The Jay and the Laurel (bxb) (slow updates)

Chapter 1

Shoes hammered against the cobbled street in London. People were roaming the streets in a hurry to get to their destinations. Men on their way to work. Women in idle chatter with each other and on the way to the market. Children running carelessly about and enjoying the early morning, while the older ones already headed to school.

Pushing past the many bodies, was a blonde young man. Muttering multiple apologies to the people he shuffled by and quickening his pace with a look at a nearby watch.

9:27. I'm gonna be late.

Pushing the doors open, Jay stood breathless in the lobby of the detectives' office. Supporting his hands on his knees, Jay tried calming his racing heart and catching his breath. Between heavy gasps, he managed to stutter out, "I'm, I'm here! I'm here".

"Great?"

Heaving the last sigh, Jay looked up facing the office's secretary. Or one of the multiple secretaries.

"Love the enthusiasm, Barnes", he finally straightened up and patted down his suit.

"Love the timeliness, McConnell. Just because you're a detective and I'm the secretary doesn't mean you're better than me."

Oh, how Jay loved Violet Barnes. Not. In his personal opinion, she was probably the most annoying human being on this planet. She always had to have the last word and witty remarks were her specialty. Honestly, Jay couldn't await the day she would leave the office. But it is what it is. In the end, it's not his decision who gets hired or fired.

"Whatever", Jay grunted. He wasn't willing to deal with her today. He already had enough to deal with as it is.

Jay quickly made his way up the stairs and down the corridor towards his office.

He opened the door and was relieved to see not much additional stuff. Since the boom of drug and alcohol trafficking and the over looming threat of street gangs, Jay hadn't had a peaceful workday.

He walked around his table and grabbed one of the recent cases.

A family home had been ransacked. The house owner, a worker, was killed. The family was left terrified.

The part Jay was interested in wasn't how the man was murdered, but why.

Why would a man with a family, children, a good job, and no visible debt, be a target. And a target of whom?

Jay suspected one of the many street gangs. He assumed the man had kept drugs or liquor, but no evidence was found.

No lead, no tip.

Just another open case, that would probably be stored away soon enough. And the family would be left with no answers.

That is what bothered him the most. If only he had a lead. Just one clue. One god damned -

"LEAD!"

Jay's head shot up. In his previously closed door stood his partner with an ecstatic look on his face.

"We got a lead Jay! An actual lead!"

A lead? No, that couldn't be right. They haven't had a lead in ages.

"Dave are you sure? Or is this just one of your stupid pranks, because I swear if-"

"An actual lead Jay! I'm not kidding. Come on the Chief wants to talk to us!", Dave interrupted hurriedly.

Jay just stood frozen. Too many thoughts running through his head. The idea of an actual lead, the possibility of actually closing a case, was something he just couldn't quite believe.