JOEL MCGRATH
Warlock
Posts: 63
Age:
32
Occupation:
Detective
Status:
Married
Partner:
Jolene McGrath
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Nov 15, 2024 22:52:45 GMT
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Post by JOEL MCGRATH on Sept 17, 2023 19:30:22 GMT
His hands were still shaking, violently enough that he fumbled at the car door before he managed to let himself out. They’d swept in with that rush of adrenalin that had hit tidal wave hard at the first sight of the bruises darkening Dolly’s skin. It had been like a storm born of those marks. A storm dark sky spitting out lightning and thunder, the sizzle of it striking him hard enough that he’d barely been able to breathe. Wrapping Doll up in his coat he tried to shield her – a bit late considering he’d been sitting in the station, twiddling his thumbs over their case while someone was …
Joel stopped at the door to Ricky’s building, crumpling forward with his hands on his thighs, trying to pant past the nausea that shot through him with the violence and speed of that lightning again. Teeth gritted, eyes stinging, his lips quivering enough though he’d clamped them closed. He wasn’t going to puke all over Ricky’s doorstep – he doubted his partner would ever forgive him for that. Although he would’ve deserved a face full of it. If Ricky hadn’t stalled the investigation, turning his suspicions over the guy who’d had his back for years into the priority instead of just storming through the doors of the club to lock up every son of a bitch in the place.
He shut his eyes, trying to breathe through it long enough to settle his stomach again, but in the darkness behind his lids Dacre’s face swam into view. Smug, smiling, the tremor in his hand growing with the desire to smack a fist right into that Hollywood smile. Broken teeth littering what was probably thick shag carpeting – or might’ve been until the son of a bitch had to hide the evidence of what had happened right there under his nose. That settled him, a calm starting to waft through his straining body with the gentle touch of a cool breeze. The aim to put Dacre in a cell had been there before he’d even realised Doll was here in town, with every fingerprint – real and theoretical – he’d seen on Doll the desire had grown. This time he’d stepped over a line and now there would be no corner of the world Hector Dacre could try and avoid his fate in.
An inch at a time, Joel straightened up, pulling himself together enough that he could drag open the door and start up those stairs on legs as stiff as a scarecrow’s. He’d tried to hold it together until Doll had finally gone down in his bed, only letting himself start to crumble again when he’d slipped out of the room, leaving the door cracked and a note of explanation on the kitchen table. Maybe Jo would make it home and would find her, but his wife hadn’t grown heartless enough over the last couple of years not to understand why there was another woman in their bed this time. Jo was a DA, she’d prosecuted assaults like this with a gentle touch. She would do it again, conflict of interests be damned.
Ticking off floors in his head, Joel started taking the stairs two at a time. Driven on by the fire in the pit of his stomach. Anger was beginning to wash the grief away again. He didn’t have to hold it back to protect anybody here. Ricky could take the full heat of it and maybe that would finally drive him to want to do this. He’d take the lead when they kicked the fucking door of Dacre’s shithole down, Ricky could follow him in, using that stick up his ass to smack Dacre’s accomplices into line while he found that one bastard.
Manny.
Blue eyes now as troubled as a stormy sky raked over the doors as he reached the right floor. The neighbours were probably already in bed but he didn’t give a shit. If he had he’d have called Joel first, given him the information in a hushed tone from s spot on the bed right next to Doll. His fist thundered against the door, a violent roll of sound that was repeated after just a couple of seconds. ”Open up, partner,” Joel growled. He stared down at the lock, wondering if popping it off was a step too far. Definitely.
After a minute it was turning though. Joel took a half step back, his gaze going ice cold as it focussed on his partner. ”Get your sidearm, we’re going to the club. Dacre and that piece of shit he’s workin’ with are done. We’re shuttin’ the place down, putting Manny and his pimp in jail.” If either one of them made it that far. The sick feeling rushed back, leaving him leaving scrubbing the back of his hand over his mouth before the words emerged, muffled and cracked. ”He r-r*ped a woman tonight.”
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ENRIQUE DE LA PEÑA
Shapeshifter
Posts: 70
Played by:
Julia
Last seen Sept 30, 2024 19:03:35 GMT
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Post by ENRIQUE DE LA PEÑA on Oct 9, 2023 21:54:49 GMT
 ━ if you support evil, you are evil ━
He set aside the photos of Zach and made notes, double-checking the ones from that day, ensuring every small detail was still clear to him. Trying to see if something new would jump out, like a piece of the puzzle would click. It didn’t happen, but it wasn’t a waste. Next time, he’d do a little more research before he changed into one of their guys, and he’d do it in a group setting. It’d always worked for him before.
As Ricky shuffled a few more surveillance photos into another pile, loud knocks thundered on his front door, threatening to take it off its hinges. He turned and raised a brow at it━as if the door itself would provide him an answer━and then stood, closing the file and tucking it away. As he did, he heard McGrath’s voice from the other side of the entrance, sounding completely impatient.
Ricky pulled open the door, not even able to get out an, “It’s late,” before Joel was talking.
He’d been livened by something, his temper flaring directly in Ricky’s face, but providing no clear explanation. They were going to the club? Now? They couldn’t, it would ruin everything…
But then Joel said that name, the one he wasn’t supposed to know, and Ricky felt his breath seize in his chest. He couldn’t speak yet, he couldn’t find the right words━the ones that were not “You can’t know about him!” and “My baby brother would never do something like that!”
The accusation finally rattled his voice from his chest. “What? Who? Who is Manny? What happened, McGrath?” Ricky stepped back and motioned for Joel to come in. He didn’t like offering his space to someone else, didn’t like mixing his work and personal life, but he had to pull Joel from this ledge. “Come in, just calm down for a minute, alright? We can’t go in there guns blazing, not without some sort of paperwork. Tell me what’s going on.” Ricky would put on the kettle and make Joel some herbal tea, and hopefully that would start to calm him down. Ricky wasn’t a therapist by any means━nor did he want to be━but suffering through Joel’s feelings was better than seeing his brother (or his partner) go down too soon.
JOEL MCGRATH | no notes. |
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JOEL MCGRATH
Warlock
Posts: 63
Age:
32
Occupation:
Detective
Status:
Married
Partner:
Jolene McGrath
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Nov 15, 2024 22:52:45 GMT
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Post by JOEL MCGRATH on Nov 18, 2023 20:14:30 GMT
While Doll had clung to him, he’d held it together. He’d been that anchor for hundreds of witnesses over the years – the calm, stoic, sympathetic detective who knew just how much pain they were in. It was far easier to be that for people you didn’t know though. Trying to keep a hold on himself while he documented what that son of a bitch had done to Dolly had torn something deep inside of him. Once it had held back the things he’d seen on the job, the things that had happened before he’d even gone through the academy, but that wall had crumbled when Doll had shuffled in through the door with all the violence he’d tried to prevent in the world stamped on her body.
Part of him wished that Ricky had been there in the office to see it, maybe then he’d have realised just how innocent Dolly was in all of this. She was a victim of Dacre and his fucking monster friends. Their priority should’ve been getting her out of there and putting a stop to Dacre rather than piecing together a case that might have slapped a couple more years on what already had to be a prison sentence that would be twice the length of the son of a bitch’s natural life.
Would Ricky’s mask have finally cracked as he’d seen the fingerprint bruises on Dolly’s skin, her torn clothing? Surely something had to break through that shell eventually and if there was a heart beneath that was capable of feeling anything for others, it would’ve been over what had happened to Dolly.
Joel fixed his gaze on his partner as the door opened, waiting for the moment when something would shift at a description that should sicken anybody that heard it – including that son of a bitch Dacre, only he’d been the one to hand Doll over in the first place, like she was nothing but her namesake, a toy to be handed around to whoever felt like playing with her.
His hands curled in towards his body as he let out the verbal punch of what Manny had done to her, like he could let Ricky see the damage by miming it out. One rose towards his throat before the bitter laugh punched through the lump that had lodged there. ”One of Dacre’s business partners … I told you, he assaulted her.” As though his first description hadn’t been enough to make it clear. Manny was a predator and Dacre had probably known it when he’d told the guy he could go and see Dolly. That made Dacre an accessory to the assault.
Normally he might’ve hesitated a heartbeat before he walked into Ricky’s personal space. His gaze twitching over the place in the way only a cop’s could, some joke about how tidy the place was chuckled out. Now he barely noticed it, just trailing Ricky into the kitchen mutely. The minute he was in there he started to pace again, a short route back and forth, tension still crackling from him like he could fill the place with lightning – and maybe with his emotions torn to ribbons he’d actually manage it.
”There’s no calmin’ down partner,” Joel bit out coldly. He looked up at Ricky and shook his head, his hands rising to drag through his hair again, anything to bleed off some of his anger before it did spill out. ”I didn’t exactly get a last name. Manny should get us close enough. You can fuckin’ bet he’s one of the blanks on that board. Dolly called him Hector’s friend, a possible business partner.” That meant he was one of those cards in the tower Dacre had stacked up, the one they were gonna knock down finally.
He drew in a deep breath, tried to let some of the pressure in his chest bleed out with the exhalation. Joel stared past Ricky, pulling Dolly’s words out of the memory that still turned his stomach. ”She was at Dacre’s place. He wasn’t there, but he obviously told his pal that Dolly was home. She said Hector had told him he could go there.” Like Doll meant nothing to him, Hector had just passed her over. Would he even blink at the marks that crawled over her throat in a sickening threat. ”She didn’t want it. She wanted to fight him, but that son of a bitch took her anyway. He put bruises everywhere, tried to choke her out. If you want paperwork just to rubber stamp me stompin’ this son of a bitch into the ground, it’s all there at the station. The desk sergeant can tell you…” Joel paused, frowning. He hadn’t filed it though. Filling it out was one thing, having it all entered official into the system was another and it would’ve shackled him when it came to tearing Manny to pieces first.
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ENRIQUE DE LA PEÑA
Shapeshifter
Posts: 70
Played by:
Julia
Last seen Sept 30, 2024 19:03:35 GMT
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Post by ENRIQUE DE LA PEÑA on Dec 29, 2023 18:26:58 GMT
━ if you support evil, you are evil ━
Even as Joel repeated it, Ricky couldn’t believe it. He walked into the kitchen, fighting an inch as McGrath followed him, and made sure there was water in the stove top kettle before turning it on. “Manny is, unfortunately, a nickname for many common names. Emmanuel, Manuel, Manfred, Manfero…” He tried not to let his father’s accent colour the words. None of those were Manolo, though he didn’t think there were a lot of Emmanuels working for Hector. He also didn’t want to set Joel off (any more than he already was).
And how the hell did that puta know they were business partners? He’d seen that she was more than just the woman (if you could call her that) Joel thought she was, but did her abilities cover reading people’s minds? Had someone told her? Surely Hector could not have been so stupid.
Manny was one of the blanks on the board, but Joel couldn’t figure that out.
The explanation was sick, and it definitely wasn’t the worst thing either of them had seen in their line of business, but this was personal to Joel━Ricky, too. It was within the realm of possibility, but… not for Manny. He wouldn’t. Ricky couldn’t believe it, and not just because he liked to pull the wool over his eyes when it came to his little brother. Ricky didn’t. He was fully aware of what Manny was doing, and perhaps jail time would be good for him, but Ricky wanted to shield him from the worst of it as much as he could. This wouldn’t make it any easier.
He listened quietly until Joel trailed off, and then the kettle was whistling, and Ricky turned off the stove and lifted it, pouring hot water over a peppermint tea bag. He was hesitating suddenly, when, just a moment ago, he’d been ready to go in guns-blazing. Ricky took this opportunity to slip in some doubt. “Desk sergeant can tell me what, exactly? Have you left something undone at the station?” Ricky scooped some honey into the hot tea and stirred it, then turned, handing it to Joel. “Here, drink this. Sit down,” An unspoken way of saying nothing would be done about it tonight, and not just because Ricky didn’t want to do anything about it. Either way, they couldn’t storm the place tonight. He wasn’t even sure Manny was still working with Hector━he hardly saw Manny or Zach going there anymore.
He led Joel to the small kitchen table, and pulled out a seat for him, then sat in the one beside it, shifting until they were facing one another and perpendicular to the table. “What did she say exactly? Did she describe him, give you an eyewitness account, anything?” He asked, then continued, “You can imagine how this might appear if anyone realizes your… relationship with her, correct? If I had been at the station as well, it would have been different, but…” It made it flimsy, and Manny’s defence lawyer would’ve torn up anything substantial. The same man had somehow kept their father out of jail for decades━he was nothing short of a miracle worker.
JOEL MCGRATH | no notes. |
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JOEL MCGRATH
Warlock
Posts: 63
Age:
32
Occupation:
Detective
Status:
Married
Partner:
Jolene McGrath
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Nov 15, 2024 22:52:45 GMT
|
Post by JOEL MCGRATH on Jan 7, 2024 20:41:24 GMT
”And you’re telling me the cartel’s the Mexican version of the Kardashians?” Joel puffed, already shaking his head at his partner. There were still dozens of blank spaces where the identity of the gang’s members should’ve been shown on the board back in their office. Joel continued to look around Ricky’s kitchen, like those diagrams would appear on the walls, shadowy figures lurking in the corners to represent the names they didn’t know. ”He’s gotta be in the files somewhere. I was gonna show Doll their photos, see if she could pick one out, but if we knew him his name would’ve been imprinted there.” And in his head.
All these months he’d tried to pick through what they had, building connections that they could cut in the end. Yanking on the most important string to bring all these sons of bitches down, with the cartels head tumbling down on top of them. Doll would work loose of it, her engagement to Dacre ending the minute the cell door slammed shut. His eyes burned with tears that were boiling up more out of grief and guilt than they were anger, although that wasn’t far behind. He’d promised Doll he’d keep her safe and like he’d known he was losing her, Hector had decided to leave her scarred before she slipped out of his greasy grip.
The story burned in his throat, his vision blurring with the telling. It didn’t matter how blind the tears left him, he could still see the bruises on Doll’s skin through them, dark streaks on pale skin. Those hadn’t been loving touches, no matter how some sleezy lawyer would end up trying to twist it if this went to trial (more likely he’d be shaking as he put the man in a shallow fucking grave somewhere out in those woods). Men making love didn’t leave their partners battered and bruised.
Remembering the way his own touch had dimpled Doll’s skin, Joel started to fold in around himself. His shoulders sagged, his hands covering his mouth like he could hold the sick feeling back. Eyes still swimming, Joel looked over his fingertips at his partner. Ricky seemed entirely untouched by the whole thing, pouring tea like they were having a chat about the weather over lunch.
”He can tell you what he saw,” he managed hoarsely. What the fuck? His brows snapped together as Ricky threw it back on him. Had he failed to do something? Ricky wasn’t fucking psychic, he hadn’t reached right into his brain to see just why he hadn’t made it official yet. ”I did what I needed to. I had to take care of Doll, make sure someone examined her.” Gathering the evidence that would prove what this son of a bitch had done to an innocent woman.
Joel stared at the cup Ricky had pressed into his hands, considering telling his partner he didn’t fucking want it, or the chair, but like a child he did what he was told, following Ricky to the table. He dropped into the chair like his legs wouldn’t hold him up anymore. ”I got what I could out of her,” he puffed. He hadn’t pushed enough though, had he? ”It was all generics. Dark hair, Hispanic, it could be any one of fifty people who go in and out of that club. I wasn’t about to push when she looked like she was gonna shatter.” Diligently he’d noted down everything she’d said though.
His hand was heading towards his pocket for the notebook to fling it at his partner, but Joel froze with his hand clutching the front of his jacket. The lines in his face carved themselves deeper, heat rising in his eyes, drying his tears in an instant. ”What are you … fuck you partner,” he snapped. ”Dolly’s a friend and even if she wasn’t, it doesn’t matter. She was assaulted, nobody’s gonna look at the photos I had to take of her and see anything untoward. Are you telling me you’re just gonna try and sweep this under the damn rug?” Was the investigation that fucking important that Ricky would let a woman’s sexual assault go unpunished because of how it might reflect on him?
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ENRIQUE DE LA PEÑA
Shapeshifter
Posts: 70
Played by:
Julia
Last seen Sept 30, 2024 19:03:35 GMT
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Post by ENRIQUE DE LA PEÑA on Mar 10, 2024 16:10:42 GMT
━ if you support evil, you are evil ━
Perhaps because, if this was true, then he’d have taken a step farther than Ricky ever thought he could… and Ricky wasn’t ready to accept that fact just yet.
“Did you collect any DNA?” He asked, brows furrowed as he watched Joel, settling into his own seat across from him. Of course it was all generic━and thank God for that. Manny had tattoos, Ricky was sure, but he assumed any of the lowlifes in the gang would’ve had a significant amount, too. There was nothing specific she could pin on him, and while Ricky would’ve been more inclined to go after this if it wasn’t her━and it wasn’t his brother━he was suddenly feeling grateful for these small miracles. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been.
He saw Joel go rigid before the insults came, and he nearly encouraged Joel to drink the tea in his hands, but Ricky decided to stay quiet. He was better off not pushing it right now, especially when Joel had a better hand.
“No.” Ricky puffed, shaking his head and letting his voice remain calm. “That isn’t what I’m saying at all. Every member of this organization has a number of charges racked against them. If there’s enough evidence to convict this person of this crime, we can for sure add it to the pile of them. And if we ever need to bring them in on an unrelated charge to get more time, this will work perfectly.” Joel might accuse him of being heartless, but if this were any other woman and any other case, he’d have to agree. Due to the Double Jeopardy laws, they couldn’t bring someone in for the same crime twice. “Calm down, McGrath. Drink your tea,” He said lightly, “We can’t go storming through there tonight, especially not without more evidence. We have to be smart about this.” They couldn’t throw away years of work just for Joel’s little hot pocket and her accusations.
JOEL MCGRATH | wrap w yours? |
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JOEL MCGRATH
Warlock
Posts: 63
Age:
32
Occupation:
Detective
Status:
Married
Partner:
Jolene McGrath
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Nov 15, 2024 22:52:45 GMT
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Post by JOEL MCGRATH on Mar 25, 2024 16:35:07 GMT
Seeing the damage that son of a bitch had done to Doll, he’d been afraid of touching her. Accidentally laying his own hands on one of those bruises, bringing back the memories of other hands on her, pawing, squeezing, making her cry out. The sick feeling had crawled up the back of his throat, threatening to choke him as she’d reached out to him. He’d been the one who was meant to protect her, all those promises to get her away from Dacre whispered to her and when he’d failed, he’d barely been able to comfort her without his head filling with images of what had happened.
Joel stared at his partner, the lines between his brows deepening. Had he done enough or should he have pushed for more, ignoring the instinct to not let anybody else put their hands on Doll after that? Fuck. He wasn’t even sure who’d put a stop to the exam in the end. Looking away from Ricky, Joel tried to piece his way back through the kaleidoscopic memory of the exam room. Had he snapped or had Dolly asked him to stop? Either way he’d bundled her up into fresh clothes, the stuff she’d been left half wearing put into evidence bags.
”Not unless there’s any on her clothes. I … she couldn’t take anymore …” Ricky’s mouth would probably purse around his disgust, his screw up partner so worried about one of those snakes that he couldn’t do the job right. Maybe he wasn’t wrong, but it still didn’t mean Doll had to pay for the mistake he’d made in not getting her out of there right at the start of all of this.
Those failings stacked up like weights on his chest. Dulling his breathing, leaving him moving like he was swimming through mud as he’d reached for the cup, then for the notebook in his pocket where he’d tried to gather what Doll had said to make sure that something went on record. It all cracked like Ricky had used a sledgehammer instead of his fucking judgy mouth. Joel huffed out a breath as he tried to immediately back track on it. What was wrong, partner? Too scared you might end up being the one stepping over a line?
They’d spent so long stacking up evidence like matchsticks, ready to set Dacre’s empire alight, but they hadn’t been fast enough. Leaving Dacre sitting pretty in his cesspool of a club, thinking he was untouchable while he tore apart more and more lives. ”We just use what he did to her like a cherry on top of a shit sundae?” A bonus. What Dolly had suffered through just used as a way to try and get the rest of it to stick, like this wasn’t a thousand times worse than any of it. And Ricky saw it as perfect.
The bad taste in his mouth got worse, the bitterness wanting to bubble up like venom in his throat. Spitting it at his partner wouldn’t do a damn fucking thing. Ricky didn’t care about who else suffered in this, not as long as he got his kingpin in the end. Fuck the rest of them, fuck the damage that was done in the meantime. Joel stared down into the tea cup, then as ordered took a gulp. Tea wasn’t gonna wash away any of it. ”Then we’ll be smart. We put this on the board, we don’t forget what some son of a bitch did to her. Look at the marks he left on her every day and use it.” It wasn’t as though he needed to see the photos that had been taken of Doll’s injuries, they were all stamped into his memory.
Joel pushed the cup away from him, his gaze rolling listlessly up to his partner now the steam was gone out of his temper. ”Someone needs to pay for it, and I need somethin’ stronger. You got any liquor floatin’ around in here?” He doubted Ricky harboured a cabinet full of booze, but as he sank his face into the cradle of his palms, Joel knew he’d need it to be able to sleep tonight without the nightmare of what he might not be able to prevent the next time smothering him in his sleep.
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hope to see you in the discord! 
