Scrabble » Zarry ✔

🔍NINE🔎

Zayn was always wrapped up in his cases. It was the only way he knew how to be since the day he became a detective. So with this case, it was no different. When he got home, he couldn't stop thinking about Arelie. He had a feeling she knew more than she told them. But it was also apparent that she wasn't ready to talk about what she knew yet. So he couldn't help but let his mind wonder about the possibilities.

What if Fionne killed her husband and her daughter witnessed it? That was not a far off theory because every time they tried to question Arelie, Fionne would always chime in and say that she didn't know anything. Or what if it wasn't Fionne that killed Niall but Arelie witnessed it and was afraid to say who? What if she was scared and felt her life was in danger and that her father's murderer may come after her? Or even worse, what if she was the one who killed her father and she was scared about what was going to happen next?

Honestly, he didn't want to believe that last one could ever be a possibility but he knew from cases he had seen other detectives solve that it very well could be the case. But she just seemed like a sweet girl. And he would hate to find out she did something to her own father. That would ruin her life.

As for himself, all this worrying was doing was making him tired. So he decided to go ahead and get something to eat so he could get to bed early. He didn't really feel like cooking anything so he'd gotten a microwave dinner from the freezer and heated that up. When it was done warming up, he planted himself on the couch, propped his feet up on the coffee table and started to eat. But just as soon as he really started to eat, his phone rang.

He picked it up to answer it but panicked when he saw Harry's name come up on the caller ID. Harry was calling him? For what? He may be okay with dealing with him at work but calling him when they were off duty was something much different. No way Harry was calling him this time of evening without a real purpose.

His first thought was that it was a call about new information on Niall's case or another open case. So he prepared himself for that and answered the phone.

"Detective Malik speaking."

There was a light laugh through the phone. "Kind of sucks that we bring our work home even when we're off duty, huh?"

Zayn paused. "Uh... Yeah... I guess."

Harry cleared his throat. "So... What are you doing?"

Zayn furrowed his brow and took the phone from his ear to look at the screen. He had to make sure it was really Harry talking to him. Of course it was. He put the phone back to his ear again. "Uh... I just sat down to have dinner."

"Oh really. What are you having?"

"Just a microwave dinner. It's chicken and broccoli with some kind of cheese sauce."

"Hmm... That sounds terrible."

"It's not bad. But I just wanted something quick to eat tonight. I'm not going to lie though. I do seem to be making this a habit."

"And you shouldn't be."

Zayn delayed his response because for a moment, it actually sounded like Harry cared for him a bit. "I know."

Then he sighed impatiently. He didn't care if Harry heard it or not. "So why exactly did you call me if there is no new crime scene we have to go to?"

"Well... First of all, I was just sitting here thinking about the case, you know. The morgue is releasing Niall's body tomorrow. And I heard they're likely going to have his funeral on Saturday at four o'clock in the afternoon. I was thinking we could drop by. I feel like it's the least we can do since no new leads have come up. Plus we might find someone at the funeral that may know something."