May I advertise the works of my wonderful friend Dotti55, she has recently begun writing and her stories are well worth the read. I hope that you will take some time to go and read them.

A/N; So, this is me attempting to update regularly once more. I hope it keeps going.

Please read and review!

Chapter 10

"One is missing?" Near whispered, looking startled.

"I'm almost sure of it," L confirmed, fingers rapidly moving through the documents as he sorted through them. Any fear he had for this case was diminishing with each moment, in the bright light of day with his heirs nearby and the knowledge that he wasn't that nervous, frightened child any more had done wonders for his psyche. He was sure Light would be proud. However all of that dimmed into insignificance with the thought that one of the police reports was gone. This was more than shoddy filing, he just knew it.

He glanced up as Mello took out his mobile and made a call. He already thought he knew what his heir was up to, and a second later he was proven correct.

"Hello Matsuda," Mello said quietly, "Could you check the tables and the floors of the main room for any documents. I doubt you'll find anything, but I just need to know. Call me back once you've done that?"

With that Mello hung up, his face grim as he turned back to the table.

"Are you thinking someone in the police is trying to cover something up?" Mello asked, his arms crossing as he glowered down at the documents, almost as if they were the things at fault.

"That is certainly a worrying possibility," L sighed, stopping in his activities to glance at the more recent piles of documents on the table, "may I?"

"Of course," Mello replied, his tone still fairly polite even if his gaze remained cold. He didn't like where this was heading at all.

"You do realise that there is only so far the police will want to work with us if we bring up the possibility of one of their own being the killer or knowing him and covering for him," Near said quietly.

"I think we're going to have to work round them on this one," Matt commented, "Particularly as they've targeted the investigators of the old case. I don't want to give them the knowledge that L is working on the case. We all become too much of a target then. Working this from such a defensive position... maybe you could have coped like that L, but I know we can't."

"Yes," L said with a smile, "you are much more hands on with your cases."

"It was that or Mello would go mad," Matt laughed, only laughing harder as Mello turned his glare onto him. L was quite impressed in the red head's ability to ignore that stare; L knew that he would have difficulty in staring Mello down with that expression looking at him.

"While we are waiting for Matsuda to phone back," Near said softly, his emotionless tone belayed by the smile on his face, "Is there anything productive we could be doing, Such as matching reports to investigators?"

"Yes, I think that is precisely what we should do," L agreed, and he began separating out each police report from the file even as he spoke.

For a few moments the genii shifted documents back and forth across the table, matching pictures of the dead policeman to the reports they had filed for the case, and any case notes they had written. Soon a line of faces stretched across the top of the desk, documents beneath them in two neat rows. Beneath all of them, except for one that is.

Detective Inspector Baker, just a sergeant at the time of the first murderers. He had appeared to be a fairly minor character on the side of the police. L had only realised a report had been missing because the only reason Baker had been involved in the case at all was because he had been called out to the scene where the second body had been found. There had been no connection between him and the case then apart from that, but now, with his report missing, and perhaps other reports he had written gone... he looked very suspicious indeed. Even if he was dead. No wait, that didn't have to be the only explanation...

Their concentration was broken as Mello's mobile vibrated very audibly in the room.

"Yes?" Mello said quickly, glancing at L as he spoke. His frown returned as he listened to what had to be Matsuda on the other end of the phone. "I see. Thank you Matsuda. Sorry to disturb you when it led to nothing."

L's mouth twitched into a slight smile at Mello's apology, it certainly seemed that Mello thought quite highly of his helper to do such a thing even in such a situation. L knew that he certainly hadn't been the most adept at that with Wammy. He mentally shook himself and turned back to the case, he didn't have time for such sentimentality now.

"So, it definitely is missing," Matt murmured the normally happy gamer looking subdued.

"Yes," Mello sighed, "One can only hope that we can find some clue as to what it, or they said."

"Whatever it is," Near said calmly, "We cannot trust the police."

"Unfortunately I believe that to be the case," L agreed, "Though I'm sure you still have trusted sources within the police you can use, so you're not entirely disconnected from them."

"Of course," Mello replied with a smirk, "We have a couple of Wammy's graduates there who will be more than willing to help I'm sure. One may even get a sudden promotion to the right department... a promotion they probably deserve anyway."

"I think we need to know what you can remember even more now," Near said suddenly, looking across at L, "it's even more important than before."

"To my shame I don't remember more than what is here," L said quietly, "though I did not spend much time looking over these documents as you know. All I had heard about the case came from the newspapers at the time, and the television networks, and those were mostly rumours. I think some of the rumours they reported looked like they could have been true."

"I think we need to take a trip to the records room," Matt interrupted, "All the hard copies of the newspapers may have been lost in the fire, but we managed to find microfiche for all the major newspapers and some of the local papers. We don't have as good a supply as before, but we should have enough to look over this period of time."

The others nodded in agreement, they needed more resources than the police files, particularly if there were signs that they had been tampered with. They couldn't know if what they read was accurate or horrendously biased. The newspapers could well be biased too, but there was still the hope of something more than they had now.

"Let's go see what they have to say then," Mello sighed, rising to his feet with his usual fluid motion that evaded his companions a second later L was also on his feet and moving towards the door. The other two followed them without question, moving to follow him out of the room and down the hall in contemplative silence.

As they walked L glanced across at his heirs taking in the confidence that filled each step and the maturity he now saw. True they would still be childlike in so many ways, as he himself was, but there was an extra edge there honed by the years they had spent filling his role. He took a great pleasure in seeing this change, being able to see them become all he had hoped they could be; he had thought such a thing would only happen with his death. He realised he couldn't be more proud of them, and he smiled. Still smiling he turned away from the trio to admire this new Wammy's as he walked...

...

Despite looking just like the original on the outside, albeit with two new wings and a considerable resizing of certain areas.... inside it wasn't the same at all. Before the layout had been the product of centuries and a couple hurried decades of building, corridors had never gone where one would expect them too and hidden spaces had been present everywhere. L remembered Matt's plan of them all too well and he hadn't wanted a repeat of that in the new one. This was a place to nurture the genii of the next generation and all the unfortunate orphans that they could, with such a task they could not afford the old Wammy's anymore.

So Wammy's had changed.

Every level represented a different area with security access to the higher floors scrupulously maintained. You needed a keycard to access any of the areas the trio and of course L's family would inhabit. There was no more ready freedom of movement throughout the building as there had been before, that had been ok when the orphans had been few and the expectations had been high, but no more. Besides, the lessons surrounding safety and security had been painfully learnt; even if it had been a lesson they had thought they would never had to learn. As a measure of respect though, besides the initial security, the students and staff were given almost complete free reign over the rest of the complex.

Decoratively the place was a pure fusion of the styles both L and Wammy loved; a sometimes confusing mixture of modernity and the traditional that would have been painfully out of place anywhere but here. Here it seemed perfectly right to go from a room quite minimalist in taste straight to the library of white wood panelling and intricate carving; the books all uniformly bound in crisp white covers and darkened silver. The room was bright and sunlit despite the weather outside, the books themselves helping reflect a little of the light back into the room.

...

"I always feel you and Wammy went overboard with your mutual love of books here," Matt commented looking round the vast library, "It's as if you created a temple to them."

"I think in some ways that's what we were going for," L said softly, shifting forward to run a hand along a line of unbroken covers, his voice low and quiet so close to the tone the trio remembered from when they were younger, "I think you would better understand if I tell you one of the first things I can ever remember Wammy telling me; 'knowledge and understanding bring you freedom, and so what better freedom than to read.' Books have always been symbols of power and freedom; they should be treated with some respect. With so much information available on the internet I think people have forgotten that, but I do not."

"Tch," Mello muttered as he headed towards the spiral staircase, Matt and Near as ever following along behind him, at the end of the library that led to the records room, "Matt's right though, it still looks like some form of temple."

L sighed and shook his head as he followed along behind them; he supposed he was biased growing up with Wammy for he loved books too. He paused at the top of the staircase to look back over the many shelves and he gave a small laugh, it didn't help that the trio had never had need to solve a case solely from books either. He had.

The records room was a long filing cabinet and cupboard filled room. Tables ran the entire length of the room covered in piles of newspapers, the occasional chair blocking the small corridor between them and the cupboards. At the end of the long space several computers and microfiche machines were visible surrounded by more boxes and papers.

"Where do you suggest we start?" Near asked as he looked round at the disorganised room in obvious distress at the mess. The black haired man had to bite back a sigh.

"This is your case," L managed to reply with some difficulty, just managing to stop himself from immediately taking over, "Where do you think we should start?"

"Surely the most useful thing is to find the papers first," Mello said sauntering down one side of the tables glancing over the dates of the papers on top of each pile. He only hoped that they were arranged by date, "Replacements came in so quickly and there was so much else to sort, this has been forgotten. There hadn't been any need to organise it till now. Wish we had time to get some of the kids to sort this for us. Would've been far easier."

"Too late now." Near said, though he sounded as if he wished it could still be done.

"I really hate paperwork," Matt muttered, as he wrenched open the nearest filing cabinet.

L said nothing as he too began to search, but he too had to agree. While this was necessary the fact that they had to do it was more than slightly annoying. However if it kept them from focusing on the fact that there had been, or could still be, a potential informant to the murderer in the police until they could be objective about it; becoming despondent about it would help no one and solve nothing.

...

"No, I've heard that one," Eleanor said quickly as Light tried to find a bedtime story to tell her, "I want to hear one of your stories about Daddy."

"Alright then," he said with a smile as he put the book back on the shelf before sitting on the edge of her bed. He had thought she wouldn't want to hear one with L gone, but it seemed he had been wrong. "Any requests?"

"The day he saved the princess," Eleanor replied, her tone determined.

Light couldn't help but laugh a little, she wanted to hear about L yet she still wanted a fairy tale.

A/N; So, would you like to hear the fairytale about the Great Detective L as well, or would you like me to carry straight on with the rest of the story?