Apparently, the case was a suicide. The person involved had been a mutant, and so MRC had been pulled in to determine whether or not there was anything sinister involved. It had appeared to be your average suicide. There weren't any strange things involved with the position of the body. The person had killed themselves. That much was certain. The question was, why? There was no note. All the interviews Ashton can conducted had come to the conclusion that the mutant man, Harland Smith, was in good spirits. He hadn't been depressed, and his life had been going well. Nobody seemed to dislike him... but he didn't seem like he would have had any reason to kill himself. He was in a happy relationship, with seemingly every reason to live. It had seemed strange to Ashton, but nobody had wanted to delve any further. Open and shut. Suicide. And so it goes. He didn't buy it. The suicide. The case was over. It didn't feel over. He decided to go beyond the law.

A while back, Ashton had spoken with Archer about taking cases he was having trouble with and bringing her in on them. He hadn't tapped into that resource. They'd both been so busy, and nothing had come up. Now, he wanted her help.

His fist rapped on her apartment door. He was dressed casually, in a black jacket, jeans, and a red sweater. This wasn't cop business. This was entirely about getting someone some justice. If there even was more to it than his gut said. It was around five in the evening. He was off for the night. Hopefully, so would she.

"Archer." He said. "It's Drake. Can we talk for a minute?"

Yep, Quin decided, scrutinizing her closet with a critical eye, things were definitely looking up in this category. Since the impromptu cocktail party/business meeting at Inferno, Quin had decided that it was time for an update. The business suits had gotten to stay, she still needed to look professional around the office and for day to day work, but there were new shiny things as well.

Tonight was a date night, something that had been happening more and more often. For keeping things casual, she and Nate had been seeing an awful lot of each other lately...not that Quin had any complaints. Things in life were going shockingly well. Quin had even started looking at the horoscopes and star charts again. Today held surprises from an old friend... Well, the redhead had decided, if Nate counted as anything it was an old friend.

Tonight’s ensemble was something recently purchased and Quin studied the effect. The skirt would have almost been too short, but winter was apparently going to be never ending this year and that necessitated tights. They were patterned, but still mostly opaque and were black in contrast to the coppery color of the fabric. It wasn’t a color that Quin would have thought she’d have liked, but the shopkeeper had insisted Quin try it, and she’d been pleasantly surprised. In contrast to the black top and her red hair in loose curls around her shoulders, it all worked quite nicely. Mentally going through the checklist of getting-ready things that still needed done, the redhead wandered into the living area of her apartment just in time to hear a knock at her door.

That was odd...Quin decided, making her way in that direction. A voice rang out and Quin scowled. What was he doing here and what did he want to talk about? Glancing at the clock and deciding that it would be less time consuming to simply find out what was going on than it would be to try and ignore the problem away, Quin sighed and opened the door.

”Am I going to have to move?” she said, lips pursed in slight annoyance, ”This century it’s rude to drop by someone’s home unannounced.” If you didn’t announce yourself, they didn’t have a chance to ignore you or make excuses why you couldn’t stop by.

Oh. He'd been interrupting something. Ashton did his absolute best not to eye the room behind Archer, and thoroughly snoop were snooping would be met with orders of 'shoot to kill'.

"Sorry." Ashton said. "I didn't even think. I was so focused on this case. Didn't even think to try your office first. It looks like I caught you at a bad time... you're right. I should have called."

He knew better than to get defensive with her, or make a bunch of excuses. Technically, he'd made one, but he'd moved on and admitted fault and apologized. Hopefully, she'd understand being consumed by a case.

"Do you have, I dunno." He tilted his wrist to check his watch. "Ten minutes to talk?"

He looked back up at her; She looked good. Somebody was a lucky guy.

It was still tempting to be snappish. Wasn’t Drake intuitive enough to understand that she’d simply agreed to his request that they collaborate from time to time to get him to stop talking and leave her apartment the last time he’d invited himself over?

Apparently not.

There were excuses aplenty as for why he’d showed up here instead of her office and Quin crossed her arms. This was the kind of workaholic attitude that had been dragging her down the past several years and one of the reasons she’d ended up leaving the force. The redhead had to admit she was intrigued though, this was something to do with a case...but she wasn’t a cop anymore. What could the motive possibly be here?

Did she have 10 minutes? Quin glanced at the clock on her microwave and sighed as she opened the door wide enough to allow admittance. She had almost exactly ten minutes.

”Not a minute more. I have plans.” she said, ”And the last thing I want to do is explain that I’m late because of you.”

Exactly ten minutes. Sheesh. Bossy, as always. He remembered a time when she'd been so incredibly focused on looking good and making a strong first impression that she'd quailed under his hardass routine. Now, she was the hardass, and he the quail. Oh, how the tables had turned. Ashton only nodded, and entered the apartment as she let him inside.

He made a point to be quick. No inane prattling or small talk. No, "you look nice today, Archer. Big date?" None of that. Ashton summarized the situation.

There was a case the higher ups had deemed a suicide. A mutant man named Harland Smith. 30 years old, good life. Seemingly Happy. MRC had looked into it to make sure there wasn't a hidden mutant hate crime or murder there. All the interviews had lead Ashton to believe that there was zero reason the man would have killed himself. There wasn't anything suspicious about the crime scene, per se, save for the fact that there was no suicide note. He didn't think it was suicide. His gut told him there was something MRC higher ups were missing, something more... but they'd dismissed it as a suicide. And he thought that wasn't very fair to Harland Smith.

"I know it probably sounds like I'm seeing things when they aren't there. Ashton told her, as he brought things to a close. "I just don't think it's as simple as they're saying it is, Archer. I'm getting pressured to leave it alone. I want to look into it. And I could use a second set of eyes. I could use your help." He looked her dead in the eyes. "Even if it's just to tell me when I'm being paranoid."

"I'm going out on a limb here. I can't exactly hire you as a consultant on the case. But I'll pay your fee out-of-pocket. If someone killed him, the man deserves justice. And MRC ain't gonna do it."

Well, to Ashton’s credit, he didn’t waste any time getting to the point. There had been a death and an investigation, the higher-ups had accepted the status quo and were instructing Detective Drake to let the sleeping dog lie. Something in his gut was protesting though, and he wanted to continue to look into the case.

Quin listened with her arms crossed over her stomach. Suicides were tricky business, and difficult to investigate in the best of situations. This one seemed to be open and shut except for a gut instinct that Ashton couldn’t shake. He made eye contact and Quin looked away, uncomfortable.

This was going to be off the books, of course the department wouldn’t hire her, and he’d pay the fees out of pocket. that made Quin laugh.

”You couldn’t afford me.”[/color] she said, shaking her head and then sighed. No matter what else he was, Ashton was a good cop.

”A few of my cases have gone to court, so my active investigations are done. This is something Haven would be interested in anyway.” well...it would be if they could prove there was more than a simple suicide at play.

”What about the case has your spider senses tingling?”

[/font]

>>"You couldn't afford me." Archer said.

Ashton suppressed a smirk. Nice. He bobbed his head in understanding.

She was willing to do this, regardless of pay. Haven, her bosses, would be interested in it. He'd looked into the organization since he'd first heard about it from her. Pro-mutant, humanitarian group. It definitely made sense that they would be interested. Suppressed murders of mutants are a huge deal. If this WAS murder, it could happen again.

What about it had his gut going crazy? "Well." Ashton began slowly. "Aside from the lack of note, there were little things. Things that are usually present or absent at a suicide scene. Things that speak of their mindset before they took their lives. And the scene was almost surgical." He grimaced. "Which was strange. You would have thought at least some of the emotional aspects would be there. Things put away, orderly scene... Or a mess. Stuff to speak about the psychology. It looked like he'd taken his life, hung himself. Nothing wrong with the scene there. But nothing spoke about what CAUSED him to do it." He emphasized the word.

"And then there was the receipt." Ashton noted. "I found a receipt in his trash that didn't track with the coroner's report. Didn't think anything of it at the time. But when time of death came in... he went shopping about an hour before time of death, Archer. If you're going to kill your self, you don't buy a nice steak."

The story wasn’t all that long, though it did cover some finer points that Quin didn’t was already familiar with. Suicides were some of the worst scenes that cops had to investigate. Any death was tragic, but playing witness to scenes like those tended to leave a mark.

Lots of times those scenes were open and shut as Ashton described. Sometimes details stuck with you and made you want to look deeper. It was impossible to know exactly what was going on in someone’s head when they made such a dire choice...but there were some consistencies.

A lot of the things Ashton was describing were strange. The steak in particular suggested someone planning for the future. Not that people didn’t make snap decisions...but still.

Quin realized she’d been quiet for some time as she tried to roll everything over in her head.

”No family to raise a stink?” she said, brows drawn together in a frown. ”And upper brass just wants to move it aside for something more sparkly?”

He had to have known that this was something she simply wouldn’t be able to let go. Quin sighed.

”Can you get me a copy of the case file? It’s going to be hard to do this without any details.”

"No family," Ashton confirmed soberly. There's been nobody close to him other than neighbors and friends. Nobody in a position to raise a stink. Everyone had made him sound like an amazing man. His family were all just dead. Nobody left to grieve. If anyone were wondering whether that were better or worse, the answer is worse. Definitely worse.

He nodded when she asked about the upper brass. Upper brass always did want to work through case loads fast, and hit the high influence or high profile cases first. This had been no exception.

Archer sighed. Ashton got the impression she was blaming him for something with that sigh. Blaming him for roping her in maybe? She asked about case files. Seemed like he had her attention,

"Yeah." Ashton said. "I can get them to you tomorrow." He glanced down at his watch, then back up at her. Ashton smiled faintly. "Looks like my ten minutes is up. I'll get out of your hair. Thanks for agreeing to help me on this."

Case files didn’t seem to be a problem, though an eyebrow rose slightly at the fact that Mr. By-The-Book was going to break a rule as big as department confidentiality. If Quin hadn’t still been feeling particularly hostile towards Ashton that would have been enough to make her pay attention to the case. As it were, she’d look over the case file and crime scene photos herself and make a decision when she had them in front of her.

He would get them to her tomorrow, ”You can drop them off at my office.” the redhead said with emphasis. ”I’ll let the secretary know that you’ll be coming by and you shouldn’t have any trouble getting in.” Security was tight at Haven HQ and uninvited guests rarely made it past the lobby. If Ashton happened to run into Nate, things would be awkward...but it would be better than him continuing to show up at her apartment unannounced. In fact, she decided, she’d simply explain the situation to Nate tonight.

Speaking of which...it looked like his ten minutes were up. Quin checked the clock and confirmed that they were. She had more questions, but they could wait. Work/life balance were far more important, ”I’m not helping you…” Quin said out of reflex, instantly feeling petty, but not knowing what to do to change that. ”I’m just working against the bureaucracy.”

Not sure what else to say, she looked at the clock again and started gathering things to leave.

”If I don’t get going, Nate will wonder where I am.”

The tone behind the words my office wasn't lost on him. Ashton simply chose to turn the other cheek and ignore it. It made it simpler for everyone. Who said he couldn't be diplomatic?

It sounded like he wouldn't be dropping it off to her directly. That'd give him the chance to look at her new digs, with her secretary. No doubt, he'd get to see how well off and better she was doing now that she'd kicked MRC to the curb. He had not been to the Haven building, or her office. He most certainly would not snoop. That would be far too detective-like of him. Also, paranoid. If she were doing well, good for her. There was no reason to be curious about a humanitarian organization with their own private eye consultant.

Ashton didn't bat an eye at the 'not helping YOU' comment, even though inwardly it kind of hurt. It made him think of old times, and how far they'd fallen apart. If he jumped down her throats at every petty comment that passed between them, there'd be zero chance of repairing that. Not the relationship. He wasn't sure about that angle at all. But the working relationship. They'd been good, as partners. So, again in the best interests of everyone, he let the comment lie. He couldn't let the next comment go, although for a moment it almost seemed like he had.

Ashton said nothing. For a solid second, he said nothing. He'd thought Nate and her had broken up. Hadn't he consoled her about that? It was so long ago, he could hardly remember specifics. Now they apparently were back together... whatever that meant. She was an adult. If he hurt her, she'd hurt him. She didn't need any comments from his peanut gallery about Nate.

He finally spoke. "Lucky man." Ashton said mildly. "I won't hold you up anymore then, Archer. Have a good night. Ye look good." He left without waiting for a response.

---

The next day, Ashton dropped by her office. Security was nice enough to let him in. They were expecting him, after all. She'd vouched for him. The place was impressive. High profile. Her secretary was professional, and polite.

He'd been hesitant to break protocol and share case details. He hadn't said anything. Ashton trusted Archer. This was completely illegal. Nevertheless, he was doing it. He wasn't going to brag about it at the water-cooler any time soon.

The secretary let him in, then showed him to Archer's office. He nodded to her, then placed the papers down in front of her on her desk.

"There you are," Ashton said.