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--------------------------------------------------------------- (Buck)
Buck has always been different. He sees details other people can’t. He overthinks absolutely everything; it’s like he can’t turn his brain off long enough to relax or just enjoy the company around him. Buck knows he’s intelligent; some people might even think that label doesn’t do him justice, but it feels like it doesn’t capture the real struggles his “gift” causes. Because while Buck might be extremely capable, he can’t seem to hold on to any relationships long enough for the other person to stay. It’s not that he can’t make the connections; he just can’t seem to keep them. And maybe that’s why he stopped trying, why he’s become “content” with surviving. He’s got a kid now, Theo, and he’s the best. As long as Buck can survive enough for him and his kid, he’s good. That’s why he’s leaving his house during what might as well be the witching hour to clean rooms while Theo contentedly sleeps in his bedroom. And yeah, maybe the job is below his pay grade or “beneath him,” as his parents would say, but beggars can’t be choosers. Because Buck is nothing if not a survivor, and he’ll be damned if a little cleaning is what takes him and his boy out. So he’s going to do what he does best: be scrappy, stubborn, and move through life with his head held high.
As Buck gets ready to get on the bus (because his jeep is still out for maintenance), he puts on his headphones to blast some music and think about how he got here. Maybe in some other life he was doing something else, like being a world-renowned doctor, a rocket scientist, or even a teacher. It’s not that Buck isn’t happy with where he’s at; as he said, he’s content, but sometimes he does think he could be doing more. More for himself, more for Theo, more to help others. That’s something he’s always wanted to do, help others, but he’s found that the best way to do that is to not be around others. He’s kind of a disaster, and when he was younger it was cute, quirky even, but now it’s just embarrassing. The only person who really even puts up with him is his sister, Maddie (who is the best ever, obviously). He wasn’t even supposed to have Theo, but something happened to his parents, and he ended up getting custody of the sweet boy. Besides Maddie, Connor Riley might have been the longest-standing relationship he’s ever had.
Connor was his best friend, and he asked Buck to provide the sperm donation when he and his wife, Kameron, were trying to get pregnant. But Connor and Kameron have been missing for 3 and a half years now. They barely had any time with Theo at all before they were gone. Sometimes Buck wonders if they’ll ever come back, but Theo is four now, and he doesn’t even remember that Buck isn’t his dad. It’s not that Buck isn’t his dad, but he wasn’t supposed to be in Theo’s life like that. He was supposed to be the funny uncle, the cool guy who came around to spoil the kid, then returned Theo to his parents once he was all hopped up on sugar. Buck never could have imagined becoming a parent overnight and losing his best friends in the same one.
He can still remember getting the call like yesterday. He was watching Theo for the night. Connor and Kameron wanted to go have a date night; free themselves of a crying baby for the first time in six months. Naturally, Buck offered to watch his godson. Everything was going fine until they didn’t return the next day. When neither Connor nor Kameron showed up at his place by noon, he panicked. He called 9-1-1 immediately to report them both missing. He hoped to hear news of their location in the next few days, but tomorrow turned into three days, which turned into two weeks. By then, Theo was getting fussy, Buck was running out of the spare baby formula he kept at his house, and he was also running out of spare diapers and baby clothes. He was ill-prepared and clearly in over his head. When he went to the police station to ask if they heard anything, all they had was that both the Rileys had disappeared without a trace. Then it was a whirlwind of legal documents and custody, because apparently Buck was to be Theo’s legal guardian and caretaker if something prevented Connor or Kameron from doing so. And while Buck was touched that his best friends cemented his place in theirs and Theo’s life, all he really wanted was for them to come home. And Buck wouldn’t trade what he has with Theo now for anything, but every now and then, when the boy calls him “Daddy,” his heart does a painful tug as he remembers that he’s living the life his best friend was supposed to have. But that’s neither here nor there, especially as the bus pulls to a stop where Buck is supposed to get off.
Quickly, Buck heads off the bus after giving a quick “thanks” to the driver and starts walking into the police station. This time, though, he isn’t walking in to report two of the most important people in his life missing; he’s walking in to clean. The building is desolate, and he’s the only one in there as he goes into the locker room to put away his stuff and change into his coveralls. He gets into the rhythm of mopping, dusting, wiping, and vacuuming. And despite being alone in the building, he inconspicuously looks around before swiping a lollipop off of one of the detectives’ desks. His headphones stay on, blasting his music as he hypes himself up to stay focused and finish the job. He’s always had a problem focusing on just one thing; music tends to help, but sometimes he gets so into the beat that he does a little more dancing than cleaning. That’s exactly what happened when he accidentally knocked over a police evidence box for a case they were clearly still working on (he might have gotten a little too into the beat and shaking his groove thing, sue him, he’s got to have fun on this job one way or another).
Cursing at his clumsiness and limbs’ inability to keep to themselves, he quickly drops to his knees and scrambles to pick up the pieces of evidence and photos to put them back into the box. Except, as he’s picking up the photos, his mind starts racing and linking things together, and before he knows it, he’s done the detectives’ jobs for them. He knows he probably shouldn’t have done it, but he couldn’t help it. As he picked up the photos, he started seeing all the ways the police were messing up the case instead of helping it. They were trying to put an innocent woman in jail for God's sake. They had it all wrong. Buck figured there was no harm in writing a little clue to point them in the right direction. One quick word is what he allowed himself to indulge in. Getting up from the floor, Buck picked up a red marker and slashed out the word “suspect” underneath the photo of a woman on the evidence board and instead wrote the word “victim.” Feeling like he’d done his civic duty, he huffed a quick laugh before putting his headphones back on and resuming his cleaning. I mean, seriously, what was the worst that could happen?
--------------------------------------------------------------- (Eddie)
Eddie was not having a good morning. He was running late, and he hates running late. He woke up late, which meant Chris woke up late. That meant they had to rush through their entire morning routine: Chris’ stretches, the breakfast that Eddie didn’t cook because he can’t cook, morning showers and teeth brushing, getting dressed for school and work, getting to school during LA traffic, which has to be the devil incarnate because why on Earth does driving five miles take almost thirty fucking minutes? Needless to say, his morning wasn't going well, and it only got worse when he walked into the police department and noticed someone had messed with his evidence board.
He was walking into the precinct, already trying to ignore the dull throbbing beginning behind his eyebrows, black coffee in his hand. Chimney, one of his coworkers, was walking behind him. He heard a faint, “good morning, detective,” and offered a subtle head nod before walking into the major crimes division. There he saw Hen, his other coworker and Chimney’s partner, and his boss, Lieutenant Nash, or better known as Bobby. Eddie greeted Hen with a “good morning,” and she jokingly followed it up by telling him that Bobby slept great.
Eddie rolled his eyes and replied with, “I didn’t ask. And, no, he did not.” Hen smiled while Chimney took his jacket off, and Eddie quickly walked over to his desk as Bobby stepped out of his office to give Eddie an update about the case they were working on.
With a coffee in hand, Bobby stated, “Mason puts Anthony Acosta’s death between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m.” Eddie, while putting on copious amounts of hand sanitizer (he’s a germaphobe and technophobe, sue him), asked if it was confirmed that a shotgun was the murder weapon. Bobby confirms that, yes, the gun is the murder weapon before moving on to the suspects and next of kin for the murder victim.
Eddie starts with the wife: “Our primary suspect—the wife, Lynette Acosta—vanished. They have one daughter, Letty. She’s studying up at Santa Cruz. She should be on her way down here now.”
“You gave her the news?” Bobby questioned. Eddie simply nodded his head before looking down and taking a sip of his coffee. This part of the job never got any easier. He should be used to it by now, he supposes, but reaching out to the family of the victim is always difficult, especially when they’re young. Sometimes he thinks about what Christopher would do if he ever got told that Eddie wasn’t coming home. The boy is eight and already growing up so fast, but Eddie can’t help seeing his son in every child he has to break the news to; whether they’re eight, eighteen, or fifty-eight, the pain is always the same. And as heartbreaking as it is going to be for Letty to hear that her mother is the suspect, it has to be done. The case was pretty much open and shut; it wasn’t hard to imagine what happened. Husband and wife fought, the wife got fed up and pulled the trigger, realized what she’d done, and ran.
After a brief moment of silence, Bobby closed the medical examiner’s report and asked, “So, how do we find the wife?”
Eddie moved on from his pondering and began, “The only other next of kin is the sister, Sofia Bellier.” Except, as he’s turning around to look at his evidence board, he sees that someone has messed with it. Eddie can feel the dull throbbing that was behind his eyebrows turn into a more pointed pulse across his entire head. Frustration takes over his features as he walks over to the board and asks, “Who did this?”
He assumed it was probably Hen or Chimney. They loved to play practical jokes. And listen, usually Eddie could take a joke and humor his coworkers (and friends, but don’t tell them he said that), but as he’s already established, today hasn't been off to a great start. He was beyond annoyed, a loose cannon waiting to go off, and was not in the mood to deal with his work being messed with. When nobody answered immediately, he turned back around to face all the detectives in the precinct before yelling, “Hey! Who did this ?! Who changed our board?!” while taking his fingers and pointing to the changes on the board.
Still, people stared silently at Eddie or whispered timidly to their neighbor. Eddie’s frustration quickly turned into anger. Did none of these people understand the importance of these changes? Taking a breath and looking at the people in the room again, Eddie states: “A man is dead. Our primary suspect is missing. This is not a joke.” Everyone keeps looking at each other, and Eddie officially loses all his patience. Turning to Hen and pointing to the camera in the corner of the room, Eddie tells Hen he wants to know who messed with his board immediately.
And soon he gets his answer, and more than he bargained for, when about half an hour later, Hen pulls up footage from last night when the janitor was working. Eddie watches, less than impressed (and maybe a little amused) as he sees a gorgeous, blonde man do more dancing than cleaning. Shaking his head, Eddie scoffs, then asks, “Who the hell is this?” while also wondering why the fuck this man would touch his board and risk obstructing justice.
--------------------------------------------------------------- (Buck)
Buck’s morning was off to a great start. He felt good about bringing justice to an innocent woman last night after he (illegally) tampered with the police board, and now he was taking Theo out to go shopping. Buck always tries to make shopping an adventure, and he knows Theo wants other things too; while Buck would love to buy them for him, being a janitor (unsurprisingly) doesn't pay well, and they need to stick to a tight budget. Especially after Buck insulted Cindy a few weeks ago, there’s a good chance the coupons he’s using might be counterfeit, but hey, no risk, no reward.
“Dadddy!” Theo gasps while holding up a magazine about dinosaurs. Buck rolls his eyes and laughs, then tells Theo they don’t need a magazine about dinosaurs and to put it back. Which is true; they’ve got plenty of documentaries, books, and Buck’s personal facts about dinosaurs to last them a lifetime. He doubts that the magazine will tell Buck anything he doesn’t already know. The boy quickly puts the magazine back, then returns with a mini-figure of Spiderman and tosses it in the cart. Buck takes the Spiderman out of the cart and tells Theo once again to put the toy back. He feels terrible about it; he wants nothing more than to let the boy get something, but they can’t really afford anything extra right now, at least not until Buck gets his jeep back from the shop.
The shopping spree, if you can really even call it that, comes to an end. Buck relishes being able to go out and spend time with Theo like this. He knows it’s only a matter of time before Theo gets old enough to realize hanging out with his old man isn’t cool anymore. And maybe that is a bit overdramatic; Theo is only four. Buck’s definitely got him for a few more years; the boy still calls him “Daddy” for God's sake, but Buck always tries to remember to cherish these small moments. As they stand in the checkout line, Buck starts mentally calculating the bill. He already has the exact amount he should be paying in his head; he really hopes the coupons are valid. The cashier starts to say the grand total, but Buck cuts her off and says, “$168.47.”
The cashier takes the cash Buck hands over, looks at the screen, and corrects him: “$173.81.” She offers him a small smile before continuing with a “Good guess, though.”
“Yeah, it’s—it’s $168.47,” Buck corrects, looking back at the cashier. He'd already calculated the price and had the exact amount in cash, so unless those coupons (damn you, Cindy) weren’t valid, his total shouldn’t be off. He’s never been wrong before, and he’ll be damned before he starts being wrong now.
The cashier gives him an apprehensive look, apologizes, and goes to resay the total she originally gave Buck. At least, she would have done that before Buck less than gracefully interrupted her and suggested that she might have missed a coupon. He begins by starting to list the coupons: “30% off detergent at $7.87. That’s $2.36. For a total of $5.51. 15% off strawberries. That’s 84 cents. And up to two, so you can scan this one twice.” The cashier looks at him weirdly, before stiffly smiling and nodding her head. Buck gives a weird nod of his head before continuing, “Okay. 35% off canola oil at $7.88. $5.13 total.” He holds the coupon out and then addresses the cashier with, “Oh. Okay. I was worried about this one because I had a little falling-out with the Groupon people, but I apologized. We were supposed to be good.” The reality is, Buck is thinking of taking his Krispy Kreme coupon back from Cindy if this is the coupon that doesn’t work (he never liked her or her bob anyway). The cashier looks at him with a deadpan expression before informing him that the coupon had in fact been scanned. Buck, confused, follows up with a “$3.12 more then,” before digging through the bag and picking up the ham, “The ham expires tomorrow, so we get 40% off. That is $6.15.” Nodding to himself, the math makes sense, and he quickly restates, “Yeah, the total is $168.47.”
The cashier sucks in a breath, looking between her screen and Buck, and look, Buck feels bad about putting the girl in this position, but the math isn’t “mathing.” He knows what the total should be, so he’s a little confused as to why it’s not making any sense. He thinks about what could be throwing the total off, then remembers what Theo wanted earlier and turns to look at the little menace. Turning back to the bag, he digs around until he finds a mini Spiderman figurine and holds it in his hands. Then, listing off the numbers again, Buck goes, “$4.99 plus tax is $5.34. $173.81 minus $5.34 is $168.47.” He hands the cash back to the cashier, says thank you, picks up Theo, and takes the groceries out of the store.
It’s not like Buck means to show off like this, but it just happens. He knows he probably embarrasses the hell out of Theo when he does this and annoys everyone else, but it’s like his mouth is talking and spewing information out before his brain can tell it to stop. He hates that he does this, but he doesn’t know how to be any other way, and he’s too old now to try and change himself anyway. He puts Theo in the top of the grocery cart as they walk to the bus stop (and yes, Buck is stealing the grocery carts and bringing them on the bus, but he is car-less and can’t carry over a hundred dollars worth of groceries and keep a hold on a hyperactive four-year-old at the same time. He’s picking his battles). He knows being on the bus with a shopping cart and a toddler is less than conventional, likely humiliating to anyone who knows him, and incredibly odd/annoying to anyone else on the bus, but a man has got to do what a man has got to do. As they approach their stop, Buck asks, without shame, for the disabled ramp to go down so he can get off with the shopping cart, and they begin the walk back home. It’s not hard to remember which house is his, seeing as there are two other shopping carts littering his lawn as well.
Theo takes off for the house as Buck struggles to get the cart over the curb. One of his neighbors, Henry (an elderly florist), comes over to help Buck take in the groceries and say “Hi” to Theo. As they push the cart up, it slightly hits Henry, and Buck jokes, “Don’t break your old body. I can’t afford to lose a babysitter right now.”
Henry laughs before saying, “Your concern is truly touching.” They head inside, take out the groceries, and put them away. Henry asks if Buck has heard from Maddie. Buck laughs and tells Henry he and his sister talk every day; then adds, “She said losing you was the hardest part of moving out.” Henry shares a smile with Buck before a knock comes from the front door. Buck, surprised that anyone would be knocking on his door (he doesn’t have very many friends), goes to answer it. He thought Maddie was working today. But maybe she had the day off and decided to do a surprise visit? That would surely make Henry happy.
Opening the door, Buck is faced with maybe the most beautiful man he has ever laid eyes on, ever. There is another man behind him, but all Buck’s brain can process right now is “hot.” Buck looks at his current attire—jeans, a pink sweater, a can of beans in one hand, and a bottle of ketchup in the other—and suddenly feels very self-conscious. The men, both wearing nice suits, look at Buck before the beautiful man starts talking and flashes his police (Oh, God) badge at Buck.
“Evan Buckley,” the beautiful man starts. “I’m Detective Diaz, and this is Detective Han,” Diaz says, leaning his head slightly toward the other man with him. “We need you to come down to the station.”
Buck, nervous, tilts his head to the side as his eyes widen and thinks, “This is it. This is how I find out taking all of those shopping carts is illegal. Grand Theft Cart.” Nodding his head, Buck agrees to come down, while turning over to Henry to ask if he could watch Theo, at least until Maddie got off work. Henry, bless him, agrees, and Buck puts down his groceries, picks up his wallet and phone, and says goodbye to Theo. As he rides in the back of the cop car, he prays that he can keep a shred of his dignity before they book him for taking shopping carts, of all things. At least if he goes out this way, he will have been manhandled by an extremely handsome man. Buck puts his face to the window in the back of the car as he thinks about what he’s going to tell Maddie in order to convince her to bail him out of this. And to think, his day was off to such a good start.
As Buck walks into the police precinct he was in mere hours ago, cleaning, he gets confused when they don’t lead him to an interrogation room or cell, but instead bring him to a desk with a computer and a video. As the police play the loaded video and he sees himself dancing on the screen while cleaning, he almost wishes he were getting arrested for stealing shopping carts. His face flushes a bright red as he sinks down into his chair and tries to cover his eyes. The gorgeous man, or Detective Diaz, who brought him to this premature death wish, sits on a counter in the corner of the room and watches Buck as he watches the video. Buck clears his throat before trying to break the awkward silence by saying, “Sometimes the music takes control.” The other man in the room, an older individual with graying hair sitting behind the desk, turns to look at Buck before beginning what’s likely a reprimanding speech.
“Tampering with a criminal case is a serious crime,” the man starts. Detective Diaz follows up with, “So is obstruction of justice.”
Buck, feeling the need to defend himself, immediately goes, “I wasn’t tampering. I saw a problem and I tried to fix it.”
“So you were trying to help us?” Detective Diaz asks.
Buck rolls his eyes before saying, “No. I don’t care about you. I wanted to be able to sleep.” Diaz and the other man stare at Buck in disbelief. Buck, once again feeling the need to explain himself, continues with, “I have a…compulsion to put things right. If I see a mistake, I need to correct it. Otherwise, I’m up all night obsessing. That’s all I was doing…cleaning up your mess. You want to arrest me for that? Fine. Go ahead.”
Oh God, Buck was an idiot. Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up. He hates himself right now; why can’t he keep his mouth shut? When he gets nervous, he rambles; why would he say that? Especially now, Detective Diaz looks incredibly offended and is getting up to arrest him. Buck truly is his own worst enemy; he talks himself into and out of problems. Except, just as Detective Diaz is about to make good on his promise to arrest Buck, the older man behind the desk sighs, picks up a folder, slams it down, and says, “What mistakes did you see?”
Buck and Detective Diaz make twin expressions of disbelief before Buck leans forward to start unpacking and dissecting everything he saw last night when he was looking at the scattered photos. Quickly, Buck starts shuffling through the photos and explaining his thought process: “Okay. So…you’ve got a dead body. I’m assuming you think this lady offed her husband,” Buck states while pointing to a photo of the victim and his wife, “But that’s not possible.” Detective Diaz sits back with his arms crossed, looking less-than-impressed. Buck, ignoring him, continues to talk to the older man behind the desk while holding up a different picture, “Look at this room. Look at this couch. All of these pillows are evenly spaced with alternating colors.”
Buck picks up another photo, “Check out these shelves. Those objects are perfectly sized. Even the choice of metals is consistent. This house is immaculate. The owner is a tidiness freak, except…” Buck picks up another photo. “All of these curtains are fastened with a tieback except for one, for some reason,” Buck states while pointing at the curtain. The older man shifts his head to look at Detective Diaz, who seems to be more annoyed than anything to have to sit here and listen to Buck explain himself. Buck, whether it be his inability to not be able to read a room or not care, breaks the silence and asks, “That’s odd, isn’t it? You're telling me this woman who meticulously arranges her couch pillows doesn't care about her curtains?”
Buck, now getting excited about pointing out the obvious conclusion everyone else should have jumped to at this point, trudges on, “So the tieback must have been used for something else.” After he says that, he picks up another photo and turns it around to show the older man and Detective Diaz. While pointing at the photo, he says, “See, look. You've got hairs stuck to the chair leg. Somebody put tape around it, ripped it off. The glue stayed and trapped the little bits.”
The older man looked back at Detective Diaz, who quickly inserted, “The samples are at the lab. We found no tape at the scene.”
Buck, taking that as the opportunity to jump back in, follows up with, “That means someone was tied up with the curtain cord and taped to the chair around their ankles. And…” Buck shows a photo of the victim’s wrists, “Since there are no marks on the victim's wrist, it wasn't him who was tied up, which means there was a third person. We have Lynette tied to the chair, victim on the ground, and our unknown bondage freak, who has either kidnapped or bumped off Lynette. That's the person you need to find.”
Buck, finishing his spiel, taps his hands on the desk before looking at the older man and Detective Diaz and restating what he already said, “So... you guys made mistakes. I fixed them. Let's not make a big deal out of this. You got a suspect to find. I have some expired ham to fry up before tomorrow, so if you will excuse me.”
Buck moves to stand up and get back home to his baby and his ham, or at least, that’s what he would have done, but Detective Diaz stopped him with a, “Sit down. Let's wait for the lab results.” He turns to look at Buck directly before continuing, “For now, this is just speculation.”
Just then, a Black woman with glasses and the Detective from earlier at Buck’s house pick-up (Detective Han?) walk into the room, saying that they have surveillance footage, and that a woman was seen entering the victims’ house at the time of the murder. Buck, feeling vindicated, excitedly points before pointing his finger and shouting, “The third person!”
The older man and Detective Diaz share another look before Detective Diaz sighs and says, “Chimey, please escort Mr. Buckley to the holding cell.”
Buck shouts out an incredulous “What?!” while Detective Diaz explains that they have to “check out his story.” Buck can’t believe this; he fixes their mess, and they are still arresting him? What kind of sense did that make? He’d rather go in for an actual crime, like stealing shopping carts.
The older man behind the desk, clearly seeing Buck’s apprehensive and frustrated look, decides to reassure him: “If it all checks out, then you have nothing to worry about.”
Detective Han then picks up Buck’s arm, and Buck, beyond annoyed at this point, scoffs before telling Detective Han that he knows how to stand. The two walk out of the room but not before Buck angrily shouts out, “I was just cleaning up your mess! You're welcome!” Then, he angrily stomps his way down to the holding cells.
--------------------------------------------------------------- (Eddie)
Eddie isn’t quite sure what he expected when he went to pick up the man who had tampered with his board. Maybe a himbo, maybe someone looking for attention, he doesn’t know. But what he wasn’t expecting was for something so intelligent to be coming out of the blonde beauty’s mouth. Eddie basically had his ass handed back to him (not that he would ever admit that) as Evan Buckley explained the mistakes he saw in the case. What was even more surprising was the fact that Bobby gave Buckley the chance to explain himself instead of just letting Eddie arrest him. Granted, the explanation probably would have helped Eddie in the long run, but it was still unconventional and completely off-book, especially for Bobby.
“Since when do you show an open case file to a civilian, a potential suspect?” Eddie asks Bobby.
Bobby answers Eddie’s question with a question instead, “Can you refute anything he said?”
Eddie sighs, deciding to stick to his guns, even if those are feeling really crummy right now, “Well, we have to be sure. Because if he's right…” Eddie doesn’t even want to finish that sentence.
But it seems like Bobby does not have that problem because he carries it on with, “Then we currently have a botched homicide investigation with no leads. And, even worse…”
Eddie finishes what Bobby doesn’t even want to entertain, “We have a second victim.” The headache Eddie had been sprouting earlier that day had only gotten worse. God, today was just not Eddie’s day, and it seemed it was only getting worse. He was going to need a lot more coffee.
Hen called him over and had him watch the surveillance footage she and Chimney had just recovered. A young Asian woman appeared on screen, angrily ringing the doorbell and clenching her jaw. “This is footage from the Acosta house at the approximate time of the murder,” Hen told everyone.
“Who is he?” Eddie asked.
“Lishka Zhang,” Hen answered before following up with more information. “A few months ago, she filed a civil lawsuit against one of Lynette Acosta's clients. Acosta won the case. It appears Zhang didn't take it well. She started sending threatening e-mails to Acosta.” Hen, Chimney, and Eddie look at each other, nod, and decide that starting with Ms. Zhang is their best lead right now. Eddie takes a hand to his temple and rubs in a circular motion. He really hopes this will lead them in the right direction after they were already so far off.
With no time to waste, they bring Ms. Zhang in for questioning, Eddie taking the lead by following her into the interrogation room. “Ms. Zhang,” Eddie starts, “three months ago, you sued Brian Dimon, your boss at Spatial Technologies.”
Ms. Zhang, looking upset, uncomfortable, and angry all at once, starts speaking, “He harassed me. For months. I ran out of ways to tell him no. So, one night, he... locked me in his office and assaulted me. I reported it to the police. I'm sure you have that in your file.” Eddie nodded, trying to convey some sympathy to the situation, hoping she could see his genuine concern and understanding. Ms. Zhang continued by saying that she was told there was “insufficient evidence” for the assault. She followed that up with, “I couldn't file criminal charges, so I sued him.”
Eddie, still trying to maintain some connection with her, somberly opens the topic by keeping his voice lower and calm, but still curious, “And you lost. Is that why you've been sending Lynette Acosta threatening e-mails?”
Ms. Zhang, clearly frustrated, leans across the table and states, “I was just questioning why Lynette Acosta chose to be complicit in the suffering of women like me.”
Eddie, cutting straight to the chase, says, “You were angry at Mrs. Acosta.”
Ms. Zhang doesn’t fight; she simply says, “Of course.”
Eddie, still trying to get to the bottom of things, then asks, “Even though Dimon was the one who assaulted you?”
Ms. Zhang, with rage over her features, scoffs and leans back, “Oh, I am angry with him, too, but the police failed me on that front.”
And yeah, Eddie can’t really deny that. Instead, he decides to shift the topic; maybe he’ll get more out of her without raking through all of her trauma again. “What were you doing at Acosta's house yesterday?” Eddie asks.
Ms. Zhang, still annoyed but now more confused, says, “I wasn’t at her house yesterday.”
Eddie, now getting frustrated, decides to just say the facts upfront, “We have you on video. And 30 minutes after you arrived, Anthony Acosta was dead.”
Ms. Zhang freezes and looks horrified. Her eyes widen, and her skin pales, as she frantically shakes her head and defends herself, “That's impossible. No. No. I-I wasn't there yesterday. I was at home, all day, working.”
Eddie sighs, looks down at the table, lifts his head, then asks, “Can anyone confirm that?”
Ms. Zhang quietly sinks in her seat, still looking sick and horrified, before she whispers a quiet, “No.”
--------------------------------------------------------------- (Buck)
Buck was so angry. He was feeling like a caged animal. He wanted out; he hadn’t even done anything! It was absurd! He couldn’t believe he was being held down here. How long does it take to “check his story.” They clearly saw he was at the precinct all night. He’s a single dad to a toddler with no friends besides his sister and his elderly neighbor. It’s not like he has a lot going on in his life that they would need to check anyway. He just wanted to be home with Theo, cooking dinner and watching terrible movies until the boy went to bed. But instead he was here, angrily pacing in his holding cell, shouting at people to let him know when he could go home.
A little while later, after Buck has paced himself out and is now sitting on the bench in the cell while pouting in the corner, Detective Han returns to open the door, and Buck guesses to “bail him out.”
“You're clear. Just need to sign your paperwork, and you're good to go,” Detective Han states while sliding the cell door open. Buck rolls his eyes, but stands up so that he can get the hell out of this place. Cleaning it is torture enough; why would he willingly spend his free time here too?
As he walks to sign the paperwork to leave, he overhears the detectives talking about the case he basically solved (you’re welcome). Detective Diaz says someone claims to know nothing about the wife’s whereabouts, but that person also has no alibi. Buck decides it’s probably in his best interest to keep to himself, since the last time he was nosy and tried to help, it bought him a one-way ticket into monopoly jail. Except as he walks past the computer, he can’t help but notice an obvious mistake in the detectives' plan to arrest the girl in the video. They are about to arrest another innocent individual, and he knows he should keep his mouth shut, but he just can’t help himself.
He casually calls out to the detectives, “The video has the wrong date on the timestamp.”
He sees Detective Diaz huff out a breath before side-eyeing him as he says, “This doesn’t concern you anymore.”
Buck has never wanted to punch anybody more than he wanted to punch Diaz right now. God, was he full of himself. All Buck was doing was helping him; he clearly needed it. Deciding that he’s done trying to be a nice person, Buck simply grunts out a “Great,” before singing his name and throwing the pen down. He’s about to walk out when the older man sitting behind the desk from before stops him.
“Wait. What are you talking about?” The man asks.
Buck stops, turns, and then points at the computers. He rolls his eyes as if this is the most obvious thing in the world before answering in a bored tone with, “That's not from yesterday. Look at the trees. The wind is blowing from south to north.” When Buck stops as if that’s answer enough, he realizes he is going to have to explain more when all of the Detectives look at each other with questioning-confused glances. Buck continues, “Wind in the L.A. Basin blows from the south in the summer, specifically mid-July to September. Then, in late fall, winds shift in from the north, peaking in January. So that's got to be from several months ago.”
Detective Diaz, obviously not thinking this argument has any merit, asks with an almost condescending tone, “How do you know which way the wind is blowing?”
Buck, tired of doing all the heavy lifting, decides to be petty and asks instead, “Have you even looked at your footage?” And when that question doesn’t spark any enlightenment or action from the detectives, he answers his own question with, “You got a church.” Everyone in the room sits in silence while continuing to look at Buck. Buck, over everything about today, yells, “Churches face east!” God, these people.
And just to get around the next question that Diaz looked like he was about to ask, Buck did what he did best: talked about random facts of knowledge that he knows by heart. “Okay. Uh, around the 8th century, priests started orienting their churches facing east. They said it was based off the designs for the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, but it's also possible that they wanted the sunrise behind them to make themselves appear more godlike and impressive. But that's not something we need to get into right now.”
The older man who had handed Buck the file earlier that day looked incredulous. “All churches face east? And can't the wind change direction?” He asked.
Buck, deciding to throw the man a bone since he had been nice and asked for Buck’s thoughts earlier, answered, “Catholic churches built here in the 1800s do, so, yes.” Buck then remembers walking out of the smoothie shop with his and Theo’s orders, only to have the blended delicacy get thrown back on his favorite sweater, “And the wind was definitely blowing from the north yesterday.”
Right after Buck said that, the Black woman lets out a loud gasp and then says, “He’s right. On both counts.” The woman gives Buck a smirk and a nod, so Buck gives one back along with a little curtsey.
Of course, then Detective Diaz (Buck never thought he could be so annoyed by such a handsome face before) had to ruin it by inserting himself, by saying the conclusion Buck had already come to: “Someone doctored the video.” Which, duh, Buck had just told him that five minutes ago.
Buck takes that as his cue to leave, shouting a quick, “See ya,” while marching out of the precinct. He’d have to be back here to clean in eight hours anyway. What a waste of a day. As he’s leaving, the older man chases after him down the hall, shouting a “wait” to get Buck to stop so he can talk to him.
“My name is Lieutenant Bobby Nash. Uh, you can call me Bobby. I was just wondering…How do you do that?” Bobby asks after introducing himself.
Buck, not wanting to get into the specifics, gives the answer he gives to everyone when he wants them off his back: “Like I told you, I don't sleep much. I watch a lot of documentaries.”
Bobby looks around, throwing his hands up in the air before going, “That doesn’t remotely explain this.”
Buck, realizing Bobby was absolutely not going to let this go, sighs before saying, “I also have an IQ of 160, so that might have something to do with it, but you can learn a lot from a good documentary. You'd be surprised.” Which is true; Buck is always down for a good documentary; it’s the best form of entertainment, except Bobby looks in awe and shock, and Buck guesses it has nothing to do with his documentary anecdote. Buck just wanted this conversation to be over with. Henry was probably still at his house with Theo for way longer than Buck intended him to be, and he was tired of this day. So Buck, trying to weasel his way out of saying anything else, just says, “It's a high IQ. We get it. Can I go now?”
Bobby, still looking at Buck in awe, continues the conversation despite Buck’s wishes, “I know a lot of really smart people. They're not you.”
Buck answers back to the question that was asked in-between the lines, “The technical term is "High Potential Intellectual." It means you have advanced cognitive abilities, intellectual creativity, photographic memory, stuff like that. But I don't know. I've just always been this way.”
Trying to wrap his head around this phenomenon, Bobby asks, “So it’s some sort of gift?”
Buck’s face falls as he tries to hold back his frustration and tears, because that’s what everyone always assumes when they hear about this. “No, not a gift,” Buck says while shaking his head, “I obsess over every little problem I see. My mind is constantly spinning out of control, which makes it impossible to hold a job, a relationship, or a conversation. Not a gift.” Buck turns on his heel and practically sprints out of the police department. God, this day has been emotionally draining, and Buck is going to need to eat a whole tub of mint chip ice cream to recover. As Buck leaves the precinct, he hears his sister calling his name as she runs up to him from her car.
“Maddie? What are you doing here?” Buck asks, not that he isn’t glad to see his sister, but he thought she’d still be at work in the Dispatch center.
“Henry called me and told me you were arrested again,” Maddie tells him, clearly concerned.
Buck laughs, “I was not technically arrested this time.”
Maddie laughs, now that she sees Buck isn’t in any danger or trouble, pushing his shoulder a little as she goes, “Oh, well, great. That's a relief. Who’s watching Theo?”
Just as Buck was about to answer, he accidentally bumped into a police officer. The officer, a hothead with power, shoves Buck back out of the way and tells him to watch where he’s going. Buck, stupidly deciding that he has apparently not had enough fighting for the day, shouts back that it was the officer's own fault and that maybe they should move from standing in the middle of the walkway. The officer apparently did not like being talked down to and told Buck to “shut up, or I’ll make you.” And if there’s one thing Buck hates more than being underestimated, it’s people abusing their power.
Buck shouts back that the officer needs to learn some discipline and how not to be an ass, which was the wrong thing to say, because five seconds later the officer corners Buck and shoves him and Maddie. Buck, not about to let Maddie get hurt, shoves back at the officer and yells at him to get off Maddie and him. Doing that wasn’t Buck’s brightest decision because now he’s back in the holding cell he was just released from, with Maddie right next to him. Maddie laughs, shakes her head, and says, “Always fun to see you, Buck.”
Buck, annoyed, huffs out, “Don’t start.” Then he gets up and starts pacing the cell again before shouting at the officers working, “Hey, how much longer is this gonna take? Do you have any idea how expensive child care is these days?”
Maddie, surprised, asks, “What, you’re paying Henry now?”
Buck shakes his head and puts a finger to his lips before saying, “No but she doesn’t have to know that.” He starts pacing again before turning back to Maddie and saying, “Henry misses you, by the way.” Maddie lets out a quick “aww,” before Buck gets tired of pacing and goes back to join her on the bench.
--------------------------------------------------------------- (Eddie)
Eddie was both in awe and incredibly annoyed with how his interactions with Evan Buckley had gone. On one hand, the man was gorgeous: freckles lightly dotting his nose and cheeks, wild blonde curls haloing around his head, an adorable pink birthmark kissing his forehead and brows, and eyes as blue as the ocean. The man was also extremely intelligent, and if it weren’t for the fact that Eddie felt like he was showing him up, he might have asked him out for a drink so he could keep picking his brain and unpacking the mystery that was Evan Buckley.
There was just one small problem: Buck was lowkey (as Chris would say) better at Eddie’s job than Eddie, and that irritated him. How was Buck seeing those small details that in hindsight were obvious, but Eddie and his team all missed? The man just knew things off the top of his head that nobody else knew. It didn’t make any sense, and when something didn’t make sense, and Eddie couldn’t seem to figure it out, he just barrelled into the emotion he knew how to deal with best: anger. Eddie thought about the man and his irritating ability to just know things, how Buckley said it in such a bored tone that implied anyone should have reached that conclusion while he was driving to meet the victims' daughter at the airport. The day has barely started, and Eddie already feels as if his emotions have been put through a blender and his headache is only getting worse. And while Eddie would be grateful for Evan Buckley, however unconventional, pointing him and everyone else in the right direction, he couldn’t help but be angry at the man, and himself (mostly himself).
Eddie parked his Dodge and walked into the airport to greet Letty Acosta. He knew the news he was about to share with the young woman wouldn't be easy. He had already had a hard enough time telling her of her father’s death and asking her to come home; he couldn’t imagine how she’ll react once he explains that her mother is also missing as well. He sees the young woman stepping out of the terminal, and decides to bite the bullet. Slowly, he walks up to her and greets her with, “Letty Acosta? I’m Detective Diaz. We spoke on the phone. I'm handling the investigation into your father's death. I'm very sorry for your loss.” Eddie looks down and slowly lowers a hand to her shoulder, hoping the gesture conveys his condolences and sympathy for the poor girl's situation. He’s had this same interaction a million times over with this job, and it never gets any easier. He supposes most people just assume he’s saying what he’s been trained to say, and that he doesn’t really feel any of the sympathy he conveys, but he always means it. He never wishes to meet anyone under the circumstance of telling them their loved one is gone.
Letty bows her head, trying to hold back tears as her lip trembles, then with trepidation, she whispers out, “My mom’s dead, too, isn’t she?” And even though the girl asked the question, it seemed like she really wasn’t ready to hear whatever answer Eddie was about to give her.
Eddie releases an almost regretful breath before dipping his head to maintain eye contact with Letty. “I don’t know,” Eddie answers honestly, then his voice gains some conviction as he continues, “But…I believe that she's out there and she's alive, and I will not stop looking until I find her.” Eddie knows he can’t promise anything about people’s well-being, but he promises not to stop looking until they have all the answers and can give Letty some closure, even if it’s not the kind she (or he) wants. With a little more purpose, Eddie tacks on, “But I need your help, Letty. The more you can tell me, the faster we can move.”
The two make their way back outside to Eddie’s car, continuing the conversation. Letty starts filling in some blanks and giving Eddie details about her mother’s life that she thinks might be useful: “Mom's been having a hard time,” Letty says, tears falling down her cheeks. “She had a colleague at work. She killed herself. I think Mom felt guilty about it,” Letty finished. It seemed like she’d retreated back into her head, thinking about everything she could have done differently to prevent this outcome. And while Eddie wanted to reassure her that this wasn’t her fault, he’s found through the years that saying that isn’t what family needs to hear right away, so he pushes on, trying to connect the puzzle pieces together.
“Who was this colleague?” Eddie asks.
“I don't know,” Letty says solemnly, “But she wrote Mom a letter a couple weeks back, and after that, Mom started to spiral.”
“What did the letter say?” Eddie prods, trying to squeeze out as much information as he can.
Letty lets her hands go up and chin jut down into herself, before saying, “She wouldn't tell me, but it shook her up bad…That's really when all this started.”
Eddie could tell he probably wouldn’t get much more information out of her, and he didn’t want to keep making her relive details of her life she was likely overscrutinizing now that both her parents were gone. Deciding to wrap the conversation up to give Letty some time to grieve and think about her new reality, he gently asks, “Do you know where your mom might keep a letter like that, Letty?”
Letty pauses for a few seconds, then says, “If it's not at the house, it would be in her office.”
Eddie, deciding to try his luck, asks, “And you don't know who sent it?”
Letty closes her eyes for a minute, trying to recall the information, before reopening her eyes and saying, “Only her first name. It was, um, Sarah.”
And look, that wasn’t a lot of information to go off of, but it was enough to get the ball rolling on the investigation. More than they had at 8:00 this morning. Now they knew a letter was involved, and they knew it was at Lynette Acosta’s office. “You have to start somewhere,” Eddie thinks to himself before opening the passenger door of his car to let Letty in and then walking around himself to get into the driver’s seat. He drives back to the police department with the radio low, letting Letty sit with her thoughts. He really hopes that they find Lynette Acosta alive.
When Eddie and Letty arrive at the station, he leads her up to the major crimes division and sets her up in the lounge room for the victims’ families. He sets her suitcase beside her and brings her some water, telling her that if she needs anything, she should ask anybody around. Then he turns on his heel and marches into Bobby’s office to give him the update: “Letty Acosta said that her mom had been spiraling for a few weeks. One of her coworkers left a suicide note with her, and it really shook Mrs. Acosta up. I think the letter is in her office, but we need to get permission to go get it.”
“That’s a great start,” Bobby begins, “Let me call Lynette Acosta’s firm and see if they’d be willing to help us out.” Bobby then picks up his office phone and starts punching in some numbers. Eddie takes that as the opportunity to leave and goes to his desk to drown his hands in more hand sanitizer before going back into Bobby’s office.
Bobby is already on the phone with someone, and it seems not to be going very well. The man is yelling into the phone, “Because it's material evidence into a homicide investigation.” Whoever is on the other end is resisting granting them access to Lynette Acosta’s office and, by extension, the letter. Bobby finishes the call with a defeated but polite, “I understand. I understand. Yes, sir. Thank you.”
Then he turns to Eddie, sighing and pinching the juncture between his eyebrows and nose before saying, “It's no use. Lynette Acosta is a defense attorney. There's no way we're gonna get a warrant to search her law offices based on the vague mention of a letter from someone named Sarah.”
Eddie hates this. Hates feeling stonewalled. There’s nowhere to move if they can’t recover this letter, and it seems like nothing in this investigation is going their way. Eddie moves back to the door of Bobby’s office, before casually throwing over his shoulder, “I'm gonna go down to their offices and appeal to their better nature.”
Bobby shakes his head, eyes downcast, before looking at Eddie and saying, “I don’t like our odds.”
Eddie nods his head in agreement before replying. “Neither do I, Bobby, but we have to try everything, right?” Eddie pleads, “A woman is missing, and we're desperate here.”
Bobby nods his head with Eddie before he tilts it to the side and points his chin upwards in a thinking motion. Then he says the thing that takes Eddie’s bad day from bad to worse: “Take Evan Buckley with you.” Bobby then confidently adds on, because he knows that the only way to get Eddie to agree to this horrible plan is to level with him, “If it wasn’t for him, we’d be nowhere. We'd still be treating Lynette as the primary suspect.”
Unconvinced, Eddie scoffs and rolls his eyes, “What is he supposed to do?”
Bobby lowers his chin to look Eddie in the eyes and then meaningfully says, “The same thing he’s been doing…spot the things my detectives miss.” Eddie’s eyebrows shoot up, and he looks a little incredulously at Bobby. Bobby throws his hands up in surrender, and then says, “To be fair, I missed them, too.”
Eddie, absolutely wanting nothing to do with this idea, begins to interject, but Bobby beats him to it, shutting down all arguments with a “This isn’t up for a debate, Eddie.”
God, Eddie was going to kill himself. This was already a long day, and it was about to get even longer. Because now, he was being forced into close proximity with the chaos tornado known as one Evan Buckley. And for the third time that day, Eddie thinks to himself, “I need more coffee.”
--------------------------------------------------------------- (Buck)
Buck and Maddie finally get released from the holding cell, and he’s ready to get back home once again, before an officer steps in front of him and tells him to wait at the precinct for a few more minutes because someone apparently wants to talk to him. Buck throws a tired look over his shoulder to Maddie before asking her if she could go relieve Henry of his Theo-watching duties. She agrees, of course, because she’s the best aunt ever, and Buck steps outside to make a call to Henry to thank him for watching Theo and to tell him that Maddie is on the way over. Buck was going to make Henry the best apple pie ever once this day was over; he really owed the man.
As Buck finished the call, he noticed a young woman sitting on the bench outside, staring at her phone with tears streaming down her face. “Letty Acosta,” Buck thought to himself before carefully walking over to start a conversation. He starts by asking, “Are you, Letty?”
She raises her head up from her phone before wiping at her cheeks and turning to look at Buck. Buck decides to continue, letting empathy roll off him in waves while sitting down next to her and placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I'm so sorry about everything that's happened,” Buck tells her.
Letty, looking like she’s tired of hearing that, mumbles out a quiet, “Thanks,” before quickly turning her head back around to look at Buck again and then asking, “Sorry, who are you?”
Buck laughs a little because yeah, he should have expected that question before he says, “Oh, it’s a long story.” Of course, then Buck felt awkward about the fact that saying that didn’t really answer Letty’s question, so he offered a vague, “I saw your file.”
There was an awkward silence, and Buck didn’t know what to do, so he tried to offer a small comfort by saying that the police were going to find Letty’s mom, but Letty let out a disappointed sigh before shaking her head and saying, “You can’t know that.” Which, true, Buck can’t know that, but Detective Diaz does seem like someone who is competent and capable, even if he might be a little egotistical. Buck does have some faith in the man; he at least seems concerned about bringing justice to the families he serves.
Letty looks a little apologetic for her outburst before turning to face Buck a little more and continuing, “Sorry, it’s just…everyone keeps saying the same thing. "Don't give up hope." My dad's dead. Now my mom's gone. So what am I supposed to do?”
And yeah, Buck didn’t really have an answer for that, so he just said, “Yeah. I guess it probably does get pretty tiring hearing the same thing without any answers or solutions.” Then he stops to try and think of a way to raise Letty’s spirits before asking, “Do you have any pictures of your mom?”
Letty gives a soft smile, opens the photos app on her phone, and angles the screen so both she and Buck can see. Buck leans over and looks at the pictures of the mother-daughter duo. There’s clearly a lot of love and happiness between the two of them. Letty scrolls to a picture of her mom holding beautiful pink flowers in front of her face and smiling, then says, “This one, she just sent me two days ago.”
Buck nods and looks at Letty with sincerity before saying, “Wow, she’s beautiful.”
Letty gives a small, shy nod, a ghost of a smile appearing on her face, before she says, “Yeah…she is.” Then her eyes start swimming with tears again before she lets out a quiet but heartbreaking sob, and says, “It’s the last photo I have of her.”
Buck then decides to try and offer Letty what he hopes to be some meaningful advice: “You know what's really helpful for me? It is to think of the little moments. Think of your mom's laugh. Think about her favorite foods.” Buck thinks of Connor and Kameron’s terrible karaoke singing and the weekly Mexican cuisine binge they would indulge themselves in. Quietly, Buck adds from years of experience, “You're gonna have to redirect your brain when you think about her. Otherwise, you're just gonna drive yourself crazy while you wait.” And it’s true, if you only think about lost loved ones as being lost, you can never grow. Nostalgia is grief’s favorite host, especially when it allows you the bittersweet moments of thinking fondly of someone knowing you can’t meet them.
Letty looks into Buck’s eyes, really looks at them, and sees the genuine hurt and longing for someone he clearly hasn’t seen in a long time, before asking, “You lost someone?”
Buck thinks about Connor and Kameron. Thinks about their love for him, their love for Theo, and then he sucks in a breath and solemnly nods. “I did, yeah,” Buck starts, “A long time ago.” Just as they finish their conversation, a police officer walks up to them to tell Letty they are ready to speak with her further. Letty pats herself down, wipes her cheeks, and stands back up.
Just as she’s about to be out of earshot, she turns back around to Buck and asks, “Hey, did you ever find them?”
Buck decides to choose honesty over comfort, and lets out a quiet, “No.”
Letty nods her head, clearly understanding the pain, before replying with, “Well, I’m sorry.”
Buck gives her a small smile before saying, “Thank you. And I’m sorry too.” Letty nods at him one last time before turning back around and walking inside with the officer.
Buck lets out a breath he hadn’t even realized he was holding, sinks back into the bench, turns his head up, and shuts his eyes. He hears approaching footsteps and guesses who wants to talk with him. He’s quickly proven correct when he hears Bobby’s voice stop in front of him before casually saying, “So the way I see it…” Bobby starts before raising his fingers to count and list Buck’s mistakes of the day, “We're looking at evidence tampering, assault on an officer, battery. Even if we knock it down to misdemeanors, you're still looking at six months' minimum and thousands in fines.”
Buck raises an eyebrow and laughs a little: “Does he really think he needs to blackmail me into helping them?” he thinks to himself. He looks back at Bobby before saying, “Did you really think this was gonna work? You're gonna, what, intimidate me into helping you? If you'd like my help, you should just ask me nicely.”
Bobby looks at Buck for a few seconds before relaxing his stance and lowering himself onto the bench with Buck. Then he turns to Buck with candor and desperation, and begs: “A woman is missing. Please help us find her.”
Buck looks at where Letty just left from and then gives a slow smirk before standing up and looking back at Bobby, “You got it.” Then both he and Bobby walk back inside the precinct, and the older man leads Buck back into the major crimes division, except this time Buck isn’t here for questioning; he’s there to assist. Oh, how quickly the tables turn.
He can see Detective Diaz turn to look at him when Bobby and he enter. He chooses to ignore the eye roll and obvious annoyance rolling off the detective. He’s not doing this for them anyway; he’s doing this to help Letty. Quickly, he walks back over to the evidence board and to Detectives Diaz and Han. The Black woman whose name Buck hasn’t heard yet is also there. He decides that if they are going to be working together now, they need a proper introduction. He opens the door first: “Hi, again, you already know me, Evan Buckley, but you can just call me Buck.”
The woman gives him a smile and nod before sticking her fist out for a bump. Buck obviously doesn’t leave her hanging; he’s not a jerk, and she introduces herself. “Hey, I’m Hen. And you’re kind of a badass. I dig it. Please tell me you enjoy wine and karaoke. I need some more people around here with taste.”
Buck laughs, and then says, “I’m always down for some good wine and gossip. However, my singing voice leaves much to be desired.”
Hen laughs, then offers, “I’ll take you up on that,” and then walks away to go do something else.
Detective Han then gives him a quick smile before sticking his hand out for a handshake and saying, “Call me Chimney.” He pauses for a second before laughing and going, “What kind of a nickname is Buck?”
Buck laughs before parroting back, “How did you get to be called Chimney?”
Chimney provides a teasing, “Touche,” before adding on, “The world may never know.”
Buck laughs again, happy for the easy camaraderie Chimney and Hen provided before sliding his eyes over to Detective Diaz and tilting his head. Diaz, realizing he wasn’t getting out of the meaningless introductions, shoved his hands in his pockets before saying a curt, “Detective Edmundo Diaz. My friends call me Eddie.” He stopped before leveling Buck with a glare and then strictly adding, “You can call me Diaz.”
Buck throws his hand up in front of him to show he won’t be arguing with the man, and then turns back to look at the board. Buck then asks, “So…what do we know?”
Diaz takes the opening and starts updating Buck with everything he assumed the man didn’t already know: “Here's what we know. Anthony Acosta died yesterday afternoon. The last time anyone saw Lynette, however, was two days ago at her law office.”
Buck interrupts, without thinking, and starts talking about the evidence board. “Okay, but I'm wondering, who made this case board? Because this is a lot of work.” Which, yeah, Buck can’t imagine having to stand at this board all day and put pictures up with notes written underneath; whoever did this is severely underpaid, and Buck is also wondering if they need a new crafting buddy (count him in). He sees Diaz turn to Bobby, hands up, shaking his head. Buck decides to add as a sidebar, “Also…I am banned from Hobby Lobby.” That ban may or may not have something to do with the falling out he had with Cindy and the Groupon people.
Eddie chooses to ignore Buck’s jokes (although Buck does hear Chimney choke on a laugh) and starts talking about the case again. “Their daughter, Letty,” Eddie begins, “Believes that one of Lynette's clients, identified only as Sarah, wrote a letter causing significant tension between her parents. We're gonna talk to the firm, but only after we interview Lynette's sister…”
And Buck didn’t give Diaz the opportunity to finish because he interrupted to finish his thought. Maybe that wasn’t the right way to go about gaining the detective’s respect, but he was really trying to show that he could keep up just as well as Diaz could. Even if this was a one-time-only deal, Buck wanted to prove he could be an asset, helpful; that’s all he’s ever wanted to be. So instead of letting Diaz finish, Buck takes over and adds, “Because she's the last person who spoke to Lynette…which I learned from looking at this case board.” Buck looks around the room and sees that Diaz looks to be done entertaining him. Deciding he has nothing left to lose, he says, “Also, guys, I just figured out this gentleman in the corner; he's the one. He makes the case boards.” Then Buck turned on his heel to start making his way to a car to get to Lynette Acosta’s sister’s home. When he sees no one is following him, he turns back around, looks between Diaz and Chimney, and asks, “Why aren't we moving?”
--------------------------------------------------------------- (Eddie)
Eddie throws his hands up and looks at Chimney with an expression that he hopes conveys, “What the fuck just happened?” He can’t believe he is actively taking orders from a ticking blonde time bomb. Evan Buckley is absolutely insane, and he is not going to make it through this day or case if he has to constantly make sure the man doesn’t do something stupid that jeopardizes the integrity of the case. Oh God, why did Bobby make him do this? He could have figured out this case on his own; he didn’t need “Buck” to help him figure this out.
Eddie quickly runs after Buck to make sure the man doesn’t get into any more trouble. Telling Chimney to grab his things and get Letty so that they could all go to Lynette’s sister’s house together. The car ride to Letty’s Aunt’s house was silent except for Buck and Letty quietly whispering to each other. Eddie supposes that was at least nice, that the man was helping calm the girl and keep her out of her head. Eddie’s never been very good at providing emotional support.
When they arrive at the home, he has Chimney and Letty walk in front of him. He needs to lay out some ground rules for Evan Buckley if he has to work with the guy. As they’re walking in, he leans into Buck’s space and tilts his head so that he can speak directly into Buck’s ear. “Okay, let's be very clear,” Eddie tells Buck. “You are not gonna say anything. You are not gonna touch anything, and you are not going to do anything,” Eddie finishes, feeling satisfied with his rules to try and limit the chaos Buck might bring.
Buck nods his head along, pretending to look like he’s interested in listening to what Eddie has to say, before “agreeing” with him and saying, “Sir, yes, Sir.” Then, without tact, the man adds, “I should probably be strapped in case things pop off.”
Eddie, over everything, just sighs and says, “I’m serious. Do nothing.” And then Eddie follows Chimney and Letty into the home, leaving Buck to stand still for a second before following him in as well.
--------------------------------------------------------------- (Buck)
While “trying” to follow Diaz’s rules, Buck decides to take a look around Sofia Bellier’s (Lynette Acosta’s sister) apartment. He sees a lot of plants in the apartment; if he didn’t know any better, he would assume the girl was a horticulturalist. While walking around, he sees her computer open to a paper she's working on about Eukaryotic Cells and Plants or something. He almost considers stealing the work to read for himself in his downtime; he’s always down for some new biology facts. As Buck continues to walk around, NOT touching anything (screw you, Diaz), he hears the detective start asking Sofia questions.
“Sofia, did your sister mention anyone from her professional circle who may have died of suicide recently?” Diaz asks. When he doesn’t see any recognition, he decides to provide more context by saying a name, “Someone named Sarah?”
Buck hears Sofia say the name doesn’t sound familiar as he walks over to a shelf with a bunch of trinkets. He decides he won't follow Diaz’s rules anymore and starts touching the items on the shelf. To hell with the man if he thinks he can control what Buck touches or doesn't. Buck will not be told what to do, even if it comes from a pretty face. He can feel Diaz’s eyes land on him and stare as he continues to watch Buck touch things. Buck thinks it’s a little rude that Diaz is carrying on a conversation while not looking at the person, but then again, when has Buck ever been the standard for human interaction?
Diaz must lose interest in glaring at him, because he continues talking to Sofia. “Uh, she wrote Lynette a letter,” Diaz continues, “Uh, we believe something in it caused her distress.”
Instead of answering Detective Diaz, however, Sofia’s eyes slide onto Buck. He had just picked up a really cool-looking statue (two frogs kissing), but he also picked up five other things before that. Sofia only seemed to care when Buck touched this one, though. She tenses for a second before saying, “Sorry. Could you put that down? It's breakable.”
Buck immediately puts it down, but he’s not buying that Sofia knows nothing about this woman or the letter, and he decides to make his opinion known. “She said nothing?” Buck questions before moving on, “I mean, I get the Sarah part. Every third woman's name is Sarah these days. But if somebody writes my sister a letter and then she offs herself, she's probably gonna say something.” Buck turns to see everyone tense and looking at him like he’s grown three heads. It seems not everyone appreciates his brusqueness; oh well. Deciding to explain himself a little more, he goes, “I mean I have a sister. We tell each other everything. Wine nights, y’know?”
Sofia turns back to look at Diaz. Then she asks, “Sorry, who is he?” while jutting a finger back at Buck.
Diaz shifts his eyes over to Buck, fuming, before softening his gaze and turning back to look at Sofia. With what looked like pain, Diaz grits out, “He’s…“consulting” for us.” After taking a collecting breath, he then asks Sofia, “When was the last time you spoke to your sister?”
Sofia looks down, thinking, before answering back with, “Two days ago. She, uh, she called to wish me luck with my presentation.”
Buck, never one to be kept out of a conversation for too long (and also never one to read the room), interjects with, “You’re a biologist?”
Sofia turns to look back at Buck with a little surprise before saying, “Um, yeah, I had a PhD defense, um, in front of my peers…I was nervous, and she calmed me down.” She pauses before asking, “You can read that from over there?”
Buck answers, “I only read half of it. Seems interesting though, you should totally send me a copy of it when you’re done!” Then, without really thinking, he asks, “Is that where you were yesterday? At your presentation?” He hears Diaz sigh before exasperatedly calling his name, but Buck decides to ignore him and continue, “From like…3:00 to 5:00 p.m.?”
“Buck! Stop it!” Diaz finally interjects, and then turns to Sofia to apologize on Buck’s behalf.
Buck thinks it’s ridiculous; Diaz doesn’t need to speak for him, and there is nothing to apologize for anyway. Buck is just trying to gather the facts and fill in the missing blanks. “I'm just asking about her alibi,” Buck defends. Then he looks between Chimney and Sofia before cupping a hand to his mouth and tilting his head towards Diaz. “My goodness,” Buck jokes, “You'd think he's never done this before.”
Frustrated, Diaz pushes Buck out of the door, telling Sofia to contact him if she thinks of anything else before leaving the house. Buck, getting pushed out of the house, accidentally stumbles into a muddy jeep in a parking space before standing up and patting himself off. Then, Diaz (who was once again putting hand sanitizer on his hands, what an oddball) turned to Buck before angrily saying, “If you can't keep your mouth shut, please treat our witnesses with some compassion, particularly grieving members of the victim's family.”
Buck turns back to Diaz with disbelieving eyes, beyond irritated, and throws his hands up in the air. “You don't think the Sarah thing was a little weird?!” Buck asks, then a little quieter and with some levity, he says, “I’m just saying, if you died today, I'm telling people about it, and I've only known you for, like, four hours.”
Chimney joins the conversation and says, “We have to get our hands on that letter.”
Buck snaps his fingers and points at Chimney. He likes the way this guy thinks. “Yes, exactly. Let's do it,” Buck says as he walks to the car door.
Diaz, the reigning party pooper, interjects and says, “We will ask Emery Walker to search Acosta's office.” Then he turns to Buck and fixes him with a glare. “You will wait in the car.”
Buck, feeling babied, turns to look back at Chimney before asking, “If I get in that back seat, he's gonna lock me in the car, isn't he?” Chimney unhelpfully answers with a “probably,” before turning to get into the car. Buck turns back to Diaz, fixing the man with a glare of his own, and hisses out, “What am I even doing here? Do you want my help or not?”
Diaz rolls his eyes before answering with indifference: “No, I do not. I thought I made that absolutely clear. I think this whole idea is moronic, and I am praying that you will just quit and” Buck, tired of listening to Diaz’s disrespect, storms off and starts walking away down the street. He’s too far away to hear the tail-end of Diaz’s sentence, but he has a couple of guesses as to whatever rude thing he would be saying. Whatever. Buck doesn’t have to deal with this; he's just doing it as a favor to Bobby and to help Letty out. He doesn’t need to deal with a condescending man who clearly thinks he knows what’s best for everyone.
--------------------------------------------------------------- (Eddie)
“And I am praying that you will just quit and…and walk away,” Eddie finishes lamely as he watches Buck take off down the street. “Good riddance,” he thinks. That’s just one less problem on his hands. He turns back to his charger before yanking the door open and getting into the passenger seat. He looks over to Chimney to start planning. “Okay,” Eddie starts, “Let’s confirm the sister’s alibi. You go to the university, talk to her colleagues, and I'll deal with Emery Walker.”
Chimney nods before looking back in the direction that Buck had just stalked off in. “What about him?” He asks.
Eddie shakes his head before saying, “He’s not our problem anymore.” Thank God, it’s the small blessings that make days like today lift Eddie’s spirits.
Eddie drops Chimney off at the station before heading over to Lynette Acosta’s firm. He really hopes that leveling with the attorneys in the building will work. Without that letter, he and his team are basically working off nothing that wasn’t already handed to them by an annoying blonde civilian. He then walks in to talk with Lynette Acosta’s partner, Emery Walker. However, after a few minutes of conversation, Eddie realizes he won't get what he needs.
“Detective Diaz, it is my personal desire to assist your investigation in any way possible,” Walker says, although he doesn’t sound very sincere. “But as you can understand, I must also represent the interests of my law firm.”
Ugh, Eddie can’t believe this guy. “But your partner's life might be in danger,” Eddie tries to reason.
Walker just shakes his head and gives a smug smile before saying, “And if you return with a warrant, I'll be happy to comply.”
Eddie sighs; clearly this was getting him nowhere, and he knows he isn’t getting a warrant. He’s stuck between a rock and a hard place; he’s beyond frustrated, his head is still pounding, and he needs to wash his hands (he ran out of hand sanitizer). He moves into the bathroom and starts washing his hands. Unfortunately, Eddie is too caught up in his thoughts to hear a stall door open, and footsteps stop behind him. Although, if anyone asks, he wasn't startled by Buck appearing out of nowhere and saying, “Hello bathroom friend.”
“Jesus!” Eddie wheezes out, holding a hand up to his heart. “What are you doing here?” Eddie asks.
Buck shrugs his shoulders before simply stating, “I figured I'd find you in here after the meeting.” Then he tilts his head and says, “What? Did you think that I wouldn't notice you compulsively washing your hands like some sort of clean freak?” And since apparently the man didn’t know when to quit talking, he adds, “You do know that's a cry for help, right?”
Eddie ignores him and says, “You’re not supposed to be here.”
Buck laughs in Eddie’s face before saying, “I know, but I figured you’d have no chance at getting the ball rolling on this thing, so I decided to take matters into my own hands.” Eddie looks at Buck with something akin to fear, so Buck takes pity on him and says, “Calm down. I found the Sarah letter.”
Now Eddie’s panic meter has hit the max, and he pushes Buck further into the bathroom before whisper-shouting, “What?! How?!”
Buck, seeming not to grasp the gravity of the situation and Eddie’s personal demise, indifferently says, “Oh…I broke into her office and stole it. You should really read the letter though. Sarah Atkinson was a paralegal on the Brian Dimon case, and guess what? Brian Dimon assaulted her also. It's all in there. Same pattern as before. She begs Acosta to take action against her client. I figured Lynette Acosta had a crisis of conscience, and was gonna turn on Dimon, so he did something about it.” Buck looks at Eddie for a second, and when he seems to realize the man isn’t going to answer him, he pushes on by saying, “This is great! We have a motive. We have a serial criminal.” When Eddie doesn’t move, Buck tries pushing again, “C’mon! Let's go arrest him!”
“Stop!” Eddie shouts, “You have no idea what you’ve done! We have nothing here! This letter is inadmissible now. I can’t have this in my possession.” God, Eddie knew Buck wouldn’t get it. He knew letting him into the field was the wrong choice (curse you, Bobby). The man has absolutely no discipline, and he doesn’t know how to follow the rules for anything. This was all going to come back on Eddie and make his job ten times harder.
Buck looks at Eddie in disbelief before asking, “What? You're gonna let him go on a technicality?”
“No,” Eddie expels out, trying to convey the importance of his words to the man in front of him, “These are not technicalities. These are laws, principles that I have devoted my entire life to protecting.”
Buck rolls his eyes before muttering, “Jesus, I thought my life was sad.”
Eddie gives a small smirk before turning to Buck and dryly saying, “Your life is sad. You've got shopping carts from three different grocery stores in your yard.”
Buck gives an incredulous squawk before saying, “Hey! I wouldn't have to go to different stores, but Safeway has those weird wheel locks.”
And even though the lighthearted teasing was fun, Eddie can’t let Buck get away with this. So he starts talking again. “This is the law,” Eddie starts (God, he can’t believe Buck broke the law in a law firm, but then again, the man also broke the law in a police department, so really anything goes). Putting his foot down, Eddie looks at Buck and then continues his speech, “There is absolutely nothing here that proves that Brian Dimon murdered anyone, and even if there was, guess what? We can't use it in court because, despite what you may think, we can't run around breaking into offices and arresting people at whim. It's not how the law works. Right now, the only clear crime here has been committed by you and by me if I let you get away with it.”
“But,” Buck tries, but Eddie holds his right hand up to stop him from finishing whatever sentence he was about to start and uses his left hand to pinch his brow.
“Stop talking, Buck, please,” Eddie pleads. Then he lets out a breath before turning back to Buck, putting both hands on the man's shoulders and saying, “Okay…this didn’t happen.” A plan already forming in Eddie’s head, he quickly turns Buck back around and steers him towards the door. “You're gonna take this letter,” he starts, “And you're gonna put it back exactly where you found it. And if you get caught, I'm going to arrest you myself.”
“And then what?” Buck scoffs.
Resigned to his fate, Eddie solemnly answers, “And then we're gonna go talk to Brian Dimon.” Buck gives him a smug smirk, and Eddie really hopes that this doesn’t come back to bite him in the ass.
--------------------------------------------------------------- (Buck)
Buck was happy that it seemed like Diaz was warming (?) up to him a little…well maybe? He wasn’t too sure, but the man was still putting up with him, so he’ll take it. Buck can feel it; they’re standing right on the edge of uncovering it all and cracking this case wide open. He just knows that talking to Mr. Dimon will give him everything he needs to figure out what happened to Lynette Acosta. He was a little disappointed that he couldn’t join Diaz in the interrogation room to ask Dimon his own questions, but he understood. He wasn’t a detective, and he had definitely pushed wayyyyy past his luck with Detective Diaz. Despite what people might think, Buck does know when to back down when absolutely necessary.
Right now, he’s standing on the other side of the interrogation room one-way window and watching as Diaz questions Dimon: “Mr. Dimon, a few months ago, you were sued by Lishka Zhang?”
Dimon laughs before smirking, looking a little too proud, “And I won.”
Diaz makes a disgusted face before moving on, “Uh, she, Ms. Zhang, she wrote to your lawyer.” Diaz keeps talking to Mr. Dimon as Chimney walks in behind Buck and stands beside him.
Buck turns to Chimney and then excitedly says, “This is my first interrogation. What do we do?!”
Chimney laughs at Buck and says, “You don’t do anything.”
Buck ignores Chimney, instead asking, “Is it like a good cop, bad cop situation? Oh! You want me to go in there and flip the table over?”
“No,” Chimney snorts, “What kind of movies are you watching there, Buck?”
Buck slides his eyes back over to the interrogation before answering, “Oh, y’know, the usual…Paw Patrol and what not.” Chimney gives him a deadpan expression, and Buck laughs, “What? I’ve got a four-year old little boy at home! I’m lucky to even get one night with FoodNetwork.”
Back in the interrogation, Buck catches Mr. Dimon saying Zhang lost her case and was just a former employee holding a grudge. He scoffs at that, figures that jackass would say something along those lines. Diaz stews in silence for a few seconds before shifting a paper over and saying, "Interesting, those seem to follow you around. So why don’t you tell me about your relationship with Sarah Atkinson?”
Buck, bored with the questions again, turns back to Chimney and gasps, “Oh! When do we get to hit him with the phone book?”
Chimney smiles, shakes his head, pats Buck on the shoulder before saying, “Never.” Then he walks over to a telephone in the corner and calls Hen. He tells her to get ready for Dimon’s alibi and to give him a data print-out for the day of the murder. Hen tells him that she’s on it, but before she hangs up, Buck says, “Tell Hen I took one of her lollipops and that I feel bad about it.
Chimney scoffs and says, “I’m not telling her that.”
However, Hen yells through the phone, “I heard him, and thank you!”
Chimney and Buck turn back to the interrogation, and Buck sees Mr. Dimon getting fed up with the line of questioning Diaz has been giving. “I thought I was here to help with my lawyer's disappearance, not relitigate old claims?” Dimon asks.
Diaz, trying not to give anything away, simply states, “The Atkinson claims are not old.”
Dimon shrugs and leans back. “Well,” he starts, “If there have been new claims against me, I'm not aware of them.”
Diaz hums as the phone rings, giving Chimney an update on Dimon’s alibi. “I got bad news,” Hen says, “Dimon wasn’t in town on the day of the murder. He wasn’t even anywhere close. He was in Fontana.”
Chimney takes a deep breath and looks up towards the ceiling. Then he asks, “You’re sure?”
“Positive,” Hen assures.
Buck makes a confused face before asking, “Fontana? The Kentucky of California. Fontucky? What the hell was he doing in Fontana?”
Chimney just says, “Doesn’t matter. He wasn't there.”
And Buck? Well, he was not about to let this go, so he turns to Chimney before gesturing to the window. “Look at his shoes,” Buck says. When Chimney gives him a look that asks, “Why do his shoes matter?” Buck decides to answer for him, “Those are Italian seams, handcrafted. And, look at his watch. That guy is not gonna be caught dead in Fontana.” Buck, nodding to himself, like he’s the only person he needs to be making sense to, decides to give Chimney a conclusion: “There are only two reasons you go to Fontana. Number one, you want to catch hepatitis at the water park. Number two, you have to go to your cousin's bachelorette party, and she is on a budget.”
Chimney rolls his eyes, clearly not believing this has any merit, and then says, “I can literally think of a hundred other reasons to go to Fontana.”
Buck then looks at Chimney and plainly says, “Okay. Then ask him. Tell Diaz to ask Dimon what the hell he was doing in Fontana.” Chimney looks at Buck and then looks at the phone in the corner, but he doesn’t make any motion to move. Frustrated, Buck tells him again, “Tell Diaz to ask!”
Chimney replies with, “That’s not how this works.”
And look, Buck is usually a reasonable guy, but he screws all the bureaucracy crap. Following all the rules isn’t going to bring real justice to the Acostas, so Buck does what Buck does best: disregards everything and does whatever the hell he wants. He starts banging on the window and shouting, “Hey! Ask him about Fontana!”
The action catches the attention of the people in the room, and Dimon turns to look at the window before asking Diaz, “What the hell is this?”
Diaz glares at the window, but before he can answer, Emery Walker walks in with Bobby and tells Dimon not to say another word. Bobby thanks Mr. Dimon for his time before releasing him. Buck can’t believe this. They’re just about to what? Let a guilty man walk because they have to stay inside the lines? It’s absurd! Buck was about to say as much, but then Bobby angrily starts talking to Diaz, “Emery’s secretary notice a blonde man with a weird birthmark enter Mrs. Acosta’s office twice this afternoon. What happened?” Buck didn’t even get to say anything before Diaz returned his glare to the window and ratted him out (asshole).
--------------------------------------------------------------- (Eddie)
Eddie knew this whole idea was stupid, and now they were probably in loads of legal trouble. God, this whole thing was stupid. Everything about this day had been stupid. It was ridiculous. Bobby just chastised him for something he basically forced Eddie to do. Eddie told Bobby this was a bad idea; he didn’t even want to take Buck out to help with the case, but Bobby insisted. And now look where it’s gotten them? In a sticky legal situation and no closer to finding out where Lynette Acosta is. Eddie storms out of the police department, furious, and trying to ignore the hurried footsteps behind him as Buck shouts his name.
“Diaz! Diaz! Wait! Dimon was in Fontana on the day of the murder, you gotta ask him why,” Buck implores.
Eddie whips himself back around and throws his hands up. “Stop!” He shouts, and then with finality, he says, “We’re done. This entire idiotic experiment is finished.”
Buck, out of breath but not taking “no” for an answer, shakes his head and says, “No. No. It–it doesn’t make any sense.”
Eddie can’t listen to this anymore, so he cuts off whatever else Buck was about to say, and instead offers, “Stop pretending you can do this, Buck. It’s over. You should be grateful you’re not in jail. Dealing with you this whole day has been exhausting. Go back to your real life, Buck. Go back to stealing shopping carts and dancing horribly while you barely clean, which is gross by the way. Leave this to the professionals.” Eddie knows he hit Buck where it hurts, because he steps back, lowers his head, softly apologizes, and walks away. And listen, Eddie feels bad, but this kind of life wasn’t cut out for someone as freegoing as Buck. Eddie is mentally drained. They are further behind than they were when they started this case this morning, and he’s exhausted. He hopes going home and spending quality time with his son will make him feel better so he can come in fresh tomorrow and find Lynette Acosta.
--------------------------------------------------------------- (Buck)
Buck’s not naive, despite what other people might think about him. He never really thought he would amount to much, even though he is super intelligent. He’s crass when it comes to reading the room; he lacks the patience that most jobs would require, he overthinks, and he feels too much. He thought maybe today would be the day to prove himself and others wrong, but once again, he ended up making everything worse. At least he’s home now, with Theo and Maddie. He’s cooking up some ham and cheese omelets for dinner when Maddie comes around and asks how his day went.
“So…how was being a hero for the day?” Maddie questions.
Buck laughs. “I was no hero, Mads. I probably just made things worse than better, just like I always do,” Buck says with his eyes downcast as he cooks.
“Oh, Buck, that’s not true,” Maddie says. “You always make my life better. You’ve certainly made Theo’s life better. You’ll find your place. Just give it time.”
Buck sighs; he appreciates what his sister is trying to do for him, but it’s time for him to be honest with himself. “How much more time, Maddie?” Buck asks before continuing, “I’m almost thirty and I’m no closer to making a difference or helping people than I was ten years ago! I’m cursed.”
“Oh stop acting like a teenage girl,” Maddie says. “You’re not cursed, Buck, you just haven’t given yourself the chance to find the right place or the right people. You’ll get there, but you have to be willing to let yourself try first,” she finishes before getting up and kissing his birthmark.
Buck just nods his head. He doesn’t really believe Maddie; he feels defective, but there’s no point in arguing with her once her mind is made up. Then he turns to her from the couch and asks, “Staying the night?’
She gives him an affectionate look before saying, “Yeah. And I have the day off tomorrow, so you, Theo, and I can all go do something together.”
Buck gives her a smile before saying, “Yeah, okay, I’m gonna go put Theo to bed. Find a movie for us to watch when I finish.” Maddie gives him a thumbs up over her shoulder, and Buck goes to Theo’s room to make sure he’s brushed his teeth and is ready for bed.
Just as Buck finishes reading Theo his bedtime story, he notices the boy is quieter than usual. “Baby,” Buck starts, “What’s wrong with you tonight?”
Theo gives a quiet sniffle before answering, “All of my friends have two parents, Daddy. Why don’t I?”
Oh God, Buck wants to cry. He’s always been honest with Theo about who his real parents were, but talking about it never made it any easier. Buck sighs before giving his usual rehearsed answer, “You do have two parents, Theo, and they loved you soooo so much. And I love you and so does Aunt Maddie. You have so much love, Baby. All of it and more.”
That answer doesn’t seem to satisfy Theo, because he brokenly asks, “Then why aren’t they here?”
And look, Buck doesn’t really have an answer for that; he doesn’t know where Connor or Kameron went or why, but he does know that they would never willingly leave Theo behind, not after everything they went through to get him. Buck tells Theo as much, but that can only do so much. Buck holds Theo while he falls asleep, then retreats to the living room to his sister. He sees his carton of mint chip ice cream, two wine glasses, a bottle of wine, and The Princess Bride all set up and ready to watch. He lets out a breath and says, “You’re an angel…this is exactly what I needed.” Maddie laughs and calls him a drama queen, and Buck tries to enjoy the rest of his night, but all he can think about is Lynette Acosta, Theo, and Connor and Kameron. He won’t be getting much sleep tonight, it seems.
Eventually Buck does go to bed, and when he wakes up the next morning, he’s ready to take Maddie and Theo to the aquarium to enjoy their day together. He’s cooking pancakes and telling Theo to pack his backpack for the aquarium when he hears a knocking on his door. Confused because this is the second day in a row he’s gotten an unexpected visitor, he goes to answer the door and is greeted with the sight of one exhausted-looking Detective Edmundo Diaz.
“Well hello there, Sunshine,” Buck greets, “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Diaz grumbles, then asks if he can be let inside. Buck moves to the side of the door and swings his arm in a “come in” gesture as Diaz slides past him and into Buck’s home. Buck, still confused, decides to ask Diaz again why he’s over here when less than twelve hours ago he basically told Buck to mind his own business. Diaz sighs, having trouble forming the words (or maybe having trouble pushing his pride aside to ask for help) and finally asks, “Why did you want me to ask Dimon about Fontana?”
Buck looks at him, looks at the deep purple bags under his eyes, and decides to take pity on the man. He picks Theo up and shoves him into Eddie’s hands with nothing more than a quick, “hold him,” while finishing the pancakes and making a plate for Diaz too. Then once he sits back at the table with Diaz and gets Theo settled with breakfast, he turns back to Diaz and says, “Here, eat.” Diaz picks up a fork and starts eating while Buck answers his question. “Dimon,” Buck starts, “Is not a Fontana guy. More importantly, I noticed something in Sofia's apartment yesterday. All of the little tchotchkes on her shelves were dusty, except for one. Sofia was in Fontana recently. And so was Dimon.”
Diaz looks confused and just says, “So what? People go to Fontana?
Buck levels Diaz with a sarcastic look before saying, “Both of them, at the same time when someone they both happen to have a connection with disappears?”
Diaz decides to ignore Buck’s speculation and just says, “What does it matter? They both have alibis for the time of the murder.” Which, yeah, that’s true, but something about the whole situation wasn’t sitting right with Buck. Something was wrong, and Sofia and Dimon were connected to it; he just knew it. As he tried to put his finger on it, he remembered the flowers in the photo of Lynette that Letty showed him yesterday.
Running over to the other side of the room, Buck scrambles for his phone and quickly calls Henry. Except, Henry won’t pick up the damn phone. Buck then decides to open his window and shouts over to Henry’s house. “Pick up the phone, Henry,” Buck yells.
Henry shouts back, “You can’t rope me into your shenanigans today, Buck.”
Buck shouts back, “No! This isn’t about any schemes, though I'm a little hurt that you think that's all I’m good for. Just—just come over, I have a question!” Henry decides to be kind and neighborly and comes over, although it might help that Buck just baked his favorite banana nut muffins. Without waiting for Henry to finish eating, Buck asks, “How long does it take for flowers to die after you deliver them, like wilted and brown, die?”
Henry looks at Buck, confused, and a little surprised that this is the question Buck so desperately needed to ask, before saying, “Well, that depends on a few factors. Mainly the type of flower.”
Buck thinks back to the pink flowers in the photo Letty showed him, then asks, “Ranunculus flowers?”
Henry quickly replies with, “Oh, well those would take four days at least.”
Buck’s eyes light up, and he tosses Henry another muffin before saying, “Henry! You are a good man and an even better florist.” Then he turns to Diaz and says, “Let’s go!”
“What just happened?” Diaz asked.
“I’ll explain on the way,” Buck says while taking cash out of his wallet. “Maddie,” Buck yells, “I gotta go help with that thing from yesterday. I left cash on the counter for you to take Theo to the aquarium. Thank you, love you, bye!” Then Buck turns to Theo, kisses his hair, tells him bye, and then grabs Diaz by the hand and drags him out of the house.
Buck settles into the passenger seat of Diaz’s car while he drives before saying without warning, “Dimon and Sofia are having an affair.” Diaz gives him a major case of side-eye from his seat, but allows Buck to continue, “He was trying to groom her like the others, but she was on board. He's doing it to stay close to Lynette because he knows he's guilty and he needs leverage. Hey, can we run the siren?”
“Absolutely not,” Diaz says while slapping Buck’s hands away from the dash. Buck pauses for a second before carrying on his train of thought, “Anyways. So, Dimon, he learns of Lynette’s change of heart, right? He knows this is the end for him. He's desperate now. So, he and Sofia go to Lynette's house to put pressure on her, but surprise! Her husband, Anthony, is there, too, and that is when things quickly get out of hand.”
Diaz interrupts him and says, “Again, the problem here is that…”
“They both have alibis,” Buck finishes for him, knowing this is what he was going to say. “But,” Buck begins, “What if the murder did not happen when we think it happened?” Diaz gives him a curious look, and then Buck says, “We need to go back to the crime scene.”
“Okay then,” Diaz says before changing lanes and driving them to the Acosta’s home. Buck walks in and notices the giant tree in the living room and the greenhouse-panel ceilings. He starts visualizing the crime scene. He tries to imagine what he thinks could have happened.
“Okay,” Buck starts thinking out loud, “Dimon and Sofia are trying to threaten Lynette.” As Buck is walking around, he sees the gun next to the crime scene room and says, “Noted Second Amendment enthusiast Anthony Acosta gets involved. Turns out to be not the best decision for him, and now we’ve got a dead body, which is a real kick in the nards, 'cause what are we gonna do with Lynette?”
“But how do they cover it up?” Diaz questioned before adding, “The time of death was during Sofia's presentation. All of her colleagues saw her there.”
Buck nods and says, “Well that may be true, but Letty’s last picture of her mom was taken three days ago.” Buck then pointed to the dead flowers in the vase before saying, “These flowers were fresh and new. They should still be pink, but they were already dead in the crime-scene photos.” Diaz shakes his head, following Buck’s train of thought, but still doesn’t know how to jump from Point A to Point B. Buck sits in silence for a second before gasping and going, “What does Dimon do for a living?”
Diaz answers, "Security technology.”
Buck nods and then continues, “And what does Sofia do for a living?”
Diaz answers again, “She’s a botanist.”
Buck nods, hoping Diaz has come to the same realization as him, but he hasn’t. So Buck decides to prod, hoping to lead Diaz to the answer. “Do you know what this room is?” Buck asks.
“Uhhhhh,” Diaz bluescreens for a minute before saying, “A greenhouse!” Buck places a hand on Diaz's chest before patting a “good job,” and now Diaz’s gears are working double time. “These are state-of-the-art climate controls,” Diaz says, “So Dimon turns the entire place into one giant refrigerator. He freezes Acosta's body and leaves. That night, he doctored a video framing Lishka Zhang. The next day, he raises the temperature remotely, cooking the house and completely messing up the coroner's time of death estimate.”
Buck smiles at Diaz, happy they worked together to come to the conclusion, but something is still bothering him. He looks at Diaz and then asks, “But, what do they do with Lynette?”
“Well, if they were gonna kill her,” Diaz starts, “They would have done that right here. That's the smart move.”
Buck agrees with that, so then he suggests, “Well, maybe Sofia has a hard time with that. I mean, it is her sister. I would never be able to kill my sister, even if I was completely loco on some man.” Buck, still thinking out loud and pacing around the room, then says, “So they kidnap her, right? To buy themselves some time. And where do they take her?”
Buck turns to look at Diaz, and Diaz steps closer while an awestruck look shines in his eyes. He takes another step before he’s in Buck’s space, then breathes out, “Ask Dimon what he was doing in Fontana.”
Buck nods and then claps his hands together. “You see, Fontana is not that far away,” Buck says. “It has to be relatively close. They got to get there and back in the same night.”
Diaz is nodding along before adding, “And there's no paper trail, no charges for either of them in that area. So they're taking her someplace secure, someplace one of them owns.”
Right after Diaz says that, Buck remembers seeing the mussy jeep at Sofia’s house and a picture of Sofia sitting on the steps of a woodland cabin in her home. Carefully, he tells Diaz, “Someplace they've been meeting up to have their affair, someplace remote,” Buck says while walking over to a picture of the same cabin on the Acosta wall and pointing, “...But familiar.”
--------------------------------------------------------------- (Eddie)
Right after Buck and he (and he can’t believe he’s saying that) solved the mystery of where Lynette Acosta is, he takes out his phone to call Bobby and start gathering a search and rescue. He never would have gotten here if it hadn’t been for Buck, and as he rushes into the cabin to untie Lynette Acosta, he can’t help but be incredibly grateful for the man. He sees Buck standing amid the chaos of police officers and paramedics outside the cabin, trying to stay out of the way but still making sure Lynette is okay. Eddie gives Buck a nod across the way as he leads Lynette to an ambulance and back to her daughter. Happy to see the two reunited, Eddie walks back over to Buck to properly thank him, and he hears Bobby talking with the man.
“Lynette Acosta is going to be okay thanks to you,” Bobby says and then hands Buck a manila envelope. Buck looks confused for a second before Bobby smiles and says, “It's a job offer. Come be a consultant. Do this full time. We need you.”
Buck gives Bobby a small smile before shaking his head and handing the envelope back. He then says, “I'm not cut out for this…But thank you.”
Bobby gives a sad smile back and tells Buck to keep the envelope. “If you ever change your mind,” Bobby reminds him, “You know where to find me.” Bobby gives Buck one last nod before walking off to go talk to some other personnel. Eddie takes the opportunity to slide in and speak to Buck.
“I hope you didn’t decline being a consultant because of what I said yesterday,” Eddie says.
Buck sucks in a breath before saying, “Well, yesterday certainly didn’t encourage me to take the offer, but uh, no. You were right, I’m—I’m not cut out for this.”
Eddie shakes his head and says, “No, Buck, I was wrong. This is uh, this is exactly where you need to be. People need you, I certainly needed the assistance, today. None of this would have been possible without you.”
Buck gives Eddie a mischievous look before saying, “Well, I’ll never turn down a handsome face saying they need me.”
Eddie rolls his eyes before saying, in what he hopes was a sincere voice, “I’m serious. You should take the job offer. Bobby is great, man, and so is everyone else. And uh, well. I guess I just wanted to thank you and say that you did good today, Buck. And I guess, maybe you…having my back might not be the worst thing.”
“Well, y’know, you could try having my back every now and then too, yeah?” Buck teases back.
Eddie laughs, “Okay, sure, but don’t think this means I’m gonna start going soft on you.”
Buck looks at Eddie, a little insecure, before quietly asking, “You, uh, you really think I should take Bobby’s job offer?”
Eddie walks up to Buck and places his hands on Buck’s shoulders, then says, “Yes, Buck, I really do. I mean not to be that person, but it also kind of seems like you need the money. You have no car and you have three stolen shopping carts sitting in your front lawn.”
Buck laughs and then decides to push his luck and goes, “So does this mean I’ve earned “Eddie” privileges? I mean…I feel like I’ve earned “Eddie” privileges, right?
“No, absolutely not,” Eddie says.
“Edmundo then? That kind of rolls off the tongue…Edmundo,” Buck says, laughing at the annoyance donning Eddie’s features.
Eddie grimaces and shakes his head. Then he rolls his eyes before asking himself if accepting Buck into his life as his new work partner is really the best decision.
“I think this is a start to a beautiful partnership, Edmundo,” Buck says.
“Ew, no. Stop. Stop that,” Eddie demands.
Buck laughs before extending his fist out for a fist bump and arching an eyebrow, saying, “Eddie, then?”
Eddie puts his fist up to Buck’s and lightly taps before sighing, “Yeah, yeah, Eddie I guess. You’re not exactly leaving me with any other options here are you, Buck? I have a feeling I’m going to have a hard time saying no to you.”
Buck smiles, pulls Eddie in, and whispers in his ear, “Let me tell you two secrets about me, Eddie: no one can control me, and no one can stop me from protecting the people I love.” Buck leans back out, offers Eddie a wink, blows him a kiss, and then says coyly, “You’ll just have to learn how to keep up, partner.” Then the man turns around and saunters off to go talk to Bobby.
Eddie stares at Buck’s back as he leaves and thinks to himself, “Something has definitely changed. This will certainly be a chaotic or “beautiful” partnership, or maybe a little bit of both. But I am undoubtedly not prepared for the full force of Evan Buckley to enter my life. Who knows? Maybe this will be the best thing to ever happen to me; we might even end up real close.” Eddie shakes his head and walks back to his car. He’s got an adorable kid to get to and a comfortable bed to lie in; thoughts of blonde curls and pretty, blue eyes can wait until tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------- (Buck)
After talking with Eddie, Buck is feeling a lot more confident about taking the job. And Eddie did have a point; he really needed the money. And doing this wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world; he’s finally using his gift for good, he’s finally helping people. Maybe Maddie was right; he needed to give himself the opportunity to find a place to fit. While he was walking to Bobby, he thought about Theo, and how the boy didn’t have answers about his parents; how he didn’t have answers about his best friends.
Buck waits for Bobby to finish talking to the others on the scene before frantically blurting out, “I want a raise! Add 20% and childcare, you can figure the childcare out.” Buck grimaces; that was probably not the best way to negotiate or start this conversation with his new boss.
Bobby raises his eyebrows before simply asking, “Is that all?”
Buck shakes his head before saying, “I need you to find two people. Their names are Connor and Kameron Riley. They disappeared three and a half years ago. The police say that they just skipped town, but I know that they didn’t, so I need help. Please help me find them.”
Bobby looks at Buck before extending his hand out and saying, “You got a deal, Kid.”
Buck shakes Bobby’s hand and smiles at him. Buck has always been different. He sees details other people can’t. He overthinks absolutely everything; it’s like he can’t turn his brain off long enough to relax or just enjoy the company around him. He always thought that this part of him was a weakness, that it weighed him down and cursed him. But maybe, just maybe, he’s been thinking about this all wrong. Using his abilities the wrong way. He thinks about Bobby’s easy acceptance, Hen and Chimney’s quick friendship, Eddie’s eyes softening to show the beginnings of trust. “Yes,” Buck thinks, “This is exactly where I need to be.”