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Ruby Rose may have been a rookie cop, but she knew how to handle a hysterical woman whose jewelry store had just been robbed. It wasn’t the first time something like that happened in Vale, after all, and simple robberies like these were some of the first cases to be assigned to the rookies – apart from general patrolling and security duty.
So when Ruby and her partner arrived on scene to meet the white-haired owner of Schnee Diamonds, she was surprised to find the woman in the middle of chewing out her own security guard. By the sound of it, the guard was the one who’d called the incident in. The two of them stood on the sidewalk in front of the store, in the middle of busy downtown Vale, attracting quite a bit attention. A broken window proved something illegal had indeed taken place, with an abysmal amount of shattered glass littering the ground.
“—and I told you last week that the alarm needed service!” The owner kept yelling at the security guard, who seemed to shrink more and more under the rage.
“I-I’m sorry, I did call the company and they said they’d send someone—”
“Excuse me,” Ruby interrupted before the poor fellow could dig himself deeper into whatever hole he was vanishing into. “We’re here from the Vale Police Department, answering a call about a robbery. My name is Ruby Rose and this is my partner, Blake Belladonna.” She gestured to her black-haired partner who was already taking pictures of the broken window.
The security guard, whose eyes looked to be on the verge of tears, almost whined in relief upon seeing the cops. He was roughly their age and looked like he needed a pat on the head.
“It’s about time!” In stark contrast, the owner turned her ire on Ruby, hands on her hips and glare in her eyes. One of which carried a scar, and created an interesting contrast to her otherwise clean and proper features. Was it some sort of rule that you had to be beautiful to run a jewelry store? She certainly looked like the type to wear diamonds, though Ruby didn’t see any jewelry on her.
“Do you have any idea how long we’ve waited? It’s been half an hour! If the culprit was here, you’d have long lost him by now!” The owner chewed her out.
Ruby sighed. “We came as quickly as we could, ma’am.”
“Don’t sigh at me!”
“Are any of you hurt? Did it happen while you were here?”
The security guard shook his head, while the owner’s eyes flashed in anger.
“Who cares about that! My store has a hole in it – I can’t open! I’m losing money every second we spend out here rambling about useless stuff!”
Ruby narrowed her eyes at the woman, and that had her blink a few times in surprise. “Sorry, ma’am, but I do care about your well-being. Robbing someone is bad enough, but injuring them in the process is far worse. I need you to cooperate and answer my questions so I can help you. Are any of you injured?”
The woman pulled herself straight, eyes flickering once to Blake and back to Ruby, then she cleared her throat. “No, we are not. Neither of us were present when it happened.”
“Good. Now, I need your names please.”
“I am Weiss Schnee, and this is Jaune Arc. He works for the security company I’ve hired, and that I am sincerely considering cancelling!” Angry eyes flashed at the poor guy, who cowered.
“I’m sorry! It must have happened right at the shift change – I was a few minutes late because my stupid car wouldn’t start, and my colleague left before I got here – which isn’t okay either! I’m so sorry!”
Ruby jotted it all down, keeping an eye on Weiss Schnee as she stood there tapping her fingers against her arms. The woman’s stance was hostile and stressed. Ruby asked a few more questions – shift change happened around 3am, the other security guard’s name was Cardin Winchester, and yes they had security cameras, the actual alarm however had been signaling a need for service for a week already, but the security company had failed to send someone over to fix it. Inside the store, a few of the display cases where broken – crow bar, most likely – and most of the jewelry inside them was gone.
“Thousands of lien!” Weiss Schnee fumed.
“Alright, we’ll just get the security footage and we’ll take a closer look at it back at the station.” Ruby already had two pages full of notes, her small and neat handwriting decorating the paper.
“Then you’ll be back here?” Weiss asked.
“If we need to, we’ll be back to investigate some more. We may also call you to ask more questions.” First though, they’d need to check the security footage and question the security guard who should have waited for Jaune. And get in contact with the security company and ask them a few questions too. So much to do… it brought a smile to Ruby’s face. I’ll get you in no time!
“What am I supposed to do in the meantime?” Weiss Schnee asked, glaring at Ruby’s uniform as if it were at fault somehow.
“You can have this cleaned up now – we’ve got what we need in way of evidence. You have insurance?”
“Of course!”
“Then I suggest contacting them about repairs. I’ll write you a statement if they need it as proof. And we’ll be in touch.”
True to Ruby’s words, they did have a breakthrough that evening. The security footage alone wasn’t enough to identify the thief, but combined with them locating Cardin Winchester and him cracking under the pressure, they ended up proving his guilt. He was arrested on grounds of sabotage and robbery. Weiss seemed pleased when Ruby told her via scroll.
Ruby put the case behind her and didn’t expect to hear anything else from Weiss until the court at the very least. So she was surprised when, two days later, she was asked to return to the Schnee Diamonds to investigate another reported incident.
The window was patched up now, awaiting repairs. It was a furious Weiss that met Ruby when she arrived on scene, but she wasn’t angry at Ruby, this time.
“They tricked Velvet right in front of her! One customer asked to look at a wristwatch, while another pretended to faint! While Velvet was helping the woman, the man vanished with the watch!”
A classic theft, then. Ruby asked if anyone was hurt, but luckily they hadn’t needed to hurt anyone. Velvet, the clerk who had been in the store at the time, was shaken but uninjured. Ruby talked to her for a bit and reassured her there was nothing she could have done, while Weiss hovered nearby with a frown on her face.
“What are you going to do!?” Weiss demanded to know once Ruby had taken down all the information she could.
The woman seemed stressed. Running her own store must be a handful even without criminals trying to ruin her livelihood. Ruby’s lips pulled up in a slightly predatory smile.
“I’ll catch whoever’s behind this and make them regret it.”
Weiss did not look convinced. “How?”
“Believe it or not, I graduated top of my class.” Ruby jabbed a thumb at her chest. “I’m gonna be the best junior cop in Vale!”
Weiss snorted, but said nothing else.
Despite Ruby’s words, however, this case was harder to crack, even with security footage. The footage was already grainy, and the culprits had been careful to keep their faces at an angle where they were never fully captured.
They were feisty, too. Over the next week, Ruby visited the jewelry store two more times – each time taking account of some new kind of robbery. What they took varied in value, but it was always just one or two things. It seemed like they knew to avoid the same employees too, as it happened to another one each time. Luckily, Weiss was slightly less aggressive each time – more willing to cooperate and far calmer.
Finally, the police department succeeded in arresting a duo of thieves that had terrorized quite a few stores lately. Rumors ran that they were connected to Cardin somehow, or that they worked for the same boss, but none of this was proven at this point. Ruby could confidently call Weiss and tell her the good news, to which the white-haired woman responded positively.
Then, a few days later, Ruby was yet again called out to the Schnee Diamonds on yet another theft report. It seemed crime in the area had sky-rocketed at some point.
“They even took out the cameras!” Weiss complained. That made it all the harder to solve, of course. Ruby took note of what she could and what had been stolen. Since nobody had seen it this time – it had happened while the clerk was inattentive – it was impossible to get any information on the culprit’s identity.
But it wasn’t the last time it happened. First, an expensive gold ring. Then silver ear clips. Then threatening Weiss herself, but no stealing thanks to a stranger interrupting the moment. Ruby ended up visiting each and every time, taking Weiss’s account, and calming the woman down. At some point, their greetings became more friendly, and Weiss asked her a few questions too – like how old she was, expressing admiration for her work, or asking about her day.
After a month of these random cases with no solution, Ruby sat with a mountain of paperwork, feeling frustration well up inside.
“What the heck is going on here!?”
Blake looked over from her own desk, where she was writing a report on a traffic incident.
“Is it the Schnee case?”
“There’s just more and more of it, and not a single damn clue to work with!” Ruby put her head on the desk in exasperated defeat.
“It is strange,” Blake noted. “No other store has reported any crimes lately and no one has seen anything in the area.”
“Maybe she’s delirious. Or lying. But she seems so level-headed and happy whenever we talk.”
“Well, you are pretty easy to get along with.”
Ruby frowned. It was strange. Actually, it was almost as if…
When Weiss called in that afternoon and reported another incident, Ruby headed out once more, arriving at the store to find Weiss fidgeting outside.
“Yo, Weiss.” Ruby greeted as she got off her motorcycle, removing the helmet that always messed up her hair.
The other woman looked almost giddy, smiling as Ruby stepped up to her. “Oh, Ruby! They sent you again, huh. Seems like you’re stuck with me!”
Ruby observed Weiss closely as she took her account, noting every tick and glance and change of expression.
“—but I never did get a good look at his face.” Weiss ended her most recent explanation.
Ruby jotted it down, frowning all the time. They had moved inside the store, Weiss had closed for the day, and the white-haired woman was tracing circles on the countertop. Had been, for the past few minutes of her story. She had such slender fingers.
Ruby sighed and put her notepad and pen down.
“Weiss.”
“Yes?”
Ruby mulled for a second, wondering how to say this gently. Her brain was more occupied with observing the shy glances Weiss tossed her way however.
Screw it.
“You know, it’s illegal to report fake crimes.”
Weiss visibly jumped and started sputtering, but no real protest came forth.
Bullseye.
“It’s been, what, eight times now?” Ruby asked rhetorically. “My desk is super cluttered with all the reports I’ve had to write.”
“Ugh – are-are you saying I’m lying!?” Weiss tried to protest at last, but it faltered under Ruby’s gaze. Weiss’s face was beet red, her scar standing out even more because of it.
Ruby sighed. “What I’m saying is…” she pulled open her notebook, scribbled on a page and tore it out, handing it to Weiss, “next time you want to see me, call my scroll instead. Don’t report a fake crime just to have me come over. I can’t handle writing another useless report! Besides,” she grinned, “I’d like to meet you over dinner instead of this counter, sometime.”
Weiss’s face went through a range of emotions, from panic, to anger, to fear, and finally, settled on embarrassment.
Ruby offered her a grin. “So what do you say? Are you free this evening?”
“…I am. Please.”