Plastic Surgeon Doctor Jeremy Nasr looked at the crime scene photos with an odd sense of calm that so far no one had exhibited after viewing the images. He then passed the stack of photo's back and folded his hands together neatly. The 45 year old surgeon opened his office in Portland Oregon eight years ago with four fellow more experienced surgeons. With a bit of digging, Matt and Mello confirmed that Nasr was arguably the best authority on sex change operations in the area.
"Well the incisions aren't surgically precise-" The doctor said before Mello huffs.
"We know, he's not a doctor or anyone in a related profession. Tell us something we don't already have so we can get on with this." Mello snapped at him. The thin blond doctor glares but doesn't rebuff his rudeness.
"No surgeon would ever cut like this it would risk cutting the femoral artery. In fact that may have been how these men and women died."
"Does anything other than the inaccuracy strike you as odd?" Matt asks over Mello's shoulder.
"Only that, while the incisions are a gross mockery of a sex change surgery, the purpose of these wounds seems to have been to remove gender identity all together. In the females there is no reconstructed phallus and in the males there is only minor indication that he tried to create a vaginal opening." Matt and Mello both stood up.
"Thanks, we'll let you know if we need to know something else." Matt said as he and Mello exit the room. Mello and Matt walk down two flights of stairs before Mello's disposable cell phone rings. The blonde picks it up and pops a bar of chocolate in his mouth.
"Ello?" He says with chocolate between his teeth.
"Mello, you and Matt are to drive to the Portland Airport right away. You have a flight that will take you to the location of the first of the victim's home. I am also sending you an extra set of eyes. He will meet you there. Your tickets are under the names Calvin Morton and Jacob Nash, you will be able to pick them up at the Delta Airlines kiosk. Good luck." The garbled voice could have been either L or Watari, Matt and Mello would listen to either of them so it didn't matter. They headed out to the airport at once.
"Who do you think he's sending?" Matt asked as they walked down the stairs. Mello shrugs.
"I don't know I just hope it's not Near!"
…
Near would have been a happy alternative to the man that met them in Phoenix, Arizona. Mello thought there was no way in hell Daddy would give up Mommy for any span of time Light hadn't been outside the building or general area L was in since he was cleared of the charges against him a year ago. Yet here he was a year after then end of the Kira case, standing in the United States of America with a suitcase and no visible sign of supervision what so ever. Matt and Mello almost forget to step off of the escalator they were so stunned by the well-dressed serial killer. Matt bumped into Mello and the two of them staggered off the moving stairs without breaking eye contact with Yagami.
"Boys." Light said as he adjusted the strap of his shoulder bag. Mello and Matt both mouth something but the words just don't form. Light turned and began walking regally toward where their town car was waiting for them.
Since his capture Light Yagami has been far happier than he's ever been in his life. For one thing he has a remarkably stable romantic relationship with his intellectual equal. He doesn't have to hide or plan ahead to avoid capture but he still gets the thrill of helping L dish out justice. In fact his work load is higher than it's ever been and he's never had more fun thinking five steps ahead of things. The other reason Light is happy is simply because he doesn't have to pretend to be nice all of the time. Sometimes he does just for manipulation, but when he's around L and the heirs he can be the selfish, superior, egotistic sociopath he really is. And the rest of them are far too strange in their own right to care.
But even if he can be himself around dingus and wingus that doesn't mean he likes their company for shit. The three of them sat down in the town car awkwardly. L had never let the three of them be in a room alone before. Probably because one of Mello's great pleasures in life is driving a wedge in Light's relationship with L. So Mello's fear of being strangled by Kira is not unfounded.
"So…" Matt began trying to start the conversation. Light would have none of it. With a flip of his hair he pulled out his laptop and brought up the case materials.
"We're going to interview the family of the victim we know the least about. Montressor Hannigan. Dry cleaner by trade, we don't have anything more than just basic physical information. L and I picked him to start with because he seems to be the most mundane of all the victims."
"You think there will be more to him." Mello says in what sounds to Matt like agreement.
"Yes. While we do this L and Watari are going to find out the identities of the two unknown victims." Light fishes out his coffee thermos from the pouch in his bag. He takes a sip of it and winces. "Why must L bombard me with sugar even from thousands of miles away?!" Light growls to himself. Mello casually looks out the window and raises an eyebrow.
"It's his way of saying he misses you." Mello adds. Mello internally curses himself for saying something supportive of their relationship. Light does not miss a beat.
"Really? How interesting it's like he cares for me of his own volition or something! And here I thought I had to use Kira Psychic Mind Games to make him love me." Light rolls his eyes and fights a smile.
"I'm still not convinced." Mello hisses. Matt exercises restraint and instead plays his videogame.
"Oh and by the way." Light bites his lip to control himself. "You're half wrong about when we have sex." Mello's face scrunches together as he tries to decipher the meaning of that. The posh young murderer crosses his legs and goes back to reading up on world news.
It takes them an hour and a half in traffic to get to the home of Montessor Hannigan. The day is hot, outside the sundried house stands a man who they assume must be the brother that has come to meet them. Matt and Mello hop out of the car and go straight to bombard the man with questions. Light sticks his head out the door and shouts. For some reason (probably the murderous tone in his voice) the duo listens to him. Light calmly exits the car and approaches the man with his hand outstretched. Matt and Mello suddenly remember that they haven't ever heard Light speak English. This should be a treat, Mello thinks as he looks forward to a hopefully atrocious accent.
"Hello Mr. Hannigan. My name is Light Yagami and these are my two associates. It's very kind of you to come out to meet us today." He says in his best funeral home worker voice. The man could be talking about brutalizing infants in that voice and you would even notice it was so well oiled; and to Mello's great disappointment, not corny at all. Clearly L had helped him, that or the man might actually just be good at everything Mello scoffed at the offensively polite serial killer following a murder victim's brother into the murder victim's house. Matt was on the same page as Mello.
"Is this some kind of sin against justice?" Matt asked quietly as they entered the doorway of the house. Mello grumbled back,
"Probably, but it's not our sin so let's just not inspect it." Light cast a lightning fast death glare at the two dawdling heirs. They both decided at that time to cut holes in all of his clothes later.
The serial killer looked over the room as the victim's brother elaborated on Montressor's childhood which as it turns out was extremely normal. He fought with his mother, children picked on him, he loved his dog named Peppy, he broke his arm once. The metal pins had a registration number on them. That was how they identified the body.
"Did you talk to your brother much before he disappeared?" Light asked as he made a V line for the bedroom, but at a pace that wasn't too fast to be conspicuous. The brother didn't hesitate to answer.
"Yes we talked at least once a week he liked to talk about all the crazy stuff that happened down at the dry cleaners." Light nodded as he scanned over pictures. The victim was unmarried but apparently had many friends. Mello stopped in front of one picture in particular. In it the victim sat next to another man about the same age as him with his arm around the other man's waist. Mello's brain to mouth barrier was unfortunately not on that day.
"Was Monty gay?" The victim's brother looked absolutely appalled. Light gripped the door handle to the bedroom and silently screamed at Mello from down the hall. Light had figured out the man's sexuality based on his childhood description, the way the brother talked about the friends, and the state the house was in. To top it off a male close friend had filed the missing persons report. Which translate loosely to GAY in Arizona. The brother blabbered at Mello and Matt about how no brother of his was gay and everything else you would expect a homophobic man to say in the wake of his gay brother's death. Light took this opportunity to let them clean up their own shit. Calmly he entered the bedroom.
The room was clean, a pair of respectable work clothes were set aside for the next day with a pair of modest pajamas next to them. The bed was loosely put together on both sides. A quick inspection of the pillows confirmed what he already knew. They were both top quality but one was very firm and the other one was just barely a clump of cushy feathers. Two people sleep in this bed regularly enough that they have their own pillows, Light thought. His personal things didn't need to be gone through but he couldn't skip the closet. The moment he opened the door he knew he'd found what made Montressor Hannigan special. Inside the closet beautiful gowns and sequined dresses were arranged with boxes of accessories. For the sake of being thorough he checked the dress sizes but he already knew that they would be sized to fit the victim. He pulled a camera out of his pocket and took a few pictures.
Light passed Mello and Matt with a cheery smile on his face. They watched him go in confusion. Mello took the hint and followed. The brother kept asking questions as he followed them but none of the three answered. Finally as Light went to sit in the car he paused to answer the frantic man.
"You loved your brother, mourn him and ignore the things we've uncovered. That's the only way you're ever going to get your peace."
…
Inside the car Matt and Mello looked over the pictures.
"So he's a drag Queen how does that help us?" Mello says as he chomps on some chocolate. Light shrugs.
"I'm not sure. So far the victims have nothing to do with one another. L and Watari have yet to find any geographical similarities. None of them worked in the same industry and with the addition of the Drag Queen factor we are no closer to understanding this puzzle." Matt leans back in his seat and turns on his DS.
"What I don't understand is how all these dissimilar people are supposed to fit together as a set. He must have dumped them all together because they are supposed to go with each other but none of them are remotely similar aside from the same ripper sex change."
"Normally I would say that means they weren't supposed to go together but in this instance I don't think so." Light says as he examines his nails.
"Right, it's TOO random." Mello says.
"He built a set of something we just don't know what yet…" Light trails off. Mello rummages through his backpack until he finds his ringing cellphone. He picks it up, holding it between his ear and shoulder.
"Hello?" The voice on the other end is sheriff Hunt.
"Yeah, what's the news?" Mello asks. Hunts clears his throat and takes a deep breathe.
"They found another set of bodies." He says in his tired gravelly voice. The corner of Mello's mouth curves slightly around the chocolate bar between his teeth.
"Okay, where are they?" Mello responds, trying to sound appropriately sedate.
"Caldwell, Idaho. The local police unearthed a body last year that fits our mutilation profile exactly. They got a look at our case two days ago. Yesterday they went out to the sight and unearthed seven more bodies underneath where the first one hand been."
"Seven?!" Mello's eyes went wide. Light and Matt had caught onto the conversation easily. They too looked astounded; Light probably for different reasons than Matt and Mello. "I understand" Mello responded before ending the call. He looked at his two fellow detectives with an odd sense of triumph. " I told you there would be more victims!"
…
His house is a garbage bag that hasn't been changed in two weeks. The fridge is full of food that has spoiled. He doesn't open the door because it smells too badly. He pays his bills on time and no one ever comes over so there is no reason to intrude. His home is large and mostly empty aside from trash and books. He has not television and he has never invested in any more modern technology. His lone companion is a stereo that only plays tapes. He only owns one tape. It plays continuously in the house even if no one is home. He has owned a hundred and thirty seven copies of the same tape. He wears them out after a few years. She stands in front of the sink washing dishes with dirty water. Her hands are wrinkled from the water and worn from the sponge. The music plays a raspy version of the song it once played. It is a child's song.