FSE

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_ So, I know, it's been a while. But if you can believe it I keep writing ahead of myself, so if I ever connect the bits I'll have a large chapter for you. I'm looking for people who would like to draw fanart, because I'm a nerd like that. I'd be willing to do a little trade, write a story, include your character in my story somehow maybe. But yes, hopefully I haven't lost too many readers due to boredom. Lemmy know if you're still out there, leave me a rating or a comment. Or if you really love me, you'll do both! ;3_

Daisy and Boss: 10 - Hot On the Scent of Trouble

The station was a blur of activity for a Thursday morning when Detective Danielle Hardy stepped out of the elevator on the third floor and made her way towards her and Boss' desks down in the bullpen. She carried slung over her shoulder her briefcase and a garment bag, her black hair was carefully plaited along the line of her graceful silvery neck in neat precise knotwork, and her tail was woven in a businesslike bob. Her suit was designer from the fall Milano collection and it fit her lithely curvaceous body like a glove in a somber charcoal that was a shade lighter than her hair and a shade darker than her hide over a white ruffled blouse. The grayscale effect was broken by a crimson skinny belt she wore over the skirt but under the cropped length jacket and red hoof polish to match. She turned heads as she strode by even in the mayhem of 8am. Phones rang and the hallways were bustling with furs going about their business keeping the streets safer for everyone in Portland... in one way or another, Dani mused and dodged being hit in the face with the uppermost branches of a potted plant being carried by a small smartly dressed platypus wearing very thick glasses. Monty Miller, one of the I.T. guys that kept the precincts computers running smoothly. An expert desk diver and computer guru... not so much with the ladies. Dani gave a short feminine snort of amusement as he stumbled and dropped the plant that was taller than he was, as he realized who he'd run into.

"Sorry Detective Hardy!" He gaped. His diminutive height put him nose to nipples with the powerful mare and he found himself staring at her twin silver globes even as he knew she could stomp him to oblivion for it. She let it pass with a hooded look of strained patience.

"Monty... what are you doing out of your cave?" She planted a fist on her hip as the nearsighted monotreme scurried to gather his plant, scooping the dirt that had spilled back into the pot with a stack of papers he was also carrying in his webbed fingers.

"Oh, well, you know... do one odd job, get asked to do another." He quipped nervously scraping at the dirt that was in actuality not very noticeable on the dark short nap carpet. Dani rolled her eyes, thoroughly enjoying herself.

"Last time I checked ficus trees don't have hard drives, Monty." Dani was about to continue when a familiar gruff voice sounded behind her and she turned around to grin at her partner.

"Hardy, leave the poor tech-fur alone." Boss shook his head at the mustang mare as she looked him over for any obvious clues to his whereabouts as she handed him the garment bag with the spare suit inside. They walked on, leaving an extremely relieved Monty alone with his shrubbery.

"He was staring at my tits." Dani declared, pointing to said breasts with exclamation. Boss gave her a look over his shoulder as he headed towards the men's room to change into his spare suit.

"Hardy, everyone stares at your tits." He raised his brows at her, and then furrowed them as a thought struck him suddenly. "I think you actually like it." He disappeared around the corner of the men's room door and Dani leaned a shoulder into the wall intending to wait for him. She glanced down casually at her chest and her lips quirked up a bit at the corners.

"They are pretty awesome..." She murmured to herself smugly and used her palms to give them a bounce. Several officers exiting the restrooms gave her funny looks which she returned with a level stare and a nonchalant flick of an ear. She didn't give a shit what other people thought of her. Boss had told her on numerous occasions that she really needed to stop being 'such a crazy bitch' all the time. But in her mind, the friends she had knew who and what she was, and anyone new she encountered had better learn fast or they'd never catch up. Danielle Mae Hardy was no one's doormat.

After a few minutes in which Dani managed to make several more furs uncomfortable by lurking outside of the men's restroom, Boss emerged pristine in a clean suit and tie with the dirty one in the garment bag. The walked down the hall and into the main office area where all the detectives cubicles were. All along one side were interview rooms and along the front were the chief and the head prosecutor's offices. Several glass walled meeting rooms and a break room with a lounge area broke up the floor layout, but for the most part it was cubicles. Boss hung the garment bag on a green wall divider of their designated square of turf near the first row by the windows and Dani plunked down in her swivel chair. And stared at Boss expectantly.

"So... Dish! Where were you last night?" She asked as Boss calmly ignored her and went about digging a folder out of the file cabinet. He exhaled thru his nose and paused to look at her appraisingly.

"It's not what you think." He sat down in his chair and shuffled thru the cup full of writing utensils that was centered equal distance from both chair spaces. Dani raised her eyebrows and twirled in a circle on her chair.

You know I don't care if you bring females to the apartment. It's your apartment! I bring lovers home all the time..." She gestured in a blasé way that made it seem as interesting as bringing home a loaf of bread. The white dog rolled his eyes.

"Yes. I know, believe me. I know." Boss frowned and plucked a ballpoint pen out of the jumble, starting to fill out a request form to have an item tested by the lab department for fingerprints. "It's very hard to ignore..." He fell silent again as he set about filling out several different forms. Dani grew impatient, her red painted fingers drumming on the desk as she waited for Boss to continue speaking. This was a game he played often and it irritated her to no end. The most irritating part about it, was that he did it intentionally. And he couldn't be rushed.

"Her name, is Daisy Fields." Boss finally intoned softly, not looking up from his paperwork. "Does the name seem familiar to you?" Dani smacked the desk with her open palm, her upper lip lifting in the beginning of a truly mischievous grin.

"I KNEW it was a female!" She whinnied, eyes sparkling.

"Would you get your muzzle out of the gutter, please?" Boss growled.

"Awww... Bossy...." Dani winked. "Is she pretty?"

"No, she's... Well, yes, she's very..." Boss floundered, feeling his face heat up at Dani's teasing. "Dammit, Hardy, that's not the point. I asked if her name sounded familiar to you!" Boss barked, narrowing his eyes at the mare as she gleefully continued spinning in her office chair.

"Nope. Not at all." Dani shrugged. "What does she look like?" She asked in a singsong voice.

Boss was rescued when they were interrupted by the arrival of Barney Dunlap, an old detective who had partially retired to work in records. The coonhound walked with a slight limp from an old gunshot wound to the leg and complained to anyone who would hold still long enough to listen that it gave him pains 'something terrible'. But despite his prickly attitude and gruff exterior, Barney was one of Boss' favorite furs, and he looked at him as something akin to a mentor. He called on his knowledge often.

"Hey there, Boss, I've got those files you wanted." Boss wagged his tail and greeted the old dog by standing to clap him on the shoulder.

"Thanks, Barney." He took the box the coonhound carried under one arm set it down on the desk. "Do you remember this case? I just read about it in the papers, I didn't have any involvement." Dani dragged the box over to her side of the desk and started snooping, teasing forgotten for police work. Barney's nose twitched as he thought a moment, watching Dani pull a CD case labeled with a case number and 'CSP' written on it in black sharpie. She turned to her computer and wordlessly put it in the disc reader.

"I was already off active duty, when that case got blown wide open. But I remember it. Thirteen dead, mostly street girls, except for the last four. Sad part is, if Julian Wilderson had stuck to killing hookers and vagabonds instead of high school students, he probably wouldn't have gotten caught. He'd still be out there." Barney looked out the window with an expression of disgust that Boss recognized well. "So many dead furs, and no one really even started seriously questioning it until he killed his first varsity sweetheart. They had a heck of a time pinning that wolf down until that last victim. What was her name..." Barney snuffled.

"Daisy Fields." Dani piped up from in front of her computer. Her eyes were glued to the screen solemnly as she flipped thru the gruesome crime scene photos, a corresponding stack of paperwork from the box sitting in front of her.

"Yes. Daisy Fields... She was the one who escaped." Barney extended a paw, one finger to the fore, as if he were plucking the name from thin air. Boss said nothing, his eyes had been drawn against their will to the photo's on Dani's screen. They were of Daisy. The bright beautiful doe he had held in his arms only hours before was completely different than the gaunt filthy wisp in the pictures. One picture seemed burned into his brain so that when he finally managed to look away it followed him like an echo. Daisy, bloodied, curled in on herself on the floor of an ambulance was allowing a gentle looking ewe wearing scrubs to apply a swab to the bites on her shoulder. But the worst part of the picture was not her thinness or the gaping wounds that were painfully visible in her near nakedness, it was the dead look in her eyes. Her golden amber eyes, the sparkling gems he was familiar with, were half lidded and dull. They looked thru the camera and straight at him like a doll stares from a shelf. A sad broken doll. Boss felt a stab of pain in his heart.

A thin whine broke the silence between the three in front of the computer and Dani looked back over her shoulder in amazement to see Boss averting his gaze from the screen. Barney sniffed in the tall dog's direction suspiciously.

"Just what did you need these for, anyhow?" He asked. "Case has been closed for three years. There's nothing to do...."

Boss cleared his throat and dug the letter out of his breast pocket and handed it over to the older dog, who took it cautiously.

"He's been sending her letters." Boss said, a hint of a snarl creeping into his voice. "He's got some kind of connection on the outside, and I think her life may be in danger." Barney looked down at the envelope in his paw, brows furrowed.

"Could be... Wilderson was active in other area's of crime. He ran a fence for stolen property down in the southern quarter by the river." Barney tapped the edge of Dani's computer with the envelope. "There's intel on it in the database. They never did pin down all the perps involved. Business has just shifted power mostly."

"Or maybe not." Dani said darkly, pointing at the letter. "If he's able to sent love notes to his sweetie..." Boss bristled and lifted his lip at the comment, showing fang to the mare, who stuttered in shock. "Jeeze, Boss, sorry! I'm just saying if he can send letters to a victim, then he can get messages out to other furs as well." She had her ears pinned at Boss, who calmed almost immediately with an apologetic look to his partner.

"That's why I'm sure his threats are serious." He huffed. Barney spotted the forms sitting on the desk and scooped them up with the letter, and turned to head back down the hall.

"Well, I'm on my way back down stairs, so I'll take these to forensics and get them started on some clues as to where this came from." He patted Boss on the back as he passed and he was barely out of the cubicle before Dani rounded on Boss with a snort.

"All right. Tell me what the fuck happened last night, I'm serious!" She exclaimed. "You just growled at me... for real! I've never seen you lose your cool like that! What did you do? Climb in bed with the girl and fall in love?!" Dani didn't know it, but she had technically hit the nail right on the head, even if love was a pretty strong word. Boss ran a paw over his face and sat down in his chair.

"Not exactly... I gave her a ride home. She was lost, and I sort of recognized her." He shrugged and looked out the window. "I can't really explain it, Hardy, she... she's so damaged. You can't imagine..." Boss seemed to shake himself and turn back to the present. Dani smiled and her ears came back up to a less pissy setting.

"You old softie." She rested her elbows on the wood veneer of her desk and put her chin in her palms. "Are all Great Pyrenees hopeless romantics, or just you?" She nickered. A flattening of ears was her reward from her heavily furred partner.

"I don't know about that, Hardy."