It Sounds Like Her

Bob is puzzled, "Why would they ask you to follow me. You are not even a cop."

Rosanne blushes, "I am trained similarly as a policewoman. But the reason I will be shadowing you is not to become a policewoman or a detective."

"Then what do you want?"

"I am going to document your interrogation interactions, find something noteworthy that can be shared with the public. This is for social media campaign. Basically, to give NYPD a better image. To create a hero for the New York City residents."

Bob takes a step towards her, staring down. It is more apparent now how much taller Bob is to Rosanne. Her height reaches Bob's shoulders. She is petite and perky.

But she stares back up, and not taking any step back away from Bob. She holds her eyes at Bob, waiting for Bob to say something. Because both Rosanne and Jack, who is now a bystander, can tell Bob is not pleased.

Bob locks his eyebrows and grunts, "Seriously? Because you want to do some social media BS so you are going to follow me around? This has got to be the most ridiculous, young generation BS I've ever heard!"

Rosanne talks back, "Not because I want to. Because this city needs a hero image."

"Please do not make me that person. I beg you. I can recommend you someone else." Bob strangely doesn't sound like he is very angry right now. He sounds more like he is worried and really hates the idea to be shown to the public.

"Oh. But I won't be cumbersome to you. Most of the time I only stay behind. I will mostly appear only when you are in interrogation room."

"Then admit it. You just want to make sure I use legal interrogation techniques." Bob lifts his chin up a little bit. Jack thinks Bob is trying to threaten Rosanne with this angle.

Rosanne calmly shakes her head, "No. My job is to make the citizens feel safe and protected by NYPD. This is also part of helping Kasim Bashar's effort to get people to come forward with information. People need to feel a connection, someone they admire, in order to cooperate and work with NYPD."

"I'll recommend you some very highly qualified detectives. OK? I'm not your guy. I do not want to do any publicity. Please." Bob believes this conversation is over.

"Well, honestly, I've thought of using other detectives. But. Ultimately, um, after laying out all my analysis and the photos of all the detectives, I ran a small survey within the administrative department internally... you are the most popular choice. I mean, as in, people find you interesting."

Jack finally can't help but snickers, "Awww, I think this is because... Bob, you are a good-looking man. Right,"

To both Jack and Bob's surprise, Rosanne nods, "Yes, you have the good looks that will appeal to a lot of people."

Now, this is Bob's turn to blush. Wow. He is 102 years old now, and this is perhaps the first time a young woman tells him so directly that she thinks he is good-looking.

"No. Please. You must ask someone else. How about, let's use Jack. He is young and handsome, too."

"Why, thank you." Jack bows jokingly.

Rosanne doesn't blink, still looking at Bob.

"Jack doesn't have to do any of the detective work, but if you need to take photos, just take pictures of him. People won't know the difference."

Rosanne shakes her head silently, but she seems to have dropped the topic for now, "Well, I will be shadowing you anyway. That's not up for negotiation. And Bob. Let's meet soon. I have a few things to ask you."

"Huh?"

"You two have a good day." Rosanne then turns around, walking away with her heels hitting the floor.

She doesn't have that hip swaying way of walking like Nitte, but Rosanne also has a nice round butt. She walks away more like an athlete.

After Rosanne is out of the office and into the elevator, Jack immediately breaks into laughter, "Oh Bobby. What's going on? You've got an official stalker. And she is not shy about how she wants to meet with you soon. How nice. You think she's cute, don't you?"

"What?" Bob gives a disgusted facial expression, "Non-sense. She is way, way too young. I mean, too young-looking for me. I like a mature-looking woman."

"She told us that she is older than us."

"Well, let's not worried about that. And I probably shouldn't have argued too much, since I haven't even gotten any assignment yet."

But as soon as Bob says that, Bob's cellphone rings.

"Bob speaking," Bob says.

"Hi, Bob. This is Captain Rogers. So, I just got a very strange case where a witness claims to have seen a strange wild animal but also possibly a human attacking the victims. And we've got two victims, dead on the scene. Can you go check it out? Talk to the witness. Survey the scene."

"Where is it at?" Bob asks.

"Look into the police filing system for Hell's Kitchen case that just got sent in at about 7:50 A.M. today. OK? You'll see it. If you don't, radio in the dispatcher. Someone will guide you." And then Captain Rogers hangs up the phone.

Bob frowns and then looks over at Jack.

"What?" Sensing Bob looking at him with a meaningful look, Jack asks right away.

"Well. I've got a hunch. This might have something to do with your shapeshifting friend. Or, shall we say, skinwalker?"

"What?"

"The victims were attacked by a strange animal."

Jack immediately knows why Bob thinks that. Oh no. Did Nitte go and attack somebody?

"Well, let's check out what the records in the filing system say." Jack points at the computer.

Bob sits down and starts to search for the case.

It has a very long, detailed report in there already. Bob is surprised, his eyebrows hiked up.

"Wow. It's super rare that anyone would already typed in something so neatly and completely. This just got reported within this hour. Usually, all the cops take time to do their administrative police reports. They usually just checks some boxes and put it in the system first. They come back and fill out the longer description later."

"Yeah. I've never seen it done so quickly already." Jack takes a look at the report. And then he reads.

It is described that a couple, one female, one male, were suddenly attacked on the streets at about 4 A.M. in Hell's Kitchen area.

"OK. This really happened not that long ago." Jack comments, and then continues to read.

A homeless person is a witness. The homeless person doesn't have a phone and has no money to make a call, so he walks around to ask someone to contact the police for him. No one wants to help him and thinks he is crazy. He finally finds an NYPD coordinator passing by and with her help, the report is filed. The witness describes the animal to be unusual for the city. It looks to be something like a wolf with wild boar's nose and mouth, and horns. It is able to walk with only two legs, not four legs on the ground. Detectives needed to verify the validity of the witness statements. ----Signed and submitted by Rosanne Young. 7:52 A.M. Police Headquarter.------

"What the hell?" Jack yelps. "And Rosanne was the one filed the report?"

"Yeah. What the hell. We better go check it out soon. I'm taking you with me. And You might want to contact Nitte." Bob says to Jack carefully.