The Custodes

Chapter 27 - James Brady

"What?!" Kayla suddenly shouted, jumping to a standing position as though to exemplify her objection "You're fucking out of your mind Neo. Axel?" "Look, I know to you it doesn't seem likely but-" "No, that's putting it too lightly." Noah suddenly cut Neo off, grabbing the boy's shoulder and turning him around to stare straight into his eyes "I know to you he may seem suspicious - but Axel has stayed the same person since we first met him. Nothing, either when he gained his powers or when Zuro arrived, has changed him. At all." "And you don't think him having Zuro's powers is weird? Or any the things Hector has said about him?" Neo challenged, looking defiantly into Noah's gaze "Things aren't adding up, that I agree with you on. But you're jumping to the wrong conclusions." "No, I'm not Noah." "Yes you are!" The boy shouted, pushing Neo back to free him from his grasp as he frowned deeply, his anger ceasing slowly yet still remaining palpable "Axel gained his powers long before Zuro arrived on this planet. That doesn't add up, for starters." "They still might've-" "Might is the key word here! I won't let you persecute my closest friend based on nothing but loose assumptions!" Neo grew quiet, and with his silence the tension and heat in the room faded too, leaving Noah to sigh and close his eyes as he turned away from the other boy. "Neo." Kayla said softly, moving towards him only to be stopped in her path by a sudden knock on the door. Neo exchanged a glance with her, before he moved over to the door and opened it, revealing a man standing in full police uniform outside. He was tall, taller than Neo, with a rough face despite the friendliness kept behind his eyes. Fairly neat though obviously unkept black hair sat squarely on his head, with his sideburns leading faintly down into the obviously neglected facial hair, which was beginning to emerge into a stubbly beard. By Neo's estimate he was in his mid thirties, and as he met his gaze the man flashed what was almost a smile, though his lips were pulled too tight for it to fully be one. "Hi, I'm Officer James Brady. We received a call about a homicide and I've been dispatched to deal with it, is this the correct address?" The man asked in a calm tone, watching Neo patiently as the boy figured out exactly how he was going to explain things now that the officer was there. "Uh, yeah this-...you're at the right address, but the...homicide...took place somewhere else." Neo wasn't used to dealing with any sort of authoritative figure, and didn't quite know how he should be addressing him, but the man didn't seem to mind "You'll need to follow me, I'll show you where it happened. Kayla, can I-" The girl was already tossing her keys to him, which he managed to catch instinctively, before he walked out of the apartment and stepped past the officer. "Did they uh...just send you?" Neo asked as the man followed him over to Kayla's door, nodding as he waited for him to unlock it. "I'm afraid so. No doubt you're aware of the state the city is currently in; the few officers that stuck around are spread too thin to be spared." Brady said with a hint of both spite and regret as he shook his head. "Really? But Zuro hasn't shown up in over three months." Neo replied in a far too casual manner, opening Kayla's apartment door and stepping through. The Officer cocked an eyebrow, watching Neo surreptitiously from behind before entering after him and masking his scepticism. "Regardless, his actions have not been left without consequence." Brady went on, continuing as though Neo hadn't slipped up as they stood in the hallway "Many people, officers and civilians alike, have fled the city - and inadvertently given way to thugs and criminals roaming around wherever they please, free to cause all the anarchy they want. It's a lot worse at night, but there's still the threat of being mugged or attacked during the day. Not that that was much different before, mind you." "Sounds pretty awful. You're doing a lot of people a service by sticking around." Neo said, speaking his mind rather than deliberately trying to suck up to the cop. "I appreciate the sentiment. Now." "Yeah, right. It happened in the bathroom, right there." Neo told him, walking out into the living room and pointing over to the pair of legs emerging from the door. "And you...witnessed everything play out yourself?" Brady asked, pulling a notepad and pen out of his pocket as he walked towards the bathroom, looking inside and cringing slightly, before immediately starting to scribble onto the pad as he moved further inside to get a closer look. "No...not exactly." Neo admitted, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked around at anything he could in the living room, not wishing to catch a glimpse of the scene in the bathroom once again. Officer Brady didn't respond, staying inside the bathroom for a good while before he finally exited, notepad still in hand "So, how did you come to discover the scene?" Neo knew he was in investigation mode now, making sure to think about his answers carefully before speaking now "I didn't. The girl who lives here, Kayla, went to my apartment for help once she'd found it." "Are the two deceased her parents?" Brady asked, looking up from his pad to watch Neo despite his hand still writing away "Yeah, they are." "And what did Kayla tell you when she came to your apartment? Was she in here at the time the event took place?" "She-" Neo paused, having to think particularly carefully about his answer to this question. How could he answer truthfully without mentioning Kayla's powers? This whole interaction with the officer didn't seem worthwhile to Neo, since he was already convinced he knew who the killer was, but there was no way to get out of it without coming clean about everything. "She was...asleep..." Brady looked particularly sceptical at this, but didn't speak for a second as he wrote on his notepad "She was asleep...meaning she slept through a fairly gruesome murder. And what appears to be a struggle, also?" "Yes." Neo stated simply, seriously regretting calling the police in the first place. "I think I'd like to speak to Kayla, if that's alright." He said fairly politely, as Neo gave a quick nod before leading him out of the apartment again, silently cursing himself as he did so.