"I'm telling you Justin, this case doesn't make any damn sense!" Lawson sighed. Here Al went again. Would he ever call it quits? Rotating his chair, the burly detective watched his irate partner erratically flip through the case file for the hundredth time. Frustrated, the red head slammed his fist onto the table. "With the camera installed, this should be an open and shut case. But nothing adds up! With what we have, no scenario makes sense!" Exasperatedly Alfendi ran his fingers through his hair, groaning.

"Al you need to let that case go. We've done all we can with that one, and frankly it's to be expected since all the other jigsaw killings have ended up the same way." Justin shrugged, leaning back in his chair. There was no solving this one with the evidence they had, no matter how much it appeared like it should be gift wrapped on a silver platter. Al sneered. The man certainly was a handful when displeased.

"But it's never been so close before, Justin. Something's wrong here-" Lawson tensed for a moment, "I know it."

"Is that your famous intuition talking again?" a new voice chimed in sarcastically. Al narrowed his eyes. Justin turned. Hilda had finally arrived with the food. "Because that's helped so much with these cases."

"Well, your evidence gathering has been stupendous so far," Al growled, firing back "Really what would we do without you?"

"Oh really? Well I-"

"Okay, okay you two settle down. It's too late for me to deal with another Al and Hilda bickering competition." Justin sighed, silently thankful for the change of conversation. "Now let's just put away the quips and eat alright? I'm starving."

"Whatever," Al sniffed, moodily snatching one of the bags in Hilda's hands. His mood would improve once he had something on his stomach. Justin was sure on that. Tsking, Hilda complied, clearly a little miffed, but silently. Quiet filled the room as they devoured their late night dinner; Layton still flipped through the file absentmindedly while Hilda watched over his shoulder. The detective inwardly chuckled. For all their arguing they still clicked rather well together. Actually it was hard to believe the trio made the nearly unstoppable force that they did. He took another bite. Well, they were almost unstoppable. There were still those they couldn't quite touch, which consequentially meant Justin had to make some sacrifices for their progress for the greater good. Lying to two of his greatest friends always felt a little sickening but… He tightened his jaw. It had to be done.

Later he ended up telling that to himself once more while standing beside his best friend's nearly dead body, firing two shots into the dark night. This time, however, it never quite settled right, even if he had spared his friend's life.