Kaho knew from experience what the signs of a cheater were. However, she couldn't use her woman's intuition as evidence to convict a man of murdering his wife. A single, out-of-place earring could not prove anything. But now they had a direction to lean in, or at least an idea for a suspect and motive.

Kaho, Aizawa, and the Chief returned to the conference room quickly; they all were anxious to hear what Ide had weaned from the husband.

As it turned out, he hadn't gotten much.

"He says he was shaken awake as he was blindfolded, so he didn't see any faces. And he didn't recognize any voices, either."

The conference room was tense and silent. Kaho furrowed her brow.

"Did he at least figure out how many intruders there were?" she asked. Anything less than two wouldn't have made sense, as they had previously figured.

"He claimed there to be only one," Ukita sighed, troubled. "He bound them in their sleep, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to overpower anyone." Kaho shared a look with Aizawa. Kobayashi noticed them, and realized what they were thinking.

"You don't seriously think the husband did it, do you?" he asked them, somewhat exasperated. "I think Aizawa's hot-head is rubbing off on you, Matsumoto." Kaho crossed her arms, almost laughing at Aizawa's offended scoff before she reminded herself of the task at hand.

"There was an earring in the kitchen, and it wasn't the wife's," Kaho defended herself. "If he was cheating, that would be a motive."

Ide rolled his eyes. "An earring doesn't mean he's cheating. Besides, even if he was, why not just divorce her? People can do that, nowadays."

"He would probably lose his money to the wife, if that'd gone down," Aizawa pointed out. "I've seen people kill for less of a reason."

"It couldn't have been the husband," Kobayashi stated.

"Then how was he kidnapped by one person?"

"Well, as we were about to explain, the husband was found unconscious outside of a bank. He had just left it after removing fifty million yen from his account. He had been knocked on the side of his head, ransacked, and left in the streets. And there was trauma to his stomach from earlier that day."

"So he was held at gunpoint in a bank, and no one noticed?" Kaho questioned.

"No. He used a knife," Kobayashi continued. "Not inside the bank, but outside, and he watched him through the window. He also used a knife outside of the home, which would explain why no gun was sighted. He most likely hid it in his sleeve. The blood in the house was from his stomach wound, which luckily wasn't near any organs."

Kaho wasn't convinced for some reason, but she had no scenario to lead on with the husband as a suspect. She may not have ever been completely convinced otherwise, but then Ide added some interesting information.

"That's not all; when we spoke to him at the hospital… he asked if he could see his wife."

"What?"

"He didn't even think she was dead; he said that he forced him to comply by using her as a hostage."

"He did what was asked, and he assumed the man had left his wife alive," Ukita shook his head in sorrow. "How awful."

Kaho scowled. Yes, the crime was heinous, but she was actually more bothered by the fact that she had been wrong in her gut feeling.

And she really hated being wrong.

xXx

The days turned into weeks, and no leads or suspects opened up. Kaho grew increasingly frustrated.

At one point, she was convinced she had found a hole in the husband's story.

"If he didn't know his wife was dead, where was he when she was shot? If there was only one burglar, handling the husband and the wife separately would have been near impossible. He was either in the same room, tied up next to her, or outside in the getaway car, which would have been in hearing range of gunshots. He would have heard her being shot from outside, and then what incentive would he have not to runaway?"

The team was in the conference room again. Kaho had forgotten a time when the room seemed foreign. Now she was worked there so often that it was like her second office.

Kobayashi debunked her theory. "We've been working out what happened through the confusion. The wife had been bound and gagged by the foot of her bed, and the husband was threatened outside into the van with a knife. If he didn't go, he'd be stabbed for a second time. If he ran as soon as they made it outside, he would kill the wife. So as soon as he was in the van, he was hit on the back of the head and knocked unconscious in the vehicle, so he couldn't hear the gunshot."

"Did the medical records prove there was a second strike?" she pushed.

Ukita opened a manila folder and sifted through papers. "There was only one injury, but it's bad enough that it's possible that he was struck in the same place."

Kaho scowled; back to the drawing board.

xXx

Another month passed. Kaho spent more and more nights with absolutely no sleep, spending hours in the conference room, just staring at pages and pages. Her eyes felt strained and she had a perpetual headache. On a couple occasions, she was forced to nap in the lobby. The process of going home to her apartment and then returning in the morning would take much too long. She felt exhausted and frustrated.

She might have felt worse, except she wasn't the only one who had such sleep deprived schedules. Mr. Yagami hadn't gone home all week, and his wife had to drop off a change of clothes every other day (Kaho's heart had nearly beat out of her chest when she first met the woman who had carried Light Yagami in her womb, had cared for him, bathed him, raised him, loved him. It was, for the reason that she herself had been a mother, much more empathic than meeting Mr. Yagami. She was a lovely, classic woman with a sugar heart, but Kaho could tell that it be crushed into dust easily). Aizawa only took a break to speak to his children and wife over the phone, Kobayashi taped pictures of his three kids on his computer, and she was pretty sure Mogi spent the last three nights drinking a gallon of coffee.

She wasn't sure how long things would continue on like that, how long it would be before they made a break in the case. There was no gradual progress, just a brick wall the team was forced to dig around, only to discover that it had been built indefinitely into the ground.

Another month, then another. The earring came back, dusted for fingerprints. A print was found, but there was no match in the database. It at least wasn't the wife's.

Her twenty-third birthday came and went. Kaho herself wouldn't have remembered the day, had she not received a card from her old best friend from highschool, Misao. A cute little picture of the stylish woman was included with kind wishes and 'I miss you's. She was still in nursing school, with a trainee's smock and a tall and handsome man, her boyfriend, by her side. It was the only card she received (Grandfather had forgotten her birthday long ago, since it was the worst day of his honorable life). Kaho wondered why she got one at all; Misao had attempted to reunite in the past, but Kaho had blown her off with the excuse that she had been busy. She hadn't known what busy was until the case, but even then, Misao hadn't been asking for much. Kaho had assumed she was angry with her, but the card said otherwise.

Aizawa saw her read the card.

"Alright, that's it!" he slapped his hands on the table. The response he received was silent and had little energy, like zombie's turning around to a noise. The slow kind, that is. "Obviously we're getting nowhere," Aizawa growled. "And I don't think ruining our minds and slowing ourselves down will do anything but hurt the case."

"What are you saying, Aizawa?" Hashimoto asked dully, though he had perked up from just a few moments ago.

"I'm saying we need a break," Aizawa announced, "one with alcohol. Then one with our families." The room was silent, but Kaho saw some hopeful faces. She looked to Mr. Yagami. He rose to his feet, grimly removing his glasses, wiping them, and then placing them back to where they belonged.

"I couldn't agree more," he said with a relieved grin.

There were several who cheered. Kaho was one of them.

Sometimes Kaho forgot how different Japan could culturally be compared to her old country. Here, it wasn't strange for a boss and his employees to go out and drink together. It was a way of socializing, and refusing could be disrespectful. It was no strange sight for Mr. Yagami, Aizawa, Ide, and the others to walk into a bar together after work. Of course, they would never get as wasted as an American might. Embarrassing yourself in front of your boss was not the point of joining them, so they still had to stay mindful of their alcohol intake.

However, it was strange for Kaho to join them. She was a woman; she really shouldn't ever get drunk, much less with six grown men. It was her first time joining the 'party', and she only agreed because Mr. Yagami was the one who asked her. Not that she hadn't wanted to come, and take the edge off a little, but she was just worried she be out of place as the only woman.

But that night was not what she expected at all. Aizawa eventually passed out for a few minutes, although that may have partially been from sleep deprivation rather than alcohol consumption, but it was pretty funny all the same. Laughter was loud, speech was slurred, and personal bubbles were popped. The only one who handled his sake at all was , who had two and only two. Kaho was the next best off, because she had a secret tolerance to alcohol that she seemed to carry with her from her alcoholic days. The boys surprised her with a birthday cake ordered at the last second. They all ate it greedily, buzzed and laughing uncontrollably. Mr. Yagami was like a father smiling fondly at his child, along with small disappointed sighs at their rowdiness.

All in all, it was a fun, loud night. Tamer than what Kaho knew, but she didn't feel ashamed afterward, which made it even more enjoyable.

She waved goodbye to her colleagues as, one by one, they headed home to their families or significant others. Soon Kaho was left with only Aizawa, Ide and Mr. Yagami, who claimed to be there simply to supervise the men of his station, but in actuality he was probably there because he was looking out for them. Kaho drank no more sake, though she liked it plenty, but it was strong and she didn't want to suffer a hangover.

The volume at their table had drastically fallen, but the conversations remained as frequent and as heated as they ever were.

"I'm still convinced Yamazaki was the one who killed his wife," Kaho admitted, referring to the case. Ide groaned.

"You think he purposely got himself stabbed? Did you know? Getting stabbed hurts."

"So does getting hit on your head," Aizawa added. Ide nodded in agreement.

"I just have a gut feeling it was him. Plus, I want to know why there was an earring in the house if it wasn't the wife's. None of you think that was suspicious?" she questioned. Kaho realized she was getting defensive because of her drunkenness.

"I think you always see the worst in people," Ide retorted.

"Probably," Kaho admitted sullenly. Then she argued, "But doesn't that make for a good cop? Trust me when I say this, I know what kind of man he is."

No one asked just how she would know.

xXx

During her Academy days, there had been a test on criminal profiling. She had aced it, and had been very proud of that fact. Her superior had congratulated her on aptitude in the field, and at the time, Kaho hadn't thought much of it. But the more she thought about it now, she realized that profiling had come easy to her. She was good at questioning people's motives, good at telling whether someone had ill-intentions or was just pure and simple. Like her Ex-husband. Like Sam.

She often forgot sometimes that she was older then even Mr. Yagami. Matsuda had been the top of his class too, but he fell short in the one area that she had a surplus in: experience. Especially the kind where you fell on the wronged side.

Her thoughts put into order, Kaho approached Mr. Yagami the next day. "Let me do a profile on Yamazaki and compare it with one of the 'criminal'. If I deem them too different, then I'll feel confident he isn't guilty."

Mr. Yagami inspected her. He laid his paperwork down and adjusted his glasses. "I'll allow it," he said, and Kaho visibly relaxed. She then noticed the paper he had been previously reading was her test scores. She tried not to react.

She bowed in her gratefulness. "Thank you, Chief." She turned to leave, enthusiastic and ready to get started.

"Matsumoto," Mr. Yagami suddenly stopped her. She froze and turned back to her superior. His face remained passive and emotionless. But his eyes held mischievousness. "While you're at it, make one up for any possible mistress."

Kaho smirked. "Yes, sir."

An: Thank you for reading! I know this is a little short, but hopefully it was still enjoyable. Thank you for all the feedback, I really appreciate it. I think next chapter, the case will finally be wrapped up.

Fact: Mr. Yagami is a badass.

...And the winning title: 'An Interesting Game' is now 'Drawing Blanks'! Thanks to all those who voted.

~Mao