9 Introduce Yourself

It was probably a touch childish, but Ray was excited to be heading into the police station for the first time that he became detective. He knew that very few of the people there would treat him differently because the rank of an officer and detective were considered to be on the same level. Still though, there were only a few important people he knew would recognized his accomplishment.

The first one was Rachel who was the secretary. An older lady who had been recently transferred to their office after retiring from being a officer in the field. She slightly on the taller side and somewhat stalky due to all the years she had been in the field and working out to stay in shape.

"Why hello, aren't you a charming newcomer." Rachel greeted them as he took notice of Abel whom she had never seen before. She then turned her head to Ray and offered him a small nod.

"And why hello to you too, detective." Ray almost couldn't stop himself from grinning.

"Hello Rachel. It's nice to you again too." He replied. It was a usual Monday greeting for them. Abel gave a small nod of his head as well, but didn't say anything.

"This is Abel Gray. My new partner who just recently moved to the area." Ray said, pointing to the other as he introduced him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. It's not often around here we have a fine looking man such as yourself who's a decent person. Most of the time the only ones who come through here are in getting booked in or brought out." Rachel commented as she offered the other the smile which he didn't return.

"It's nice meeting you." Abel replied as he went ahead of his friend to walk down the hall and further into the police station. Ray apologized for his lack of manners before he went after him. His partner's only focus was on getting familiarized with the station and finding out if any important results had come in yet.

"I know you're really focused on getting on this job, but it doesn't hurt to be polite when it's your first time here." Ray told the other who glanced at him as he continued walk next to him.

"Sorry, formalities aren't my strong point." Abel apologized, but the other could feel that there wasn't anything particularly sincere about the apology. If this was how Abel was going to be all the time, Ray was going to have to tell Harold that he was right that there was something off about this one. He had hoped for once to prove the older man wrong but it didn't seem like it was time for that just yet.

Ray opened the glass door that separated the main office from the hall and a few heads turned to look his way when they saw that someone they didn't recognize entered the office with a slight air of someone who owns the place. Ray internally cringed at this. His partner needed to learn some decorum.

"Have the results from the phone call or autopsy come in yet on the Victoria Ingle case?" Abel asked looking around to see who might be able to give him the information that he was looking for.

No one answered him of course as they weren't certain who he was or what authority he had to be asking such questions without so much as a introduction. Ray was about to intervene when Harold who was positioned at the back of the office stood up to take charge.

"You must be Abel Gray, our second new detective around here. While I appreciate your enthusiasm, you won't get very far here if you don't introduce yourself and get to know everyone before you start barking out questions." Harold may not have had much authority, but almost everyone in the office respected him enough to listen to him when he took charge or said something. Abel assessed the other with mild interest.

"I see, then I will change my approach." Abel told him as he conceded to his point without saying it verbally.

"I apologize for my lack of introduction. I am Abel Gray, just recently moved her after being hired to be the partner detective to Ray Monroe. I hope that I will get to know everyone better as I work here and we get to work together." He introduced himself and although he had a polite tone about what he said, he didn't bother smiling at anyone as he looked over the office to see that most everyone was watching him now.

"That's much better." Abel flinched and looked a touched annoyed when Harold clapped him on the back none-too-gently.

"Now let me see what I can do to help you out. The chief isn't around right now so you don't have to worry about introducing yourself to him. I know the case you're talking about, but I don't think we have anything back yet." Harold told him as he walked back over to his desk, Ray followed him but Abel stayed where he was at.

"Does anyone know where Jack is at?" Harold raised his voice to make sure that everyone could here him from where he was sitting.

"I think Jack is out right now Sir. Late lunch I believe." One of the younger man sitting up front said as he looked at the calendar on his computer.

"Can you look at his desk then and see if he left any kind of updates or notes for a detective Monroe and Gray." Harold asked. The young man gave an affirmative as he wheeled over to where Jack's desk was not far from his own and looked over what was placed on the desk.

"Sorry, we are a bit short right now. Aside from the case that you two are working on, there's a robbery we are investigating possibly tied to a string of car jacking that's been going on." Harold apologized as he made a note on his computer to remind him that when Jack got back he needed to be better at updating his calendar so that everyone, including him knew where he was it."

"It's alright, I can sense it is a bit understaffed despite the rate of crime and problems that you deal with in this area. Probably an issue of inadequate funds to hire the necessary number of officers you would need to handle everything." Abel replied, Harold paused for a second as he looked at him before laughing.

"You're quick to pick on things. You're not wrong though, it's something like that. We always manage to get by though except during the odd times like around now when we have a bunch of cases coming through."

"Found it sir! We are waiting on the autopsy results. The coroner hadn't been in yet. We did get an update on the phone however, it was too damaged to access so a request has been put in with the service provider to get access to any phone calls and text messages that were sent or received over the past few weeks. Nothing else though." the young man replied as he read off the note.

"There you have it then. Seems like you're still in the middle of a waiting game." Harold said as he looked at both of them.

"Not quite, we still have a few more interviews we need to do. Clients and colleagues that weren't in work and some other things I want to check out." Abel replied as he pulled out his phone, he was using that for the time being to make notes of what was going and what he was waiting for.

"He's right. We just stopped by to see if anything had come in yet and I need to pick up car as well."

"I have something I need to talk with you about actually." Harold told Ray motioning for him to stay behind.

"I will leave ahead then. We will go through the list as we had talked about before." Abel said as he turned to leave.

"Alright, just me let me know if you find anything out." Ray nodded his head at his partner before the other turned to leave. He then turned his attention back to Harold who's face looked more serious now that Abel had left.