infomodder | IC contact [Mask or Menace]

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IC contact [Mask or Menace]

"Gone fishing."

[ so don't leave messages to ruin the after fishing glow !!!

your one stop shop for not leaving him alone ]

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[Will can, in fact, confirm his whereabouts. He nods to give that much away, eyes taking in the dog now coming up to plop down on his usual spot behind the counter with a look cast Yuri's way before he puts his head on his paws. He's here, he can feel the tension, he can sit out and stay out and be a good boy, but he's here in case he's needed.

The dog is a sweet pile of docile at the moment, the exact opposite of Will. Will with one foot up on that stool—all the better to brace with, perhaps—and even his good shoulder seeming bad, the words causing him to both stiffen and relax. His shoulders are tense but he's still hunched, that foot against the stool is planted but his leg appears at ease. Fight or flight, but there are so many ways to fly and fight.

One of those methods to fighting is, of course, dirty. And what Yuri asks? That's dirty fighting. That's what gets him full eye contact as Will finishes off the cup of coffee, though. Draining it and setting its empty husk on the counter between them.

He's not physically afraid of Yuri. If he seems to be taking that at all seriously, the talk of drugged drinks being a possible in the here and now, it doesn't show. He doesn't need to insult either of them pretending he believes that Yuri is saying something else with this charmingly protective tale of a Russian judge and his Russian pothead teenage pal. If there actually is a drug in this coffee, then Will runs the risk of passing out or being sick in a set amount of time and going down a little too confident, but that's one risk he's okay taking.]

Black and hot, just like I've always liked it. [Though of a higher quality than his usual fare. Even when he got out on his own and started holding a good enough income, he still strayed to the coffees that could eat rust and strip paint off walls. He leans back, crossing his arms and propping his other foot up on one of the counter's shelves.] You're doing quite a lot of assuming. Assuming in brilliant extremes, too. Very. Dramatic. [There is a reason that Will's eyes fall to Yuri's tie. Theater, is that it? Freddie and Will are not theatrical in the same way. Their theater is on a Goddamn budget. Drugged, shit, like Will would be handing out his prescription pills and Freddie, without the additional benefits of being Registered, could afford it. Please. They are the poor folk who escaped the regular 9-5s in different, clashing ways.] I was holed up at a friend's house that night getting updates on the situation and keeping an eye on my communicator.

[He can take that stir stick and shove it where the sun don't shine. Yuri's crossing territory here, and Will won't have it. He will give him the house number, sure. It's the house with a talking dog, it makes sense Will would have found a friend there. But getting April's name specifically?

He's got a better chance of passing a camel through the eye of a needle.]

[Yuri liked animals. He preferred cats to dogs, but canines themselves weren't without their own charms. That protectiveness, for one, which might have been an inconvenience to those people not the owner, was a actually a rather welcome reminder of whose turf he was presently on.

A forensic scientist, hm? Someone who knew the ins and outs of the law to a certain degree, who knew the courts...knew criminals. A fisherman. A good fisherman at that, experienced with baiting and luring, reeling in...getting his hands dirty. Someone who might know to what degree a drug might harm a kid like Jayden or, more specifically, how safe he would be if it were administered correctly. Freddie Lounds wouldn't have known. Yuri wondered if she would have done it at all if not for some kind of suggestion. Jayden had said the woman had taken rather good care of him shortly after having incurred a head injury the night of the Hornets' attack. But Freddie Lounds was also impressionable.]

I'm glad. If I'd known you were going to be so thirsty, I'd have bought you a larger size. [He sipped his own drink casually, seemingly indifferent to Will's mood. As for the edginess about the other man? Yuri recalled that it wasn't uncommon. He'd been just as tense the day they'd gone fishing, after all. There was nothing suspicious about that, not by itself. But then again, was there really any reason for Will to be taking such offense? It wasn't as though Yuri had brought the police to the other man's doorstep. It wasn't as though he had any intention of things becoming physical between them, either. He stood in place on the other side of the counter where he intended to remain, his body language giving away nothing besides the fact that he was indeed rooted there for the moment, and would be until he decided it was time to leave. No amount of stabbing eyes or barbed words would chase him away. He'd endured worse in the judge's seat in Sternbild.] Anyway, Will, please don't think that these are questions I want to ask you. It's simply a matter that your name was mentioned in correlation to the incident and I've taken it upon myself to investigate the fact. If you truly weren't there and had no hand in what took place, there's no reason to take offense. You might say I'm doing you a favor by asking first instead of going to the authorities. Whoever is responsible for Jayden's condition that night could face rather severe criminal charges. And, as I like you...that isn't something I would wish upon you in the case of your innocence.

[Which was not entirely untrue. If Will's story checked out (and Yuri would be checking) and the man wasn't involved in any way, Yuri would be glad. Doubtful they could ever go back to quaint fishing friends, but it was better to have looked than to have turned a blind eye. Yuri had no regrets.]

If I could have the name and contact number of that friend, Will?

[Will doesn't look at the dog, which perhaps makes the fact of the matter that the dog is looking at Yuri, too, even more of a testament to, yes, whose turf he was on. Not that it was something many would see a reason to take pride in, but a quick look around would give away that Will kept it up in ways other than it being stocked. The place was dusted, swept, clean and neat and orderly as ever. With the addition of Abigail, it was easier to keep that up. The only place in the entire shop that could be termed unclean was the area filled with insects and only because of what it contained.

Will leans back as Yuri speaks, drinking in his every word and filing it away for later, tearing each one apart by jot and tittle and finding his in. His loophole. The loose part of the net that he can wriggle right through and leave the others caught to follow or die. It's not difficult to find. It's just difficult to go about it in a way that's not overly rude, even though everything that has happened so far has been very, very rude. Rude underneath a layer of civility, a person suit that dares to use his name like it once did after all these actually true accusations.

It's no fun when someone is so close to the target without having put in the same amount of effort as—wait, no, actually? This is probably better.]

You're not doing me any favors or doing any actual investigation. [Sponges generally absorb liquid until the point they bloat and leak; Will Graham can do the same, but he's perfectly capable of spitting some of that back when it comes sinking in like he's just an average sponge.] I'm not taking offense at the accusations, Yuri. I'm taking offense at the fact of the matter that you walk into my shop and throw them at me already convinced that you know the facts and there's not a damn thing I could say to change your mind. [Is there a fire under his ass? Seems to be. He pushes off that stool, gesticulating with a wave of his hand.] You walked in here judge jury and executioner, sentence in your hands with that tea and that coffee. No, you don't want to be here. I can tell. But you need to be here because—what are you looking for? Confession?

[It's good for the soul. Or so they say. Will Graham doesn't find it good for shit right now. His body language has had enough shit. He has had enough of this and it everything comes out of him with sustained eye contact and a quickness that doesn't really match up to the small, awkward position he was in earlier.

Sometimes people press buttons. Sometimes they click on a lighter and hover it over a powder keg that carries rabies and fleas. It was nice of him to bring coffee, though.]

Got a church three blocks from here where you can get that without having to like anyone. You wanna do me a favor? [That's not a friendly smile, and the way his voice lowers makes it seem like, perhaps, the temperature in the room has been lowered, too. Especially when he leans in to make his point extra icy and extra clear.] Go spew your condescending condemnations there. That's why they built it.

[So long and thanks for all the crabs. Hope you find Jesus.]

[Judge, jury, and executioner? Will had no idea.]

That's the thing. You shouldn't have to change my mind. If you're innocent, the facts will do any necessary defending for you. Of course, as you seem reluctant to relinquish those facts beyond mere blanket statements...

[Yuri shrugged his shoulders, and when Will leaned toward him, practically spitting with anger, smiled in response.]

In coming here, I had hoped you would cooperate with me. After all, I was under the impression that you cared about Jayden...but perhaps I was wrong?

[He turned then, drink in hand, and started for the door.]

I've said what I needed to. I'll be in touch. And since we appear to be dispensing advice...you might wish to visit that church yourself. With a temper like yours, Will...one would think you had demons that needed to be purged.

[No, Will didn't have any idea. He'd run around legal circles all his life, knew that being dirty and willing to play in the mud from time to time could help someone excel in their chosen field, no matter how much they didn't want that to be true. That after long enough exposure to how corrupted and disgusting it could be, one grew used to diving straight into the muck and the mire, one grew used to ignoring it, one grew to try calling it out and found themselves on the chopping block.

Taking risks, even if that resulted in built up grime underneath his fingernails he'd never get out no matter how many times he washed his hands? One could say that's part of why he excelled, excelled and went down in a blazing ball of bloody murder. Hopefully that's not how this ends (no more ears in his stomach, please and thanks), but it was time to ignore rolling up his sleeves and shove his hands right in the shit, wasn't it. Time to make sure that walking out the door is the least appealing option, and what better way than with "hey I'm an accused murderer look at me out and loose does it make your judge pants burns":]

When the Porter picked me up, I was wearing an orange jumpsuit. One of those jumpsuits. I'd covered it as much as I could with what I could take off the orderlies transporting me. Do you know how difficult it is to zip up a jacket after you broke your own thumb and had to use it in a physical fight? [Purged? This entire shop needed to be burned, from owner to MASTER BAITER bumper stickers. What a nightmare.] First thing Freddie Lounds does when she gets here? Say I've gone away and been acquitted of murdering four young women. Suppose that sounds more monstrous than adding the middle-aged male neurosurgeon found nearly decapitated at the jaw.

[Did someone say temper? Maybe that sounds like a temper tantrum (and he's even told it in a way that spins it exactly like that, because Frederick Chilton being his caretaker was about as desirable as eating bars of used soap at a local gym), but the way he says it is incredibly calm. If Yuri can put that to the situation, well.

He's a little dangerous, damn right. A little dangerous and a little beyond well done with Freddie Lounds. He has had it to the gills with her, his voice says. Gills that can no longer separate what he needs to breathe, lets in sludge and slime in its place. But it's calmer than anything else, an accepted sort of rage that is on a constant simmer. Easier to talk about, one hand resting on the counter and the other taking that stupid hat off his head and tossing it to the side.]

You want me to cooperate? Don't come in here already having thrown me into a cage. That's what I go home to, if I ever go home. The last way you will find me anywhere near cooperative is by trapping me and trapping me with her.

[Isn't that sort of a general rule of life? Don't throw someone in a cage and poke them, they might get snappy? Might lash out? Might relinquish a lot of blankets and throw some shade in the process; why would Will lie about something as relatively minor as taking part in ~drugging~ a teenager if he's willing to share this?

(Because he's innocent of this, duh.)

((Sort of.))

(((Physically...?)))]

[...just when Yuri had thought the bull's-eye Will was sporting couldn't get any bigger.]

Cage?

[He paused in the middle of the shop, turned, and faced the other man as that hat was thrown. Did you accomplish with that what you'd hoped to, Will?]

If I was throwing you into a cage, Will, I wouldn't be here in the first place. [He wouldn't have come to you first at all.] I would have let the authorities come in my stead, although I doubt your particular brand of defense would impress them any more than it has me. Speaking of which...am I to believe that a man capable of breaking his own thumb to get out of a bad situation wouldn't be capable of working with someone of Ms. Lounds' detestable reputation?

[He shook his head. This was too much.]

In any case, I've given you a choice. There is no need for me to lump you in with that woman if you tell me what I want to know and I can confirm you were where you say you were, when you said you were there. It's that simple.

[The bull's-eye is people.

The design worked well enough, yes. He's pleased with it. He's pleased with Yuri's words, even, though that doesn't show. The question is legitimately one he expected, what draws his other hand down to the counter, fingers casual against it instead of tense. This is more workable. It's muddled and filthy, yes, but that's easy work to someone who alternates between the brutalized dead and the malfunctioning, grease-covered boat motors.

His bottom lip gets worried between his teeth a second. There is one road left untraveled he can pull out, can throw Jayden under the bus and slap Yuri in the face with what he must know every second of every day. But that's low, too low at the moment, and Will ends up knocking on the counter, disgruntled, thoughtful, puzzled. Trying to work something out.

He is not going near the mention of choice with a thousand foot pole. That is a can of worms and all of them are primed and ready to tear flesh and muscle and dent bone. No no, it's better to ignore that part.]

I was in House Six here, but. Did you think to have him urinate when he told you? To follow through with collecting scientific evidence, facts, that there was actually a drug involved?

[Or were you too angry?

Will got away without having to do a stool sample, go team not taking a single shit day. For how bizarre the question may sound, he asks it sincerely. If Yuri is going to come at him talking about how he could cage him and Will's going to dance around the Russians Drawn Into Questioning thing, what else is Will to do but start interpreting the evidence?

Or, more accurately, interpreting what evidence there actually is or is not.

"Would you think to have someone you care for give a urine sample?" Yuri could, of course, ask him. But as he's just stated: Will Graham is capable of breaking his own thumb to get out of a bad situation and comfortable working with someone who has a reputation as detestable as Freddie Lounds.

He might think about that, yes.]

[He'd been far too angry at the time to consider asking Jayden to urinate, and it was mildly irritating now to have the oversight thrown in his face. Still more irritating was the recollection that Jayden was absolutely reluctant to press any kind of charges against Will and Freddie, which meant that even if Yuri had remembered to ask for samples that could have been screened, it wouldn't have done any good.

Dammit. Dammit!

Was this really going to get swept under the rug so easily?]

I will be honest and say that, at the time, it hadn't occurred to me to ask him to do something like that, though I hardly see how it would have helped. [He still should have at least thought about it, of course. It was truly rankling that he hadn't, that Will Graham had.] Too much time passed between the time of the incident and the time Jayden came to me and told me about it. More than a week, in fact. It isn't very likely any toxicology report would have found anything.

[Which is also annoying. Why had Jayden waited so long to come to him with the information? Was he deliberately trying to sabotage himself?]

House six...and of its residents, who can confirm that? Or will you have me ask them all?

[Will is a pretty great fisherman, truth be told, regardless of what or who he has tugging on the other end of his line (as long as poetry is not involved, at least). Eventually, once he can get the turbulence to settle, he can find a path that, if the other won't swim how he wants it to, he can at least trick it into that. Trick dogs into his car, trick crabs into a trap, make his own cage that, hopefully, narrows down to himself and whatever he's up against. Himself and the FBI in the case of serial killers, sure, but he doesn't have that back up here to rely on. It's all one-on-one, and his people have absolutely no problem pushing each other in front of danger if it means saving their own skin.

Will's not completely different.

He tilts his head, one eyebrow lifting as he digests the word honest. Yuri's been honest (or tried to be, at least) this entire time, and Will is continually shifting in place and trying to get him to wade through a different current. The current now being one of stark realization that he has failed, in some way, to protect someone he cares about and has to say it out loud is one that Will's very, very familiar with.

The "I fucked up and I can't say otherwise" current is one he wades into, dreaming and awake.

It's less of a look at your oops and haha I caught you than it could be, were it anyone else. While he is capable of playing the same games as the rest of the Baltimore crew on his own rabid frothing level, he also has that pesky empathy that proves difficult to turn off once it's kicked in.]

Anyone in that house could confirm it. We spent the night. [The elbow nearest Gunther nudges out, indicating the we involved. But Will is willing to throw a bone, riding on the prayer that Freddie used either just what he said or something essentially the same. A generic, less potent sort would be preferable. It was the third, today is the fifteenth. Twelve days. Would Yuri go straight to Jayden and take a hair? Cut his nails? It's possible that might still be there, if she dumped an entire box into whatever drink. But it's just as likely that nothing of note will turn up. He does sports, doesn't he? Surely he's taken a pill or two for pain related to practice?] I will be honest and say that, having worked with toxicology reports on my own, after a week, it would have likely passed from urine. However. [One set of fingers splay out—hear me out, this is helpful. I'm not bragging, I'm sharing. Let me share.] If you are sincere in your belief that he has, actually, been drugged, you still have options within this current time frame. [Haha. Current.] A strand of hair or some nail clippings would hold the evidence of drugs far longer than urine or an oral sample.

[And then he shrugs, just enough to show that he's not overly bothered by what comes out of his mouth next.]

Of course, any test of Jayden would turn up marijuana. If you want to go through with this and you are worried about that result coming back and making trouble for him, there are options for getting a toxicologist to ignore it and focus on anything else they might find. [And one of them is standing right in front of Yuri, isn't that darling.] So there is that.

[There is that indeed, coupled with the thin grim line that Will's lips tend to stay in, looking from Yuri to his tea down to the counter and "walking" his fingers over to that enormous book of mathematical suffering.

This sort of talk, drugs and results and tests, is commonplace to him. The accusations? He's not a fan in any way shape or form. But when it gets away from him and goes to a more general route, a route that involves him in the sense that involves his knowledge that plenty others have access to?

Well, damn, it does seem like just another day on his end.]

[It was important to remember that for however helpful Will was being now, minutes earlier he had been anything but. The man Yuri was speaking to had confessed to being able to break his own thumb because it had suited him. For all Yuri knew, Will was handing him information now for the same reason. The question was, what could Will possibly hope to gain from it? A shred of trust restored, perhaps? Was he hoping that Yuri wouldn't take him up on the suggestion to collect other samples from Jayden because he'd finally demonstrated some willingness to be helpful? Or was it because of the trouble it might spell for Jayden himself in the end?

And it would spell trouble, Yuri realized. Jayden was a teenager, and a reckless one at that. He might have taken care not to let on around Yuri that he took part in recreational drug use, but that didn't mean the judge was at all surprised to hear it was probably so.

For crying out loud...

It was beginning to feel rather like his back was against the wall now.]

I'll be sure to ask them.

[For a few moments, that was all Yuri said. Even as he took himself back to the counter, leaned his frame against it and stared down at the tea in his hands, he was quiet and contemplative.

He had options? Surely Will didn't mean himself. What kind of fool did he take Yuri for, exactly? The last thing the judge was prepared to do was bring sensitive sample matter to someone he suspected had had a hand in the need for such a thing to be analyzed in the first place. But who else did he know with the ability to provide the insights Will could?

No, more importantly, why was he even listening to suggestions from someone he had already decided couldn't be trusted? Particularly when those suggestions had legal consequences.]

Honestly... [There was that word again.] I'm not certain Jayden would forgive me if I took this that far without his knowing. [And it would inevitably get back to the teen, of that Yuri was certain.] There is also the question of legality. Without his consent, any holding of bodily fluids for the purpose of testing, or any testing itself, could be seen as a form of breaking the law.

[He set his cup down and pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. A headache was coming on...the sort that caring about others always tended to give birth to. What a nuisance.]

[Will nodded at Yuri's plan to be sure to ask, not surprised by it but wondering how it would go down. Who might be at the house and what they would say. Will had become such a fixture by this point that even if whoever answered the door hadn't seen him that day, they could shrug and say it was probable. Likely, even. He was there enough, stuffing fish in the freezer. Yuri finding Ace would probably be the best, since...well, a talking dog, yes, of course Will Graham would be spending time there. He was a talking dog. A talking dog who could destroy a Goddamn house and flip a car without problem, so if anything got out of hand (or paw), Ace was pretty much the guard dog that all guard dogs should hold in hero status.

So the idea of Yuri going to confirm his whereabouts? Was one that Will seemed perfectly accepting of, didn't have him on edge. Didn't need to. Relaxed, flipping through that book and pulling the pencil out from where it was, even. Perhaps he'd been offended, aggressive, but when he was being accused by someone who made it evident he already had come to a conclusion and Will was guilty, was that so difficult to understand? Now that the storm had passed, he was calm. Certain, almost.

Either innocent or someone who had this shit on lock. At least, for the moment.

He doesn't look up until that cup hits the counter, eyes focused on Yuri's hand as opposed to anything else. He hears him, yes, but he doesn't need to stare at his mouth to make that much obvious, and mouths are close to eyes and eye contact is something he does a good job of avoiding. Yuri's distracted him from his book, that's all he should need to know Will is tuned in. Very tuned in. To his hands.

He follows the movement of the one to Yuri's nose and he puts that together easily enough. Will knows headaches like he knows fishing, by this point. Headaches that stem from all sorts of them and how to fight to them.

There's a pause before moves just enough to pull open a drawer underneath the counter, shuffling the contents around. It sounds like the normal, pencils and pens and paper and...something that rattles? Rattles in a tiny bottle. Something like—

—a bottle of extra strength ibuprofen, put on the counter right by Yuri's cup of tea without Will saying a word. Not a single word or sigh or looking up like he has any shame or finds this funny, just puts it out there and goes back to his bookkeeping.

He's a helper.]

[Could Will possibly be more insufferable if he tried?

The answer was probably yes. Yuri sighed.]

Ah...thank you. [Lowering his hand, the judge slid the bottle back toward Will.] But no thank you.

[Harmless as the ibuprofen might have been, the irony of taking any offered by Will at this particular time might have just killed Yuri on the spot. He wasn't about to make things that convenient for the other man.]

Do you have children, Will?

[The answer was yes, yes he could. With everyone he knew, for better or worse.

It's nice that Yuri has manners, less nice when they're followed by that question. But Will's giving off a pretty good air of ready to get back to his bookkeeping, and the question comes right as he lifted up several pages, intent on looking through them for the one he needed.

He has a more tangible reason to be distracted this time around and he is taking full advantage of it. When Yuri asks, he scratches his neck with a pencil like a true heathen.]

No. [Said so casually it might as well have been a "nope" as Will separate two pages stuck together, wondering if he'll have to go the distance and his lick his thumb for full gross effect.] Have some numbers to run, though.

[Which is nicer than saying "get the hell out," at least.]

Hm.

[That explained a little.

Of course, Yuri had no children of his own, either. He'd told Jayden there were reasons for that when the teenager had asked, had said that his lifestyle hadn't been suitable for raising a family, but the truth was...he wasn't suitable. But that didn't mean he didn't know what it took to be a responsible parental figure. It didn't mean he didn't know what lines were appropriate to walk or cross.

That was, however, a discussion best left to another time. Will wanted to return to his books (or was using it as an excuse), and Yuri wanted to return to his apartment.]

I'll leave you to it, then.

[Without so much as another word, Yuri turned from the counter and, taking his tea with him, left the shop. All that was left now was to prepare for how he was going to confront Freddie Lounds.]

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IC contact [Mask or Menace]

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