QR Code Murders: Raven Ascending

She called out like all hell. “Put the weapon down slowly….” Kim reassured the assailant.

Yawquisha stood in her confident stance and recorded everything. St. Kitts and Darby ran up to the action followed by three squad cars.

“I don’t want to do this!” The suspect shouted.

“And you don’t have to if you just listen to me,” Kim said evenly. “Just put down the gun and we’ll talk. If people can murder nine other people and have a burger in custody, I think we can get you out of this with everyone safe. Does that sound about right?”

The man, about one hundred and sixty pounds, laid down the weapon. Uniforms rushed in to safeguard the victim and to tackle him to the ground. Kim holstered her firearm. With the camera trained on Kim’s face, Yawquisha knew just the right amount of grit it took for her detective MVP to neutralize situations.

“That was good police work, Jergensen,” Darby stated.

“Thanks,” Kim replied. “Glad you guys could show up,” she said with acidity.

“Hey,” St. Kitts responded. “It’s not like we weren’t a block away doing surveillance.”

“Surveilling what? Potheads and junkies. That woman could have died. It was ‘great police work’ because I was the only one on the scene.”

The camera caught all of this. When the agents just stood there as Kim walked past them and got into her car and started it, they knew she was not for games. She shot a glance at Yawquisha. It was the look of a mother bear who was either going to let her cub go to the wolves or allow it to follow her.

Yawquisha responded without hesitation by reading the scene.

“What was that back there?”

“Competence meeting ignorance. The former is like cool air and the latter is a bunch of hot air. When they mix, you get what you just saw.”

Yawquisha internalized all of Kim’s words. She let them boil down like sticks of butter on the frying pan of her mind. In the time that she realized just what she was in for (not directed at her, though) she kept from hearing “get that thing out of my face!”

When they arrived at the department, Captain Framingham greeted and congratulated Kim on her negotiation skills.

“Excellent work, Jergensen.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“You know, I had a hostage situation in the early two thousands. It didn’t go completely the way it should have but at least only the bad guys got hurt.” More footage rolled from Yawquisha’s lens. She captured the captain shaking hands with Kim. She actually allowed a slight smirk to emerge from a face of darkness.

“And you,” he turned to Yawquisha. “You got it all right?”

Yawquisha nodded.

“That’s what's going on in the news reports.”

Yawquisha stopped videoing.

“Respectfully sir, I don’t license my work to news outlets. They are only for my private use which includes my vlogs,” Yawquisha argued.

Captain Framingham approached her. Kim folded her arms and turned in her seat.

“This could be worth millions in royalties if you do this,” he suggested.

“I know. I’m not interested. My work is only for me and my audience. If the Daily Delaware and Channel 30 wish to cover the story with their own equipment, that will be on them, not me.

“It’s you comply with this office, or this ride-along business is over,” Framingham fumed.

Kim stepped in, now. She rose from her seat like a raven ascending from a gravestone.

“Sir, with all due respect, you can’t just get rid of her like she was trash. She’s provided excellence in the field of journalism and I would argue, if it weren’t for her, Parton would still be free.”