FATHER ALWAYS SMILING

Chapter 55 ~~~~~

"I'm sorry," Alastor said after he recovered from the sheer amount of stupidity that just violated his ears. "I must have misheard. Because it sounded to me like you just said Christophe thinks, in his tiny little mind, that Amalie isn't Marie's daughter. A daughter whom she carried for nine months, nine months that he was very aware of." He even crashed the baby shower that was held in their home. "Of all the idiotic nonsense." He stopped; silver grey eyes flicked to the living room. "Amalie?"

Amalie peeked over the couch to look at him, still by Anthony's side. "Yes?"

"Are you listening to our conversation?"

She frowned. "No."

Then he asked. "Are you related to your Mom?"

Amalie's frown turned into a puzzled look, one that was mirrored by both Anthony and Elija. "Yes...?"

He looked back to Jeremiah. "I stand by what I said," he then smiled sweetly at his daughter. "Why don't you and Anthony go outside Sweetie? Anthony, you can take her to the park if you'd like."

"Sure," Anthony replied. "Go get your shoes kid."

And in a matter of minutes, the two were out of the house, making Jeremiah look at Alastor with a puzzled expression of his own until the man spoke. "About the issue with Terach, will you also be looking into the Andrew Strudwick case, given that man's ties to Strudwick?"

"We are," Jeremiah answered.

"Good," Alastor noticed Elija's expression. "You look like you want to say something."

"Oh, no it's just..." the young man gave a sheepish smile. "I think it's just hitting me that I'm here talking with you, is all."

Alastor merely smiled. "I'm sure you'll get used to it," his grey eyes went to look out the window of the kitchen seeing Kira still speaking on the phone. "With that said, I think I should let you both go. I'm sure you have more important police and FBI matters to attend to."

"If something comes up, we'll be sure to keep you informed," Jeremiah told him.

Alastor gave a cheery smile. "Of course," then led them to the front door and opened it for them to leave. "Goodbye, gentlemen."

Jeremiah then pushed Elija out first, then cast one last look at Alastor. "Detective, we're leaving."

"Right," she said as she had just finished her call and followed after them. "So, how'd it go in there?"

"Nothing eventful."

That brought Kira to pause. "Really?" she looked back at the house before getting in.

"What was the phone call about?" Elija asked as Jeremiah drove back to the precinct.

"My girlfriend might finally be having a book of her's looked at by a publisher."

"Really? That's pretty big, good luck to your girlfriend." Kira could only smile at that, hearing others wishing the woman she loved to do well made her happy.

Jeremiah glanced in the rear-view mirror at Kira, there seemed to be something else on her mind, he thought about asking but given she held distrust for him, or as he preserved that to be the case, he chose not to voice his concern and kept his eyes on the road.

* * *

Alastor watched as the FBI agents and detective left in the car until they were gone from sight, he was now alone in the house as he stood in the kitchen, replaying what Jeremiah told him on a loop in his mind.