"Hello, Joan," Smiled Roman, he and Logan cornering the nonbinary in the garden as they dug up weeds in the rosebed. "We need your fingerprints."

Joan blinked, then looked down at their hands that were scratched and damaged by the thorns. "Uh, now? Literally, you're not getting any straight fingerprints here."

Logan narrowed his eyes as he looked down at the red, raw marks. "We'll wait until the evening but, I assure you, we need them soon."

Joan nodded awkwardly and watched them walk away before continuing to dig up the weeds. Logan and Roman left them to it until they had safely turned the corner of the house. The two were in the garden, and Logan had never taken in how big it would be. It had an orchard, for one, that Roman had lost himself in for about four minutes, and a pool, larger than the average ground floor of one's' house. The bushes, the grass and the flowers were obviously tended to, but there were a lot of dying plants heaped in a corner. Logan hadn't looked at that yet. He was going to.

He walked over, gesturing for Roman to follow him. The detectives found themselves looking down at a pile of rotting pink tulips. These had been dug up recently, and Logan could see the raked soil that they had been ripped from.

"Odd," Sniffed Roman. "I quite like tulips."

"So must've Ali," Logan said. "There seems to be no other reason as to why only tulips were dug up."

Roman frowned. "I don't like tulips anymore."

Logan kneeled down, glaring into the heap. He reached in and began to move the flowers around. "They've been dug up recently. Virgil must have been happy to get rid of them as soon as possible. He didn't even hesitate before trying to tear up his brother's' memory. Suspicious, don't you think?"

"Haven't we ruled Virgil out?" Roman asked, brow furrowing in confusion.

Taking in a deep breath, Logan quietly promised himself that Roman wasn't as stupid as he behaved, just slow. A lot. "No, Roman, we haven't. Just because Talyn has a few witnesses doesn't mean everyone else is out for the count. Janus and Remus still haven't been talked to us properly, Joan avoids us, in case you hadn't noticed, and Virgil is practically rejoicing that his brother was murdered, by doing things Ali wouldn't approve of, getting his workers to dig up Ali's' flowers and getting close to you."

Roman, for a moment, looked like he was about to defend the remaining Blacksky child until he arched his eyebrow coldly. "I see you didn't add Patton on the list."

Logan went to argue, then hesitated, pausing in his rummaging of the plants. "I'm sure I did."

"You didn't. Unless you've managed to rule him out without telling me."

"I must've mentioned him, I'm sure I did."

Roman raised both his eyebrows now, looking down at Logan strictly. "What's his motive?"

The detective thought for a moment, stopping in his searching. "He wanted Ali to stop harassing his friends- no, uh, Ali was not just repressing Virgil's' sexuality but possibly Patton's'... I-"

"-Don't know?" Roman grinned. "Now who's the one giving alibis and free passes to murder suspects?"

Logan stood up and glared. "I am not giving out free passes, Milton. Not everyone has a motive for murder, sometimes it happens in an emotional spike." He straightened his spine, scowling terrifyingly down at the younger detective. "And if you dare accuse me of being soft on a suspect ever again, I will show you just how hard I can be on all of them and your precious Blacksky might crack under the pressure."

Roman's' face was pale at first until he too was equally as hostile to his friend as Logan was to him. "Virgil is not my 'precious' Blacksky. And you're hard enough on all of them already, don't you think?"

"Not in my experience," Logan said darkly. "In my experience, it's better to terrify them than let your guard down. Now we're going and getting fingerprints." Logan started walking away and as the two reached the back door, he stopped and turned to stare Roman down once more. "I will not hear you say another word of this, Milton. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Croft," Growled Roman in response.

~'^'~

Janus opened the door to see Logan and Roman standing outside his bedroom. The cook's' face flushed angrily and before he could say a rude comment, Logan interrupted him. "We're going to need to get your fingerprints. I hope you don't mind us coming in." And he barged through, eyes narrowing around the room as he stared down everything he could.

The walls were pastel yellow, the paint chipping a little, and the floor was nearly spotless. His bed was unmade, though, and tucked in a dark little corner. A desk held a snake's' cage and Logan looked at a sleeping corn snake, lounging under it's' heat lamp.

"Nice place, you've got," Roman said curtly, shooting a sulky glare at Logan. Logan glowered back.

"...Thank you," Janus mumbled, watching the two detectives try to avoid each other and sitting down in a small desk chair, waiting for further instructions.

Logan looked at his closet. "Your wardrobe door seems a little broken, Janus. Milton, take his fingerprints."

Roman tensed, before biting back, "Yes, Croft."

Janus frowned at the interaction. "I'm sorry, have I missed something? I thought you two were friends." He didn't get a reply and Roman quietly began to take his fingerprints. Janus tried a different question. "Why are you taking my fingerprints?"

"We found the murder weapon," Roman answered. "Now we just need to get fingerprints and then we'll know who did it."

Logan pushed shut Janus's closet door and the cook eyed him. "And then you'll go?"

"And we won't come back," replied Logan. He glared briefly at Roman. "I don't even want to be here."

"Of course you don't," Growled Roman, finishing with Janus's' fingers.

Janus pulled back his hands, standing up as Roman began to walk away. "Remus should be in the, um, dining room."

"Really?" Logan smirked as if he and Janus both knew something. "What a curious place for a driver to be. But we won't see him yet, we're going to check on Roman's' good friend, Virgil."

Roman scowled. "I thought we weren't going to say anything," He hissed, ignoring Janus's' raised eyebrow.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Logan snapped back quietly, shutting Janus's' door.