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Questioning suspect had never been the favourite part of Aziraphale job. It was a needed part, but the mind games that where often needed to get the wanted information out of one suspect could get quite tiring. Especially when said suspect seemed to already know exactly how this little dance was supposed to go.
Like the man currently in front of him. A certain Anthony Crowley who's arrest had been quite peculiar.
"Mr Crowley it is? Could you explain to me why you needed to hack into the system of most of the nearby shops from your flat ?"
"Just Crowley. And idle curiosity. I wanted to see if I was capable of it." answered the man with a cheeky grin under his sunglasses. He had been allowed to keep them after having shown a light sensitivity diagnostic, that Aziraphale suspected to be fake, making him harder to read.
"Of course. But why would you do that so carelessly, leaving evidences of your passage that were quite easy to gather by our agents?"
Aziraphale wasn't buying one bit that Anthony Crowley had just been curious. He wanted to be caught, otherwise they would never have even heard about it. The cybersecurity department had said that there's was too many evidences of his passage that even a worst hacker wouldn't have left.
"I think you might have an idea of why." he said with a smile that showed too much teeth.
"We might have some ideas." Answered Aziraphale carefully. "But we cannot do idle assumptions. Especially if you end up not being involved. It wouldn't be wise to reveal to anyone confidential information."
"Of course. But I'm not anyone I am ? I don't think the average citizen can do what I just did."
"Oh, so you admit being the author of these crimes. Thank you for that, it will allow us to close this case much faster."
The mouth of Anthony Crowley twitched as his smile grew for a second. Aziraphale could tell he was going through him. And for once interrogation felt less like an hassle, and more like a game they where both in.
"You're welcome. I wouldn't want to make the work of the police harder."
"Of course not. I'm sure you're a proper laws abiding citizen when you're not using your free time to break them."
"Obviously," Anthony Crowley answered in a sarcastic tone, with the hint of a smile still at the corner of his mouth.
"So what could push an estimated citizen such as yourself to fall into crime ?"
"Boredom? There not so much legal new things you can do around there."
"Of course it is. So no grand plan of revenge or anything ?"
"It could have been. But it was more to gather attention than anything."
"Oh, so you just wanted attention. Is that why you let yourself be caught willingly ?"
Anthony Crowley smiled wider.
"Wouldn't you like to know. Maybe I just wanted to talk to you."
"Is that so? Seems like a lot of trouble just to talk to one person."
"Maybe. But I think you'll like what I have to say."
Crowley paused dramatically before continuing : "I have valuable information about the man you know as 'the devil'. But if you want more, I want police protection."
Aziraphale wasn't able to school his emotions at the mention of the name, and could see his face open in surprise in the sunglasses of his interlocutor. The devil was suspected to be at the head of multiple underground groups that reached from small petty crimes to more world scales operation. If they could have any information about him, this was an opportunity they couldn't loose.
"I see. A great threat indeed. We will do anything in our power to keep you safe in exchange from your full cooperation."
"Of course. We have a deal then."
He held out his hand and Aziraphale shook it instinctively. The information Crowley had better be worth the trouble of protecting him for a while.