Duo threw the newspaper on my desk, startling me out of a frightful nightmare. I was dreaming about seeing Relena. The look of utter horror on Winner's face was beyond belief, much like I looked cradling my dead sister. There were so many parallels to Catherine's death and just seeing a bloody woman with bullet holes all through the body just made me have shitty dreams.
I wiped my eyes and gave Duo a look of either masked horror or un-amusement. It had been two days since Relena's death and the press had been all over it. He smirked at me callously and I turned my attention from the smug bastard to the front page of the daily newspaper. There was a picture of Quatre Winner, dressed in an impressive black suit walking solemnly into the Savoy with his large bodyguards next to him. The heading read: SMITTEN CLUB OWNER TO WED TRAGICALLY FALLEN STARLETT. I refused to read the papers; I knew exactly what happened. I figured it to be either Merquise or Yuy, but my odds were adding up for Merquise; Yuy had no money to even think about partnering up with Winner. Besides, the Yakuza were in too much trouble with the other two families as it was.
"It's a damn shame that someone so talented and beautiful ended up dead so young. I guess she was just hanging with the wrong crowd." Duo said sitting down in the chair in front of my desk.
"You don't know if she was talented…" I say, my voice trailing off and smirking at Duo. He simply smiled back at me.
"I saw her last flick, she wasn't half bad. I spent most of the time staring at her legs though," Duo's such a sick bastard. I really need to find him a girl before he goes crazy. I stand up, taking the paper that he so kindly threw on my desk and throw it in the trash.
"Why are you sleeping here, Trowa? You have an apartment." He's still sitting in front of my desk, watching me carefully as I walk back around my desk.
"I had some business to attend to." I say scowling at him. He walks over to the blinds and opens them. The hideous, garish sunlight shines through and I can feel a horrible headache coming on.
"I hope this business didn't involve Jack Daniels," he doesn't look too happy. Duo has his arms crossed over his broad chest and his left foot is tapping rhythmically against the floor.
"I'm not drunk, Duo. I was seriously working on this case," I show him my notes from my notepad.
"That's why I brought you that paper. Isn't it time for you to stop collecting statements and start collecting clues. If you wait too long, the cops are going to find Chang floating in the Shiprock Bay." It hit me suddenly. After all of last night's toiling over the critical clue in this case, I realized that we needed to go and investigate the Shiprock property. I needed to see for myself what this waterfront property held for all of the players involved in this case: the Yakuza, the Cosa Nostra, the Triads, and Quatre Winner.
"I can see the light bulb turn on." Duo says noticing my intense expression, "What are you thinking about?" He's leaning on my desk now; his palms flat on my desk his gaze intense. I give him a rare smile and stand up.
"I need to go to Shiprock Lake." I say walking around my desk towards the front door. He turns to look at me.
"What?" he says, giving me a look of complete bemusement. I try to hide the look of utter satisfaction and smugness that I have with myself.
"Trowa, what the hell… where the hell are you going?" Duo says. I move quickly down the stairs, he's limping hurriedly behind me. I burst through the door and rapidly try and hail a cab. He finally catches up with me.
"I don't have any time to explain," I said. I cursed mutely because the cabs weren't stopping. Duo slung me around by my shoulders and shook me violently.
"Trowa, if this is for the case, let's just take the Cadillac." He says. Duo Maxwell, always the sensible bastard, I stop trying to hail the cab and turn to follow my friend into the Clover.
I forgot how much the damned bar reminded me of Cathy. There's not one picture of her in the damned place, but the whole establishment just screams her name. Duo limps his way behind the cherry wood bar and I perch myself on a green-cloth covered barstool. He digs furiously through some things in the back of the bar, muttering curses as he bangs along the wooden cabinets that are out of my view. Some of the customers that are sitting further down the bar turn and look at me, then return to their conversation.
"Ted!" Duo screams and I hear something from the back of the bar a sound of crashing. Ted is a clumsy guy. He's a bit taller than me, but doesn't even come close to my build. I am tall and muscular, whereas Ted is tall and gangly. I suppose that comes from being a pimple-faced college kid that's working for Duo to pay his way through the university.
"Yes, boss?" he asked sheepishly. I don't blame him; Duo is rather intimidating.
"I want you to look after the bar until I get back." Duo says finally finding the keys to the Cadillac somewhere behind the bar and patting Ted on the back reassuringly. My braided comrade smiles at me genuinely and I can tell that he's ready to go.
"Hey Ted," I say, offering him my most sympathetic smirk.
"Hello, Mr. Barton," the poor kid. His voice is still cracking, it's like he's a puberty reject. Duo comes from behind the bar and leads me out the backdoor of the Clover towards where he parked the car.
Jesus, seeing that damned thing parked in that same space brings back some good memories. Back then, I didn't have to look for jobs, they just came to me. I was the best P.I. in the city and people were always having some type of problem. Cathy would work the phone and Duo would bartend, and after work all three of us would sit in the Clover and laugh and laugh.
I remember when Cathy got the Cadillac. It was long before she and Duo ever hooked up and she was working odd jobs to make ends meet. I remembered wondering where she'd gotten the money to pay for that beautiful car. She always laughed off my questions and told me she'd saved up for it. I couldn't help but believe her, she was always so meticulous; everything Cathy desired she got.
Duo opened the car door and we hopped in, strapping on our seatbelts silently as he starts the car and pulls out of the parking lot onto the street.
"Where to?" he asks, smiling at me.
"I really don't know. All I know is that there is some vacant property on Shiprock Lake."
"I know where you're talking about. That's some pretty expensive shit. When Cathy and I were going to open the Clover we looked at that property. It was too rich for my blood back then, only the Lord knows how much money it costs now." Duo says
"Take me to it." I say and we ride in silence all the way there.
****
This property is pretty crappy to me, but Duo seems to know more about real estate than I do. To me this just looks like some washed up old gray buildings with windows that need patching. I don't see why the three families would be fighting over this land, but then again, I'm not a businessman.
"Yep, this is the place." Duo says getting out the car and taking a deep whiff of the fresh lakefront air. I look at him, then I look back at the buildings; I can't believe there is a gangster turf war over this.
"This is it?" I ask Duo, giving him a look of total bemusement.
"Yep, this is the property." He says, giving me that stupid grin.
"Duo, this is shit." He frowns at this.
"You obviously don't have an all-seeing eye, Trowa," he gives me the most condescending voice he can muster and a look to match.
"All-seeing what?… Huh?" I ask, not understanding a damn thing that he's talking about.
"You didn't make it past third grade, did you? You can't see the future in this property. It's by the lake, which makes it worth a bundle. Besides, this property is great for gambling boats, casinos, clubs, everything a mobster could want." Duo's eyes are lit a bright violet as I can tell that he's envisioning the future of the property. I shrug my shoulders after he's finished his little monologue and start walking towards the abandon building with a half-torn off sign that reads OMNI DOG FOOD PLANT. Duo, seeing that I'm walking towards the large doors, shakes himself from his revelry and limps after me. To my disappointment the door is locked, a large chain pulling together the two rusted handles and a large lock dangling from the chain. I glare at the offending lock, as if by sure will alone I can force it to unlock.
"Dammit!" I say quietly, pounding my fist into the door, "now I'll never find any clues." I lean up against the door, my back in perfect alignment with the hard metal and slide down into a crouching position, my knees pulled all the way up to my chest. Needless to say, I'm disappointed.
I see Duo fiddling around with his hair a little bit, then I hear the familiar click of a lock open. I look up to see my comrades smiling face and in his hand he's holding a small, silver lockpick. I don't think I've ever wanted to hug Duo more.
"I knew you'd need a little help," he says offering me a large, tanned calloused hand and helping me to my feet. We unwrap the chain from around the handle and I push the door into utter darkness. I break out my flashlight and shine the beam around the whole room, looking for any potential danger. A small glint catches my eye and I walk towards the sparkle. Duo limps behind me, being the best sidekick.
The closer we get to the sparkle the larger it gets and the more it seems to twinkle in the dim light of my flashlight. The sparkle turns out to be a silver earring, I pick it slowly and drop it in my pocket; Duo looks at me incredulously. Why would a woman's earring be in a dog food plant? I turn around and catch another glint from the flashlight; this time the flash is coming from the opposite sides of the factory and I walk over towards it; it's a matching earring.
"Do you think that they belong to a hooker, or something?" Duo asks, eyeing the small piece of jewelry. I take a look at the matching pair and shake my head vehemently.
"No, they're too classy for just any run-of-the-mill ho…" A noise from the darkness startles both of us and I drop the flashlight. Duo goes for cover as I scramble to pick up the flashlight. As soon as I have it back in my hand I shine the light in the vicinity of the sound.
"Hello?" I ask the darkness around us. There is a muffled answer.
"Do you hear that?" Duo asks and I nod my head. We inch towards the area of the sound, the mumbling getting a bit noisier as we get closer. The only thing in our line of view is a trunk and I put my ear up against the top of it to see if the sounds are coming from there. I step back from it; the mumbling is definitely coming from the trunk.
"What do you want to do?" Duo asks.
"You open it and I'll shoot it if it's impulsive." I say drawing my gun from the holster around my waist. Duo looks at me skeptically.
"Duo, don't look at me like that, just do it." He snorts at my request and slowly starts to open the trunk, standing back from it so that I don't shoot him instead of the contents of the trunk. The creaking of the old wood obviously startles whatever is inside of it and it starts to make more noise. Duo finally opens lid of the trunk up to reveal a small-framed, dark-haired woman. She's bound and gagged and obviously frightened because her eyes are as big as a doe. Duo looks over to me.
"What do we do with her?" he asks. I shrug my shoulders and pick her up out of the trunk. I should have known that the little imp of a woman would have been scared of me; as soon as I get her small frame from the trunk she knees me in the groin and starts to hop away, her feet still tied. Duo, thinking fast and me still incapacitated, limps after her and tackles her to the ground. Finally, I'm able to speak without a falsetto and I trudge warily over to the dark-haired broad.
"What the hell was that for?" I ask, nursing my aching groin. Duo is presently holding her tightly pressed against him as I try and talk to her. She doesn't say much, all she's doing is mumbling through the gag around her mouth.
"MMMMMMMMmmmmm," are her words. Duo looks at me and shrugs.
"What?" I ask.
"MMMMM," is what she responds. We continue like this for the next few minutes until I removed the gag from her mouth.
"Who the hell are you?" are her first coherent words.
"I think I'm the one that should be asking that question."
"My name is Hilde. Hilde Schbeiker," So, this is the elusive Persephone. I knew that my instinct was telling me to come here today.
"Good, I've been looking for you. I'm Trowa Barton, P.I." I flip my badge and show her some credentials. Duo helps her shake free of the ropes that bind her. She's only in her underwear and poor Duo is blushing as he helps her get free of the ties around her ankles. He hasn't been that close to a girl's thighs in years.
"Who's your friend?" she asks, looking down at Duo and smiling; I think my friend is about to faint.
"That's Duo Maxwell. Why are you tied up in here?"
"Some guys came and took me and my guy off," I can see her eyes sadden as she sits down on one of the many crates that intersperse the inside of the building.
"What did these guys look like? And what did they do with Chang?"
"How do you know about my lover?" she's shocked and suddenly on her guard.
"His wife sent me out to look for him; she's the one who hired me."
"Oh, Roddy. I don't know what happened to Wufei, all I know is that some Asian guys came out of nowhere and dragged us off." A sigh.
"Were the guys Chinese or Japanese?" I ask.
"I don't know. I can't tell the difference. But I'm pretty sure that they were Japanese. Wufei is one of the most influential and feared Chinese men in this town." She smiles resolutely. She's thinking about Chang, I can tell by her wistful facial expression.
"Well, I have to get you back to your boss." I say grabbing her arm and leading her towards the exit doors. She struggles out of my grasps and runs back towards the trunk.
"I'd rather die than go back to that hell-hole. I don't want to be a lounge singer anymore." Her eyes are wide with fright, but I have no time for this shit.
"That's not my problem. Nor is it my choice to not take you back to Quatre. He's pretty peeved with you." I say walking towards her slowly. She backs away an inch for every step I take.
"Please, Mr. Barton, don't take me back to the Savoy. That's why I ran away with Wufei, to get away from that damned place. I'm so sick of being a lounge singer; I only took the job so that I could get through the university. That was almost four years ago; I've made a career out of something that I hate. Please don't take me back there; I'll do anything." She's down on her knees begging and pleading with me. My heart is starting to soften but my job is not to help her my job is to find Chang. So I walk towards her and start to grab her up from the floor, but Duo is there first.
"Trowa, I'll take care of her and Winner can come through me if he wants her." Has Duo lost his damned mind?
"Have you lost your damn mind?" I'm looking at Duo like he's crazy as he holds the little imp closer to him. I think he's finally found himself a girl.
"No. I just feel sorry for her. She's in over her head. Besides, I have a place for her to stay until the heat is off of her. She'll be safe." My eyes narrow at my braided comrade as I think about that charity girl staying where my sweet sister used to stay. In any case, when Duo has made up his mind there is no use arguing. I shrug my shoulders, give him a look of utter disapproval and walk towards the doors of the factory. Well, let's look at it this way; at least I've find one piece of the fucked up puzzle.
