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John blew out a tired sigh as he slumped into his desk chair, while Aiden stored a case file away in a nearby cabinet. The pace of the investigation into the knitting murders had quickened the day Aiden started as an official investigator of Causton CID. It was certainly nice to have a helping hand in the inquiry, and DC Gou had even proved to be just as elite at Winter when it came to doing the work.
The man wasted absolutely no time, reminding John of Charlie Nelson, but Aiden also had this patience to his character. Something Jones never had, and clearly showed whenever he was at his limit. There were times when the DC remained extremely calm despite a suspect getting under John’s skin- to the point of wanting to rip his hair out or slamming the suspect into a wall- and yet, Gou remained cool as a cucumber.
“Thank the genes,” Aiden joked that day, when the pair were following the patrol car, carrying the culprit, back to the station. “Or maybe it’s just how a lot of people in Sichuan are.”
“Si…what?”
“Sichuan. My family comes from that province in China. Most people my parents knew in the villages weren’t mad enough to the point of raising a hand against others. There’s still loads of people who have some…fiery exchanges of words, but other than that, it’s apparently really calm.”
“Quite a contrast to the people of Midsomer county,” John said, with a chuckle barely being stifled. “If only the people here could just use their words instead of putting each other in their graves.”
Aiden made a small laugh as he leaned back into the passenger seat; the remark was amusing, but he sounded so tired while laughing, though rightfully so. Both men were absolutely exhausted after this investigation; John had been working solo for the first third of the time, while the new DC had been thrown into the deep end right off the bat. It was only 3 o’clock by the time Barnaby and Gou made it back to the station, but they were ready to end the day early, to get some well-earned rest before having to return the next day. The exhaustion was nearly enough to almost prevent John from asking his superior to have an early dismissal for the day.
Luckily, the solving of the case proved to be the catalyst for a premature end to the detectives’ day. Barnaby and his new sidekick began to pack up their things, though a thought from the previous week crept into John’s head. As the DC walked from his desk to grab his trenchcoat from the coat hook by the door, John suddenly stopped him with a calm yet stern call of Gou’s first name. Aiden froze, realizing the severity of things, since his DI back in Brighton always mentioned the seldom use of first names from Barnaby.
“Uh...sir?”
“Do you mind sitting down for a minute or two?” John requested.
Something happened about a week ago, and it was odd enough to the point that the DCI wanted to feed his curiosity. He normally never pried into the personal business of his sergeants, but the thing he had witnessed was something that had him feeling on edge...not for himself, but for his constable.
It happened on the third day, Wednesday, of Aiden’s transfer to Midsomer. Now it was the Tuesday of the week following that day, and John had tried to come up with all sorts of reasons to explain it, but he could never find a definitive assumption that sat right with him. He intended to ask about it before this day, but with the case on his hands and the prompt of not wanting to stress his constable out any further, he had left it alone.
~~~~~
They had arrived at the house of one of the victim’s relatives, wanting to inquire about some of the history that the individual had. Everything had been fine on the way there, but things suddenly went south when John told Aiden to handle the main interview while he went to go snoop around the house. He unbuckled his seatbelt and stepped out of the car, not thinking anything of it when Gou made no noise as he began to walk to the front door of the home, after finding out about the DC’s habit of having a dead silent stride. But when his expectation of the constable ringing the doorbell wasn’t met, he realized that Aiden wasn’t there, and then spotted him still sitting in the passenger seat of the car.
Slightly annoyed, he started walking back to the car, tempted to raise his voice for the DC to hurry up, and then he saw it. There Aiden was, staggered breathing with a panicked daze in his eyes looking forward, his upper body in a tense state— not even noticing John approaching the vehicle from the side. Barnaby eventually reached the point right outside the window of the driver’s side, staring at his DC through the glass.
By then, the erratic breathing subsided a bit along with some of the tension, but John noticed Aiden’s lips moving. The longer he kept watching, the more he realized that...he was talking to himself. It couldn’t have been a phone call, as the constable’s hands were free of any mobile device. Aiden’s head was tilted down and his gaze aiming nowhere but a lost state.
Barnaby leaned in closer to the window, just enough to hear Gou. With the glass as a barrier, his voice was muffled, but the DCI could pick up on words and phrases that sounded like they belonged to a monologue of some sort, which reinforced his belief that Aiden was speaking with himself. But as DCI Barnaby took a step back to relieve his poor back after being hunched over, the sound of pebbles from the driveway rolled under John’s shoes and made a loud crunch. Aiden turned his head towards the direction of sound in an instant and his lips ceased movement, replaced by a slightly shocked gape.
Their eyes had locked...and Barnaby could swear that the man was beginning to tear up, but DC Gou took a sharp intake of air while breaking eye contact by turning his face away from the DCI, huffing out slowly. Aiden emerged from the car just around a minute or two later, gaze shooting into the ground. He quietly swallowed and walked straight past John, towards the house. Nothing was able to be said about the matter because Aiden had made it to the front door of the home to ring the bell before John, somehow getting a quick answer from the owner before the DCI could say a word to his sidekick at the doorstep.
The interview itself was done just as DC Gou had normally done throughout the investigation, and that was the end of it. Aiden never displaced that behaviour after that point...but for the days following that event, John tried to reason with himself about what he had seen, and couldn’t come to a conclusion about it. Talking to yourself wouldn’t constitute as being insane, since John recognized himself and his sergeant having the habit when in deep thought about a murder case, but it was obvious that there was more to Aiden than what he showed on the surface.
~~~~~
John noticed the tensing of Aiden’s shoulders when they both took a moment to recall that event.
“Is this about…last week?”
“Yes...it is.”
“Oh.”
He probably thinks that I think he’s crazy.
“Were you…”
“-talking to myself?” A long pause. “I…can explain.”
“Alright.”
“Maybe I should have mentioned this the first day, but I never really thought of it as a huge deal and all because I normally have it under my belt, but—” Aiden paused again and readjusted his sitting position, quietly crossing his legs while intertwining the fingers on his hands. Somehow, it was as if he had read John’s mind, and took a deep breath before continuing.
“I...um, I have social anxiety disorder. A bunch of…erm...standard symptoms, like loss of breath, muscle tension, and sometimes horrible stomach aches...and then I also developed a habit of pre-conversational rehearsal as uh...a coping mechanism. Sometimes I don’t even realize I’m talking to myself until it gets pointed out.”
“I see.”
“It’s bad enough to the point that I do use...uh...prescription drugs for it, and some therapy too...but I forgot to take them that day because of the case.” He sighed. “It was just going so…fast. I didn’t even realize I missed my meds that morning until you caught me in the car.”
“I didn’t mean to startle you, by the way.”
“No— it’s fine. I’m sorry if I worried you, sir.”
“I can’t blame you for that. I just want to make sure you’re going to be okay after that incident.”
“I will. And—
—I promise to try and keep myself on top of things next time.”
“Next time,” John began, glaring into his constable’s eyes, “please, let me know if you can’t handle things. Take your medication to work with you if you have to so that you can reduce your symptoms before suspect interviews. The gossip can be absolutely brutal amongst the villagers and I don’t want any bad press on you in some tabloid article about being some ‘crazy policeman’.”
Aiden nodded and broke eye contact with DCI Barnaby. “Yes, sir. And…
...thank you.”
So that was the end of it. DC Gou quietly stood up, grabbed his things, and left. But as he was in the middle of leaving, Aiden gave one last look at Barnaby from the doorway just before completing his exit, a weak smile acting as a silent thanks to the DCI. John’s expression softened, and he reciprocated one back to his constable.