Second Hand [manxboy]

Chapter 17

"I did go back for him," Shurik explained. "But by the time I got back to the train yard, he was gone. I did look around but no one would tell me anything. And then he was such a lowlife, he dropped off the map completely."

Yakov sighed and leaned back in the chair of his office, closing his eyes. "Now if we even go near him it'll raise flags." He shot a pointed look towards Miroslav then. "Both of you especially need to stay away from him."

"You contacted Nico's social worker, right? What did she say about all of this?" Miroslav wondered.

"She wants to talk to the both of you about the details of where you found Nico. There's nothing wrong there; you both found him, took him out, brought him to me and we contacted her the next morning. All legal, so I don't think it should have any effect on my custody..." Yakov sighed again anyways. "At least they aren't pressing any charges." Yakov tried to console himself.

Yet, but Miroslav wouldn't remind him of that factor. Even if it wasn't against Nico it would be against someone. Miroslav wasn't sure he wanted to stay away from Jack either. Apparently he was in custody, but that wasn't out of their reach.

"Shurik, keep low. Miroslav, we're stopping in to see Nico again, with his caseworker there. I don't want Shurik coming into the station with us though, that's too much suspicion on him." Yakov led the way out of his office then, and Shurik parted ways to go home.

"Just when things are getting better, let's arrest you," Yakov sneered under his breath. "Nico doesn't have a record yet, and so that means he's still got opportunities, but..."

"He's under eighteen too, so anything that comes up can be expunged," Miroslav pointed out. It still wasn't the ideal at all though.

Miroslav drove them from the office and back to the station. Nico's social worker was waiting inside for them, and she met up with Yakov quickly. "Your lawyer contacted me as well, and I think he's on his way so we can all talk," she said. "They still aren't charging Nico with anything, so we might be able to get him released."

Miroslav hung close, listening in while surveying the rest of the station. A lot of police, which was one of the few things to make him uncomfortable. He noticed a blonde woman watching them from across the room, and she didn't look away when they made obvious eye contact.

Miroslav briefly excused himself and wandered over towards her. "Hello," Miroslav said stiffly, frowning at her in confusion.

"Hello, Miroslav. I'm Lacy, the new head of the organized crime division," she introduced herself and stuck a hand in his direction.

"Oh." Miroslav shook her hand anyways, because he wasn't without manners. And besides, obviously she already knew his name.

Lacy leaned off to the side to get a look around him—at Yakov—before giving her attention back to Miroslav. "Are you sure you can be seen talking with me?" she pointed out, half joking, half serious.

"It doesn't matter." Yakov knew him too well to know that Miroslav wouldn't actually give up anything, so he wasn't worried about it. "Are you the one in charge of all of this?"

"You mean with Yakov's kid getting arrested?" Lacy corrected him, making Miroslav tense slightly with anger. "No. They did that and then called me in, or this would be a lot worse than it is."

At least that meant they didn't really have much, just as Miroslav suspected.

"You spend a lot of time with Nico, though. For being so high up in the ranks, I mean," Lacy pointed out. So she would try to get information out of him anyways.