I See You

Chapter Six

         Cody stepped out onto the porch where he found the older man pacing like a deranged animal. He felt a bit of respect he had for the man slipping away. Cody planted his hands on his hips and glared down at Hank. "You want to explain that? Because it looked like you were accusing the victim's granddaughter of his murder."

         "I've seen everything in my years on the force boy. Trust me here," Hank paused in his pacing and counted off his points on his fingers. "She had a motive, probable cause and intent."

           "Are you fucking kidding me right now? She was almost two hours away, with witnesses to corroborate that fact. And by the way has no vehicle in which to travel here without being seen by no less that two dozen people. Hell, you didn't even offer to have a GSR done on her." Cody rubbed the back of his neck in frustration. "Frankly Hank, I think you owe her an apology."

         "See? That's your problem. You let yourself get emotionally involved with the perpetrators and victims we deal with," Hank rolled his eyes and wiped his lips.

Cody frowned at Hank's words. "Considering that we deal with death, I'd say that's a little fucking difficult to avoid Hank. These are real people, with real families who grieve when these tragedies happen. We can't pretend that these crimes happen in a vacuum."

"You're forgetting that justice is blind Rookie," Hank replied, shaking his head. "You walk around with a damn bleeding heart for every person we encounter. It's a liability."

"A liability?" Cody shook from his fury. "That woman in there would never have hurt William. He was her only family. Never mind that it's just not who she is as a human being." He jabbed his chest with his finger. "I know Emma and everything inside me tells me she is innocent. My experience and more importantly my gut tells me that she's no murderer. You need to stop treating her like one."

"Well, I'll tell you what, when I prove to myself with evidence that she didn't do it then I will stop treating her like a suspect," he explained as if it should be perfectly obvious.

         Cody shook his head and couldn't understand why Hank was behaving this way. All the while he fought back the unease he was feeling. The spirit wasn't so happy that Hank had made Emma cry. Actually it hadn't been happy she was even there inside the house, but yeah the crying didn't please it either. Cody was just plain pissed off at the fact as well.

"You know what Hank? I think I can handle this on my own. I don't believe she deserves to be raked over the coals when it's obvious she didn't do anything to deserve being treated like a fucking criminal."

"Oh really Rookie?" Hank laughed coolly. "You think you're better off without my help on this?"

"Yeah. I do," Cody retorted just as cool. "Matter of fact I don't see how I can do much worse than accusing an innocent woman of murdering her only living relative." He watched Hank swipe his mouth with the back of his hand yet again. "Seriously, I have never seen you treat a victim's family with such disrespect Hank. What the hell is wrong with you?"

Hank groaned in irritation and spun away to stomp down the steps. "Oh fuck off Rookie!"

"What's your problem man?"

Hank's shoulders rolled. "At the moment? You. You come in here–"

"Not by my choice Hank. I wanted to go solo, but the department heads insisted. Believe me I don't think I need to be saddled with a fuckin' babysitter."

Hank's eyes narrowed. "You want to be on your own huh little man?"

Cody remained silent under the older man's prodding insults. He just arched a mocking brow. He had to hold onto his control otherwise he'd get written up for assaulting a senior officer.