The Deidres

The Deidres ~ Part 1

A telephone sprung to life, reverberating through Lawliet's quiet house, filling every room with its shrill presence. Lawliet was sleeping, waiting by one of the phones. As soon as it woke him up, his wife hurriedly entered the room and sat on a sofa opposite him, waiting for him to answer it. Lawliet fumbled and quickly put the speaker to his ear. "Good evening, Detective Deirdre," a hesitant voice sounded through the speaker.

"What news of Jordan?" the woman, on the nearby sofa said quietly. The caller breathed in deeply and replied, "Oh and it's Officer Deirdre as well. Good, you're both here."

"Please continue, Officer Cory," Lawliet whispered as he moved positions to sit beside his wife, stroking her head softly.

"We Lawliet holy. Amen. we found him. He was inside Drew Smite's house. That is his, uh, biological father."

"I am aware that Drew is Jordan's biological father. Cory, is my son okay?"

"I am so sorry, Lawliet. As your friend, I thought it would be best if I was the one to call you, but it is always hard to be the messenger. You've made your fair share of calls like these." His wife gasped and Lawliet put a hand over his mouth.

"How did this happen? Was he murdered?" At this question, Viv Deirdre sharply inhaled and started to shake her head slowly.

"No, Lawliet. Don't ever say that! He can't be dead." Viv hugged her husband as he continued to talk to Officer Cory.

"Yes, he was. And so far, our list of suspects consists of only one; Drew Smite. He was covered in your child's blood, sitting with his remnants in his attic when the police entered the premises. The suspect was the one to call the police, yet his story is more than convenient. He stated that he happened upon the body and immediately passed out. Then when he came to, he called the police. It's not looking good; his fingerprints were everywhere, yet no weapon was found." At this point, Viv stood and left the room, quietly making her way to her bedroom; Lawliet could still hear her cries even though she tried to be quite.

"This is her second child, Cory. She's lost so much. Her first child never should have died; it was just a freak car accident. But this... how could this happen? Someone in heaven has it in for her." Officer Cory was silent, waiting for Lawliet to continue. "She didn't want to foster a child. She felt so responsible about what happened to Neil; it was before I even came along. But now... Oh god, our sweet Jordan." Lawliet silently began to cry, holding the phone away from his ear. "Thanks, Cory. I will call you later alright." Lawliet continued to cry in the same position on the sofa, and he fell asleep hugging his knees to his chest. How could this be happening to us? To him? Would his father really kill him?

Drew Smite was taken into custody and was suspect to further questioning, yet the police station had nothing more to go on than what Drew had already stated. Cory constantly rang to update them, being Lawliet and Viv's closest friend inside the investigation. In truth, some of the information Zac Cory shared had only been meant for the ears and eyes of those working the case. However Cory felt morally obligated that little Jordan's parents were fully informed, especially considering Lawliet's detective ability. Over the next few weeks, while also juggling a funeral and running on less than 3 hours sleep per night, Lawliet was trying his best to consider everything that had been told to him through Cory.

Drew Smite remained with the same story; he stumbled upon his dead child while searching for cooking books, yet the police seem determined to prove that Drew truly did murder his son and hid him in the attic. The one thing that was constantly replaying on every officer's mind was why Mr. Smite would call the police if he was the murderer. Could it be guilt? The entire house was swept, and no leads were found to confirm whether Drew was guilty, or even to suggest that he was. That being said, everybody knew that there an equal amount of evidence saying that he didn't do it.

While all of this puzzled everyone who knew a little something about the case, Lawliet completely put it out of his mind during the week of the funeral. The silence during the sermon couldn't be measured; everybody mourned Jordan, and many officers and colleagues of Lawliet and Viv were there, just as traumatised. The boy was so young and had seen so much, yet nobody expected this. Viv and Lawliet stood quietly at the front of the reasonably large crowd, Lawliet burying his face into his wife's hair.

Lawliet could feel the pain more than anybody could, or so it seemed. He stood so tall and expelled an air of superiority to all who dared look him in the eye. He refused pity, and anybody to offer up such a meek means of comfort would regret it instantly with one glance of his cold, withdrawn eyes. His eyes were the only thing that could give away how much he was carrying apart from his sporadic sleep patterns, and Lawliet didn't even let his wife know how much this hurt him. Jordan was gone, and nobody could change that; the only satisfaction Lawliet would receive from then until his death would be to prove who in the Jordan Smite case was guilty of the young boy's murder. Lawliet was adamant that he would get himself fully involved, even if it got him expelled from the police force. The murderer will be found out with more evidence than just police speculation; this man, whoever he may be, will spend the rest of his life locked in a cage, paying for exactly what he had stolen from Lawliet.

"I can't allow you to do that, and you know it, Lawliet. That's, for one, breaking the law, and two, I would be helping you do it." Cory again found himself on the other end of a telephone call.

"It's really not that bad, Cory. I just need some further details, and you know that I would never throw you under the bus. If it ever comes to it, your name will not be mentioned at all. You're helping in the case; quite a bit actually. They trust you, but I need your help so much more." Cory sighed and scratched his head, really regretting not letting it go to voicemail.

"What do you need me to do, and I mean exactly?" Cory didn't know what was stronger; plain and simply peer pressure, or the consuming want to help his best friend, no matter the costs. Cory decided on both as he began to consider the possibilities of leaking classified information to an officer strictly prohibited involvement in the case.

"This is why we are friends, Cory; you're the only one I know that wouldn't inform the deputy. Well, tell me every detail that the police know about the case, even if it seems irrelevant. Then I will need you to meet up with me several times a week, face to face and never over the phone. Even as protected as I have set this line up to be, there are always possibilities that someone would catch on to something; regular calls may seem suspicious to how precisely we must communicate. I have already considered the best time slots, and they are Mondays just before your late shifts, Thursdays after dinner, with your family thinking you are going back to work and every second Sunday. No church, my dear friend, on every alternating week. Your family doesn't attend, so nobody will realise if you don't go except for the church itself; you can simply tell them that a case you are working on is really taking a lot out of -"

Cory interrupted with a very concerned look on his face and a loud, "Just a second, Lawliet! You have really thought about this, even before I agreed to take part in it. Don't you ever think that maybe you should just leave it to the rest of us; we are still very capable of doing our jobs, you know." Lawliet smiled, but lets Cory continue. "I am actually offended, Lawliet. You are very good at what you do, but that doesn't mean you could do any better, any faster, than a large team of detectives and officers who also know what they are doing."

Lawliet was still smiling at his friend, yet he sighed into the speaker, making sure to sound strained. "I know you guys are really good, but I feel obligated to do something, especially since it's my kid and nothing useful has been found yet." Another big sigh escaped Lawliet's mouth, but his heart was elsewhere as he continued to smile. "I'm sorry if you find that offensive to you and the team, but I need this, Cory. I can't just do nothing." Lawliet ended off with a bang that he hoped would push his friend over into his side of the fence. He had guessed correctly, for as soon as the words escaped his mouth, Cory apologised and agreed to help him out of pity. The one thing that they had both agreed on was that not a single sole would know what they were doing, not even Officer Viv Deirdre. They decided on the time and place for their next meet-up; all information would be collected and sorted by Cory, then to be discreetly passed on to Lawliet the next time they met. As Lawliet had three days to spare until then, he decided to collect some information of his own and add to his own suspect list, Drew Smite the only name yet playing in his mind. That's soon to change, and I am positive that I will be able to do better than the police at this current time; there is only a very small possibility that Drew is actually guilty. The sooner they all realise that, the faster we can get this investigation actually going somewhere.