December 6th 2010, 8:46 PM.
"It's freezing out here, chief... Can't we just go get a cup of coffee or something?"
The voice came from the man dressed in black, who held his black fedora tightly against his head. It head been snowing all day. The two men walked in this cold weather, the man with the fedora hopelessly trying to keep himself warm by blowing air in his hands. He'd forgotten his gloves at home when his chief suddenly stood at his doorstep, telling him that there had been a murder in the shopping mall. His chief didn't recommend going by car, for the snow made it almost impossible to see anything. And so the man with the fedora and his chief walked in this cold weather.
"No, Matsuki-san... Have you forgotten the urgency of this matter so soon? I mean, if it wasn't urgent, the authorities wouldn't have called upon the help of the World's Greatest Detective, now would they?" L let out a slight smirk and continued walking against the snow. It seemed as if he didn't have any trouble with the weather at all. Xander, on the other hand, couldn't stand this cold. He'd lived in South-America for four years, so he knew what heat was, in that tropical climate, but he'd forgotten all about what the true definition of cold was. And here in London, in December, it was certainly cold. Cold would've been a light way to put it. It was freezing. It was so cold, that Xander Matsuki could feel his fingers freeze. And so he tried to keep them warm.
"How far is it, L-sama...?"
"Not far anymore, X. Hush now, and you might earn a strawberry, later on."
As if he wanted a strawberry. All he wanted was a hot cup o' Joe to warm himself up. This cold was killing him.
Even through the fog Xander could see the red and blue police lights lighting up in the distance.
"Finally...!" Xander groaned.
L's expression hadn't changed. He just walked towards the lights.
A police-officer came to meet them, supposedly to send them away because civilians weren't allowed past that point, but when he saw L, he immediately closed his mouth. He just nodded towards the two men, and led them to the crime scene. There were a lot of cops at the site. Xander wondered what kind of murder it'd been, that there were so much officers present.
The officer brought the men to his chief, a middle-aged man, presumably somewhere around the fourty, wearing a long light brown trenchcoat, with a dark brown shirt and black pants under it. Even in this cold, he didn't bother to close his coat. Comically, the chief reminded Xander of Comissioner Gordon from The Batman series.
"Captain Ray Charleson." the chief said, extending his hand to L. They shook hands, and the ritual was repeated with Xander.
"Alright then, let's not stall too long, it's bloody cold out here." he said with a deep, British accent. "Homicide. Female. No witnesses, no suspects. The mall was closed, and the security didn't notice anything. We didn't find any prints or clues around the body, but we haven't touched the body itself yet... We thought it would be best if you did that."
"Aha..." L nodded.
"Let's take you to the crime scene then... I must warn you though, it's not a fine sight. Some of my men couldn't keep their dinner inside."
"Oh, I bet we've seen worse..." Xander said. "Now let's go. Like you said, it's "bloody cold" out here."
Charleson nodded and led them to the entrance of the mall. A security guard was being questioned by a couple of officers, and he glanced up at Xander as they passed. Xander glanced back at him, and found a look of disgust in his eyes. This guy had probably seen the body, and didn't like what he'd seen.
As they entered the mall, Xander groaned softly at what he saw.
Blood spatters everywhere. The body, or whatever it was, was placed in the center of the mall's lobby. It'd been chopped up in pieces. The arms and legs had been removed, and the lower body was taken apart from the upper body. As cherry on top, the culprit had decapitated the victim as well. What Xander disgusted the most was that it seemed that the murder had arranged the body parts in some sort of sick art project. The head was placed on top of the victim's chest, and he'd stuck her arms in the flesh of the lower body. Her legs were at the place where her arms had supposed to be.
"Well, this is appealing..." L said with a dark voice before looking back at Charleson. "Who discovered the body?"
"That security-guard who's being questioned outside. Although I think he's too traumatized to talk..." Charleson sighed. "Who could've done such a horrible thing?"
"Oh, a lot of people could," L said as he crouched down next to the body. "Even you."
Xander had crouched down next to L and examined the body, when he stumbled onto something pressed in the insides of the victim. As Xander pulled it out, he found out that it was a tape. 'The Beginning' was written on it with a waterproof marker.