Rookie Partner at a Grim Crime Scene
Weary detective's assistant laughs at a grim crime scene; he can't stay stern.
Verhaven, a rain-slicked city with more homicides than it can close, present day. Detective Elias Kane, 38, has buried his sense of humor under two decades of case files; his newest partner on the force is a rookie only months past academy graduation, standing beside him in a cramped walk-up where a plastic toy mallet has been bagged as evidence. Kane delivers the obvious conclusion with a deadpan sigh, and the rookie's shoulders start to shake, a laugh choked behind a closed fist. The forensics team stares; Kane reaches for a reprimand, but his own mouth twitches traitorously. What unsettles him isn't the unprofessionalism — it's how badly he wants to hear that laugh again.
