Canon, LoM 1x01

[the_gene_genie]

 

Things with Tyler...are not going well. He thought that after a good night’s sleep, the man would’ve got over his little tap on the head and got more into the swing of things. Alas, it seems not.

Tyler makes it clear that he doesn’t like the way things are done. He seems confused about them conducting an interview in the Lost & Found. Gene points out that the bird they’re questioning is a gobby cow so the canteen wouldn’t really be appropriate but he gets the distinct impression that Tyler doesn’t consider the canteen a viable option either.

He watches as his DI tells the gobby bird in question, Dora, that he wants her to call him Sam. She seems as surprised as he is. Tyler asks polite questions that Dora takes the piss out of; he puts up with it for about three minutes then gets bored and steps in, shoving the table out from between the two of them, ignoring her requests for a lawyer and getting up in her face.

Tyler...walks out. He actually walks out, like he can’t stomach it and for Chris’ sakes, he hasn’t even laid a finger on her.

...OK, she might get a bit of a push after he’s gone, and he does bang her up for obstruction of justice, but that’s when she decides to talk and give them a lead. So, a good morning’s work. But Tyler doesn’t like that either. He’s beginning to think that there’s nothing the man will like and what the hell sort of office do they run in Hyde anyway? Must be full of poofs.

He takes him to the pub. Immerse him in a normal day, see what happens. And people tend to relax in pubs.

Not this bloke though. The first thing out of his mouth is him asking Nelson what part of his subconscious he comes from. Lucky Nelson’s a laid back sort of bloke, really; when Sam says something similar to him five minutes later, they nearly come to blows.

‘You’re just some...thug, crawled out the back of me mind.’

‘You gonna report me?’

‘See ya, Gene. Give my regards to the Id.’

He looks like he’s leaving so he grabs him and what do you know? The man’s got some fight in him after all. He’s in a good mood today though, so doesn’t do anything but laugh at the cocky little challenge that comes from him.

‘You’re new, an’ you’ve got somethin’ big crammed up your jacksie. But don’ worry, you’ll learn.’

He straightens, serious now, laying it out for the new kid.

‘I may be the Sheriff but I’m a Deputy to the law; now I don’ care if you wan’ t’take a swing f’me, if it makes you feel good. But what I do ask is that you don’ hide anythin’ from me. So...’ave you got a hunch abou’ this case?’

And wonder of wonders, Tyler listens. He doesn’t seem to like saying what he says next but it proves one single thing to Gene – that Sam might not like being here, and he might not like the way they do things but he is a copper. Because he doesn’t let any of that stop him doing his job.

‘With what I know...I could find this killer.’

Gene leans in, the gauntlet on the floor between them.

‘Prove it.’

~ ~ ~

Tyler seems to like psychology. Tyler gets a plonk to help him brief the team, much to the amusement of every bloke in the room. And while his methods are laughable, they don’t have much else to go on at the moment so he decides to let him run with it for a bit. Not for very long, by the next morning he’s telling him to get Chris off paperwork because it’s a waste of time. Sam doesn’t like it but when he’s on the ground, catching his breath from the shot to the kidneys, Gene’s pretty sure he’s come round to his point of view.

~ ~ ~

Dora goes missing. Tyler figures out that the killer is using lagging to soundproof the place he keeps the victims and Chris turns up a name in the paperwork he was ordered to look through. Some old woman that had a complaint about something – they don’t know what because their copy of her statement got smudged. So they bring her in and the boy wonder bombards her with questions until the old dear can’t remember her own bloody name, let alone what she’d called the police about.

Gene has a way with people. Birds get treated with cavalier insults and open leering, good blokes get pints and games of darts, scummy blokes get beaten to a pulp. And working class old women who’ve scraped by all their lives get tea and biscuits, put at their ease after a tosser DI makes them flap, a bit of sympathy over the price of pink wafers and another cuppa poured that they can slurp out of their saucer. Works a treat and exactly two minutes later, he and Sam are leaping over the desk, him yelling for backup and then off to catch them a killer while the rest of CID stand confused in their wake.

~ ~ ~

Tyler is a prissy, snobbish, downright weird little man. But when the two of them are walking down the corridor with a murderer handcuffed between them, applause ringing out from the lads lining the walls, he can forgive him his faults for the day.

‘Welcome t’the team.’
 

‘Thanks.

 

 

...Guv.’