Seattle's Hearts

"Oh? What can you see?" I glanced up from what I was doing. If we could see contraband through the windows...we could build a better case and get a warrant perhaps. Might be a bit of a stretch with the law but there were cases that could assist with that.

Olivia:
I squinted my eyes and focused on he windows. It was dark inside, but I could make out stacks of boxes. "Just rows of boxes," I said. I glanced down at my watch. It was the middle of a work week.

"But theres no one inside that I can see. Shouldn't there be people working at least?" I asked, looking again through the binoculars.

Drug dealers might do a majority of shipments under the cover of night so it would make sense why there was no one there in the day time.

"Depends if it's just a storage facility or just a holding place. I'm sure we'll see movement eventually." Finishing up with the laptop I leaned against the wall of the van and took up my sandwich. This was just the start of the long watch at this point.

Olivia:
"Hmm...I guess you're right," I said, looking around the building with the binoculars. "Whats the game plan if someone spots us?" I asked, not looking back at him.

"Depends on what they want. Also..." I dug around under the seats, finally pulling out curtains and covers for the windows. "Might not be a bad idea to cover up the windows for privacy."

Olivia:
I took my eyes off the binoculars and looked in the back. "Wont it look weird if all the windows are covered?" I asked.

"Not particularly. Most might assume someone is just living in the van. I saw a few just like that on the way in. And if it comes down to it...well I'm sure we can convince them we parked here just for some privacy." I shrugged and typed out a few commands into the laptop then focusing on my lunch.

Olivia:
I raised my eyebrows at the suggestion but shrugged. I suppose it was as good a plan as any. I adjusted the camera at my window and went back to looking through the binoculars. I stopped long enough to unwrap my sandwich and then took a bute while lifting them again.

With sandwich in one hand I began prepping another camera and setting up the curtains in the back windows. She'd brought up a good point. The last thing we needed was someone getting suspicious.

Olivia:
This was the point where it could get boring if we didn’t keep ourselves entertained. “So uh.. how many stake outs have you been apart of?” I asked, hoping he would go with it.

"Including this one? Four. Two with my mentor, one solo, and now this one." I glanced towards the front of the van and her. "I know from experience it can be a long task."

“You did this solo?” I asked, taking another bite of my sandwich. I can understand taking shifts, but to sit her alone, with no one to talk to would make me go insane.

“Were they successful?” I asked after I swallowed.

"Depends on who you ask. The first two were for one case, the solo for another. Both resulted in arrests and a finished case." A solo stake out was rare. It came about because it was necessary to one of my old cases and no one was willing to work with me. Not after Sergeant Snow's passing.

Olivia:
“What happened to him?” I asked. Then i looked up in case it was a sore subject. “If you dont mind my asking...” i added.

"She died during the case. She was my mentor. During a stake out she stepped out our hiding place. Wanted to get us some coffee. Our target was trying to start up a Mafia. One of his underlings tried mugging her. We didn't go armed. It was...an accident supposedly. She got stabbed, we caught him and forced a confession. I put together the evidence to seal the case and put our target away." It was a story she could ask most in the department. A lot of them knew about it. While everyone else had been dealing with the funeral I kept working. It had been beyond just doing it for her memory. I skipped the funeral. Just worked.

Olivia:
I paused eating and listened to the story. “That...sucks.” Was all I could come up with when he was finished. It seemed I underestimated his experience. “You finished the case though. They didn’t take you off it after something like that?”

"Protocol said I was supposed too. I told them I wanted to work rather than be on leave. I saw no reason to stop working. I had a job to finish and while they said they could understand that much and let the rules bend so I could still work. I finished up the case, turned over evidence, and moved onto the next case. She is dead, but there will always be more work to do." Stretching slightly I ended up shrugging. "Snow was a good mentor. And a good detective."

Olivia:
“You’re good at compartmentalizing,” I said, picking a piece of backn off my sandwich and throwing into the bag. “I gotta get better at that,” I mumbled, looking back out my window. I sat up straight. “Hey, car coming in on the right of the building,” I said.

"Most people call me a bastard." I focused on my food, pondering her reaction. Olivia was different. I was used to hearing disgust or confusion. She didn't seem bothered really.

Looking up I set aside my sandwich and leaned between the seats to look. "Record it. If you can get the license we can look it up later."

Olivia:
I turned the camera to record the car but I knew without looking that it was too far away. My binoculars, however, were not. I looked through them and got a clear view of the license plate. I committed it to memory before putting the binoculars down and waiting to see if anyone got out.

“You got something to write with back there?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the van.

"Yeah hold on." I went for my backpack digging out my notebook and pencils. Passing them forward and onto her lap I settled back down and set up a couple camera's just to keep an eye around us as with the curtains we no longer had a look out towards the rest of the complex.

Olivia:
I looked away just as a man in a grey sweatshirt disappeared inside the building. I grabbed the pen and jotted down the license plate number and then handed the note pad back to him. “Here, maybe we can call this in,” i said and then lifted the binoculars again.

"The license? We could have someone look it up for us, but it's not enough to really prove anything." Taking the pad of paper I read over it for a moment then logged it into the computer as a back up.

Olivia:
"I'm more so interested if the plate links to anyone thats on my list of names," I said. Of course, a single license plate wouldn't prove anything, even if it was registered to someone on the list, but it was all about connecting the pieces.

"Mmm, good point. Could help sway the judge to sign off on a warrant if the one going inside is suspected of crime." Returning to my sandwich I focused on finishing it. Better to finish while I had the chance then let it get soggy from mustard.