Awkward Detective Rp (closed to Ripple)

Renee Lauth. 22 years old and already the author of three best-selling novels. Two of which in the highly competitive fantasy genre, the other, action/adventure themed. Known in the tabloids as a prodigy when it comes to writing, she is likened to J.R.R. Tolkien...

Eloise Woodruff sighed as she skipped over the newspaper article. It was always the same whenever there was a column about her books. First there was the briefing. How old she was, her pen name -they never seemed to try finding out her real one- the genres she wrote for. And then there it was again. Yet another comparison to Tolkien. Couldn't these editors get any new ideas?
The rest of the article went on to say about how there was a planned third installment for her fantasy series, making it a trilogy -again, "like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings"-

Ellie neatly folded up the paper and threw it down on the table, running her hand through her pale brown hair before downing the rest of the hot chocolate in her mug and getting to her feet. She grabbed her notepad, keys, bag and coat and headed for her front door.

Now you would expect a writer to be one of those rich folk who have all the money, but Eloise was the complete opposite. She lived in a rather normal looking house with a fair sized garden and two bedrooms, one of which she kept spare and used as a sort of storage room. Looking at the normality of the rest of her life, you wouldn't think her personality would be so...excitable.... eccentric...just plain crazy. Different people had different ways of describing it, but usually she was just downright hyper. How she managed to write bestsellers was a miracle even in her publisher's eyes.

But right now. Life was boring. There was nothing going on. Nothing fun. Nothing exciting. Nothing new. Ellie just wanted to find a way to change that.

Popping back inside her house for just a second, she grabbed her pen off of the small table next to the door.

A rather short 23 year old woman with dark brown hair hurried along the sidewalk, the look on her face signalling urgency. The red hues in her hair shimmered as the sunlight hit her briskly walking form. This was Bailey Redmont, a young but talented detective of the CBI. She seemed confident and sure of herself as she rushed down the street. As she knocked on the door of a nearby house without any idea as to how much this would change her fate, Bailey panted. "Excuse me? May I use a phone?" she called, digging around in her pocket for her badge. "I'm from the CBI so I'm not some stalker or something..."

Eloise paused for a moment to organize her bag again, clipping the pen to her notebook and make sure that it was near the top. Her bag was filled with the most random of things. Small trinkets and objects, some of which may come in handy one day.
Ellie straightened the collar on her blue plaid blouse and peered at herself in a nearby mirror. Just as she was heading back for her front door, there was a knock at it. Wondering who it was, Ellie promptly opened it and saw a short woman with dark brown hair stood on her doorstep.
"Hello?"

"Excuse me? Can I use a phone?"
The woman then took out a CBI badge to prove she wasn't a 'stalker' or anything.

Well this was exciting. Never before had a CBI agent come to her door. Heck, she'd never even met one in passing before.
"Of course!" she grinned, deciding that all other plans today could wait.
She lead Bailey into the kitchen and grabbed a black wireless phone from a convenient corner. The base that charged it up was plugged into the socket nearby.
"Here." she smiled, handing it to the CBI Agent.

Bailey's face broke into a grateful smile. "Thank you!" she exclaimed, dialing a number with great haste. "Uhh.. It's kinda urgent.. do you mind if I come in?" the agent asked, feeling somewhat creepy. "Y'see there's this guy following me who is a suspect in a murder and my back-up has gone missing and I had to throw out my phone this morning due to a series of unfortunate events." Bailey had the tendency to babble when she was nervous or panicking, and was clearly showing Eloise an example at that moment. "I'm Bailey Redmont by the way if you didn't read my badge-" she cut herself off. "Oh gosh. I... errr... babble a bit." All the while she cast glances over her shoulder, a dark van turning the corner onto the road.

"Of course!" smiled Ellie, not at all hesitant at letting the agent in. The writer deftly pointed towards the living room as she closed the front door behind Bailey.
"Make yourself comfortable!" she grinned.
Ellie turned to head back into the kitchen but then paused for a second, poking her head back round the living room door.
"Tea?"

Eloise's living room was cozy looking. It wasn't extremely large, but it wasn't tiny either. The colours were mostly hues of orange and white. There were two pale white couches, one slightly smaller than the other, orange pillows giving it a sense of consistency to the rest of the room.

Spoiler:

[I fell in love with this living room when i found the picture. I thought the brighter colours suited Ellie's personality too xD]

(Lol i wish my house was that nice XD)

Bailey smiled graciously. "Thank you!" She sat down a bit awkwardly on the light colored couch, feeling as if she shouldn't mess with the delicate balance of cushions and colors in the room. "Ah.. If you don't mind, why not?" She replied with a bright smile. Suddenly, the phone connected to the number she had dialed.
"Hello?" "Oh! It's Bailey. I have a mysterious black van tailing me and I've taken shelter in a residence down West Street. Mhm.Thanks." She ended the call with an exasperated sigh.

"They won't be over for a while.." Bailey sat silently for a moment. "Excuse me, but you seem rather bright. Mind helping me out with this case? Just having someone listen and offer an idea or two helps me out a lot." She gave a sheepish half-smile as she made the proposition.

Eloise grinned and wandered into the kitchen. She quickly brewed a pot of tea, pouring the hot liquid into two white tea cups. She put the cups onto their saucers and then placed them neatly on a small tray. Ellie also poured some milk into a jug and sugar into a small pot. Once they were all organized, she brought the tray into the living room and set it down on the table.

Eloise delicately used one of the teaspoons on the tray to spoon some sugar into her cup. She then poured a bit of milk in and picked up her cup and saucer, sitting down near Bailey on the bigger couch.
"'Taken shelter'," quoted Ellie. "Sounds exiting!"
She chuckled and sipped her tea as Bailey asked for her opinion on her case.
"Oh..? I guess I could..." she grinned, sounding as if she was giving it considerable consideration... however, one could tell from the look on her face that she had already decided that she would as soon has the offer had been made.

Ellie was practically leaping for joy inside. This really was exciting! When would she ever get the chance again to help a CBI Agent on a case!

"Well, here's the story; Our victim was a middle aged man named Gregg Hardy. Homicide. He had two sons, a 16 year old and an 8 year old. He also had a wife quite a few years younger than he. The body was dumped..." Bailey rummaged about in a small yellow hand-bag with a cute white pattern on it. She pulled out several photos of the victim at the base of a small cliff heavily shrouded by trees near a calm river.

"Cause of death is yet to be determined because of the sheer number of injuries the body sustained." She explained. "Oh, and he worked as a reporter for a big news company. However, there are very many suspects and they all have no alibi's. Thus, we're stuck. Today we were working undercover but my identity was discovered and I was followed my who i presume to be a colleague of the murderer." Bailey finished her statement with a confused frown.

Eloise flicked through the photographs, a concentrated frown on her face as she though over everything the detective had said. Unlike most untrained people, Eloise didn't seem to be affected by the fact that she was now looking a photographs of a dead man.
"From the sheer amount of injuries the body has I would guess that whoever killed him probably wanted some form of revenge... However I suppose it's possible that some of the injuries could have been caused by him being thrown down this cliff like area after death."
Ellie ran a hand through her hair as she thought. She realized that she was probably echoing all that they knew already via whatever tests they would have no doubt performed on the victims body.
"Cause of death doesn't look like drowning despite the river in the crime scene... so yea.. dumping sounds good."

She sighed, starting from the beginning and trying to rethink about this.
"You said he was a reporter right? Has he written any articles that might annoy someone recently?"

Bailey's eyes sparkled. "I'm glad you asked! I thought you'd figure it out. Recently, the victim had been working long hard hours on a story that was going to "make him rich." However, all of the papers pertaining to the article were stolen. He was so secretive about this story that he told nothing to his family. At least, that's what they say. I think they're hiding something, though." She looked thoughtful. "It's quite a tough one, eh?"

Eloise grinned, "Intriguing!"
There were many possibilities going on in her head. There were the usual reasons for murder, such as an affair, money, covering up something much more sinister....but this seemed like it could be good. However, there was always the possibility that this secret article could just be a red herring.

"Where were the papers last?" she asked, knowing that it would be probably be better to track them down first as they seemed like the best lead in this case....

"The victim has a safe in which he keeps his important documents. This is peculiar though, because only the article information was stolen... The culprit could've had his credit card numbers, social security numbers, and much more yet he only took the information..." Bailey was thinking so hard by this point you could practically see the gears turning in her head. "The safe was found wide open in the victims office the morning of the crime. Or rather, when we found the body. By the time we got to the body the kill was already 3 days old..."

"Do you think that the kill and the safe robbery could possibly be separate things then? I mean... It is possible that someone could have used the victims absence to their advantage but not have actually committed the murder...."
Eloise was clearly running down every option here in an attempt to help the detective sat on her couch.

"Have you checked what was in his pockets at the crime scene? Was he wearing his wedding ring?"
The questions were flowing out of Ellie's mouth before she even had chance to process them herself. She took another glance at the pictures, seeming far to eager about this case than any normal person would be...

"Oh... I'm Eloise by the way. Eloise Woodruff."
Her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment as she realized that she hadn't yet introduced herself to the friendly detective.

"Nice to meet you" Bailey, being the friendly woman that she was, smiled warmly. "As for your first suggestion, I'd say that they were related. Any normal burglar would take all of the items in the safe. However, this burglar did not.." The detective took Eloise's comment into account and countered it.

"A search of his pockets turned up a wallet containing money, cards, identification, and pictures of his family. He was wearing his ring." She began firing back the answers to the questions rapidly. Where the heck was the back up anyway? XD

Talking about backup, just before Eloise could ask another question, there was a knock at the door. The writer looked at Bailey and sipped her tea again before she got up and walked out of the living room to go and answer it.
She opened the door to see a young man in a three piece suit holding up a badge identical to Bailey's.
"Robert Faraday. CBI. This is the right place right?"
Robert tried peering behind Eloise, looking for Bailey. With him was another male as well as a few more people with guns and vests on.

"Yea.." replied Ellie, "I would invite you in but there are rather a lot of you..."
She chuckled, "I don't think you'd all fit in my living room."

"Don't worry." smiled Robert, "We'll no doubt be leaving soon anyhow. The van tailing Redmont seems to have given up. We have some guys following it but we'll be out of your hair in no time."

Eloise hid it well, but she was rather disappointed by this fact. She'd have rather had the whole lot of them in her house than give up on this intriguing case now...

The suit Faraday wears. Just because I like it.:

Bailey, being an observant detective, noticed Eloise's very slight apprehension at leaving the case behind and letting the opportunity to solve it go. So, with a mischievous grin, Bailey made a simple statement; asked a simple question. "How would you like to help the CBI solve this homicide?"

Cedric could've facepalmed at that question. Of course, being the serious guy that he is he did nothing of the sort. Boss was always very intelligent but she sure had a soft spot for the weird cases she picked up. "Boss.." He said in a warning tone, as if to say 'watch out for what you're getting yourself into."

Bailey stuck her tongue out at Cedric. "I know what I'm doing dangit."

Eloise practically leaped for joy at the proposal.
"I'd love to!"
The excitement was brimming in her voice as she was visibly restraining herself from hopping up and down. She really could be hyper sometimes.

Robert couldn't help but chuckle slightly, his hands in his trouser pockets. Cedric was truly the most serious of them, but Faraday was rather carefree. But he got the job done, and that was what counted. And besides, having a new, fresh mind on this case, as Bailey had pointed out earlier, could be nothing more than helpful.

"How about we get going then?!" grinned Ellie, once again grabbing her coat.

Bailey chuckled, enjoying the bright bouncy-ness of Eloise's personality. "Sounds good to me" She nodded and waved her hand at the door as if saying 'After you.'

Cedric nodded and held back his sigh of 'oh good grief what have you done.' He turned around and led the group of four to the CBI van.

At this point, Bailey and Cedric had a staring (err.. glaring) contest over who would drive. That is, Cedric stared and Bailey gave him her death glare, something which makes most men weep.

Eloise happily exited the house and once Bailey was out too, she locked the door and followed the other three over to the van. She double checked that she had her notepad and pen and then watched the mini glaring contest.

Whilst this was happening, Robert slipped into the drivers seat and started the engine.
"You coming or what?" he grinned.

The other, armed members of the backup team had already driven away.

Cedric climbed into the back seat with a curt nod.

Bailey, on the other hand, was thoroughly pi- ticked off. Ooor maybe not. She sat down in the passengers side and began crying anime style. "Waaaaaah!~ How cruel! I almost won these keys fair and squaarrre!~" After realizing she was making a spectacle of herself, Bailey settled for giving Robert dirty looks the whole ride. "..the heck are we going anyway?"

Laughing quietly to herself, Eloise also climbed into the back of the van. next to Cedric.
"So what's your name?" she asked, having not caught it earlier. "I'm Eloise Woodruff."

Robert continued chuckled at the dirty looks that Bailey was giving him as he drove off.
"We're going back to the CBI building. Hopefully the postmortem on the victim will have given us a new lead."

"..Whatever." Bailey muttered, crossing her arms across her chest and staring out of the window. As she grumbled quietly to herself, Cedric was holding up a conversation in the backseat. Or, what he would call a conversation.

"Cedric. Cedric Tulley." And so, his conversation ended. A man of few words indeed.

Eloise frowned at Cedric. "You don't talk much, do you?"
She wasn't expecting a proper answer and so fell silent afterwards. The van seemed to fall under an uneasy blanket of the silence as Robert drove them all back to the CBI building.

Once they arrived, Faraday parked up and got out of the van. Eloise eagerly hopped out of the back. She couldn't wait to see the inside of the place. Grinning, she wondered what it must be like to do this as a full time job.

"Alright then! Here we are, the CBI Building." Bailey announced proudly, waving her arm to gesture the vast building behind her. As she led the way inside, she pointed out a few landmarks. "Coffee lounge type thingy," she said, pointing towards a roomy....room with coffee machines and couches. Oddly enough, there was also a tea pot. (Jane look what you've done XD) "And here, we have our HQ of sorts," The detective declared. The group stood before a room with desks and a white board as well as an office or two. "Preeeetty boring," She immediately deadpanned.

Eloise seemed to think it was quite the opposite. At every little think that Bailey pointed out she seemed to grin and smile at. It was like she was a small child who had just had all her dreams come true.

Robert popped into the coffee area just as Bailey pointed it out, hoping to make himself a drink before they got back to work.

"It's all amazing!" Ellie grinned, amused by the simplest of things. She couldn't help herself and took a seat at one of the desks. She stroked the wood of the table, her sharp blue eyes were examining even the smallest things about the building. She soon got up though, realizing that Bailey's team would need the desks to be able to work on the case. Instead she turned her attention to the whiteboard.