….

Lavi and Kanda waited outside as Komui and Lenalee arrived with several police officers to keep the room off limits. Knowing anything, if a journalist got wind of this they'd flock to the place like seagulls to bread.

'Where's the body?' Komui asked as he covered his hands with rubber gloves. Kanda lead him towards the bedroom as Lenalee placed down her bags and got the camera set up. She glanced up at Lavi who was sitting quietly on a barstool.

'Something up?' Lenalee called over to him breaking whatever train of thought that he was on. Lavi sighed and ran his hands through his bright red hair.

'This doesn't make sense, it can't be suicide and there was nothing stolen…'

'Yet a dead man lies on the floor…? It is interesting,' Lenalee commented as she took several photos of the coffee table with he open bottle of wine and two glasses. Lavi nodded slowly as he left her to continue and entered the bedroom.

Komui was knelt over the victim, his gloved hands running over the body probably to feel for any broken bones.

'How's it look Komui?' Lavi asked as the Chinese man sat up and adjusted his glasses on his nose.

'Hard to say without a proper autopsy,' it was just as Lavi thought. If they were ever going to make any sort of progress, they needed that report first.

'While this body gets taken back to the morgue, why don't you and Kanda go and investigate this man's movements before his death?' Komui left the room to get some officers in to move the body as Lenalee entered and took more photos.

'At least it isn't as bad as the butchering case last time,' Lenalee said with nostalgia. Lavi winced and almost touched the eye patch at the thought.

'I suppose but nobody likes dead bodies turning up without a certain cause of death, Lenalee,'

The young woman sighed and snapped another picture of the body before capping the lenses.

'You're right…'

….

Lavi and Kanda spent the next day talking to neighbors and relatives to ascertain the activities of the individual on the night of his death. From what they could collect the young man was John Bishop, a young businessman at the local trading centre 15km away.

Interestingly enough they managed to trace the dead man's last known location to a local pub in the next suburb.

Lavi and Kanda got out of the car and outside a rather well established pub. The smell of cigarettes and beer filled the air as they entered. Towards the far back was the bar with stools lined up neatly along the counter.

'Nice place for a businessman to hang out I suppose,' Lavi whistled aloud as they weaved between the tables to the bar man standing behind the counter.

'What can I get you lads?' the man asked as Lavi took a stool and sat down at the counter.

'Two scotch on the rocks please,' Lavi replied as Kanda growled behind him. Luckily enough it was low enough for only Lavi to hear as the man went to get their drinks.

'What are you doing usagi? We didn't come here to drink!' Kanda hissed as Lavi waned a smile at his furious partner.

'Chill Yuu, I know what I'm doing,' the stoic man che'd at him before sitting down a single seat away.

'There you go,' the bar man handed them each a drink and Lavi picked up the glass and swirled it a bit.

'We were wondering if you were working last night,' the man frowned at him, probably for asking such a questions.

'Yes I was, what about it?'

'You wouldn't happen to have seen this young man about the bar?' Lavi dug into his pockets and produced the photo of the dead man and handed it to him. But the bar man had a quick glance at it and smirked.

'That young lad, sure he was, what are you? Debt collectors?' Lavi laughed dryly along at the supposed joke.

'We only wished it was that… but this man was found dead in his apartment yesterday morning and we were wondering if you could answer a few questions,' Lavi said as the man's face darkened slightly.

'Hmm all I can say was that he came to the counter a few times demanding a few expensive drinks but other than that it was rather busy, I could barely see past the first row of tables,' Lavi sighed as he took a sip of the scotch. That didn't get anywhere but at least they knew he was here last night.

'Let us see the video footage then,' Kanda asked quickly as the man frowned at him. Lavi stared at the Japanese man before looking about the place and spotted several security cameras.

'Yuu's right, if you didn't see anything maybe the cameras did,' Lavi said before Kanda gave him a nasty glare.

'What did I say about my fucking first name baka usagi?'

'Not to say it…' Lavi grimaced at Kanda before the bar man led them towards the back of the pub and into the room with the security cameras.

….

I'll leave it there for now and I'll see if I can get the next chapter up in the next few days!

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