DAVE
He was alone in the interrogation room for nearly an hour and he would have gone stir-crazy if he hadn't fallen asleep. But it wasn't a restful one and he'd probably have been better off worrying about his missing brother.
He snorted awake when the captain walked in.
"Detective." The way he said it made Dave's hackles rise.
"Captain," he said with just as much venom.
The captain sat across the steel table from Dave, levelling cold, dark eyes on him.
Dave didn't have the patience for a staring contest.
"Are you going to let me out or what?"
"You're looking at assault on two officers, breaking and entering, possible corporate espionage charges, and several other misdemeanours. Letting you off is not an option."
"And after all the work I do for you."
"We...appreciate your work here." He said it like it had been strangled out of him. "But that does not give you the audacity to flaunt the law as you see fit. I'm not completely unreasonable but this is going to be difficult to clear."
"Can't you brush it under the carpet with the rest of your difficult work?"
The captain glared at him for a moment. "What is this about, Grayson?"
Dave clasped his hands and let out a frustrated breath. It was like talking to a wall. "I've already told your people. My brother has gone missing."
"And the appropriate response to your suspicions was to break into the Institute?"
"I had a feeling that something had happened to him." He could still feel Doug's terror like it were his own. Doug didn't scare easily.
He met the captain's stare. "You know what I mean."
"I'm sure I don't."
Dave couldn't help rolling his eyes. Even though people having abilities like his was a well-known occurrence, it was still rare enough that people were sceptical about it, up to and beyond trying to rationalise otherwise impossible feats that happened before their very eyes. Whether the captain believed that Dave could do things that most people couldn't, he never admitted it to himself or put it in any of the reports for the cases that they had consulted Dave for, always listing him as an 'anonymous consultant'. He'd helped with about a case a month since he'd started off on his own but had never gotten any of the credit.
But he didn't care much—the pay was decent enough.
"Look. My brother's been kidnapped and I need your help finding him. You owe me."
The captain grumbled in hid throat but pulled out a notepad. "How long?"
He suddenly felt very stupid. "He wasn't in his office this evening. He should have been working."
"Hmm." The captain wrote something down. "Any signs of a struggle?"
"The...chair was out of place. And there was a...coffee stain on the -" He hung his head, but perked up just as soon. "There was a broken antique on the floor."
"After you broke into the office." The captain said. "Detective, when last did you see your brother?"
"A month ago." He wanted to slap himself.
The captain dropped his pen and steepled his fingers. "Grayson, I want to believe that you understand just how much work we have to do around here."
He didn't look up from his hands, his face heating up. "Yes."
"So why would you break into the Institute on a gut feeling and come here with nothing but a coffee stain in a carpet?"
He honestly didn't know. Captain Richards had never been really fond of him. Trying to gain his support had been a long shot and he'd known it.
So why?
"When can I leave?"
It was another half hour before he was released. He didn't expect to get a ride but an offer would have been nice.
He laughed at himself for thinking it. No-one here held any affection for him. Most of the world regarded him as a freak while the rest just ignored him. Even his own brother.
Doug had never been the best at...feeling. His mind was usually to busy with other things to have the time for it. The only reads he ever got off of him when they were together were his annoyance at being disturbed. Dave had always tried to weather it out but their last meeting had not ended on the most pleasant of terms.
He could remember his anger climbing higher and higher while Doug had remained ice cold. He'd hardly thought about Doug for the whole month. Yet he'd come running when he thought his brother had been in danger. Doug would have probably cleaned up his apartment before coming.
But family had to count for something. They were all that each other had left. Dave needed his brother, even if Doug couldn't care less.
He was going to find him even if it killed him.
No sooner had the thought come when he was tackled into an alley, the breath knocked out of him as his back struck a wall, and a calloused hand covering his mouth.
In the dark, all he could see was the glint of moonlight in piercing grey eyes.