Animals [z.m. || a.u.]

xvii.

A/N: happy reading.

That gif makes me wanna ASDKHDKGAJGRSSJ  ;)

xvii.

From a distance, Spencer Winters glanced over her friend. She'd known Harry for quiet a while now to point out that he wasn't on his characteristic behavior. The goofy grin long lost with the news of Claire being missing. She watched quietly as his eyes stilled on a framed photograph of himself and the missing girl. Eversince Claire went missing everything went down the hill. Andrew, Claire's legal guardian had scarred Harry deep as he accused the poor, oblivious, scared boy of Claire's missing status. He claimed that it was very irresponsible of Harry to take her to the party and then just lose track. Although, later Andrew had  ringed up that day to convey his apologies after numerous words of persuasion from his wife Alicia, Harry did not feel alright. The words once uttered could not trace their way back. It had had a harder impact on Harry. He started spending more time with his father in hope that he could help the Police Department, albeit the nagging opinion that the case was hopeless shelved by him. As his own father paid no heed to Harry's opinions claiming Harry's absence of experience making him to jump on irrelevant conclusions, the boy tore even more.

Anger is a  strange emotion. The very emotion that one resorts to in case of any emotional confusion. Evidently and unfortunately, that wasn't the case with the younger Styles. Post his falling out with his father, Harry had not only curtailed every sort of communication with his parents and had saken resort to his sister humble aboard but also had refused to interact with anyone. Guilt was the first thing that Harry dived to. He would pull all of the blame of the situation to himself irrespective of his innocence. That was just how Harry's mind worked. He was the one responsible for Claire's absence, or so he forcefully fed his brain. Spencer had been his rock as she visited him regularly. He needed a shoulder to cry on and a pair of lips to convince him that he wasn't in any way held responsible by anyone for his beloved friend's absence, so that's the role she assumed. Although, she could evidently see that her role wasn't much of a success, she couldn't give up.

__

Niall Horan looked at the evidences he had collected so far. Nothing significant enough for him to crack the case through. All he got was a mark that he suspected was made while dragging the unconscious (or dead) target into some sort of vehicle that left the tyre trails that faded away after a certain distance. He'd gone to the club for four days post that day and was honestly frustrated as he found literally nothing.

Niall was used to victory. He'd been famous for solving cases at the drop of his hat. All he needed was one thing out of place and Niall would wolf the case down. His eyesight to pick up tiniest evidences with the least efforts. But as everyone refused to believe Niall's theory of both the missing cases being connected in some crooked way, Niall lost confidence. He had this nagging habit of digging deeper if the case was mysterious and the mystery of this case was maliciously inviting Niall. He knew well enough not to waste time in some case that could take an eternity to solve - considering the torturous absence of witnesses and evidences. He hated how the department turned down his request of letting him get officially on this case.

'With all due respect to your fame and capability, Mr. Horan, there's nothing to solve in the case, for the cases are not intertwined like, you suggest.'

Niall knew there was no 'due respect' in the officers irritating smirk. That's when Niall had resorted to Chief Styles, but unfortunately, even Niall's most trusted officer on the department had turned a deaf ear to him. So what Niall was left with now, was a risky option which he'd hoped the department would not bring him down to.  What he essentially did was, sneaking out photographs of the 'confidential' file of the case.