“Cut to it, I''ve got things to do.” Ezekiel shuffled toward his desk, placing himself down in his still wobbly, barely supported chair and began rummaging through his filing cabinet while he waited for Arnez to give him an excuse on why he’d been in his office.


    “Well it’s nothing in particular, but you see it would be just so helpful if you could maybe send me those news headers? The 2016 ones?” He pleaded, a clearly forced grin resting on his maw. Arnez’s hands still held together as if he were to drop to his knees and begin praying at any moment.


    Ezekiel appeared concerned, or at least confused. “And why would you need those?” His gaze narrowed on his colleague, for what reason would Arnez need articles from 2016? Arnez wasn’t even a part of the station during 2016.


    “Just thought they’d be useful!” Arnez placed one of his hands on his waist and the other gave a terribly childish thumbs up directly in Ezekiel’s face. He didn’t seem like he planned on giving Ezekiel an exact reason for why he needed the news reports, but he was insistent on acquiring them.


    “I don’t have time to babysit you. I''ll get them when I can, now get out.” He shooed Arnez away with a flick of his crackling wrist and a glare toward Lucy who stood in his doorway with a more than pissed look on her face.


    “And who put a stick up your ass.” Lucy scoffed, crossing her arms and walking toward Ezekiel once more. She placed herself on his desk and watched as he violently rummaged through seemingly random documents and files.


    “Lucy, you’ve got your own job to do, and I''m doing mine.” He still spoke with a certain swiftness while he picked through his less than organised filing cabinet; or so it appeared unorganised, to Ezekiel everything was in its place, even if it did look like a rat curled up and died in there.


    “You found a lead didn’t you?” Lucy snickered, lowering her arms from their crossed position and allowing them to rest on the desk, her legs began to rest over one another and her teeth began to show in a mischievous grin.


    Ezekiel ceased his rooting through the peeling paint covered filing cabinet, looking back at Lucy with a smirk and shake of his head; his hair was too heavy and weighed to move when his head swayed from side to side. “Maybe I did.” He stated, going back to his ferret like digging.


    “Got it… Got it.” Lucy smiled, seeing Ezekiel was clearly enjoying himself for the first time in around a month, the first time since this case began to be exact, appears she had a nice update to share with Miriam at dinner tonight; Miriam had been asking Lucy relentlessly what Ezekiel’s state was, she was more worried about him than his doctors.


    “You have fun then, Martin.” She laughed to herself, leaping off the desk, barely using any force to push herself forward and trotting out of the poorly lit, grungy office.


    Ezekiel’s head spun backward with a hiss as he began to shout at Lucy. “I told you to quit calling me by my surname!” His voice rasped toward the woman who’d been laughing too loud to herself to hear him.


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    He adjusted the placement of his right leg before continuing his search, though it didn’t last for long; Ezekiel pulled a file, entirely coloured with an orange marker. The colouring was blotchy and streaky, it was most likely a dollar store marker, as poor quality water based ink was seeping through all sides of the file.


    “This is gonna be hell.” He nervously chuckled to himself, itching at his face for a moment and splaying the innards of the file out on his desk, staring at it as if it were a decaying carcass. He looked disgusted by what was inside but rolled his eyes and carried on.


    The file contained all the information on the case of Micheal Wilson, though it was little. Inside was the location where the body was found, including photos of the corpse and reports from the autopsy. He’d suffered severe blunt force trauma followed by three shots in the back of his neck, directly in the spine. Ezekiel had all too much experience with firearms and his spine. He could handle just about everything he’d ever been faced with but that single mention made him gag.


    “Elsie street… dodge lane….” He skimmed over information for anything he found important, though the only thing he picked up on is that he knew of a fairly priced bar down Elsie Street. He was sure he’d be able to find an excuse to make his way down there, even if Micheal wasn’t much of an avid drinker, he’s sure he could find an excuse to wander his way downtown and get a few cocktails.


    Just in the midst of his rummaging for information and daydreaming of what he could be consuming, a knock formed on the doorframe, it appears Arnez was back and once again hungry for those headings.


    “Ezekiel haven’t you had time to send me those-” He was more than cut off by Ezekiel standing, not bothering to pull his chair out one bit; the entire wooden seat toppled over in response to his abrupt posture change. “Well then,” Arnez attempted to ignore Ezekiel approaching him and looked off to the side to continue his sentence, a slight gulp rolling down his throat.


    “I left them in my car.” Ezekiel blurted out to Arnez who perked up immediately in response; he’d thought Ezekiel was going to hit him, or worse, hit on him. Ezekiel carried his feet heavily and grabbed hold of Arnez’s sleeve, dragging him out of the office and to his Sedan.


    The moment Ezekiel’s boot hit the pavement outside he let go of Arnez and aggressively swung open the door to the back seat of his dingy yellowish beige vehicle. The detective hunched over and began digging through bottles and pages for the headings he knew weren’t in there. “Arnez you know I actually meant to ask you something,” Ezekiel began to inquire, unable to see Arnez rolling his eyes and crossing his arms in response.


    “If you’re going to ask, Ezekiel. No, I won''t be your wingman again.” Arnez’s words were clearly based on past events Ezekiel was trying his best not to recall.


    “I don’t think I’ve ever… asked you to do that.” Ezekiel paused his search for a moment to crack his back before clearing his throat and trying to move on from Arnez’s memory-filled statement. “Now, you see I was hoping to… investigate, downtown.” Ezekiel nodded to himself as if the interaction had gone smoothly.