Qualm

Chapter One

-Crime Scene-

As Akito pulled up to the scene, he could already feel his stress beginning to build that this case was likely to cause him. A perimeter had already been made using yellow caution tape, but the entire area was surrounded by curious civilians, and a horde of hungry reporters. Sighing, the man turned off his car and got out, crossing the street and walking straight to where he could see his partner talking to the medic who would be performing the autopsy. He ignored the reporters that rushed over to him, asking him questions about the crime even though he had yet to see it. People were just so stupid sometimes.

He ducked beneath the police barrier, the action causing the ends of his black trench coat to brush the ground. As a breeze hit, he ran his hand through his equally black hair in slight agitation. The flashing lights of cameras from the news crews and the forensics team alike were enough to make it almost difficult to even see what he was supposed to be looking at, as the moon was barely visible this night. He walked up to the car that was parked in the Hooters lot, going around the front to where the rear door was ajar. Deep green eyes took in the sight before him, and he grimaced.

In the backseat of the car was a man, a very dead man. He was lying flat on his back, his eyes still open, revealing bland brown irises. By the looks of it, whoever had done this to him had gotten him into a vulnerable position, because his shirt was unbuttoned, and so were his pants. Not a single mark was on his body, save for the area of his groin, where his penis used to be. As such, said organ had been chopped off, as well as his genitals, both of which were tossed carelessly into the floorboard next to him. The man must have been awake when such an act had happened to him, because his hands were tied expertly above his head, the rope knotting around the door handle, so that he couldn't fight his attacker. As well as this, a leather belt, which Akito could only presume belonged to the man as well, was fastened around his neck. So the killer had probably tied him up, begun to choke the life out of him, and cut off his sex organs just as the life was leaving his eyes, a slow, and extremely painful, death.

It wasn't really much of a surprise to him though, because this wasn't the first time he had been greeted with such a scene. To be exact, it was one in a series of murders that had occurred over the last year or so, and he had been assigned the task of finding and apprehending the culprit. It was his most difficult case yet, but he relished it. He did like a challenge, and there was only so long a person could keep killing like this before they slipped up and got caught. And he would be the one to catch them.

Out of his peripheral vision he saw a man with spiky brown hair walk up to him. "It's disgusting, huh?" he asked, his blue gaze looking over at his partner.

"I would say disturbing before disgusting." Akito said, looking at the other man as well. "Can we assume that what happened here is the same with the others?" he asked.

"I would say so, they only differ slightly. I mean each way is a bit more intricate, but it's obviously the same sicko." Haru let out a deep breath, looking troubled. "I wonder if it's a homosexual and when he tries to cop the field and gets made fun of, he attacks the piece he is denied?"

The Uchiha frowned. "Possibly. Or some really angry, bitter woman. They can get pretty nasty when scorned."

Haru shrugged. "But if you really think about it, not a lot of women are strong enough to take on some of these big guys. The only girls I would assume are dikes…so," he simply groaned out. "I just don't know. This guy is good."

"Well I'm better." Akito said confidently. "And eventually, he'll screw up, and I'll catch him."

"Hope we get him before we get more victims though." Haru scratched the back of his head, leaning closer and trying to see anything that might be of help. "How many is this? Nineteen?"

The dark haired man shook his head, "Twenty-one."

Just then one of the other officers ran up to them. "Detective Uchiha, Detective Inuzuka, the restaurant gave us their security tape for you to look over." He informed the two.

"We'll watch it back at the precinct. In the meantime, I want this taken care of." Akito gestured to the whole scene. "And the lab reports on my desk and finished as soon as possible."

"Yes sir." The man nodded, before running off once more.

The Uchiha looked to his partner and smirked slightly. "Well, looks like it's going to be another long night. And it's your turn to supply the coffee."

"Damnit!" the brunette cursed, shoving his hands on his coat pockets. "Alright, alright. I'll meet you back at the squad room and I swear to God if you get me the wobbly chair again I'm killing you." He warned, pointing at his friend. With that, he walked off towards his own car to go and make their midnight survival pack.

Akito chuckled to himself as he retrieved the tape from the restaurant manager. Then he made his way back to his car, once again ignoring the reporters asking him questions about the murder. They were so entrapped by this mystery that they had begged for a nickname for the killer, who was now known as the Circumventor. Personally he thought it was pretty clever, and had come up with the name himself.

He got into his jaguar, a nicer car than most men of his profession had, and drove back to police headquarters. Once he arrived, he went straight inside. Passing his desk, he took off his coat and set it in his chair, before walking back to the video viewing room. He set the tape down on the small table that was in there, and then went out and grabbed two chairs at random. He smirked when he saw that one of them was the one with the crooked leg, making it lean a bit, and left that one for Haru. It wasn't the wobbly one, after all.

Finished setting up, all he had to do now was wait for his partner to arrive with their usual fuel for the night. Not wanting to just sit around, Akito walked back out into the main room, going over to the case board that he had created. It was covered in photographs of the other victims, a list of witnesses and people who knew the victim next to each picture they pertained to. On the right side was a map of the city, with red dots marking every crime scene, as well as the place that the victims had lived. Akito frowned as he stared at it, also taking the time to mark this most recent location.

He had gone over all of them hundreds of times, and nothing added up. None of the victims knew one another in any way, nor did they live in similar areas. They didn't even have similar traits. The only thing that he had gathered about them, was that they were jerks, and very forward in their flirtations. That was the only cause he could think of as to why they were killed in such a way. And it made sense when you looked at what had been done to their male parts. He sighed, continuing to bore a hole through the board with his stare as he heard footsteps coming down the hall, signaling that Haru had finally returned with the food.

"Going crazy again?" the man asked, stopping beside him and handing him his cup of coffee.

Akito took the cup from him, inhaling the rich aroma thankfully. "I do not go crazy." He corrected. "I merely think really hard for long periods of time while studying the board."

"Uh huh." He snickered, walking back into the room that was set up. He spotted the chairs and allowed his blue eyes to narrow before taking off and jumping over the back into the even one. "Haha!" he declared, opening the bag and pulling out his favorite chips. "Come on now Akito. Let's get started."

The Uchiha sighed as he entered the room. "Dweeb." He said, grabbing a better chair and hitting the brunette on the back of the head as he sat down.

"Ow!" he cursed, throwing the man's snack at him. "Douche." The brunette huffed. "Let's just get to work already." Haru said, grabbing the remote and hitting the play button since it was all set up. The two sat there watching the video, having fast forwarded it to the time when the victim had come in.

The poor man walked towards the entrance, smiling as a slim woman walked beside him. He opened the door and allowed her in before him. Haru's brow furrowed as he sat forward and paused the video. "Hold on a second…" he trailed off, rewinding it. He stopped it once more on their victim and the woman he was with. "Oh my God." He breathed out.

"What?" Akito asked, moving his gaze from the screen to his partner. "What do you see?"

"That woman." He pointed, getting up and walking over to the TV, placing his finger over the girl. Her hair was cut short and was the oddest shade of pastel pink. "I've seen her before at one of the other crime scenes. She was one of the people dining in the restaurant one of the victims was killed in."

The ebony haired man rose as well, walking over so that he could get a better look at her. Now that he thought of it, she did look familiar. "Did we interview her?"

Haru shook his head. "I don't think so. At least I don't remember seeing her, and I think I would. Her hair kinda stands out."

Akito's eyes narrowed. "She must have slipped out before we made everyone stay to be questioned." He said. "We need to find out who she is, and check all of the other tapes and pictures from the other scenes, see if she's in them."

"I don't think I've seen her in any of the others. But two is a lot and quite a coincidence." Haru nodded. "I can probably run her face through the database and see if anything comes up." He walked up to the player and took a still of the shot before printing it out. He took the photo and left the room to go scan it into the mainframe.

While the brunette was doing that, Akito pressed play and watched the rest of the video. It was odd, watching the two interact. Only because the man was so…vile, and she was so perfect. Nothing about her was ever out of place, and she had wonderful table manners. It just didn't seem like they were compatible in the least, and he knew that simply by observing their body language. It was clear that he was treating the whole thing like a date, and that she was trying too, though there was something about her behavior that seemed off. He couldn't place his finger on it, but there was.

He stopped the video once the two exited the restaurant, and left the room to go see how his partner was doing. "Find anything?" he asked as he walked over to the man's desk.

Haru shook his head. "Well I ran her face but nothing came up. So she's not in the system. But of course that doesn't really mean anything."

"Looks like we need to dig a little deeper just to find out who this woman really is." Akito said. "Perhaps we'll get something from the interviews. The others should be done with that later though, so until then, I think we might just have to call it a night and wait to start the real work in the morning." He suggested. "That way the doctor's report is in as well."

"Sounds good. I'm exhausted anyways." Haru nodded in agreement, logging out of the database and leaving it on the home screen.

The ebony haired man went over to his desk and picked up his coat, putting it back on. "You and me both. I'll meet you back up here bright and early. And don't worry, I'll supply breakfast and coffee." He smiled slightly. "I'll even get you those gay little cream puffs you like so much."

Haru scoffed. "You know what, they aren't gay. They're just the perfect combination with my morning drink." He corrected, pulling on his own jacket. "You're such a dick sometimes." He laughed, grabbing his badge and gun and pocketing them both. "See you in the morning emo." He waved, heading out of the precinct and into his car, since he had gotten a primo spot due to the late hour.

Akito shook his head, picking up his car keys and heading to the door. He took one final look at his crime board, before walking out and getting into his car, beginning the drive home. He thought about this mystery woman, and hoped that they found something good on her. He didn't even care if it was a lot, anything to give him a lead would be great. Sighing, he began to play everything he knew about the case over again in his mind, listing all of the things he needed to do tomorrow. A day that already proved to be long indeed.