Strip

September 15th, 7:13 P.M.

"We need to talk to James's wife." Yoongi said as they drove. "He owned some expensive jewelry stores and none of them had been robbed. A witness said he overheard James's final moments, and that he seemed to know and trust the person who ended up killing him."

Namjoon nodded. "Sounds personal, then. Are we heading there now?"

"You are going back to the house." Yoongi said. "I'm going to talk to his wife."

Namjoon frowned. "We said we were gunna be a team, Yoongi."

"You really think the wife of a murdered husband who was cheating on her with you will be open and inviting when you show up to question her?" Yoongi raised an eyebrow.

Namjoon supposed the detective was right. The wife would probably try to kill him, if she was crazy enough.

"Besides, your manager gave me the statements of the employees who were working on the night James was killed. Go through that for me and write down anything of importance." Yoongi pulled into his driveway. "It's in my email."

Namjoon decided it was a good enough start for this rocky partnership.

He climbed out, ready to raid the detectives fridge while he had some alone time.

"Hey," he bent down, leaning in through the open window of the car. "Be careful."

Yoongi scowled, like he was offended that Namjoon cared for his wellbeing, and floored the car in reverse.

Namjoon smiled as he watched the man drive away, turning into the house to start his own investigation.

-

After making himself a giant bowl of pasta, and cleaning up the kitchen afterwards because he was a nice person, Namjoon grabbed a water bottle and headed to the detective's study.

When he sat at Yoongi's desk, he saw the gold scale paperweight sitting at the corner and frowned.

He reached over and delicately picked it up, examining the dried blood on it. There was a small indent on the desk, signifying the paperweight had always sat in that exact spot, for a very long time. It would probably have taken a decade for that indent to form.

Yoongi was hiding something from him, and this bloody paperweight was a clue.

He set it aside for now, not having time to investigate two cases at once, but he wasn't about to let the night he was attacked by some stranger go without getting some answers.

He pulled up the detective's email on his laptop and found the file sent from his manager.

With a sigh, he grabbed a pen and notepad and got to work on the large workload.

-

"You already questioned me." Shyann Kingswell looked suspiciously at the detective on her front door. "I told you about the strip club."

"Yes, and now I need to ask you some other questions." Yoongi said.

"How many people are going to question me?" She huffed. "That rookie cop already came over and now you're back too. My alibi has been confirmed, I was at an office party the night of the murder, the camera's confirmed it! I just want to plan my husbands funeral without being treated like a suspect!"

"You're not a suspect, I just need some more information." Yoongi told her calmly. "Can I come in?"

She glared at him.

"The sooner we finish this the sooner I can leave."

She huffed and opened the door, letting him inside.

He took a seat on the couch while she sat down across from him on a chair.

"Don't bother with the basics; no, there's no one who would have wanted James dead, he treated all his employees well and we got along with our neighbors, nobody was recently fired and we don't have any black sheep family members. James didn't have any life insurance policies anyway, and everyone knew it."

Yoongi nodded, taking a few notes. "His death wasn't about money, then. Do you know why he was in that alley late at night?"

She shook her head, rubbing her eyes. "He told me he was planning on staying in that night. I invited him to the party with me, but he wanted to catch up on some paperwork, inventory I think it was."

"Does anyone he knew strike you as the person he might have been meeting?"

She shook her head again. "When I first heard he had been out that night I thought he might have just been getting gas or some cigarettes. It never occurred to me he had been meeting someone. He liked to be in bed by ten."

She looked at the detective. "What if it was some random person who stabbed him? Like a homeless person who got angry if he didn't give them any money? How am I supposed to go on knowing that? Or even worse, how am I supposed to go on if I never find out the truth?"

Yoongi stared at his notepad, not reading the words on there.

"When someone you loved is suddenly taken away from you, and you have no idea how or where they are, what's being done to them or if they're even still alive," Yoongi said slowly, "You just keep living, because it's all you can do for them."

He stood up, closing his notebook. "Thanks for your time."

-

Namjoon sat back and rubbed his eyes with a yawn, ready to take a nap.

He had written down anything of interest that was in the employee's statements, which wasn't much, but he had done what Yoongi had asked and felt he deserved a reward for his efforts.

He stood up from the desk and wandered up to the second floor.

Yoongi's bed was large and spacious, but Namjoon knew the detective would hate it if Namjoon slept there. Even though they were supposed to be on the same page now, it was going to take Yoongi a while to start acting like it, and Namjoon didn't want to push it.

There was another door a little further down the hall, and when Namjoon pushed the door open and peered in, he saw it was another bedroom.

It was spotless- the bed was made and the floor was clean. All the toys and books were put away in their shelves, and all the crayon pictures were hanging neatly on the walls.

It looked like a young boys room.

But...where was the young boy?

And why was it so clean? Little kids were messy, but this room was kept in immaculate shape.

Something told Namjoon that sleeping in this room was off limits, and he was about to close the door, when a picture caught his eye.

He stepped into the room gingerly and picked the small photo up, holding the frame delicately.

It was a little boy, his cheeks chubby and smile wide, his eyes shining with the kind of happiness only kids had.

He was adorable, but Namjoon was confused as to who the kid was. He didn't look like Yoongi, so Namjoon didn't think it was a brother or a son.

He set the picture back down and went to the couch after stealing a blanket off Yoongi's bed.

Hopefully the detective had gotten a lead from James's wife, because Namjoon had nothing.

He checked the time as he laid down.

His next shift didn't start for a few more hours, he could get a nice nap in before then.

With his head swimming about Yoongi, the case and the bedroom upstairs, Namjoon slowly drifted off into sleep.