A/N: Hope you enjoy this next chapter. :)
After running out of Dr. Helene's office, Chie followed Natsuki towards where her motorbike was parked. She had just enough time to get into her car as she saw the blue haired Doctor jump onto said bike and drive off in the direction of Shizuru's apartment. Turning on her engine and leaving the car park, Chie pressed a number into speed dial and switched on the hands free. "Hi, Takeda? Yeah, it's me. The Doctor and I are on the way to the crime scene, are you there yet? Ok, good. Don't get in her way; she's in a foul mood. I'll explain later." Hanging up, she contemplated what could be going through the Doctors mind at that moment and prayed to what over God was out there to make sure they both got to their destination in two, whole pieces.
When she finally arrived at Shizuru's apartment block, Chie quickly parked her car next to Natsuki's bike and ran inside. She pressed the button for the lift (I should walk it but there's no way I'll be alive when I reach the 10th floor) and when the doors opened, out walked a very shaken officer. "Michiru, are you ok?" She asked.
"Doctor Kruger... Apartment... death threat..." was all Officer Michiru Aoi could get out before she left the building like a zombie.
"That bad huh?" Chie said to herself as she pushed the 10th floor button. "At least I know the Doc's alright."
Once Chie had finally reached apartment 10 B, she saw the crime scene tape had been ripped from the door frame and left, unceremoniously, on the floor. Natsuki must have had her own key seeing as the door was still intact. Inside, she found Dr. Kruger in her white crime scene suit carefully applying tape to a certain part of the carpet. "I saw a hair." Was her curt explanation when she saw Captain Hallard in the doorframe. When the tape was bagged, she moved on, looking around the room. "It's ok for you to come in Captain." Natsuki said, noticing Chie still lingering by the door, "I'm sure you'll only be disturbing what your team has left behind."
With a sigh, Chie stepped into the room. To say Dr. Kruger was pissed, was an understatement. "I'm sorry Doc." She began, following Natsuki into the kitchen, "It's just that my team has seen a lot of the same cases and took it for granted that this was another of those." Natsuki grunted in response, looking from the cupboards to under the sink. "When this is over, I'll tell them all not to assume any more. After all, when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me... heh..." This time there was no response from the brooding a swab out of her kit, Natsuki swabbed the drain of the kitchen sink before placing it in another bag. Satisfied with the kitchen, she walked past Chie back into the dining area of the main room.
Everything looked immaculate; the chairs were straight, the table looked clean except for the light layer of dust gathering on its surface. As she was about to turn and make her way to the bedroom, Natsuki noticed something out of the corner of her eye. On one of the legs of the table, there appeared to be a sticky substance. A further look near said leg showed a disturbance of the carpet, as if someone spilt something on the table which ran down the leg and onto the carpet. Someone subsequently took the trouble of wiping the table and scrubbing the floor, but forgetting to clean the leg in their hurry. Taking another two swabs out, she took a sample from the leg and the carpet, praying that it might be something case breaking.
After a thorough look round Shizuru's bedroom, (or what was left of it), Natsuki finally turned to Chie and said, "I think it's time for us to interview her neighbours."
"Okay, I'll just see who is left." A quick check with Tate showed that: "Apartment number 10 E is left. A Ms. Chen."
"That is the one across the hall isn't it?" Natsuki followed Chie out of the apartment and locked the door.
"Yes. Hopefully she saw or heard something." Chie knocked on the door of 10 E. The shuffling of slippered feet and mumbling could be heard from the other side of the door. A few seconds passed as Ms. Chen looked through her spyglass before the door opened.
"Hello, how my I help?" Ms. Chen was a lady in her mid-eighties. Her wrinkled face, tied grey hair and reek of overcooked cabbage being the main indicators of her age.
"Hi. My name is Captain Hallard of Osaka Police and this is Dr. Kruger of Tokyo Police." Began Chie.
"Is this about my pets? I told Mr. Souma that Mrs. Souma says it's –"
"No! This is about your neighbour, Shizuru Fujino." Natsuki cut in. Ms. Chen looked sternly at Natsuki before turning to an apologetic Chie.
"Shizuru? I haven't seen Shizuru for a couple of days now. Not since Saturday I guess. I thought she might have gone to Kyoto."
Chie's frown deepened at the last sentence. "What made you think that, Ms. Chen?"
"Oh! Her sister came round... Ahn, something... Lee?"
"Lu?" Natsuki asked.
"That's it! Pretty thing, and very kind too." Ms. Chen looked poignantly at Natsuki.
"How did you come to know her name? Did Shizuru ever mention her to you?" Asked Chie, trying to divert Ms. Chen's obvious dislike towards Natsuki.
"Shizuru did mention her once or twice. But I have met Ahn in person."
"When?" Natsuki was shocked. Rarely did any of the Fujino come down to visit Shizuru.
"Let me see, Thursday or Friday? It must have been Thursday because Mr. Pickles needed a bath."
"Mr. Pickles?"
"Oh, just my tom cat Deary. Not sure he's involved in the case, are you Mr. Pickles?" Ms. Chen cooed at the cat near her feet.
At Natsuki's growl (whether due to the cat or the lack of information was beyond Chie), Captain Hallard asked, "Did Ahn say anything to you at all?"
"Goodness yes. She saw me coming out to sweep my front area and explained who she was and what she needed."
"She needed something?" enquired Natsuki
"Yes. She said that she wanted to surprise Shizuru with something, and would it be ok if she borrowed my spare key."
"Did you give her your key?" Chie did not like the sound of this.
"Why yes, of course!"
"Of course?" Asked an incredulous Natsuki. "Damn it all! What made you do that?"
"Well, when someone asks you politely for something, you should give it to them." Natsuki received another stern look. "Anyway, only Shizuru and I knew that I had a spare key to her apartment, so I assumed that only a relative of Shizuru's would know."
"What is it with people assuming?" Natsuki asked the ceiling.
Ignoring Natsuki, Chie asked, "So what happened after you gave her the key?"
"She popped out for a moment, came back with a bag full of groceries and went into Shizuru's apartment to deposit them. I saw her going in, but had finished cleaning outside, so when she came to give the key back, she had to knock on my door."
"Is there a chance we could take the key... as evidence?" Chie gave her most polite smile.
"Yes, I don't see why not. Anything to help a nice police officer like yourself." Ms. Chen disappeared back inside to go fetch the key. Natsuki stuck her tongue out at the old lady's retreating back. When Ms. Chen re-appeared, she handed Chie the key before looking sternly at Natsuki. "You on the other hand missy deserve a bop on the nose. That's what Mr. Pickles gets for back talking elders instead of treating them with respect!"
"Yeah sure. Whatever Neko Lady." Said Natsuki, turning and walking away.
Chie gave an apologetic bow, before following Natsuki out of the building.
March 22nd 05:00 pm, ASWAD Tech. College, Science Laboratory, Dr. Helene's office
Yet again, Natsuki found herself waiting impatiently for Dr. Helene to come back with the results of the evidence gathered that morning. This time she did not tap her feet, instead she took the sumo wrestler shaped stress ball from Youko's desk and passed it from one hand to the other. Chie was too busy reading through her case file for this to annoy her.
It wasn't too long before Dr. Helene arrived, "I come baring good news!"
"Of course it's good. I collected it." Stated Natsuki.
Quickly diffusing the bomb, Chie asked, "So, what have you got for us Youko?"
Settling on her desk chair and shuffling through her files, Youko replied, "analysis on the lock of apartment 10 B showed fleck of green paint. Further analysis of this paint shows that it is from a recently cut key from a locksmith just around the corner of Ms. Fujino's apartment, called "Rokku to kī". We phoned Mr. Rokku, the owner, and he confirmed that a Mrs Ahn Lu asked for a key to be copied last Thursday. Inspection of the key also showed that it had been copied; some smiths leave a UV stamp to show that it has been copied before."
"Okay, so what we know so far is that Shizuru's sister decided to make a quick trip to Osaka to visit her sister. Why would she want to cut the spare key?" pondered Chie.
"She probably wanted the kidnapping to go as smooth as possible: The swabs from the sink, table leg and carpet showed positive for chloral hidrate. Specific ratios match with chloral hidrate sold by Kanzaki Medical corp."
"Mickey?" Chie was confused, "What would Ahn Lu be doing with a date rape drug?"
"Shizuru obviously did not want to go where Ahn wanted to take her." Explained Natsuki, "maybe Ahn came over before and got the door closed in her face by Shizuru. She then goes behind her sisters back to the neighbour, borrows the spare key and cuts a copy so she can come and go as she pleases. One night, she goes to Shizuru's again, they talk; she slips a Mickey into her sister's drink and whisks her away. Evidence is consistent with Shizuru spilling her drink after being knocked out, and Ahn getting rid of the evidence by washing it down the sink."
"That's one way I suppose." Agreed Chie, "I guess the next thing for us to do is to go to Kyoto and meet the family."
A/N: If this chapter made you happy, clap your hands... and then review please and thank you :)
