives and some things that don't add up, consider me curious."

He may not have been trying to be a condescending jackass, but he was doing a great job of it. She kept that thought to herself, though, as she allowed him to say his piece. She hated that he made a few decent points, and though it didn't mean she liked him any more than she had a few minutes ago, she would at least hold off on lighting him up further. "Who are you most concerned about?" she asked, getting right to business. "I can tell you if they've got a track record or not that isn't in their file."

[roman-han]

"Well I can assure you, Detective Zahedah, if nothing is done, you're absolutely going to lose more lives. You can't just put pressure to stop the bleeding, you have to find the bullet. And you can't do that without rooting around a bit. It's going to hurt like hell, and there may be some soft tissue damage, but in the end, it's what's going to help this town survive." He sighed, rubbing his hands over his face harshly, he was tired, aggravated. "I'm not trying to be a condescending jackass here, but like you pointed out, your police service doesn't have the experience. I do. I've seen this before, and I know it may be hard to believe, but it's going to get uglier. And I'm not being sarcastic or demeaning when I say I quite literally have to figure out if some of the mistakes made on this case are ineptitude or complicity. The sooner I can do that, the sooner we can shut this shit down. And the sooner we can shut this shit down, the sooner that money can go to rape kits, public education and safety, like you said. Remember that it's not me wasting your tax dollars, it's these gangs. So let's direct the anger at them, hmm?"

Nadia clenched her jaw, doing her best not to allow her anger to swell beneath Roman's condescension. If he had been here over the last few years, he probably wouldn't be so quick to assume the worst about the department. There was no love lost between her and many of the other officers in the TVPD, but she took pride in her own work and that of her unit.

"I am, but not at the expense of more lives," Nadia replied coldly. "This is a small town, Agent Han. We're not trained to deal with the level of bullshit the gangs have brought here. If I remember right, that's why you all are here with your federal budgets and high-quality tech we don't have because the state of Nevada would rather use our tax money to fund the tourism industry instead of public education and safety." She leaned in, hands folded in front of her on the table. "I'll be the first to tell you that half the people in the department are lazy; I'm constantly kicking asses into gear to make sure evidence is being tested in a timely fashion because I'll be damned if our SVU contributes to rape kits sitting in evidence lockers for years while victims go without justice. But I'm sure even you can understand their hesitation to pursue things further when the one person who was most invested in solving this case and tracking down leads was almost killed and in a coma because of it and people are getting blown up left and right around town. So how about you actually do your job instead of judging us for not being able to do ours with the shitty hand we've been dealt."

[roman-han]

"Doesn't concern me much, huh?" he parroted her sentiment back at her. He nodded slowly, a thoughtful look on his face, as if he was actually considering there being truth in her words. It was laughable, really, the idea that he, of all people, didn't understand the devastation of collateral damage. The anger, the despair, the utter and all consuming feeling of helplessness. --- But that wasn't anyone's business, and he wasn't about to make note of it just to win a petty argument with a local detective. "Well let me clear it up for you. It does concern me. But what concerns me more is your police department's absolute refusal to shake the leaves, leaving this case in such a dead spot I'd almost consider it complicity. Almost as if these gangs are being protected." he got up from his seat then, unfolding his legs and making his way slowly up to a nearby evidence board.

"I'd think, as someone who has to live with it long term, you'd be more invested in moving this case forward.---And we do, or at least, I do. But until I can be sure this department is simply inept rather than complicit, I'll be keeping it to myself. "

Having this task force utilizing the police department for their headquarters in some ways felt like an invasion. She didn't work in homicide, so she had only been pulled into the investigations surrounding the happenings in town when some children had been injured at the bike festival -- not that they had seen anything that could be of use to the investigation. She had tried to maintain some level of cordiality with them, though, and had brought the few in the office coffee when she heard the leader's words.

She stilled, turning towards him with a frown. "You don't live here so it probably doesn't concern you much but be careful not to stir anything up that'll negatively impact the people who actually do for the sake of... whatever it is you're doing." Or not doing, as the case seemed to be. "You don't have to live with it long term like we do." She took a quick glance towards the board in the room that had a timeline of events laid out on it. "Do you have any people of interest for what happened at the Gala yet?"