The Wicked Ones

8. Nothing like a good cup of coffee to discuss your psycho family

"Good luck !" Elisabeth smiled at Alexander as she grabbed her leather jacket. Once she'd exited the building she saw her friend on the side, quite obviously trying to calm her nerves. Blythe walked to her motorbike, grabbed a spare helmet and threw it into her friends arms. "You. Me. Restaurant. We obviously need to have a small chat."

Asterin looked at Lis. Her mind went entirely blank for a second before she could muster a small smile that probably looked more like a grimace.

"Only if you are paying."

"Well obviously ! What's the point of having inheritance money if I can't spoil my friends." She stepped on her bike and turned the key. "Hop on."

Asterin spent ten minutes staring at the menu. All the letter blurred and the mere thought of food made her want to retch. When the waiter came for the second time to ask what would she eat she just gave up and asked for a coffee. She looked back at Lis then.

"I am sorry for missing the end of the meeting. It was unprofessional. Was there anything of importance that was said afterwards ?"

"Benji has something and I told Alex what you two would be doing tomorrow morning." She stared at her friend disapprovingly as she ordered a simple coffee and asked the waiter for the salmon dish, knowing she probably would not have time to eat later, or the next morning for that matter...

"But that's not what I asked you here for. You were clearly shocked by something I said and I've got a feeling your phonemail didn't help. I'm not here to talk to you as a colleague, I'm here as a worried friend."

Asterin tilted her head. She had never spoken of Orion to her friend, or to anyone else in the precinct in fact. Now she wanted to tell her everything. The constant apprehension, the low blows they had pulled in each other over the years, the tense and silent family dinners and the total absence of contact that followed. She wanted to tell her how she had discovered Orion was a drug addict a year ago through some files she had found in the precinct. How she had put those file back and never bothered to check on him. How she had hated herself for it afterwards but never enough to actually call. And yet, here looking into Lis' eyes, all that came out was, "Yellow eyes. Not a very common feature."

Elizabeth put down her glass of water, she wasn't particularly shocked, not surprised either. It was more like she was... Taken aback by the way her friend had delivered the information. Even if she'd just said this wasn't a professional conversation it felt oddly like an interrogation, one where the suspect wanted to talk but didn't know how to.

"You never said much about your family."

Asterin's coffee arrived. She took a sip and rested her chin in her hand.

"No, we were never close and are not exactly on good terms. But the man at the rehabilitation center, the suspect. That is my brother."

Elizabeth nodded, somehow she no longer felt like eating.

"I see."

Blythe tried to take a bite of her food, but she couldn't handle it. It was as though the entire day was trying to come back up and make her puke.

"What happened to him? Was he always like that or did he change..."

Asterin sighed.

"Orion was always a rather... difficult person to get along with. He has a way of bringing the worst out of people. He was a privileged idiot but the last I time talked to him, he was not an addict nor saying all the... things he says."

"You know if you no longer want to be on the case it's fine. I can tell the captain it's for personal reasons. On the other hand if you do want to keep going with this investigation, well, I won't stop you... But... Maybe talk to me, it's the second time today I say this but I really am a good listener. I'm not saying talking will solve everything but sometimes it feels good to tell someone what's on your mind."