Chapter Text
« Un jour, je serai de retour près de toi, » Harry repeated to himself. “Bizarre,” he continued, thinking aloud. “What does it mean?”
Kim looked up at him, eyebrows raised. He looked… surprised by the remark. Was it something he said, or the graffito itself?
Oh, it’s definitely you, a small voice inside his head quipped. He was only thinking aloud, mostly for his own sake, but also to allow Kim to add his own input. Harry was sure he’d said and done much stranger things around the lieutenant – if Kim really was perplexed by him asking what meaning the graffiti could possibly have, he wasn’t able to figure it out. He watched the gears turn in the lieutenant’s head before he gave his calculated response.
“It's hard to say at the moment, what do you think, detective?”
Now it was Harry’s turn to pause for a moment. “Well, the red motor oil suggests Cindy, but according to her, it’s pretty easy to find in Martinaise,”
“In the motorcars of police officers,” Kim interjected flatly.
“Yeah, it’s everywhere, so we could talk to her again, but I think the message itself is the best clue for now… ‘près de toi’, does it signify a partner?”
“It’s possible, but what kind of partner?”
“I dunno, a close partner if the artist is using and informal pronoun like that, frankly,”
Kim’s face twisted into confusion once again. Like that wasn’t the most obvious thing in the world, of course it’s about a personal relationship.
“A personal relationship, a good point, detective…”
Harry couldn’t shake the feeling that this conversation had little to do with the case at-hand, nor the feeling that Kim thought the same. Regardless, he appreciated being able to shoot the shit like this. A warmup for what is to come. You were out for two days, after all – something of minor relevance like the local artist’s new graffito on the sidewalk is a good way to get those deductive gears turning. His thoughts competed for attention, breaking the stride of the conversation. Kim waited in silence, now for some reason apprehensive to speak.
Harry shook his head. “Sorry, I was just thinking. Shall we get going?”
Kim tilted his head. A soft, sympathetic look on his face. “Yes, detective, let’s go.”