Gohan and Goten didn't notice when Officer Yamcha left. It had been a pleasant visit, not to mention productive. The officer had dropped by that morning to deliver a few photos Gohan had requested and was off to continue his job. Neither Son boy noticed his departure, totally engrossed with the photos.
One of them was a picture of the bracelet Erasa wore the night of her murder. Surprisingly, it was one long piece of jewelry, a long chain of silver bands connected by tiny little chains, allowing for there to be space between each band. It could have easily covered a young woman's forearm, or so Gohan thought.
"I don't think I've ever seen jewelry like this," Goten commented after awhile. "Looks complicated."
"That may be good news," Gohan replied. "A piece like this would be so rare that anyone that's seen it would remember it."
"So who are you hoping for to remember this thing?"
"The creator if not the employees of the jewelry shop that it was purchased in. If we can find the store this was sold at, we might be able to get a description of the man who gave it to Erasa. We can then work on finding out how Erasa came into possession of it. Most likely the man who killed her came into contact with it at some point."
Goten looked to Gohan questioning. "Why not have someone check for fingerprints on it? Surely there's something on it."
"I doubt it. The people we're after are meticulous in their preparation. They're not going to leave behind any evidence we can use to identify them."
"Them? People? Are we looking for multiple people or just one person?"
Gohan paused at that. "I must not be getting any sleep," he muttered quickly. "I spent most of the night on those blasted codes I found in Erasa's datebook and I couldn't make heads or tails of it at all."
"Then perhaps I should get us some coffee. You can take a quick nap or something until I get back."
That was quite a tempting offer. Gohan had half a mind to accept it until the office door swung open. "Gooooooooooooooood Morning!" a way too chipper voice declared, startling the two young men. Turning around, those saw a young blonde woman looking at them with a large smile plastered on her face, a large purse dangling at her side as the strap clung to her shoulder.
"Oh, hey Mrs. Rubba," Gohan greeted, a bit wary. Considering how everyone but him seemed to know of the evidence against him, he was expecting to see the woman to treat him just like everyone else had.
"And how's my favorite detective?" Mrs. Rubba asked, her bright eyes staring into his, obviously hoping for some good news concerning a certain case.
"Busy," Gohan answered. "We've got a couple of leads we're following up on."
"Ooooooh, that is such great news! Thank you soooooo much, Mr. Son! I can't thank you enough!"
Gohan gave her a weak smile. He had almost forgotten how lively Erasa's mother was—almost as lively as her daughter. It made him want to find the guy responsible for her daughter's death even more than he already did. She was just that kind of person you didn't want to disappoint.
"Rubba," Goten said softly. "Hey, is this the mother of that girl who—"
Immediately, Gohan clamped his hand on his brother's mouth, stopping him from speaking. Well to be more specific, he stopped Goten from saying something intelligible as he kept talking, but his hand muffled every sound his brother made. Gohan didn't really want to know what the younger Son was going to say—there was just so many ways that sentence could have ended and many of them not good.
"This is the woman who we're helping," he amended, glancing to the mother. She didn't seem the least bit perturbed by their antics, watching them instead with chipper eyes. Perhaps that was something to be thankful for. That was until her eyes focused on Goten.
"Ooooooh! And who is this cutie?" she squealed.
With a slight wince, Gohan moved his hand from his brother's mouth and put it on his back, pushing him towards the woman. "Allow me to introduce my brother, Goten. He's going to help me on your daughter's case."
"He is? That's so sweet of him!" The next thing either man knew, Erasa's mother embraced Goten, pinning his arms to his sides. Goten looked at her awkwardly for a moment before his face began twisting into one of pain. Gohan watched comically as he saw Goten's face turn blue as his cheeks began puffing out. Was…was he trying to hold his breath? And were those audible pops and cracks coming from the boy's body? Oh god, Goten's eyes were rolling into his head.
"Umm, is there something we can help you with?" Gohan asked her, trying to get her attention.
"Oh yes!" Immediately, Erasa's mother dropped Goten to the floor, the young boy letting out a pained gasp. "I was just dropping in to see how far you've gotten."
Giving his brother a worried look, Gohan slowly began his report. "We're making some headway, but it's been slow going." Without looking, one of his hands went to the desk and began to search clumsily for one of the photos lying on its surface. When he found it, he picked it up and showed it to the woman. "This is one of our leads. We're trying to track down where this piece of jewelry came from. Would you know anything about it?"
"Umm, I'm not sure. All I see is white."
Gohan blinked before realizing he was holding the picture backwards. Again. Flipping it around, he then stated "How about now?"
Mrs. Rubba stared at the picture for a moment before saying "I would never wear that. Too gaudy for my tastes, but Erasa would have…liked…it." A melancholy look appeared on her face as tears began building around her eyes. "Oh my poor baby!"
Horrified looks crossed the Son boys' faces. Oh god no, not a crying woman! Neither one knew how to talk to one, much less calm it down. It wasn't like there was an Off Button on it. "Please Mrs. Rubba," Gohan pleaded. "Please don't cry."
A loud sob rang about the office, causing both boys to flinch. Well, that wasn't the way to stop the woman from crying.
"We're doing all we can to help your dead daughter," Goten tried to comfort.
An even louder cry rang out.
"For the love of God, please stop crying!"
The wailing grew deafening by that point, but then magically went silent, Mrs. Rubba sniveling as she got herself under control. "I-I'm s-s-sooooo sorry. I-I can't hardly h-help myself," she apologized.
The Son boys looked to each other then back to the woman. "We understand," Gohan said cautiously.
As if she hadn't been bawling her eyes out five seconds early, Mrs. Rubba looked at the two of them with a bright smile. "So is there anything I can do to help you boys? Do you need more money? A sandwich? How about your laundry done? I want to help in anyway I can!"
"That's alright, Mrs. Rubba," Goten replied with a small smile. "We have everything under control.
The snivels came back immediately. "You boys are so s-s-sweet," the woman wept, on the verge of tears again. Gohan and Goten were horrified once more. Not again, they couldn't take another round of tears!
"Actually," Gohan spoke up panicking, spinning around as his hands swept across his desk for some piece of paper or something he could use to distract the woman. As it turned out, it was a photo of Erasa's body. Pausing for a moment, Gohan set the picture aside and searched again. Showing a woman on the verge of a breakdown the image of her deceased child was not the way to stop her from flooding the room with tears. He ended up settling on a photo of the alley, picking it up and holding it out to the woman. "Do you know where this place is?" he asked. While he knew exactly where it was, he was desperate to distract the mourning mother.
Erasa's mother held herself together as she stared at the photo. Shaking her head, she sighed "No, I don't." Looking at it again, an analytical look crossed her face. "Who ever took the photo isn't very good."
"Uh, okay?" Gohan wasn't too sure what to make of that. "Not sure what you mean."
"Sweetie, when you've worked in journalism as long as I have, you see millions of the best photos you could ever see."
The young man perked his head up at that. "You were a journalist?"
"Thirty four years," the woman proclaimed proudly.
Immediately, Gohan found the list of letters he had gotten from Erasa's datebook. "One more thing; I found these initials in your daughter's datebook and I have no idea what they represent. Do you think you could take a look and let me know what they mean?"
Mrs. Rubba stared at him. "How did you get Erasa's datebook?"
Gohan hesitated for a moment. Would it be wise to tell this woman he had been at her daughter's home? She could consider it a breach of privacy and react negatively. A bubble of dark humor welled up in the young man. As if she wouldn't react that way regardless of his answer. "I stopped by your daughter's apartment to see if she left any clues as to why she was in that part of the city that night. See if she was meeting someone, like a date or a friend."
The blonde woman continued to stare at him for a moment before nodding her head in approval, a smile appearing on her face. "I knew I hired the right person for this! I wouldn't have thought of that!"
Again, Gohan found himself pausing. This woman was a journalist right? Shouldn't that thought have crossed her mind? "Umm, which area of journalism did you work for?"
"Well, I did the Dear Abby column for three years, then I moved into movie reviews, and then I was tracking down celebrities."
Goten's face fell upon hearing that. Gohan would've followed his example, but because he was in Mrs. Rubba's direct line of sight, he kept his expression as neutral as he could. This woman was a regular on the gossip pages, which meant she was pretty much useless with the investigation.. No wonder she hadn't thought of his tactic. The odds that she could provide him any relevant information considering this list were growing against him. Still, it wasn't like it would hurt to show her the initials. "Could you just take a look at these letters," he held the page to her.
Mrs. Rubba took the sheet and gave it a second's glance. "Oh, these are Erasa's sources," she said casually.
Sources? "How did you know that," Gohan blurted out.
"Because Erasa used my system." Mrs. Rubba held the list out to him, pointing a manicured finger at the letters on top. "See those S's? They stand for Sensitive Source. The next letters are the place she met them at."
Gohan was tempted to ask why the woman would need sources, considering her line of work, but it occurred to him that even she needed to know certain people close to her targets. A maid, a gardener, an awards ceremony director would prove valuable to gain information on the people she was digging up gossip on. "Why would you make this system though?"
"I had to protect my sources," Mrs. Rubba replied, acting as if that was the most obvious answer in the world. Probably to her it was. "No one would work with me if I didn't protect their identities. So in case anyone ever found my notes or appointments, I put them in code so they couldn't figure it out. Pretty smart, huh?"
"Yeah...very smart."
However, that just made a more pressing question pop into Gohan's head. If this woman really knew what these initials and numbers meant, then he could have her decipher it all. "Have any idea of where those places would be?"
Mrs. Rubba turned the sheet back so she could look at them better, a thoughtful look appearing on her face. "The JJC would be the Jibing Jig Club. Not sure why Erasa would ever go there. It has decent food, but the place is soooooo second class. You wouldn't believe how gaudy the decorations are. Like—"
"Thank you Mrs. Rubba," Gohan thanked as he snatched the page from the woman's hand and slapped it to the desk, pouring over the letters. Goten moved over to get a look at the sheet as well, staring at it curiously. "You've helped us more than you'll ever know."
"You're welcome Sweetie! Here, let me hug you!"
Gohan didn't even look up from the sheet as the woman closed in on him. However, he did grab Goten's arm and pulled the boy next to him. That placed him right in front of the mother as she wrapped her arms around Son boy and proceeded to crush him once more.
"Help…me…" Goten squeaked out as his eyes began bulging out of their sockets, the cracking of his bones being quite audible.
Oblivious to it all, Gohan slid around his desk and sat in his chair. He hardly noticed the large desk calendar that spread out in front of him, though the random scattering of papers and pictures did a good job disguising it. Truth be told, Gohan was more focused on Erasa's date book, particularly the week of her murder. Immediately he found the letters SS DT scribbled on the day of the girl's murder. There was also a 10 there, most likely being the time she was supposed be at the designated place. From what he learned from Mrs. Rubba, Erasa had been meeting a sensitive source at a place called DT at 10. Whether that was 10 AM or PM was up in the air, though it depended on what DT was. It could have been Devil's Tavern, which would make the time 10 PM—unless the source was an alcoholic, which then it could've been AM too.
A THUD sound interrupted the detective's deliberations, causing Gohan to look up and see Goten's crushed body lying on the floor and Mrs. Rubba looking ecstatic. "Well, I'll leave you two sweeties alone," she chirped. "I don't want to keep you from finding that evil murderer out there. Byeeeeee!"
Spinning around, the blonde woman strode out of the room, leaving it completely silent—well, if you discounted the small moans of pain from Goten that is. Standing up, Gohan leaned over the desk to get a better view of his brother and asked "You okay there Goten?"
"Never…walk…again…" was the response.
Gohan winced at that. Though grateful he had been speared that surprisingly powerful hug, he did feel a bit of pity for his broken brother. Perhaps he should let the boy take the rest of the day off, to recover from his harrowing experience and all.
A shrill shriek interrupted Gohan's musings, causing him to bolt out of his seat. Rushing out of the office, Gohan turned into the corridor to find Mrs. Rubba in yet another death-hug, this time Videl being the victim. The woman's face was puffing out comically as she was lifted off the floor, her fingers flexing and twisting rigidly about.
"Oooooh Videl, it's soooooooo good to see you!" the blonde woman was saying, her voice slightly muffled as she rubbed her face affectionately into Videl. Due to the girl being off the ground, this put Mrs. Rubba's face right into the lawyer's bosom.
With all of this happening right in front of Gohan, the only thing the detective found himself doing was staring at it bewilderedly.
To Gabby: Very small world. Though I don't know about being better than CSI, mostly cause I don't watch it. This has been a more difficult story to write than I imagined, but it seems to be coming out relatively enjoyable to you guys. I guess I'm doing something right.
