I don't do doughnuts (tag Angel)

[Faith]

Detective Seargent Vincent Hayes was not your stereotypical cop. Sure, he did his job, followed the leads, wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty, that kind of thing. But stereotypical in L.A. meant on the take or in someone's pocket and more often than not, depressed.

"You think she'd mind if I help myself to coffee?" He happily asked the uniformed policewoman who was helping him search Cordelia's apartment. The female officer shrugged and carried on with her search.

"I didn't think so." He chirped as he was already spooning out some into one of the brightly coloured mugs. The kettle was already boiling away behind him.

"This is one sweet fuckin' apartment." He said leafing through the mail. "You think if she turns up dead, I can get a good deal on it? There's already one body in the block, two is almost serial killer time, and you know how that drives prices down." He turned his attention to searching the kitchen cupboards. "I'll bet you any money she's one of those Hollywood types, y'know the ones. Gets paid shitloads to sit around all day and get pampered." The female officer, used to working with Hayes, was blatently ignoring his ramblings.

"Probably sleeps with her agent, or her PA. Some buffed up stud who fetches her non fat cappuchinos and organic bagels. He'll have some gay ass name like Dennis or somethin'."

The kettle clicked to announce the water had boiled, and Hayes returned to pour his drink. He opened the fridge to look for the milk and just stared blankly inside. After a few minutes of disbelief, he called over his shoulder to the female cop.

"Looks like she might've gone on holiday. There's fuck all in this fridge. Unless she doesn't eat, and if she is one of those Hollywood types, that wouldn't surprise me."

He turned back around to the other cop. "Be a doll and go get me some milk, yeah." He put on his sweetest smile. It didn't work. She just glared back at him with her hands on her hips.

"Please." He pleaded. It still wasn't working.

"Get you're own damn milk, what am I, you're PA?" She replied.

"No, but you're my officer for this investigation, which virtually means you're my slave." He chuckled. "And that means you're gonna go get me some milk!" His tone had turned stern, but not nasty.

She sighed, letting her hands fall by her sides in a gesture of surrender. "Fine. I'll go get you some milk." She turned and headed out the door, leaving Hayes on his own. Seconds later, her head peered around the door frame.

"You want an organic doughnut with that..." Sarcasm dripping from her words.

"Ha ha." He said flatly, throwing her a scowl. "You know I don't do doughnuts." She grinned and left as quickly as she had returned. Hayes gazed at the black coffee. "I do do sugar though." He muttered to himself and continued to search the cupboards for some.

[Angel]

The black ford plymouth pulled up to the curb and he hoped out, soon as his feet touched the sidewalk he could smell blood in the air. frowning he slammed the door. Just what the hell was wrong with Cordelia, what was so bad she would hide it from the people who cared about her.

Looking round he spotted a couple squad cars, seemed the police wheren't done cleaning the place out. As he headed to her apartment, his worst fears had been confirmed,the killing had taken place at her apartment. Something was seriously wrong here, he knew Cordy would never kill anyone, at least not willingly.

Breezing past a beat cop he walked into the apartment, the smell of the blood was a strong as ever, even more so with his vampiric sense of smell. It seemed on one had even registered his suddeny appearance. Putting his hands on his hips he looked round "Uh..can I talk to who ever's in charge here?"

[Faith]

Hayes poked his head around the cupboard door. A frown appeared when he didn't recognise the tall man standing in the living room.

"That would be me." He closed the cupboard door and wandered around to find out who the new guy was.

"Who might you be?" He never gave him chance to answer. "You're not with the FBI are you? You look the type, all long dark coat and overhanging forehead. Say, you didn't bring any milk in with you, did ya?"

[Angel]

As the detective made a comment about his forehead he subconciously reached up and touched it, then he shook his head "I'm Angel, Cordelia's Chase's employer" he looked down at the dried blood on the wood floor "What exactly happened here?"

[Faith]

"So, no milk, huh." Hayes looked visibly miffed.

"Well, Mr. Angel. Perhaps you know where Miss Chase is? When was the last time you saw her?" He said ignoring his question.

[Angel]

"A couple days ago at the office" he rubbed his chin and looked at the detective "She seemed preoccupied with something but Iwas busy working a case I didn't really have time to talk to her about it"

Looking at him, he could see Cordeila was obviously the prime suspect in this and who could blame him for thinking so, the janitor had been found dead in her apartment, the murder weapon was probably something Cordelia had used in her home and there had been no sign of a break in so the killing had not been in self defence "So, what exactly have you found out so far?"

[Faith]

"I'm sorry, where are my manners." He said deflecting yet another question. "Detective Hayes." He extended his hand to shake. "And how is it you got past the officers downstairs?" He asked unthreateningly.

The way this guy talked, Hayes figured him for a private dick. If Cordelia Chase worked for him, then her disappearance might have something to do with a case he was working on. Best to keep him chatting, no need to overindulge in giving him answers just yet.

[Angel]

"Just walked on by, must have figured I was on homicide or something" he shook Hayes' hand and walked by him into the bed room, lookign round quickly, nothing looked like anything had been stolen, so that ruled out the possibility of a robbery gone horribly wrong.

Walking to the kitchen he opened the fridge, the usual Cordelia realted food items where in there, bagels, low fat cottage cheese, fresh orange juice. Grabbing the jiuce, not caring that he was getting prints on a crime scene, he uncrewed the cap and sniffed the contents. Nothing. No possibility of mind control drugs.

As he thought on drugs, he hoped they hadn't searched her medicine cabinet yet, if they discovered the various forms medication, it wouldn't look good in her favour.

[Faith]

"Just walked on by, must have figured I was on homicide or something"

"Well you do have that air of death about you. Too much dark material." Hayes watched as Angel cast an investigative eye over the apartment. Definately a dick.

"Hey, don't mind me here." He said, beginning to get a little annoyed with how this guy was taking over. "This is only a crime scene, but you go ahead and breeze right on through. Go through her underwear drawer if it makes you feel any better. I know it did me." He added under his breath.

"Did Cordelia ever show any signs of aggression? Was she ever violent, y'know, did she ever beat anyone to death with a blunt instrument? That kind of thing." Hayes said, cornering Angel in the kitchen.

[Angel]

Closing the door of the fridge he shook his head "No, never" he cast his mind back to the time she fell pregnant with a demon's child which made her knock him out cold, then to the time she almost broke his nose trying to teacher how to fight "She's a very gentle person" he added "Though, if you must know she had been acting strange these past couple days"

[Faith]

"Strange?" He said crossing his arms in front of him. "Now we might be getting somewhere." He paused a second to think.

"Strange like she had something to hide, like she was guilty? Were you aware she had at least twelve different kinds of heavy duty prescription meds hidden under her bed? Real heavy duty shit. Knock out drugs. Everything from pethidine, to percocet, to, my personal favourite, vicodin." He let his words sink in before continuing.

"We're dealing with a homicide here, Mr. Angel. The landlord of this apartment block was found with his skull caved in, as you can see by the bloody mess on the floor." He gestured over his shoulder. "Now, from the accounts of her neighbours, Miss Chase isn't endowed with rippling biceps, and lets just say, the landlord wasn't exactly light on his feet. So, from my point of view, it's entirely possible that she may have used some of these drugs to knock him out before delivering the fatal blow." Angel was about to protest, but Hayes held up a finger so he could elaborate.

"Maybe she was overdue on the rent, perhaps you weren't paying her enough, or she spent it all on Beverly Hills shoes, who knows. Women spend money like it's burning a goddamn hole in their purses, just ask my exgirlfriend. She ran up so many credit card debts, you wouldn't believe. So, anyway, when the guy comes to get the money she doesn't have, she thinks of another way out of it. She crushes up some of her chemistry essentials back there, and slips them in his drink, and bam! He's out cold on the floor, giving her time and oppertunity, to finish the job without a fight. So she picks up an approriate tool, something hard and blunt, and smacks him over the head with it. But then something spooks her, or she hasn't knocked him out enough. The neighbours say they heard some fighting, but by the time the cops get here, she's no where to be found. It appears she didn't have time to pack, or cover her tracks. What I'm saying is this."

"Do you know where she keeps her sugar?"

[Angel]

Stansing there in silence, what Hayes was saying to him would have made sense to him, ifhe didn't know Cordelia but he did and he knew better then anybody she wouldn't have taken a human life, unless it was self defense, even then she wouldn't kill "I'm gonna be completely honest with you detective, there's no way Cordelia was responsible for this" he looked down at the dead body "Sure, it's her place but she didn't do it because I know her" he looked eyes with the detective "As drugs, she has her reasons but all I'm gonna say is, whatever is going on here, you're already in way over your head"

He opened a cupboard and reached for the sugar and held out to Hayes "No finish whatever it is you're doing and get the hell out"

[Faith]

"As drugs, she has her reasons but all I'm gonna say is, whatever is going on here, you're already in way over your head"

Hayes gave him an odd look. "You know, I get that feeling a lot in this city. Feels like I'm missing some big secret." His expression became a little more distant, as if he was trying to recall something but couldn't quite join the dots.

He opened a cupboard and reached for the sugar and held out to Hayes.

"Hey!" Hayes was visibly happy as he took the sugar from Angel.

"Now finish whatever it is you're doing and get the hell out."

"Huh..." His head snapped back to Angel, surprised by the sudden hostility.

"I might remind you that this is my crime scene, not yours." He paused a moment. "It's quite obvious you're worried about Miss Chase, so I'll let that slide. It's my job to ask these questions, questions no-one else wants to hear, so forgive me if I caused offense, but you have to admit, Cordelia's disappearance and this murder can't be a co-incidence. Either she did it, or she walked in on whoever else was here, and lets hope it wasn't the last thing she did."

He took a small card from his pocket and handed it to Angel.

"Look, here's my number. If you hear from her, I want to know."

[Angel]

Nodding he took the card "I'm sorry just..." he ran his thumb along his forehead "A lot's happened lately" he slid the card into his pocket. Hayes seemed normal, seemed honest, unlike a lot of cops in this city, well there was one but that was a long time ago.

"I'm sure where she could be, besides the place where I work, which is the Hyperion on fifty third, I have some staff you could question, thought they'd be able to tell you as much as I could" he gave a shrug and walked past him into the bedroom. sniffing the air, he could pick up her fragrances but nothing else out of the ordinary.

[Faith]

"I appreciate the tip. I'll swing by there once things are wrapped up here." He spooned out some sugar into the cup before tapping the spoon on the side. How long does it take to get milk?

"I hope for her sake someone knows where she is. It'd make my job a helluva lot easier." He noted the concern on Angels face. Not to mention his slightly odd behaviour. Sniffing? Maybe he has a cold...?

"Plus, y'know, I'm sure we'd all like her back safe and sound." He put his best comforting voice on. Which actually didn't sound much different from his bored voice, so he added a smile to try and make it look less patronising.