Cid was in a bad mood. A very bad mood.
Shera sat patiently at her desk as she watched him pace back and forth, knowing the consequences of his actions.
"Will you just relax for a minute, Agent Highwind?" Shera snapped. Cid stopped and glared at her.
"I asked Fair to bring the suspect's mother in 20 minutes ago!" he barked. Shera winced in surprise, but simply shook her head and sighed.
"Even after all those years, you still don't know what patience is," she muttered, sipping her cup of coffee. Cid sighed with frustration.
"I can't just stand here and do nothing!" he exclaimed angrily. "I… I…" The vein popped out even more in his forehead. Shera slipped on her glasses and turned to her computer screen.
"You need a coffee," she finished for him in a light tone, typing at her keyboard. She was clearly used to this.
Cid took a deep breath and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Shera smiled to herself.
Marching towards the ducklings' working area, he saw Zack waiting for him, with a cup of steaming coffee.
"Where is she?!" he spat. Zack jumped, almost spilling the coffee.
"I… I put her in the interrogation room, boss…" he murmured. Cid stopped in front of him, murder in his eyes.
"And you didn't tell me?!" Zack suppressed a reaction.
"W…well, you told me to always put the suspects in the interrogation room when they come in." He swallowed. "You… you told me to always do it and never ask about it!"
Cid slammed his palm onto the back of Zack's head and snatched the coffee before walking away, leaving Zack to wish he had never said anything at all.
As he made his way into the interrogation room, he immediately saw Tifa standing in front of the two-way mirror, staring at Elmyra waiting anxiously inside.
Cid's expression softened as he saw the sad look on her face. She didn't even look at him as he went over next to her. They watched Elmyra for a few moments before Tifa spoke.
"What do you want from Elmyra, Cid?" she asked quietly. Cid looked at her. "Do you think she's hiding something?"
Cid looked back into the other room. He shrugged, sipping the coffee. "I dunno. I think she is… but at the same time I don't think she is." Tifa gave him a confused look, making him smile. "Yeah, I know."
There was a knock on the door, and Cid turned to see Elena, Shera's assistant.
"Special Agents Highwind and Lockhart," she said timidly. "The Director needs to see you both in private." Cid glanced at Tifa, and nodded. He followed Elena towards Shera's office with Tifa behind him.
As soon as they stepped inside, Elena immediately went out and snapped the door shut. Cid realized Zack was there as well, talking quietly with Shera.
"What did you need to see us about, Director?" Tifa asked. Shera sighed wearily, a worried look on her face.
"There's someone who wanted to talk to you," she replied. "About something very important." She looked over her shoulder at someone Cid and Tifa didn't even notice.
It was Loz.
He was wearing a hat to hide his face as he keep his gaze down. Only when he slowly lifted his head up to look at them did they see his face. Tifa let out a gasp of surprise.
"Loz…" she breathed. Loz managed a weak smile.
"Special Agent Lockhart," he said, giving her a nod. He looked over at Cid. "Special Agent Highwind. There's some information I think you'll be interested in to know about."
Cid's calm expression didn't change. He knew mobsters long enough not to trust them, but having lost his wife and young daughter a few years ago, he knew Loz had been through too much to put on an act. Loz sighed deeply and sat down in a chair, rubbing his face with his hands. Tifa went over next to him.
"Are you okay?" she whispered, putting a hand on his back. Loz quickly shook his head.
"No," he said. "No… I'm fine." He stood back up, looking at everyone in the room. "Sephiroth doesn't know I'm here." he took a few papers out of his pocket and set them on Shera's desk for everyone to see.
"Just before my brother Yazoo died," he said. "He was talking to me on his phone." He glanced up at Cid. "Sephiroth and I got to the body about 15 minutes after, but he was already dead." Loz closed his eyes and sighed deeply before continuing. "After he dropped the phone, I was still on the other line, and I heard a voice. A female voice." Tifa moved closer.
"Aerith's voice?" she whispered, afraid of the answer. Loz shook his head.
"I dunno," he muttered. "But I heard that voice somewhere before, and I never forget things like that." He shifted some papers so Cid could see. They were telephone bills, showing the time and date of some calls. Cid frowned as he saw that the majority was from a pay phone. Loz watched him closely.
"Two weeks before Kadaj was murdered, someone made repeated anonymous phone calls to Sephiroth, every time saying only a few words like You can't hide forever before hanging up." He moved a blurred photograph over towards them. "Sephiroth hired an investigator to see who it was, and he took a few pictures of a young woman who had been coming every night to the nearby pay phone." He moved another picture, and this one wasn't blurry at all.
It was the same picture of Aerith found on Kadaj at the crime scene. Tifa stared at it with bitterness as Loz kept talking.
"My brothers and I didn't know who she was, all we knew was that she would always wear a black ribbon in her hair." He looked down at it. "But Sephiroth knew. He told us he didn't remember her name, but she was a face he could never forget. I think Scarlet remembered as well. When the girl called again, he confronted her. He demanded to know what she wanted, and she told him to meet up with her. She said she had something important to show him, and that would be related to the Cetra case." He sighed again and shook his head sadly. "She didn't give us her name. All she told us was to refer to her as Miss G. It wasn't until right after Kadaj went to meet with her did Sephiroth realize who she was." Loz swallowed. "Two days ago, she called again, and told Sephiroth to meet her outside the Midgar prison to talk. I don't know how she would have gotten out, but she assured us she would be there. Yazoo went in the boss's place."
Loz collapsed into a nearby chair and closed his eyes, the story becoming unbearable. Tifa comforted him.
"Sephiroth told us not to get the police involved," he said. "But now Yazoo's gone as well, I don't think there's any other choice." He looked up at Tifa with sad eyes. "I'm sorry." Tifa smiled tearfully at him.
Cid, unlike Shera and Zack, didn't show any signs of emotion towards Loz's story. He was deep in thought, putting the pieces Loz had to the puzzle.
"Did you say she asked to be called Miss G?" he asked suddenly. Loz nodded, while Shera glared at him.
"G stands for Gainsborough," she said, slightly annoyed. "What else would she as an alias?" Cid chose to ignore her. He just shook his head and headed straight out of the office, leaving blank expressions on his colleagues' faces. Zack quickly rushed after him while Tifa stayed with Loz and Shera.
Zack thought he lost track of his boss for a second until he spotted him going into the interrogation room. Running as fast as he could inside, he glanced into the two-way mirror to see that Elmyra Gainsborough was still sitting there.
The interrogation room flew open, making both Elmyra and Zack jump. Cid calmly closed the door and went over to the seat in front of Elmyra, holding some files. She stared at him irritably.
"I've been waiting here for almost an hour," she snapped. "What did you want with me?" Cid didn't look at her; instead he was looking through the family history file.
"I think there's something you're not telling us, Mrs Gainsborough," he said. "Something that I think is very important." Elmyra scoffed, offended.
"I told you everything!" she exclaimed angrily. "Aerith is innocent!" Cid leaned back on hsi chair and watched her with a look of amusement on his face.
"I heard you say the 'innocence' part," he said in a light tone. "I 'm just not sure about the 'everything' part." Elmyra stared, her mouth open with confusion. She clearly didn't get what was going on, and that was annoying the already very annoyed Cid quite a bit.
He slammed down all the files hard on the table before jumping out of his chair.
"There's a missing piece to this puzzle," he said in a dangerously calm voice, circling the terrified woman like a vulture. "And I think you have it."
"I… I don't know what you're talking about." Cid moved Kadaj's file in front of Elmyra so she could see it.
"First victim, Kadaj Jenovic," he said as Elmyra flicked through. "Stabbed through the chest with a kitchen knife. A sample of hair and a black ribbon was found in the scene, along with an eye witness and security footage. Some blood was found on the handle of the weapon that did not appear to be the victim's, meaning the attacker cut their hand while using the weapon. DNA tests confirm it to be your daughter's." He stopped and leaned in so he could speak into Elmyra's ear. "But when I met Aerith, there were no injuries whatsoever on her hands and arms." Elmyra sat very still, but stayed silent. Cid slid Scarlet's file and continued his pacing.
"Scarlet Davies, second victim. Strangled to death outside the hotel Kadaj was murdered in. Forensics told us she got into a fight with the attacker, and the attacker banged their head into the brick wall, hence we were able to trace the DNA from the blood sample." He stopped again behind Elmyra. "One of my team said she saw your daughter in the area just a few hours before Davies was found, and you confirmed that she left for the hospital earlier than usual after receiving a text message. Her alibi was that she was going into town, coincidentally exactly where Davies was killed, to buy a teddy bear for one of her patients who she was informed was having heart surgery later that day." Cid chuckled a little. "That was a good excuse, but we still couldn't be sure." He leaned in over Elmyra. "But when your daughter came to us again, there were no injuries." Elmyra still didn't say anything, looking as though her worse nightmares were about to come true. Cid went over and sat back down on his seat, taking out the last file.
"Yazoo Jenovic, our latest victim," he said. "Killed right outside Midgar Prison last night. Where your daughter was kept with one of my agents. Jenovic was killed when a glass bottle was slammed down his head from behind at a 50 degrees true angle. Aerith's fingerprints were found on the remains." Elmyra frowned and looked up at him from across the table.
"Wait a minute…" she said. "Are you telling me Aerith escaped??" Cid shook his head.
"She's was still in the prison when we came in this morning." Elmyra was as confused as Zack was, who was still listening in.
"But… then how would she have done all that?" she breathed. "If she actually did it, that is," she added quickly. Cid smirked and shook his head.
"The security cameras were all shut off, meaning someone tampered with the security system." He smiled again. "Guess whose fingerprints were the only non-personel found in the room?" Elmyra acted like she never heard his last question.
"But how could she have done all that?" she said. "If she was under close observation of one of your agents, let alone barred inside a cell! And why would she come back if she knew a way out?!"
"That's what's bothering me," Cid said quietly. "I don't know, and Aerith doesn't seem to know either." He leaned back on his chair again and stared at Elmyra for a long time.
"What hand does Aerith use?" he asked after a while. Elmyra frowned at such a random question.
"Uh… um… right…?" she said, unsure. "Why do you ask?" Cid slowly, very slowly, stood up.
"Because…" he said. "I think… that the killer…" He looked her straight in the eyes. "… is left-handed."
At that very moment, Elmyra's blood froze. She immediately looked down and kept her widened eyes on the table. Cid's expression hardened and drew closer to the petrified Elmyra, wanting answers.
"What is going on?!" he demanded. "Everything points to Aerith Gainsborough, but it can't be Aerith Gainsborough! All the facts say that she's guilty, but all the facts say that she's innocent as well! Her DNA is found at all the crime scenes, and her fingerprints are found on all the murder weapons! Why?" Elmyra closed her eyes and shook her head. "WHY?!"
"It… it can't be.." she muttered, shaking her head. "It couldn't…" Cid leaned in, eager to hear what she had to say.
"What?" he asked. "What can't be?" Elmyra said nothing. "There's something you're not telling us, isn't there?" He took her firmly by the shoulders. "Tell us! Tell us who the girl with the black ribbon is!" Elmyra still didn't open her eyes.
"I didn't think it would matter," she mumbled. "We… we didn't think anyone needed to know."
"Who's we?"
"Ifalna, Faremis and I. We didn't think it would mean anything. It would have just been a tragedy that no one would need to uncover ever again. It would have been too painful for any of us to take."
"What would?" Elmyra emitted a weary sigh and slowly look up at Cid.
"Aerith wasn't an only child," she said in a whisper. She felt Cid's grip loosen and his hands slid down her arms.
"What are you saying…?" Elmyra took another deep breath and shook her head.
"She was a twin."