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The morning dawned bright and loud, but Tessa still managed to sleep in until lunch time. Endlessly thankful for her autonomous line of work, she stretched her cramped body out. Her neck ached with tension from sleeping the couch. Groaning with both the joint and muscle pain, sitting up felt like a chore.
Apparently, she had been more afraid than she realised, as her taser and knife were cuddled up on the makeshift bed with her. Checking her phone decided the course of the day for her, forensics had emailed to report that there was little extra information to be collected from the baggie. There was also a desperate missive to collect it immediately as it was creeping out all of the staff in the lab and interfering with their work. Tessa briefly wondered why they didn't just stick it in a bind box, but resolved to go get it as soon as she was ready. While blood magick was unsettling, clearly everyone else felt it was far creepier than she did. She quickly dressed, swilled a coffee and grabbed a protein bar for the road. The troubles of last night were soon forgotten in the central Bayton traffic.
The Agency building stood as tall and imposing as ever with its blank white facade. Plain and utilitarian. Utilitarian was really a word to describe the entire Agency entity as a whole. Agents weren't trained to be creative, but rather quick, decisive and clever. They were simple weapons of the Witch's Council; in the same way the mundane police were weapons of the government. Each Agent only had to think for themselves as far as solving a case and killing or imprisoning the criminal. The rest of their movements were up to the powers that be in the Agency and Council hierarchy.
It was no wonder that Tessa felt that she did not fit in with her co-workers. She had always felt like an outcast, caught somewhere between her role as an Agent, her friends in the Bayton slums and her past life as a young socialite. Not one of those factions were who she truly was, so she felt on the outer of all three.
Catching her previous mentor in the foyer, Tessa stopped to say hello to her former mentor Lady Marique. Towering above all Agents around her, Lady Marique stood well over six foot tall. She had once mentioned that in her tribe she was considered short. They had jokingly called her the runt. Tight lipped as to where her tribe was actually from, Tessa only knew it was deep in Africa somewhere. Lady Marique had been well known for her magical skills, so much so that the Agency had brought her over to Bayton, to help control an area known for its magickal crimes.
'Lady Bale, I have not seen you since you graduated to being a full Agent. How have you been? I heard they gave you one of the most challenging cases we had. You must have impressed them to get such a case,' she said, her eyes bright, however many more grey hairs had appeared since Tessa had last seen her. Her accent was soft, as was her gentle voice. It had always soothed Tessa in the most desperate moments. Lady Marique was a stickler for protocol, but she was also a damn good Agent, one of the best.
'Thank you, Lady Marique. I guess it is. It's not a particularly nice case, but I suppose there is no such thing as a nice case,' Tessa quipped, trying to seem light-hearted. Her eyes burned with fatigue, and Lady Marique was clearly not fooled by her facade.
'Dear, I trained you for three years, and you are still trying to pretend everything is fine? Now what is eating you?' Lady Marique asked, leading Tessa to a corner further from the foyer and the prying eyes and ears of the public. Tessa smiled weakly, of course her mentor had seen straight through her mask. Lady Marique had been more of a mother than her own birth giver.
'It's nothing I can't handle, just sleeping at night is a bit of a challenge when your victims end up mutilated right by your home.” She rubbed her aching eyes wearily, not wanting to worry Lady Marique, who likely had a nasty case of her own to stress about, and probably a new wayward intern.
'Oh, I see. Yes, I am afraid you never get used to that. Now you are no longer my student I can say that on cases like these, wine and a bit of THC before bed really helps with that side of things,' the older Agent said with a wink. Tessa felt her jaw drop, seeing her strait-laced mentor in a new light. Lady Marique simply laughed and continued. 'I may be old, Contessa Bale, But I am not a dinosaur,' Lady Marique teased gently.
During her internship, Tessa had never heard her mentor speak in this way, and now she was no longer an intern she was privy to a whole new side of the Agency staff.
'I, yeah, I see your point. Although you are barely old,' Tessa retorted, to which Lady Marique chuckled loudly and bid Tessa farewell.
The forensic technician on duty practically threw the bag at Tessa as soon as she went through the door. She opted to barely touch it, having her oak wood box at the ready. Tessa slipped the forensics report into her case file and mentally prepared herself to take on the investigation of Mikal Myne's apartment. She had never really discovered where Adam Reeves lived, the Agency file only listed “no fixed address”. She hadn't asked Damien about an address either. Given the type of people the murderer went after, Tessa figured it was highly likely that these were murders of opportunity.