Chapter IX- Suspects.
As Falco whooshed through the highway, quickly they already arrived at the highway they should be.
"Say, when did you went back to Coneria?" Asked Fox.
"I'm working on the Lover's killer case. It's pretty mysterious, eh? It just goes on and on without anyone that has any kind of anything that can help us to solve it. Our suspect is a contented, intelligent, well-organized fellow who came in like smoke and disappears like lightning." Replied Falco.
"Yeah..." Said Fox. He thought that the fellow may be him. But he also knew that he wasn't. But then he was amazed. Had Falco not known he was there, he would have been arrested. Plus, how did Falco know that he was traced, plus knowing it's magnetic?
"How did you know that I am magnetically traced, and I am here?"
"It's simple. Meet the latest crime-solving technology from the Earth Federation."
As he let off one hand from the steering wheel, then took the analyzer from his pocket.
"It's not only an analyzer, it is also a small computer and a small PDA. When I scanned Coneria and the nearby airspace for you, I saw your signal blinking in the radar. It also had shown you are magnetized. So I drove to the spot and took you back."
"Oh, so it is."
When they got back to the motel, the duo went back to the room where Fox had booked in, as Falco had persuaded the receptionist to pay the same amount of money but to live in the same room as Fox. He mentioned that the receptionist gave an eye which may have reassembled: "Are those two homosexual?"
When things settle down a little bit, Falco then took out his analyzer and tried to analyze Fox's body to check if he had any fatal injuries from that crashed aircraft. But Fox refused.
"Just a few broken ribs. And a little dizzy. I'll be fine. I'm ready for the next challenge anyway after a couple of pills."
Then Falco's phone rang. He pressed the "answer" button.
"Yes? Free Agent Falco Lombardi?... Yes?... What?... OK. I'll be there." He then hung up the call.
"What is it?" Said Fox as he pressed his chest in pain appearing painful. For he had suffered injuries from the crash.
"Look...there's a demanding guy who wants me to co-operate with him. I promised that I'll go there the moment he calls, I don't have much time now. Stay here. Be safe, alright?"
As Falco took his coat, and went out of the room.
Knowing that Falco's hiding something, Fox thought of it for a while. But still he opened another 'heart'. The orange one.
Falco used his speed of driving to go there. Drifting in turns along the way, trying to reduce his speed loss in every turn.
He finally went there. It was the common apartments. Pigma was waiting already.
"Hmm, three minutes late." He said.
"Yes, but..."
"Next time I will ready to kill you if you continue to be like that."
"Yes, Lieutenant." Falco was so astonished that he had his dignity thrown to the wasteland like that. Yet he could not do anything.
"Our suspect is a man with a strange habit of gathering roses. And according to his mental state he could had performed the kills."
"Let's go upstairs then." Said Falco.
"Ah, there. I'm the one who's calling the shots. You hear me?"
"Yes. Sire."
When they went up, there was an apartment who is peculiar. Its door is still very old fashioned. Unlike others which had been modernized according to the renewal policy of Coneria.
Falco pressed the doorbell, but before he can even press it, Pigma shot the doorknob, forcing the door open. That shot landed closely on Falco's waist.
"Just go in." Said Pigma.
"I'm not sure this is good for the citizen who lived here."
"Call your beloved Earth-Federation space corps here then."
Pigma went in. Leaving Falco standing. Disgusted. But he had to go in any way.
Falco went into there, and the first thing he had to do is to go back out and wear his hideous investigator's mask.
"Out of Krystal's tail!" Said Falco. As he sneezed and sneezed for ten seconds before he can wear his mask.
After putting it on, Falco can finally go in and investigate. He took his analyzer out, and started searching.
The first thing he scanned was the roses who this man had gathered. The analyzer took a while to calculate the results. But then, just out of Falco's mind, the rose although is the same species as the one found at the crime scene, it doesn't have the traits of the roses which had been in the last murders. The last murder's roses are wild-planted. But this one, is domestically planted and reproduced.
"Pigma, I don't think this is the killer."
But Pigma did not answer him. And instead fired at every door he saw, then bashed them with his feet.
Suddenly Falco's phone rang. And saw Fox sending him an integral question for him to solve.
"Huh? Now? I can't just rip off a piece of paper from the owner of that notebook and solve the equation! Better use the analyzer to solve it."
Then he inserted the photo to the analyzer, and the result is sent back to Fox.
"I wonder what he needed to solve a mathematical equation for..."
After sending the photo, before he can even ask why he needed that, Fox went offline. So he cannot ask him yet. Leaving him confused.
After that, Falco went to examine one of the rooms. This man is really obsessed with roses. Not only he planted them. He studied them. Prints of the DNA reports are everywhere. And the notebook on the table had many notes taken as chemical formulas, structures, plus lots of solutions with different colors in different test tubes on the table too.
"This guy is obsessed in planting roses more than killing people...the chemical formula is way different than the one from the crime scene..."
Then out of his expectations, the door outside was heard pushed open. Falco looked out, and a man with groceries appeared.
He was astonished that someone actually broke in their house and searched for things. Although he did nothing.
"What...what are you doing?"
Falco then came out, and before Pigma had said anything, he said:
"Falco Lombardi from the CID. We hope to ask you a few question that is surrounding the lover's killer."
"To the sake of producing the best rose in Coneria, I have no such time to do such thing."
"Oh, but you did, didn't you?"
"I don't think-"
"Shut up! Did I told you to speak before I tell you to?"
Falco felt a boiling rage in his heart. So hot that the container of "rage" was going to explode. But he cannot. For the sake of himself, for the sake of Krystal, for the sake of Fox.
He still cannot resist expressing his emotions on his face. A look of anger thundered out of his eye, then before Pigma can understand, he turned back.
"You was trying to kidnap one, and you tried to hide by planting roses, don't you? Do I need to cry it out for your poor soul?"
"No. I did not do anything!"
"Just you think, everything was just as I expected. You think that your devilish deed can slip away from my eyes?"
"Oh, what big eyes you have." Thought Falco. "Not the smallest thing can slip away."
"No. Don't speak the name..."
"Oh, I am going to speak it..."
"What's wrong with Pigma? What name is it talking about?"
The analyzer beeped.
Falco took out the analyzer, and it gave a description on what they are saying. (Only displayed on the hologram screen)
"In my opinion, they are talking about Krystal. As the highest possibility of my analysis told me that they are talking about the lover's killer's case. But I'm only an artificially constructed mind. I do not know how your minds made of flesh and blood think about."
"Yeah. I know about that. I have to stop him." Though Falco. "Hey! What are you doing? Pigma? Stop that!"
"For the sake of the most precious rose in this world, I will kill you with this handgun!"
"Whoa, hold on. This is something that we can-"
But Falco, with his aggressive behavior, even as a disciplined investigator he pulled out his handgun. An M1911A1 MKVII "Eagle Eye" pistol.
"Halt! If you dare to shoot anyone in here, I will immobilize you immediately!"
But that man still did not stop.
"You think that your puny words can stop me? Throw me in jug?"
"Look, I do not think that you will be too bad in jail. Coneria prison is a much better place than it was before."
"I still have my research work to do!"
"OK. If you did not do anything, you can just come out after a short time, do you hear? We'll just want you to help with a few questions."
"To the name of the virgin Mary, I cannot fail her name!"
"Enough already! Falco! Shoot the fuck in his head!"
Falco was very nervous. He learned many ways of negotiation. But not to a mentally-unbalanced fellow who loves roses.
"You are the Anti-Christ! The one who killed Virgin Mary so that she can use her blood as roses for me to take revenge on her!"
Falco then had an idea of calming down the man. But he must control his witty-little-mouth. And instead, be persuasive to confront the person.
"OK. If he is really the Anti-Christ, a single Conarian-made, Vulcan-6 pistol is too weak to kill him. Am I right? You kind of need a pistol like mine."
The man hesitated.
"Can you tell me your name?"
"Zephyr." Said the man. "It's Zephyr."
"OK. Zephyr, put down the gun, and we'll..."
"Just goddamn shoot!"
"For the name of Christ and the name of the Virgin Mary and every couple who wanted the perfect rose to propose to another, you shall be perished to death! Son of Satan!"
Falco cannot bear it anymore. His tension is at his limit.
"By the name of Goddamn Krystal! I have a lot to do to save someone who was so important my good friend and now you are wasting my precious time, trying to slow the process of me saving her and instead trying to kill her indirectly! You think talking to you is a good thing? Huh? You think I am so much free time to argue with you? So put, down, the, Vulcan, pistol!"
The man seemed to fear Falco. And slowly put down the pistol down the ground.
"Now hands in the air! Immediately!"
The man raised his hands, hesitantly.
Pigma then just put down Zephyr's hands and handcuffed him.
"Nice trick. But I'd rather pull a bullet to his head."
"Sometimes, a gun is not the solution to any problem."
"Yeah. But at least this should be."
Falco stood there, with his face down on the ground. It was raining again. With a soft little thunder.
