Wammy's House

11:00 am, Wednesday

Matt and Mello nearly knocked the door down as they burst into the musty office. Watari was sitting calmly at the desk, the chair facing away from them.

Sorry...we're late...sir." Matt panted. Mello stood beside him, nodding frantically, too winded to speak.

"It's quite all right. At least you weren't too terribly late." Watari properly spoke, his voice bland as he turned around in the boys were surprised to see how old he looked. The creases and wrinkles in his face seemedd more defined, and the frown he was sporting didn't help his image.

"Now let's get to business. Please step around so that you may see the computer screen." Watari motioned to the old desktop before turning to it and clicking on the internet icon. He logged into his email account and clicked on the most recent email. Mello realized with a start that it was from BeyondBirthday at aol.

"That's bold of him to blatantly put it there like that. It kind of bothers me, you know? Couldn't he have made a normal username, and explain who it is in the email?" Mello talked to try to ease the tension. Nobody answered him, they were too busy watching the computer's screen load the pictures.

"That computer's really old, sir. You should convince Roger to get you a new one, look at the lag!" Matt said, somewhat nerve-rackingly, pointing at the screen. Watari stretched a tense smile, as they watched the pictures, which weren't even a quarter of the way loaded after a few minutes. Matt decided it was time to stop talking. The top part of the picture was loaded, and it wasn't exactly pleasant. It showed part of Near's bare neck and shoulders. It was very obvious that he was at least shirtless, possibly naked, which made Mello simmer. As the picture loaded, it just got gorier.

"Is-is that blood?" Mello asked disgustedly, leaning closer to the screen in disbelief. Watari nodded gravely. By now the picture was about a third loaded, and you could see Near's entire upper back. Matt and Mello stared in horror as they started to make out the words grotesquely carved into Near's back. Matt read each line out loud as they downloaded.

"To whom it may concern...I am having a gret time with little...Near." He choked. "Thanks for letting me borrow him. From, Beyond Birthday." He leaned back, processing the words.

"That's...that's fucking sick!" Mello voiced his opinion without considering who he was with. "Sorry, Sir." He followed up hastily, glancing up at Watari.

"No, I quite agree." Watari said. Though he looked quite calm, there was a fire behind his eyes. The three of them stared at the pictures, drinking up the gore and disfigurement.

"Are those...bruises?" Matt asked, pointing to the purple spots.

"They look more like welts...imagine a knife going through one of those. That's gotta be horrible." Mello observed, a shudder rippling through his spine.

"What would get give him welts? Other than, you know, Beyond...I was talking more of the instrument used...by Beyond..." Matt trailed off, his thoughts not organized.

"But the question is 'why?'" Mello pointed out.

"We can't be sure. But we can rest assured that it wasn't an accident." Watari said.

"Near doesn't deserve torture! What did he ever do to him?" Mello shouted in a rage.

"Quiet, Mello. We've got to make a plan." Watari said, giving them his most serious face. The boys looked solemly at him. "From Linda's observations, we can safely assume that the car BB is using is a Volkswagen Golf Mk III. That doesn't get us very far, it's a fairly common car in Europe. From the picture you can tell he is in a domestic place, like a house or apartment complex or hotel. Near's not being kept at an abandoned warehouse or something of the like, which is good. But we still don't know if he's even in this country." Watari finished, glancing down at the boys. "And we have almost nothing to go on." Watari gave them a stony look. They were silent again, mulling over the information and failing to find any good leads.

"We'll bring L into this. He's between-cases right now, so he's quite eager to take this one up. From there, we must decide whether-" Watari was cut off by the ringing of the office phone. He glanced at the caller ID.

"It's not a local number, which means it's not likely to be a personal call for Roger, so I'll pick it up." Watari decided, snatching up the phone on the second-to-last ring.

"Watari speaking. Roger is currently unavailible, if you'd-" Watari started quickly then paused. "Yes? No, we have not. I do not wish to disclose that information. Oh? Really?" Watari pressed a small red button on the phone. Mello glanced over and saw that the button was labeled 'RECORD'. Watari looked disgusted, before hanging up furiously, the phone clattering on the reciever.

"Was it-?" Matt started to ask, but Watari was already talking.

"Beyond called to inform us of something quite...trivial." Watari spat out as if the sentence tasted bad in his mouth.

Mello wondered what it could be. It seemed strange that any news from Beyond would be considered...trivial.

AUTHORS NOTE: Sorry for not updating in...forever. But now my laptop is stable, and I may continue! And let's make it clear that I am a review whore :P