“L-Lyam?” The active duty detective began to confusedly ask. “What are you doing here? I thought you would’ve been enjoying yourself elsewhere sipping mimosas.” He chuckled full heartedly as he approached, greeting the heron with a firm handshake. 

“You seem to be doing better, what happened since you left the station? Finally found that second passion, didn’t you? Or-“ Wilson took a step back, giving Lyam a smirking-like look while pointing at him. “-there’s a new girl in your life! Ah, I see you. You have to tell me what’s her name at least?” 

“Nah, Wilson! It’s nothing like that!” Lyam chuckled nervously, trying to shrug it off, though the accidental confession he said to Red the other day popped into his head. He tugged on his collar, and wished for the image to go away.

His former partner stepped closer, noticing the shift in tone, “C’mon, you can tell me. Who’s this lovely hen you got now in your life? You don’t need to be so modest.” The petrel nudged his elbow into the heron's side, prying the question more.

The heron cleared his throat before speaking back up. “Red.” He admitted. “Her name is Red.” Immediately after saying her name, Lyam felt the need to express how wonderful therapy was for him. “I wish you could meet her, Wilson!” He let out a dreamy sigh. “She has a lovely voice, a wonderful mind, and a great listener.” He unconsciously recalled the doctor’s voice, wanting to describe it as ‘gentle rose petals trickling down the face’, but held his tongue. 

“See! I knew there was someone!” The darker bird shouted out with a hint of sarcasm. “You’ll have to tell me more about her over some drinks.” He laughed out a bit, before pausing to catch his breath, wiping his eyes. “Now, for the matter at hand.” His tone once more shifted to one more serious, observing the area. “You found our DOA here, obviously the first at the scene. I know you well enough that there might have been some clue hunting here. Found anything that could help us?”  

“Maybe not for the murder, but… here look!” Lyam pulled from his coat pocket the black book he found. “It is the ledger! That one I told you I was looking for all this time! Soon I’ll be able to produce a case against them, maybe even get my job back!” He exclaimed, excited for things to go up in his investigation.

The petrel’s own expression lit up at the evidence and reached his hand out to the ledger, wanting to take a look at it, but before he could reach it, the heron pulled back. “If you don’t mind, I am going to hold onto this before handing it in to the police.” Lyam stated, stuffing it back into his coat, “Well, your officer already took my statement, so I am going to start getting to work.” The detective then started to leave before being stopped.

“W-Wait…” Wilson called out once more, “Why not tell me more about this girl… Um… What was her name again?” The petrel said, stuffing his hands into the pocket of his coat. He tried to change the topic to keep the heron from leaving, eager to catch up with an old friend.

“Dr. Le….” The heron was eager to introduce his therapist, but stopped with embarrassment when he couldn’t even remember the woman’s full name. “Red. I just call her Red.” He said, looking away from his old partner, the bird rubbed the back of his neck, feeling awkward about his forgetfulness. 

“Ah, I remembered you always liked the color red. Just like that banquet when Pasha wore what gorgeous dress.” Wilson said, nudging Lyam a bit, “So, tell me more.”

The heron shifted a bit, still somewhat uncomfortable to talk about her out in the open like this. He leaned in towards Wilson, whispering as his friend closed in. “She has this very sweet and soothing voice. Never met her, only talked to her on the phone.” Lyam paused momentarily, rubbing his hands together to quell a flustered expression. “She reminds me of Maggie Berrybush. The gal down at the Ruffled Feathers.”

Wilson took a step back glancing at his friend up and down. A grin-like expression covering his face. “Okay, I see how you’re doing things!” He said it aloud before returning to a softer tone to match.  “Going after those celebrities, I knew you had a little bit of a game, but didn’t expect that.” 

The two stood around and spoke just like old times. Together, working on the case, and cracking jokes while talking about anything that may come up. It reminded Lyam of days before he had to leave the force. Later into the evening, the heron parted ways with the petrel, heading back to his office. He felt accomplished, excited even. Finally, things were turning around that seemed for the better.

Upon entering his room, he quickly found his seat, pulling out the ledger once more to process it. Looking through it, the detective found the evidence that he needed to help the case. Fraudulency in the form of money laundering. ‘Ironic, they decided to do this in a laundromat. The avians like their puns, I suppose.’ Lyam thought to himself, chuckling at the idea. With a quick glance, most people wouldn’t catch the extra numbers that appeared. To Lyam though, he spotted them easily, taking notes off to the side, being careful not to ruin what he held. 

The detective quickly picked up the phone, wanting to share his findings with someone. “Red, are you there?” He asked with excitement in his tone, like he was whispering about a top secret mission.

“Yes, Lyam? Are you okay?” Red answered, her voice as soft as always.

“I found it! The final piece I needed!” Lyam explained, “With this I can finally put it all together. I can finally bring the Royal Owls in, and charge them for all their crimes!”

“Oh! That is wonderful news! How did you get this final piece?” The therapist asked, sounding excited to hear how this came about.

“Well! I am so glad you asked!” The detective exclaimed, telling Red about his trip to the laundromat and what he found. They talked as day turned into night, even mentioning more about his old partner Wilson, and how delighted he was to catch up with him.

“Oh, and uh… By the way, Red…” Lyam stopped his rambling as his day came to an end. He picked up his case files, the paperwork, the evidence bags and the bundle of red string to tie everything together. The detective remembered how poorly he introduced the doctor to Wilson, and wanted to make sure he was able to do it properly the next time. “What is your name again? Your full name.” 

“Dr. Lylaniff Aplcaitien.” Red took a moment before repeating herself slower. “Lie-la-niff Ap-le-kay-tee-en, got it?”

 “Lie-la-niff, Apl-kay-tee-in… Apple-kay-tee-in.” Lyam repeated it a couple times, trying to get it memorized. Eventually, he had to write it down, just to be sure. “Lyla-niff, Apple-kay-tea-in” The heron quickly scribbled it onto a random piece of paper. “Right, thank you, Red!” 

For the next few days, Lyam worked long and hard to put it all together. Knowing the police wouldn’t consider looking into anything that wasn’t compiled properly. The ledger gave them a reason to finally arrest those Royal Owls for everything they have done. Once in custody, they can charge them for many more of their crimes against the community. 

However, with so much information in that one booklet, Lyam felt swamped and needed to, once more, seek the aid of the good doctor to sort out his thoughts. Without hesitation, his hand reached for the red phone and picked it up. “Red, you there?” He said, without dialing any numbers, as usual. 

“Hey there, sugar. What’s on your mind?” A familiar voice spoke up on the other end of the call, sounding alluring; it caught Lyam by surprise, he could only assume that Red was in a good mood. 

“Hey, I’d like to ramble a bit, if that’s alright.” He responded, hand fidgeting the pages of the ledger.

“Well, of course, darling, you can say anything to me.” She said in a velvety voice, the caller's tone sliding through her words like black silk . As much as Lyam would love to ask about it, he had to put that curiosity aside for now and make sure he got the important tasks completed first. He needed to organize the case notes to turn into the police. 

“This ledger, I am having a hard time finding every source of income that doesn’t make sense.” The heron quickly flipped through the pages to find an example, “Oh! Like this!” He indicated, stopping at the first page he finds suspicious written notes. “How does a small laundromat get over six hundred thousand dollars from dry cleaning alone!” 

The detective continues to flip through the pages, examining all of the records available. “Then you have over one million from just the machines, two hundred thousand from selling detergent, and one hundred and fifty thousand from tips! What type of fancy laundromat is this!” 

There was a pause and the sounds of the person shifting in their seat before anything was said. “I don’t know, sugar, I think the numbers are correct.” The feminine voice said, “Based on what you’ve told me about the case in the past, there doesn’t seem to be too big of a problem. Some of it may be a bit off, but that’s just business, baby. It’s good at times, but not every single month or year. It goes up and down, and that’s normal.”

Lyam paused for a moment, in disbelief to hear these words come out of Red’s mouth, but perhaps she’s right. The doctor was never wrong before, and in the past, she had been listening to his every word about this big case. “Yeah, you might be right…” The heron started to admit as his page flipping started to become vigorous. “There has to be something. After how long it took me to get this, it has to have- Wait…” The detective cut himself short, looking at the page he stopped on before pulling out old newspapers from a drawer. 

“Oh? Did you find something?” A bit of static came from the other side of the call as the words came through.

“That fire, the one a few months ago…” The heron took a moment to carefully read the ledger. “They had an insurance claim, which is normal for a business, but not for fifty million dollars…” Lyam quickly scrambled to find a pen, trying to write some of the numbers down. “T-This is something more than just laundering money, this can put everyone involved away alone!”

The detective quickly got up, grabbing the paper and coat, and was ready to bolt out the door at any moment. “I have to go down to the insurance office, and ask for an outrageous amount." His voice was excited as he became disorganized in his actions. “I just need- or maybe- no, I shouldn’t I-”  

“Lyam.” The familiar voice softly spoke up, “Honey, are you okay? You sound out of breath. Maybe you should take a break. Get your mind off of it for now, let it rest.” 

“Y-yeah… Yeah, okay. I think you’re right…” Lyam slumped onto his chair, trying to clear his thoughts. “By the way, Red…” The detective believed it was a good time to bring it up. “Did something happen? You sound different from before.” 

“Oh? Different how?” The voice seemed to tense up a bit. 

“I don’t know, just…” He tried not to overthink it, but found it difficult to describe the tone. “It just sounds like you had a good day or something, you’re real peppy today.” 

The lady chuckled a bit. “I’m talking to you, aren’t I? Isn’t that something to be happy about, darling?” She seemed absolutely delighted to speak with the heron.

“I… I guess so.” The comment made Lyam feel nice, even though it didn’t stop the uneasy feeling from the interaction. “I’m going to rest my head for a moment, then investigate.” Closing his eyes, he let his thoughts go by, unaware that he slowly drifted into slumber.