Chapter 13, the unlucky number! :D I said I was going to update a little slower but I guess I have been able to keep up with my schedule :D But please do not wonder if there is "longer" time between updates ( which means around chapter / two weeks when it's me writing :_D )
...
Thursday morning was a normal, calmer day at the restaurant. The previous day had been almost insane compared to normal Wednesdays at Navarone's restaurant!
The only thing which delayed their working was that somebody had broken into the restaurant during the night and stolen most of the groceries. They had only a little time to do quick orders from their emergency supplies source before the restaurant would open and they would have to start working.
It also meant that police officers had to visit the scene of theft early enough to let the cooks get to their work after they checked the scene.
It surprised Sanji to see familiar faces when the police officers stepped into the restaurant but tried to act as normal as he could not to raise suspicions.
"Police officer Roronoa Zoro from Strawhat's police station," the familiar green-haired man reached his hand out for Jessica.
"Police officer Noda Tashigi from G-5," his temporary partner introduced herself. "Where is the scene of the crime?"
"Over there," Jessica pointed out the scene and led the police officers to the scene.
They looked around for a while, searching for any clues related to the case. The door of the big freezer had broken badly and they would probably need to replace it. Most of the expensive groceries were gone and they were hard to get.
"Did anyone of you see something suspicious yesterday evening or when they arrived here this morning?" Zoro asked around the people but everyone shoke their heads softly.
They asked some basic questions before they finished checking the scene. Zoro rubbed his neck hard and turned his attention to Jessica. "By the way, is Carl Watson here? He was the one who informed about a theft at the hotel across the road. I could as well talk to him while we are here," Zoro reasoned and the woman pointed at Sanji who was the only one setting the tables.
Zoro almost laughed when he recognised the man but knew he was working undercover so he kept his mouth shut up. Nobody had told him about Sanji's fake name so he was rather surprised to find out the person he was looking for was his official partner.
"Carl Watson?" Zoro asked in a slightly teasingly tone.
"That's me," Sanji said, raising a brow and trying to act as normal as possible and trying to hint his partner to do the same. Well, how did people act if police approached them? "Have I done something wrong?" he joked casually.
"Not that I know of," Zoro answered the stupid question. "Were you the one who informed the hotel staff about the theft yesterday evening?" he inquired and took out his notebook to make some notes.
"I did. There was a special order and I was the one to take care of it," Sanji explained shortly and Zoro wrote down something, who knew what.
"Was there anything suspicious you saw before entering the hotel room or after you finished serving the order?" Zoro asked professionally.
"I don't think so. But I think the man's concentration must have slacked because he was going to propose his girlfriend that day and he seemed pretty nervous about it," Sanji admitted and Zoro wrote something down again.
"Then that could mean you stole it too," Zoro suggested and Sanji shoke his head almost violently. "You started working here just few days ago, is that right? It's a rather suspicious time to come here during all these crimes going on."
"Look, I don't know how you got the idea that I stole that wallet. I was fully focused on doing my work and the man said that he hadn't seen it for a while!" Sanji hissed, trying to act like a normal person would react when they were accused of a crime.
"That's what everyone says," Zoro sighed slightly but wrote down nothing this time around. "We will contact you if we have anything to ask," Zoro said, indicating his leave from the restaurant.
"Tsk, do as you wish," Sanji hissed, trying to sound annoyed by the man's playful suspicions.
The day went calmly after they got the groceries from the emergence source and got back to work. Customers seemed to understand their situation pretty well and they were patiently waiting for their foods. Well, at least most of them since some of them were busy with their work and had thought of just dropping by and ordering something fast.
There were not that much customers coming in that day so they had a chance to take a proper break around midday.
"What business did that police officer have with you if I might ask?" One of his colleagues asked somehow suspiciously.
"I informed the hotel staff about a theft and the officer wanted to ask me some details and if I noticed something. He even dared to suspect that I stole that shitty wallet!" Sanji forced a laugh which seemed at least somehow natural to the people around him.
"Well did you?" another one of his colleagues asked in a slightly joking tone but somehow Sanji knew he was being at least partly serious.
"Of course I didn't! Or at least I wouldn't be stupid enough to tell someone about the crime I had made by myself," Sanji chuckled, wanting to sound slightly suspicious to get to the "better" side of the possible criminals around of him.
Sanji had really thought of the theft that day. If the burglars had really picked up just the most expensive groceries from the fridge, it meant that they knew what they were looking for. The fact that no other freezers but only the one with the expensive products got broken into meant that at least one of the burglars must have been part of the staff at some part of the Navarone's history or at least someone who knew what those freezers contained.
At some point of the day, Sanji felt somebody staring at him but didn't bother to find out who it was. He thought that it would be for the best to act normal and try not to get any extra attention to keep his undercover job safe.
...
"Carl Watson," Sanji answered his phone accidentally by his fake identity but luckily the caller was someone who knew about his undercover work already.
"What a stupid name he picked for you," Zoro snickered on the other end of the line.
"Well what did you expect from our boss?" Sanji reasoned and Zoro fell quiet for a while.
"Is there something you couldn't tell me when we were in the restaurant? Was anybody acting suspicious to you?" Zoro inquired and Sanji thought about it for a while.
"Actually, I have few suspects on my list," Sanji admitted. "Could you check Charlie Pat and Tony Medleson?" Sanji said, waiting for his partner to look for paper and pen to write down the names.
"Charlie Pat and Tony Medleson, right?" Zoro checked if he had heard the names right. "What raised your suspicions?"
"I don't know, they just seemed somehow jumpy all day long and they were almost insisting to clean the crime scene. It seemed odd for me," Sanji explained. "And I think Luffy was right that some people from the staff must be related to the crimes somehow but we can't be too sure if they are staff now or if they have been staff at some point of the restaurant's history."
"Yeah, since they picked up only best ingredients and they knew what freezer they had to break in," Zoro noted and Sanji was slightly surprised that the idiot had figured it out by himself. "But we can count out people who worked in the restaurant for more than five years ago," Zoro noted.
"Oh that's right. Jessica-san mentioned something about the renovations they did in the restaurant around five years ago," Sanji remembered.
"By the way, Luffy has the files you asked for and he will bring them to your apartment personally on Saturday evening so you better be there!" Zoro noted and Sanji promised to be there to get the files. "Okay, but I will call you tomorrow and tell if there was anything about Pat and Medleson worth mentioning, okay?" Zoro vowed.
"Okay but don't call me when I am working if it's not anything serious, okay?" Sanji noted and Zoro snickered slightly.
"Okay I will call you tomorrow okay. You have a bad habit picking up my lines okay?" Zoro teased and Sanji felt slightly annoyed.
"Okay you annoy me pretty much okay?" Sanji teased back.
"Okay you annoy me pretty much too okay?" Zoro barked and the line fell silent.
Sanji threw his phone on the floor, knowing full-well that his phone was hard enough to take a hit like that. He took a comfortable position on the sofa and opened the television to watch some late night TV-show before going to bed.
It annoyed Sanji that he didn't know how long he had to stay at his undercover job. He would have loved to return to his normal routines as police officer even though he loved cooking too. He probably had to work until the case was solved and it would take a while if he didn't try to spy on his colleagues even more and try to solve the case faster. With his workload, it would be almost impossible to work on the case at the same time.
...
Friday morning was restless since most of the chef's of Navarone were looking forward to weekend. Of course the restaurant was open on Saturday also and some of them had some day off during the week so that they could work on Saturday.
"I wish the day would end already," Tony Medleson cursed. He was waiting almost eagerly to flirt with some younger women during the weekend.
"I could use some free time too," Sanji admitted, trying to adapt to his work environment and chat with his colleagues.
"Going to look for some company for the night, Carl?" Tony teased and Sanji chuckled slightly.
"That sounds pretty nice but I have some other plans," Sanji said mysteriously.
"Oh? What might be more important than women?" Tony wondered.
"Just something you might not want to get involved," Sanji said with a smirk, being actually pretty honest: well, who would like to get involved with police business?
Tony fell silent for a while before he seemed to have made up his mind. "You seem like a person who is...familiar with shady business, am I right?"
Well that's true but in a different perspective as you might think...
"Maybe, maybe not," Sanji teased, trying to sound suspicious. "What's your offer?" Sanji asked directly.
"I like guys like you who go straight down to business," Tony grinned widely. "Talk to Charlie Pat when your working hours end and tell him I sent you," he advised and Sanji took the offer.
Finally he would be getting down to business and be a step closer to solving the case.
...
Sanji talked to Charlie Pat after working hours and they seemed to have an agreement of some sort of. Well, they hadn't spoken anything about any shady work for "Carl Watson" to do but the start was promising.
Charlie Pat, a muscular yet gentle-looking man, knocked a door softly. He was in the hotel opposing the Navarone's restaurant. The hallway was quiet and he had checked carefully that he would not raise suspicions on his way there.
The door was opened quickly by a beautiful woman. She had a blond, short hair and eyes as blue as the sea. She was dressed casually and she had a big diamond ring in her ring finger.
"Oh, what a lucky girl you are," Charlie said, being careful of his tone.
"We just got engaged," the woman smiled happily and led the man further to the room.
The man sitting in a chair next to the big window was a young man around twenty years old. He had a short, black hair and green eyes. He looked pretty skinny and his casual suit highlighted his non-muscularity.
"What's your business with me, Pat?" the man inquired, staring coldly at the man who had entered the room.
"Don't be so cold, boss," Charlie Pat panicked slightly, trying to look confident. "I might have a new guy to help us with our business," he smirked slightly.
"Oh?" the man voiced out, raising a brow. "What's his name?"
"Carl Watson," Charlie Pat answered the question. "He started to work at the restaurant this week and he seems familiar with shady business."
"Well, being familiar with shady business might mean that he is a criminal or police," the man noted. "Don't tell me he has blond hair, weird eyebrows and his other eye hidden behind his bangs?"
"That's our guy," Charlie admitted. "You know him?"
"He served a special order for me and my fiancé the day we got engaged. The food he had made was delicious," the man praised. "But I think I have seen him before somewhere, I just can't place him..." the man sighed deeply and gave up when he couldn't remember where he had seen "Carl Watson" before. "Check his backgrounds," the man ordered.
"Why? He seems worth our trust," Charlie Pat tried to reason with the man and lessen his workload.
"I want to check backgrounds of every person who gets the delight of serving me," the man noted and Charlie Pat bowed deeply. "Please bring me his background information tomorrow morning and ask him to visit my room tomorrow at some point of the day. I want to greet our new man personally," the man ordered and Charlie Pat excused the room silently.
...
Sanji was rather surprised when Pat told him to meet his boss the next day in the very same hotel room where he had served the special order for a couple.
Of course it could be a pure coincidence...It's not like the criminal boss would stay in one place for a long time...but he wouldn't be the first criminal to play victim when he is behind all the thefts around here...
He finished working and changing back to his casual clothes so he headed back to his apartment. Well, it was not like he was going to flirt with women in the bars and get his money wasted on them even though he wouldn't call "spending money on women" as "wasting". In fact, women were delicate flowers who needed his care.
He heard thunder striking above him and saw flashes of light from the corner of his eyes. The air was thick with moist and the air felt heavy.
Couldn't get any better...Sanji laughed by himself. I am just glad I didn't promise to go out with boys today...one hell of a shitty weather!
Sanji started to run back to his apartment when he heard the raindrops hitting the ground not too far away. The city was surprisingly silent for a Friday night, it was somehow mysteriously calm. Well, maybe some people were chased out of the city because of the weather or seeing the weather forecast, they decided to stay indoors.
Finally, he reached his apartment, searched for his keys from the bottom of his back-bag and opened the outer door. He slipped inside, hearing the raindrops and thunder a bit more silently this time around. He dragged his feet to his door and opened it slowly. He stepped inside, closed the door behind him and leaned his back against the wall, taking few deep breaths before entering his kitchen.
It was somehow funny, almost ridiculous, how he had worked his whole week in the kitchen yet the first place he went to when he reached his apartment was kitchen.
I must be hell of a kitchen maniac to keep up with this! Sanji chuckled by himself in the empty apartment.
...
Roronoa Zoro spent his Friday evening by training in the local gym or the one closest to his apartment. It was his way to relax after a hard week at work even though barely nobody would call muscle-training as "relaxing".
He lifted some heavy weights, at least compared to his size, earning few looks from the young girls training at the same gym. Young girls were always like that: whispering about how hot he looked or how his hair had a weird colour. They were chuckling and even trying to flirt with him but Zoro had realised that they were just teenagers a long time ago.
He wiped out the sweat from his forehead and took a sip from his water bottle while sitting down on the bench. He felt like taking a small break and then going on with his usual training program.
...
Author's note:
Excitement in the air, isn't there? ;) There will be something even more exciting in the next chapter and chapter 15 will get pretty chilly ;)
It annoys me that I have so many ideas for this fanfic yet I can't keep up writing my ideas down as soon as I get them :_D But don't worry, I will write every single idea for this fanfic to this fanfic someday, it might take time since there are so many of them but don't worry! :)
And yes, I thought of how to give some of the characters some sort of surname and then I realised that I could use their voice actor's surname! :D So that's why Tashigi is Tashigi Noda :)