"Where'd the interview recordings go?"
"They're not in there?"
"No," Hazel said, feeling the warmth of the sun on her, a rare occurrence in this city, as she rummaged through a folder with Archie trailing beside her.
It was Thursday, her day off. Not that she would be taking any breaks. It wasn't in her nature. But she could have and probably should have. She had a plan in her mind prepared for the day, as did Archie. But already things were taking a turn for the worse as she tried to keep herself organised and make sure she had everything she needed, only to discover that she hadn't.
"I swear I put the pen drive in here. I hadn't taken it out."
"Maybe you don't remember," Archie suggested, trying to make sense of it as he kept a hand on her back to make sure she didn't walk out into the middle of the road as she searched, entirely distracted by her folder. "You've not had much sleep recently. You could have taken it out while you were in a daze. It's probably at home."
"Hmm..." She frowned. "That sucks. I hate forgetting things."
"I'll look for it later. Don't stress too much or you'll get sick, okay?"
"Okay. Thanks, Archie," she said, paying attention to her steps once again. "I must have dropped it or something this morning when I was going over everything."
Sure, Hazel was working even at five in the morning, but as lunchtime passed and she glanced over the address written on the back of her hand, she felt her day grow a little more lively. The sun was bright, there were fewer grey clouds to shield the sky's blue tint and the sound of life during lunch grew the closer they got to the cafe.
"I need to go this way," Archie said, pointing down a street as he went to head towards a pharmacy, keeping the day organised by doing their general daily life tasks while Hazel focused on the case. It was always odd when it happened, especially when conversations shifted from murder to groceries within a span of five minutes.
"Okay dokay," Hazel nodded, beaming up at Archie, "have a nice day, Archibald."
"See you later, Hazelnut."
With that, they split.
It admittedly felt strange to go to the cafe on a Thursday and not have to work. It was weird to approach the place at lunch rather than through the early morning. But there she was. Students passed her, dressed in their school uniform as they made their way towards town for their lunch. Meanwhile, she walked to the cafe, a little lost in her head as she went over her plan for the day.
She was smart enough to arrive at the cafe for late lunch, knowing that most students would have been and gone or gotten their places. It was far less busy during the later hours of lunch. But it was still somewhat lively compared to the usual silence.
And then she was engulfed by it.
She stood in the cafe, barely noticing the shift in scenery after getting a little lost in her head. Around her, kids laughed and ate, the clinking of forks against plates rang in her ears, the smell of coffee and cake was filling her up and the warmth from the glowing cafe made her once cold skin tingle.
"Robin!"
She smiled, turning to the counter where Stewart stood patiently waiting for customers. His smile was warm, a little less stressed than the usual one too which was good to see.
"How are you? You getting rest?"
She approached, shrugging as she tried to be as honest as she could be.
"When do I ever?
"Got plans then?"
"Yup, I got some work in the area."
Hazel turned, noticing the usual group of boys all huddled around the table in the centre of the cafe, their uniforms a little more put together, but still not quite right. Some wore hoodies under their blazers, their blue ties hung a little looser than they should have and a few of them had sleeves rolled up in an attempt to go against the uniform policy as best as they could. They were subtle changes, but enough to be different from all of the uniforms worn by other students in the room.
"Is the work you're doing safe?"
"Yup. Just exploring the South. Figuring out timelines and possible trails. Fun stuff. Hopefully, I don't end up in a killer building that eats me or anything."
"I wouldn't be surprised if you do."
"Me neither." She grinned and with that, she spun around and placed her attention on the group of boys.
"Tweetie," Ryan turned to her, noticing her growing presence, "come to do my homework? I have some that needs doing."
"Uh-" she paused, pulling his clean and folded shirt from her bag which she carefully placed on the table in front of him, "no, but I have your shirt."
Joel sat up, widening his eyes as he recalled exactly where she lived and how far the journey from the North to the South was.
"You came all this way to give him his shirt?" Joel gawked, turning to her with wide eyes, "but you live so far away!"
"Well," she said, noticing a few stern eyes across the room that watched her in disgust as she spoke to the boys they would rather keep away from other people. "I actually have something to do in the area."
"Oh, so you didn't come all this way to give me my shirt back," Ryan said, raising an eyebrow.
She faltered, glancing over them all as she thought his words over for only a brief moment.
"That does sound better, doesn't it?" She said, watching him smirk a little at her response, "well, in that case... I came all this way to return your shirt, but I have something in the area that I figured I may as well do while I was here. You were my top priority."
"That's better," Ryan laughed, though, it wasn't a proper laugh. It was much more like a scoff if anything at all, maybe even just a harsh breath escaping him with little to no sound.
There was another scoff that cut through his laugh easily and forced them to turn to the Ashy haired boy, Leo, who sighed a long breath out in response to his friend.
"You're a dick," Leo shook his head at Ryan with his own short laugh. "But, Tweetie," he turned, using the name Ryan had given her after forgetting her name, though, it seemed 'Tweetie' had caught on a little, "don't you have school?"
"Not today," she shook her head, "I start back at school next week."
"Then why aren't you sleeping?" Oscar tilted his head, looking up at her as the group seemed to get more and more curious about what she did. It seemed that even on her days off, she was doing something. Yet, even then, their curiosity was captured more by the fact that Oscar had spoken to her at all.
"You do a lot of work..." Oscar continued with words more like a long breath escaping filled lungs.
"Some people just like being busy, Osc," Fox noted, his voice smooth in comparison to everything else as he rested back in his chair and spoke with shut eyes.
She nodded, agreeing with his words. It was true that she preferred doing something rather than doing nothing. But, that came from a constantly stressed state. If she was given enough time to think, she was certain she would begin to overthink and get herself more stressed. It was best if she kept her mind busy.
Realising that she was there to do work, she turned, her eyes glancing over the clock on the far wall that ticked on and on but was silent under the sound of chattering voices.
"I have to go," she said, but turned to Ryan who had mentioned having homework earlier, "if you still desperately need me to do your homework, you can leave it and I'll do it once I come back."
"I'll give it to you," he said, deciding to turn away to glare down at the table. "I'm not going back to school after lunch."
"You're not?" Oscar turned, shocked by his words, "is it 'cause of Mr Harrow? I don't want to go either."
"Oscar, you have to go." Leo said, shaking his head before turning to Hazel who he had spoken to only a little yesterday, mostly about spelling if that even counts. "See you around, Tweetie."
"See ya," she smiled, stepping back and quickly, she moved towards the door, sending Stewart a wave and warm smile before disappearing into the cold but sunny day again to begin her job.
When she arrived at the school, it was fairly lively. Kids passed every so often, some noticed her, others didn't. But for the most part, she was ignored, they didn't pay much attention to the girl who stood outside of the fence with a twist to her face as she looked down at her phone, a map on screen and a route to walk.
This was the last place, as far as she knew, Jason was seen. He spoke to Amelia Karr at the end of the school day on Friday, and from there, he walked home. At least, that's what happened according to Amelia. Today, however, she was going to test to see how long that would take.
His parents both worked long hours and didn't see him that night, they had said so in multiple interviews with police. However, on the Friday, his mother worked until 4 pm and had gotten home at 4:30 pm. That would mean, if anything Amelia said was true, he would have had to have been able to get home in under half an hour. She intended on testing that.
So, she made a note of the directions, keeping them clear in her head and with one final breath, she started the timer on her phone and began her walk, deciding for the sake of fairness to quicken her pace just a little assuming he was much taller than Hazel was and therefore naturally took wider steps. It wasn't going to be incredibly accurate, it might not have even been relevant if it never happened, but she needed to look at every angle.
She kept track of every road, looked down every alleyway and made a note of every building she passed, searching for any that might have been a little more questionable. An apartment building with shattered windows on Barley Lane but blatant signs of life still living there. A path leading to Thornbell Road leading down towards a broken-down hotel, old and decrepit, a park, a corner store then, as she kept going, less and less.
It seemed he lived towards the outskirts of the city, not quite outside of it but not entirely inside either. She was reaching the fifteen-minute mark when the older buildings started to look a little nicer, a little more well-kept. Then, a few seconds after twenty minutes, she reached her destination.
A nice home for the area, not a huge house, but not small either. It had a garden and a driveway more than most of the homes in the city could only dream of having.
She was almost tempted to walk up and see if somebody was home before that idea was torn from her and instead, she felt the buzz of her phone in her hand and she turned away from the house, knowing better than to linger there and feel the temptation of asking questions to a family that was likely still suffering because of a missing presence at their dinner table.
She brought her phone to her ear, barely thinking to check who it was as she spun around and turned away from the building.
"Hazy, I found that park Ryan was in."
"You did?" She gasped, hearing Archie's voice loud and clear as her face lit up, walking down the same path she just went, hoping to see what some of the buildings were on her way to Jason's house. "Where is it? Are you there now?"
"Yeah, I'll wait for you where I am. It's not far from the school, just take a right on Alber Street and keep walking straight until you pass a corner shop. It's on the left."
"I'll be there soon, just hold on."
She hung up and as quickly as she could, looking around at her surroundings, she went back the way she came, taking in the various buildings that she passed one after another. She almost got lost in counting how many shady looking places there were until she stopped at one particular place.
Flats. It was undeniably dingy, partially familiar and likely haunted by the looks of it. Broken windows, the front entrance into the building was so broken it didn't shut anymore and there was a thick scent that gripped her from where she stood outside of it. But that wasn't what got her attention.
She watched as a familiar uniform passed a window on the stairwell, a boy. She couldn't make out many features, but the height, the scruffy uniform lacking a tie, the fact that he wasn't in school. It made her curious. It was likely nothing at all, just a kid causing trouble, but she couldn't deny her curiosity.
So she followed, inching her way into the building that was close to Jason's home. Maybe this place was related to what happened, maybe it wasn't. Maybe she was just making excuses for her curiosity. Either way, she went in.
Of course, she didn't expect much. Just a run-down building, but inside was pretty awful, even by her standards.
With every step she took, she heard the subtle cracks of glass under her feet, broken and left to pile up. And pile up it did. There were piles of dust in the corners of the room, getting worse with every floor she reached, powdered glass under too many feet, small dangerous shards, sticky pools she didn't want to question, it even tasted bad to breathe in the air inside. Alcohol, drugs, probably a lot of gross things that come when those things are consumed. All of it mixed into a cloud that would stick to her for as long as she could remember the smell, which, unfortunately, would be a long time.
Damn her good memory.
She stopped walking for a moment and stood just beside the gross laminate stairs with too many questionable stains on them and too many smashed beer bottles. Some stains were red, others an odd shade of yellow. She didn't want to know what it was, but she had suspicions. The layout was a little strange, unlike her own place, there wasn't a lot of space between the flats, just stairs and a small square to stand. But, the place didn't exactly scream quality.
She couldn't move from where she was in front of a door, too conscious of the sound of her feet as a squeaking sound echoed around the stairwell and then, a voice followed.
"Gah, what the hell d'you want? I thought we were done. I told you I'm not selling you shit anymore."
"I'm not here about that." A younger voice said, low and unfamiliar. "But I got a call. Got a bit of an emergency. Apparently, they're investigating."
"Shit, really?" The first voice said, older than the second, rougher, slightly damaged and with a constant irritation that sounded like he needed to clear his throat but just wouldn't. "Didn't think it was true. Just... come inside," the door squeaked open and he continued. "How d'you know? Did you get a message or something?"
"Yeah, they texted the others-"
Their voices faded behind the click of a door and Hazel took a moment to breathe and think.
That sounded ominous, but, of course, this was just a random flat that was rampant with crime. She could think of plenty of reasons about what it was. Drugs, bad businesses, anything. Still, it was at least something to keep in mind.
However, her concerns shifted remarkably fast.
She had completely forgotten that she was supposed to be meeting Archie, not only that, but a click of a door got her heart pounding as she took a slight step back and felt her eyes widen.
"What the hell are you doing!?"
She did not anticipate this.
A woman stood in front of her, leaning out of her doorway and swinging on the handle of the door, swaying left and right as she tried to balance on it but it just kept moving. Brown hair, rough and pasty skin, dressed in a pink floral dressing gown with fluffy slippers to match. Sloppy drunk.
"Oh, sorry-"
"I've been watching you for five minutes through the door, you creep!" She stumbled forwards. "Piss off!"
"No no, I was just-" Hazel took a step back, lifting her hands defensively as the woman took no time at all in reaching for her. And in her drunken state, she reached for anything she could grab. Unfortunately, the only thing her fumbling hands could get a good grasp on was a fistful of hair. "Hey- no, hey-!"
Hazel knew this area was bad, but not this bad.
The air hit her back only moments before she felt the stairs and she rolled, listening to the drunk woman spit at her and stumble her way back into her flat as she was left to hit her back, her stomach then her face into the metal edges of the stairs before she rolled to the space outside of somebody else's flat and hit her head against the wall just beneath the grimy broken window barely covered with wooden boards.
She laid there on her back, feeling her lip throb and her cheek bruise from the impact. She didn't even want to think about her hands and whatever had burrowed into them. Likely glass considering how many shattered bottles laid around after too many parties.
She could feel her heart in her throat from the fright, the ache that covered her from head to toe and the groan that left her lips as she rolled over and pushed herself onto her knees, seeing splatters of blood fall, creating threads of red from her nose as she spat, uncaring of how gross it was, and saw more red from a broken lip. No point trying to stay hygienic in a place like this.
There was no way in hell she was sticking around here. So she stood, attempted to regain her balance, and stumbled her way out and towards the park.
The walk there was a little longer than anticipated, she wanted to time it, to see how far it was from the school and Jason's house. But right now, that wasn't her priority. All she needed to do was get there and tell Archie that she had a minor incident all for nothing. And that's what she intended to do as she saw a man slouch into a park bench, typing at an old phone only to glance up, shove it into his pocket then stand within a matter of seconds.
"Hey- what the hell?"
"I had an oops moment."
"What the hell!?" He panicked, picking up his pace as he rushed over to her and immediately put a hand on her cheek then her shoulders to keep her up. "What happened!?"
"I upset the wrong person." She shrugged as he turned her head from left to right to see the damage, looked to her hands then her knees. "I'm fine, quit worrying."
She looked past him, scrunching her face as she wiped the blood from her nose on the back of her hand. It was nothing new, she looked pretty much the same just a few weeks ago if even that.
"Is this the park he was at?"
"Hazel, you need to go to hospital."
She shot him a glare, unintentionally allowing her annoyance to slip for just a moment, then, she switched it for a sigh and a frown.
"I'm fine. I'll just stop by the cafe on my way home and clean up in the bathroom or something."
"You have glass in your hands."
"I'm not going to the hospital."
"Fine," he gave in, knowing there was no changing her mind. She was frustratingly careless to a fault. "But we're going to the cafe. Now. You're in a bad state, Hazel. You'll only get worse."
If she could have rubbed her hands to her eyes and let out a groan, she would have. Instead, she nodded and felt his hand on her shoulder in an attempt to move her before she changed her mind. And as they walked, he pulled his phone out, the phone she was so familiar with and used for only one purpose when they had so few acquaintances. She saw through the cracked screen who exactly he was messaging.
Roderick.
The moment she stepped into the cafe, she knew she was about to have a bad time.
"Robin."
"Oh hell."
She immediately spun around again to face the exit as she saw the man standing at the counter, a prominent frown, furrow of his brows and crossed arms. Beside him, Stewart stood with his own wide-eyed expression and parted lips, unable to get any kind of greeting out as he saw her bloodied face. There was also the table of boys who didn't spare even a glance as they talked amongst each other, uncaring of Hazel's presence, or oblivious to it. She was grateful for that fact. At least somebody wasn't overreacting.
As she spun, she was met with Archie's chest.
"Turn around, Robin," Roderick said, his voice firm and in parent mode.
Her body visibly sank as she slouched forwards in her realisation that there was no getting out of this.
"Okay, look," she finally spun around as Archie took her by the shoulders and turned her himself, knowing she wouldn't do it without more prompt, "I know it looks bad, but it's really not!"
"Explain."
"I have glass in my hands!" Hazel cheered, coating her words with a happy chirp in the hopes that it would be like camouflage on something very obvious, like an elephant. For a moment, as everyone stared blankly at her, she thought it worked.
"You what-?" Stewart turned, noticing her enthusiastic voice yell about something that didn't sound very good. "Oh my God."
There was a pause as he stared blankly at her, unsure of how to properly react to a girl as fragile-looking as her covered in her own blood that ran from her lip, nose and hands.
"Let me guess," Roderick approached, taking her hands into his to look at the damage. Then he looked at her face, holding her by her cheeks as he made her look left, right, up and down in search of more injuries. It was just what could be seen on her hands and face, thankfully. "You refuse to go to the hospital."
"Hospitals stink." Hazel retorted, sounding more like a toddler than an eighteen-year-old detective. "You can tell me to go, but I won't."
"I'm an officer, you're supposed to do as I say."
"You stink."
Roderick sighed, shaking his head as he walked her to the counter.
Hazel scrunched her nose, finding that the boys at the table now turned to her, their eyes wide as they took in the scene. Ryan, Leo and Fox. She sent them a small injured smile in return before turning back to face Roderick, Archie and Stewart.
"What happened?" Stewart asked, shaking his head in disbelief.
"I went to these flats," she started explaining, knowing what she could and couldn't say to keep the boys from figuring her out, "I was just roaming around, y'know? But then a woman burst out and she was like 'hey, go away' and she must've really wanted me to go away because she pretty much threw me. Turns out there were some stairs behind me. But I gotta say, it was pretty efficient. She got me away really fast."
"She what!?"
"Roddie," she turned to Roderick, "can you get those dumb metal-capped stairs removed? I have a sneaking suspicion that they might be a hazard."
"What makes you say that?"
"They hurt faces."
"I'd say that's a good enough reason," he nodded. "You need to go to the hospital."
"I refuse."
"You have glass in your hands."
"I'd rather die than go to the hospital."
"Fine." He gave up, knowing exactly why she was being difficult. He wasn't going to argue with her about it, especially not after she just fell downstairs. Again. So instead, he glanced around, shaking his head before he met Archie's eyes. "I'm glad you found her when you did."
"So am I." He sighed and turned to her. "Are you alright?"
She nodded. She was fine, she hurt a little, more than a little, but she still had all of her teeth and she wasn't broken at all. If she had broken her finger, maybe she would have thought she was a little less than fine. But she didn't. She'd had worse. Hell, she technically died once. There was no beating that.
The cafe was quiet. The customers from earlier were gone and the only sounds came from the boys who no longer did anything and simply watched her sway from foot to foot, hoping to distract herself from the burning feeling in her hands. Alcohol bottles were sharp and painful, her lip was going numb, her cheek throbbed and she wasn't sure if it was safe for her nose to be bleeding for so long.
"Robin," Stewart caught her attention, seeing her bring her hand up to her nose for a third time, "go sit down. I'll help you get cleaned up in a second," he turned to his side and lifted a napkin, "use this for your nose."
She nodded again, taking it from him before she thoughtlessly trailed to the table beside the counter and sunk into her seat.
The three men at the counter continued to talk, though, not loudly enough for her to hear. It was obviously about the fact that once again, she had gotten into trouble which she knew was her own fault for not being more careful. And then Stewart was in front of her, helping to pick the glass from her palms while Archie and Roderick continued to talk until they weren't and instead, Roderick gave her a farewell and went to go and find out who pushed her down the stairs.
She doubted he would find out.