His name was supposed to be fourth on the list, coming after Flaherty, Rowbotham and Lees, but it was not there. After all this time she should have been used to this happening, and yet she still flinched at the sight of it.
"Is this it," Lilith said to Terry, waving the piece of paper in the air. "no profiles or anything?".
"They're probably somewhere in John's filing system" He replied, staring out from his goldfish bowl office across the coffee room.
"And where is John today?" She dared to ask curiously, allowing her eyes to sweep over the room just in case she missed him.
"Shopping for shoes on the high street." Terry summarised, causing her to be taken aback only minutely. Shopping for shoes, a rare trip for a man to busy himself with.
"What's wrong with the shoe shop in the village?" Lilith enquired with narrowing eyes, her voice just inches from breaching annoyed.
"Not the same level of service, apparently." Terry explained while he rolled his eyes.
Mumbling incoherently Lilith began to take a look through a cabinet in John's small office room, a shake of her head taking place moments later. John had filed a 'Mr Dillons' death under M for "minor importance". From what she could tell, trying to find the profiles would involve searching the dark recesses of John's mind; as well as the rows of filing cabinets.
She didn't want to go there. To be honest, she didn't even want to be doing these interviews. But Claud was still off with stress; allegedly caused by the sudden disappearance of his beeper; and Pein and Konan were too busy presiding over the funding that would soon be required for the office extension that had long been awaited.
There was not much she could do about it anyway; as, for some reason she had yet to work out, she was Terry's 'chosen one'. This of course explained why she was standing there aimlessly in a small lock-up room, with a table and only three chairs at either side, while carving her nails quietly into a list of names.
"Do you remember anything about them?" She enquired. "First names, male or female. Where they're working?". This series of simple questions however only caused in the boys permanent furrowed frown to deepen.
"They were defiantly male, most likely part of a group from the undergrounds, or something." The boy stated nervously, struggling to sit straight while they wrote anything he said down, even if it was not much help. And the more Lilith stood there watching, was the more she came to think that these interviews were a bit like playing the fifty-fifty card on 'who wants to be a millionaire'. By the end of it all she was left with two possible candidates for these victims; news agents, or full blown mafia members that would not sit around and let possible rats spill the beans.
A short while later, in a small office, Lilith had pressed her latest efforts literarily into Google in an attempt to find some leads, but it had only drawn a blank to any kind of answers. Gently she managed a thin smile at Terry as she tapped her fingers repeatedly on the desk, all the while hating herself for being so pathetic as to get so worked up like this.
She knew she had to stop panicking, think rationally and to reassure herself that they would capture the murders before they struck again.
"Let's hope they're a bit more memorable in the flesh." She uttered, but even with that said, as she walked the young boy to the place where they held the bodies, she secretly hoped they had nothing to do with the already eight vectored murders that had only started four months ago, and was slowly getting worse.
Inside she rattles her keys, while pulling out the old silver drawers that held the bodies fully open, as the man shudders and looks around apparently terrified.
"When I first started working here I was too scared to come anywhere near the boxes without someone being with me; my boss always got angry when he had to accompany me to tag the bodies. But anyway, do you recognise this man?" Lilith spoke, her voice was calm and collected as she zipped open the black case. Looking him over with some hope Lilith's lip quirked, the boy had merely bore his vision into the body for a moment or two before shaking his head. "No? Well, thank you for helping with the investigation, Terry will take you from here." She spoke politely while zipping the bag shut, her head lifting to watch the taller man walk the young boy away swiftly.
Walking across the room Lilith allowed herself to drop down onto the brown leather seat behind her desk before spinning herself around in it with a growing turmoil of annoyance. This did not last long however, as a robust knock interrupts her thoughts while the door opened to reveal a stern faced woman dressed in a charcoal pair of trousers and a suit with a fine white pinstripe shirt.
"Lilith! It's me, Konan. How did you do as a stand-in officer?" The blue haired woman questions, getting closer with long proud strides. Groaning lightly in response Lilith loosely picked up an old information card for a body and flicked it in her fingers into the bin beside her feet. "I'm not cut out for it, I prefer working with the dead.".
Rolling her eyes Konan stopped at the foot of Lilith's desk, while the shorter woman gave the blue haired official a more detailed examination. Leading her eyes downwards she allowed herself to take in her feet, which were encased in black patent boots with kitten heels, and splats of white fur all over them. It was weird how she never noticed them before, considering how 'in-your-face' they actually were.
"I brought you a little something." The blue haired woman spoke as she unclasped her immaculate briefcase, which looked as if it had been bought especially for the occasion, and pulled out a plastic folder. The action causing a fluffy white dog with a red ribbon and a bell around its neck to tumble onto the floor.
Lilith waited for her to apologies, to blush, to even explain that it belonged to her daughter or something, but she did not. Konan simply giggled like a high-pitched machine gun and squeaked, 'oops, lucky mascot', as she picked it up and placed it under her chin.
"Oh Kami." She groaned as her head lowered into her hands, all the warning signs were obvious now, she should have seen it from the moment she labelled Konan 'a woman in unsuitable footwear'. Lilith should have guessed she would be an emotional flake. And she had a nerve to call herself an officer of the law, come to think of it, she probably worked for 'Dog World' at some point; it would no doubt be on her CV somewhere in the cabinets.
Taking the folder from the blue haired woman she smiles, gives a nod and leaves Lilith with the in hand envelope that stated a new body would be arriving in the morgue tonight. And to her 'joy' she would be taking the night shift tonight as well as caring for the body.
When the men brought the body into the room Lilith stepped forward to take the wheeling tray and glance around for a place to put it, taking a corner of the room she rolled it over and started to glance around once again. "Troublesome, I don't have any tags left for you… I just hope I can move you on my own." Lilith murmurs, taking out a clipboard and pad of paper to start scribbling onto as she murmured absently to herself. "Kakuzu Radwan.." She mumbled, and with that she snorted and cupped her mouth before laughing into the palm of her hand. "Radwan? Sorry to say it but I don't think you will be giving anyone satisfied pleasure anymore." She uttered through childish giggles before starting to unbutton the shirt that he had been left in.
"Age; unknown. Family; none. Place of work; unknown… I'm starting to wonder about the observations of the police…" Her voice trails off, while she unbuckles the belt of his pants to see the damage. "Found dead in an abandoned house, cause of death; apparent internal bleeding. Damage being severe cuts of the body... drained of all blood… all organs are in you though, so they did not remove anything at least." She mutters casually while glancing down at the sheet of paper, and then squinting her eyes in awe. A few unfamiliar words then passing her lips while tracing the body's chest with a raised brow.
The deceased man had icy, sleek and pale skin, yet his obvious tan was still visible. From the edge of the table a few choice strands of his long brown hair hung off the side, while some flowed down to his shoulders, and from what Lilith could see he had tattoos circling one of his wrists. Fluently her eyes trailed down the rivers and streams of stitches that made up Kakuzu's body, as she undressed him from his pants, and by the time she reached his abdomen her eyes widened minutely.
"You took your name seriously, didn't you?" She questioned, placing a white sheet over his legs before she walked away to grab a couple charts and then trot back over. Glancing at the sheet it seemed to have shifted on its own, but she shrugs it off and repositions it quickly.
All around the office it had become gloomy as the area was empty of all life, (no pun intended), because everyone had long since gone home, leaving Lilith to sit at her desk scribbling and rubbing her temple with annoyance all by herself. Or so she thought, as someone broke her silence moments later.
"Lilith we are leaving now, here's a coffee before we go." Pein mutters, shoving a cappuccino into her hand swiftly before beginning to leave.
Stopping however the redhead took to peering at Lilith's desk, which was messier than usual, his fine ginger brow rising effortlessly.
"Can you believe this? That new body had 5 Hearts in his chest!" The girl suddenly bursts out, making him jump slightly, her lavender eyes, which where a torrent of tiredness and lust for information, leaping up to look at him.
"That is something…" He gasped slightly with feign interest, while his left hand pulled weakly at one of the many piercings which coated a good percentage of his body before leaving without another word.