FAKE Fic: Stylish Distractions
Title: Stylish Distractions
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Drake, JJ
Rating: G
Setting: After Like Like Love.
Summary: At a crime scene, Drake finds that JJ is having a bit of trouble keeping his mind on his job because of where they are.
Word Count: 1077
Written For: My own prompt ‘FAKE JJ/Drake, They're supposed to be interviewing witnesses, but JJ keeps getting distracted by the boutique's wares,’ at
fic_promptly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
The assault had taken place in a stylish men’s wear store. From what Drake and JJ had been able to make out so far, it seemed that one of the store’s customers had been quietly browsing a selection of sweaters in the latest fall colours when another man had entered off the street. The new arrival and the customer had spoken briefly in quiet but increasingly angry voices, and then the second man had pulled a knife and stabbed the first several times before fleeing the premises.
An ambulance had been called and the victim had been taken to hospital for treatment; his injuries, although serious, weren’t thought to be life threatening. Uniformed officers called to the scene had prevented the other customers and staff from leaving, knowing that whichever detectives were assigned to the case would want to question them as potential witnesses, so they’d been standing around waiting impatiently when Drake and his partner had arrived a few minutes earlier. So far the questioning wasn’t going terribly well because JJ seemed unable to keep his mind on the job and kept wandering off to look at clothes.
Drake was talking to the shop manager. “So, Mr. Malone is a regular customer?”
“Oh yes indeed,” the manager nodded eagerly, clasping his hands in front of himself. “A gentleman of impeccable taste.” He eyed Drake’s outfit dubiously. “He likes to keep his wardrobe up to date. In fact I called him only yesterday to let him know the new fall range was in. He was very excited about that, so he took the morning off work today in order to take a look at what’s new for the season.”
“Do you do that for many of your customers?”
“Goodness me, no. It’s a service we provide, for a small fee, solely for those gentlemen for whom staying in fashion is a priority.” Again he shot a disdainful glance at Drake’s attire.
“How many of your customers… subscribe to this service?”
“No more than a dozen. We’re really very exclusive.”
“I see.”
“Drake!” JJ called and he glanced across to where his partner was supposed to be questioning the three other customers who had been in the shop at the time of the attack. Instead, JJ was trying on a smart blazer. “What d’you think?”
“I like the color,” Drake replied, smiling, then he suddenly remembered what they were there for. “JJ, shouldn’t you be questioning the witnesses?”
“I was, but then I spotted this; I really need something in this colour to contrast with those pants I bought last week… Oooh, this sweater would look great on you!” He picked up a crewneck in subtle shades of rust, cream, and sage green, holding it up for Drake to see.
“JJ, focus please! This isn’t a shopping trip.”
“Okay, okay! I’ll try, but I can’t believe I’ve never been in here before. There’s such a great selection…”
Drake cut him off. “Anyway, I think those are your colors more than mine. It’s a bit bright for me.”
“No it isn’t, you need a bit of colour in your wardrobe, you look so drab.”
Drake looked down at his dark suit and white shirt. What was wrong with that? He was a cop, not a fashion model.
“The young gentleman is quite right,” the manager put in. “A bit of color and some more recent styles would do wonders for your image.”
“Maybe so, but a detective’s salary doesn’t stretch to your prices,” Drake replied, taking in the price tag on a nearby shirt.
“Well, we are a high end gentlemen’s boutique. Our prices reflect the quality of the garments we sell.”
“I’m sure they do. Now where was I? Oh yes, the man who attacked Mr. Malone, had you ever seen him before?”
That drew a sniff from the manager, whose name Drake kept forgetting. “I have not, he certainly wasn’t a customer, and the way he was dressed… Disgraceful! Torn and dirty jeans, and one of those shapeless camouflage jackets over a stained t-shirt. He looked like he hadn’t shaved in days.”
Drake jotted the description down in his notebook. “How about height, weight, hair and eye colour?”
“Height I’d say around one metre eighty, maybe a shade taller; he was wearing thick-soled work boots, those make it hard to judge. He was fairly heavy-set, looked more like muscle than fat though, I’d estimate around ninety kilos. He had brown hair, too long at the back and thinning on top but I don’t know about his eyes, I wasn’t close enough to see and he had his back turned most of the time. I didn’t even realise Mr. Malone had been stabbed until that… that thug had left the store! I called the police and an ambulance immediately.”
Drake continued to question the manager for a few more minutes, then handed the man his card in case he remembered anything else later, and meandered over to where JJ was talking to one of the witnesses. Instead of questioning the man, it turned out that they were discussing the relative merits of different wool blends.
“Have you taken all the witness statements already?”
JJ’s eyes went wide and he looked guilty. “Um, not quite. Sorry, Drakey, I keep getting distracted.”
“Who haven’t you interviewed yet?”
“The other two,” JJ admitted sheepishly.
Drake ran an exasperated hand through his hair. “JJ… Okay, divide and conquer, we’ll take one each and if you keep your mind on work long enough to get the information we need, we’ll come back here in a few days, once the crime scene people have cleared this place to reopen for business. Maybe you can have that blazer put aside for you if you think you can afford it. It really did look nice on you.”
JJ’s face lit up. “You’re the best, Drakey! I promise I won’t get distracted again.”
He was as good as his word, acting like the experienced police office he was instead of like a customer, and keeping his eyes off the all too tempting racks of clothes until the interviews were done and it was time to leave so that the CSIs could get on with their job.
Just before they left, JJ spoke to the manager, who agreed to set aside not only the jacket he wanted but also the sweater. Smiling to himself, he followed his partner from the store. Drake was going to be so surprised!
The End