The break between Christmas and New Years was something that was more relaxing for Mercy. A lot of her work in gathering back the things that she had been involved in stealing in the past was largely winding up, though she still had a lot of assignments that ended up having her as a sort of liaison between the Animalia PD and the FBI. But because Lyre and Animalia had had a spectacularly low crime rate after the start of Animalia with most of the actual reported crimes proved to relate to either alcohol or driving violations. It was all fairly easy and gave Mercy some time to relax at certain times of the year and had been enough to take her own bond mate in Zack Zephyr. But it was still work, and work she really couldn't get out of, unless she wanted to look at real jail time as a former cat burglar.
And so, she continued to carry out work with the Animalia PD's special ops unit and as a liaison with the FBI. For the moment there was no other big case going on, which largely meant some routine patrols and being available to monitor things from the air when anything happened that might lead to some action, even if much of it in Lyre/Animalia proved to be rather routine. The biggest issue was more the rotation between day and night patrols, and Mercy often found herself on the nightshift, because bats tended to be nocturnal. Though, sometimes she did end up on the day shift, often because of scheduling issues or simply a case of "it's your turn." And one day between Christmas and New Years just happened to be one of those days. She'd just finished her lunch and was about ready to go out when a female Wolf Animalian came out from the dispatch room.
"Elaga," the Wolf Animalian spoke with a formal tone and drew Mercy's attention. She didn't like that a lot of the police work relied on formality and thus had last names being used more than first names, but it was something that couldn't be escaped. "Officer Truman's just reported a case of reckless driving that just so happened to arrive at East Side Park as he was getting ready for lunch. From what it seems, the car is stolen and the guy that's gotten out of the car has reported something of jewel thieves. Truman is having to do basic "crowd control" at the moment, and we have other units on the way to handle the arrest and the moving of the vehicle to our impound lot. You're to go in for added cover and see what all this suspect is on about."
"But I'm not a detective... and if this is a getaway car for some jewel thief, it won't have much that I could really help with," Mercy commented, "if another officer has already been sent... wouldn't I just be in the way?"
"Not if what this guy was blabbering about is true when he tried to turn himself in to Truman," was the answer.
Mercy only sighed and then nodded. She made her way out and shivered a little bit as she did so. It wasn't super cold, or at least not as cold as it was early in December when the Green Sea Turtle that had gotten caught up in a speed boat carrying cocaine had been brought to Animalia for a short while, but it was still a bit cooler than what Black Mastiff Bats would prefer in the wild. Thankfully, she did a specially fitted coat that she could still fly in, and it wasn't long before she was gaining altitude and on her way to East Side Park. As she arrived, she noted that there was already a rather hectic scene. Simon Truman's cruiser was parked next to a civilian's car in the normal parking space. Then a few feet from the back bumper of the civilian car was a black Honda that was parked perpendicular to how Simon Truman's cruiser and the civilian car was parked. Though, coming in from above, Mercy saw what looked like a hole in the back window of the Honda with some cracks in the glass near that hole. That struck her as something had to have struck it and that the glass had to be pretty strong. On the other side was another police cruiser that was there, and that both Simon and the other Wolf Animalian had two Humans standing between them and the black Honda. At a picnic table nearby, there were also three Husky Animalians, who Mercy guessed were there to have lunch with Simon.
"Okay... I'm here," Mercy announced as she came in for a landing and went about folding her wings to her back, "I was told something about a stolen car and jewel thieves...?"
"That is the claim," Simon spoke as he turned to note Mercy's arrival, "though... some of it seems weird."
"Particularly as a look through of the car... while we found a girlfriend in the backseat, there was no sign of jewels," the other officer spoke, "though the driver does appear to be sober."
Mercy slowly glanced to the two. The male was lightly built and looked a bit scruffy, though more in the sense of needing a shave and a shower more than anything else. There was a degree of nervous flight in his eyes that seemed to drift more to the road leading to the park rather than anything going on around the officers or in the park. The female had an even lighter build was almost clutching at the male.
"We did get permission to search the car... see if the ownership records are still in it or not," Simon spoke, "and if any of these supposed jewels were there..."
"And the gunshot damage?" Mercy asked.
"Huh?" Simon wondered.
"Look to the back window," Mercy answered, "I saw it as I came in. It would appear as though there's a hole there that would be aligned with the front passenger seat... and that the glass has to be strong, borderline bulletproof as most glass would shatter completely under such stresses. Some major businesses or mansions would have that kind of glass installed on their windows to make it more difficult for a burglar to cut a hole in the window quickly enough to get in without being noticed."
"Yeah... I'd saw that..." the other officer said slowly, "but that could have come from either the officers that were originally chasing these two or something else along the way..."
"It wasn't officers! It was the gangsters going after the jewelry store!" the male suspect blurted, "we saw them go in and stole the car before they could come back to it!"
"Which is a big part of their story and why you're here," Simon said to Mercy, "we have to search the car and see if any jewels are in it. If there are... they'll be bagged as evidence. If not, the car will just go to the impound lot and we're waiting for our tow truck to move it. Given your experience with working as our liaison with the FBI on some cases... maybe you'd picked up on something that could see as to how much of their story is true."
Mercy nodded, feeling a bit grateful that no mention of her past as a cat burglar was brought up, or with some of the more embarrassing parts of her training after her own conversion. With that the other officer went about to search the car, and Simon took a step back and moved to a position that if either bolted, he could intercept them. Mercy shuffled over to a side to make sure neither would be tempted to run off int he other direction and focused her attention on the two suspects.
"Okay, I'm sure you've been asked this already... but would you mind going over some things for me, just to make sure the story is straight?" Mercy asked.
"Well... Missy and I are originally from Las Vegas," the man said to Mercy, "but we've also traveled around and made our way to Reno."
"South of here..." the woman added.
"I know where Reno is," Mercy answered.
"Anyway," the man then picked up, "we got there and were just walking around when saw this group of guys... all wearing gang colors. They had this car here and went into a jewelry store... one that has the ultimate owner also being in Las Vegas."
"Were you with this gang members?" Mercy asked.
"No... I mean, I suppose you could say that we weren't entirely on the side of the law," the man said slowly, "but I was never the sort that would do direct harm to people and the gang members... all had guns and were bragging about stuff that they would do, and that was a line too far. You know..."
"I can understand," Mercy spoke, though not getting into how she could understand.
"So, we figured that if we couldn't beat the gangsters, we'd trap them," the woman spoke, "as they left the car unguarded, and they all went into the store. We then got into the car and made off with it, figuring that the police in the area would surely be alerted to the jewel thieves and would get them. Though the last of the gangsters noticed when we started the engine and came back out as we began to pull away and fired a shot... I was wrestling with the seatbelt and was lucky not to have been shot."
"And you decided to come here?" Mercy asked.
"Figured that if the gangsters did manage to avoid the police in Reno and managed to track us down, they wouldn't go to war with a bunch of guys that could bench-press bodybuilders with ease," the male suspect admitted.
"Animalians may be strong, but we're not bulletproof," Simon commented from his spot.
"Though it would seem like certain elements of what you're getting at are in the "right" place," Mercy commented, "if in an odd way. We may need to contact the Reno PD, see if they had any reports on this jewel theft that these two witnessed and if there was any cameras outside the store or area that the jewel thieves went into. That could confirm what these two have said here."
"It wouldn't change that they stole the car... or are in possession of a stolen car if these gangsters stole it first," Simon commented.
"It probably wouldn't surprise me if these gangsters actually do own the car and simply reported it as stolen... assuming they weren't immediately caught by the Reno PD," Mercy commented, "or they tried that as part of some measure to try and reduce the punishments for the jewel heist... if they pulled it off."
Mercy then turned back to the two, "and in this, we may have to take you in on at least possession of stolen property, potential theft of an automobile..."
"And reckless driving in a residential area," Simon added, "as you had to be doing close to fifty when you spun out and nearly hit my bond-mate's parent's car."
"Okay," the man nodded, "but all the other stuff would show you that I'm telling the truth."
"And I get the sense that you're being honest... or at least mostly honest," Mercy spoke, "but we will have to hold you until things can be confirmed."
The two nodded while the other officer then approached, "there are no jewels in the car... not unless it was engineered for smuggling, and I don't smell anything that would indicate that."