Chapter 14: Criminals

Rick sighed. As much he wished it was because of the slight contusions he had earned with the tumultuous lovemaking of Alicia, they had nothing to do with it. It had barely been three days since they had started dating – or fucking like rabbits, more like – and they were loving every second of it. Except for work. In the last three days, they had had more mobilization on the ground than in the entire month prior.

The Commissar had been making them hunt any and all possible links around their mysterious survivor, who had left the hospital but hadn’t returned home. Already obtaining such information had been hard enough, with the hospital needing a mandate to cooperate. But once they had obtained it, they had simply found one more dead end. The suspect hadn’t returned to his home – or if he did, he left in a hurry and not necessarily with company he wanted.

“Well, there is no blood at least” he stated, as he looked up at his partner. “Not even under the bed.”

“Great. Now move aside hon-Rick” replied Alicia, blushing a little. “I don’t want to be holding that bed for hours on end.”

Rick smiled. Alicia was surprisingly mushy once she was in a dating mode and he actually liked that. That and her strength. She was casually lifting the bed off the ground with her two hands and she didn’t seem to be more tired than if he had done the same with a small box. Perhaps a somewhat heavy small box, but still. It was absolutely entrancing to see, especially the way her muscles displayed themselves slightly more on her arms. But he had to focus.

“Right Al. Well, I think it concludes our search here. Nothing of worth, as far as I can tell.”

“We have found some hair samples” she reminded him as she gently dropped the bed, once he had moved to safety.

“Sure, but they’re not conclusive of anything. Could be his. And even if they aren’t, so what? He had friends over before whatever happened here happened? We can’t exactly use them to go and scour the database.”

She groaned, but she knew he was right. Rick sighed again. The small appartment was an absolute mess. Someone had been in a hurry coming here. The doorlock had been opened normally, as far as he could tell, but the inside of the home of their suspects were all on the ground. Clothes, a few unremarkable memorabilia – a ticket for a match of the Towering Tigers, another for the movie “To live in a Normal world”… Nothing that could help them.

“I’m pretty sure our little guy is not the cause of this mayhem” declared Alicia solemnly. “He was too careful to give us the slip to let his home in such a state. Someone tried to grab him. So he was connected to someone fishy. Someone who doesn’t want to have her activities come to light.”

“That’s not our Giantess, Alicia” he countered calmly. “She seems to be a lone operative, and it would have needed some Normals to come here. I can’t see something like her keeping someone like us alive long enough to do her bidding. I suspect that’s two unrelated cases. Gigantopia’s a huge city, and an even bigger nation. Not all crimes that happens here are related, you know?”

He got up to smile at Alicia, but the towering bombshell was faster. She gripped his sides, lifted him of the ground and kissed him passionately. He knew what she wanted to do now. He could hear her breathing quickening, the way her eyes narrowed. She wanted to fuck him, here, on a potential crime scene. And God help him, it was arousing him to no end. She was so powerful! For a Normal, she was able to not care about the law in ways he could never.

“Excuse me? Officers?”

Alicia groaned softly, broke the kiss and deposited Rick on the ground, not without copping a feel of his ass. All in her body language screamed it was only a little lost time and that they’d resume their session sooner rather than later. But she was a professional over everything else, even her raging desires, and Rick was too. He nodded, smiled at her and prepared himself to meet the tenant.

“We’re here, Mister Delaverrière” called Alicia, as Rick pretended to focus on something on a shelf.

“Sorry to disturb you, but, hum, I just received a call from someone who pretends to be a friend of my missing tenant!”

It was a huge news, big enough to distract the lovers from their urges. Delaverrière had been terrible as a helper. He didn’t care about the names of his tenants, only giving them numbers and caring only for their rent. But it was clear he had been really anxious to see the Police out of his building. Rick suspected he had some unsavory peoples living here that he didn’t want them to see. But seemingly, he had news of worth, now.

“Have you taken his name?” asked Alicia, as she moved a step closer to the balding old man.

The size difference was absolutely stunning. The old man was clearly from a line of peoples to whom tallness now equated danger. Like a lot of Normals, taller than average peoples irked him, and as each generation passed, it seemed the average got smaller – as if shrinking the Normals would do them any good! The Growns clearly weren’t interested in getting smaller at all!

But in Delaverrière case, it meant he barely cleared 1m50. Compared to Alicia, he thus looked like a particularly unlucky child, with a large belly, a few white hairs and a wrinkled face. And unlike Rick, he clearly didn’t like that the policewoman was a mountain of muscles and huge curves all around. It made him feel threatened and he reacted like a lot of cowards did, by being obsequiously servile.

“Of course Madame Officer. Jean-Pierre Bellegarde! He told me he hadn’t heard any news of his friends for weeks now and was getting really anxious.”

“He didn’t call before?” asked Rick from the sideline, turning his head away from the duo, to give the landlord the idea that he was only half-listening to them.

“I wouldn’t know sir. Usually I don’t inquire in my tenants’ lives. I guess he called me after having tried all he could to find my missing mister, uh… Matthew.”

Matthew. Just a surname. Possibly fake, but it was all they had. Rick winced. That old bastard only cared about the money he could wring out of the peoples leasing his appartements. Everything else was clearly quite secondary to him. It made for a poor informant and even poorer helper, as he confused his tenants as often as he remembered their numbers right – his rent calendar was incredibly precise, however.

“Have you told him we were here?” he asked the landlord. “Or has he expressed any interest in knowing if someone else was trying to find his buddy?”

“Uh… no and no, as far as I can tell” replied Delaverrière, turning away from the towering blonde to look at Rick, who was still focusing on whatever stuff he could find to not look the old man in the eye yet. “But he did give me a message. Told me that if he someone had news of his friend, he could be met at that pub, a few blocks away… What’s the name already… A Small Brew! Yeah, A Small Brew.”

The two police officers thanked the landlord and left the appartment. There was truly nothing more for them to learn. They returned to their vehicle and started to talk about what they needed to do now. Rick had a very strong idea, but Alicia also had one and she wanted to be argumentative. He was thankful she didn’t use her body or her strength to convince him. She could have done so and he wouldn’t have complained too much.

“We should call back-up” she had decided. “It’s extremely suspicious that such a call would happen just as we’re here. And in a pub? That’s not good. Who knows what could happen here?”

“A cordial discussion” joked Rick. “I know you’ve seen a lot of old film noirs and all that but frankly, it isn’t common at all to be ambushed in a public place like that. And I’d rather we be able to put a face on someone who knew Matthew. We need to better understand this whole mess. Was our survivor linked to what happened to the Northern Docks? It’s an opportunity we can’t pass up.”

“But it’s dangerous. I know you love how strong I am, but the name of the pub implies that Smalls gather there. I can’t fight one off. I can’t even hope to survive being trampled underfoot and it’s be easy to make it look like just a tragic accident.”

Rick winced. She was right, even if he didn’t like it at all. Accidents of the sort were indeed far more common near or around bars. Taller patrons drank whatever brew made them intoxicated, Normals also got hammered and shit happened. It was sadly accepted in Gigantopia, there had to have downsides as massive as the taller members of societies, when you were an ant among colossus, after all.

It never made the prospect of wading into a pub catering to a size class above your head attractive for most, but it was nonetheless seeing a ceaseless stream of daredevils and other young adults with something to prove – or some strong fetishes. When he had been younger and had tried to score a Small girl, Rick had seen a lot in places like A Small Brew. He still remembered some of those vividly.

Normal women, inebriated, offering quite the strip show to taller patrons and rewarded by a ride in their panties, dropped at the end of the evening, covered in cum, possibly impregnated, as their “date” started to grope someone his own size. Men licking the feet of the Giantesses around them, forced to climb on them and act as little slaves to them, only to earn a gentle rub on the head, or even nothing more than some cruel laugher…

He hadn’t ever scooped so low. He had tried to date a taller woman, sure, but he had a sense of worth, and he hadn’t been kind to the idea of debasing himself. He hadn’t been completely insane either. He had seen drunken retards masturbating on the shoes of some Smalls, who trampled them underfoot in disgust then pretended they hadn’t seen them. Once, he could have sworn he had seen a Giant drink a shot with three Normal girls in it. But apparently, they had all survived.

Truly, pubs could be dangerous. But he didn’t want to budge on it. They needed to move on their first mission together. They needed to discover why Matthew something-something had been in such a state. He had suffered a murder attempt; he was sure of it. And they needed to understand why. And that’s what convinced Alicia to relent, in the end. Even if she made her displeasure known.

“If I see you so much as look at the tits of some Small bitch, I swear were going out and I’ll fuck your brains out so bad you’ll never be able to walk again, and will only get upright for me! And we bail at the first sign of something fishy turning smelly, okay?”

“Man, I almost hope there is some super busty gal at the pub now” snorted Rick. “But deal! We go and you get us out of dodge if need be.”

The pub was quite close indeed. In a dozen of minutes, they were sitting at a table, their badges in evidence. If someone had something to tell to them, they’d come. Rick hoped they wouldn’t have to remain alone too long; it would have been great if they could finally make real strides in their investigation. And finally, there came someone. A tall black man, burly and strong looking. He sat at their table without an invitation and smiled.

“Hello, the name’s Jean-Pierre. I guess you are the people investigating the disappearance of my friend Matthew?”

“Yes, we are” admitted Rick with a polite smile. “Want something to drink? We’re on duty so it’ll only be water for us, but if you feel like getting something stronger…”

“It’s on the house” added Alicia with a grin.

“Wow, you must really need something out of me then” chuckled Jean-Pierre. “Fine, I’ll get a beer, for starters! But don’t expect me to give you everything for free after that!”

“Aren’t you an upstanding citizen?” asked Rick. “I’m sure you’ll feel a lot better answering our few questions, really. It’s not as if you have anything too bad to hide, right?”

“Well, no and no, I’d say” replied the man with a sly grin. “But I do have some information I knew myself and I’ve heard from sure sources that you went into the Northern Docks recently. Would you mind sharing some information on that and I’m sure I could find some really important stuff to give you.”

Alicia and Rick exchanged a glance. It was a risky move, and their interlocutor tipped his hand here. He had stuff they wanted, but the reverse was true. However, it meant that the situation was getting a little more dangerous than they expected. That man was working for someone else, Rick was sure of it. But that certain someone would be dangerous, if he or she knew they had went to the Docks…

“Well… I guess we can always talk. What could go wrong, right ?”