The cop and his suspect [Complete]

Chapter 8

Arthit's POV

I was about to raise my hand to knock on the door when I heard the all too familiar cackle of laughs waft right through to the hallway. My already grumpy mood making the string of curses flow rather easily when I pictured the scene inside. Literally the exact same one I see every single day when I get home after a long, grueling twelve hours of work, only to find the two nincompoops who are meant to be protecting Kongpob instead have him devolving in giggles with one story after another. Their welcomes and goodbyes a little too familiar for my comfort. Why exactly would they need to hug him every time they left for the night was totally beyond me. He was still a suspect after all right?

"P'! You are hurt?"

I saw the three of them rush to my side as soon as I entered, Kongpob's hands fussing all over my shirt like I was on deathbed. I wasn't. Atleast not just yet.

"Oye Arthit, what happened?"

Knott helped me settle on dining table while the rest of them continued puttering around me.

"It's nothing, nothing. Just a scratch."

"Looks like a pretty deep scratch then."

"Yeah, well, I guess I got lucky. We managed to track down the car that almost ran Kongpob over. We were so close to catching them, but then someone started shooting at us, and by the time we managed to react they had all escaped. Atleast we seized the car."

"Anything interesting in it?"

I was about to turn towards Knott to respond but instead I found my eyes locking with intensely worried ones. Kongpob's entire expression looking like he was in excruciating pain. My mouth going dry with the intensity of his look. A wound like this wasn't really that uncommon, and sure it could have been dangerous, but in the end it wasn't. There was really nothing to worry about. And yet none of those words managed to make their way out loud. I simply continued staring at him, basking in the pure, undivided attention.

It wasn't until a loud throat clearing from Bright snapped me back to my surroundings did I notice both my friends gazing at me with narrowed eyes. I would have blushed under there scrutiny if I was capable of doing so. What I could do was shoot daggers with my eyes as Bright suggested Kongpob help him grab dinner for all of us. Even going as far as wrapping his arm around Kongpob's waist as they hobbled their way into the kitchen.

"You are playing with fire, you know."

My head swung around to meet Knott's knowing gaze, who surprisingly wasn't as judgmental as I would have expected. It should have been though cause I wasn't being all kinds of messed up.

I sighed as I lowered my gaze. What the fuck was wrong with me?

"I know. I know. I just..."

I fell silent as I tried to justify in my head what the hell was going on with me. It was bad enough that I was getting so emotionally involved with a witness, perhaps a suspect, and then it got to just another level of madness when you factor in that Kongpob was literally at my mercy, with a very active threat on his life, and no place to call home for the moment. Add to the fact that the kid was young and naïve. Every second that I kept having thoughts that did not solely pertain to this case I knew I was taking advantage of him. And yet, for some reason I was simply incapable of letting him leave.

"So what did you find in the car?"

Trust Knott to know how to pull me out of my funk, cause he gave my hand an understanding squeeze and kept prodding questions regarding our encounter today.

"We found a file on Kongpob. All his details, class schedules, job timings, people he meets, places he goes, everything. There were over a hundred pictures of him."