Liam steps the familiar path through the police station, Reyes trailing just a little behind him. He knows where Ms. Dylan will be - she's not imprisoned, not a suspect, and he suspects Officer Matthews doesn't want to traumatize her further. (Well. He hopes. He'd like to think the best of her but you do never know with cops.)
Sure enough, the conference room is occupied. He had guessed so. It has cameras with audio and soft cushioned chairs, so poor Ms. Dylan can breathe and they still have anything she says on record, just in case.
The woman is sitting in one of those chairs, eyes red-rimmed and looking utterly distraught, hands wringing in her hands, seemingly unsure what to do. She has striking red hair, cropped short and curly and exposing her pointed ears - but overall, she looks human.
Not that that means much, but he tucks it away nonetheless.
Officer Matthews sits in a chair next to her, stern and blonde, and she looks up without expression as he walks in. Reyes heads straight for Ms. Dylan, pulling her hands in his own and giving them a squeeze as she looks up with heartbreaking relief, and Officer Matthews gets up to come speak to Liam.
"Anything?" he asks her quietly as they step into the doorway, casting a glance back at the occupants of the room who are fairly preoccupied.
Matthews shakes her head. "Her story is cohesive and most coherent. She was locking up at her usual hour and stumbled across the body in the street - either the woman is a phenomenal actress or completely innocent."
It is quite possible she's an award-winning actress in the making - but it does also beg the question of why she would call in, then, and allow herself to be the one that found the body. Liam really isn't considering her too high on the suspect list, but she's certainly a witness.
"Understood," he says. "I've got a few questions to ask her, and then I'll be done."
She nods. "You need supervision, or does Reyes have that handled?"
Since he's not officially part of the police department - which he is very okay with - he can't question a witness alone. There are many ways to tweak with that if he needs to give the appearance of being alone, many spells that can be easily utilized, but Liam isn't too worried about that here.
He shakes his head. "Reyes knows her," he says, nodding towards them. Reyes is fixing up Ms. Dylan another cup of hot cocoa at the counter, looks like, while she stares off into space. "I want an outside supervisor."
"Roger that."
Matthews leans against the wall, folding her arms, and Liam goes to approach Ms. Dylan. He leaves the seat right next to her, where Matthews had been, for Reyes, and pulls a different chair up in front of her.
"Hi, Ms. Dylan," he greets her gently, and she refocuses on him with a small twitch and some surprise. "I'm Detective Liam, and I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions?"
Her eyes flicker over to Matthews. "I… I already answered her questions about what happened," she says, sounding confused.
He nods. "I know. I have a few different ones - I'm not writing a report, I'm trying to figure out what happened, if there's any clues we might be able to get. Is that okay?"
Reyes returns then, pressing the styrofoam cup into her hands and taking the chair next to her. "It's okay," he says. "You can trust the detective."
That hardens her resolve, and she nods, taking a small sip of her cocoa. "Okay," she says. "Just a few more."
He gives her a small smile. "Thank you. I'll be quick, I promise."
Liam pulls out a small notebook and pencil from his back pocket - it's easier for him to jot things down on paper and access it that way, instead of typing it on his phone. Besides, it looks more professional, less like he's not paying attention. "Did you have a lot of customers today?"
She looks a little surprised, then thoughtful. "No busier than normal," she says. "I haven't tallied the sales, but it wasn't slow, either…"
He nods. "Could you give a description of them?" When Ms. Dylan hesitates, because that might be quite a daunting task, he tries a different tactic. "Or do you have cameras in the store?"
That relaxes her. "Yes, there's cameras," she says with her own nod. "Do you need… to see the footage?"
"If I could," Liam says. "I'd like to make a list of customers, talk to them and see if they've seen anything." He also wants to see if there's anything she could've missed, some flash of light through the window or anything.
In fact, he should see if there are other stores that were possibly open with any possible footage, and he jots that down as a note. "Were you walking home when you found the body?"
Ms. Dylan takes another sip of her drink to steady herself and nods. "Yes," she says. "I was headed to the bus stop, I always take Bus 390…"
Camera footage, check. A note to talk to the other stores, check. No seemingly unusual reason for Ms. Dylan's involvement, just the misfortune of being the one to find the body on her way home. If she had touched anything - which he doubts - Liam would have been told already, and he considers. "One more question, Ms. Dylan." He studies her, trying not to be too intense. "Do you have any experience with magic?"
The question catches her off guard. "Not… personally, no," she says slowly. "I can't use magic."
Liam presses his lips together for a moment. "But you have experience with magic users?"
"My ex-husband and his family can all use magic," Ms. Dylan explains, looking a little uncomfortable. "But I'm only really in contact with one, my nibling."
"My partner," Reyes supplies. "They're one of the witches over in forensics." Liam's eyebrows shoot up, and he glances over to meet the younger man's gaze. He looks a little nervous, to be speaking up, but he plows forward anyway. "Do… you want to talk to them?"
Ms. Dylan immediately looks concerned. "Why do you need to talk to them?" she asks, eyes wide and hands squeezing her cup so tightly he's a little afraid she'll break it.
"I just want the opinion of a magic user," Liam says, trying to be soothing. "It's almost certain there's magic involved. That's all." It's most certainly not all - especially since he'll get a thorough report of the crime scene from the forensics witches.
But this way, he can get said report from someone he has a few questions for - just to try to firmly detach Ms. Dylan from the case. At this point, he has no reason to consider her a suspect - but he's not sure yet if he wants to rule her out as a target.
There's no way the body was there for long before she found it. It's not exactly an abandoned street. Was it a targeted attack from someone who knows her schedule? Or was it simply a coincidence, that she got off around the same time it was splattered there? Either's a strong possibility.
Regardless, Liam's explanation calms her a little. "Okay," she says, leaning back in her chair. "Are… you done, then? Can I leave?"
Liam nods. "Of course," he says. "Officer Reyes can escort you home." She turns to pick up her purse, and in that instant, he locks eyes with Reyes. 'Watch her,' he mouths, and though the man looks nervous and hesitant once more - or maybe he never stopped - he nods. "Thank you for all your help, Ms. Dylan," Liam tells her as they all stand, and she gives him a watery smile.
"Good luck, detective," she says, and then Reyes is whisking her away.
He watches them go, and then makes eye contact with Officer Matthews. She pushes herself off the wall and stretches. "Anything you need from me?" she asks. "I'll go type up my report right now, if you want."
Liam considers. "Is the closet open?" he asks.
She snorts. "Yeah."
He waves her off. "I'm good, then," he says, and she gives a nod and she's out the door as well.
When he has work to do at the police station, Liam usually ends up in the closet. It's a "guest" desk and computer shoved in a room that is absolutely supposed to be a closet and not a mini-office, and it can be really claustrophobic - unfortunately, there's not much he can do about that.
Before he confines himself, he pulls out his phone to text Nathaniel. Technically, he has absolutely no authority to tell Reyes to stay with Ms. Dylan and keep an eye on her, but he doubts Nathaniel will pitch a fuss about it - still, he needs to let him know. After a moment, he taps out a quick request for Reyes' phone number just in case.
Perfect.
Liam takes a breath, grabs himself a quick coffee, and heads for the closet. Time to look through some missing person files.