Chapter Text
On the night of May 13th at 3:10 AM There was a 911 call made by 37 year old Amanda Harris reporting the death of her husband, 40 year old David Harris. She claimed that her son, 14 year old Keith Kogane, was the perpetrator of the event. Once the police got to the scene they found the man’s body on the kitchen floor. Keith Akira Kogane was found hiding in the closet with the murder weapon and blood on his hands.
Kogane was arrested at 3:25 and transported to the Garrison Police Department and brought to a holding cell to await interrogation. Detective Matthew Holt was the one to gather the formal witness statement of Amanda Harris.
The report then began to delve into all the details of the location and autopsy report. Shiro was a little stunned. He had been working as an investigator for about 3 years and he had worked cases involving children before, but never a homicide. Shiro and Matt had been partners for a while but when they had gotten the initial debrief of this case and realized that Shiro would be doing the field work this time Matt hadn't taken it very well. He had tried to hide it and be supportive of Shiro but in the short amount of time that the two of them had been working together Shiro knew it was an act.
He felt a little bad at the idea of taking an opportunity from his partner for his own benefit, but he couldn't help but feel a little excited. Because of his condition he had been sidelined for weeks because of all the doctors visits and this was his first field assignment since then.
He scrolled down to the bottom of the screen and saw a transcript of the witness interrogation. He pressed play, needing to know all of the details before he started to work this case.
“Today is May 15th XXXX, and the time is 7:05 AM. We are in interview room number 3 at the Garrison police department. Please state your name and date of birth”
“Amanda Harris, 06/19/XX.” “Okay Amanda, I'm just going to ask you a few questions pertaining to the event that occurred in your home today alright?” Matt told her “Okay”
The woman sounded nervous but that was to be expected considering she had just witnessed the murder of her husband. “So, What can you tell me about the day leading up to the incident.” The audio goes quiet for a while. Shiro assumes it's for the woman to find her words. She finally speaks up, “The day had been relatively uneventful before then. Me and David were off work that day and it was a weekend so Keith was off school as well.” She pauses.
“ I was in the bedroom when it happened. All i heard was a big crash and the yell of my husband, I thought he had just knocked something over, my husband was always a bit of a ditz.” She chuckles “ But then all the noise stopped. It was like the entire house had gotten silent and that's what really worried me. I walked into the kitchen and saw that demon boy standing over my husband with a knife in his hand. There was blood everywhere and he looked up at me with this crazy look in his eyes. I was so scared I just ran back to the bedroom and-- Called the police.”
The woman was now full on sobbing through her account of what had happened and seemed truly upset at what had happened. Shiro felt for her, though he always had a problem with keeping his emotions out of his work so maybe that was a part of that issue.
“Ok ma’am I just have one more question before you’re allowed to leave '' Matt kept his tone calm and steady. “Do you know of any reason that Your son would do this?” The woman sharply inhaled. “We never should've taken in that child. He gets in fights all the time in school and never listens. I knew he couldn't be trusted.” Red hot anger shines through her tone and Matt seems a little taken back by that response judging from the lack of response. “Well that will be all Ms. Harris, we will provide a police escort to bring you back to your friend's apartment, thank you for being so cooperative. Interview ending at 7:35 AM”
The tell tail click of the receiver shutting off broke Shiro out of his stupor. He sighed before shutting his laptop closed. He was about to start looking through the endless amount of paperwork he had been assigned to take home and look through when he heard footsteps pad into the living room. He looked up and saw his fiance Adam looking at him with that tender expression.
“Are you coming back to bed anytime soon?” He tried to make it sound humorous but it fell flat and his disappointment began to shine through. Shiro stood up and walked over to him, taking him in a warm embrace. “I know…I just have to finish filling out this paperwork then I promise I'll go to bed” He murmured into his lover's hair. “Okay, but I'm holding you to that.” Adam pulled back and smiled back. He then retreated back upstairs to their shared bedroom. Shiro ran a hand through his hair before sitting back on the couch and beginning to sign what seemed to be an endless mountain of files.
He was supposed to be visiting with his client at the Garrison Max Prison facility in the morning so he really should try to catch some shut eye. Once he's finally finished he puts his pen down and begins to travel upstairs, figuring he can tidy his things in the morning. It was already 1AM and Shiro was beat. To his surprise Adam was still awake, sitting up against the headboard with a book in his hands.
Once he saw Shiro standing aimlessly in the door his eyes widened briefly before grinding and becoming him crawling under the cover. Shiro was already halfway asleep when he heard Adam mutter something about loving him. Shiro isn't even really sure what he said inr response, if he had even said anything at all but he went to sleep feeling warm and loved so it was okay in the end.
…….
“Hey honey do you know where my computer is?” Shiro was rummaging through his book bag searching frantically. He had woken up late, having snoozed his alarm and forgot about his meeting with his client. Shiro had always been a bit scatterbrained but now that all the attention was on him for thai case he was more stressed out than ever before and it was beginning to take a toll on his ability to remember things as well.
“Shiro, remember you left it in the living room, just calm down for a second and think they’re not going to crucify you because you were a little late okay” Adam was getting ready for work as well but he left a little later than Shiro so he was still eating at the table. The pressure was killing him.
It’s all too much.
Shiro wanted to believe Adam, but everyone was counting on him to not screw this up, still wary of him and his ability to work because of his condition. “Yeah,” He took a deep breath “Yeah okay i'm good, thanks' ' He added on as he was finally walking out the door. “No problem now have a nice day at work” Adam called out as the door closed behind him,
If everything wasn't bad enough already Shiro gets stuck in afternoon traffic and if he flipped off a couple of drivers on the way there, nobody had to know. Once he backed his car into a parking space and turned his key out of the ignition, he sat back against his seat trying to gather himself. Now, Shiro wasn't bad with kids.
He prided himself on being pretty good especially with Matt’s little sister Kaite or pidge as Matt tended called her. Shiro still to this day has no idea where that nickname came from but the kid seemed to like it so it stuck.
The thing was, that this boy was different then any kid he had ever interacted with before. I mean, the kid was being tried for murder. Homicide. A serious criminal offense that he would serve years in prison for. Shiro didn't like the whole bad cop act, sometimes it was necessary but most of the time it just scared the people he was interrogating into silence.
He had to go into this interview with a different mindset than usual, he wasn't going to scare the kid but he couldn't baby him either considering the kid could very much be guilty of what he had been accused of. However, Shiro would never get anywhere spiraling in this car. He took one more deep breath and began getting out of the car, almost forgetting to grab his bag on the way.
Once he got to the huge entrance he had to have a security guard check his name and badge in their database and then pat him down for anything that looked ‘suspicious’. Shiro was a bit surprised but it was a max prison after all and when you're holding a bunch of underage criminals it's probably only a matter of time before one of them tries to escape. One of the security guards led him to the lobby where he waited for Mr.Iverson to show up.
Iverson was the one that Shiro had emailed to see which location the perpetrator had been brought to. He had only heard the man's voice once and it was when he called to update Shiro on the time details and when he would be seeing Keith, “Two times a week, no more, no less” The man had grunted out.
If Shiro was going to be serious with himself the man had sort of intimidated him just by his voice, but he would stand his ground and be firm in the decisions he made. All of a sudden he heard the sound of steel toed boots pounding against the floor like a drum. Shiro looked up and when he saw what he assumed to be Iverson with the different state of a tire he quickly stood up trying to put a friendly look on his face The dark skinned man was wearing a black peaked cap and the same uniform as the other officers but instead of a dark blue, it was instead a lighter gray.
“Hello, my name is Takashi Shirogane, we spoke on the phone!” He held his hand out with a smile on his face. The man seemed to gaze at him intensely, as if observing some peculiar specimen. A moment of tense silence goes by, Shiro still has his hand out hoping the man will shake it soon, considering how awkward this was getting. Finally He pulled one of his hands from behind his back and gave Shiro a firm handshake. “Well, Shirogane, before we go to your client's cell we must establish a few rules.” He held up his pointer finger
“One, Do not engage in any kind of disruptive behavior with the inmates.” That seemed reasonable enough, i mean it would disrupt everyone else in the building and could also get someone hurt or Shiro arrested.
He then held up two fingers “ Two, Do not go anywhere without an officer escort going with you, not anywhere, even the bathroom” Okay well the bathroom one might be a little embarrassing but that rule was also pretty valid. I mean the wrong person is allowed to go wherever they want and it would be a serious security concern.
Finally he put up three fingers although this rule felt a little different. Before Iverson even informed him of rule three, his face darkened the change of atmosphere through Shiro off but the officers who were standing next to them seemed to be used to this by now.
“Do not, go down to floor 0, it's off limits for a reason, if you make any attempt to disobey this rule you will be banned from this building and your client will be transported to a different facility.” Shiro had to admit that he was definitely a little intimidated by the man but he said he was going to stand firm and he did. “Yes sir, I understand” He kept his head up, his shoulders wide, and a smile on his face.
The man only nodded in understanding before turning around and walking back around the corner he had come out from. Shiro took that as his que to follow behind him and he grabbed his book bag from where it was resting next to the chair he had been sitting in and put it over his head before rushing forward, as if not to get left behind.
They had been walking for quite some time now and Shiro was starting to wonder if they would ever reach their destination. Then suddenly Iverson stopped in front of a meeting room. He gets the keys that have been dangling from his belt and he leads Shiro into the room.
“This is where you'll be meeting with your client. One of these officers is going to bring Keith here and you guys will have an hour and a half to discuss the intricacies of his case.”
Shiro nodded before he cautiously sat in the chair facing the one way mirror.
Iverson had left and it was quite daunting sitting in this big empty room all by himself. He took the time to take out the files in his book bag that he would need later on and began to read over them one last time checking that everything was in order besides the fact that he had already triple checked everything in the morning before his appointment. He had nothing else to do so he decided to just go over them once more.
A few minutes later the door opened and Shiro's head whipped up. There was an officer standing in front of the boy and when he was being led in, Shiro was a little taken aback by how short he was. Maybe it was because Shiro himself had a pretty huge growth spurt at the end of middle school, but he expected the kid to look different. He was wearing the normal obnoxiously orange jumpsuit and had handcuffs wrapped tightly around his hands. His face was obstructed considering he had his head pointing down at his feet, his choppy bangs hanging over his eyes. The officers, rather harshly Shiro might add, directed Keith to sit in the chair across from shiro.
The boy finally lifted his head and Shiro was a little caught off guard by the striking indigo eyes that were facing him paired with heavy eyebags and an empty expression. Shiro looked to the door seeing the officers leaving and nodded at them with a forced smile. He looks back at Keith and begins to introduce himself. “Alright so, My name is Takashi Shirogane, I will be the one who is investigating your case. It's nice to meet you!” He tried to keep it short and friendly but when the kid didn't do anything but glance at him and then back at his shackled hands that were resting on the table, he didn't take it to heart.
This kid had obviously been through a lot these past couple of days and he wasn't trying to make the situation any worse.
“So, today I'm just going to ask you basic questions, nothing especially complex, okay?” The boy nodded his head, in a sign of understanding. Shiro picked up the stack of paper that he had set aside when the boy had entered. “I hear that Mr. and Mrs. Harris were your foster parents? How long had you been living with them.”
He purposely asked a question that would require the kid to do more than nod or shake his head. Keith hesitated before his mouth slowly opened. “Uhm for about a year. '' His voice was small and horace. “Are you aware of what you're being convicted of?” Keith averted his eyes before giving a swift nod. “Do you think you can give me a run down of what happened that night?” Shiro questioned. He knew that Matt had already gotten a recap of what happened that night, but he needed to hear it from both sides. The boy shuddered before breathing in deeply. “I..I didn't mean to. I swear”
Shiro could see the boy spiraling just from the look on his face. It was almost unnoticeable and the only reason why Shiro himself had noticed it was because it was often the same face he found himself staring back at in the mirror.
“That's fine, Keith. Could you instead tell me about what you did that morning leading up to that moment?” Keith's head snapped up, like he had forgotten Shiro was even there between all of the slightly quicker breaths and the panting. The boy blinked couple of times, trying to center himself. “Yeah..Yeah ok um, I didn't have school that day so i mostly just kept to myself in my room I guess? I got up once or twice to get something to eat but other than that not much.” Keith stammered. “Did you notice any unusual behavior with the foster father?” He looked surprised at the question as if he wasn't expecting Shiro to ask questions about anyone other than himself which made sense to Shiro in a way. I mean he was the one being tried for first-degree murder.
“I guess he was acting a bit fidgety. Maybe angrier? Sorry he didn't act much out of the norm. Nobody did i mean, we were normal.” Keith was sounding more annoyed by the second ad by the way his eyes kept flicking towards the door, Shiro knew it was time to end this interview.”Okay well that will be all for today,” Shiro put on a bright smile “See you next week Keith. I look forward to working with you on this case.”
He holds his hand out and he just stares at it. Not making a sound. Just when Shiro was about to pull his hand back because of the new found awkwardness that had entered the room, Keith lifted both his hands that were still coffee tightly around his wrists and gave the man a quick firm handshake. That action. That moment let Shiro know that this kid's resolve has not broken yet, and shiro was going to make sure it stayed that way.
Shiro had barely registered the car ride home., almost swerving into another lane by accident. They’re was so many thoughts running through his mind, his brain felt crowded. When he walked through the front door he noticed a pair of shoes neatly placed by the door as well as his work bag on the dining table. Huh? I guess Adams here already. That makes sense since it's already 8:00 p.m.
Shiro stands in the entry way for a while before taking off his shoes and walking to the guest room. Now, normally he would go take a shower and then climb into bed with his lovely husband, but something about the case just had him wanting to know more. The way that Keith responded to the questioning made him curious. Most people being accused would act fidgety and confused. But there was just something different about Keith. He could see it in his eyes. That terror and fear isn't just brought on by questioning. There had to be something more to this case.
Shiro sat down on the couch and pulled out his laptop. Pulling up Keith's file like this felt like he was breaking some sort of rule. Technically he wasn't, but he had no real reason to be doing this. He knew he shouldn’t have involved his own personal feelings or option on into this ase, it would not hurt him in the long run.
But the kid looked so terrified he didn't know what to do. Thankfully he managed to remain calm but he needed to know all the facts if he was going to proceed with this theory. Finally, he pressed on Keith’s name and scrolled down to the family history section and he never would’ve expected to see what he saw.