Are You Crazy!? [Tag: Pitch]

When Pitch had received the news from the BPD Chief Inspector that he was to be partnered with Esmeralda, he didn't blow up in anger, yell at the chief, threaten to leave the BPD or question this action. In fact, his expression never changed during the entire discussion and his expression remained one of ease and indifference. He asked only a few simple questions about how this would effect his undercover work before leaving the office in perfect silence.

However, while neither his expression nor his body language gave anything away as to what the demon was feeling, the shadows that surrounded him did. Those few officers that he passed on his way to the detectives workspace stared in fear and worry as the shadows surrounding him seemed to writhe and snap, claw and bite, and just simply rage along his heels as he stepped past them. And although the contorted shapes never gained any substance, they continued to move violently and threateningly as Pitch came to a stop at his own desk and sat down, waiting.

It wasn't half an hour later when the relative quiet of the department was shattered by the outraged voice of Esmeralda. Even from this side of the building, Pitch could hear every word the fiery woman threw at the chief.

We will have to work on that temper now that we are.... partners.

The thought passed through Pitch's mind and immediately his shadows began to thrash. Yet despite his anger, Pitch understood why this had come about. The chief needn't have bothered explaining it to him, how the public was still not comfortable with the idea that a demon was on the force. He sensed that anytime he went out on the streets wearing his badge, this disbelief, the distrust, the anger and fear. He didn't need to hear how, by having a partner, Pitch would become less intimidating to the innocent population and gain more acceptance. No, he didn't need to here how, despite his perfect record thus far in the BPD, there were still worrying rumors that needed to be disproved.

No, he could understand the reasons just fine...but they had gone back on a promise. Pitch closed his yellow eyes as he sat at his desk, thinking back. When he had first come to the BPD, first offered his services for the enforcement of good despite his past, one of his conditions had been that he work alone. No partners, no officers in training, no one. The Others Unit had respected that condition....until now.

In that moment, he had come close to merely quitting the force, merely turning and leaving the BPD. But he couldn't, he could never leave until he had fulfilled his promise....

Suddenly, Pitch raised a single pale hand to the left-side of his chest, close to where the heart would lie, as if he had experienced a brief pain. However, it was at this moment that Esmeralda came bursting into the office and stormed over to her own desk.

The demon followed her figure before rising from his own seat and approaching her. However, he said nothing as he stood in front of her workspace, merely waited.

Pitch listened to all of this without once uttering a word, waiting for the anger in Esmeralda to burn out and knowing that there was no point in trying to speak until that time. It took several minutes for her rage to finally vent her rage, but by that point she had finally grown quiet and was waiting for his own response to this mess.

"Whether we had a say in the matter or not is past the point. Unless one of us is willing to leave the BPD for this indiscretion, this is our current situation and one we will have to adapt to."

He continued to look down at his....partner as he spoke, aware that he himself could not leave and that even if Esmeralda were insulted enough to do so, they would simply pair him with another individual. It only annoyed him further and his shadows responded in kind, the darkness taking shape on the floor for a moment so that it almost looked like a herd of horses kicking violently.

Pitch didn't immediately take Esmeralda's offered hand and merely looked at it coldly for several moments. However, he finally reached forward and gave it the briefest of shakes before once again releasing the hold and cupping his hands behind his back. Her words might sound nice and thoughtful, but they were just words. In the end, he would have to see her actions before he made any judgments on her honesty.

"Boundaries."

Pitch said the word softly and even had a small smile pull up the corners of his mouth. However, it was not an expression of amusement and seemed somewhat sinister on his dark features.

"My 'boundaries' are thus. We do what is required of us as partners and nothing more. No outside involvement, no personal questions, no 'getting to know each other.' You can keep your secrets and I'll keep my own."

Pitch didn't even offer a nod of the head but moved on as if everything had already been settled. Into the silence that followed Esmeralda's words, Pitch produced a file from thin air before lightly dropping it onto his new partner's desk. Across the top were written simple letters in bold.

Bellerouge Drug Cartel Murders

"This is the current case I am working on. Now that we are partners, you will be switching over to this case as well."

He waited, giving her a moment to look over the file and information gathered thus far on the murders.

"That remains to be seen."

At these words, Pitch flipped to the back of the file where a series of crime scene photographs lay. Each had a header describing the scene and each was increasingly gruesome.

"Over the course of last month, three large-scale drug rings were attacked at their bases of operation. The Los Zetas. The Up Da Bayou Boyz. And the Witch Doctors."

As he spoke, Pitch pointed to a different pile of photographs that applied to each group named.

"Each of these drug cartels were handling heroine and cocaine in large quantities, probably the biggest ones within the state let alone Bellerouge. All were extremely dangerous and had been linked to various murders across the city. And they were all tortured and killed within their own home operations."

The pictures said it all. He himself had stared at the photographs long and hard with a cold and calculating eye, but Esmeralda's more emotional response was to be expected.

Pitch nodded, but the look in his eyes didn't change as Esmeralda spoke. Once she had finished, he flipped over another sheet of paper with details describing the scenes as they had been found.

"This type of situation would normally fall under drug gang war and be easily traced to one of the rival cartels, but that isn't the case. When the scenes were being swept, officers found that all the drugs being refined and shipped out were still present based on the records the cartels were keeping. In typical drug wars, hits like this would be not only to take out the competition but to also gain their supplies. Nothing was taken from these drug rings."

He didn't bother going on further with this train of thought or the fact that several of the drug lords had been found tied down and with truly enormous quantities of cocaine and heroine in their system. One man's mouth had been so crammed full of white powder that when officers arrived on the scene, his cheeks had distended horribly and given him a horrifically cartoonish chipmunk look. It was clear that whoever had targeted these groups wasn't interested in the drugs they had. So what were they after then?

"There is a message here."

Pitch said the words quietly as his eyes continued to sweep the pictures, his gaze not resting on any one point for more then a few seconds before moving on to a new section. And his words, while spoken aloud, seemed directly more towards himself then towards Esmeralda.

"These actions were executed with skill, intelligence and precision. And whomever killed these cartels is sending out a message to every drug ring in this city."