Ren rode in the back of a uniformed officer’s car with Aurora to the station. Gabriel had taken his own ride there and Ren had been grateful for the time to somewhat compose himself.

The station itself was like the ones Ren had spent so much time in as a kid, waiting for his father to be done with work before they could go home. It was dated and a little bit grubby. The water fountain that sat gurgling in the corner was even the same brand as the one Ren had sat beside for so long when he was younger. Aurora parked herself beside it with a supportive smile as Ren was led away down a corridor to a small interrogation room.

"Is my father going to be here?" Ren asked, chewing on his bottom lip as his fingers traced scratches across the dulled metal surface of the table between him and the two inspectors.

"He's elsewhere," Gabriel replied, but there was a hint of something in his voice. Ren tried to ignore it, desperate for it not to have been pity.

The other man had introduced himself as Inspector Williams. He was fair haired with a strong Roman nose and broad shoulders.

"Let's make a start," Williams nodded, reaching across Gabriel to flick on a tape recorder that looked about twenty years out of date. He sat forwards, his elbows on the table whilst Gabriel leaned back languidly in his chair.

"Can you explain Saturday night to me Renzo?" Williams began, "take me through what happened."

"Sure," Ren flicked his tongue quickly across his lip where it had started to bleed. "I was walking down Frith Street and I saw someone coming towards me and I thought they were injured at first but it turned out it was Professor Möller and he was just out of breath - I think he might have been running or walking quickly."

"You've got quite an eye for detail there," Williams remarked, staring hard at him. Ren felt himself squirm and for a panicked moment wondered if Williams was actually accusing him of making things up?

"Did he recognise you?" Gabriel asked, leaning forwards to write something down.

"Hold on," Williams put up his hand, "let's go back a little first. “What were you doing out at that time?"

"I -" Ren stammered, glancing over to Gabriel and feeling white hot fury when the bastard smirked at him.

"I was at a friend's show," Ren replied, his confidence suddenly soaring, fueled by his irritation. This always happened, Ren attained peak assertiveness when felt most alone. Independence kicked in as a defense mechanism.

"Where? Did other people see you there?" Williams questioned.

"Matt," Gabriel murmured in what sounded like a warning tone.

"I don't care whose kid he is," Williams rolled his eyes. "This is the last person to see Walter Möller alive. I happen to want to know what he was doing wandering down a back street at 1 am."

"I was at Uccello's," Ren replied quickly, "it's a gay club. My friend was doing a drag show and yeah, a whole load of people saw me there." Ren looked pointedly at Gabriel who remained unmoved, raising his eyebrows and leaning back to bite the end of his pen.

"I even hooked up with a guy there, pretty sure I could pick him out of a line up - if you need a witness that is," Ren shrugged innocently.

"That a regular Saturday night for you?" Gabriel asked, his tone sounding infuriatingly amused. Ren could swear the fucker was enjoying this.

"Have a guess," Ren schooled his face into his best perfected shit-eating grin, "I don't normally have to walk home alone," he lied fluently. "And yeah, to answer your question, Professor Möller did recognise me from the Institute."

"Did he say anything to you?" Williams asked, seemingly thankfully oblivious to whatever was going on between Ren and his partner.

"He," Ren paused, the gravity of the situation hit him. The folder was still unopened in his backpack. Jabari's name was hastily scrawled across it in purple ink. To tell the inspectors about its existence felt almost like he was betraying Jabari. "He sounded worried about something." Ren settled for a half truth.

"Did he give any indication as to what that was?" Williams leaned forwards, his pen hovering over his own notepad. Ren wasn't sure why they bothered when the tape recorder was still whirring away to the side of them.

"Not really," Ren shook his head, "he sounded a bit…well a bit crazed to be honest. He was talking about some woman called Isabella - hey, you don't think she's in danger too do you?"

Williams and Gabriel shot each other questioning looks, clearly neither of them had heard the name before.

"What else did he say?" Gabriel gestured for Ren to continue.

"He said something in Latin," Ren shrugged, "it doesn't really mean anything though."

"You could understand him?" Williams frowned.

"Yeah," Ren nodded, "I study Latin,"

"And did Möller know this?" Gabriel asked, looking interested.

"Sure," Ren screwed up his face, "I mean he knows...knew I'm a student at the Institute so it would have been taken for granted."

"What did he say?" Williams clicked his pen nib, poised and ready to write. Ren sighed, he would probably have to repeat it a few times.

"Occultatum est cor meum in igne,"

“Just give him the pen,” Gabriel huffed as Williams’ biro hovered unsurely over the notepad. The inspector slid it begrudgingly over to Ren who scribbled down the phrase.

“And what does it mean?” Gabriel asked, leaning over to look at the sentence as if it would illuminate him further. He still smelled like the same cologne from Saturday night, although it was fainter now. Ren wondered if he used it every day? It was scented like juniper and something woody.

“Hey kid,” Gabriel snapped his fingers in front of Ren’s face.

“Don’t call me that,” Ren frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. “And for your information it means ‘my heart is hidden in the fire’.”