The cop, the author and the journalist
The thrill. That’s what I’m after. Finding someone. Getting to know them. Where do they live? Which places do they frequent? Their favourite food. The people around them. Then I find the perfect way to end it all. No walks to their favourite place anymore. No meet ups with friends. Nothing. Sometimes I kill a random person, just to confuse the police. Stupid people, really. Most of them anyways.
However, there is one cop in particular, who might have a chance at catching me. Those are the kinds of people that make me keep on doing all this. It would be boring without them. But they are the ones who make it fun. They try to make me the prey, even though I am the one observing every step they take. If they knew just how close I’ve been all this time. They’d probably not know how to react to such a revelation.
“How is the book going?” Pandora asks after taking another bite of her cupcake.
“Yeah. How is it going? Especially the research part?” Felix asks with a slightly raised eyebrow and a cocky grin. This boy. Pandora always told Evan that one day his dotting on Felix would come back at him. But how was he supposed to know, that being overprotective and giving your little brother whatever he wants would turn out like- yeah okay, maybe he was a bit stupid for that.
The three of them are sitting in a cafe near Felix’ university. It’s been a month since Evan and Barty started their arrangement and Felix had yet to (purposefully) slip up in front of Pandora. Barty, admittedly, turned out to be a rather good assistant. He’d come up with ways of murder whenever Evan was stuck or read over the script again and again, highlighting things that would need improvement or even give some suggestions on how the main character should act.
Evan throws a warning look at Felix before leaning back on his chair.
“It’s been going great. I have finished two thirds of the script and as soon as it’s done, I’ll send it to my publisher to look over it.” Evan explains. He deliberately fails to mention that the reason for it going so smoothly is a certain black haired bloke, who frequently visits his flat.
Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Evan’s phone rings. Two new messages.
“Oi. I’ll be coming over today, did some research for the murder scene you’re stuck on.” - Research assistant
(Yes, Evan did not save Barty as Barty. Firstly, that would make their relationship somewhat personal - which it wasn't - and secondly, if Pandora ever sees one of the texts he could easily lie his way out of the situation.)
Evan ignores the text for now and looks at the one send a few minutes earlier by Remus:
“I’m out with Regulus if you wanna join. Never a bad idea to befriend a cop in our fields of work. I am currently in our favourite bookstore.”
Evan could marry Remus.
“Well, gotta go. Remus wants to meet up and introduce me to someone. Have a nice day you two.” Evan says and before Pandora could protest he is out and on his way to find his lifesaver.
Their favourite bookstore is a small cafe combined with a bookshop, close to their former university. In their uni days they used to frequent it for their study groups. Now, they use it as a meet up point every now and then.
“There you are, mate. I already told Reggie about you.” Remus greets Evan with a hug and brings him to a table in the back instead of their usual window seat.
A man with curly black hair sits facing them, siping on his tea, while reading something on his phone. When he looks up to them, Evan is met with piercing grey eyes. They are a lot darker than his own though.
“Regulus Black.” The man introduces himself.
“Evan Rosier.” Evan answers, observing that the other does not hold out his hand, so he doesn’t make any attempts to either.
“The crime novelist, if I remember correctly. I read your books. They are good, mostly.” Regulus remarks.
Evan glances at Remus, who nods encouragingly. “Don’t mind Regulus, he is always like that. Well, most of the time.” Both of them sit down - Evan opposite Regulus and Remus between the two of them.
Regulus looks back at his phone, sometimes making notes in the little notebook in front of him. Remus had a book in his lap with a bookmark hinting that he was already half way through it. Evan would bet a fifty that the both of them just sat like this most of the time not speaking a word and they seem inclined to continue like that.
“So…when did your boyfriend introduce you two?” Evan whispers to Remus.
“He didn’t.” Regulus groans without looking up from his phone. “I walked in on them as they were about to shag in the kitchen. I wish I could discard that scene from my memory.”
“Oh, I know that. I walked in on my younger brother once. To this day I always give him a heads up before visiting him.” Evan grimaces at the memory.
He had visited home for the weekend and immediately wanted to greet his little brother. Instead he was greeted with the side of Felix and his then girlfriend kissing, his younger brother’s hands already disappearing under her shirt. The next second he had a pillow thrown into his face.
Now that he thinks about it, with the most recent incident it’s two times. This starts to turn into a pattern. Evan really ought to have a conversation with his brother about locking doors and private folders for these kinds of pictures.
Regulus nods in agreement. A silent understanding forms between the two of them.
“Oh please, it wasn’t that bad.” Remus defends himself.
“The kitchen, Lupin, you were shagging my older brother next to my food.” Regulus growls at Remus.
“Ah, right, food. I’ll get some pastries, you want something, Evan?” Remus stands up and looks at Evan questioningly.
“I’m good. Just escaped tea time with Panda and Felix.”
Remus shrugs lightly and leaves them in favour of looking at the pastries layed out.
“So…what are you writing there?” Evan asks, trying himself on small talk (not his biggest strength).
“The case that’s all over the news. It’s five victims already and I’m trying to find some sort of pattern. The first three were similar. Their friends and families all stated that the victims had mentioned the feeling of being watched. Their families had thought them to be paranoid, that’s why it was never brought to us.” Regulus explains. He draws three circles in his notebook. “But the other two; the victims seem almost chosen at random. The killing methods are way more complicated than normally. They’re like the ones you see in tv shows. They don’t match the killer's normal approach.” Regulus adds a triangle and a square to the circles.
“Then why do you think they are connected?” Evan leans closer to Regulus.
“The notes.” Regulus breathes out loudly. Annoyance is written all over his face.
Evan senses that it is not meant for him, so he continues asking. “What notes are you talking about? There was no mention of them in the news.”
“No wonder. We kept it from the public. The killer leaves them at every crime scene. It’s filled with snarky remarks and such. He wants attention and we try to withhold it from him as much as we can.”
“He?”
“Yes. From the ways the victims were killed, we hypothesise that the killer is in fact a man.” Regulus leans back with a sigh. His brows are furrowed. His arms crossed. His eyes focused on the notebook. “Everyday I do not manage to find out who he is, another person could potentially die. And that is on me.”
“Well” Evan starts, in an attempt of consultation. “At least you always know there won’t be any more victims than the one you find.”
Regulus' head snaps up and his eyes stare back at Evan. “What?” His voice was sharp.
“I mean, the notes. And you said it yourself, the killer wants attention. Why would he kill a victim and hide it when he clearly wants the police to see how incompetent they are.” Evan explains. Could have used better words, he realises as Regulus’ frown deepens.
“I do not like authors. Do you know why, Rosier?” Regulus doesn’t even wait for him to answer. “You write for entertainment. But have you ever thought about the real world? You kill character after character. We deal with real humans. Humans die and we cannot lean back because of some pattern. This person is a psychopath. He kills simply to kill. He might very well wake up one day and decide to change his pattern.”
Evan falls silent. He could try talking himself out of this or trying to defend himself, but something tells him that Regulus would only use that as a sign that he is right about Evan.
A phone rings, saving Evan from this very uncomfortable situation. It isn’t the one on the desk but another one, Regulus takes out of his jacket. The black haired man starts the conversation with his eyes still on Evan. “What? … You gotta be kidding me.” His eyes unfocus as he listens intently to the person on the other end of the line. “Where? … I’ll be there in 10. Tell me the details on the way.” He gets up in a hurry, shoves his notebook and pen into a small bag, Evan hadn’t noticed yet. A trans pride pin as well as some other pins sticking to it.
Regulus turns to him. “Was nice meeting you. You are interesting, Evan Rosier. See you later and tell Remus my brother will be late today.” With that Regulus leaves a confused Evan. When he looks away from the door, he notices Remus standing next to him with a questioning look in his eyes.
“So apparently he likes me. Which is weird because he just told me how much he hates authors. But there seems to be a new case and I’m supposed to tell you that Sirius will be late today.” Evan recounts what just happened, or at least what he thinks happened.
Remus laughs. “Yeah, that is Regulus for you. He gave me a whole lecture on how distasteful he finds journalists to be on our second meeting. A week later he invited me to an exclusive interview.” Remus sits down next to him. He puts down a big slice of chocolate cake on the table. “Later Sirius told me that he read most of my articles and praised my writing style, even though Regulus would never admit it to me himself. He’ll probably read your new book and decide from that if he likes you."
❁ ✒ ☠︎︎
Evan tries to not question Regulus’ way of showing that he liked someone. Just like he stopped questioning why Barty had to sit on his desk, right next to the laptop he was writing his script on. He could very well help Evan from a normal chair or even his bed for all he cares. But not Barty, apparently.
Barty has his feet shoved under Evan’s thigh to warm them. It took Evan about one week to realise that the other one’s hands and feet were bloody cold almost all the time. He stopped complaining after three weeks of Barty continuously shoving his hands under his shirt for no better reason than to warm them.
Evan knows he has a rather high body temperature. It’s not unusual for his friends to use him as their personal heater. So he is used to it already. The ease Barty shows around him and the active search for physical touch after barely knowing him though, that is the behaviour that actually confuses Evan.
“So, the blood draining thing?” Evan asks instead of acknowledging the cold feet sending goosebumps down his arms.
“What I understand from your character is that he kills not to end a human’s life but rather for the before and after. So it isn’t about the person itself.” Barty starts. He takes one of the pens lying around and twirls it between his fingers. His nails are painted black. It looks good, as if he’d done it a thousand times over already.
Evan follows the pen with his eyes, but hums in agreement. “It’s about the thrill. He is smart. Smarter than most and he wants to prove that to the world.”
“Right, so considering that, he wouldn’t have a reason to let his victims suffer too much. Buying anaesthetics can be too high of a risk because it’d likely leave digital footprints. But there are other ways.” Barty stops the twirling and instead slides the pen over his arm, slowly. “If you cut open the major arteries it takes about three minutes, five at max. Still hurts like shit, but the victim will lose consciousness faster.”
“So that would be the wrists. Where else?”
“The wrist is possible, but you could also go for the Brachial artery.” Barty slides the pen over a part of Evan’s inner upper arm. “The Femoral.” He leans forward to touch Evan’s inner thigh with the pen. “Subclavian.” He continues settling his hand on the author's collarbone and rubbing his thumb over one part in particular. “And last but not least the Carotid.” Barty’s hand slides up his neck until he reaches a point right under his jaw.
Evan swallows. This is wrong. They were talking about ways to kill someone. Yet the way those brown eyes watch him intently and the hand around his neck tightens slightly…
As he leans in, Evan hears Regulus' voice in his head “We are talking about real people and you get a hard one? Just like I said”. For a second he feels guilty about it, then Barty’s lips collide with his own and every thought of the black haired cop is gone.
He can think about his questionable behaviour later. For now all he can concentrate on is the person on his lap and the cold hands gliding under his shirt.