Obra Maestra
By: Krizzie
Summary: A painter. A suspected drug dealer. A murder. Are they all linked? Or unrelated pieces of different jigsaw puzzles? It's up to our team of sleuths to find out. AU
Disclaimer: I don't own Captain Tsubasa.
Krizzie: This is another late vacation gift to Yuki-chan. It's related to "Control" one of my earlier one-shots (found in our combined account), and explains an unanswered mystery in that little ficlet: why the greatest detective had given up her title to work as a comic artist. Yes, I realize that school is basically a two weeks or more away, but that's the point of being late, right? Review!
MAMORU Izawa was one of the prized detectives of Wakabayashi & Co., a detective agency that dealt mostly with homicide cases. Not always, but mostly. He got one late last night.
There was a slight breeze, and he was thankful that he had worn his blazer, but who the hell cared about the weather? He was scouting. His mind shouldn't be wandering off.
The museum covered about one acre of land, guarded with maximum security and had guard patrol every hour on the clock. It would be a hard place to rob, but, apparently, not a very hard one to kill.
The victim's name was Gerald Finn. He was a clueless schmuck, was Izawa's first impression, but that was of no significance. The guard had found him at eight o'clock the night before last on one of the few areas that had no surveillance. Blunt force trauma, the autopsy report said. On the skull. Tch. He couldn't have guessed.
He fingered an unlighted cigarette in his pocket. Despite the shock of the last day, people have kept coming. The curator had cleaned the place up after forensics scanned the area, and now it's open again for art lovers, only this time, mystery lovers joined the bunch too.
He could hear the excited mumbles from inside, and could only imagine the headaches the poor curator must have. Then again, who was he kidding? That man was after money. A man's death offered cash, who the hell was he to complain?
He stopped fiddling with the cigarette and stared at the pale arms that had suddenly been woven around his neck. It was feminine, and the watch was familiar, so his hand didn't shoot up and pull his assailant over and to the ground.
"Smile and act cozy." Krizzie Kurisaki demanded. She was breathing heavily, and he could feel her chest rising and falling against his back.
He smiled. "What have you gotten yourself into this time?" He pulled his hand from his pocket and held hers before tapping her nose with the other.
She smiled back. "I was trying play soccer and ended up stomping over some flowers."
"You're lousy with your feet."
"Shut up."
"Did they see you?"
"I freed my hair and reversed my jacket."
"Good girl."
They held their breath when the men in black came closer, but managed to lie through their teeth when asked for directions. She jumped off him when they disappeared behind the museum.
"What've you got?" she asked, dusting herself off. Her hair was a little wavy from her braid. "Spot anything that might avenge Smelly Gerry?"
"I hope he haunts you." He remarked piteously, but had to admit that the guy did have an acrid aroma about him. "I was just scouting. Genzou said I didn't have to go inside."
"What kind of detective are you if you aren't going to check out the whole area?" she asked. Krizzie was with their forensic team, and she was probably the one who wrote the report he read, based on its limited vocabulary and the snide remarks in between the oddly spaced paragraphs. She had nearly decapitated Gerry last night, so the Chief declared the bodies off-limits for a while and assigned him with a babysitting job.
"Teppei's inside. I'm just back-up." he replied indifferently. "There are eight doors leading in and out of the museum, and that includes the fire exits." She looked amused at his halfhearted attempt to redeem himself.
"Genzou has a map of the whole building." She said in her low voice. "Since when did you start smoking?" He noticed too late that she had pulled out the stick from his pocket with an incredulous look on her face.
He snatched it out of her fingers. "Yesterday. With Hajime." Hajime was their profiler, and the heaviest smoker in their team. She looked appalled. "Don't worry. I won't smoke with you around. I know about your asthma." He assured her.
She wriggled her nose. "That's not it. I'm not that responsive to cigarette smoke anymore. But smoking is bad for you, you know."
"Tch. Whatever."
She rolled her eyes. "Is Teppei going to take any longer?"
He looked at his watch. They've been there an hour and a half. "Probably."
"Let's ditch him and find some grub."
He lit up. Just a little. "Right behind yah."
TURNS OUT, when she said grub, she meant office grub. It didn't console him when she volunteered to cook. He was no better, that's for sure, but she was no gourmet chef either.
Their colleagues were already littered all over the place when they arrived. Hajime Taki was in front of the computer, running a search on the curator while talking to the phone in hushed tones. Judging from the exasperation in his voice, Izawa guessed it was his mother.
Ozora Tsubasa was cramped in his office booth, dressed in a mustard-stained corduroy suit and yellow socks hitched over the edge of his worktable. He greeted them with a slight wave, his face looking tired, and Izawa nodded back. Unfortunately, the nosy little bitch beside him noticed the exchange and grinned despite the forlorn look on her co-worker's face.
"How's the watermelon doing?" she asked in her usually chipper voice, arm lodged stubbornly on the doorframe to prevent anyone from trying to stop her personal interrogation.
Tsubasa immediately blushed, but covered it up by swallowing a pint of cold coffee. Krizzie didn't budge.
"Sanae's fine." He answered at last, and her amber eyes widened considerably. "Just… a little whiny."
"Ooh…" Obviously, she was enjoying this. "Did she ask you to shave your dick already?"
The people in the room gave her the look. "What?" she sniffed. "Yoshiko did!"
It was really amusing to see them all turn their heads away at once. Izawa and Ishizaki looked like they were about to die trying to keep their snickers in.
"WE DIDN'T NEED TO KNOW THAT!" Tsubasa screeched at once, his face just as red as Hikaru Matsuyama's the day his lovely wife had made that specific request. The plastic cup was thrown Krizzie's way, but she angled her head and it ended up hitting Izawa instead. Tsubasa was at least grateful it stopped the detective's laughs.
Izawa decided that once day he was going to stop being such a good guy and actually haul her to jail. God knows she's done enough to serve time, and Hajime told him she did, for two months, destruction of property during college, but she never confirmed it.
A snore ripped her attention from the blushing father-to-be —and conveniently saved her from strangulation as well— and pasted it instead on their wasted supervisor that was sprawled immodestly halfway on the couch and the floor with his mouth open in invitation. Izawa had to pinch himself to stop his hand from getting a stale stock from Tsubasa's office and pushing it far down on Genzou's throat.
"How'd you convince him to touch alcohol?" was Krizzie's instantaneous question. Genzou Wakabayashi was the stingiest, most uptight man that had walked the face of the earth, and outright refused to touch any kind of liquor that wasn't wine or diluted with fifty percent water, so it didn't come as a surprise that she sounded like she was ready to worship whoever did convince him to drink—he looked at the table— five glasses of whiskey, on the rocks. Izawa must admit he was impressed too. He followed her as she circled around the knee-height table, all thoughts of sending her prison momentarily gone. She took off a shoe and banged it against the man's head. Izawa wished he could do that too.
"We spiked his coffee with vodka." Hajime grinned behind the computer screen. He had hung up on his mother. "After that he chugged everything down like it was freakin' apple juice." He was about to light a smoke when Krizzie took the pillow that rested Genzou's feet and fired it at him.
"We're in a confined room. Don't do that."
He snorted.
"Listen to her." Ryou Ishizaki raised his head up from a stack of paperwork. He was the secretary. He could've been competent detective, if only he didn't always end up insulting the despondent loved ones and using his ID to get into bars Friday nights. "She has a very hazardous way of making you."
"Heh. That's one of the few sensible things that I heard from you." She looked at Genzou again, eyes full of unhidden interest. "What'd he say?" she asked. "What'd he do?"
"Unfortunately, he was a sleepy drunk. He recited some ridiculous poetry—we got that on tape— then passed out cold. It's not as fun as we really had hoped." Hajime looked just as disappointed as she was. "But if it's any consolation, we took a lot of photos."
"Yeah, it does ease the pain." She smirked. "Where's Yuki?"
"Kitchen." Ishizaki replied.
"Convenient." She shrugged. "Hajime! Run a search on Alexander Wood. I'll answer your questions later. And you." She looked pointedly at Izawa. "You wait here." She stood up and went inside the door across the one on Tsubasa's left.
He knew he had to leave before anything drastic happens, like a stale egg on a dubious bowl of soup, or fried chicken downed with butter and cheese, but the other detectives were watching his every move.
Someone's gotta do it after all, right?
YUKI WAS experimenting the compatibility of oil and margarine when she came in. The greasy stuff were both stuck to the pan after being exposed to maximum heat, but her friend looked far from giving up trying.
"Where's Misaki-san?" Krizzie asked as she strolled in.
"Not out there. He must've slept in." Yuki muttered. The grease won't come off, even after she scraped it with the blunt end of the knife, so she threw it in the garbage and took out a fresh one from the cabinet. "What's for lunch?"
"I'm thinking of a couple of hotdog sandwiches." Krizzie answered. "That, I could do, at least."
"I'll cook the meat."
"Yeah, you do that."
Krizzie: Reviews will make me happier, and will post the next chapter up quicker… so review!!!