Hazel was laying on the carpeted ground of her apartment when Roderick turned up. There was a persistent ache behind her eyes, a daze that lingered in her mind every time she so much as looked towards her work. But she was at least comfortable, wrapped in blankets with a mug of coffee and a file in front of her as the radio buzzed every so often and played classical music she mostly forgot about until the radio buzzed again.
Files upon files, dust and too many coffee mugs. That was the essential description of her home, any other way felt wrong, to say it was homely wasn't right, to say it eased a wary mind was just downright fallacious.
"You got punched in the nose," Roderick said, a coffee cup in one hand and a box full of files in his other, tucked under his arm and swiftly taken by Archie who stood from where he sat on the couch. "How bad is it?"
"Possibly broken. I have a black eye." Hazel said, pushing herself up only to flop down onto the couch instead, abandoning her coffee and blanket. "It's fine though."
"You can't just say something is fine and expect that to be it, Hazel. It's not fine."
"It is. I can hardly feel it."
"That's not the point."
She took long breaths of air in, taking in the smell of old paper and coffee, smells she had gotten so used to while she was there every moment of every day, she was so used to them that she barely acknowledged them anymore. There was a moment, as she stared at a stain on her ceiling when she wondered whether she had gotten too comfortable in the home. She worried that maybe the place would be torn from her one day, like most of the homes she had were.
"So," Hazel began to talk in the hopes of moving the conversation on. She felt Archie sit at her feet and saw Roderick sit across from them in the corner of her eye while between them all on the coffee table was the box of files. "Is that stuff all to do with drugs?"
"It's everything I could gather. There's a lot in there."
"I'll get started on it right away... eventually." She nodded and looked to the ceiling. "I think I'm finally getting somewhere with this case."
"In the direction of drug related crime?" Archie asked, subconsciously tapping his fingers against his knees as he met Roderick's gaze and they both shared raised eyebrows and a similar level of uncertainty. "How exactly did you get to this point? Because of that conversation with Ryan?"
She nodded and turned to the ground she had been moments before, twisted herself and reached for her notebook, keeping herself up on the couch with just her legs, then with Archie's hand on her legs to keep her from falling when he realised she was definitely about to fall in this lazy manoeuvre. But she successfully got her notebook without having to stand up.
"It makes some sense. That destroyed phone looked too old to have been Jason's phone, but it could have been a burner phone. And if it was a burner phone, then that aligns with what Amelia Karr said during an interview when she said that her calls were going through until the 4th, two days after he went missing and two days after the destroyed phone was found. She wasn't calling the destroyed phone in the picture, she was calling his actual phone that was somewhere else entirely. She also mentioned that he couldn't walk her home after school because he had to go home to pick something up, then he went out somewhere. He could have gone home to pick up drugs- I want to see if I can find anything about a party that night. If there was a party, then I can confirm that he was likely going to hand out drugs there."
The silence that followed her words lingered so long it forced her to sit up and glance between the two men, finding one with a gaze distant and latched to the far wall in thought, the other looking directly at her with raised eyebrows and a slight smile, happy to see how she was progressing with the case.
"That sounds like a solid lead to me, there's no harm in looking into it." Roderick nodded along, scratching at his chin as he sank back and let out a long breath, his gaze drifting to the ceiling. "Did you find out anything to do with them deleting pictures online?"
She shook her head and turned to the desk free of a laptop that once lived there.
"I have no way of referencing what was there previously, and I have nothing to search with." She sunk a little. "I never see them take pictures or even looking at their socials when I'm with them. The only person who checks his phone is Ryan, but even then, I don't know what he's doing on it because he hides it. Why would they delete things if they don't seem to care?"
She didn't want to believe it. As much as she hated to admit it, Ryan was becoming a friend, just like the rest of the group. Somehow, when she was with them, they made her forget that they were her suspects and it felt strange to acknowledge the doubt that twisted in her with the new information.
Yet, what was she supposed to do? Refuse to believe the obvious? If it was true that they had been deleting things, so much so that it made people question them in their gossip, then she couldn't outright deny they were involved. She couldn't ignore it.
Really, she needed their alibi. If she had exact times, she would be able to check and determine if it was true. But with so much missing, the only way to find out was through the boys themselves.
"Are you still doubting it?" Archie asked, seeing her eyebrows furrow.
"...No..." It was a blatant lie as her pitch rose. But, if she said anything else, it would imply that she thought Archie was lying. And really, what reason would he have for lying about that? They deleted something, but what? "I'll watch them closely when they use their phones, but I really never see them even glance at their phones, not unless a member of the group is missing and they're finding out where they are. Maybe at home, they're on them more?"
"Sounds like something that's worth looking into," Archie said and she quickly nodded. It definitely was, even if it was nothing, she wanted to clear them of every suspicion a court could throw at them.
At this point, she felt more like she was trying to clear their names than find evidence against them. Was that throwing her off? Was it making her subconsciously miss all of the red flags?
"I'll add that to my list." she agreed. "But for now, I want to focus on this drug lead. If I can find out who was selling to Jason, who was buying from him, then I might get somewhere. If it's even true he was dealing drugs, that is. But I have nothing else right now."
With that, their work commenced again as she reached for the files and began to shift through them, dedicating piles to different regions, to different crimes and what was possible and what wasn't.
It was no surprise to see Ryan's father come up in about six of them, likely having supplied drugs to plenty of people around the city. There could have been a connection, she thought, but it didn't interlock with the timeline she had made in her head. She knew he was arrested, but he was arrested three years ago, partially thanks to her. Whatever happened to Jason would not involve Ryan's dad, Arthur Matson.
The piles grew, one, in particular, was a little taller than the others as she read and read and read, going through files three times over before determining that they couldn't have been involved in this crime, whether that's because they were too far and didn't align or because they were already closed cases. By the time Hazel was able to make sense of the things that could be a potential link to Jason, the three had eaten and were on a trip towards exhaustion as the hour got later and later.
"-This one could be linked, or this one or this one or this one or-"
"Hazy, we can see the pile of files."
"I know, but I'm saying this for dramatic effect." She said, sifting through the stack of files that was no taller than her wrist to the tip of her fingers. "They're cases that weren't officially closed and near enough to the area that Jason would have been able to regularly visit any place of interest involved. Some have missing evidence too."
The two men nodded and awaited more information. Archie leaned in, taking a file from the stack to read, crossing one leg over the other, Roderick sank back and sipped coffee. Hazel, still in work mode, went back and forth between piles, double-checking that none were in the wrong place.
"This one," she lifted one file, "involves parties and girls getting their drinks spiked, there's some kids from the school involved in it. That's two connections. Parties and kids. But, there are some parties that were towards the East and it was those ones that were mostly connected to drugs, less incidents in the South so it's more likely the person with the drugs came from the East. There's also this one," she switched the files and dropped the first to the ground by her feet, "there's not much about it, but it's in the area and too unsure to dismiss. Just some found drugs, a lot of them, being stored at an old abandoned hotel in the South, Southblock Hotel. I think they found stuff all over, hidden in cabinets in rooms, under the floorboards, pretty much everywhere. But, there's really not much information about it, so I can't make any connection other than it being nearby."
"This one is interesting," Archie said, lifting the file he was reading. "School kids found with drugs in their system, one had their stomach pumped it was so bad, but they couldn't remember where they got them, or they wouldn't say. It's likely they went to a party and got carried away."
"Right," Hazel nodded along, "that one's pretty convincing. The only issue is that the kids who were involved are about twenty, twenty-one or so now and have left for uni so I can't look into them. Also, I don't think very many parties go on around the area anymore, not from what I've seen and heard. But I'll ask Stewart if he's heard of anything in the area."
"Hazel, if you end up going to a party-"
"Roderick," she turned to him, dropping the file and leaning back, "I would never. I'd send Archie in my place."
"Right, I'll just dress up as you. Nobody would be able to tell the difference."
"I see no issues with this plan."
Roderick rolled his eyes and let out a laugh as he stretched, then after a brief pause, he began to rise from his seat with a glance at the clock and a short hum. It was late and it was likely time for him to go. But he stopped, hearing his phone buzz in his pocket for a moment before he pulled it out and read the message.
He let out a sharp breath of air, shaking his head drearily.
"I've got to go," he announced, putting his attention onto his bag at his feet while pulling out plastic bags with what looked to be her new blue uniform. "There's been a breakthrough in a case and I'm needed. But, give me a call if you need anything."
"Thank you for the help, Roddie," Hazel smiled up at him as he rose from his seat. She was realising that even on his days off, he worked hard. He didn't use to have quite so much to do, but things changed. It seemed they were both similar in that aspect.
"Bye," he smiled at the duo before leaving quickly, obviously in a rush to get to the station.
They sat silently for a moment, taking a breath to figure out what to do now that he had gone. She could work more, go over the notes in her notebook, look through files and evidence. Or, she could...
She flopped, falling face-first into a pillow as she sunk into the couch and felt Archie's hand on her head, ruffling her hair.
"Have a rest, go to bed early," he said, "your work will still be here when you wake up."
"It wasn't last time."
He had to sit quietly just to decipher her muffled words, then he sat even longer in his silence as he thought about them.
"I'm sorry, Hazy." He sighed, sinking down, "It won't happen again. I promise. The apartment is much more secure now."
She nodded and pushed herself up, rubbed her eyes and glanced around the room to see the changes since the break-in. There was less dust floating around after the boxes fell, the window that had been open for so long was shut and locked, more blankets were left in the living room so she could sleep on the couch if she got nervous again.
The differences were subtle, but they unnerved her when they were so blatant in her eyes.
She just wanted to rest.