Here's chapter 3
Enjoy :)
As soon as the car door slammed, she began to shake. She clutched her handbag on her lap, the bulk adding no comfort. She pressed her molars to each other, locked her jaw and her eyes looked straight ahead.
"Why would a man on a motorcycle want to kill me?" She stared outside the window.
"I asked you first."
She clasped her purse. The trembling traveled up and down the biceps. "And that phone call." She flexed her arms to still the shaking and give her some sense of dignity. The pathetic results were the opposite.
"Someone wants you out of here."
She slumped back against the seat. "Why would anyone want to kill me?" she repeated with such fresh incredulity she expected a smart remark from Natsume.
"Maybe he wasn't trying to kill you."
"The man had a gun, Natsume."
"Maybe he was just trying to scare you. Give you a warning."
"Like the phone call?" Mikan considered.
"Maybe whatever is going on, you're in the way. An unnecessary complication."
Mikan studied her old lover then looked away, fed up with herself. It wasn't as if she hadn't had her share of men. Granted, none as memorable as Natsume – except for her ex fiancé, who remained infamous in her memory for completely different reason. She stared out on the window again, watching the buildings of her past go by.
"Or maybe Harley-riding fast-tracker thought you were someone else."
"Like who?"
"The car's owner."
"My mother?"
"Maybe your mother saw something, knows something she's not supposed to. Maybe the bad guys know she drives a red Porsche Boxster S."
"If the bad guys thought it was Mama driving Cherry, then that would mean my mother is still out there, somewhere, alive."
"It's a theory." Natsume cautioned. "That's all. Some thinking out loud until we catch a break." He glanced at her. "You name the car?"
"My mother did." She leaned forward. "Did you go talk to Persona?"
"I went to the bar, but he hadn't shown up yet. One of the guys talking a brewery delivery said he usually didn't show up during the week until later. I made a few other stops, was on my way to the docks when I saw 'Cherry' pulling out by Mother's." In her peripheral vision, she saw his lips curl. "Surprise, surprise."
"What'd you learn on your 'other' stops?"
"That's confidential information on an ongoing investigation."
"I'll bet it gives you buzz to say that." She sank into the seat. "Do you think they're alive, Natsume? My mother and sister?" She met his gaze, the crimson in his eyes that rarely revealed. She had expected anything but silence. It scared her most of all.
"I can't answer that, Mikan."
She looked away to the street, from one past to another.
"Not yet." She heard his promise. She was glad she had loved him once.
"Here we are." The car pulled up in front of a wide one-story building with a large parking lot. Natsume turned to her. "Go get legal again. I've got to go back to the station, fill out reports, and check on some things. I'll pick you up in about an hour. When you get done, don't go anywhere. Stay right here until I get back."
He'd done it again. Told her what to do. Halfway out the door, she whipped around, ready to do battle and caught concern in those eyes that never told anything. Quick she'd caught him, the eyes went blank. Her defiance fell. It'd been long time since concern had come her way. Natsume Hyuuga was at least likely source. Surprise, surprise.
"Behave yourself," he told her. "You go getting yourself off, and I'll have to go back down to the precinct and fill out a mess of paperwork."
She smiled as she slid out of the car. "I just might fall in love with you yet."
The DMV had gone twenty-first century with a neon board that stated in red light which number was being served. Tubular lights, pointing heavenward, blinked on with a soft chime beside the clerk that would processes the next request. The woman at the front desk had explained that since Mikan's expiration was less than two years old, she could renew using the regular procedure. She filled out necessary paperwork and sat down on one of the benches in long rows in the center of the room. Mikan focused on a clerk with a face as thin as his tie, but she thought about the man on the motorcycle, saw again the slender, almost elegant silver length of the gun rising, aiming. A chime sounded. Mikan jumped. Her number was flashing on the neon board. She got up, moved towards the counter.
The clerk, a middle-aged woman with thinning hair and blank expression, slid Mikan's paper works across the counter without looking up at her, reviewed it, checking the various boxes and blanks to make sure they had been filled correctly. "Please look at the eye chart on the wall and read the lowest line possible."
Mikan read the letters on the chart. "Step to the left, place your feet on the footsteps," the clerk instructed without looking at her.
Mikan did as told, involuntarily patting her hair. She showed her teeth. "I don't have anything in my teeth do I?
The camera blinked in answer.
"Hey, I wasn't ready. Redo."
The woman gave her a flat gaze before she moved back to her station. "This isn't a Photo studio."
"Well, at least, it'll beat the 'do' on my last one looked like –"
"That'll be forty-three rabbits." The clerk punctuated her request with the thud of a stamp. "If you're writing a check, make it payable to –"
"I'm not writing a check," Mikan informed her. Checking her account balance had been decidedly unreliable since tech stocks went in the toilet.
She reached into her briefcase-size purse, fumbling for her wallet. Her fingers closed around the cash from Cherry's front seat. Cold cash was an inept expression. Even this mystery money was warm as a good memory.
"Credit card?" the woman said, her gaze on the wall clock behind Mikan.
"Yes." Mikan snatched her hand away from the rubber-banded root off all evil and found her wallet. She pulled it out and opened it. A ten and four ones were in the cash compartment. Plastic cards lined the opposite side. She slipped one out and handed it to the clerk.
The woman walked to a counter behind her, slid the card through for authorization. She walked back a minute later. "Declined." A note of superiority in grained itself the announcement.
Mikan grabbed the card. "Those one-day sales are going to kill me yet. Here" She swept another card her wallet. The clerk gazed down at it dubiously before taking it and walking to the back. Mikan crossed her fingers not to be done in by the DMV. The clerk came back with a credit slip for her to sign, and she breathed easy.
The clerk handed her a paper. "This is temporary license. Your license arrives in the mail in a week or two." The clerk pressed a button and the light above her desk gave a ping. Mikan jumped again. She stepped away from the counter, was slipping the temporary license in her wallet when she heard someone call her name.
She looked up, past the clerk.
"It's me." A buxom woman in rebellious orange amid the bland stepped out of one of the officers that banked the back of the service area. "Anna, Anna Umenomiya. Well, actually it's Anna Tobita now."
Anna Umenomiya. She taught Mikan how to cook pastries and shorten the skirt of her school uniform by rolling up the waistband, but it was Mikan who had introduced her to Yuu Tobita.
"Anna!" Pleasure filled Mikan's voice as she smiled at her old friend. "You didn't actually go and marry class rep. did you?"
"You know I did. And I've got the certificate from Sacred Heart Cathedral, Yokohama, two kids, and a raised ranch in the country to prove it." Anna came through the counter's half door to hug Mikan. "Give me a hug, girl, and lie to me and tell me I look good."
Laughing, Mikan hugged her girlhood friend. "Honey, believe me when I tell you you're a sight for sore eyes."
Let me look at you." Anna leaned back to take Mikan in. She nodded her approval, linked her arm through Mikan's. "Got a minute to catch up? I've got a half –eaten bag of red licorice twist and enough pictures of the kids in my wallet to make you beg for mercy."
Mikan glanced out the windows to the parking lot. No sign of Natsume.
Anna noted Mikan's glance. "Unless you have to get somewhere."
"No, no," Mikan assured her. "Natsume's supposed to pick me up and I was just checking to see if he was waiting for me."
"Natsume Hyuuga?" Anna raised her brows and smiled slyly.
"It's not what you think."
"I'm not thinking anything, because I know you're going to tell your old buddy Anna everything."
"Not until I see your kids."
The two women went into Anna's office and closed the door. Over licorice and with photos spread out on the desktop, Mikan filled Anna in on the past twenty-four hours.
Anna shook her head when Mikan finished, her face grave. "Yuu and I moved out of the city when the kids were born. We commuted in for work, but we got a little place in Shibuya. We've lost touch with what's going on in the old neighborhood. I wish there was some way I could help you."
Mikan looked at her old friend. "Actually, there might be." Mikan smiled. Anna smiled back. They could have been eleven again.
A short time later, Mikan had the information she needed and the two of them hugged goodbye. Both were wise enough not to promise to stay in touch.
She went outside. The heat hit her head-on. She leaned against the gray building in the shade of the roof's overhang and waited for Natsume. Thanks to Anna, technology and partial plate number, Mikan had discovered that the Harley was registered to Reo Mouri in a suburb west of Tokyo. Natsume hadn't fooled her with paper works excuse. He'd gone back to the station o run the partial plate and get name and address. He'd probably already paid a visit to Reo Mouri. Not that he'd let her know if he had learned anything. He'd made it clear she was supposed to sit back and let the police handle the case.
Fat chance.
Her shirt stuck to her back. Her burse hung heavy on her shoulder. She cast a subversive glance inside it. The cash lay there, unreal. The top bill showing was twenty. She reached in, lifted its corner. Another twenty, and another, and another. Nice safe denomination. Common, unobtrusive, easy to change. She reached past the bundle to the next, bills, as far as she could tell, tied up neat as a Christmas present.
Had her mother been planning on leaving her step-father, and this was her means? If so, why would she leave it behind along with the car? Had she meant to get away but got no farther than her husband's wrath? Despite the heat, Mikan went cold all over. She spied Natsume pulling into the parking lot. She slid her hand out of her purse, stepped out from beneath the ever hang.
He stopped in front of her. Knowing there were no civilians or fellow officers to worry about, she opened the front door and climbed in.
"Are you legal?" he asked.
She turned her head, stretched her neck toward the cool blasting from the air-conditioning vents.
"Fine fat wad that'll do me. Or my mother or sister." She decided to tell him later about running into Anna . "Have you heard anything? Did anyone spot the man on the motorcycle?"
Natsume pressed the gas pedal. "We're investigating."
"Another fine fat wad." Mikan slumped against the seat. "What about Cherry?"
He threw her a glance. "Why do women have to name their cars?"
"Why do men have to grab their crotches?"
He smiled looking for the first time as if he was enjoying himself. "One of the patrol officers drove 'Cherry',– " he said the name with registration " – to Ruka's Auto Place."
"Sound swanky."
"He'll fix her right and charge you a fair price. Ruka's a friend of mine."
She turned towards him. "You got a lot of friend, Hyuuga?"
"Not as many as my foes."
"Occupational hazard?"
"I'm going to stop, get a couple of slices before we go see Ruka. Want anything?"
Typical man, Mikan thought. Change the subject if the talk turned to anything personal or that smacked of feelings. Natsume had chosen Food, soccer and manga. The three, varying in priority depending on the month and the time of day.
"Serina's went out of business two years ago. One of her son sold the business. But Anju's still has a decent pie." Natsume swung onto Narumis.
Mikan would have preferred to go straight to the garage. She had only seen under the front seat on the passenger side, stuck her hand between the cushions on the driver's side when searching for the seat belt. Lord knew what other secrets Cherry might have. At least Mikan knew the trunk only held her overnight bag.
Her purse weighed heavy on her lap. She could tell Natsume about the money. She gave him a sidelong glance, made herself get past his looks that made women lose their self-respect. Even before he'd been professionally trained, he'd learned not to trust. So had she. Until she knew more about what was going on and could take a better look inside the Porsche, she wasn't ready to confide in anyone. She rested both hands on her handbag.
Natsume pulled over, parked about a half block from a dark red and green building with Pizza etched on the window in neon.
They were almost to the building when someone called Natsume's name. They both turned to see a dark -haired man coming toward them. Despite the heat, the man wore a full suit. He had put on weight since Mikan had last had the pleasure, but she easily recognized Kuonji. He had the kind of face that would have made him a good priest. It had been rumored once that his mother, God rest her soul, had her fingers crossed. But instead, Kuonji had gone off in search of a fortune and came back as close to heaven as one could get without the Pope's blessing – a rich man. Her mother had never failed to mention it.
"Detective Hyuuga." The man held out his hand, included Mikan in his smile. He took a double take, his grin widening.
Mikan held out her hand. "How are you, Kuonji?"
"Mikan? Mikan Yukihara?"
"In the flesh."
He pulled her into an embrace. "It's good to see you."
"Thanks. It's good to see you, too, Kuonji. You're doing well, I hear. Congratulations."
He waved aside her compliments. "Everybody's got to make a living, right? So, how long are you going to stay? Or are you back for good?"
"I'm not sure," she answered honestly.
"Well, it's great to see you again. Hey, what about this guy?" He clamped his hand on Natsume's shoulder. "How's the war going, Detective?"
"Depends on whose winning."
"I hope the good man, Detective. The good man."
"We're heading into Anju's for some slices. Why don't you join us?" Natsume invited.
"Sure, tempt me with Anju's pie." Kuonji patted his generous stomach. "Is that how he got you to come along?"
"No, he threatened to arrest me," Mikan replied.
"That's still a possibility," Natsume warned.
"I knew there was a reason beautiful women hung out with you."
"Believe what you want, Kuonji, but you need more than a big gun."
Kuonji smiled. "Man's an animal. As much as I hate to pass on Anju's, I have to speak at the Sons of Italy tonight, and if I show up full before the ladies have a chance to feed me, well –"
He didn't have to explain. Natsume and Mikan understood an Italian's woman's wrath when food was refused.
"Another time then."
"Most definitely." Kuonji smiled at Mikan. "We've got to get together while you're in town."
"How's funding going for the Keeping It On the Courts program?" Natsume asked.
"I've almost got Shiki to double it in this year's budget."
"Good work. Tell him he'll have the precinct's full support."
The two men shook hands "Mikan," Kuonji took her hand. "I really do hope we'll have time to catch up."
"I hope so, too," Mikan replied.
"I hope so, too," Mikan replied.
Kuonji left. "Sound like Kuonji will be running for office himself someday," Mikan noted as she and Natsume headed toward their restaurant.
"No one would be surprised if he did. He already hangs out with some political heavyweights, serves on the governor's advisory business board and has been involved in several neighborhood revitalization projects."
"What's 'Keeping It On the Courts?'"
"Inner city basketball program some of the guys at the station and myself coach. I got my cousin's son playing. My cousin was in his twenties when he was killed in a firebombing. He was out celebrating the birth of his firstborn. A boy."
"I'm sorry." She put her hand on his arm, felt the muscled tense beneath her touch.
"The boy's fifteen now and six foot tall. We're working on a scholarship." He didn't shrug off her touch.
They went into the restaurant. Narumi Anju made a big fuss over both of them, called Misaki out of the kitchen to see 'skinny little Mikan' all grown up, and refused to take their money.
They eat in the car, Natsume maneuvering with one hand as he held a slice in the other,
Mikan took a final bite of crust. "So you didn't speak to Persona yet?"
"I'm heading to the bar right after I take you over to Ruka's. I'll drop you off to your hotel on the way. Where are you staying?"
"I haven't decided,"
He brake for a stop sign. "Well, decide and I'll drop you off after Ruka's"
The man would never learn.
When her silence grew long, he glanced at her. "I work alone, Mikan."
"You can either take me with you or drop me off at the next corner, and I'll get a taxi. Either way, I'm going to the tavern and see if I can find out what happened to my mother and sister."
Natsume eyed her. "I should have locked you up when I had the chance."
"Life is full of missed opportunities, Natsume."
She ignore his glare. Men like Natsume Hyuuga were dangerous but could be dealt with. All a girl had to remember was not to give an inch or she'd be a goner for sure.
"So, no news about that maniac on the motorcycle? And why he wanted to kill me?" she asked as if making conversation.
"Allegedly wanted to kill you."
She gave him a long look. "Tell that to the coroner."
"If you'd stay put in some hotel room, Harley riding gunmen wouldn't have the chance to take shot at you."
She crossed her arms, plopped them on her purse, the bundles of cash reminding her something very wrong and very dangerous was going on. And she intended to find out what.
"Do me a favor. Don't come to my funeral."
"Can I send flowers?"
If she hadn't been so mature, she would have called him a bad name. "No."
"A donation to your favorite charity?" He threw her a glance. "I'll make it a big one."
She threw in the bad name after all. Maturity wasn't all it was cracked up to be anyway.
What can you say?
Please Review so I'll know what you think about this chapter.. all of your opinion(s) are welcome :)
Anyway, I just wanna say Thank You to those who read, reviewed, followed, and added Hide and Seek in their favorites list... :))
Happy Father's day To All your Dads and especially To My Dad... :))
Till the next chapter ;)
XOXO
~Claire-chan143
