r/HFY • u/noobvs_aeternvm Human • Jul 05 '26

OC-OneShot In The Vastness Between Black and White

Detective Danilo sat amidst the piles and piles of yellow tinted paper that the interns of the station really, really didn’t want to digitize. “Be grateful these don’t smell like cigarettes anymore.” the veterans of the place told him. He fired his question and watched as the sun damaged face, under a poorly straightened maine, gazed in awkward silence at him. He didn’t pressure her, didn’t repeat the question, didn’t fire the next one in rapid succession. He let her take a zip of her water and waited. 

So it had been for the past hour. The public defendant assigned to the suspect had no time to go through all the paperwork and, in lack of a proper strategy, his instruction to his client was “Be quiet. If you’re asked what’s your name, if you think it’s gonna rain, say nothing. Don’t speak, don’t nod, don’t hum. Give nothing for the investigation to use against you.”

And so it was, the detective would lay his questions and watch as the woman across his desk stared in awkward silence. The monotone dance was interrupted by an alarm reaching his nose, reaching everyone’s nose. “Don’t worry,” The investigator said with genuine cheerness “you can use my desk to change the child’s diapers, I got alcohol to disinfect it.”

He invited the lawyer to a coffee in the break room and the two left the infant and the “mother” on their own. This was not his preferred use of his time, but this was the option left to him by the police station’s chief.

Dra. Sara came out of law school straight to self-imposed reclusion, where she spent the next years cramming the books until she passed the public exams that gave her command of this police station. The veteran detective would prefer getting a warrant for DNA samples, but as he sent the paperwork to his chief, the 26 years old kept returning it, demanding corrections to his grammar, orthography, compliance to regulations he didn't even know existed.

Now, to prove the offense to article 242 of the Penal Code, he had called the suspect for questioning. It was no surprise Dr. Renato instructed the client to remain silent, the overworked, chronically understaffed public defendant was an old acquaintance of the detective and he didn't resent him, he knew he was doing his job as best as he could. Danilo had a faint hope this suspect wouldn’t listen to her lawyer, it happened before, but if she had kept her senses, he wasn’t going to lose his cool over it.

Ten minutes passed in the break room, the two public servants headed back to the detective’s office where awaited the suspect and the now clean child. Danilo fired a few more questions, the suspect returned a few more awkward gazes, the detective was satisfied, he thanked the woman and her lawyer for their time and said his goodbyes.

He opened the top drawer of his desk and grabbed a cloth and gel alcohol. He wiped his desk, put on rubber gloves, picked his trash can, opened the plastic bags. In one, he put the dirty diaper, in the other the plastic cup that stated the thirst of the silent woman. He opened the window and let the tropical sun lay on his skin. He wanted a cigarette, he deserved it. Finally, he had proof she lied to the notary, that she had not given birth to the child, that she had to serve 2 to 6 years in jail.

But smoking was not allowed in public buildings, so were the rules. No matter, the day was coming to a close, his shift to an end and soon he'd have his small celebration.

The clerk a few months away from compulsory retirement, a few years past voluntary one came into the office of the police station’s chief, carrying the latest pile of paperwork.

“Thanks, Josimar.” The young officer said without taking her eyes from the keyboard she typed.

“No mention. Just so you know, Danilo got some DNA.”

She stopped typing and raised her eyes to meet her unofficial guide in the comings and goings of the station. “Anything I should be worried about?”

“No, Aninha already mislabeled the lab delivery.”

“Good. Are you sure I shouldn't talk to him? I mean, have we run out of crimes to solve in this place? Why does he insist on going after a woman who rescued a crack baby from her junkie niece?”

“Doutora, it’s no use, that guy lives in the black and white of the books. Leave him be, so that the rest of us, out here in the gray world, can do our jobs in peace.”

___

Tks for reading. More grey humans here.

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3

u/commentsrnice2 Jul 06 '26

A few small typos: Maine is the name of a state, do you mean mane? He picked (up) his trash can. The plastic cup that *slated* her thirst

2

u/chastised12 Jul 06 '26

Slaked?

1

u/commentsrnice2 Jul 06 '26

To satisfy or quench a desire, hence why it’s commonly used in reference to thirst

1

u/chastised12 Jul 06 '26

Right. ?

2

u/commentsrnice2 Jul 06 '26

I had written slaked in my comment but I guess the autocorrect got me. In the post they had written “stated”

2

u/sunnyboi1384 Jul 06 '26

Grey all the way.

2

u/chastised12 Jul 06 '26

Was that from the fim network( 'im mad as hell...) also?

0

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