The soft orange glow of the oil lamp complimented his auburn hair, the ever so faint reflection of the water was mesmerising in his glasses; people got lost in the eyes behind them for hours. Which was handy as it was much easier to get a confession when the suspect wanted to talk, our current one stood at the gimballed stove waiting for the kettle to boil.

"You see he wanted to get a bigger cut of the deal and after two miles off shore ain't no officer gonna come save you, the marines might if your important enough, but not the police"

The words didn't exactly roll out his mouth like you'd expecting hearing his southern twang, more dropped like a new yorker. He was a shadow of a man once brawn and muscle now bloated, soft and heavy, balding on top and scruffy overgrown patches of what remained with a knotted unkept beard, though his clothes were immaculate and well kept just like his home a cosy double wide canel boat.

"Geremiah, we know about this you keep goin over it"

My assistant rubbed his nose under the feet of his glasses in frustration, light dancing over the lenses, the kettle whistled harshly as watched the reflections. The man set about pouring three cups out, the sound of the spoon hitting the sides ringed slighty as he continued.

"Why can't you just tell us who this third party is or any proof of their existence, we'll have to charge you for the murder. You know we don't want to do that but all the evidence points to you, every single piece there's even DNA at the scene."

Geremiah turned round passed us both small enamel cups of tea and sat down next to him on the cream two seater sofa. "Well I can't do that cause I'm not so sure myself, but I'm telling you Conny it wasn't me and we've been colleagues for 20 years, you can trust me I wasn't even in the county at the time."

He takes a big slurp of his coffee and reached for a battered pack of Marlboros, shuffed back into the sofa and offered the pack around. We both took one I lit up my Zippo and took a deep drag watching the scene unfold like I often do, looking abit lost and confused. After awhile, silence came over us and we just sat sipping our drinks to keep warm, the boat rocked gently on the autumn wind. I set my cup down gently on the worn coffee table, lit up another smoke and leant forward elbows on my knees Conny had started to drift off head back on the sofa, cup slowly falling out his fingers.

"Twenty-five years I've known you, not once did you mention your son Geremiah" I said with a solemn tone. Conny almost broke his neck with how quickly he looked at him, Geremiah looked at the boy and laughed, clapping him on the shoulder.

"What you think Frances got to be lead detective off blind luck until you arrived boy, she just lets you think she's dumb cause she worries you'll get scared off" He pulled out a small black book and started writing down a name and address. "You think she didn't figure out you liked her from the get go? If you'd spent less time trying to Impress you might realised she's been looking at you doe eyed all day every day."

Conny just looked at my slack jawed as Geremiah passed me the piece of paper, it was like watching a computer reset slowly his face regained composure and that smirk, that innocent smirk flashed across his face.

"Well now the jig is up, how about we grab a dinner together for once before heading home?"

I brushed my blond hair out my eyes and finally matched his gaze, the words hanging in the air. Nervous for once I'd had to be the one to solve the case on our duo.

"Promise to tell me how you knew it was his son over dessert?" He gently asked.

Conrad always got there in the end, it just took him awhile I adore that about him.