Author Notes: Characters:Not Mine. Plot: Not completely mine. Oh well.

III

I was up early with the birds, although I doubt the birds would find anything so tasty as Makoto's Belgian waffles. She made me two and I finished the first then half of the other. She likes to spoil me. At least she recognizes that running errands takes energy.

My yellow roadster and I made good time, curving around the edges of the highway that led to the secluded Kaiou mansion. Setsuna, abhorring any machine that moved, would have screamed the entire way – cursing my recklessness arrogant handling and me. It would have been fun.

I was early, being the usual result of speeding and to my surprise I would need it. The Kaiou mansion was an elegant beast forged by aristocracy and cold hard money. Several marble steps greeted me each side boasting a snarling lion. I whistled for words could barely express the elegance that such an abode would manifest. A glance at my watch told me that it was five to eight. Plenty of time to climb the steps and think about what I was going to say next.

A well-endowed woman with long red hair and curves more dangerous than I had taken on the trip here opened the door. She smiled at me, which didn't quite reach her eyes, but these days few people actually did as they felt. Besides Ms. Kaiou was undoubtedly paying her well to be pleasant.

"And you are?"

"Tenoh Haruka. She's expecting me."

The Ice Queen nodded. "Yes. Follow me please."

If the exterior deserved a whistle the interior could only be honored with silence. Setsuna would go crazy in this place. Bookshelves on every other wall and where there wasn't there was a portrait, all very famous, painted back when tights were the fashion. Elegant and soft furniture giving an impression of warmth and comfort, a few fireplaces here and there, not to mention a kitchen that Makoto could have a field day in. The grandeur of it all engulfed me to the point where I nearly missed the melancholy melody that drifted over us.

My guide showed me into the music room. Tasteful yet again it held a baby grand and a grandfather clock but it was not what captured my eye. There by the piano was the sea nymph playing her violin. Her body swayed as her fingers danced over the string. Her milk white arms strong and vibrant as she moved the bow and held her instrument in place. I had never seen anything so lovely.

"Tenoh-san is here to see you, ma'am."

She stopped, looked at the red head then at me and smiled. "Thank you, Kaori. Would you please see to Hotaru? I would like to talk to Tenoh-san alone."

Kaori smiled, gave me the once over and disappeared into another room. Alone at last I could only smile at her.

Ms. Kaiou looked at her clock. "Eight o'clock on the dot, Tenoh-san."

"When Setsuna says eight o'clock, she means it." I had admired her long enough. It was time to get to business. "Do you have the clothes that," I paused remembering the babe's name, "Hotaru came in?"

This seemed to jot her memory and she nodded. "Yes. I did not bother to wash them in case something on them could be of future use." She took a parcel wrapped in brown paper from the piano and handed it to me.

Oh she was good. I liked it when they turned on the business attitude. "Yes. I'm sure that Setsuna will be pleased. I see you've decided to keep the baby."

"Of course. If she is Soichi's baby what right have I to turn her away? She needed a name and I remember how he loved fireflies."

She was elegant, deep, compassionate, and intelligent. Every part of me screamed out 'Do not go near her. You'll get burnt, Haruka.' But there was that other side of me that kicked the sensible side out and picked up the can of kerosene. I would let her burn me. No questions asked.

She cleared her throat. It was my turn to look startled. She regarded me with that cool smile. There was an aqua colored envelope in her hand.

"I have complied a list of possible mothers for you and Meiou-san. I hope can only hope that it may be of some use to you."

I took the envelope. It smelled like sea salt. "We appreciate your help, Kaiou-san. It must be hard on you to go through this since your husband's death." I had to pump her too. As much as I hated to cause such a beautiful woman pain a professional detective had to move forward.

Ms. Kaiou shook her head, sitting down on a small stool. "It is not so hard as all that, Tenoh-san. The real reason is that it is so easy to list all the women who might have been involved with Soichi. My husband was an eccentric." She looked up with those large pools of blue and held me there. "It was part of the reason I was attracted to him. I was tired of being a Kaiou. I wanted adventure, excitement and oddities in my life. Soichi gave me all those but I'm afraid I did not give him what he needed in return."

How wrong is it to want to dig up a corpse and beat it with your fists? No matter what Ms. Kaiou or Setsuna thought this man had proven himself to be a world class idiot.

"I'm on tour a lot, you see. There would be months when I would not be at home and Soichi was often very lonely. It was only a matter of time before he found someone else to share his time with."

"If you knew about it why didn't you get a divorce?"

"Divorce is such an ugly word. Besides it would only cause more scandal when the truth came out. Believe it or not Soichi was a very sensitive man and took failure hard. If word got out that he could not keep his young wife, he would have been crushed. I came out of the ordeal a wiser woman," she added with a hint of a smile.

She was doing things to me. First thinking of beating a dead man and now I wanted to fall to my knees and promise her everything that she had been denied. Unbeknownst to me I had taken a step forward; about to go through with that very plan when a wail pulled me up short. We both looked up to see Kaori with a squirming bundle in her hands. She looked very put out.

"Excuse me, Ms. Kaiou but…"

There was no need to finish. She was up on her feet taking the bundle up out of the older woman's arms. A look came over her as she held the little tot. It was pained yet content - happy yet sad. But when Kaiou looked at me next there was no regret.

"Would you like to hold her?"

Kaori seemed almost as surprised as I did. I hardly held a baby let alone look at one. When Mamoru and Usagi brought Chibi-Usa over it melted everyone, even Setsuna who had been chosen to play the large role of godmother to the sprat. But we are a loose if not off family as it is. To hold this one – I wasn't so sure of.

How she ended up in my arms I don't know but she stopped wailing and looked at me. She was studying me. I can always tell when someone is sizing me up, putting the pros and cons to this and that. I blinked, then she blinked. I wasn't going to feed her. She wasn't going to do something foul in her diapers. A pair of giggles interrupted our silent conversation by way of Kaori and Ms. Kaiou. The culprits didn't even have the sense to look ashamed.

"I apologize, Tenoh-san. It's just that she's never done that before and frankly it was cute." She was giggling still as she took Hotaru out of my arms. "You have a way with babies."

I grinned. "Well it is for that reason that Setsuna keeps me around." She frowned and I felt the need to explain. "We often have guests and I am the one all the children want to play with, like it or not."

We stared into each other's eyes for what could have been eternity. It was only by a sheer force of will that I was able to break eye contact. She seemed just as aware of it as I had been. She shifted Hotaru to one shoulder, kissed her forehead and began to hum a soothing lullaby. I took this as my signal to split.

I was half way to the door when she called out, "Do you mind if I call you Haruka?"

I turned because her voice compelled me to. "I don't know about that. You see you're a client and having you calling me by my first name is sort of unprofessional."

"I will let you call me Michiru in return."

Now there was a deal but I had to tread lightly. "How about this: You write it down as a memo and if you say I can call you Michiru, you can call me by whatever name you want. Deal?"

Again with the smile that could light up the deepest cavern. "Deal. Will I see you soon?"

"Certainly." I tipped my hat to her and her help and left the mansion feeling heavier than before.

When I arrived at the brownstone an hour later, Makoto was cooking in the kitchen as well as sampling from our wine selection. Setsuna always has wine at a meal. Without it she says that our meals would be amateur and that would not do with Makoto's amazing talent.

"Did you find anything?"

I dumped myself into the nearest chair. "I found an attractive heiress and long legged red head. I think you might be interested in the red head. Looks like she hasn't had a decent meal in years."

Makoto only gratified me with a flat look. "Really, Haruka. What did you find?"

"Well there is something peculiar about the baby clothes."

Though Makoto never cared whether or not we had a case or the facts surrounding them, she did know how to keep a conversation going. "How so?"

"The buttons." I pulled out one of the baby's things and held it up to her. "The buttons are strange don't you think?"

"Very strange. I don't know how someone would come about with these."

"They're horsehair buttons." Setsuna announced coming in from the library, book in hand. She had only just come in to see what the fuss was about and where her afternoon tea was. "Amazing." Her dark eyes gleamed. If there was one thing you could distract Setsuna on it was fashion. "Amazing. Truly amazing."

"So they're rare?" I spared a glance at Makoto to see if she had started the tea – she had. "That should make them easy to find."

Setsuna had her hands in the bag from the Kaiou mansion. "Are all of them like that?"

"Every last one."

She pulled down one of the collars and read: "Precious Things." She then looked to me to clarify.

"Precious Things is a middle class children's clothing store in the fashion district." Slowly I got to my feet. "Let me guess you want me to go out there and see if I can find out who bought them?" When Setsuna smiled – that smug, cold one that just makes you want to scream – I knew the answer. "Sure. I'll be back before dinner."

Makoto gave me a stern stare before taking up the tea tray to follow Setsuna back in the library. If there was one thing that she hated in the world it was cooking for someone who wasn't going to be there. It was not only a waste of her time but most importantly a waste of gourmet food; and I happened to agree.

The fashion district is an obstacle course of hangers, racks, pushy sales women, and collectors of strange antiquities. One such fellow I met after going to Precious Things. They recognized the clothing but not the buttons. When I asked the short plump sales clerk where I might find out about them she told me, through blushing giggles, of a man that knew all about buttons as I later had the joy to meet. He had a shop a few blocks down called Randall's House of Buttons. It didn't sound flashy but he looked it.

"You know about buttons?"

Randall or at least I assume that his name is Randall, giggled. He was nervous or giddy or high from the opium his girls in the back had brought over with them from the mainland. Sweating despite the cold and wearing a long black robe he looked more like a cheap magician than a man of buttons.

"I know everything there is about buttons."

That was no lie. There were buttons everywhere. Buttons on the walls, buttons in the display case, books on buttons, and buttons all over him. So I dubbed him aptly. "So you are the button man?"

He giggled. "Yes. Yes, I am. I am the button man."

"Good.Then perhaps you can help me with these." I pulled out the purple jumper and laid it flat. "You see I am looking for the maker of these buttons and I –"

"Those are beautiful buttons! I have never seen buttons like those! Believe me when I say that for I have seen plenty of buttons. My god where did you get them?"

"I dunno. I was hoping that you might know."

"I have never seen anything like it. They are horsehair, that much I can tell you. Made by hand…" This guy and Setsuna might just get along "…. The craftsman must have spent hours and hours winding the hairs. Whoever made them, made them with love

"But you don't know who made them?"

"No, I do not."

"Well you've been very helpful." I tried to leave but Randall had a firm grasp on the jumper. He was drooling on it. His eyes fixed on the buttons.

"Do you think I could keep this?"

"Ah – no." I pulled it to me.

"Please?" He pulled it back towards him.

"No."

"Just one button?"

"I'm afraid I can't. Now let go!" Before he could protest I had my hand under his chin and pushed up and away. "I apologize for getting rough with you but you should see someone about your button problem."

Randall wiped the saliva from his lips and whimpered as the buttons and I left his store.

My report to Setsuna was brief so I am not going to waste space to tell you. All she did was grunt – yes, she grunts - and get up to go to her four o'clock Frankenstein convention she had with Mizuno upstairs. I followed, waiting for instructions.

"Stop following me, Haruka."

"Not until you give me something to do."

"Jump off a bridge."

"Would love too but the river is frozen. I was thinking it should have something to do with this case."

Her back relaxed and she sighed with defeat. So much for going to the lab without thoughts of real work. "Put an ad out in the papers. Bold print. Thirty-six font. Wanted horsehair buttons. Irregular in size."

"Which paper?"

"Which paper can put the ad in tomorrow's press?"

"At the Tribune and Herald five but at the News anytime."

Setsuna pursed her lips. "Better see to them all." She was about to go when she pulled up short and said, "A reward of a hundred dollars but put that in smaller print."

"Yes ma'am."

Makoto poked her head out of the kitchen. "If she is willing to pay a reward the mother hunt must be on."

I looked at the purple jumper in my hand and smiled. "And a hunting we will go.