2. Things Fall Apart
x — james potter
James struggled to shave his face before work this morning. He missed his son, and he missed the life he had when he was married to his ex-wife. What used to be a morning full of giggles and sweet kisses, became gut wrenchingly empty. He was getting ready alone, making breakfast alone, and loading only himself into his car.
On his drive to work, he couldn’t even look in the review mirror without seeing his son’s empty car seat. It was Lily’s week, and James knew he agreed to switching, that it was only fair. It was just too hard.
He had not known how happy Harry and Lily made him before the divorce and split custody. It was his dream to be like his dad. Keep a lovely wife, take care of a son. James realized that maybe he had been the issue, falling hard and obsessively for the image while reality slipped through his fingers. The happy marriage James experienced was not mutual with Lily. His work, it distracted him, so he failed to make time and place for her in his life when it mattered(and when it didn’t).
He figured that maybe, after today’s briefing, they would have a case important enough to distract him once again. If he was lucky, maybe a phone call with Harry this evening would be a possibility.
James showed up to the office and pushed his personal issues to the back of his mind, meeting the team in the conference room.
He took a seat between Sirius and Mary, per usual. James got cozy.
Peter appeared in front of the board a few minutes later, holding a folder, “We’ve got both a missing child from three families in Birmingham,” He pulled up images of each of the families, “All went missing within a week.”
He handed out case files to each of the investigators with a polite smile. James huffs a breath, looking through the files briskly.
“There’s definitely a pattern,” Mary muttered in observation. They all looked similar.
James looked at his watch. Birmingham would be over a two hour drive, and it was only 7:00. He stood decisively. “You have an hour to review the files before we head out.”
xx — remus lupin
“That’s your third coffee of the hour, Lupin.”
Remus rolled his eyes, turning to face Sirius, “Would you like one?”
“No,” Sirius scrunched his nose in disdain before walking over to the mini fridge and pulling out a coke.
Remus watched him silently as Sirius popped the tab and took a sip, making an obnoxious “ah” sound. Ignoring this, Remus continued brewing his coffee. He was new to this specific team, only joining the office a few weeks prior. He had a criminology degree, of course, but solving violent crimes was a lot harder than his previous job as a bartender, so he was still adjusting to using his brain so much. Hence, the three cups of coffee.
The two of them returned to the drawing board. It was a nice white board, where they took notes and connected dots.
“Ava’s mother, Mia, was taken in for questioning, says that they had just gone to the shops, one minute she was there and then she was gone. Though, authorities reported that they knew Mia, as she’d been reported several times for child neglect, but those reports all fell flat when investigated.” Mary talked, marking on the printed out map, where Ava had last been seen. Mary was a brilliant woman, really, she knew how to network and process information better than Remus had ever seen.
“Chelsey, Florence’s mum was also accused of child neglect but all charges were dropped.” Marlene furrowed her eyebrows while Mary marked on the map where Chelsey was last seen.
“What do we know about Dylan’s mother?” Remus asked, looking between the three of them.
Sirius, his hands in his pockets in the corner, shook his head, “Bonnie was never investigated before, never accused of anything other than a speeding ticket.”
Mary spoke up, mapping out where Dylan was last seen, “That is correct, but she has been in and out of rehab since 2019.”
“So the unsub is playing the role of the savior.” Marlene concluded, writing something down.
“Means that the unsub was probably abused or neglected as a child,” James appeared at the edge of the board, “The cars are ready.”
The five of them split up, James, Sirius, and Remus in one car, while the girls in another.
xxx — marlene mckinnon
“I hate when the cases include children,” Marlene frowned, her sunglasses holding her hair back. “Makes me sad.”
Mary nodded, driving calmly, “Yes, me too. We are only here to do our job, get the kids back to their parents. We do our best, nothing else should you expected of yourself.”
“Gosh, it’s like talking with my mother,” Marlene shivered dramatically, making Mary chuckle.
Mary smirked, “To my knowledge, I’m much better than your mother.”
“Yeah, yeah… You are.”
Mary bringing up Marlene’s upbringing wasn’t something out of ill intent. Marlene was pretty open with how shitty her mother was, joked about it with the others. She liked turning something fucked up into something laughable.
They got out of the car as they arrived at the Birmingham Metropolitan investigation office, the guys pulling in behind them. Marlene offered her card up at the entrance, and after examination, they let her and Mary past.
“Do you remember which floor James said?” Mary asked, walking over to the elevator. Marlene shook her head.
“I think it’s three, but we should probably wait for them anyways.”
A few moments later, Remus, Sirius, and James met the girls at the elevator. Mary pressed for the elevator to open and it did.
They all squeezed into the elevator, which was strangely small for a building as big as it was. James pressed the button for floor number five and the elevator began to slowly rise.
“So… How was the drive?” Marlene asked to break the awkward, cramped elevator silence.
Sirius perked up, “Other than Remus snoring the whole way here?”
This earned Sirius a kick. Marlene, Sirius, and James laughed, watching Mary gape at Remus, fix his hair and tried to rub the faint sleep line completely off his cheek. Remus swatted her hands away, fixing his own appearance using the sight of his reflection off of the metal elevator door.