For the next week or so, Liam kept his head down and he did his work. At home he sifted through files, but he didn't go snooping around in the real world or interviewing anyone from the case. He restricted himself to the internet and to his hours off work. It didn't make him feel much better about his situation with kurt , . They hadn't exactly made up yet, but the older officer was talking to him again, which was a start.
He was about to go into work and follow his usual schedule when he got a call.
"Hello? This is Detective Liam Chesterfield, how can I help you?" he said as he answered the phone.
"Hi, this is Chad Brixly from the medical examiners office. You were the head detective on the Shepherd case, right?"
"That's right," Liam said, thought the question concerned him. The case was supposed to be closed. He was supposed to be the only one looking into it.
"Right, well we have some blood samples from that case taking up space in our lab. Toxicology said that they never bothered finishing out the drug screening after they found such a high alcohol content. That's a major breach in protocol, obviously," but I can do a Autopsy if you would like he said.
"Obviously," Liam said. "But what do you need me for? Is it some big mystery who didn't run the tests? Do you need a Detective to work it out for you?"
"No, sir. I was just wondering if you wanted us to run all the other tests. We're always meant to run them all, but the results wouldn't change any of the charges, and I've heard the case was closed. If you don't need us to run the tests, we can discard the samples."
Liam was caught in between two possible answers. He knew that he was supposed to be laying low, especially with Austin getting out of prison soon. He needed to be careful. On the other hand, he damn well wanted to know what the results of the other tests were going to be.
"I hate to say it, but I think you need to run the tests," Liam said. "It's not going to change anything, but if we don't fill out the file perfectly this case will end up on one of those true crime shoes about corrupt cops."
"Yes, sir," Chad said. "I figured you would say that. I just thought I'd check before I ran any expensive tests."
It made Liam feel better that he had been expected to ask for the tests. He thought that Kurt would have been fine to leave them out of the report entirely as long as it left things wrapped up in a nice little bow.
"Thank you for that. It was a good thought, but not with a victim this well known."
"Okay, sir," Chad said. "Thank you."
The phone called ended and Liam had to get to work. He didn't feel great about his decision with the lab group, but he was beginning to justify it to himself. He thought he could understand how a man like derek Shepherd would get bored and turn to drugs, and if he was already high when he dealt with the kids it could have lowered his judgement. He could have turned to alcohol in a drug induced haze, something that wouldn't need any further explaining. Liam convinced himself that if the drug test came back positive, he could drop the case, once and for all. He wouldn't even look into it in his free time.
That wasn't the case for now, though. For now, Liam was still looking into the case. He had burned the interviews onto CDs to help cover up any online trail, and he brought them with him to listen to in the car. He had heard almost everything again and again until he could recite it from memory. There was still nothing there that made any sense to him.
He was playing the tape over again when he saw the woman standing on the side of the road. She had headphones on, and she looked like she had been crying. Her eyes were shut, which Liam thought was strange. He didn't realize what was going on until she stepped forward, off the curb.
Liam slammed on the brakes and he leaped out of his car. He ran up to the woman and put a hand on her arm.
"Are you okay, ma'am?'
The woman opened her eyes, and Liam recognized the pain behind her eyes. He had seen that pain before- not some other pain that looked like it, but that pain exactly. As he held the woman gently in place, he recognized her. It was none other than Mrs. Shepherd .
"Mrs. Shepherd ?" he said aloud, stunned to see her there.
"Oh... you're that officer. The one from the interview," she said.
"Yes, I am," he said. "Are you alright, ma'am?"
"Yes," Mrs. Shepherd took a handkerchief out of her pocket and wiped her nose on it. "Yes, I'm sorry if I got in your way. I must not have been thinking about traffic."
Liam thought that she was probably thinking a bit too much about traffic, but her words reminded him that his car was probably blocking traffic. He glanced over to see a line of cars piling up behind the car that he was not currently in. He looked back at Mrs. Shepherd .
"I need to move my car. Why don't you come with me? I can give you a ride."
"I'll be alright," Mrs. Shepard said.
"I'd really feel better if I gave you a ride," Liam said. "I'm an officer, I know these streets. They really aren't safe for a woman to be walking alone."
They really weren't safe streets for anyone to be walking, alone or not. The area was notoriously hostile towards pedestrians. That wasn't really what Liam was concerned about.
"If you insist," Mrs. Shepherd agreed.
liam walked her back to his car. He opened the passenger door, and sound came pouring out. It was Mrs. Shepherd 's own voice, recounting the morning of the incident to her self that had left her family dead at the side of the road. liam reached past her as quickly as he could and turned it off before she could hear too much of it
"Sorry about that," he said. "It's just for work."
Mrs. Shepherd nodded once and got into the car. Her eyes were dull, and she barely seemed to react to him. liam was struck for the first time by just how young and pretty Mrs. Shepherd was. She must have been ten years younger than her husband when they had been together. More importantly, she was far too young and pretty to be a widow, .
Liam walked around to the other side of the car and got his car out of the way of traffic.
"Where were you headed?" he asked.
Mrs. Shepherd hesitated. She didn't sound too sure of herself when she answered. "Just home, I guess."
She gave him the address and looked around his car. Liam was all too aware of the things he had lying around, far too much of which was related to the case that had killed her husband ans step son.
"I thought this case was closed," she said as she picked up a folder.
"It is closed," Liam said. "That's just old stuff. You can probably tell, I'm not exactly the neatest man in the world. I need to get it all filed and thrown out and everything."
Mrs. Shepherd started to open a folder.
"I'm sorry, I know this case is personal for you, but the files are for police use only. I could get in big trouble if they knew that you'd been looking around," Liam said.
Mrs. Shepherd put down the file. "Right. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get you in trouble ." thats fine liam said
They made it to Mrs. Shepherd house. It wasn't far. Liam thought she might have walked from there to the street where he had found her. He stopped the car, but he put a hand on Mrs. Shepherd's arm before she got out
"I need you to tell me what you were doing out there on that street," he said. "I need you to tell me whether you were going to walk into traffic."
"What? Of course not."
"Mrs. Shepherd , you've been through a tragedy, and I witnessed you nearly step blindly into traffic. I need you to look me in the eye and tell me that you were not going to walk forward with your eyes shut. Because if you can't tell me that I can't let you go back home."
Mrs. Shepherd leaned over to look him in the eye. "I was not going to step into traffic. I was not trying to kill myself. I just need to pay more attention."
"You're sure?" Liam asked.
"Yes. Of course. I'm stronger than that."
"Okay. But if you ever need to talk to anyone about what happened with your family or anything else that might be bothering you, I want to give you my card."
"Thank you," she said. "would you like to come in for a cup of coffee she asked ."
"yes that would be lovely," Liam said. has he was thinking maybe he could ask her more about the morning of the accident
", Liam hoped he wasn't making a bad mistake by going in with her if his boss since his car he would be in trouble. as she was walking to the house liam notice that the house was modern and well designed with two floors and a huge staircase of steps leading up the the house front door, it looked huge and expensive from the outside he could only think what the inside would look like. Liam couldn't imagine how empty a place like that must feel after the loss of a family. He wondered if he was sending a victim into a prison she didn't deserve.
That was when Liam's resolve hardened. He had seen Mrs. Shepherd sad before, but this was the first time he had really considered what she must be going through. This case, which had been mostly a curiosity to him, had real stakes for people like Mrs. Shepard's. He was playing it safe by leaving it be, but he was also leaving questions unanswered- questions that might bring some order to the chaos of Mrs. Shepard's life.
Liam didn't know how yet, but he was going to find out what had happened at that crash. There were somethings that mattered more than the threats of his colleagues.