3 - 2 - 1 Contact! : Garrison & Leo (Backdated, Tuesday morning)

[x-leosamson.livejournal.com]

Garrison and Leo field questions from the Salem Center police chief about the bombing



The carpet in the formal sitting room was slightly frayed. Leo had never noticed that before, but then again, he'd never spent much time staring at it before. Garrison was jotting down notes from the conversation they'd finished just a few minutes ago, and Leo felt numb from going through the events last night over and over again. That was probably the point--by going over it with Garrison it'd be easier to keep it clear for the police. And it'd be easier to keep it together.

That was the hard part right now. He hadn't sleep at all last night, just tossed and turned and stared at the ceiling. The Med Lab was strange and unfamiliar, and his injuries didn't help--his chest still hurt from the smoke, his head from the wood hitting it, and that wound in his leg still stung. Despite that, with all the medicine he'd been given, he should have slept. But every time he closed his eyes, he saw Jada.

He heard the knock at the door, and one of the students answered it. Garrison straightened up as footsteps came their way.

"Huh. Looks like we get the Chief." Kane said, as Abe Carson walked through the door. They had clashed once when Inez was jailed, and now the florid Chief of the Salem Center police was taking a personal interest in the bombing. Kane shot a meaningful look over to Leo, hoping the man would take the hint and guard what he said.

"Agent Kane. I didn't know this was a federal affair. In fact, I specifically recall not requesting additional assistance."

"Oh, you know how it is. Happening to be five doors over from a big explosion, just can't resist a chance to take a look. After all, if it's a terrorist act, it's our anti-terrorism force that take jurisdiction here."

"Terrorist act? I think you're chasing ghosts, Agent Kane. Doctor Samson? We need to speak to you."

Leo caught Kane's glance and pulled out his 'clinical' face with effort. He would remain calm, he would maintain his professional demeanor. He would follow Kane's lead and get this ordeal over with as soon as possible. "I would be happy to answer your questions, Chief Carson," he responded politely. "With the exception, of course, of any information protected by patient confidentiality."

"This clinic serves mutants. Any of them documented with powers that could cause this explosion? Before you bring up patient confidentiality, this is a criminal investigation, and we have the right to subpoena medical records and any documentation pertaining to medical conditions that could be a factor." Carson said bluntly.

Leo maintained his poker face with difficulty. "The clinic served patients, Chief Carson, including mutants. And many of those mutants are children, who not only are protected by confidentiality, but by their minor status. As you well know, their guardians would have to give consent for any information to be released about them. Regardless, you can certainly feel free to subpoena any records you wish. You'll find most of them in the pile of ashes that was the clinic."

He met the irritated gaze of the officer and then sighed internally. He wanted to get this over with, not goad the man into a confrontation. "To the best of my knowledge and experience, none of the patients the clinic serves had the ability to cause this explosion."

"Well, we'll double check all the fatalities, just in case. Agent Kane can explain the police work to you." Carson opened his notebook, looking at the pages. Ordinarily, this would not be handled by the Chief of Police, but Salem Center wasn't that large a place, and the only way to keep this from going up the ladder to federal involvement was to rule out terrorism quickly. "Looks like we have a single explosive device used, likely jury rigged, and delivered to the clinic. Do you have any enemies, Doctor Samson? Or know of anyone in your clinic who might?"

"Like, say, mouthbreathing FoH lackies?" Kane said in a sotto voice, earning a dark glare from Carson.

"The Friends of Humanity is not a terrorist association, Agent Kane. In fact, they have specifically denounced acts of violence against mutants. Is there some kind of political agenda you want to shoehorn into this investigation, Agent?"

"Ooh, the suggestion that my viewpoint is part of an attempt to compromise the investigation. Nice." Kane said, his gaze equally steely. "Unless you have a suspect, you can't discount it and you know it."

"Doctor," Carson turned back to Samson. "Any enemies? You or your patients?"

Leo had flinched at the word fatality, despite his efforts to keep his face bland. Fortunately the Chief was focused on a back and forth with Garrison, for which Leo was grateful, as it gave him time to refocus before the Chief returned his attentions back to Leo.

"Most of my patients are children, Chief Carson," Leo replied evenly. "My oldest client at the Clinic is 14. They have all kinds of enemies--bullies, mean teachers, annoying little sisters, angry older brothers, and most of society in general. They come to my office because of the way they are treated by the world of non-mutants. In that regard, they have many enemies."

He rubbed his forehead with his hand wearily. "I certainly have my share of enemies in that regard as well, I am known as a psychiatrist that works with mutants and there are many who take issue with that. But as to a particular enemy? Someone willing to ...I don't know. Most of the family members of the clients I work with are trying to come to terms with their child's abilities. Of course, there have been problems and incidents, difficulties a child's mutant abilities have caused for a family, but I..." He trailed off, flashing back to that odd look in Trey Riley's eyes last night--ridiculous. He barely knew the man, he had no reason to suspect him. "I'm sorry, I can't think of any one specifically."

"So no enemies you can think of that would plant a bomb in the clinic? Well, that brings us back to the possibility of accidental powers use. Some new client that happened to explode before you got to meet them. People don't bomb a clinic unless they have a good reason to." Carson closed his notebook. "Please keep yourself available, Doctor Samson. We will have additional questions. Agent Kane."

Garrison bristled as the man walked out passed him, already contemplating wedging the doors of his car shut and tossing the whole package into the Atlantic. He let out a breath. "That did not help us, Doc. Forensics will determine the type of explosive used, but someone had to set it. Give Carson a chance, he'll pin it on one of the dead mutants and slam it into a murder-suicide case, cutting off a counter terrorism investigation. There's got to be someone."

"Child." Leo stared at Garrison half in anger, half in shock. "One dead child, a six year old girl!" He swallowed, and took a deep breath, coughing slightly. "Tamika and Jasmine are sill in the hospital, but neither of them are mutants. Jada--"

He broke off and looked away, and then continued, his voice ragged, "Jada was the only one, the only mutant, who was killed. Is she a good candidate for a murder-suicide case?"

A cracking noise caught his attention, and he looked down. He'd gripped the arms of the chair so strongly he'd shattered it completely. His skin was thick enough none of the wood splintered him--not that he cared at the moment. Leo took a deep breath--Kane was trying to do his job, trying to help. "Jada's uncle...he had problems with her, that's what last night's session was about....but I really don't know much about him. We have the usual hate mail and graffiti artists at the clinic, monthly protesters--all of them are bigoted idiots, but--"

He coughed, and reached for his water. His throat was still sore from the smoke. He thought for a moment, trying to force his mind to work. "Clinically, none of them fit the criteria--they're likely to spray-paint the building and scream obscenities, but I can't see them escalating to this level."

"You need to get a grip, Doc." Garrison said, dispassionately. "If you want to know who is responsible for this, you need to deal with the fact that the person in charge of this investigation is a racist fuck. I know you hate it, but do you want to be morally right or do you want to catch the fucker who did this?"

Leo sighed and buried his head in his hands, trying to think. "I really can't think any of our 'usual suspects'--the hate mail gang--would be up to this. We do maintain a...uh...'Most Wanted' poster in the lounge with potential threats and photos, but I haven't added anyone for six months. And that's in ashes at the moment. Tamika would--" he stopped, and then cleared his throat. "I'll see what I can do about finding those names. Jasmine had encountered resistance for her work at the Bronx high school--they're doing a mutant-human student alliance--but, again, nothing at this level. She also had a pair of twins that were fire setters, but this is way beyond their skill level."

Leo leaned back in his chair, dusting the bits of wood off his lap. "There was...no, he's still in in-patient...uh...no, she's in prison...wait, there is one parent that I could see doing this--father of one of my teenagers. He disowned her when she manifested, she doesn't want anything to do with him, but he's severely mentally ill and enough of a bastard to do something like this..." he frowned, "Except he's stationed at Okinawa. The only other family member I have...well, like I said, Jada's uncle. I hadn't met him until last night, Tisha usually dropped Jada off. He was pretty upset because Jada accidentally shocked him and broke his TV on Friday...I was actually hoping him taking Jada to therapy last night was a sign he was willing to be a part of the therapy..."

"So we start with the uncle. Taking her to therapy could have been scoping out the place. There are a couple of decent cops on this force. I'll pass the name along to them, get them to doublecheck where he was." Kane looked over at the scene. "In a couple of hours, forensics will have a positive id on the type and location of the explosive. We run down everyone who came in and out of the clinic in the last twenty-four hours, and cross out names until we get a suspect. If you can think of anything else, you need to talk to them. Corrupt or not, even they have to follow procedure, and the more information you give them, the less chance they have on pinning this one of your depressed kids."

Leo nodded his agreement, "I'll see what I can come up with. I'll have to contact my client's parents to get permission to release the information." He stood, looking down at the now armless chair. At least it wasn't one of the antiques. "I'll...I'll talk with Tisha to get her permission to talk about Jada as well."