Oliver yawned as he entered the station. He needed a cup of tea. Perhaps Mai would make him one. She often took pity on him.

He did not notice the strange stares he was getting. He did not notice the hush whispers.

He did notice that Mai was waiting for him. Monk was standing a little behind her. She did not have a travel mug of tea ready for him.

"Detective Davis, can you come with me, please?"

"Rookie? What's going on?" Oliver frowned at the use of his surname.

"Come with me," Mai repeated.

"Okay."

She lead him to an interview room and offered him the seat where the interviewee usually sat. Oliver sat, still confused. Monk had followed them in and was now waiting by the door.

"What's going on? Is this a prank? I'm too tired if it—"

"I finished watching the footage."

"You didn't go home," he accused, annoyed.

"And I found someone who went in with Miyama, and came out alone."

"That's—"

"Madoka also managed to get a match on the other blood that was found." Mai opened her folder. "Do you remember this?"

She placed an image print out on the table between them.

"The undercover drugs case from a year ago? What of it?" Oliver glanced down at his own mugshot. Oh how that beard had been so annoying.

"Compare it to this," Mai said, placing the CCTV screenshot down. "There is a similarity, don't you think?"

Oliver frowned, looking between the two images.

"This CCTV is not high quality, I'm sure that—"

"This is the results of the blood testing."

Mai placed another print out down.

"This is one of Madoka's pranks—"

"Do you have an alibi for Sunday night?"

"Mai, you know I live alone."

"Please answer the question, do you have an alibi for Sunday night, between the hours of 10 PM and 3 AM?"

"If you are not placing me under arrest, I am going to leave now."

Oliver stood up.

"Oliver Davis, you are under arrest. You—"

"Mai, this is ridiculous."

"You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to be speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you. Do you understand what I just said to you?"

"Mai—"

"Do you understand?"

Oliver's expression hardened.

"I want to see my lawyer."

He sat down, folded his arms, and refused to say another word.


Mai called for the lawyer herself. They had left Oliver in the interrogation room.

"Masako Hara speaking."

"Masako, it's Mai, we need your services."

"I can be over in half an hour. Who's my client? What do you think they did?"

Mai opened her mouth and felt her voice break as she tried to speak. She and Masako were friends outside of work, which made everything somehow worse.

"It's… It's O-Oliver Davis. And suspected murder."

"What?"

"I'll explain more when you get here."

Masako arrived in half the stated time. Mai gave her a quick rundown of the situation and allowed her to see her client for a few minutes in private before they began questioning again. Mai entered and set down the evidence again.

"We have photographic and DNA evidence that you were at the crime scene on the night of the crime."

Masako did not allow Oliver to speak.

"I would like it to go on record," she began, "That Detective Taniyama has romantic feelings for my client and that it is marring her judgement."

Mai's mouth dropped open.

Monk spoke through the intercom from the room behind the two way glass.

"Mai, is this true?"

Mai managed to recover herself.

"It doesn't matter either way, she's cast doubt on my character. Monk, take over the interrogation."

Mai strode out, walked past Monk and into the viewing room. Lin and Madoka were watching. Monk introduced himself for the tape, and began again with exactly what Mai had been saying.

"Shouldn't you two be working?"

"I'm waiting on other DNA results, we found some hair but I think it's the cleaner's," Madoka said.

"And she wasn't seen to enter until the morning," Mai muttered. "It can't have been her."

She looked to Lin for his own explanation.

"I'm done with the laptop," he said. "All I found were grotesque amounts of horror porn, a load of emails from what turned out to be a gay bar, and that I think our victim must have made his own soap."

"His own soap?" Mai asked.

"Yeah, he bought large quantities of lye. People use it to make soap," Lin explained.

"Yeah, I have a friend that does that," Madoka said. "She makes a killing selling it online. But it can be used to dispose of bodies too."

"What?"

"Drug cartels in Mexico have owned up to using it to dispose of bodies. A lye and water mixture can break down a body through alkaline hydrolysis."

"Madoka, that's gross. What on earth would an old man want to…" Mai trailed off. "How would you get rid of it after the body was gone?"

"You could pour it down the sink if you really wanted," Madoka said off-handedly. "As long as everything is broken down, it wouldn't block anything up."

"But if it wasn't properly broken down, it could block things?"

"I guess so? Why?"

"The landlady said she had to get repairs done on the plumbing," Mai mused.

"You really think the old man was disposing of bodies?"

"I'm not sure I believe he was making soap. He didn't have any books in his apartment, and if there was nothing in his internet history about how to do it..."

"We didn't find any large quantities of soap in his bathroom," Madoka said. "His bathroom was weirdly clean and empty if anything."

They turned their attentions to the interrogation and watched for a few minutes. Monk was asking Oliver about his whereabouts on the previous Sunday.

"So, let's say the old man was murdering people," Lin said in a quiet voice. "Do you think Oliver killed him to stop him killing any more?"

"That makes no sense," Mai replied. "He's a detective. He could have arrested him and sent him to prison. We've put this much together already with evidence, so it's not like we couldn't investigate if something was wrong?"

"And Noll doesn't do vigilante justice," Madoka commented. "He likes following the rules too much."

"Only the rules he thinks are sensible," Mai corrected.

They fell silent again.

"So can you give any explanation of why your blood was found at the scene?" Monk asked.

Mai watched Oliver roll his eyes.

"I don't know. Maybe I have a twin I don't know about. Maybe Madoka is useless at her job. Maybe someone is deliberately setting me up."

Mai cocked her head to one side.

"He could be onto something there…" she mumbled.

"I'm not useless at my job," Madoka muttered with a frown.

"No, not that. You're brilliant and he knows it," Mai said. "No, the other thing…"

"Why would someone set him up?" Lin asked. "It could be someone he put away?"

"No, not that either." Mai bit her lip. "Oliver was adopted. He might actually have a twin."

"Adopted?"

"Yeah, I met his parents once, kind of by accident. He needed picking up for a case we were working at he was at his parents. They invited me in and everything. I was only there five minutes, but it was clear that they weren't his biological parents," Mai explained.

"Clear? Clear how?"

"Well they were both caucasian for starters," Mai muttered. "But I asked him about in in the car afterwards and he told me."

"That surprises me," Lin said. "He's a private person. It's unlike him to share personal stuff like that."

"Yeah," Madoka agreed. "I asked him once how his weekend was and he told me to mind my own business."

Lin rolled his eyes.

"No, you asked him if he'd got laid because he looked remotely less miserable than usual."

"Same thing."

"I'm going to follow this up," Mai said, ignoring her colleagues. "Tell Monk where I've gone, phone me if something else comes up."


The orphanage where Oliver had been flattened many years ago and the records were lacking. Mai had no choice but to visit Oliver's parents and ask them.

She arrived on their doorstep just before lunch and knocked.

The door opened to an older lady. Oliver's mother.

"Hi, I don't know if you remember me, but—"

"You're Mai. You work with my son," she said. "Why are you here? Is Noll in trouble?"

"Can I come in, Mrs Davis?"

"It's Dr Davis, actually, but you can call me Luella." She stepped aside and allowed Mai inside.

"I'm sorry, I didn't—."

"It's fine," Luella said with a smile, "You didn't know. Now tell me what trouble Noll has gotten himself into."

Luella offered Mai a seat in the living room. They sat and Mai gave the lowdown.

"He was the only child with his surname at the care home," Luella said, frowning. "If he'd had a sibling, we would have taken them both." She hummed to herself for a moment. "Let me find the paperwork."

Luella disappeared for a few minutes and returned with a massive binder.

"Right, let me see…" She opened it and began to flick through the sheets of paper inside. "He was born Oliver E.C. Griffiths, it's not written here what the middle names are, we dropped them when we adopted him."

"Do you know anything about his birth parents?"

"Nothing I have proof for," Luella replied. "But the story the carers were telling when we adopted him was that his birth father beat his birth mother."

"So he might have a record," Mai mused. "Perhaps I can find something now I've got a surname…"

"This was him when we adopted him," Luella said, taking a photo out of the folder. "He was such a quiet kid."

Mai took the photo.

"He was adorable."

"He was always such a good kid, barely ever got in trouble," Luella said. "Such a clever boy. Did you know he has a doctorate too? He finished in PhD and then decided he could do more good in the world by becoming a detective. So he did it."

"He has a PhD?"

"Yes, in Physics."

"Woah…"

"He doesn't talk much about himself, does he?" Luella asked.

"Not really. I was the only person at the station that knew he was adopted. Everyone else…"

"He talks about you a lot," Luella said.

"What?"

"He visits us a lot, and he talks about you. He thinks very highly of you."

Mai blushed and looked away.

"I should get back to work."

"I'm glad Noll has someone like you to look after him."

"Thank you, Luella."

Mai returned to her car and phoned the station. Monk picked up.

"Lin said you were following a lead?"

"Yeah, do you have time to search for something for me?"

"We're about to go and search Oliver's apartment."

"Oh damn, he's not going to like that," Mai muttered.

"He doesn't have to like it. I need to find something to prove him innocent… Madoka has gone back to the crime scene to look for more evidence. Oh and the coroner called, he hasn't written up the report yet but he says cause of death was blunt force trauma to the back of the head."

"So he was hit?"

"Or he fell… Eugh. This is a mess. Want to come and search this apartment?"

"Sure, patch me through to Lin, I'll ask him to do my search. I'll meet you there after. Ask Oliver for his keys "

Monk forwarded the call and Lin picked up.

"Hi Lin, can you do a search on the name Griffiths for me?"

"Oliver's birth surname?"

"Yeah, his birth father might have a record so we might be able to find him through it. We might be able to find a potential twin that way," Mai explained.

"Monk doesn't think there's anything in it."

"What?"

"He's letting you follow this lead to keep you out of the way. He's been formally tasked to this case now, as Yasuhara's out, he hasn't had any major cases. You're kind of partners at the moment."

Mai sighed.

"Great. Phone me if you find anything."

"Will do."

Mai hung up and started the engine of her car, she was about to pull away when something hit her window. She screamed and looked around to see Luella knocking.

Clutching at her chest, Mai wound down her window.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you jump. I just thought of something," Luella said quickly.

"Yes, go on," Mai said, forcing a smile.

"When Oliver was young, just after we first adopted him, he went on a lot about a Gin or Jin or something like that? He wasn't even four at the time so I assumed it was an imaginary friend but… Maybe it wasn't. Maybe that was his brother's name?"

Mai noted it down in her notebook and handed over her card.

"Thank you, phone me if you think of anything else."


Author's note: So my car is now all fixed! Literally finished like half an hour ago so that's good! Now I shall turn my attention to finishing some of my WIPs...