Chapter 8

It was dark when Fred and Daphne returned to the house. They had managed to go to the convenience store before it closed for the night and now had enough food to last them at least a week.

'So, what do you think?' Fred asked.

'About what?' Daphne replied.

'About this case.'

Daphne scoffed, 'I think Fischer shot herself in the foot during that conference.'

Fred hummed in agreement, 'She said she needed us then said she could do it on her own. Hey, why were you asking about that boy earlier?'

Daphne suddenly remembered Milo Pablo and the poster on the board at the police station, 'Oh fuck I forgot about that!' She exclaimed, 'I have a feeling, and I don't know why yet, but I think Milo Pablo and these cases are somehow linked.'

'Really?' Fred asked, intrigued.

Daphne nodded, 'I can't put my finger on it, but there is something about Milo Pablo that sounds familiar, I'm sure it's linked to these cases, Freddie.'

'And it's unsolved.' Fred added, 'Do you think Milo's killer could be this killer?'

'Milo died nearly 34 years ago, that would mean our suspect is older than I pictured.' Daphne explained.

Fred poured some water into a pan and put it on the stove to boil the water, he took out a packet of spaghetti from the shopping bag and put it on the side.

'How old were you expecting?' Fred asked.

Daphne thought, '30-40. Which would roughly be Milo's age now. So I would guess that the killer is probably somewhere between 60 and maybe 70, that would mean Milo's killer would have been around 30 at the time of the murder, maybe even younger?'

Fred sighed, 'I don't know Daph.' He sprinkled a pinch of salt into the pan and continued to let the water boil.

Daphne looked down at the file that she had put on the table. Then she grabbed her notepad from her bag and flicked through the pages until she found what she was looking for. And she sighed, disappointed.

'What is it?' Fred asked.

'I know why I thought the cases were linked.' Daphne said, annoyed with herself for even thinking that was worth anything, 'Milo was the same age as the first victims' younger sister, Catherine Tudor. She was 9 when her brothers died.'

'I'm sorry, Daph.'

'How could I think that that could mean something?' She sat at the table, pushing her notepad away from herself.

Fred sat next to her, 'It's ok. It's good to have a theory or even something that might lead somewhere even if it doesn't, because you never know.' He smiled, Daphne looked at him and smiled a little too.

'I just thought that it was going to be something important, but it wasn't.' She replied.

Fred took her hand, 'That's ok, we've both been in this situation before. Remember?'

She nodded. It was true, every case they had been involved in, they had theories. They would follow them up, and sometimes they would lead to nothing, and other times they would have the tiniest link to something.

Daphne smiled at Fred again, and her eyes slowly drifted down to their hands, Fred was still holding hers. Not lovingly like, but supportively.

She looked back at Fred and saw his cheeks had turned pink, she felt hers getting warmer too.

Fred quickly let go of her hand and stood up from the table and went over to the stove. Daphne could hear the water bubbling in the pan. Fred opened the packet of spaghetti and put some of it into the pan.

Daphne watched him.

Whenever they were staying the night with each other, which was usually when they were working cases and, often, the weekends, they would either order a pizza or Chinese or Fred would cook something.

Daphne wasn't patient enough to cook something, but Fred was. Daphne loved it when Fred cooked and she preferred his cooking to the takeouts.

Fred glanced back at Daphne whilst he was cooking and saw the way Daphne was looking at him, 'What?' He asked.

Daphne realised she was staring at Fred with a little smile on her face, 'Nothing.' She said and quickly stood up from the table and walked until she was in the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Fred remained in the kitchen, wondering what had just happened, before turning his attention back to the spaghetti.

Daphne looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, 'What the fuck was that?' She asked herself.

She gave herself a few minutes to splash some cold water on her face, before telling herself to just go back into the kitchen and not act so awkward, or whatever that was back in the kitchen.

She took a deep breath, feeling something strange in her stomach, maybe she was just hungry, she didn't know. She brushed it off and continued to the kitchen.

Fred was stood next to the stove, holding the police file in his hand, 'You ok?' He asked when Daphne came back in, she nodded.

'I was thinking, maybe tomorrow we could arrange to meet some of the families.' Fred spoke as he put the file back on the table.

'Good idea. Maybe we can find out where Milo Pablo's family are, I'd like to speak to them too.' Daphne added. Fred was unsure if it was a good idea or not, 'I dunno Daph, we don't know where they're living now.'

Daphne thought for a minute, 'I'm not sure if I want to reveal too much information to Fischer.'

Fred didn't say anything, but he knew that Daphne was bothered by Fischer's reaction to one of the reporter's questions, maybe she was jealous of them, he didn't know.

'We can't keep things hidden from her, she's the commissioner, but maybe we should be careful with how much we involve ourselves with her.' He suggested and Daphne agreed to this. They were not above putting their public image above their job but they had dealt with people like Fischer before. People who are involved with the cases but decide to take all the credit for it.

People like one of the former officers from the NYPD who was involved in the pursuit of a criminal.

Daphne and Fred, along with two police officers, Danvers and Garrett, had tracked the location of a jewel thief they had spent months looking for. And we're not just talking jewellery store robberies, this guy – who was identified as Robert Green, a car salesman – stole jewels from museums, along with various other artefacts which he intending selling on the black market.

Daphne, Fred, Garrett and Danvers had surrounded his workplace, however, Robert Green climbed out of a window in an office, and it was Officer Garrett who began the pursuit on foot, followed by Danvers.

Garrett and Danvers pursued Green on foot, but Danvers was falling behind not long into the chase. However, Garrett – who had chased Green almost 4 blocks – finally tackled him to the ground, and eventually, Danvers caught up and cuffed him.

Daphne and Fred arrived in the police car and took Green to the station, making sure that Garrett and Danvers were praised for the arrest. But it wasn't long before Danvers began taking all credit for the arrest. Stating that he and Garrett both pursued and caught Green, but neither Fred nor Daphne witnessed the tackling of Green taking place.

They relied on a woman who came forward with video footage – following a news report in which Danvers claimed he tackled Green along with Garrett – of Garrett tackling Green, and Danvers catching up to arrest him.

Following a controversial report on ABC News – and then other stations and newspapers who wanted to cover the story – Danvers was suspended for several weeks and when Captain Williams could not clean things up, Danvers was dismissed.

Daphne didn't want Fischer to get herself into something she couldn't get out of. A lying police officer is not good, but a lying police commissioner is not reassuring especially in the eye of an already frightened community.

Fred and Daphne agreed to be careful about what they said to Fischer if she was out to make herself look like the sole cracker of the case.

Fred made some sauce and Daphne grated some cheese. Fred then drained the spaghetti and mixed the sauce into it and sprinkled some of the cheese in before putting it back on the stove to heat the sauce and melt the cheese. When it was ready, he dished it up and sprinkled the remaining cheese on top and gave Daphne a bowl.

They decided to eat in the living room in front of the TV. Daphne picked up the remote and turned the TV on, and what would be the channel be on? The local news, of course.

There were images of the press conference from earlier today and Fred and Daphne just happened to switch it on when the reporters were mentioning the question asked to Daphne by the reporter.

It wasn't a real news channel, just three men and a woman sat around a table discussing the case. Daphne recognised the woman from the crowd of reporters outside the police station at the press conference.

'One year Dale, it's been a year since the first murders, and we have a commissioner who can't solve it so she brings in two detectives from the other side of the country, one of whom may be too preoccupied with her personal life to work on the case.'

'I noticed Detective Blake didn't answer the question asked by Dylan Murray and the commissioner terminated the press conference.'

'I think we all noticed how quick Commissioner Fischer was to terminate the conference when that question was asked.'

'Let's just cover this super quick, for those of you who don't know, Detective Blake's father George Blake, the founder of Luxury Bubble Bath, was convicted earlier this week after being found guilty on battery charges to his wife and several counts of theft, and-'

Fred took the remote from Daphne and turned the channel over, it was the Simpsons on the next channel.

Daphne sighed. She hated the media attention and she hated the reporters talking about her like they had her permission. She wondered why they just didn't report on the case which was much more important instead of making it seem like she couldn't handle the 'pressure'.

Daphne tried her hardest to ignore what she had just heard on the news channel, and she ate her spaghetti.

The empty spaghetti bowls, along with the pot, were in a bowl of warm water in the sink. They'll wash them in the morning, or when they get back tomorrow night.

But right now, Fred and Daphne sat on the couch together watching the Simpsons. Daphne laid her head on Fred's shoulder, they both laughed as they watched Homer Simpson get up to his usual antics and fail hilariously.

They often watched the Simpsons as a pick-me-up after a long, tiring day, or if they couldn't decide what movie to watch.

The episode ended but was followed by another episode in which Homer Simpson recalled how he met his wife Marge, which was at high school and fell in love instantly.

Daphne's mind wondered and she recalled how she and Fred met, she didn't know why she suddenly thought of this, but it just came to her. They were freshmen at college and they met in their first class and decided to start studying together and quickly became best friends.

Why she was thinking about this she didn't know, but as the thought about it, that strange feeling in her stomach returned, and she realised what it was; butterflies.

And it was Fred who was causing them.

Fred who had been her best friend for years and years, why was she just realising this now?

She began to feel a little bit awkward as she thought about this whilst she sat with Fred. She had missed quite a bit of the episode during her thoughts and Fred was still watching the TV when her eyes rolled up to look at him.

She didn't stop herself as her arm wrapped itself around Fred's waist, but she felt comfortable with it.

She thought Fred wasn't going to react to it, but she moved a little bit before she felt his arm around her shoulder.