Detective Crawford

8

Megan woke up to the November sun shining through the window and directly on the sleeping woman. Although the sun was shining, it was not warm. So Megan was reluctant to get out of her warm bed and into the cold room. The reason for this was the lack of sleep she had had since she had been up all night surfing her niece's laptop. After going through her morning routine, Megan decided not to put on her dirty suit, but instead put on a pair of light jeans and a white T-shirt she had left in her closet for such an eventuality. When she left her room, she saw Peter preparing breakfast.

"Good morning! You're in charge of the kitchen from now on, I take it?"

"Whitney can't do much around the house right now, so I'm helping her out a bit. Are you going somewhere?"

"Yeah, I'm going to help with the investigation. Can you give me a lift?"

"Sure. You've been so helpful. I don't know how to thank you."

"What do you mean? Stella was my favorite niece. I owe it to you and to her to help you."

"Thank you," Peter smiled gently.

They went outside. Even though it was November, the sun was shining too brightly. Megan thought it was summer, even though it was very cold. All that was missing was the birds singing, because they had already flown away to warmer climes. Megan and Peter got into the car and drove off in the direction Megan had told them.

"Is Whitney still asleep?" Asked Megan.

"Yes, I think she'll be asleep for a long time. Her body needs to rest."

"Of course. I was thinking about it last night... about this situation, and I realized that Whitney is feeling all this pain right now in ways we can't even imagine. Of course, you're a father too, you raised her, you've been through all the good times and the bad, but you never had the bond with Stella that a mother has with her child, and the same goes for me. So I think we have to be very careful with Whitney right now, she's suffering more than ever, even though we can't see it."
"There is some truth in that. I've been thinking about it recently, too. But the worst thing is that we don't know how to help her with this pain, how to help her cope with it. Sometimes when I look at her, I don't recognize her, she's changed so much since yesterday, especially her eyes."

"Because eyes don't lie..."

"That's a good point."

"I think so myself. I don't have children, so I probably don't understand what it's like. Besides, I feel a little weird."
"Like what?" Peter looked at Megan for a moment and then turned his eyes back to the road.

"Well, I don't know how to explain it to you. I mean, I should feel sad, but I don't, like I'm living a normal day without loss."

"I feel like she's going to walk out of the room. I can't believe it's happened."

"We just haven't fully accepted it," Megan summed up in despair.

Arriving at the park, Megan said goodbye to Peter and got out of the car. When she arrived at the murder scene, she saw Alex talking to Anderson with his back to her.

"Oh," Anderson cleared his throat and pointed at Megan. "Look who's here," Anderson said to Alex, smiling.