Linguistics

CAVANAUGH, CEIRA

Often Ceira found herself reaching out to a wide variety of contact while working a case. It also wasn't too farfetched to find the redhead working a case simultaneously with a department or even a private investigation agency itself. Today, however, Ceira would find herself in the company of a fellow investigator who, like herself, came from overseas. It wasn't hard to spot someone a good foot-taller than everyone else in the bar and the sharply dressed man seemed to find her with no issue either. As the man approached, Ceira's eyes fell upon the opened folder resting between the fingers of her left hand, examining the contents while her other lifted a glass of whiskey. Her brows perked, however, when the man attempted to order his drink; a tug of her lips was made and a smirk arose shortly thereafter.

"Suntory, rocks; highball," Ceira turned her head to one of the workers behind the bar that had been serving her up to this point and lifted up her own near-empty glass. When the man slid over a single card-stock card, her pinky finger caught it just as her glass tapped the bartop. "And another double. Same glass, please."

>>"Safe to assume I'm here to meet you, Red?"

"Cavanaugh," the redhead relaxed herself and turned in from her sideways placement on the barstool. She let out a brief cough to clear her throat and adjust her speech and dialect. "Ceira Cavanaugh. And just Ceira is fine. I haven't heard an English accent like that in quite some time. From the north-easte'n states?"

Meara and herself would often go back and forth between English and Japanese, depending on the topic, but it was rather refreshing to speak with someone other than her sister with that all-too-familiar dialect.

Privat Investigator | | AL/AL-A
Fullbringer, Substitute-Shinigami Vizard

CAVANAUGH, CEIRA

A gentle tilt was given to the glass in her hand as she lightly swayed her drink to the man's own. A muffled 'tink' sounded and the pair respectfully sipped their drinks. The man next to her most certainly gave off that noir-like aura; slick hair, sharp features and most certainly dressed the part.

"Good ear, Cavanaugh.. doesn't sound like you're too far off..? Long way from home, don't you think..?"

"Aye," Ceira nodded her head as the Irish-mixed-New England accent felt comfortably released from its cage. The redhead couldn't help the grin from rising upon her features and allowed a moment for her expression to abnormally soften. She had moved nearly half her current life ago and while she was forced to learn not only another language but adjust her English accents accordingly when acting as a translator throughout her life in Japan, picking it back up was like riding a bike. Not only that, but it almost felt as though her dad was there holding the back of her seat as she wobbly attempted to peddle down the road. He was from New York as well; he always got shit from the locals, but he was a local sports fan so they ended up forgiving him during those seasons... sometimes.

"Need a smoke to wash down all that whiskey, Red..?"

"Nuh," her lips parted to let the single-syllable out prior to being gifted that rich, malt liquor. With a quick swallow she replaced the glass upon the condensation-soaked coaster. "Quit some time back but the smoke never bothers me."

"Name's Jack, but everyone back in the states call me Jet, so y'know... grew on me.. Jet Jones, gotta ring to it huh?"

"Jet Jones," Ceira spoke the name carefully as she stroked her chin and gazed off in brief thought. "Sounds like a character from those old detective noir films." She sounded a single almost girlish chuckle before she returned to a more focused gaze. "I like it."

However, Ceira wasn't there to flirt. She was there for business, and while the redhead often mixed business with pleasure, today's case held anything but pleasure. With a more direct sip of her drink and a more hardened expression, the woman's free hand moved to reference the folder she had been reviewing prior to the man's arrival. She flipped the folder open to reveal several documents with paper-clipped pictures; a rather standard-appearing case file from a distance.

"Now let's get down to business," Ceira spoke with more confidence but in a more hushed yet focused tone. "I hope you enjoy locked-room mysteries, because I've got three of them that currently have three different police districts and their higher-ups baffled enough to call in for outside help."

Ceira reached into the folder and pulled out three different case files, each depicting a single murder victim. Each file and pictures attached showed near identical MO's; Modus Operandi. Each victim was male, ages 26, 32 and 41. Each victim was foreign, one from the States, one from England and the other originally from France. Murders were all taken place within Karakura and Naruki districts, all within each victim's home, with all entrances and exits locked from the inside. No signs of forced entry. There was no evidence found that depicted any other person was present within the home. All victims were single men, all living alone in apartment complexes, two of which were on floors higher than three stories up.

The cause of all three deaths was blunt-force trauma, though no murder weapon was found on any of the scenes. The murders were, most certainly, brutal. Each victim was brutally beaten, two of which were beyond facial recognition. It seemed the Unknown Subject brutally beat each victim with some form of armored glove; hard-platted, enough to shatter bone. All signs pointed to murders of passion, as each victim had their necks broken with severe bruising.

"One of the victims did have signs of another person living with them," Ceira spoke after a brief summary of the above mentioned while leaving full details for her fellow detective to find and read as she tilted each file in his visual direction. Another file was pulled from the folder; a single piece of paper and stapled picture. "A young girl; preteen grade-schooler. Neighbors say they recall seeing the young girl only recently, within the past couple of weeks, always with the victim. The only picture we have is one taken by a traffic cam one week ago. It shows the man walking alone down a main street and continuing off onto streets without cameras. Two hours later, he returns with this child. The man had only been living in his current residence for three months, and neighbors assumed the child was a relative; a niece or something. No child was found at the scene, the picture here is too blurry to run through the missing persons' database. A rough sketch was made from two of the neighbor's description, but thus far, nothing has come up. Two weeks worth of video feed show this man only going down this one single street. There aren't any other traffic cameras in this neighborhood, so the victim could have easily walked or driven the child back home or to some other location prior to their murder, but clothing, toys and grade school books were found in a smaller side room assumed to belong to the child."

It was a lot to take in, most certainly. Not only did she unveil a unique mystery of a locked-door case scenario, but three individual cases in total, all with identical MO's, as well as a possible missing persons' case. Ceira took her time thereafter to allow the man his own time to review the case files as well as to wrap his brain around the strange mysteries set before him. As such, the redhead took solace to her liquor, at least until it emptied. If that were the case, another pour was offered by the person behind the bar with another refill offered to the man if and when he finished his own.

Privat Investigator | | AL/AL-A
Fullbringer, Substitute-Shinigami Vizard

CAVANAUGH, CEIRA

"I like where your head's at," Ceira grinned to the man's questionable approach, though despite her positivism, her response wouldn't match the tone. "Background checks were run on all the victims; one had a prior DUI, drunken disorderly conduct and obviously, the apartment was riddled with liquor bottles and beer cans. The other two were clean... somewhat. That is, until you dig a little deeper."

Ceira pulled one of the case files back and flipped through some of the pages.

"Victim number two; Fredrick Flintwood." A picture depicted a middle-aged man, the 32 year old victim, with rough features; beard, dark hair and sharp brown eyes. The page she landed her index finger on pointed to a brief paragraph of a report that seemed to have a bit of blacked-out redactions. "At age 10, Fredrick was victim of sexual abuse by a teacher of his school. The teacher was caught, tried, and currently serving time in jail back in England. Age 20, Fredrick moved to Karakura before finally settling here in Naruki at age 27."

Taking a brief moment to allow her intel to sink in, Ceira hastily finished another double, though uncharacteristically waved the bartender off when attempting to refill her glass. While there was certainly no way the woman was nearing her limit by any means, her attention to focus was required far more than her desire to drink.

"Going back to victim one; Gregory Painsen, the 41 year old and first victim. This is the one from the US; grew up in California, graduated college as a graphic designer, then moved to Japan after receiving a job in animation. Was credited on several successful animation shows and movies; work history is clean, until around age 30.

"DUI at age 31, a charge of drunken disorderly conduct at 33, and six months later, gets written up for assault. I guess animators make good money, because it seems his lawyer talked the sentences down to fines and house arrest. A few more write ups for aggressive behavior, then was fired from his job of over ten years, for assaulting one of his higher ups. From there, it shows he moved from apartment complex to apartment complex, with each location having a few pages of complaints, mostly noise complaints."

With a lifted finger, Ceira nodded to the bartender, who came over to fill her glass but also produce a bottle of ice-cold water. She was certainly parched at this point with all the information she relayed. She uncapped the bottle and took her time, slowly drinking roughly a third of the bottle. A satisfied sigh escaped her lips and then it was right back to focusing on the case. A cold, wet index finger moved to point to another paragraph on that particular page.

"Always paid with cash, on time with his rent and payments, and apparently lived not only off his own savings as an animator, but off an inheritance as well, up until his death.

"Third victim, Norville Rogers, age 26. This is the guy caught on camera with the kid. Grew up in an adoption home in France. Adopted to a family who moved here to Japan. Grade school incident at age 13; animal cruelty. Was found dissecting the class's pet rabbit. The teacher had replaced their rabbit three times prior to this incident and had assumed the two previous rabbits had been let loose by accident. Private school incident of bullying and aggressive behavior, but still graduated nonetheless."

In between various points of her explanation, Ceira worked on her whiskey, taking sips in between brief moments of pause before continuing. At this point, she took one final swig and placed the glass back onto the counter, allowing her index and middle finger to gently fling the glass along the surface, stopping just before the end of the counter. Along with the glass, Ceira tucked away a good amount of yen to pay for her and her new partner's drinks.

"Now... with all that info; I know it's a hell of a lot to take in since it's nearly four separate cases of crime, but putting all of that together, the common element aside from their geographical location, would be that all three victims experienced some sort of aggressive behavioral event. Since some were so minor or began overseas, the information wasn't brought to light until just recently, which prompted the forces to seek additional aid.

"While we're working alongside police investigations, Aiko, the chick that contacted ya, is a good friend of mine and works for uh... some... I dunno, she changes positions so often between those upper organizations an-ha... haha... hehe, changes positions. She sure does like changing positions, alright."

Ceira took a swig of her water and allowed that brief moment of childish humor to pass before hardening that resolve once more. It was then that she capped the water and began pulling the files and pictures back into the folder, standing as she did so.

"Anyway-yea, police have already done their initial and secondary forms of investigation, which is pretty much all in that file. Now, when things get this desperate, Aiko tends to give me a call and sends someone she knows... or maybe has her eye on, to tag along with me, since apparently I can't take care of myself... sometimes-she may be right sometimes, but still-that's like, not the only reason or even a big part of the reason, it's like, a small part of the reason, if it's even a part at all, which most times, it's definitely not."

As Ceira watched the man smoke his cigarette, throughout the story and explanation, that particular act of lighting the tobacco-rolled paper didn't go unnoticed by the redhead, and as those scarlet hues gazed briefly upon the area of which he held that lighter, she paused for but a moment before continuing eye-contact and starting her speech up again.

"Rambling aside, I'm kinda glad she found someone from the States. To be honest, it's a bit ... refreshing."

Damn it Aiko. You really know how to pick 'em.

Privat Investigator | | AL/AL-A
Fullbringer, Substitute-Shinigami Vizard

CAVANAUGH, CEIRA

>>"Likewise, Red. Good to hear some real english again."

The redhead smiled and tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear. She began to lead the man out, but like a gentleman, hastily grabbed the door for her as the two left. She gave a solid nod of her head in thanks and a kind smile before being greeted once more by the fresh, small-city air of Naruki. Well; to her, it was a small city. All the places out here were. Except Tokyo; Ceira had flown in there a few times. A lot of districts with a wide variety of diverse culture and people.

>>"Speakin' of which, the American... Painsen, his apartment isn't to far away from here is it. Maybe we should have a peek around, see if we can't get a better clue on where to start with all this mess."

"I like where your head's at," Ceira repeated the sentiment again as she stretched her arms and took in the scenery around her. However, the scenery of Japan would take a backseat once more as the man led them to a rather stylish, old-school Continental; black as night, polished to over-perfection, and as the man moved to hastily remove a light smudge prior to opening her door for her, Ceira found herself taken right back to her childhood once more.

"Wicked fuck'n pissah." Ceira gasped as the tips of her fingers rimmed her bottom lip. She was as frozen in place as the car before her was in time, unable to halt the memories of her father driving her and her sister down to the cape, along the shoreline, on their couch-on-wheels; Lincoln Town Car. This bad boy, however, held a far more mature appearance. "I never thought I'd see one of these again..."

>>"I'll drive... since luckily you drank enough for the both of us..."

The redhead squealed in delight as she gently and rather elegantly ushered her way into the passenger's seat. Granted, she had to get in on the street-side, which, since she hasn't driven herself in quite some times, was a bit awkward, but as soon as she sat down, it felt like everything was fresh yet still very much original; pristine condition. Add a few cigar burns here and there as well as the lego-head piece stuck in the back-seat cigarette ashtray and a small palette change and Ceira would've been right back in her childhood years.

"You're really are very old school, aren't you?" Ceira finally asked when Jet had taken the driver's seat. "And here I thought I was the senior. You work a badge back in the states, or out here in Japan?"

Privat Investigator | | AL/AL-A
Fullbringer, Substitute-Shinigami Vizard