Without any more time to spare, Clive grabbed his bag and left the hotel. He was almost surprised that it was virtually afternoon time when he stepped outside, forgetting just how long he had slept in. The sun shined down on the buildings of Saffron city, which reflected the light in kind, painted in a deep orange-yellow. Clive could smell the warmth emanating from the bricks beneath his feet as he walked, reinvigorating him as he ventured down the streets. After not much more than a few minutes of walking had he arrived at Saffron's police station.
He was surprised to find Sabrina already standing in the center of the front lobby, idly watching an Abra, presumably hers, teleport around the room. "I knew you would arrive," she said, her voice hardly changing pitch. "You have information you wished to report."
Could anyone get used to dealing with someone who seemed to always know what was going to happen? Clive was doubtful. He wondered how bored Sabrina's life must have been. She did mention she had some limitations when it came to seeing the future, but she still hardly seemed surprised by anything regardless. "I... do," he said carefully.
"Detective Zain is in his office," Sabrina said, before Clive could ask the question. She turned, and started down a hallway, knowing full well that Clive would follow suit. As they walked, the Abra would teleport closer to stay near its trainer. Sabrina stopped in front of one of the closed doors, the glass window covered with a set of plastic blinds. A plaque rest on the center of the door, reading "Detective Zain Hamsine" in capital gold letters. Sabrina lightly tapped the glass, and in a few moments a man let them inside. Clive remembered him from the initial meeting he and Yulia had with Saffron force. He was dressed in nearly all black, black shoes, slacks, and button up shirt, with a red necktie. His tan face bore little facial hair other than his neatly trimmed mustache, and his medium length brown hair parted directly down the center of his head, curling off to either side. "Ah, Sabrina. Always good to see you. And Clive, I'm glad the city has not scared you away yet."
The discussion was brief. Clive explained what he recollected from the previous day's endeavors at the warehouse, leaving out some of the details that were best left between him and his partner, mainly Clive's use of his Zorua's illusions to hide and Yulia passing out. He answered a few questions, none of which seemed to lead into much more discussion. Zain scratched his chin lightly. He had been leaning casually against the front of his desk as the trio discussed. "That is all very suspicious. We will have to get some guys on it to try to track where their vehicle was headed to. Also, find out whatever we can with what's left at that warehouse. Are you able to go with them Clive? And Sabrina-"
"I will not go. A gym challenger will be arriving at my gym in twenty minutes. Goodbye, detectives."
Both men watched as the gym leader left, the door seemingly shutting on its own accord. Clive used his fingers to move a length of hair away from his face as he spoke. "Does Sabrina often help the Saffron police?"
"She has done me quite a few favors, but only of her own volition. She is ambitious, in her own way. But she does care for the city. A proud Gym Leader, that's for sure." Zain turned to take a sip from his coffee mug, then took a second one before gently placing it down and facing Clive again. "I can get some guys together. It does not sound safe to be in that warehouse alone."
Clive spent the better part of the afternoon guiding Zain and a couple officers through the warehouse, where they searched, scanned for prints, and even collected data based on evidence of vehicle movement where Clive identified the Avarice member's vehicle was likely parked. Clive was surprised that the metal vault downstairs was nearly empty. There was definitely evidence that there was something there, but it was mostly a musty room with a few barren desks. No floating red eye to electrocute them. "We'll run the numbers and let you know what we find," Zain assured him once the collection of evidence was complete. "It's starting to get late. How about I give you a ride back to the hotel you're staying at?"
Thanks to the help of Zain, Clive had made it back to the hotel from the warehouse quickly and without issue. He sat down on his bed, taking stock of the room as he felt around his bag for his laptop. He noticed Yulia's items had moved a bit- maybe she was ruffling through it all before she left or she had returned from her meeting and left again. Eventually deciding there was nothing else unusual about the room, Clive tapped away at his laptop. He was greeted with a few angry messages from the police chief about why he was not responding to his phone. Clive rolled his eyes.
Sorry, phone broke during a stakeout. Will need issued a new one after the festival.
Clive reread the email even after he responded, chuckling to himself mischievously. He could imagine what the police chief would actually be saying if they were in person, without a paper trail to bar him. I fucking give you a pretty young gal as your partner, and you repay me by running off with her to Kanto on some fucking honeymoon! At the end of the day, though, Clive did owe the chief some updates. He opened up the report Yulia had started and read through it, adding his own recounts where needed. When he was done, he refined the info in a separate report to better suit the chief's tastes, and sent him an update with a promise that he and Yulia would have a full report after the festival.
We'll issue one up yours when you get back.
Clive snorted upon reading the chief's reply. The man was always so belligerent when he could get away with it, but such a kiss-ass when having to speak to the public or the city council. Clive had a lot of respect for him though, remembering how hard he worked back in the day, when Clive was an orphaned teenager. The man always expressed a lot of respect for Clive's father, which also helped facilitate their relationship.
As Clive got caught up on a few odds and ends- his emails and a few reports and notes, he thought about what he would do with the remainder of the night. He had no idea when Yulia would be returning. She was a big girl that could handle herself, or at least did not need him anyway. That left Clive with the running assumption that he'll see her when he sees her, and to plan on doing his own thing. Maybe he could better explore the "Underground" some more, using Shadow to help him interact and gain more information. Alternatively, he could put his suspicions around the night clubs to the test, but it was unlikely that would bare any fruit.
Eventually, he settled on something other than field work entirely. He began reading through what attractions were going to be made available at the festival. A parade, plenty of food stalls and gift vendors, a battle competition, even a Pokemon beauty contest judged by some big names in the competition scene... all things Yulia would probably want to stop and enjoy, but will be too preoccupied with work to admit it. Clive wondered, would any of these events be what Avarice had their eyes on? Their motivations were not usually driven by blind violence, setting loose some kind of weapon on a crowd of people is probably not what he needed to be trying to prevent. Perhaps they were after the Pokemon being entered into the competition? Or even some of the Pokemon helping to run the festival itself?
He ran back through his notes and collection of reports on Avarice's known thievery of Pokemon. They were not typically done on a grande scale. Usually it boiled down to overpowering or fooling a trainer or trainers, sometimes young ones, who were out on a route alone, before taking their Pokemon. A mugging, for the most part. It made Clive suspicious about the idea they would be present at the festival, but it was irrefutable that they were present in the city.
Clive glanced back to his email upon receiving a message from Zain.
Hello Clive,
I tried to give your phone a call, but I forgot you mentioned you needed to replace it. Are you still at the hotel? Can you give me your room number so I can call you? We found some important information from the clues we gathered today, but I can not share those documents outside of our server.
Thanks,
Detective Zain Hamsine.
A few keystrokes later, and Clive heard a ring come from the hotel's phone. "Yes this is Clive. Yes please connect that call."
On the phone, Zain gave Clive a quick rundown of what his PD found so far with the evidence gathered from that day. They had a heading and a direction on the Avarice vehicle, which they caught on a few security cameras. They could not identify what had happened to the Pokemon Clive had seen. There were a few prints that could be found that helped identify a few suspects, but the whereabouts of those suspects was unknown. Clive wondered if they could share the identity of those suspects with Sabrina, and Zain agreed, including that if she knows the face, Sabrina usually knows the next time she will see a particular person again. The detectives then wished each other a good night and agreed to reconvene in the morning before hanging up.
Clive stood to look out the window of the hotel room, tossing around the idea of exploring Saffron's "Underground" scene a second time. Ultimately, he decided against it. He had no phone in the case of an emergency, and it was getting rather late. In fact, he wondered if he should try to get a hold of Yulia. Immediately after the thought reached his mind, he rolled onto his bed and picked up the hotel phone, typing Yulia's number as he read it off of her information from his laptop. The call immediately skipped to voicemail. "Hey, I got shocked, what's your excuse?" he grumbled, hanging up the phone before the voicemail began recording.
He decided there was one thing left he needed to do that night, if he was not going to go anywhere. He changed into the comfortable clothes he had been wearing as his nightwear, grabbed a cup of water, and retook his position on the bed with his laptop. He opened up the Yulia file, and began filling things in. His thoughts, the facts that he knew, facts yet to be confirmed, his suspicions. Occasionally, he would scroll back to the top of the document to look at the picture that he took. The quality of the picture was not great, but it was still unmistakable that it was Yulia. As messy as it had gotten from the day's events, her hair was still long and blue, falling behind her delicate ears and her small shoulders. Clive would realize he was not going to find any new information just by staring at the picture, and would go back to outlining his thoughts. More than once, he would pick up the phone again to give his partner a ring, failing to reach her every time. Eventually, he was out of updates for his file, and was simply looking over the picture again as he tried to decide what to do next.
"I should just go to bed," he told himself. He'd start to think about the Avarice file, and the Uncle Richie file, but he could not seem to hold the thoughts straight. After a while he would give up and look at the Yulia file again, wanting to add more to it but realizing there was nothing more to add yet. Where the hell was she?
Suddenly, he heard the door unlock and open. He almost did not recognize Yulia when she stepped into the room, but like the picture, it was unmistakably her. Clive's eyes almost rolled out of his head trying to find a proper place to be, and after a few quick glances at his partner and realizing exactly why she looked so different, he sunk down behind his laptop screen, his gaze back to the screen. "Welcome... welcome back," he managed, clearing his throat halfway through. He pressed a couple keys to save his document, before hitting a different combination to close it, and then clicked to open his emails. "Been doing some field work?"
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