Okay! Chapter 10 in done! phew. ^_^ I'd like to thank everyone for their wonderful comments/reviews. You guys inspire me to keep on writing, so thank you! Also, because I forgot to state this with the other chapters.... I obviously do not own Death Note, nor the characters, except Michael, Dean, David, Adam, and Ryan. ^_^ Without further adu, I will stop rambling so you can read chapter 10. enjoy. =)
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L shuffled back to his room, passing people confused by the commotion he had caused. It was widely known that L rarely exerted any kind of energy, except of course, brain energy. His running around the entire orphanage had clearly made some of the students curious as to what had brought about his sudden change in character. L said nothing, he would worry about it tomorrow, right now, he had other matters to attend to.
When L finally reached his room, he shut the door behind him, locking out all of the gawking, inquiring, and nosy eyes. Mello, Matt, and Near looked up simultaneously. L had been gone for twenty-three minutes and forty-two seconds. The three younger detectives had become slightly worried. After all, his exit had been more than abnormal, and the way he ran past the room the second time had added to the strangeness of the situation. The three young boys said nothing, simply watching their hero, trying to analyze what had happened.
L glanced around the room with weary, lifeless eyes. When they fell on Michael's head, who had been re-handcuffed to a chair in the main room, his nostrils flared. L stomped over to him and glared at him, causing the young student to squirm under the detective's gaze. L didn't even know what to say to that boy, he was so angry with him! He considered throwing strawberries at him, may their delectable fruitiness impale him with pain! Then he thought, no… the strawberries did not deserve such a terrible fate, he could never harm them in their preciousness.
Finally L turned to Michael's accomplices, who had been casting nervous shadowed glances at each other. When no one said anything, L decided it was time he got to work. "Where is Watari?" he demanded, his voice cold and cruel.
Near flinched at his curdling tone, he had never heard L talk with such a harshness in his voice; the situation must be worse than he imagined. What does he mean 'Where's Watari?' he should be in his office. The same thoughts were running through Mello and Matt's minds as well, though all three sat silent, waiting for what L would do next.
When Dean, David, nor Adam answered, L turned to Michael. His dark glare piercing a hole directly into Michael's eye sockets. As Michael was starting to open his trembling mouth to answer, a different voice rang out in the room. "Michael, don't you dare tell him anything," Adam spat, "Ryan is going to be so pissed at you, aren't you afraid of what he's going to do to you after he finds out you squealed?"
L snapped his head towards Adam. He had had enough of this brat's back-talk. L grabbed the arm of the chair he was sitting in and started dragging it towards the closet, ignoring Adam's protests. He shoved the chair into the closet and called for Mello. "Mello, go watch him, if he starts being a smart ass, do what ever you like to him, just shut him up. If he starts cooperating, come get me," with those words he dismissed his blonde apprentice.
Mello headed for the closet then doubled back and grabbed a small object from underneath the couch cushion. It was a small black gun. L gave him a questioning look when he held it up, but remained silent. "Just in case I ever needed it," the young blonde shrugged nonchalantly. Mello strolled over to the closet, entered, and closed the door behind him.
L turned back to Dean, David, and Michael. "If any one else has any other smart remarks that they would like to add, they can join those two in the closet," he declared emotionless. L turned back to face Michael, to continue his questioning. He did not feel the need, nor the desire to try to calm the boy in front of him. Ignoring the wide terrified eyes and trembling fingers, L pressed again, "Where is Watari?"
It took several moments for Michael to steady his nerves enough to reply, but he finally opened his dry lips and whispered, "I don't know. We weren't involved on that level, we just dealt with the minor thefts here. Well… and the security system."
L frowned, of course Ryan wouldn't share his full plans with someone like him, there was no way he could keep any kind of secret. He pressed on, "Why did you steal the chocolate, DS, and robot? They are not important to the kidnapping of Watari, so why go through the trouble?"
Michael had calmed himself down quite a bit by this time, and although he was still trembling a little bit, he had regained some of his bravado. "Of course they were important, we needed to see how hard it would be sneaking around the place and into rooms and stuff. Which of course, wasn't hard at all! The only -" He was cut off with a groan from Dean, who was silenced with a sharp glance from L. Michael continued, unaffected by the moment, "The only difficult part was getting past the actual security system, which really wasn't that difficult because Dean figured out a way to shut it down undetected for about twenty minutes max."
L scowled. He thought back over what he had learned over the past several days. Yes, it made sense, David and Adam had been the actual thefts, scouting out the difficulty of sneaking around the place at night. Dean and Michael, however, simply covered the outside security system. That was plausible. But wait, L remembered, when David visited Dean's room to inform him of Ryan's call, they mentioned something going down on Saturday. It was Thursday, so they couldn't have been talking about the kidnapping of Watari, but what was it?
"What is supposed to happen on Saturday?" he asked, trying to figure out the puzzle laid out before him.
"The kidnapping of Watari, of course," Michael chimed. L arched his eyebrows. After several moments Michael finally caught on, "Oh…" he mumbled, "wait a minute! Something isn't right here…"
From behind him, L heard a sigh. He turned around to see Dean opening his mouth to speak. "The kidnapping was always planned for Wednesday night. However, when we figured out there were cameras and taps in our rooms, we alerted Ryan, who told us to talk as if the kidnapping was going to take place on Saturday in order to deceive you. Everything -"
"Wait a minute! No one ever told me that it was planned for Wednesday! You guys said Saturday…" Michael accused.
"Gee! I wonder why no one told you!?" David scoffed.
Michael's eyes were full of hurt and anguish, "I don't get it," he sighed innocently.
The three boys continued their bickering but L tuned them out. He could not believe that he had been fooled by that trick, he should have known, or at least hypothesized that this could have happened. Watari was now paying the price for his ignorance.
L turned to David, who he presumed was probably in charge of the group of Ryan's school minions, seeing as he was the one who received the phone call several days ago. "Do you know where Watari is being held captive?" he inquired, the slightest bit of worry leaking into his voice.
David contemplated his answer for a moment. Finally, he shrugged his shoulders and gave a tainted smile. "Yeah, but it'll cost you."