“Miriam, shouldn’t you be at home…?” Ezekiel was hunched over and pushing his hands into his pants pockets, Miriam didn’t seem at all annoyed with coming to get Ezekiel, or if she was it didn’t show, and it absolutely wasn’t as prominent as Lucy, who was paying zero attention to Ezekiel and rushing to get her wife out of this neighbourhood.


    “Let’s go, get your sorry ass in the back.” Lucy tapped her foot, watching Ezekiel and Miriam head back toward the truck; she reached her hand out to help her wife up into the vehicle, Miriam laughing joyfully in return, she was always the happiest in the room, and Lucy couldn’t bear to see her any other way, which was a simple explanation for why she drove out here to get Ezekiel, who was perfectly capable of walking home himself, that is without any serious injury, sure he may have ached a tad if he did end up walking home but it''s nothing a sick call and some ibuprofen can’t fix.


    Ezekiel shuffled himself up to the truck, his poorly held together boots clanged and clashed against the vehicle’s steps; the detective eventually managed to throw himself onto the back seat. Lucy didn’t seem too impressed with Ezekiel laying in her back seat in a less than legal manner.”Sit up.” She quickly spoke, revving the truck''s engine. Miriam’s seat belt buckle clicked, her wavy pants folding together to make a solid rectangle while she sat, she looked near ecstatic to be getting out of the house, whether she was sick or not.


    He closed the truck''s door and used his hands to push off of the back seat. His head hit the glass of the back window, buckling himself into the seat before Lucy began to reverse the truck, taking a more than rough turn; she slammed her foot on the gas pedal and looked over at Miriam for a moment, Ezekiel wasn’t paying much attention after that point. He’d usually have been taking in every ounce of knowledge he could but he was lost in thought, the neighbourhood certainly wasn’t a welcoming place, nor was the club he’d been in prior, but he didn’t see how Valery could have possibly gone missing here, there was still zero evidence, at least nothing on the surface, nothing that he could see just by looking around.


    “Lucy I-,” Ezekiel was swiftly cut off by Lucy, she’d softened up a tad and didn’t seem as mad at Ezekiel as she was when he called, but she still had things to say to him and she was going to make them clear. “Look, I don''t need you discussing your interrogations or your love life, not with Miriam here. If you have something to tell me, do it tomorrow.” Lucy stared back at Ezekiel in between keeping her eyes on the road. Miriam didn’t look at all annoyed by the idea of hearing about Ezekiel’s work, though she wasn’t exactly one to pay attention when people spoke about their relationships, she cared, she just didn’t know what to say and ended up zoning out whenever Ezekiel or anybody else had tried to talk to her about whatever women, men, etc. they were going out with.


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    “Got it…” Ezekiel’s head tilted to the left, he was watching every sign and building that went by, counting their windows, calculating their height, he was doing anything he could to think of something else. He had drowned out the music at this point, though he’d noticed Miriam and Lucy were singing together, he didn’t know what they were saying, he either heard nothing or static, maybe the smoke in that place was getting to him, or maybe it was simply just his overall bad habits.


    Before he even knew it they’d pulled into the parking lot of a local Ice Cream and milkshake bar, Miriam and Lucy climbed out of the truck and Ezekiel stayed in the back, he couldn’t care less about Ice cream right now. The two of them shut their doors, Lucy near slamming hers, probably on accident, and Miriam gently shutting hers to the point it was questionable to say it was even closed.


    Ezekiel continued staring out the window, scanning the sidewalk. It was dark but at least the street lamps worked on this side of town; there were random stones and a very small amount of cars passing by, most likely because of the time.


    As he continued to scan his surroundings, waiting for Miriam and Lucy to get back he could have sworn he saw something walking, something that didn’t make sense, something that wasn’t illuminated by the street lamps, it had the figure and build of a human being but it was too fuzzy it was too shadowy it was, simply not normal. The figure caused Ezekiel to sit up, staring intently at what he assumed was a person, though he must admit he was a bit off put when they made eye contact, if it had eyes? He wasn’t sure but he at that point had sat back down and looked away, he’d realised it was stupid of him to think a random person could be involved in a case he was working on, at this point even to himself he’d come off as desperate and idiotic.


    He still couldn’t help himself from looking over though, even if he was sitting back in his seat he’d glanced over periodically, seems the person was merely sitting at the bus stop, they’d appeared to be in a rain poncho, Ezekiel found it strange as it was a clear cloudless night, even with the light pollution Ezekiel could have seen the stars, there was no reason to be wearing any sort of rain coverings.


    The bell on the shop’s door rang, Miriam and Lucy had emerged with their ice cream, Lucy had a cone of strawberry with chocolate syrup around the top of the waffle cone itself, resting underneath and most likely within the ice cream instead of on top of the frozen treat. Miriam had vanilla soft serve dipped in a caramel flavoured hardened chocolate coating and sprinkled with cashews.