After all the time he had been spending up in Scotland at Raynor's bedside, St. Mungo's should have felt less foreign.  A hospital was a hospital, after all - whether magical or mundane, it was a place where the sick went to get well, where the injured went to hopefully heal. 

He'd grown so used to the white, sterile halls that seemed to stretch on to eternity that the open, chaotic waiting room of St. Mungo's was nearly overwhelming.  Healers in robes the color of limes rushed about busily, some with wands out, others looking worried as they hurried to their next appointment or bustled to a patient's bedside.  It was a constant flurry of activity, one that contrasted greatly with the heavy sense of waiting that had hung over the Scottish clinic.  There was something about magical healers that made it seem as if they were always on the verge of panic.  Muggle doctors, in comparison, were always so cool and efficient, moving calmly from one emergency to the next as if nothing could phase them.

Well, Jonas thought bemusedly, that might have to do with the fact that Muggle doctors never had to deal with a bloke who appeared to have transfigured his head into that of a buffalo.  The fellow in question was currently the center of attention for at least three Healers, as he stood braying loudly near the Welcome Desk.  The private investigator did his best to avoid the fellow's gaze, ducking his head to hide the fact that a grin was clearly threatening as he strode past him to check his wand.  There were some magical injuries that he did not want to even begin trying to guess the cause of.

The lift was the fastest way to get to the Spell Damage ward.  As the doors opened on the fourth level, Jonas hefted his messenger bag over his shoulder, avoiding the gaze of the other passengers as he stepped out.  There was something noticeably different about the atmosphere here, especially in contrast to the hustle and bustle of the waiting room.  This floor felt much more like a Muggle hospital, clean and clinical, as if both were tapping into the same underlying archetype.

Still, Jonas couldn't help thinking as he made his way down the hallway, something did feel different.  It took a moment for him to realize what it was.  The Muggle hospital where they had taken Tamis was so filled with machines, each beeping or clicking at its own cadence, that he couldn't help but expect them in the background, whirring and humming as they did their job.  The lack of them made the silence even more vivid, as if it was all that the inhabitants here could know.  This wasn't a place where people came to die - only wait.  No one was in a hurry because for many of the patients, there was nothing that they could do.

That was a depressing thought, and Jonas pushed it out of mind, turning his attention instead to finding the room that he was looking for.  Adon had given him the number before he'd arrived, and he had confirmed it again at the Welcome Desk just to be sure.  This entire visit wasn't anything that he was looking forward to, but that didn't mean that he didn't have to do it.  He'd just rather get it over with quickly.

He found the matching digits at the end of the hallway.  Jonas paused just outside the room, hesitating as he considered his options.  Knocking seemed extraneous; clearly, they would know he was here, and if they'd wanted privacy, they would have kept the door closed.  Swallowing a sigh, he stepped into the doorway, taking an instant to survey the interior with a cool gaze.

"Auror Spencer?" he asked, taking his hat in his hand as he looked first to the woman, and then to her husband.  Professional and even was the best strategy today, especially when he wasn't certain what sort of emotion to expect in return.  "Mr Adani?  Sorry if I'm interrupting you lot," he added, eyes flickering back to the former Auror as he gave her a polite smile.  "I'm Jonas Trevelyan."

Aberdeen eyed the private investigator carefully. She was leaning back in the chair by Luke's bedside, looking a little like a Bond villain-- one leg crossed over the other, absent-mindedly stroking K7 the puffskein, who was balanced on her knee. 'Hello again, Trevelyan,' she greeted him guardedly. (She was almost tempted to add 'I've been expecting you.') Luke, who had been perched on the edge of his bed, stood quickly, and walked over to the other man.

'Nice to meet you, Mr Trevelyan,' he said amicably, shaking Trevelyan's hand and giving him a curt nod. 'Don't worry, you're not interrupting anything. But I won't stay, if you don't mind; Aberdeen has some things she'd like to discuss with you, so I thought I'd give you some space.' The facade of politeness wavered for a fraction of a second, but then Luke smiled before turning and heading to the door. Before leaving he glanced back and added,  'I'll be in the tea shop if you need me,' then he pulled the door to, and was gone.

Aberdeen stood up, setting K7 back down on his usual spot on Luke's pillow. 'You needn't bother with calling me "Auror",' she said quietly. 'Dinnae ken if you heard, but after what happened back in October I'm probably not going to be going back to that particular line of work any time soon.' She kept her tone and facial expression neutral. That particular personal demon could stay bottled up for now. 'Just Spencer is fine.' She refrained from introducing given names into the equation; this was a profession meeting after all, not a personal one.

'Take a seat if you like,' she offered, gesturing to the other chair in the room. 'I'll just get right to it. I...' She cleared her throat, partly to make sure her voice wasn't going to start wavering. Keeping her cool was an innate talent of Aberdeen's, but she had been a little out of practice of late and wanted to make sure her feelings weren't going to betray her. Any anger, pain or sadness she felt took a back seat to getting her facts straight and progressing from there. She didn't want to risk alienating Trevelyan in any way. Depending on how things went, she was going to need him.

'I understand you were supplying Tawse with information about Robin prior to his abduction?' She was careful to refer to Robin by name rather than as 'my son' and to keep her voice free of any accusatory tone. For now, it was easiest to distance herself, to treat this as a case rather than the personal crisis that it was.

There was no immediate explosion, no tempers flaring or wands getting shoved into his eye, but Jonas still couldn't shake the feeling that he was stepping into the metaphorical lion's den.  He kept his expression polite and controlled, spared a glance for the woman, who was seated with something that looked as if it were well adapted to go around eating poisoned grain stores on her lap, and then focused his attention on the man.

Meeting someone that he'd spent some time observing from afar was always a bit disconcerting.  He could list off mannerisms and behaviors, whom they associated with and whom they didn't, quantify and box them in and sometimes add a little qualitative bow on the top.  Luke Adani had struck him as a perfectly normal, decent bloke - his only possible crime in anyone's eyes was really not being a wizard, which at the moment Jonas felt particularly sympathetic to.  As he returned the man's handshake, the graphic designer seemed calm, perfectly amiable, with nothing in his grip giving away any underlying tension, though a hint of it did flicker across his face.

Definitely a good sort, then.  Or at least a controlled sort.  If their positions had been reversed, Jonas had no doubt that he would have started by trying to break a few fingers, and then very quickly would have progressed to attempted strangulation.

Adani excused himself, closing the door behind him with a very ominous sounding click, and Jonas was left to shift his attention back to the woman.  The married name and the fact that he'd barely seen her during the surveillance - she hadn't left the house - had thrown him off, but he knew from reading through the file that she'd entered Auror training just before the war had taken a turn and he'd left.   Seeing her up close, he could almost place her.  Muggle-born, Gryffindor  - somehow, it made the offense seem doubly worse.

He listened carefully, impassively to Auror Spencer's words.  Well, not an Auror.  There went the comfortable distance of honorifics.  Hell would prove to be exothermic before Jonas accepted an offer to sit today; there was no way he was going to do anything to allow this conversation to be dragged on any longer than was necessary.  Instead, he limped back to the wall and leaned against it, depositing his messenger bag next to him on the floor and taking the weight off his bad leg by bending the knee.  At least they were apparently going for professional.  That was a relief.  The cool, clipped tone of Level Two made matters detached, impersonal, and blameless.

Spencer made her inquiry, cool and precise, turning it into a casual question.  Jonas took a deep breath, swallowing to release some of the tension in his throat, and then glanced up at the ceiling.

"Well, before we get into that," he began carefully. 

Archer had been very clear on several fronts before he'd given his blessing for Jonas to go.  Spencer was too close on this.  The Aurors would handle it.  They knew that Robin was alive and well, and once they found Tawse, they'd likely have the boy, too.  Whatever apologies or excuses Jonas may want to make, he was not to share specifics about the case.  Archer had actually repeated that last bit several times - no names, no dates, no locations.  Apparently he was operating under the assumption that the more times he said something, the more likely it would be that his former partner would merrily truck on and follow regulation.

"Radley's asked me not to discuss specific names, dates, or places associated with the case," he said evenly, his eyes shifting to find Spencer's.  "I'm supposed to remind you that this is a Ministry investigation, and that Auror Radley is certain that he has everything under control.  We know that your son's alive, and there's no reason to think he's been hurt or injured." 

'Believe me, I am grateful for that at least,' Aberdeen replied. She did understand that while she had no idea where her son was, and though she still struggled to remember him, she did at least have the luxury of having his safety almost certainly assured. 'And I know the MLE are doing all they can. I do trust Radley and the others to do the best job they possibly can. They wouldn't let me down--' like I let them down. She stopped herself before completing the sentence. Her past conduct as an auror wasn't the matter at hand.

'But you have to understand that I need to know what's going on.' The conversation had taken a turn for the personal, by neccessity. There were no MLE regulations she could cite to make Trevelyan tell her what he knew. (Not least because she simply wasn't MLE any more.) 'You've had auror training, Mr. Trevelyan. If you had a child-- do you have kids?-- if your child was taken from you, wouldn't you want-- need-- to be kept in the loop?' The tone of her voice had slipped from 'passive' into 'earnest'.

'I can certainly understand the need to keep from disclosing the specifics of the case to just anyone, but I'm not just anyone. I'm Robin's mother, and a former auror. Surely Radley can't have told you specifically not to tell me anything?' She didn't want to put Trevelyan in a compromising position. She didn't really want to make him uncomfortable. But more than that, she didn't want to be left in the dark.

The red-haired man paused, creases forming in his forehead as he warily regarded the woman.  For all the berating and excuses that he'd come prepared for, this wasn't quite matching the conversation that he'd rehearsed in his mind.  It was a rather disconcerting feeling, as if all of the defensives he'd readied were the mental version of the Maginot Line, erected in entirely the wrong place against an attack less sophisticated than the one that had fallen.

"No, if it were one of mine, I reckon I'd be breaking down doors already in Knockturn," he agreed readily, a frown crossing his face as he examined Spencer's expression, searching for whatever answer might be present.  "And with something a bit more bloody painful than a wand, like as not."

The tone of the conversation had shifted very quickly and subtly, from the businesslike 'Just call me Spencer' to emotional appeals about his own hypothetical children.  There was some other sort of game afoot here.  Jonas crossed his arms, leaning back against the wall as he studied her thoughtfully. 

"But that's the rub, innit?" he asked.  "If I start 'disclosing specifics' to you, it begins to feel a bit like giving you just enough rope to hang yourself.  And I've plenty on me conscience without that," he added, frowning at her.  "If you want to be kept in the loop, you'd be better off asking Arch directly.  I'm not exactly MLE, believe it or not."

'Yes, but I can't guilt Radley into telling me anything,' Aberdeen muttered with a wry smile. Since Trevelyan had declined to sit, she also remained standing, and now slouched against the opposite wall, arms folded loosely. She'd been hoping Trevelyan's conscience would compel him to be a little more forthcoming with his information, but it seemed to be working against her instead. Oh well-- she could work around that.

'Something you and the MLE seem to have in common, Mr. Trevelyan, is that you both seem to think that if you give me any rope at all, I'll just make a noose. But see, what I actually want to make is a lasso--' She cut herself off and paused awkwardly, then pulled a disdainful face. 'You know what, that was the daftest analogy I think I've ever made. Can we pretend I didn't say that?'

The 'strictly business' persona was well and truly out the window now, but Aberdeen was nothing if not adaptable. 'Here's the thing,' she said frankly, shifting a little to make herself more comfortable. There were a few things she needed to explain, and maybe once they were out in the open Trevelyan would be more amenable to giving her the information she needed. 'I want to go along the "breaking down doors in Knockturn" route. But I don't want to do it blind; I'm no good to anyone, least of all Robin, if I get myself killed. Legally, the MLE can't let me in on the case. Because, putting aside the personal involvement, I'm not an auror anymore. If I want to go looking for Robin myself, I'm hardly going to tell my former colleagues about it.

'You said you've got a lot on your conscience. I want you to know that I'm withholding judgement on that, for now. I don't know exactly what happened, after all, and Murphy knows I haven't got a clean record myself.' She looked him straight in the eye; her expression wasn't antagonistic or challenging, but it was deadly serious. 'I didn't want to meet you so I could guilt you into giving me information. I wanted to meet you so I could hire you to help me find my son.'

On the bright side, Jonas thought cheerfully, at least they were all now being honest about their intentions.  He gave the other former Auror a tight, humorless smile, playing with the brim of his hat as he considered her words.  Obviously, that was the reason to try this play on him instead of Archer.  He might pass on information because he thought he owed it to her; Radley would have to be coerced through regulation.  Of the two, the private investigator had no doubt that he'd appear the easier to manipulate.

What it didn't explain was why he was here instead of Adon.  The Israeli Auror certainly had no problem breaking the rules when it suited him, and he and Spencer had been partners up until October.  But Houdini had been adamant that Jonas come.  That he fix things.  Jonas couldn't shake the sudden feeling that he had just been played.

He stayed quiet as Spencer spoke, studying her expression, listening to her words.  It was easy to see why Tamis had thought this woman to be a good match for Eleor's partner.  Spencer struck him as collected, logical; even in an intensely personal situation, she was structuring her argument, sounding out his potential protests in advance.  In comparison with Adon's usual manner of diving in head-first and on full tilt, her restraint provided a natural balance.  It was also what was making him consider doing something that was, by all accounts, potentially idiotic.  If Spencer had been high-strung, emotional, or overtly furious, he wouldn't have handed her the keys to her own self destruction.  But gritty and controlled - those, possibly, it might be safe to work with.

"I --"  Jonas cut himself off, his forehead creasing at her last words.  "Look, I'm not here looking to hire meself on to you," he said, very firmly, shaking his head.  "And I don't think that not telling the Aurors what you're up to is the right way to go about this.  Tawse is dangerous - and besides, if you want anything to hold up in a court, just playing vigilante won't get you there.  You'll need 'em at the end of it."

"But," he said carefully, meeting and holding her gaze, "it's not too difficult to see that Level Two are a bit overworked at the moment.  Even if Radley stays on the case, he's got other things on his plate right now besides tracking a kid down.  There's something to be said about a dedicated outside effort.  And if you frame it right, tack on the right conditions, I reckon that they might be willing to look the other way long enough to let it happen."

'I'm counting on that,' Aberdeen admitted. She didn't want to go behind her former colleagues' backs on this, not really. But she couldn't continue the way she was, not being able to do a damn thing while that purist scumbag  Cináed Tawse had her precious little boy hidden away from her. She had to start looking, and damn the personal consequences-- just so long as Robin was brought home safely.

'I'll give you this, I won't lie if confronted. But I'm not going to bring this up to them either. They have enough to worry about as it is. If I up and tell them, "Oh, by the way, I'm mounting a private investigation," they might feel duty-bound to quote regulations at me until I leave off. Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission. I know these people.' Her memories of them, at least, had remained untouched. 'I think they'll understand.' She was almost certain that she could put her hand on her heart and say Adon would.

'Besides,' she added, chancing a small, fleeting smile, 'I tend to think of vigilantes as not having any experience of how the law works. You and I-- if you are able to help me, anyway-- we both have auror training. We both know how dangerous Tawse is-- and believe me, Trevelyan, you don't work in MLE for as long as I have and not know Tawse's track record-- and that bastard has my son.'

All traces of the smile had vanished; she might as well have been seething venom. Aberdeen didn't hate very often, but when she did, it could be startling; her feelings towards Tawse were palpable. 'Bring in the Auror Corps to make sure Tawse gets put away where he belongs? Fine, okay. But my first priority is bringing Robin home, and neither you nor the MLE can seriously expect me to sit by and let my training go to waste while my son is still out there. Whether or not I'm going to go ahead with this is not the question. The question is whether or not you'll help me.' There was a challenging look in Aberdeen's eye. It seemed to say, I can do it without you if need be.

"Reckon the question should be whether or not you'll get anywhere," Jonas remarked mildly.  The tone was pacific enough to downplay any sharpness in his words, but he still kept his eyes on the woman, his own expression carefully nonchalant as he spoke.  "Investigating on your own's not the same as doing it with a badge.  There's no authority to rely on, not like you've had as an Auror.  No decades of record-keeping to fall back on.  No threats of Azkaban to hold over a bloke's head if he refuses to answer your questions.  All you've got is whatever you can puzzle out."

Spencer certainly had fire.  Whatever embers of emotion had been quietly smoldering inside her had blossomed into full flames at mention of the Black Chimaera's owner.  Jonas didn't doubt that the former Auror would undertake the quest on her own if she didn't get help on the terms that she wanted, but going after a dark wizard without the proper strategies wouldn't just leave her tilting at windmills.  Someone would get hurt.

"You want help?" he asked, arching his eyebrows.  This wasn't about repenting in dust and ashes; begging forgiveness wouldn't make up for what he owed Spencer.  But there were better ways to play this out than to let it turn into a mad quixotic quest.  "Then there's rules.  We fill Raynor in, officially.  You keep me in the loop on everything.  No running solo.  And no confrontations.  If it gets to the point where we know where Tawse or the kid is, it's all turned over to Level Two."

The demands, thrown out one after another, sounded harsher than he'd meant them.  Jonas took a deep breath, and then met her gaze again, his posture relaxing slightly.

"If it were one of me kids, I'd be doing everything I could to find him," he said, quietly and seriously.  "But if the point of this is to get him back and not just to make yourself feel useful in the meanwhile, we'll sort through it a lot quicker  if we coordinate.  I can run interference with Tamis once she's about again, but I'm not taking the risk to do that unless I know that this'll all be done right.  We make sure we're on the same team, yeah?"

Aberdeen breathed out heavily through her nose, taking the time to process Trevelyan's conditions, watching him steadily all the while, emotion retreating from her features and leaving the usual cool facade in its place. He did have integrity, she gave him that. He could have bowed to her wishes out of guilt, or simply walked out of the door and washed his hands of the mess. But Trevelyan wanted this done right. Aberdeen could respect that. Grudgingly.

'I can't start doing any legwork right away anyway,' she admitted, her expression remaining neutral. 'I need to work on my defences, make sure I'm not going to get taken by surprise.' She didn't feel inclined to go into any more detail than that; her Occlumency training was currently on a need-t0-know basis. In a slightly more assuring tone, she added, 'I don't want to barrel into this unprepared any more than you do.

'So, if you want to run this by Raynor... Okay.' Aberdeen didn't like the idea, but she liked the idea of an investigation without Trevelyan's help less. And Trevelyan was a trained private investigator. Maybe coming from him, the prospect of an outside investigation would be more acceptable. 'If you think that's best, I'm not really in a position to argue with you.

'And... I agree on the other terms. Mostly. I'll keep you informed-- as long as you keep me informed. I won't go off on my own, I won't confront Tawse. But.' She leaned back against the wall and cocked her head as though considering him more carefully. 'If I find Robin, and I know I can get him back safely, and there is a possibility of losing him again if we have to wait for the MLE? I will not wait.' For Aberdeen, Robin's rescue took priority over Cinaed Tawse's apprehension, but she wasn't going to say that out loud. It was possible she didn't have to.

Even if she were no longer an Auror, Spencer still had the even, practiced gaze of law enforcement.  She studied him much as he was watching her, silently judging, determining how much of this conversation they could both trust.  Cool, meticulous, analytical - those were good signs.  They meant it was much less likely that someone was about to get themselves killed by charging somewhere in a brash rush of hot-headed emotion.

Spencer agreed to wait, agreed to tell Raynor.  Reciprocal informing was expected; it was no less than he would have asked for, if he were in her position.  In spite of himself, Jonas couldn't help cracking a smile at her last clause.  'Safely' was probably going to be relative.

"Well, if you get the kid back, that's the end of the agreement anyhow, innit?" he asked, bemusement showing through in his voice.  She'd conceded to enough of the terms, and at least throwing in her own exception meant she was agreeing with a realistic intent to keep to them.  Tamis would probably be ecstatic; he ought to ask for another consulting fee in return for juggling potentially loose cannons.

With one hand against the wall to brace himself, Jonas bent to pick up his messenger bag,  He rummaged through it, finally extracting a large, sealed manila envelope which had just enough heft to allow him to toss it across the small room to Spencer.

"That's what I've got," he remarked, stretching his bad leg out as he settled against the wall again.  "But I don't think it'll be much help in finding the kid again.  Finding someone who lives in the normal world's a bit different than doing it in the magical one.  But people leave traces anywhere," he added, returning his hat to his head.  "All it takes is casting a net wide enough to start picking up on them.  The wizarding community's not that big.  If we find the right questions to ask or put the right pressure on the right bloke, I reckon we can get somewhere."

Aberdeen caught the envelope one-handed and eased it open as Trevelyan spoke. A smile spread across her face-- a genuine smile, the kind that usually only close friends and family got to see. There was something comforting just about being able to hold physical information in her hands. Peering inside, she spied the corner of a photograph and fished it out of the envelope. It was of Robin. Of course it was. Part of her hated that it had been taken for the benefit of her son's kidnapper, but that part paled in comparison to the wistful longing evoked by the toddler's image. His little round face, his button nose, his fluffy dark hair and his wide, brown eyes... Despite her broken memories, his face was starting to become so familiar...

She blinked twice-- the only further emotion on the subject she let on-- and put the photograph away again. Still smiling, though it was a quieter smile now, she looked back up at Trevelyan as he finished talking. 'Thank you. This means a lot to me.' There was a controlled emotion to her voice; enough to convey that she was sincere, but not enough to let on exactly what she was feeling. Aberdeen figured that as long as she could keep her emotions in check, they were her own business.

There was one other thing Aberdeen hadn't had the chance to bring up yet that she'd need to apprise Trevelyan of before he left. Setting the envelope to one side (once Trevelyan was gone, she would be going through it with a fine-tooth comb, but for now she'd have to restrain herself), she returned her voice to 'neutral' to add, 'One other thing you should know; I've got a potential ally in this. Not MLE, but he does have auror training, and he's willing to help. He's a good man... In all honesty, I'd trust him with my life, and if it's okay by you, I think he'd be valuable to this investigation. I'll make sure he'll abide by your terms, obviously. No running solo, no withholding information, all that.' She watched him carefully for a reaction.

Colonel Kabir would be an asset, Aberdeen knew it. And though she wouldn't admit it out loud, she knew she could use a friend in this, someone she counted on. Aberdeen was not someone who found it easy to hand out trust. She was trusting Trevelyan by necessity, because he was close to the case and was good at his job (it helped that he had a high calibre of moral integrity); but in Kabir she sensed a kindred spirit, one who had suffered loss like her, and she trusted him by choice.

The private investigator raised his eyebrows, doing a poor job of keeping the sudden flash of amusement at her words from showing on his face.  If they got any more former Aurors in the room, they could register as a convention.  In light of it all, he couldn't help wondering just how many individuals who qualified as not-MLE-but-does-have-Auror-training there were in the United Kingdom.  No wonder Level Two was so ridiculously overworked.  All of their potentials apparently eliminated themselves from the running to join the vast and growing pool of former law enforcement.

Even so, he thought as he attempted to swallow back a smile, that didn't necessarily mean that he wanted to include Former Auror #3 in an investigation.  It had been years since he'd really and truly worked with anyone in an investigation.  Dividing up the tasks between two people was simple - delegating, like he'd done with Lexus, or a mutual analysis of what made the most sense for each person to handle, as he and Adon had undertaken.  But three people, especially when two of the personalities were relatively unknown, was dangerously close to becoming a committee.  That meant information leaking out, mistakes being made. 

It was one thing when he was the one both making the mistakes and bearing the consequences of them, but Jonas already had a fair idea in his mind of how he wanted to approach this.  If the investigation went the way he suspected it might and he talked his way into access to current Level Two case files, that was a lot of sensitive information to trust to two individuals that he didn't actually know.  Not to mention that if Spencer was bringing in a friend, it meant that Jonas was liable to get outvoted if he ever disagreed with the way matters were being handled.

"Your potential ally have a name?" he asked evenly.  If the bloke had had Auror training, that meant that he had had a file at one point.  Even if Raynor didn't agree with his assessment of the situation and cut him off from Level Two access, he didn't doubt that he could pressure Adon into leaking one or two essential-but-entirely-meaningless things.  At least it would be enough to let him get a read on this potential 'ally.'

'As long as you're not about to run off and tell tales...' Aberdeen returned with a wry smile. She considered him a moment, then realised she didn't really need to think about this. Given his line of work, Trevelyan could surely be relied upon to be discreet. 'Colonel Kabir Ahmed. You may've already heard of him, he's the Indian Liaison to the Ministry.' So yes, he was Ministry... But not Level Two. And in all honesty, if Aberdeen had thought she could get away with involving an auror in a non-MLE investigation, she would have already asked Adon as well (even if it had meant admitting she thought him a capable auror). Kabir and Trevelyan had less conflicting interests than a still-active auror would, in conjunction with the relevant skills.

'Think about it, aye?' It wasn't particularly a command or a request. It was more just a case of making sure all the cards were on the table. She didn't bother divulging any further information on Kabir; Trevelyan would almost certainly find out for himself. They probably both knew at this point that anything she said could just be translated as, Yeah, okay, take a look at his file. 'I just reckon, and extra pair of eyes, extra pair of ears... Could be helpful.' Of course, even if Trevelyan nixed any involvement of Kabir in the investigation (and Aberdeen wasn't about to risk their already-precarious arrangement by pushing him on this), the Indian Liaison would still be helpful to her. If nothing else, he was a source of support in this difficult time.

It was still a foreign feeling to Aberdeen, both needing help, and accepting it-- nay, requesting it-- from others-- but it was one she was fast making herself get used to if it would in any way help bring Robin home. She still didn't know much about Trevelyan-- didn't even know if she liked him-- but she did know he was one of her best hopes for her son's safe return.

It was probably fortunate that Jonas had already been schooling his expression for most of the conversation.  He blinked once, keeping any other hint of recognition from showing on his face.  Colonel Kabir Ahmed had survived an assassination attempt that had been ostensibly and hypothetically linked to the Runespoor investigation.  Though the man hadn't played a part in the internal inquiry that he'd been running with Adon, he knew that the Israeli Auror had had some dealings with him.  Having his name surface here was a bit of a surprise.

For once, though, it was a useful surprise.  Involving the Colonel could help in other avenues as well; if he stayed involved in the Runespoor case now that Reid's arrest was completed, he would certainly have to deal with the man in the future.  Getting to know him for an entirely unrelated reason would give him a chance to take the other man's measure, as well as establishing a relationship with him that Jonas might be able to use later on.  It did mean that he'd have to be more careful in regards to what he shared with Spencer, but that was going to be a necessary evil to navigate either way.

"Yeah, it could," he said thoughtfully.  No reason to agree too quickly.  Jonas straightened from the wall, bending to pick up his satchel as he gave the woman a nod.  "Going to be a bit taken for the next couple of weeks with a side job," he informed her matter-of-factly.  "But I'll start poking around a bit as much as I can in the meanwhile.  When d'you reckon they'll let you out of here?  Soon, yeah?"