Background
Murder Mystery and Detectives...a real who dunnit?
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Warren, is exceptionally tall at 6 foot 5 with wavy thick brown hair. He is handsome in an unkempt kind of way. His thick beard always needing a trim, his neck also. Most days he wears his thick brown rimmed glasses but on occasion contact lenses. When he is cleaned up, he has been told he looks somewhat like Ryan Renolds but is actually more Reynolds adjacent. But he runs with that as it gets him more girls than if he didn't.
He has a dry and somewhat awkward sense of humour, bordering on inappropriate and sometimes clear across the line. The punch line more important than the appropriateness of the situation. He is bright and his attention to detail in his job is very important to him. It's uncanny how well he grasps things at work. However, he is not as adept at picking up social ques. He's been in trouble a few times with HR about those blurred lines, however there is also a certain charm to him that makes it hard to stay mad at the guy. You almost want to comfort him as you dress him down.
He has been with the San Jose Police Department for over 10 years, specializing in IT media, cell phone data, and apophenia â€" the ability to see patterns in mundane and sometimes unrecognizable things.
Most of the S.J.P.D. put up with his personality both good and bad, because he is somewhat of a savant with this specialty. He can also reboot, repair and decrypt most devices. Some, where others cannot. He is a very valuable asset to the department.
Warren joined the team close to a year before Terry Smythe did. When he met her, he took a liking to her almost immediately. Everyone else at the department thought her too serious and severe in personality. She seemed bristly and closed off. He saw through all of that and saw deep inside her. Something happened to this woman that she keeps buried deep inside. He noticed that whenever she was upset, she would study harder, focus more and push herself to her own limits to achieve anything she set her mind to. She didn't fool him. He knew it was a coping mechanism.
Whenever he saw her firm pressed tight lips, he knew she was deeply focused, even when simply walking down a hallway. Her eyes would scan her surroundings while her mind is focused on whatever task she has at hand. He found her to be quite remarkable. Petite and short never stopper her and made her work even harder than most. She was strong and fit mentally and physically and she never shared with anyone anything personal about herself.
The very first day he saw her was in a briefing with the team. Everyone was given a task to do, a case he barely remembers today. As they all left the meeting, he grabbed her attention on the way out of the room.
"That Bonner's a real boner, isn't he?" He asked her.
"Sorry?" she said looking way up at him.
"Bonner the boner, we all say. A bit of a bruiser huh?" he looked into her green eyes and was lost. That's all it took.
"So, you're on the cell phone tack on this one, aren't you?" She brushed off his comment and asked him while they walked down the hall.
"Yuppers, that's me." He replied. "Wanna grab a beer and go over the file?"
"Let's just go over them in the interview room, ok?" She wasn't impressed with the barely hidden attempt at trying to take up some of her personal time.
"Uhm sure. You're new here. I've been here close to a year. They haven't let me out yet. I can give you the intel on the team, if you want. You know the lo down?"
"Listen uhm Warren, is it? I am not here to make friends, date or otherwise. I am here to get the job done. That's it. No beer on the weekends, no private cell phone time, nothing. Just work, get it?"
She found herself irritated but kept it out of her voice. She had no time for anything but getting the job done and done right. She had a goal, she wanted to make detective in record time and that didn't allow for anything extra.
Warren didn't let anything stop him from his goals either. He could see she needed a friend and he was going to be it. Whether she liked it or not.
"There's nothing wrong with being friendly, missy and that is exactly what I am doing. Getting to know the people you work with is also an asset. Knowing who you can and cannot count on, who has side specialties that are not in their employee files that can help with a case. Being friendly helps you out as well. If you don't loosen up, you won't make any friends around here, and you need them. Well, except for me of course. Like it or not, you have just made a friend." He smiled down at her.
She nodded at him, sighed and kept walking.
They made it to the interview room, plunked down their files and got to work. It wasn't long before Warren had impressed Terry with his skills. Within a few hours they had worked out the travel time line of the perpetrator of that case. When she had the file Warren had worked on, she was looking through his notes in the file. He was a doodler and his little doodles were all over the pages. Nonsensical doodads without rhyme or reason. Until, she looked at them as a whole. They actually created timelines of their own. He was definitely smarter that she thought.
With time and a lot of persistence he actually got her to open up, just a crack. He was the only one that even knew she had a sister, a handicapped one at that. A fact she shared when one of their many cases they worked on together, had a girl with similar disabilities.
At the interview with the girl, Terry showed incredible patience and a gentle hand. While talking to the girl, Terry's face had softened and she smiled. Warren was overwhelmed when he saw it. This is when his crush really started. After the interview, back in the squad car, he looked at her.
"It's incredible. I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it myself." He smiled at her.
"What are you talking about Warren. Was there something I missed?" Terry replied.
"Always on the job, hey? I meant your smile. It didn't even crack your face." He smiled at her.
To this she did allow a slight upturn of her mouth. Just a hint, but it was enough for him.
"Ah! Ah! Don't do it! We are in public! Someone might see! What will you do if they find out you're actually human?" He was full on teasing her now.
She let a slight little laugh escape and tilted her head down.
"Ok Warren, you done now? Can we go?" A little river of like is now running inside her heart. This man did have a way about him. He was able to get her to care. With time they grew to be quite good friends. And once, only once he tried to take her out on a date. But that dropped like a bomb. It almost risked their friendship but Terry forgave him.
When Terry left to join Boseman PD, Warren was somewhat devastated. He loved her in both a friendly way and deep inside like a man to a woman as well. He would never let her know that; the risk was too high.
When Terry called and asked him for the favour, there was no doubt he was going to do it. Never a moment's hesitation.
Now, with the report in hand, he had to call her. The cell phones and the records contained things that Terry needed to see, so he called her right away.
"Hey Warren, what did you find out?" Terry asked.
"Let me put it this way, Tangerine, I'm on the next plane to Boseman. We will be busy with this for a while. Don't try to stop me, I already booked time off. I'll be there on Wednesday, what's a good hotel there?"
She let the Tangerine slip. "No need, my house is big enough for us both. Give me your flight information and I'll pick you up."
After having spent so many years together at S.J.P.D. she knew if he wanted to come out to Bozeman, that it was big.
"I'll text you my deets."
And with that they both hung up.
