Case Closed

• Seventeen •

A sharp knock on the door startled Lucy out of her working stupor. She'd been studying this one case for over three hours, and not made any progress at all. Glancing at the clock, which read 5:18, she stood and headed to open it, wondering who would knock for her.

Behind it stood the Prof, head hung low, and a senior looking police officer holding his arm. She wasn't even shocked. For a second, she had a strange image of her as a mother, being confronted with this scene. A hell of a child the Prof would make though.

"Evening Officer," she sighed, glancing again at the Prof, who didn't look up.

"Miss Baker, right?" he replied curtly.

"Aye, Sir."

"You're, Inspector," he sneered, "Layton's first contact in an emergency, as I'm sure you know."

"Aye."

"Well I'm afraid to inform you that Alfendi here has been causing a bit of trouble around town."

"Prof..." she groaned, and for a moment his eyes flicked up to meet hers. They were pink and bloodshot. In that minute, he shrunk down to a child, caught by the police for some juvenile act. Except this was more serious than taking an apple from the corner shop.

"You want to tell her, Alfendi?"

"No..." he muttered, staring back down at the ground.

"Then I will. We had reports come through of antisocial behaviour around this area. Four, in fact. In one day."

"Oh, er-" she didn't know what to say. How did you explain to a police officer that it had been the Prof's Potty side, and that he had little control over what he was doing? Very few people would buy that story, let alone a London officer.

The Prof still said nothing.

"Being Mr Layton's only legal... well, guardian, I'll need you to sign a couple of papers for his release. And you," he said to Alfendi, "should be grateful you got off with a caution. Inspector or not, you'll get a sentence next time."

Lucy's heart jumped inside her chest. The expression on the Prof's face made her want to hit him, officer or not. But both of them ending up in prison was not how she'd planned today to go.

"Aye, sir. Come inside." She moved away from the door to let them in. The Prof stumble to the sofa and sat down heavily, head in his hands.

After the papers were signed, the officer stood back up and left without another word, shutting the door behind him. Lucy said nothing either, leaving the Prof to himself and going back to the case she'd been working on earlier. They'd planned to go to the hospital at seven, to visit Florence, and she would whether the Prof snapped out of it or not. But he did, and together they walked the half an hour to the hospital.

When she saw Flo, Lucy had to try hard to hold back the tears. She was even worse than last time, skin a papery white and eyes sunken in her head. Doing most of the talking, she and the Prof explained everything that had happened during the week before. Florence didn't say much either, only occasionally adding a "hmm" or suggesting what they could do next.

Too soon, a nurse came in and asked them politely to leave. A horrible thought crossed Lucy's mind as she hugged Flo goodbye. This could be the last time... Shocked and appalled, she jerked back and ran from the room. The Prof found her in the corridor swiftly after, white and shaking. He offered to walk her back home, which she accepted grateful, not wanting to be alone.

Again, they didn't exchange many words during the walk; in fact, the only thing discussed was that they should start work on the 'Jail Case', as it had been nicknamed, the following day.

Lucy struggled to sleep that night. Details of the case kept niggling at the back of her mind, daring her to get up and get to work, even thought it was not long past midnight. By the time the clock in the hall chimed 7, she was already halfway out the door. She thought she'd get an hour or two to herself before the Prof turned up, but unsurprisingly he was wide awake at the desk when she arrived. He'd probably come back here after dropping her off last night.

"Morning Prof," she said, throwing her coat and bag onto the sofa. For once, he actually replied, "Morning. You ready?"

"Ready for what?"

He passed the Jail case over his shoulder and she pulled up a chair next to him. It would have been a normal morning, just like it used to be, had they not both been so afraid of what might come next.

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Ok, so I've been thinking a lot lately about the length of my chapters. Are you ok with the length, or would you prefer them longer/shorter? I can do both so I'm fully open to opinion - please comment what you think!

Also, shoutout to Petrafied101 for being really active and their comments kill me every time. Thank you!