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We’ve Got Soul: Chapter 2

WC: 2416

Warnings: Cursing, Sass, that’s all for this one

Beta’d By: @teaspacebar

Notes: I don’t actually know much of anything about spray paint and graffiti, so if I sound like an idiot, whoops. This part is 90% Gavin and Fantasia being assholes to each other while they work on a case. Markus is not in this one, but I assure you he will be back shortly :)

Chapter 2:

July 11, 2036

7:24 A.M.

Fantasia arrived at the police station to find the parking lot was mostly empty except for a section of five parking spots against the wall that had been blocked off with cones and a ‘Do Not Cross’ projection line. “That must be the space I asked for.” She entered the station and showed her temporary access badge to the reception android so she could go straight into the back. The lights were on, but the only occupied desk was that of Captain Fowler. She knocked lightly on his open door, “Captain?”

“Miss Jacobs, good morning.” He didn’t look up from his computer. “I had the workspace you requested sectioned off this morning.”

“I saw that, thank you.” A pause filled the room. “Did you want me to get started?”

He made eye contact with her. “Yes,” he stated with a finality.

“Yeah, alright.” Fantasia nodded to herself as she made her way back outside. “That was kind of a dumb question.” When she got out to the parking lot, Fantasia set her bag down on the concrete and pulled her paint cans out. “Okay, it’s been a little while since I did this.” She looked at the reference photos again, put in her earbuds, and started painting. She had six of the same symbol up on the wall when she was interrupted by a figure at the edge of her vision. She paused her music.

“Hey, how’s it going?” Officer Miller asked with a smile.

“It’s going,” she sighed. “I don’t think these were all painted by the same person.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well look,” Fantasia grabbed the photos of the graffiti that had been left at each of the crime scenes and fanned them out. “I got a couple of them to match the photos you guys gave me, and-”

“Talking about my case without me?” Detective Reed strode up with an unwarranted amount of confidence.

“Ugh.”

Officer Miller intercepted, “Fantasia was just telling me that she doesn’t think it’s one person.”

“Oh, yeah? And what lead you to that conclusion, smarty-pants? It’s the same tag.” He cocked his head expectantly at her.

“This one was painted by somebody left-handed; it’s heavy on one side” She flipped to the next one, “This one was done by somebody who doesn’t drag the can fast enough; the paint is dripping. This one,” She pulled another, “used something as a shield so there’d be clean lines even though the paint is so thin, and this one, was the person who designed the tag; it’s the only one that doesn’t have clear hesitation or mistakes in the paint movement.” She shoved the stack of photos into Detective Reed’s chest. “One tag, four artists, smarty-pants.” She stared him down, and Reed bitterly returned the look until Officer Miller broke the silence.

“We should go report this to Fowler.” He said it timidly, like he was afraid they’d turn on him if he spoke too loudly.

“Thank you, Chris, I’ll get right on that.” Detective Reed spoke through his teeth.

Officer Miller hurriedly walked back into the station, leaving Detective Reed and Fantasia to stare each other down.

“You plan on reporting to your captain anytime soon?” Fantasia cocked her head at Reed.

His eyes narrowed. “You better watch the attitude, or-”

“Or what?” Fantasia raised her eyebrows and extended her arms outward, “I’m the expert the DPD called in. You can’t touch me.”

“Keep it up, I’ll figure something out,” He looked enraged.

Detective Reed turned and walked back into the station while Fantasia stayed outside for a moment to clean up her paint. When she went inside, Fantasia heard Detective Reed talking to Captain Fowler about her findings. She sat down in her usual chair by Reed’s desk and pulled the stray pencil and stack of sticky-notes over to her.

“He shouldn’t miss these too much.” Fantasia started to doodle angry chibi versions of Detective Reed on each of them, sticking them to his desk wherever she could fit them. When he finally returned, there were only three of the neon-colored squares left in plain sight.

“What the hell is all over my desk?” Reed questioned.

Fantasia shrugged, “More doodles of you being a prick. I got bored.”

“It still isn’t funny.” He crumpled them up and threw the drawings into the trash.

“It’s still hilarious.” She stated with certainty.

“Will you quit bickering and just get your shit done?” Lieutenant Anderson called out from his desk. “Jesus, it’s like every time you two are in the same room, the whole world gets a migraine.”

Detective Reed rolled his eyes and grumbled to himself, which made Fantasia snicker.

“I’m gonna start rerunning through footage from the scenes now that we know we’re not looking for the same guy at all of them.” He said it more to himself than to her.

“Does that mean I’m good to go?” Fantasia’s tone was laced with indifference and boredom.

He huffed, amused, “No. You can sit there and stare at these pictures of spray paint until you can tell me more about ‘em.” Detective Reed tossed the stack over to Fantasia with a ‘get on it’ hand gesture.

Fantasia only sighed before spreading out the stack and looking at each of them more closely. After a few moments of scanning over them again, she quirked her head as a realization hit her. “Reed.”

“What now?” He groaned.

“Do you want me to tell you or do you want to keep being a dick?”

“What is it?” He managed a slightly calmer tone.

“I’ve seen this before.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Or at least a version of it, hang on.” Fantasia pulled her phone from her pocket and pulled up her photos, scrolling until she found the one she was looking for. “I knew it was familiar. I did a piece over top of one of these, look.” She pointed to the photo where the tag was partially visible under her work.

Detective Reed squinted at the screen. “I know this one.”

“Yeah, that’s cause this is the piece you arrested me for the first time.”

He laughed, “Oh, yeah. So?”

“So, I know who painted it, or at least who they belong to.”

“What does that mean?”

“There’s a gang downtown that uses a tagging system for initiation. It used to be a dragon or some shit, but they just changed leadership. This one is a kid…” She trailed off in thought and snapped to herself a couple of times “Joseph Palmer.” She leaned back, satisfied with herself. “This was his tag before he was in the gang, he must have taken over.”

“Wow,” He looked absolutely taken away by her answer.

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s just the first time I’ve ever heard you say something useful.”

Fantasia’s fists clenched and her nostrils flared, but she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“I’ll be back in a minute, try not to miss me too much.” As he rose from his chair, Detective Reed gave a wink and finger guns before he walked away.

Fantasia sat quietly for a few minutes until Detective Reed returned. “Well?”

Reed grabbed his jacket from the back of his desk chair. “We got a hit, and we’re gonna go get him.”

“We are?” Confusion clouded her tone.

Reed’s features contorted as if he’d heard the dumbest thing in the world. “No, stupid, we are.” He gestured to himself and Officer Miller. “You’re not a cop, you don’t count when I saw ‘we.’”

She rolled her eyes.

“You hang out here, we won’t be gone very long, and we might still need your help.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

“What?”

“Did you just say you need me, Detective Reed?” She smiled cunningly at him.

He scoffed, “No, I said you’re not allowed to leave. We’ll be back in a little bit. Stay here.” Officer Miller followed him out of the station, leaving Fantasia alone at Reed’s desk.

After she was sure he was gone, Fantasia moved to sit in Detective Reed’s chair behind his desk. She checked her phone to find a text from Carl that read ‘How’s the “not in trouble” thing going?’

She laughed to herself. ‘It’s going well. I’m pretty sure we know who’s been leaving the graffiti tags.’

‘Oh yeah? Maybe you should be a detective instead of a painter.’

‘Are you firing me?’

‘Only if you miss another dinner with less than two hours of notice.’

Fantasia audibly scoffed. ‘Not my fault. Besides, wouldn’t you rather me be called ‘The Expert’ for the first time than be ‘The Arrested’ for the fourth time?’

‘Very true, at least you aren’t in handcuffs this time.’ The text came through immediately followed by an upside-down smiley-face emoji.

‘Rude.’

‘Get back to work, I’m sure you have things to do.’

Fantasia shook her head as she put her phone down and looked around to see if she could find where the smell of coffee was coming from.

“Lieutenant Anderson?” She called out.

“Hmm?”

“Where might one find coffee in this place?”

He barely looked up from his computer when he replied, “Down that hall and to the right, help yourself.”

“Awesome, thank you.”

When Fantasia returned to the desk area, steaming cup in hand, Lieutenant Anderson called her over.

“Yes, sir?”

“Please don’t call me that.”

She took a small sip of her coffee before asking, “What would you prefer me to call you then?”

“Just Hank is fine. Take a seat.” He gestured to the chair by his desk.

“What’s up?” She sat down with one foot tucked under her.

Hank looked her over once and saw the inside of her cup. “I have some- wait, is that straight black coffee?”

“Yeah, why?”

He looked surprised for a moment before shaking his head and getting back on his previous train of thought. “I have some questions for you.”

“I will answer to the best of my ability. What’s on your mind?”

“What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a painter.”

Hank squinted, “Actually a painter, or you just like to think you are?”

A laugh left Fantasia’s chest. “No, I’m a real painter. I have an apprenticeship with Carl Manfred.”

“Oh, he’s pretty good.” He nodded to himself for a moment. “Then why do you do graffiti?”

Fantasia sighed lightly, “I don’t anymore. I had to quit; It was part of my deal to get the apprenticeship.”

“Oh, that’s why we hadn’t seen you in a while. A couple of us started taking bets that Reed had buried your body somewhere.”

“Nah, he couldn’t kill me. I’m the closest thing he has to a friend.”

Hank chuckled and the two enjoyed a moment of quiet before returning to their own space and tasks. Fantasia pulled some paper from her bag to doodle and found herself drawing Detective Reed. She occasionally sipped on her coffee as she drew his resting grumpy face, until there was a commotion at the door of the station.

Reed waltzed in with one Joseph Palmer in handcuffs and escorted him directly to the holding cells around the corner. They were quickly followed into the room by Officer Miller, carrying drive-thru bags.

“So, I see you got him.” Fantasia commented as Officer Miller approached Detective Reed’s desk.

He had a smile on his face. “Yeah, we did. You were right about it being more than one though.”

“Oh, yeah?” She did her best to look surprised as she took another sip of her coffee. “I’m shocked.”

“Hey. Tiny terrorist.” Reed called out as he walked over to his desk. “I found this,” He pulled a crumpled sticky-note from his pocket, “in my jacket. How many more are there?”

“Several.” She thought for a moment. “At least 20 more.”

“Where?”

“It’s a surprise.”

He gave her a glare. “Get out of my chair.”

“Gladly.” Fantasia rose from the seat and sat in her usual place, sliding her notebook across the desk.

Reed caught a glimpse of what she was working on. “What was that?”

“Absolutely none of your business, is what it was.”

A dissatisfied hum escaped him. “That’s for you,” He said with a gesture to one of the bags Chris had left behind.

“You brought me food?” She quirked her head. “Is it poison?”

“What? No. It’s a burger.” He shook his head as he started into his own food. “Eat. I know you’ve been here for hours.” He took a bite slightly bigger than he should have and pretended it was fine.

“Wow. That’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.” Upon receiving a middle finger and fake smile from him as a response, Fantasia threw a napkin at Detective Reed. “Gross, you have sauce dripping down your face.”

“Leave me and my sauce alone.” He wiped his face with the napkin and continued to eat.

The two ate in relative quiet while Detective Reed filled out paperwork and Fantasia continued her drawing, sitting with her knees propped up in front of her on her chair.

“You’re good to leave if you want.” When he didn’t get a response, Detective Reed peaked out from behind his computer to look over to Fantasia, who was hunched over her sketchbook, scribbling away. “What are you doing?”

“I’m drawing.”

“Can I see?”

“No, you always hate my drawings.” She clutched the book to her chest.

“No, I hate it when you draw me as an angry cartoon.”

“Is there any other way to draw you?”

Detective Reed scoffed.

“Thank you for lunch.” Fantasia’s tone was hushed.

“What was that?”

“You heard me.”

He smirked, “I don’t think I did, would you repeat that?”

“I said I prefer chicken nuggets,” she said as she stood up from her chair, “just for future reference.”

“Oh, good to know, for the never again that I buy you food.”

Fantasia made an affirmative hum, “Yeah.” She shook her head with a small smile.

“You know, if I liked you more, I might say good job today, and thank you for help.” Reed turned back to his computer. “Good thing I don’t like you.”

She snorted. “Yeah, otherwise I might’ve told you to have a good rest of your day.” Fantasia ripped the finished drawing of Detective Reed out of her sketchbook and slid it across his desk. “See you around, Detective,” was all she said as Fantasia left the police station to head home.