Case. They got the first clue.
Characters. They all had jetlag and Kyuu was, drunk probably for the first time.
*Note. To avoid language confusion, dialogues in English will be in italic.
Chapter 2. The Big Apple
"Hey guys!" Kyuu waved to Ryuu, Megu, Kinta, and Kazuma who were already waiting in front of the lounge, as Joseph asked. He dropped two gym bags and wiped his forehead.
"What's in these bags? It's not like we're moving to New York, Kyuu," Kinta commented.
Kyuu chuckled, "Yeah, I told my mom not to add more snacks, but..."
"Ryuu! Everyone from Q Class!" Joseph emerged from inside the lounge. "Really nice to have you guys on board, come on let's go to the plane."
"See you, Kazuma," Kinta winked. He then slumped his gym bag on his shoulder and grabbed one of Kyuu's. "Thanks, Kinta!" Kyuu secured his own backpack and grabbed the other gym bag. They went in first while Ryuu secured his slim backpack and Megu grabbed her suitcase handle.
"Hey, Megu," Kazuma said softly.
Megu turned her head to see the young boy, "Yes, Kazuma?"
Kazuma blushed a little before saying, "Take care."
"Thank you. You take care too, Kazuma," Megu smiled and followed Ryuu towards the lounge.
"Wow," Kyuu's eyes went wide, "We're going in a private plane?"
Joseph giggled, "I don't know what you're saying, but if you're asking whether we'll go with this, then the answer is yes. I always fly with this private plane."
"Sweet!" Kyuu exclaimed before entering a white with gold crescent private jet.
Ryuu was the last one boarding. He put down his own backpack with his friends' belongings on one of the single seats near the entrance. He could hear Kyuu's admiration cries and he smiled.
A hand landed on his shoulder, "Thanks for really coming, Ryuu," Joseph's voice was soft and there was a hint of sadness and doubt. He then turnedto see the two crews on board and said, "Everyone's already on board, let's get going."
One of the crews closed the door while the other stored everyone's belongings below the seats. The plane was starting to move and the crews went to sit on single seats near the cockpit area while Joseph and the detectives gathered in the area at the center of the aircraft with 2-1 facing 1-2 seating arrangements.
Facing the front, Kinta and Megu took the two seats while Joseph sat at the single seat. Ryuu and Kyuu took the two seats facing Joseph's and they left the single seat in front of Kinta vacant. They all buckled their seat belts and in a matter of minutes they were already up in the sky.
After the pilot announced the successful take off, Ryuu leaned his body forward and said, "So Joseph, did anything happen after we met yesterday?" Joseph knew his young friend would sense something from his previous action and he answered honestly, "Last night, my house was burnt."
Megu gasped. Then Kyuu, Megu, and Kinta leaned forward to focus their attention to the brunette.
"I believe it was deliberately set on fire," Joseph took a leather briefcase from below his seat and took out a folder. "These are the news I gathered this morning. It happened an hour or two after we met yesterday. That means about dawn in New York yesterday."
"I wonder if this is related to the email you received," Kyuu said.
"That is most probably, but we shouldn't assume anything at this stage," Ryuu added, "Is the lab in the house?"
"You mean the lab from the email?" Joseph raised one of his eyebrows, "It's not actually a lab. So, my dad and I built a small house in the woods. We call that place the lab because my dad records the progress of all his plants there. And that's where we will go first thing when we land."
"Will we spend the night there?" Megu asked.
Joseph turned to look at Megu and Kinta's side, "No, but don't worry. I have some apartments and hotel rooms."
"Wow, that's really nice," Kinta answered.
Ryuu looked at some of the newspaper clips, "When was the last time you went to the lab?"
Joseph lowered his head as he was thinking, "We always go there every year. We haven't this year though, but I remember we went there last year."
"I see," Ryuu nodded, "I also agree that your house seemed to be set on fire on purpose. These damages came from powerful explosives and I don't think it would be this damaged if the fire was accidental."
"Damn it, should we go to the house to examine as well?" Kinta suggested.
"I don't think it will be a nice idea," Kyuu said. "It seems the criminal wanted to kill Jo, so if we go there with Jo, I think the criminal will want to try and kill him again."
Ryuu was amused with the nickname Kyuu created for his friend. He smiled a little and gave a response to Kyuu's reasoning, "I agree with Kyuu." Ryuu then looked at Kinta and then at Joseph, "We should go to the 'lab' first and directly go to your place, Joseph."
"Okay, that sounds like a plan for me," Joseph agreed.
They got out from the black range rover and were greeted with the chill of the woods and the warmth of the morning sun. It was quite a refreshment after the long half day flight and another 1.5 hours on the road.
"Ahh, it's so fresh here!" Kyuu stood to face the rising sun, stretched both arms high and inhaled a lungful breath.
Joseph locked his car with a beep and stood beside Kyuu, "Yeah, I know right. I'm always excited to spend time here with my dad. Can't believe I'm never going here with him again." Kyuu looked at him with quite a serious look as Joseph sighed deeply. But after a few moments, he smiled, "Okay, let's go find his will," Josephleft Kyuu and went to the small house.
It would not count as a small house in Japan, Kyuu decided. He was the last to step in and he found quite a spacious living room/dining room/kitchen with a fireplace on the left and book racks at both its sides. At the back, there were two doors side by side. He opened the left one and found quite a spacious bedroom with a queen size bed in the middle. It has a single pull out bed on one side and drawers on the other. There was a small study at the end of the bedroom and also an enormous window. It was currently closed by the curtain, but the sunshine pierced through it, giving sufficient light to the room even without any lights on.
"This is really nice. The bathroom has a modern design as well. I would want to live here." Kyuu turned towards the voice and found Kinta at the door. "Yeah, me too!" Kyuu giggled enthusiastically.
They went out of the room and Kyuu found Ryuu at one of the book racks beside the fireplace. "What did you find?" He stood beside Ryuu. "I haven't found anything, but this rack bothers me a bit," he touched his chin while scanning the book spines.
It was a very neat rack. Four rows consisted of 22 thin books each. The hard covered books were broken white colored, except six which had blue covers. Ryuu took out one book nearest to him and flipped the pages. I was all handwritten. He opened the first page. It was also filled with a handwriting.
CORAL BELLS
(Heuchera americana)
0807102087
There was another smaller writing, Sg, at the bottom of the page.
"They were, you can say, medical records for the plants," Joseph said behind them. "And what is this?" Ryuu pointed out the word 'Sg' at the bottom of the page. Joseph narrowed his eyes, "Hmm... I don't know about that one."
Kinta, who was now standing beside Kyuu, took another book and opened the first page, "It's here too, only it is Cu instead of Sg."
Kyuu took a blue covered book and opened the first page, "This one is N."
Ryuu looked up to the book rack again, "Let's try the blue covered books first, maybe it's a code."
They nodded and pulled out the other five blue covered books. They gathered at the table in the middle of the room and opened all the first pages. "Sb, n, mc, p, as, bi..." Kyuu murmured. "We can't even make a word or something!"
Joseph drew his brows together, "They're familiar to me, but what is it?" His voice was a bit irritated.
"Wait," Megu suddenly said, "I saw these before."
When four other heads looked towards her, Megu closed her eyes and concentrated.
Sb, N, Mc, P, As, Bi.
No, the order was supposed to be... N, P, As, Sb, Bi, Mc.
N-7-Nitrogen. P-15-Phosphorus. As-33-Arsenic. Sb-51-Antimony. Bi-83-Bismuth. Mc-115-Moscovium.
They're the fourth row from the right of the...
"Periodic table!" Megu opened her eyes. "They're from the periodic table of the elements in chemistry. They are the fourth row from the right. The order should be N, P, As, Sb, Bi, Mc."
Joseph's eyes went wide, "You're right! How can I forget that, even though I'm the chemist here!"
"It's okay, Joseph," Ryuu said calmly, "Megu, can you extract other information from it?"
Megu closed her eyes again. "N is for Nitrogen, it's the seventh element. P is for Phosphorus, it's the fifteenth element. As is for Arsenic, it's the thirty-third element."
"Stop there," Ryuu interrupted. "It's the numbers, isn't it?" Kyuu asked. Ryuu looked at Kyuu and nodded, "Yes, we may find something if we order the books in the rack."
"Okay," Megu answered, "We can pull the books out and order them one by one when we put it in again."
Kinta grinned, "Leave it to me. I love putting things in order!"
"Really? Since when?" Kyuu spontaneously barked in Japanese. Kinta hit the black haired boy in the head, "Hey, I'm actually an organized person, you know!"
"But you don't have to hit me that hard!" Kyuu protested.
Joseph watched the scene in amazement and he blinked a few times. Ryuu noticed and said, "They'll do fine. Don't worry." He followed his friends towards the rack.
After a while, Joseph shook himself out of the trance and walked to them. He saw Kinta take a book from the floor and tell the element abbreviation, then Megu replied with the element number and Kinta put the book in the appropriate row. "I'm amazed how she can memorize the periodic table down to the tiniest detail," Joseph said. Kyuu giggled as he answered, "Megu has the photographic memory. She can't forget what she saw."
Joseph's mouth formed the word 'wow' even though no voice was coming out.
Soon enough, the rack was almost full and when Kinta squeezed the last book and completed the rack, the rack moved a little. Kinta and Megu, who were standing the closest, startled at the sudden movement. Kinta was quick to regain his composure and he peeked behind the rack, "There's something behind the rack here."
He moved the rack slowly and Joseph gawked, "I never succeeded moving the rack, even a bit!"
Ryuu noticed the automated bolt lock at the top at the back of the rack, "I think your dad locked the rack in place and set out the automation once the books are ordered."
Joseph lowered his head and laughed bitterly, "I couldn't believe he actually did that. What is he, really?"
Ryuu looked at his friend with deep excitement, "We're going to find that out." He did not realize another pair of brown eyes stared at him with the same excitement.
"There's a small storage here," Kinta pointed to the small square hole on the wall. Megu got closer, "There were two photos in frame and oh, this is an edelweiss flower." She took a frame in hand and everyone else got closer to take a look. "That man looks like you, Jo," Kyuu chuckled. "No kidding," Kinta commented. The man in frame was probably in his early twenties. It was a black and white portrait photograph and the man looked dignified in the elegant old fashioned suit.
Megu turned the frame and they saw a handwriting at the bottom of the frame. Stephen Wade. Upon reading the name, Megu narrowed her eyes. "This name... I think I've read it before," she murmured.
Kinta took the other frame and showed it to them. It was also a black and white photograph, but it has three people in it. In the middle was the same man from the previous photograph, just a little older. There were two other people with him this time, a woman and another man in their early twenties. "That's dad!" Joseph exclaimed. He pointed his finger at the younger man on the right side of the photograph, "It's my dad, Melvin Rios." Kinta turned the frame but there was nothing there.
"Ah, I remember!" Megu suddenly said, "Stephen Wade. He won a Nobel Prize about thirty years ago."
"What?" Joseph asked with a rather high tone.
"I read about it in an old library a long time ago. I did not read the whole article, but I believe he won a prize in medicine," Megu closed her eyes to concentrate but at last she said, "That's the only thing I read, I'm sorry." Her voice was rather frustrated.
"It's more than enough Megu. Please contact Kazuma to search more about him," Ryuu's calm voice soothed the heightened tension. Megu nodded and fetched her phone to text Kazuma.
Ryuu turned to look at Joseph, "Joseph, I know it's quite hard for you to swallow, but we'll go through this together, okay?"
Joseph breathed a few times before answering, "Yeah, I can't believe it man, but I also want to know the truth." He looked at the whole Q Class, "Thanks guys, really I couldn't have figured out much without you."
After setting the rack back to place and scrambling the books as Ryuu suggested, they went to grab lunch at a nearby restaurant before heading back to New York.
Kyuu, Kinta, and even Megu had slept at the back of the car. "Look at them," Joseph said to the half conscious Ryuu after looking at the rear-view mirror, "Nobody's gonna believe they're detectives."
"Yeah," Ryuu let a small laugh, "and that's what made them so powerful."
Ryuu wanted to continue the chat but before he could say anything Joseph said, "You don't sleep? It was supposed to be past midnight in Japan already."
Ryuu answered him with a question instead, "Aren't you sleepy?"
Joseph chuckled, "Me? No, my body is adjusted to bear different time zones already. I would rather bear it 'til night, but you should really sleep. It will be an hour of good nap."
Ryuu was anxious about leaving the whole Q Class to sleep, Joseph was still quite a stranger even though he worked with him a few times. He looked at Joseph from the rear-view mirror and after he saw the serious and honest greyish-blue eyes, he decided that he would try to have faith in the brunette. After all, they already flew to New York and went to the small house safely.
"Okay," Ryuu said before dozing to sleep.
Joseph ran through another speed bump and Kyuu woke up at the gentle shake. They were definitely at the heart of the big apple. Kyuu, who sat behind Joseph, turned his head aside to watch keenly as they went through buildings and skyscrapers. "Hey, you're awake?" Joseph's voice was incredibly soft. Kyuu got his intention not to wake the others, "Yeah, this is amazing!" He tried to whisper and then he turned to look at the front of the car.
He was rewarded with a reflection of sleeping Ryuu on the front glass. His delicate sleeping face was serene and it shone in the afternoon light. There was suddenly too much saliva in Kyuu's mouth and he had to swallow hard.
Joseph pulled over in front of a building with Victorian era design. "We're here, guys," Joseph said with a louder voice. Kinta jolted and shook his head. Megu blinked a few times to consciousness. Ryuu did not budge and Kyuu leaned forward. He shook Ryuu's arm gently and in a low soft voice he said, "Ryuu, wake up." Ryuu felt the warm soft grip on his arm and opened his eyes a little. It's Kyuu's hand, that means they had possibly arrived at the destination. Kyuu let go of his hand when Ryuu moved to unbuckle his seat belt.
The hotel looked quite antique on the outside, so Kyuu was surprised to find a dark sleek modern lobby. "This is a really cool place," Kinta commented. "I am amazed as well. This lobby has a very different design from the outside. It's kinda dark but somehow it's very homey," Megu elaborated. "Okay, let's go, guys," Joseph came back from the reception with a card in his hand. He led them towards the elevator and pushed the button to the top floor.
When the elevator opened, Kyuu's and Kinta's jaws dropped. The sunken circular living room with beige cushions on the left side was where they ran to. "This is awesome!" Kyuu's laughter brightened the whole suite. Megu was more interested in the small kitchen on the right side. It has a minimalist kitchen bar that was enough for six people. And while there was only a microwave to cook, there was quite a large selection of liquor on the wall mounted rack. It was designed beautifully with the hanging wine glasses underneath.
"I ordered dinner and it should be here in about thirty minutes, so choose your rooms and get clean," Joseph announced. "Okay!" Kyuu hurried to see the rooms on the hallway. There were three rooms with the same size. Two rooms on the right side of the hallway each had a queen sized bed, while the room on the left had two twin beds. All the rooms had a fancy bathroom, complete with a shower and a bathtub. It was as if those three rooms were complete hotel rooms instead of a part of one suite.
They all stood on the hallway after looking inside the three rooms. "I'll take this room," Megu pointed to the room nearest to the kitchen on the right side.
Joseph walked to them and said, "Hey Ryuu, can I share the room with you?"
Ryuu smiled, but then his face became serious and he spoke, "I would really like to, but I think after processing the whole situation, it's best if you share the room with Kinta."
Kinta gaped, "What? Me?"
"Yes," Ryuu answered firmly, "I'll explain later in dinner, okay?"
Kinta slumped a little but he knew Ryuu must have a reason for it, "Okay, that means we're going to take the twin beds, Jo."
Joseph looked quite confused but then he nodded before going inside the mentioned room.
"That means we'll sleep here," Ryuu smiled at Kyuu and went inside the last room. Kyuu knew he was deeply blushing from the idea of sleeping together with Ryuu in a queen sized bed, and he did not mind at all.
Half an hour later, they were eating Mexican dinner at the kitchen bar. "This is really good!" Kyuu took his third ground beef quesadilla. "This is my first time having Mexican dinner, I like it so much," Megu ate her veggie nacho. Kinta swallowed his quesadilla and yawned, "Yeah, but I'm still so sleepy."
"It's very normal to have a jetlag. You guys are up for almost 24 hours," Joseph chuckled. "But you don't seem sleepy," Megu commented. Joseph took another nacho, "Yeah, I'm used by the time zones differences now. And I'm a New Yorker from the start so it will affect you guys more."
"By the way, Joseph, I was wondering about this suite," Ryuu changed the topic. "Oh right," Joseph gestured at the hallway, "Those rooms were supposed to be three suite rooms. But I bought this part of the hoteland yeah, made it one of my guest houses."
Kyuu's eyes beamed in amazement, "Yeah, this place rocks for a hangout!"
"Sure is! When my friends come from other towns or countries, or even just want to have some fun, we usually stay here. It's one of the best places that I own," Joseph opened his beer can. He took another can and offered it. Kyuu watched closely when Megu politely lowered her head and Kinta raised his palm saying, "No for me." And he was taken aback when his violet blue haired friend took the beer can from the brunette.
Ryuu casually opened the beer can and took a sip of the alcohol, and Kyuu could not stop staring at his friend's bouncing Adam's apple. Ryuu obviously noticed it, because consequently he offered the can to Kyuu, "You want some?" Kyuu shook his head hesitantly but his gleaming eyes could not lie. Ryuu let a small laugh, "A sip won't hurt you, Kyuu." And that encouragement was more than enough for Kyuu. He took the can and in the end, drank it till the last drop.
It was a full hour of hearty dinner and Kyuu found himself stuffed and tipsy and so ready to sleep afterwards. His head and eyes were so heavy that he blurrily remembered pale soft hands that tucked him into bed.