"Mhh, a detective's a fan o' my work, eh? Guess that means I did something right," Parsley joked, chuckling afterward. "I know I ain't gonna be able to escape easy-like. Frankly, I don't think I'd run away anyhow, given I've already been caught, hm?" Parsley lowered his hands in response to the detective lowering their gun. "Plus, it'd be fun to actually get caught for once. Bein; a famous thief and all… Man, it gets boring when nobody has a clue that I'm the one pullin' the heists. Maybe now, I'll be on the news… and even get some copycats."
“Oh please, I know you have a trick up your sleeve,” the detective sighed, moving back a bit more to lean against the wall of the showcase room. “Listen,” Donovan had breathed out. “You’re better than to just let yourself be caught. Just because I, a detective, found you doesn’t mean you have to get arrested,” in reality, the detective just didn’t want the man to get arrested for his own personal reason. He enjoyed researching cases like these, especially those which were arranged and prepared with much detail like those done by Parsley. He sighed softly. “Then again, I can’t help you since it is against the law for me to do so,” he went over a bit closer to the thief, looking around warily before he stood on his tiptoes in front of Parsley. “The rooftop doesn’t have surveillance, neither does the way up,” he whispered.
"Yeah, ya got me… I was foolin'," Parsley replied, rolling his eyes. "The roof, eh? Mhmm… I see… Alright. Well, I got some bigger fish to fry right now than just sittin' here and talkin'. The jewel's great, and I woulda stolen it but… I gotta scram. Cover for me while I'm gone." Parsley made his way to the entrance leading up to the rooftop, going up and onto the roof. He made his escape and got out of the scene just about scot-free.
The detective watched as Parsley went away, sighing softly as some of the police officers came back in not long after he left. “The thief escaped up to the rooftop, I couldn’t follow him,” Donovan spoke, pretending that he was having a panic attack. The officers followed the thief up to the rooftop, only to find no one there.
Approximately an hour later, the police officers had left and Donovan was free to go home. He made his way down the street, glancing out every now and then as he felt a bit paranoid about his surroundings. He eventually reached his apartment room, unlocking the door but not yet walking in. He had heard sounds like footsteps coming up the stairs of the apartment and had turned to see who it was. He was half expecting to see the thief follow him all the way here, despite how unlikely that possibility was. What am I thinking… of course he wouldn’t be here. Why would he be?
Parsley, after escaping, had decided to follow behind the detective who had helped him in his escape. He made sure he was as quiet as possible, not counting the sound of his footsteps as a noise he had to cover, along with his heavy breath; he hadn't caught it after escaping, so he was still heaving slightly.
Donovan did hear the heavy breathing. He sighed and walked over to the stairs, his eyes widening upon seeing who it was. “Okay… why are you here?” The detective had asked before shrugging. “Not that it matters to me anyways. Shouldn’t you be heading ‘home’ or something like that? There could still be police officers out there after all,”
"Eh, running away started gettin' boring too, so I decided to follow you here. I also came to thank you for your help, but then I realized I have heists to attend to but then I realized that most of the heists were already being taken on the rookie crooks. And so I came here," Parsley said, beginning to ramble.
The detective blinked at the man before he sighed and pulled the thief along by the wrist. “Come in for tea, and no, you don’t have a choice,” with that, Donovan had pulled Parsley into his apartment and sat the man down in the living room before he went to the kitchen and got some herbal tea for the man and himself. He sat down, on the armchair across from the couch the thief was sat at. “You really have no real reason of coming here. I accept the thank you and it’s nice that you decided to come all the way here to say that,” upon noticing that the curtains were open, Donovan went to pull them close.
“Say, since you’re here, can you tell me why you decided to work in… well, crime?”
"Ay- Ah, well, it beats thievin' for a change," Parsley said in response to him being dragged along. "Yeah, I only came for the 'thank you' part. You're welcome for that." Parsley chuckled, then continued on to say, "I decided to start doin' crime for a ton of reason. 1, a parental thing. The whole 'parents were never proud of me so i had to make them be proud of me' thing. 2, it seemed fun. Though now I know it's not so much play, but rather, more work. And 3, it's just a pastime. A hobby, I guess you could call it."
“Right…” the detective sighed before he took a sip of his own tea. “I won’t see you have extremely valid reasons. But then again, I’ve heard but worse,” he shrugged before he looked back at the thief. “You know you’re the police force’s first place on the wanted list, right?”
"Mother always said first place was best," Parsley joking, most likely in regards to the cliche he brought up. "But, you're for real? I'm top on the list? Wow, they must really be keepin' their big ol' eyes on me, cuz that means they've watched every heist and gone over my case a ton o' times, eh?" Parsley continued. "No wonder there were so many guards at that showcase. Now they're really gettin' cautious. Guess I'll have to keep low for a bit… Or I can keep goin'. The risk does seem like it'd be pretty fun to make haste on."
“I— that’s not—“ Donovan sighed softly. “I’m not saying that to encourage you for goodness’ sake,” the detective said with a sigh before he turned away and sipped his tea. “But yes, whatever showcase happens next, you can be sure as hell that the police will be on watch 24/7… unless they did the same mistake they did this time, in which case I can’t really say you’re in trouble,” he shrugged softly. “You told me earlier that you have goons of your own? Can you tell me more about them?”
"Well, they're not really goons, they're just plain ol' rookies. They dunno what they're doin, 'til one of us pros give 'em the how-to," Parsley began. "We have to babysit 'em, basically. It's a pain in the ass sometimes, but with the right teachin', they'll prolly do some good heists someday."
“Since when was there a kindergarten for thieves and criminals?” The detective laughed softly at his own little joke before he sighed and shook his head. “Anyways, I’m not interrogating a criminal so this is just a conversation between us; people who shouldn’t really be talking in this manner but screw the rules, I’m not the one making them,” he shrugged. “Is your home far away, dear thief?”
