Clean Criminal // l.s.

vii.

[And so the drama begins. Who do you think is the murderer so far? I'd love to see who you think it is. -M]

Harry came home from dropping Louis off, of course they had to take the bus since that's what Louis insisted on. Harry stepped out of his boots and then threw his jacket onto the chair near the door. He smiled to himself as he ran his fingers threw his hair, completely flustered from when Louis had given him a tight hug before going into his apartment. He was too caught up in his own thoughts that he almost didn't hear his phone ringing.

"Yeah? Styles here," Harry spoke, feeling quite tired from his long day.

"There's some news regarding the Malik case. Also, his family is wondering when they'll be able to give him a proper burial," Cris, one of Harry's fellow detectives, had said.

Harry sat down at his desk which was cluttered in paper work and miscellaneous medical documents. "They'll be able to do it once we have a completed autopsy. Doc is still working on it, said he'll have it done by tomorrow. Lots of bruising though, quite visible to anyone, he must've gotten in a fight. Anyways, I'll check the new evidence and news in the morning. How about you get some shut eye? You oughta be tired by now."

Cris hardly ever complained, he thought late nights were part of the job, but Harry always insisted he go home and get a good night sleep. "Yeah, alright. See you later, Styles."

"Later, Harper," Harry said, hanging up his phone. He rubbed his temples, feeling exhausted from such a long day. But he decided to look through a few files regarding the Malik case. He was having so much trouble trying to find links between clues and possible suspects. Zayn had no enemies, no one out to get him. Zayn never did anything wrong, he was the perfect example of an outstanding student and citizen.

"If I were the killer, why would I want to kill him?" Harry asked himself, trying put himself in the shoes of the murderer. This normally seemed to work for most cases. Place yourself in the position of the criminal and most of the time you can find their intentions, figure out why they did what they did.

But only for Zayn's case, things were different. What was there to hate about him? What would be something someone wanted to get back at him for? What has Zayn done in the past?

Harry didn't have the energy to try and get the answers to his questions. So he turned off the table lamp and made his way to bed. He took off his dirty dress clothes and let them fall to the ground with the rest of his dirty clothes. He thought about how he'll have to do laundry sooner or later and he cringed at the thought. (Curse laundry and all its effort!) Once into bed, the fairly tall lad was able to fall asleep before the sheets even touched his bare skin.

 .

"What's new?" Harry asked as he walked towards Cris with a coffee in his right hand, paperwork in his left and his satchel on his shoulder, "what do you have for me today?"

"Good morning to you, too, Styles," Cris greeted.

"I don't need your attitude, Harper," Harry warned, but they both laughed it off, used to this sort of teasing.

Cris moved a confidential folder towards Harry before clicking around on his computer, "Payne's alibis check out. That Jenkins girl was with him during the time of the murder. She said they went to see a late night film, didn't get back to the hotel until really late, half-pass midnight."

"So where's the good news?" Harry questioned, picking up the folder.

"The good news is," Cris stated, "we're looking into people who know Louis and Zayn and we've only come up with a few faces." Cris turned his screen so Harry could see, "I think we better talk to this guy."

.

Sunday was God's day, at least that's what Louis' grandmother always used to say before she had passed when Louis was a young teenager. Nonetheless, Louis had continued to use Sundays as a day to himself and also a day to watch the church lectures on television.

He normally started off his Sundays with an early brunch, waking up at eight to get dressed and ready for the day then having food right around nine. He'd always have eggs, bacon, and toast with just a bit of butter and a whole lot of jam or jelly depending on which Sunday of the month it was. Today happened to be the second Sunday of the month which meant it was a jelly day so he pulled out the grape jelly and spread it evenly on top of his toast.

He quietly sat at the small dining table to eat and enjoy the comics of the Sunday newspaper. He took his time doing this, spending about fourty-five minutes to complete his breakfast, including his hot tea. He laughed at the comics of this week, finding them more humorous than last week's and then collected his dirty dishes to be washed at a later time that day.

Just as Louis was about to begin watching the pastor talk on the television set, there was a knock on his door. He was beginning to think that many people had horrible timing and they should really learn his schedule if they wanted a decent conversation where Louis' not constantly looking at the clock.

He answered the door only to find a blonde haired boy looking back at him, "hey, Lou!" Niall chirped, welcoming himself into Louis' apartment. He didn't even bother to take off his shoes where they should be taken off.

Louis let that slip this one time because Niall wasn't used to his rules, they were still something to learn. "What are you doing here, Niall?" Louis asked, looking over Niall's shoulder at the T.V., his program had already started and he was missing the shaking hands bit.

"I just wanted to stop by and see how you're doing. I haven't been able to stop thinking about what you said about Zayn. I'm truly sorry for your loss," Niall said and Louis even thought he actually cared unlike half the people he met at school.

The feather haired boy nodded a few times, "sad tragedy, I must say."

"I hope that you're able to get over it, I'm sure it's just eating at your insides."

Louis had never thought about it. Right now, he's been so busy with Harry and trying to find Zayn's murderer that he completely forgot that his friend is gone. G-O-N-E. Louis would never get to see or talk to him again and that was truly devastating. How would he function without his best friend?

"If you ever need a shoulder to cry on, my shoulder is always available, just give me a ring," Niall offered, resting his hand gently on Louis' shoulder.

Louis tried not to think about all of the many germs on Niall's hands and cringed underneath Niall's continuous touch. It was awful, God awful! He cleared his throat and Niall took away his hand, getting the signal quite clearly.

"Thanks. And thanks for stopping by, but I really have to do this, I hardly even know you," Louis claimed. Which was true, he had never really talked to Niall, they were only lab partners a few times in their chemistry course and that was it. Louis had only ever invited Niall to his apartment when they needed to study after school for a major exam or final.

Niall smiled, "I know, silly. I just wanted to make sure you're okay. I still consider you a friend. You're feelings are still important to me." 

Louis returned the smile, even though he felt terribly awkward and wanted to get out of this ever so awkward moment. "That's very nice of you, but you must get going; I'm missing my program."

The other student listened and left the apartment. Louis was happy he could finally breath again, feeling less suffocated than before. He turned up the volume so he could listen to the little bit that was left.