Tweetie

18

Hazel laid under the dull lights of her apartment, feeling the refreshment of home fill her up with warmth. It never felt like the perfect home, partly because it was just her most days. Archie lived across from her, and while he spent a lot of his time by her side, helping her work and messing around when they got a rare break, it wasn't the same.

She always knew she would end up alone again by the end of the night. There was a point when she did feel at home, but that was when she lived with Roderick. He was a man who always wanted a kid, and she was close enough. But, even then, there was doubt because her own knowledge of what home really felt like was warped.

But where she was, laying on the couch with Roderick across from her, both of them sorting through a box of evidence they had been over hundreds of times already, things felt a little more homely. It was close enough.

It was late, the room was full of idle sounds. Chatter from a radio that was turned down enough so it could just barely be heard, but loud enough to block the silence. The radiators clicked and rattled every so often, the city outside of the window flickered with yellow streetlights and the lights from cars would pass by every so often, putting an odd-shaped light on the wall that moved with the car.

"So," Hazel said, adjusting herself so her head slipped from the couch and touched the floor, using her messy brown hair as a pillow, "I have a new lead."

She swerved herself around, lifting her upper body up from the ground and sat up on the couch. She turned, letting her fingers run over her notebook for only a moment to think about it just a second longer before she spoke again, realising his silence was his growing anticipation.

"I managed to have a conversation with that group of boys about Jason Barber and, according to Ryan James, he was dealing drugs, specifically at parties."

Roderick said nothing, but his eyebrows rose and she took his quiet more as his surprise than anything else.

"Still, everything is up in the air. But this helps to narrow things down. If I can track down the supplier, I might have a clearer suspect. The issue is that to track the supplier, I'll have to keep looking into school kids who would have known Jason well enough to know who he was speaking to or if he was going somewhere strange to meet somebody."

Roderick nodded along, taking her every word into account. He had a lot of trust for her, he knew that she was one of the more careful detectives around because she took care to be sure there weren't any mistakes. Maybe she wasn't so careful about her own well being, but she at least took care of the things that other people were involved in so there wasn't trouble for anyone but herself.

"I'll see what I can find out myself, but most of the drug-related issues aren't reported towards the South. Did those boys mention anything else?"

"Here, I got a recording of the conversation..."

She turned to her phone, searching for it between the pillows as he continued.

"You think those boys might be in the clear?"

"I want them to be... but I can't disregard theories because I want to. Ryan still has a violent dad with criminal connections, he could just be saying this. But... you know, why would he say this? Why would he do anything to Jason? He would have to live with that guilt, and I don't think he does-"

She stopped, listening for a click as Hazel's front door opened and a tall slender shadow trailed into the room, tired from working just as she passed the phone to Roderick with the recording up and ready to play.

"Archie, hi," Roderick greeted him immediately.

"Hey Chief," Archie nodded back, still used to his habits of when he worked under Roderick in the police force. He turned, placing his attention on Hazel. "Hey Hazy. You two still working?"