Everyone kept referring to this person as 'the kid' but to Harry he seemed old enough to elicit a response from his lower regions. Flat dark hair just reached his neck and curled a bit at the end. His bangs fell into his eyes, but it seemed to be the last thing on his mind. His face while boyish held a look more mature than Harry believed he ever saw… not even on Ron who was at least two decades older and been through a war. He was fit but, beneath some muscle he managed to put on, Harry could clearly see his slender figure. He imagined how a smooth pale skin under that shirt would feel...

Harry shook his head and took a deep breath trying to get a grip on himself. He was lusting for a boy who probably wasn't even his son's age, for Merlin's sake. How sick was that! And a grieving boy at that!

Once his emotions were in check he walked forward. While he approached he noticed the kid fumbling with a cell phone. His hands were shaking so hard from the cold that he couldn't seem to get a number right, and when he got even closer Harry noticed his teeth were chattering. Only then did he see that his witness only had a cotton button up on and a thin leather jacket pulled over it.

"Hallo. I am Detective Potter."

Dark eyes looked at him through the bangs. There were tear tracks on otherwise beautiful face, but his eyes were now dry.

"Jessy Crenshaw."

Harry smiled at the confusion that showed on the younger one's face. He was probably wondering what another detective would want from him. "May I ask you some questions?"

"But I already told detective Grant everything I remember."

"Yes, but I promise my questions won't be exactly the same as detective Grant's. It is really important for us to know more about what happened here in order to catch the man who killed your uncle, Mr. Crenshaw."

"Fine. But call me Jessy please. And may I please call my dad first? I didn't get a chance yet…"

"Of course. Take your time."

Harry reached past him and grabbed a blanket from the back of an ambulance. He spread it around Jessy's lean shoulders which earned him a mumbled thanks. Then he moved away a bit to give Jessy some privacy.

.

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.

For a second time that night Jessy dialed the same number. He wondered if his dad was asleep by now, but the voice that answered on the first ring was very much alert.

"Jess, where are you?"

"Dad, something happened…" he managed. Not for the first time that night he was struggling to hold back tears and his dad picked up on it immediately.

"Jessy, are you all right? What is it?"

"I'm fine. It's… it's Uncle Steve, dad."

"Jess, where are you? What's wrong with Steve, son?"

"I'm in front of the pub… police arrived…someone killed him, dad…" he finished in whisper.

Jessy waited for his dad to say something. Just as he was about to give up and ask if he was still there, his dad answered.

"Jessy, stay there. I'm on my way", the voice on the other end was anguished but determined, but as Jessy was about to answer the line went dead.

He lowered his cell to his lap and stared at it until a detective from before squeezed his shoulder in support.

Jessy noticed how attractive the man in front of him was, and the warmth of that hand on his shoulder penetrated right through his jacket and nearly made him shudder in pleasure. If circumstances were different he would probably be drooling all over the man by this time. Too bad guys like him never frequented Uncle Steve's pub.

"Is your dad coming to pick you up?"

"Yeah. He's on his way. What do you need to know, detective?"

Harry winced at the title but covered it quickly.

"Could you tell me everything you remember, no matter how irrelevant or absurd it may seem?"

"Mm… ok… I was on my way to take an order to this man who was sitting in far left corner. He didn't seem very pleasant. He didn't differ much from other people who come here I guess, but there was something else about him that screamed at me to stay away. He had dark stubble and what made him stand out was that he wasn't drunk and didn't seem to want to be drunk. He was alert all the time. Uncle Steve probably noticed it too, because he told me that he would take his order and sent me to the back room to call my dad."

"Do you think your uncle knew this man?"

"I don't know. I've never seen him before and I didn't really pay attention… I was just glad I could get out of there even for a little bit."

"You don't like this job?"

"It doesn't matter if I like it. Uncle Steve needed some help and he pays well. I think it may have been a good excuse for him to help dad financially. "

"So what happened when you came back?"

"Well… " Jessy hesitated, "there was this regular. He was stoned by that time and… well… he fell over the bar just as I walked in."

"Over the bar? No one touched him, he just jumped over?"

"It was a bit weird I guess, but I'm pretty sure there wasn't anyone else there. So I tried to help him up, and that's when my uncle yelled for me to call the police. The man in the corner got up and I was just about to dial the number when Uncle Steve… it was like someone shot him… he fell on his knees and there was so much blood, but I never heard a shot… I'm pretty sure this guy wasn't holding a gun. So I looked back to the corner but the man was gone. I ran to my uncle, to try and help him… but…"

"I'm sorry you had to go through that but could you just tell me if your uncle was arguing with this man or why he told you to call the police?"

"I don't know. I just saw the man stand up, but he didn't move to follow Uncle Steve. It's just strange that he spent all the time I was in the back with one customer."

Harry could see the boy was emotionally exhausted by now. "Ok, Jessy. Thank you for talking to me. Here's my card, so if you remember anything else you can call this number."

"Sure, no problem."

Harry was about to walk away when a hand on his elbow stopped him.

"Uh… could you stay until my dad gets here? I don't really want to be alone with my thoughts right now." Jessy pleaded.

Harry just realized that if this young man had that expression and asked him to dance around in front of the whole department he'd gladly do it. So he nodded and sat in the back of the ambulance next to Jessy. After a minute or two of comfortable silence Jessy asked a question that's been bothering him all night.

"So what's going to happen now? With the pub I mean?"

"It's a crime scene now, so I guess you're gonna have to close it for a couple of days."

"Yeah… well, now that Uncle Steve's gone there's no one else who'd manage to keep this dump running. Dad's got a job and I have to study…"

"What are you studying?"

For a moment Jessy's face lit up and Harry was glad he asked the right question.

"Forensic sciences. My dad's a cop and he had this colleague who used to come over to our place every now and then. When I was little I was addicted to his stories. I grew up on them. He knew the answer to any silly question I could come up with. So of course, when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up they expected me to say a cop. Do I look like a cop to you?" Jessy asked sarcastically.

Harry who's been studying Jessy's appearance for quite some time chuckled at the look of indignation on his face. In all honesty he couldn't find anything wrong with that thought. Jessy was a bit on a short side, but the way he kept in shape reminded him a bit of himself.

"I wasn't much better at your age and look at me now. But still I'd say you are the type that prefers to use his brains then brawns to get by."

"I suppose I am. But I can't imagine you looked any different at 21 then you do now." Jessy's eyes raked over his well toned body.

"Wait, you're 21?" Harry asked incredulously.

"You are a detective, aren't you supposed to know that?"

"Honestly I never bothered to ask, I assumed you were around 19." Harry laughed at the cute pout on Jessy's face."Well, I guess I started to fill up a bit more at 21." mostly with the aid of nutrition potions he added to himself.

Jessy was about to answer but a shout interrupted him. He looked among the police cars and saw his father running towards him. He jumped down from his perch on the ambulance just in time for his father to engulf him in his strong arms.

Harry watched them and came to a conclusion Jessy must have gotten his slender build from his mother. The man that was holding him looked twice as big. He looked to be around Harry's age, maybe even a bit younger to Harry's astonishment, so for a moment he was thoroughly embarrassed for his previous less then innocent thoughts towards the man's son. But what was he expecting when his own son was the same age as Jessy, he berated himself.

After a few comforting words from Jessy the man seemed to calm a bit. Harry imagined how he would feel if it was James in Jessy's situation, but quickly abandoned that thought. He found long ago that cases tended to be easier if he kept himself at certain distance from victims.

Jessy extracted himself from his dad's hug and turned back to Harry.

"Thank you for sticking around, detective."

"No problem, Jessy. Don't forget to give me that call if you remember anything else." He shook Jessy's hand and turned to his father "I'm sorry for your loss Mr. Crenshaw. We'll get the guy who did this, I promise you."

The man nodded and shook the offered hand. Harry noticed he was still in shock but his eyes told him how grateful he was for any support he could get right now. Harry didn't want to intrude on the family anymore so he took his leave and slowly walked through the decreasing crowd of police officers to the apparition point.