Warnings for this chapter: More crappy plot stuff. (I hate those.) Kanda's sister is introduced. Two other minor, very, very minor, OCs appear too, for like a couple of paragraphs each. Another tame chapter, hurr. (Oh, yes. Making fake IDs is not cool, kids.)
A Lead?! Or... No? Damn it
He pulled down the handle on the door. You had to really push at it hard to be able to open the door, something that annoyed him quite a lot, and it creaked quite loudly as it was forced to move. He could hear the music that had been heard from outside louder, the familiar dark voice of his sister's favourite singer penetrating his ears. He kicked off his shoes and pushed them away towards the wall before stepping further in, entering the biggest room of the small apartment.
He walked to one of the corners, where a small kitchen along with a square table and two chairs were tucked in. He put the bag on the counter and turned around to look at the girl lying on the couch at the other end of the room in front of a television that could not be turned on at the moment. He really needed to pay that bill… The walls were grey and boring, but the different posters of actors and singers that decorated it at least added some colour. Between the couch and the wall a bed had been placed, the covers neatly made, however there was a pizza carton on it. He cocked an eyebrow at it and stepped towards the girl.
"Oh, hello, brother," she said in fluid Japanese, tilting her head back a bit so that she could look at him. "I didn't see you at first."
"Hey," Kanda replied in the same language and picked up the carton, shooting the pizza slice in her hand a quick look. "Where did you get the extra money to buy this, Umeko?"
"No need to look at me like that, brother," Umeko said and sat up, brushing a few strands of black hair away from her face and behind her ear before she proceeded to comb her fingers through it to straighten it out after lying in that position and put the pizza slice down on the small table in front of the couch. "I didn't steal anything or something like that. Come on, you know you can trust me."
"Where?" Kanda repeated the question, his eyes landing on the gray t-shirt she was wearing, its black pattern in particular getting his attention. "I haven't seen that one on you before…"
"Brother, come on!" the teenager exclaimed and sighed heavily, straightening out the shirt before crossing her arms stubbornly across her chest. "You always react like that if I get my hands on some extra cash. There's no need to get so suspicious about it. I don't understand why you do it. I stumbled upon it on the street, okay?"
"Again?" Kanda's voice clearly showed he was not going to believe that. "That's what you said the last time, and the time before that."
Umeko frowned and rapidly turned her head to the side, her shoulder-length hair flipping with the movement.
"Yeah, alright, so I borrowed some from a friend," she admitted. "Happy?"
"Umeko…" Kanda muttered and rubbed his forehead. "You know we don't have much money. You can't always get what you want. You need to repay it eventually."
"But I just had to buy this so badly!" she said and turned away, flopping down on her stomach and raising the volume of the CD-player situated on a small table next to the couch.
Kanda walked around the couch and lowered the volume again, receiving a glare from the girl that he ignored as he sat down on the arm rest, looking at her bitterly. Why could she not just understand and try to support him through all this? She was not going to help if she piled up debts for herself as well, they had enough already. Of course… It did not help that she did not know about it, but he did not want to tell her.
"I know," he said somewhat tiredly. "I know. You get jealous of your friends when they always get new things. But they have money! You have to realize that we can't afford paying debts to your friends. We barely have enough to get through the day. You're not helping it at all. I need you to support me, you know. We've already had this talk…"
She looked down, narrowing her eyes at the floor, her hair falling down and covering her face shortly after. He hated seeing her like this, he really did. He knew how much she wished to be able to have what everyone else did, and he wondered if she knew how much he wished he could give it to her. He hated seeing the disappointment in her eyes whenever he could not buy her what she wanted to have, or when she could not go out with her friends because she did not have the money… The list went on for a long time. He hated it so much that it made him want to break things. Or kill someone.
He did not normally care all that much about people, but his sister was a different story.
"Yeah…" she said sadly, her arms wrapping around herself. "I must seem so selfish, thinking like this… I mean, I'm happy that we at least have enough money to have roof over our heads and food on the table and all that, but seeing all of my friends enjoying their time and having new clothes at least every month… I can't help but wishing I had that."
Kanda sighed and rubbed his forehead, again. He felt a headache coming in. He really had not had the best of days and this was not something he needed right now. He just wanted some goddamned rest. He patted his sister's head and stood up again.
"I know," he said with a sigh and turned around to pack up the groceries. "But you could at least try to resist the temptation."
"I am!" Umeko insisted and he could hear the sound of her feet thudding on the floor as she followed him. "But it's hard! It's just--"
"I know," Kanda repeated, interrupting her. "You've already explained yourself a number of times. I get it."
"Sorry," she said and he could practically see her slight frown even if he did not look at her at the moment.
"Whatever," he muttered as he began to pick the groceries from the bag. "We don't need to discuss it again. I don't have the energy anyway. Let's just drop the subject, okay?"
As he raised his eyes to see how she reacted he was not surprised to see the great relief on her face and she smiled widely as she chirped an "okay". She turned to walk back to the couch, pulling down her black, short skirt a little as it had apparently glided up onto her stomach while she was lying down.
"So how was your day?" she asked as she sat down at the couch again and picked up the pizza slice to finish it.
Kanda furrowed his forehead and stayed silent for a while as he put all the groceries in their place. He knew it was easy to simply say he had not had a good day, but his sister would occasionally ask more, and he could definitely not say anything about what he had been up to. He could always complain to her about his boss or something casual like that, but he was not that kind of person. He kept to himself if he could and Umeko seemed to think that he should open up more and often tried to get him to talk…
Eventually, he shrugged. "I've had better," he answered, feeling her stare on his back as he put some bread away in a cabinet – she probably wondered about his silent moment.
"Did something happen?" she asked carefully, her mouth obviously filled with pizza.
"Nothing you need to worry about," Kanda said sternly. "Just some crap with work."
. . .
Lavi was thrilled! He was not supposed to let his emotions get the better of him or anything like that, but he did not think that was what was going on. He was just so very happy! He had just started on this and he had already made some great progress. Frank had really helped him with providing him with that website. As much as he disliked the idea of using the internet as he was still so very much in love with books, or however you were supposed to call it, he could not deny that this really helped him. Now all that he had to do was deciding what to do with all this information. He had a lot to use…
That Cross Marian guy did seem like one of the biggest hotshots in town right now, though, so looking more into his minions and business was definitely a good bet. It was possible he could find some real damn good juice if he looked into the guy closer. Cross was working in a very big business and that was a great cover-up for any possible suspicious activities. Lavi had worked enough in this business to know a silent battle between different criminal bosses when he saw one. Drug-dealing, weapon-dealing, prostitution… Those were some of the very big businesses when it came to criminal activities and that always meant there would be war about the biggest part of business. The one who could exterminate all the competition was the one who got all the customers. That meant big cash.
And this Cross guy had been in enough situations to be suspicious.
Lavi had decided to examine this man and his different subordinates. Among the list of those who worked for him, there were a few that had been involved in criminal cases, but most of them had been freed from charges. Lavi was quite sure that it either had to do with Cross saving their asses, because he was a big person in the city, or there was simply a lack of evidence. Lavi knew that many of the biggest criminals that were intent on not getting caught because they had a reason to do what they were doing, even if doing it was wrong, were often the best ones and rarely left any trails behind.
And it was evening, and a new topic had just appeared on the blog. This guy, Jim Campbell, who owned a car factory had gotten killed by what was assumed to be a sniper shot in the head and many of his employees were found dead along with him, scattered throughout the area. They had all been killed by bullets.
Lavi was completely sure that this incident would lead him somewhere. Therefore, he had to go there. He shut down the laptop and closed it before turning to Bookman, who was relaxing with a book, excitedly.
"Old man!" he called eagerly and Bookman glanced up. "I've got a possible lead. I've gotta check it out."
. . .
Half an hour later Lavi and Bookman were at the scene of the obvious crime. The temperature was dropping outside and the sun was on its way down, but despite that the place was crowded. He could almost smell the suspense and curiosity in the air… along with death. It lay like a thick blanket around them and it would probably suffocate anyone who was not used to it, which most of the people there probably were not. Lavi was, and it made him feel weird thinking that way. He was just in his twenties, after all. twenty two, to be exact. And yet he had experienced so much.
The police were trying to push the crowd further away, but people still managed to get rather close. Some of them looked scared and kept their distance, but many of them seemed quite unphased by all of this. Lavi felt a bit bothered by that fact.
He was really quite happy to have Bookman with him on this. He was still not all that skilled in persuasion, although he was getting there, and they would need to tread carefully to get access to the crime scene, even if Bookmen were widely known.
Lavi pushed his way through the crowd, the short old man that was his tutor following shortly after. The smell of suspense and curiosity grew bigger the closer they got and he felt discomfort growing. Why were these people not bothered by this? Was it because it was in a troubled neighborhood? A lot of things had happened here, Lavi knew that. But still, it should not be treated as such a casual incident, right? It was almost as if it happened every day… He glanced over his shoulder and shared a quick look with Bookman. It was obvious that it was not anything new for the old panda, but he seemed to understand, and that was comforting.
Once they finally got out of the crowd and were just outside the yellow bands that marked the crime scene, a police officer stopped them. That was to be expected.
"You're going to have to step back, sir," the man said, his voice polite but still firm.
Lavi could tell he was not someone that you should mess too much with.
He was not all that much to look at, really. He was short, somewhere around one-hundred-seventy-four centimeters, and not very muscular. His blond hair was pulled back into a braid and he had two birthmarks positioned between his eyebrows. That… was a bit strange… and quite funny, really.
What made Lavi think that he was not someone to mess with, though, were his eyes. Actually, his expression in general, but especially the eyes. They were stern, bitter and determined. That meant he did not take crap from anyone and he was obviously a very strict person. Lavi could tell from just a quick look that this guy took rules and laws seriously. Lovely, they just had to bump into that kind of person of all the cops there, didn't they? The redhead was not sure this was going to go as smoothly as he had hoped.
He glanced down at Bookman, who shook his head and then nodded at the police officer, trying to say that he was supposed to try to convince him. He was not surprised; if he was going to get by on his own as a Bookman one day he had to learn to do things like these on his own, and the best way was by practice and experience. But he was not very sure his skills were enough for this. Well, the old man would probably cut in if needed.
"I'm afraid that we can't just do that," Lavi said politely, intending to test the waters, and recalled different situations where Bookman had had to use persuasion to get the right information or get through to a restricted area. "You see, we'd like to see the crime scene for a project that we're working on. We're Bookmen."
The blond police stared at him, eyes narrowing suspiciously. Lavi felt slightly uneasy, but he did not avert his gaze. That guy was most likely looking for any signs of a possible lie or hesitation, and he would not show that. Even if it was a lie, which it was not, it would not have mattered anyway. Bookmen were taught to be extraordinary liars if the situation demanded it. Lavi was prepared to lie if it was necessary.
"Bookmen, you say?" the blond repeated, one of his eyebrows arching slightly upwards. "And I should allow you in just because of that? I'm sorry, but I cannot quite see the reason to--"
"Is there a problem here, officer Howard?" another police officer suddenly interrupted him.
That police officer was another blond, but of a darker shade, it was almost orange. Perhaps brown, even. His hair was standing out in all directions under the cap he was wearing and he was quite a bit taller than the other police, who was apparently named Howard. This man did not look as strict. In fact, he looked quite the opposite. His whole face, along with his eyes, was smooth and gentle. He looked like a calm and reasonable person, someone who could deal with a lot of stress and get out of it with no problem. Though, he looked a bit tired...
Judging by the slight accent, he was Australian.
"Not at all, officer Wenhamm," Howard replied simply and sniffed a bit, looking offended. It was most likely because he had been rather rudely interrupted.
"I've told you that you can just call me Reever," Wenhamm said and scratched his neck, smiling sheepishly. "It makes me feel all high and mighty if you call me by my last name."
"It's about principle and politeness, officer Wenhamm," Howard said swiftly, a small frown slowly forming on his forehead. "You should keep that in mind too."
So they were Howard and Reever Wenhamm, then. They seemed to know each other a bit, judging by the way they acted. Though they were probably just work buddies, and nothing else. Lavi was quite sure he had been right about Howard; that guy was very strict about rules and principles. Still, he seemed easily annoyed.
"I was just about to explain to him why we'd like to get access to the crime scene," Lavi cut in with a smooth tone. "We need to see it to help us with our newest project. We're Bookmen." They were wasting precious time on this, damn it.
Reever blinked a few times, then his face suddenly burst into a wide smile, his eyes widening slightly. "You're the Bookmen?" he asked, sounding quite excited. "I love all your work! It's really helped me in understanding human nature better and therefore do my job more efficiently, too! What kind of project is it?"
Lavi looked at him for a moment, letting his words sink in. Wow… Seemed they got in contact with the right kind of person here. Howard did not look all that happy, but what did that matter? Reever was a fan, it seemed. That was lucky. Of course, it was not completely sure Reever would let them in, but it was definitely worth a shot. They probably had better chance with him than with Howard, anyway.
"Sorry, but that's classified for now," Lavi said and grinned, scratching his head. "You're Reever, yeah? I'm Lavi, and this is the Bookman." His tone was slightly mocking, but still a bit serious, and he motioned his hand at the old man, who rolled his eyes.
He extended a hand towards Reever, who shook it enthusiastically. "Look," the blond said and glanced around himself, looking somewhat troubled. "Even if I personally don't have any rejections against letting you in, rules are rules… It's a restricted area for civilians, and even if you're well-known people you're not part of the police. I can't just give you access to the scene."
"That's a relief, officer Wenhamm," Howard spoke up, looking as bitter as he had all the time. "I was afraid you would just go ahead with it. But apparently there is still hope for you."
"Who do you take me for?" Reever asked and smiled sheepishly. "I do know my duties."
"Really now..." he nearly snarled. Then, he raised a hand and took a step forward. "Now, please, step back. We do not want to have to resort to violence."
Lavi frowned and backed off slightly. Bookman opened his mouth to say something, to finally back him up, but he was interrupted by a few sudden alarmed shouts.
"Ma'am, please calm down! Ma'am!"
"Ma'am, put that away!"
Howard's head snapped in the direction of the sound and he put his hand over the gun strapped to his waist as he rushed over to help. Lavi looked over as well, seeing a woman with black hair, a red jacket, jeans and heeled shoes trying to get past the police, desperately, with one of her shoes raised to act as a sort of weapon for her. The cops tried to hold her down, but some of them got some jabs from the heel and she was beginning to make progress, crying out a shrill "let me through". As she ducked and slipped through the crowd, Reever disappeared as well.
Chance!
Lavi and Bookman shared one glance and a brief nod and they both moved forward, past the restrictions and onto the crime scene. The bodies still had not been moved, and that was perfect, just what they needed. They walked out of sight, they could not get caught after all, and only when they found a body that was on a safe spot did they go up to check on it closer. Lavi would really have liked to check every single one, but that could not be done.
Sigh.
Oh well.
"So, tell me, Lavi, what kind of gun is it that killed this man?" Bookman asked solemnly, clasping his hands together behind his back.
Lavi examined the bullet wounds, the size of them, the traces in them, the damage they had made.
".41 Remington Magnum, twohundred and ten grain bullets, thirteen-hundred feet per second," he said blankly and stood up from where he had been crouching next to the corpse. Magnums were quite impressive weapons. "Whoever did it knew what they were doin'. Most of the bullets pierced vital areas, where they'd definitely, no matter what, kill. They're not some random bloke, or whatever, that's for sure."
Bookman nodded, seeming pleased, and they continued on their way. It was obvious that the culprit, or culprits, were highly skilled, they had probably been doing this for quite a while. That meant that this was a great lead. The problem was that it would be good if they could figure out who had done it. It was possible, it always was, but that did not mean it was easy. But like this, it seemed to point to that it would take too long. Perhaps they should look for something else.
There was nothing else worth of notice on the scene of the crime. The culprit(s) had left no evidence behind. Not a single thing.
And that was damn frustrating.
"We should check Campbell's company and his office," Bookman said as they left the scene. "We might be able to find clues there. It is possible he had enemies."
Lavi nodded slowly, frowning down at the ground. Yes, he was quite disappointed. Maybe he had a small reason to be excited, too, because mysteries were always exciting and if he could get his hands on a real professional it would just be a great, but he had had high expections. So the defeat put him down. But maybe they could find something over at that Jim's workplace. The article on the blog had said that Jim and Cross had been working together for quite a while and now, all of a sudden, Jim had been elliminated. With Cross's reputation it might as well be him, just maybe. There was a chance.
He did not think he would find something that helped concerning that issue in Jim's office, not really, but perhaps something that pointed to it. Or something. He had to hope.
Maybe there was something hidden that they could get their hands on.
"It's not too far away," he said and turned to the right. "It's walking distance."
"Then lead the way."
Obviously. Lavi snorted a little and took the lead. The sky was changing in colour from blue to yellow and with a little bit of red at the very edge of the horizon. Not that the horizon was very easy to spot in a city like this, what with the walls towering high into the sky. There were just a few cracks in the structure that allowed that view. The still buildings and the humans that walked by, slowing down to eye the commotion around the crime scene, cast long shadows - well, fairly long anyway - across the streets so that you could pretty much not see the sun hit the ground anywhere.
The air was pretty cool by now, and that was nice. New York was a very hot city and Lavi had not fully gotten used to that yet. He had come from the north and a much colder place. Canada, to be more exact. So he had to get used to the new climate.
And that was always one of the more annoying parts. Urgh.
Ten minutes later they reached Jim's office building. It was a grey brick building with loads and loads of windows and it towered high above them. A fairly wide staircase led up to the two front doors that were just fancy enough to give the impression that this was some sort of important place, but still not too fancy so that it just looked stupid for a simple office building. They were rounded at the top and made in a massive wood that was coloured white to fit the grey walls but you could still see the fibers and lines in the wood.
He walked up the steps, slowly, slightly surprised that there seemed to be no commotion around the place. Considering Jim had recently been killed, there should be. Or maybe it just could not be seen from the outside, but... He had expected people to be running in and out. After all, a lot of people had gotten killed along with him and most likely a lot of them worked here, so they must have lost a lot of men and they had to figure out what to do now...
But, hey, if people were not running in and out it was all much easier for him and Bookman.
He opened the door and stepped inside. The first room was big and its ceiling was high. No surprise there. In front of them was a counter, between two elevators. And, of course, there sat a secretary. She wore glasses, her brown hair was tied in a ponytail and her fringe was a mess. She looked quite tired, and she was talking rapidly on the phone. Said something along the lines of "well then think of something". She was talking too quietly for it to be heard properly, even if the place had to be echoing.
The walls were light green and the roof was white. The floor was made of beige-coloured wood and along the walls stood benches and pots with plants.
It looked normal enough. Not that the Bookmen never cared about the mask of things. They did not have proof that Jim was dealing with anything illegal, but there was a possibility. The situation with his death was suspicious enough.
"Can I help you?"
Lavi blinked and stared at the secretary for a moment, until Bookman kicked him lightly in the back of his leg. He shook his head, cleared his throat a little and moved forward to the counter.
He whipped out a police ID and showed it to her (honestly, he and Bookman would never leave without such IDs when it was a crime things concerned. Duh).
"We need to have a look in Jim Campbell's office," he said with a professional tone.
The secretary blinked, took one quick look up and down of what she could see of Lavi, and smiled. "Of course of course!" she said a bit too excitedly. "It's really a shame, that, isn't it? Mr. Campbell's, bless his soul, office is on the third floor, to the right at the very far end of the hallway, as far as you can go. The elevators are right there, as I'm sure you can see."
She motioned at the elevator doors and smiled even wider.
"Right," Lavi said without a change in his tone and pocketed the fake ID, but then put on a wide smile as well and chirped; "Thank you~"
He marched past the counter and pressed the elevator button. They waited in silence for the doors to open, waited in silence for the elevator to reach the right floor, walked in silence towards the office. There was no need for any talking, really. It was all set in stone by now, pretty much, what they were going to do.
They passed a few people, but got paid no mind whatsoever. The people were rushing. The company had to decide what to do with their top guy dead, after all.
Lavi and Bookman stepped into the office. It was, unsurprisingly, big. At the far wall was a tall window, in front of which was an L-shaped desk and a computer stood on the part that pointed against the window. Whoever furnished the room knew what they were doing. It always looked good to sit in front of a big window on a beautiful desk when you were talking to important people, but a computer who had the window right behind it was just plain annoying, not to mention that it tired your eyes out. The desk's shape was perfect.
In a corner stood a tall and impressive plant, on the walls hung beautiful paintings, and there were also, of course, chairs to sit on and that you could pull up in front of the desk.
Lavi marched around the desk, took a quick look down at the street below them, and took a seat in the (very comfortable) chair behind it. And, promptly, began pulling out drawers and searching through them. When he did not find anything worth noting, he moved onto the computer.
After a while of searching and cracking passwords, he stumbled upon a copy of a contract. A contract of the agreements between Jim and Cross's companies.
"Bingo," he grinned, and Bookman, who had been standing somewhere to the side, watching, came over.
Buuut, he had sort of been hoping to find more.
After they both read it through, Lavi frowned and leaned back in the chair. "Something's missing," he stated and bit his lip a little. "It's like it's an incompletely contract. It's too... subtle."
He shook his head. Could they find something better after having searched for such a long time already?
Well, they were not leaving in the first place.
"But I guess that just makes it all the more suspicious, yeah?" he asked and glanced over at Bookman, who gave him a meaning look. "Yeah. I guess it's something. I was still hoping for something more, though... Ah, man."
He ran his hand through his hair and grimaced a little. But... well. If they did not find anything else, that would do. It would do.
And they did not find anything else.
Even if they stayed until after the sun went down.
The awful setting-up is finally finished! *Dies* Hopefully things will flow a bit better from here on out! *Bows* I do love this idea but but... setting it up makes me insecure. XDD
