Application: Dani Reese from "Life"
((Note: Dani is taken from after the events of "Fill it Up". The app is spoiler-free, but spoilers for all episodes of Life might pop up in the comments.))8:35 p.m. on LA’s Sunset Boulevard. For the past eleven hours and thirty-four minutes, Detective Dani Reese had been on the trail of a known felon, wanted in connection with two murders. The
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"Look," he said, not knowing at all where he was going with this -- just that he needed to come up with something, and quick, because she was obviously suspicious. "I'd rather not, actually. I don't like feeling as though I owe anyone favors, and... it wouldn't sit well with the missus, if you catch my meaning." He adopted a lopsided smile, hoping to come off as the dim, sometimes bumbling husband. Like Richard might if he ever married. "If she found out. I'll just send in a check and be done with it."
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Still smiling, Dani shook Francis' hand easily. Some cops tried to pump a lot of agression into handshakes, thinking it asserted authority. Dani found that incredibly stupid. Force didn't get people nervous, it got them scared. When people were nervous, they slipped up. When they were scared, they shut down. The former was much more useful.
Like the fact that Francis brought up his wife, played the forgetful husband, but wasn't wearing a wedding ring. Nervous behavior. Dani didn't actually doubt that Francis was married. He looked like he came from money, and men his age that came from wealth usually needed to be married. But she couldn't help notice that his outfit color-coordinated just a little too perfectly.
"I notice you aren't wearing a ring," she said, pleasantly. "How's that sit with the missus?"
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"But just because I might not be crazy about her doesn't mean I want to upset her, you understand." This part was far from a lie -- Priscilla had an unfortunate amount of power, or he wouldn't have married her in the first place. Keeping his grandfather happy meant at least pretending to make an effort with Priscilla, and he very much needed to keep his grandfather happy.
"And she'd be terribly cross with me if she knew I was asking for favors, especially from the police. It's not really in our..." his eyes flickered over Dani's outfit; his lips twitched, "...nature."
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"Oh, I understand." She was very much not talking about the lovely missus, and not at all trying to hide it. "Completely. Police tend to make people very uneasy. Am I making you uneasy, Francis? Because I feel just horrible if I have."
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He felt he was starting to regain control of the situation, now that the initial shock was past. Oh, he wasn't happy to be talking to her, but she was asking all these questions about Priscilla, and those were easy. It wasn't as though he was the only unhappily married gay man in the world. He wasn't even the only unhappily married gay man in New York.
"I wasn't talking about your job, I was talking about your outfit." He chuckled in a sort of faux-good natured way, as though he were pretending to include her in the joke, which he clearly wasn't. His smile was a little too mean for that.
"And I wouldn't say uneasy, Detective Reese. I don't like talking about my private life, for reasons that might be obvious." He raised a brow meaningfully and tapped the ash from his cigarette.
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Once she found out what his damn last name was. But that could be figured out easily enough, if she asked around.
Dani smiled back, more amused by the insult than anything else. Because she had him, and anything he said or did to try and deter her was almost entertainment. "Work clothes. What can you do?"
"Your reasons are extremely obvious, yeah," she replied, pulling a notepad from her pocket and jotting down the details she'd collected so far. She then snapped it shut, and looked up at Francis. "Still, I apologize if I've made you uncomfortable. That was not my intention."
To start with, at any rate.
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"Besides which, I'm the one who's supposed to be asking the questions," he added sharply, his voice a little shrill. "You're the one who's being Sorted."
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She looked down at the notebook, and then up at Francis, and spoke slowly, as if confused. "Am I...allowed to write things down in a notebook?" Giving a little half-smile, she put the book back in the inner pocket of her jacket. "Yes. I'm allowed to do that. Not that I really need to. I've got a good head for information. It's a cop thing."
Clapping her hands together, as if that ended the matter, Dani nodded. "Good point. Ask away, Francis. I'm an open book."
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He dragged on his cigarette, looking pale and angry. "Is that what you do, you police? You pursue other people's business in lieu of your own?"
God, this wasn't going well again. She was writing things down, she was writing things down, and she was trying to aggravate him and it was working. Calm down, Francis. He closed his eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry," he said tightly, "if I seem abrupt. I have health problems. They've got me a little on edge. My heart."
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"Your heart," she repeated, sounding genuinely concerned. The abrupt change in demeanor likely gave away that Dani was anything but, but she wanted to mocksee what humoring Francis would get her. "Is it serious?"
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The tragedy on his face appeared to be genuine, at least; whether or not he was telling the truth, he certainly believed he was. "So you'll forgive me if I seem a little tense, Detective," he added morosely.
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