When Jeldrik arrived on Thursday morning at the office, he knew it was going to be a very long, dull day. His interest in the Argon case had pushed aside all thought about work he was involved in at the DMCI. Standing at the front door in the office, the rows of still empty desks in front of him, his tasks slowly returned to his consciousness, and he sighed and walked to his desk. He was usually not the first one in the office – Gabriel and Helma tended to be here when he arrived –, but he had woken up at six and could not go back to sleep, so he decided to leave early and arrived not at eight, but half an hour earlier. When he had put down his bag and sat his laptop on the desk, he walked to the kitchen and turned on the kettle, took out a cup from the cabinet and put in it a bag of Earl Grey. He could not hear the front door open over the noise of the kettle and jumped when Helma greeted him from the kitchen door. She laughed.
“Oh hey!” Jeldrik said. “Couldn’t hear you over the kettle.”
“Sorry, I didn’t want to scare you!” she said, still grinning, and walked out of the kitchen.
When the water was ready and Jeldrik had poured it into his cup, he picked it up and walked back to his desk. Helma’s desk was opposite his, but she had gone to the kitchen now to make her first coffee of the day. When she came back – Jeldrik had just opened his notes on breaching protection charms for the watch shop case that he had written down before the Argon case had started – she asked: “Feeling better?”
“Yes, thanks,” Jeldrik answered. “I really only felt shitty on the first day. But I couldn’t sleep at all that night, so I had to make up for that yesterday.”
“I know exactly what you mean. It wasn’t really new to me to see disgusting wounds when I started working here. I’ve always been interested in morbid shit like that, but it’s different having something actually in front of you. Really robs your sleep!” She shook her head as if to shake away uncomfortable thoughts, the sipped on her cup.
“Can I ask you something about the wounds on the body I saw?” Jeldrik asked. He knew Helma would not become suspicious of him wanting to find out more about his first dead body.
“Sure, ask away.”
Jeldrik opened his notebook to the page where he had sketched how Theo Argon had been cut and handed it to Helma.
“The cuts where pretty messy, but I was more curious about why they cut an X into his stomach.”
Helma looked at the sketch for a while, her eyes slightly narrowed. She ran her fingers through her curly red hair and then shrugged.
“Honestly, no clue. I haven’t seen specifically this formation of cuts. But if I had to guess, if it’s not part of some fucked up blood magic, and let’s just assume it’s not, I would guess it’s symbolic. Like someone really hated that bloke and literally x-ed him out. And since he was part of the ABA, not too far of a stretch to think it was a hate crime.” She gave the notebook back to Jeldrik.
“Thanks,” he said, although she had only uttered what he already had thought. It was most likely hateful symbolism and connected to Argon having been an ABA member. While blood magic was a thing, it was a time-consuming process and could have not been achieved in the short time Argon was killed to when Gabriel and Jeldrik had arrived at the scene – as far as Jeldrik knew, that was.
“Frustrating that the MMS snatched the case away from us,” Helma said angrily. “Could’ve become interesting.”
“I hope the MMS is at least trying to solve it.”
Helma looked at Jeldrik with interest. “Why wouldn’t they?”
“Gabriel meant they might not want anyone to feel sorry for the ABA.”
Helma’s expression became sceptical. “I’m not sure. It’s a murder after all. It’s not even clear if it was a hate crime, granted it looks like one. But whoever killed that man could’ve done it for any reason for all we know. Seems a bit risky to let that person roam around freely.”
Jeldrik had to agree. And yet he would not be surprised if the case became, in fact, cold. “Maybe they will investigate until it’s clear it was a hate crime and then …”
“Let’s just hope they’re not that inhumane,” Helma said, but sounded doubtful. “The world’s a fucked up place, but let’s just keep hoping.” She raised her hands in a mock preaching manner.
Jeldrik laughed. “Amen to that!”
The front door opened again. Gabriel and Anteo came in, laughing, and raised their hands in greeting.
When they both had been to the kitchen to prepare their coffees, Anteo sat down on his desk, which was the one next to Jeldrik, and Gabriel leaned on the window sill behind Jeldrik.
“Guess who tried to rob a jewellery shop early this morning and was caught?” he said smiling.
“Are you saying we got our watch thief?” Jeldrik made big eyes.
“That’s right. And the reason he was caught was one of our runes we’ve carved into similar shops in the area. He confessed pretty much immediately that he was the one who broke into the watch shop.”
“Why did he even break into a mage-owned shop in the first place?”
“Stupidity,” Helma said and Gabriel nodded with a meaningful expression.
“Maybe he somehow knew the owner of the watch shop and didn’t even think about that his chances of success would’ve been much higher at any other shop. Anyway, he’s caught. And you learned a bit more about breaching protection charms.” Gabriel clapped his hands together and smiled at Jeldrik. “I’m going to be in a meeting in ten minutes. After that we can discuss what you can do now that the shop case is closed, alright? Maybe look over your colleagues’ shoulders until then.”
When Gabriel had gone to his office and closed the door, Jeldrik looked at what Anteo was doing. On one of his screens he had opened a gambling website, on the other Jeldrik could see a for him undecipherable block of code. Anteo saw that Jeldrik looked at his work and said: “Some genius has maximised his luck on this gambling website and won tons of games.” He rolled his eyes. “To be fair, the magic he used isn’t that dumb. And his account was already blocked by the website. But since it was a mage, it’s on us to find out who he is.”
“Isn’t his profile connected to his bank account or something?”
“It is, but that bank account lead me nowhere, so he has fidgeted around with that one as well. But it’s just a matter of time before I’ll have him,” Anteo said confidently.
For a while, Jeldrik watched Anteo opening software and pressing buttons while being clueless about what was going on. Then he opened his notebook and turned to the pages that contained his notes on the Argon case. He started writing down what he wanted to achieve when attending the ABA gathering. The first thing he wrote down was “Does Argon have family?” If that was the case, he thought, he could talk with them and maybe find out if they knew about personal quarrels Theo had had with anyone. Perhaps that would also tell him if the MMS was on the case and interrogating people. If they were, they would likely start with the family as well. Next, he wrote “Talk with Mia Waltz about her suspicions.” Maybe they were worth being heard. And was it not likely that Mia’s assault and Theo’s death were connected?
“What are you doing there?” Jeldrik jumped and looked at Anteo, knowing how conspicuous his behaviour must seem to the other man. He was happy Helma had left her desk, presumably to get another coffee.
“Oh, I’m … It’s just random notes.”
Anteo grinned, brows raised. “I’m not going to tell anyone,” he assured Jeldrik.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Now Jeldrik felt dumb for making such a fuss about something that was perfectly legal and probably not even frowned upon at the DMCI. He pushed the notebook towards Anteo.
“I’m just curious about the man who was killed and … thought about doing some sleuthing.”
“That’s cool, you shouldn’t be worried about that.” Anteo looked at the notes. “What’s your plan?”
“Oh, I guess I’ll just research a bit on the web.”
“And how do you want to talk to Mia Waltz?” Anteo looked genuinely interested, but also slightly suspicious. Maybe Jeldrik was slightly affected by how sexy Anteo looked with this expression, but he thought he might as well tell him.
“I’m going to go to a public ABA gathering tomorrow evening.”
Anteo did not react at all at first, then he nodded slowly.
“The ABA has some real weirdos in their rows,” he said, talking much quieter now.
“I know, I know. But this case … I just feel like I should try to find out what happened.” Jeldrik had also lowered his voice. He explained to Anteo that Gabriel saw a possibility the MMS would not look into the case at all. Anteo looked like he was struggling with what to say, then, with a more determined expression: “I could come, too.”
Jeldrik did not know what to say for a moment.
“Won’t you get into trouble?”
“What law am I breaking?”
“But why would you?”
“Because it’s safer together. And I’m DMCI, so it’s extra safe.” He was smiling, but also meant it. Jeldrik could not help grinning.
“I mean, if you really want to, that’d be great!”
Anteo smiled. “Good.” They both had been leaning closer and closer to each other during their whispered conversation and now realised simultaneously that their faces were close enough to feel each other’s breaths. They straightened up and Jeldrik mumbled something about going to the toilet and stood up. He felt a tiny bit guilty, because the air during their interaction had definitely been slightly charged. His guilt, as he told himself again, did not stem from any insecurities about his own feelings, but Viktor had a much different view on what interactions with other people were acceptable while being in a relationship and would have not appreciated the physical proximity between Jeldrik and Anteo had he been there to witness it. They had had multiple arguments about this topic, which usually ended with something that, at first glance, resembled an agreement or compromise, but was in fact equal to setting up a future continuation of the conflict. When the row was triggered by a specific event, it was usually very similar to what Jeldrik had experienced just now with Anteo: Jeldrik would find himself in a situation that, without any of his doing, left the air charged with tension. No active flirting involved. In his view, he never did anything bad that he could be accused of. Which made it difficult to stay calm with Viktor, who could never point out the exact thing Jeldrik had done wrong. And as he would always apologise afterwards for his self-proclaimed jealousy, Jeldrik would consider the argument concluded and moved on, thinking, na?vely, Viktor would do the same.
“Could you buy a red onion on your way home?” asked Viktor on the phone. Jeldrik was on his way home and sat in the metro.
“Have you already started cooking? Otherwise I could just buy pizza if you’re in the mood.”
“I’m starting soon. And my friends are coming over tomorrow, Jonas and Maria, remember? We wanted to order food, so let’s save the money for tomorrow, okay?”
“Oh, alright.” Jeldrik's sense of dread grew, thinking about telling Viktor he would not be home tomorrow. “I will buy the onion then. See you at home.”
When he arrived at home, he was greeted by a delicious smell which could only come from the lasagne Viktor was so good at making. He heard cluttering plates and cutlery, which must have prevented Viktor from hearing Jeldrik come in. He took of his shoes and sneaked in to the kitchen, where he found Viktor turned to the kitchen table. He grabbed him from behind and turned him around for a kiss. Viktor jumped, but could not free himself from Jeldrik’s grip and, after a few calming breaths, went into the kiss instead.
“Bastard,” he breathed into Jeldrik’s mouth, which turned into a grin.
“Hello to you too.”
After breaking free from each other, Jeldrik sat down and realised how hungry he was. “When’s the food done, slave?”, he inquired in a theatrically dominant tone.
“Don’t you try making me horny.” Viktor narrowed his eyes. “Also, five minutes. Did you buy the onion?”
“Oh yes!” Jeldrik jumped up and went into the corridor to take the onion out of his backpack. While he cut the onion and added it to the salad, Viktor took out the lasagne and sat it on the table.
It was delicious, as usual. But Jeldrik could only enjoy it to an extent, feeling his sense of foreboding creeping to the foreground of his mind while his hunger receded. He felt like there was no point in pushing it away any further.
“Viktor, about tomorrow …” He looked at his boyfriend, trying to read his face, but he looked only satisfied, leaning back on his chair. “I have plans tomorrow after work, so I can’t join you and your friends.”
“Oh.” His disappointment was clearly visible. Then, after a short tense silence: “I mean, you couldn’t have known I’d made plans too.” Viktor’s smile looked a little forced. “But what are your plans?”
Jeldrik had hoped Viktor’s disappointment would distract him enough to forget asking him that question. “Oh, I’m just doing some private sleuthing with a colleague about that murder case.” He felt like there was no lie in this sentence, but he still felt the sting of guilt for leaving out the quite large detail of where they would be sleuthing – and who that colleague of his was.
“I thought that ministry of something took over that case.”
“They did, but like I told you, they might not even solve it. That’s why we’re looking into it after work.”
Viktor thought for a while. “Could you get into trouble?”
“What law am I breaking?” Jeldrik said, repeating what Anteo had been answered when he had asked that question this morning.
“None, I guess. Just be careful, okay?” There was another pause. Jeldrik could see that Viktor was uncertain if he should speak again. When Jeldrik looked at him expectingly, he finally said: “I just wondered what colleague you’re hanging with. You haven’t really talked about any of them, really.”
Jeldrik had wondered how he could make Anteo seem as unthreatening as possible. “He’s called Anteo, he sits on the desk next to me, so we talked about the case together.”
“I see, nice!”
Jeldrik had known Viktor long enough to feel the shift in his behaviour when the jealousy kicked in. “You don’t have to be jealous,” he said, hoping to nip the argument in the bud.
“I’m not, Jeldrik!” he said, sounding annoyed. “Just because you talk with another guy, doesn’t make me immediately jealous.”
“Okay, okay! I just wanted to reassure you!”
“Thanks.”
Nobody spoke. After a while, Viktor got up and started cleaning the table. Jeldrik had no idea what else to say, knowing perfectly well that he did not imagine the tension between them. He stood up, put his plate in the dishwasher and, before leaving the kitchen, said: “Love you.”
“Love you too!” Viktor was clearly trying to sound carefree, but he was unsuccessful. Jeldrik considered one last time to say something, knowing it was a bad idea to just leave it at that, but he shook his head slightly and left the room.
