Surprisingly, the police station wasn't as hectic as usual that morning, due to the lack of multiple ringing phones or rowdy suspects. Then again, maybe the serene scene could be explained by the fact that he, like always, was the first one in the office. Propping his feet upon his cluttered desk, Van leaned back in his chair while he closed his auburn eyes. Last night he had made the mistake of coming upon some of his late brother's things while cleaning out his attic last night, and the emotions brought on by the discovery provided for a restless night. He would've slept in for once, but found old habits are hard to break, waking up at 5 AM. Besides, being in that house now reminded him too much of Folken.
"You know, if you're going to be here so early, you can at least start a new pot in the break room."
Van sat forward in his chair and grinned lazily at his partner Merle as she grimaced at her attempt to make decent coffee. It was hard to believe she was an officer sometimes due to her young age and immature attitude, not to mention her appearance, including her chestnut brown hair with a neon pink undertone, testament to her hair color before there was complaints that she stood out too much on duty. But Merle was tough as nails, loyal, protective, and fair; one of the best of the force in Van's opinion. Dumping her cup into the trash, Merle then tossed a thick manila folder onto Van's desk. "Guess what happened last night?"
Flipping open the file, Van groaned audibly at the picture within. "God damnit. Who was covering originally?"
Pushing a few papers out of the way, Merle pointed the messy scrawl at the bottom of a form. "Yukari was there, off duty for a friend's birthday. She was even flirting with the guy at one point of time, and gave him her phone number. When I later told her who he was, she immediately blanched. Apparently, he been going under a fake alias these past few months, Charlie Seers I think it was, in order to prevent business from going down."
A chuckle left Van's mouth at the thought of Yukari's shock as he shuffled through the papers. Suddenly, he stopped on a picture of a young woman, dressed in tightly fitted silk dress with asian print, singing on a stage. The light focused on her shortly cropped hair, and he wished he knew what color her eyes were, because in the picture they were unfortunately closed.
"Yukari was also nice enough of to take pictures at the club before the incident happened. That one's of Hitomi Kanzaki, the last person who was on stage before it happened. I heard a lot of people in the crowd showed up just to hear her," Merle affirmed, nonchalantly flipping through the photos, scrutinizing each one. Sighing, she sat down on the corner of desk, placing her hands on her forehead in exasperation as Van continued to stare at Hitomi's photo. "What are you doing, trying to find where she hid the gun?"
Rolling his eyes, Van finally put the picture down, pondering a thought over in his mind. "I'm just thinking; If she was onstage at the time, she had view of the whole club, right? So even though she might not have seen who the shooter, she might have seen someone near the vic before he was shot. Did she say she would help us?"
Merle nodded, and slipped up, stretching her arms as she yawned. "Yeah, and on the way there, maybe we can stop by a Starbucks or something."
The idea of a key witness living one floor above the crime scene bothered Van slightly as he knocked on the scuffed apartment door. There was a series of clicks from locks, and the door was cracked open, restricted by a brass chain. One vibrant green eye warily peeked through. "Hello?"
"Hello, Ms. Kanzaki. I'm Detective Van Fanel with my partner Merle Burdett. We called earlier in the prospects of meeting to discuss the death of your former employer?" Van recited, flipping his badge open so it could be clearly seen. The door closed, only to be opened fully to a flustered Hitomi, motioning for them to enter. "Oh yeah, please come in. Do you want anything to drink?"
A little miffed that Hitomi was treating their visit as a social call, he shook his head and walked to the living room area. "No thank you. Now, Ms. Kanzaki-"
"Hold one second please. Feel free to sit down," Hitomi interrupted, going into the Kitchen, returning a few seconds later with a glass of iced tea. Van now realized now that her offer for refreshments was to stall for time , not necessarily to treat them as guests. She was extremely nervous he observed by the way her hand shook as she took a big sip of her beverage. "Now, what were you saying detective?"
Signaling to Merle to take out a notebook, Van sat on the edge of the well worn couch with his hands clasped in front. "Ms. Kanzaki, can you recount everything you remember from last night?"
Hitomi agreed silently, and slowly began, her voice straining. "Well, I was backstage most of the time, getting ready and such. Charlie wasn't there to wish us good luck as he usually did, probably because he was filling in a job that the other guy couldn't come in for."
"Let me interrupt you for one second. He was working at the bar that night right? Where is he usually?" Merle questioned, scribbling down notes furiously. Hitomi replied without hesitation, "Charlie was never the type to hang around in the back office; he would always be out and about having fun with his guests attending than the needs of the club."
The underlying animosity in Hitomi's words intrigued Van, causing him to probe deeper. "Now Ms. Kanzaki, what do you mean by the 'needs of the club'? Did he have financial debts, or treat his employees unfairly?"
Fidgeting with her hands, Hitomi slowly shook her head, "There was no proof that the club was in trouble, just it always seemed he flashed more money around then we could ever possibly bring in. And of course, we always thought we deserved more money, like everyone usually does," Hitomi weakly joked. "But he always measured how his performers were paid by their performance, no matter what kind of condition they were in, which I guess is a little wrong..."
"Other than that, how did he personally act? Was there any verbal abuse or physical harassment?" Van questioned, staring at Hitomi to gauge her response. Hitomi instantly froze, and lowered her gaze as she mumbled, "Well, no, not really...I mean he was always the flirt, and sometimes teased the pianist about his height, but we all did, but he knew we were just joking..."
It was apparent to Van that Hitomi was tiptoeing around the answer he was looking for. After studying 'Charlie' for so long, Something had happened that Hitomi was hiding from them, something he was going to find out right there and then. "What about specifically towards you yourself, Ms. Kanzaki?"
"...Umm, well, he treated me like everyone else, nothing special," Hitomi wavered, avoiding looking Van or Merle in the eyes. Van struggled to hide his annoyance as he repeated, "Ms. Kanzaki, did he hurt or violate you?"
Suddenly, the barrier holding back Hitomi's emotion cracked open under pressure, releasing a torrent of tears. "It was about a week ago...he had been drinking all night, upset over something...he busted in the through the door, before I put in the locks...and he...he wouldn't listen when I said 'no' over and over...and he..."
As Hitomi trailed off into incoherent sobbing, Van winced: he hadn't expected something this extreme, especially from a man trying to keep a low profile. Van cursed the damn bastard, and glanced at Merle who was trying to comfort the distressed Hitomi as best as she possibly could. Inhaling sharply, Van slowly stated, "Ms. Kanzaki, I know it might upset you more, but we need to you to come down to the station this afternoon to file a report on what you just told us as well as identifying people in the audience so we can get a sense on who was there. Do you think you can do that for us?"
Hiccuping as she nodded, Hitomi grabbed Van's arm as he stood up to leave. "Wait, do I need to get a lawyer?"
"I would wait just a little longer before seeking legal counsel. You're not a suspect at the moment," Van reassured her, patting her hand before leaving through the door.
As soon as they left Hitomi's apartment, Van felt Merle's eyes boring into his back. Finally, as they trotted down the flight of stairs, Van stopped and sighed irritably, "What?"
"She's 'not a suspect at the moment'?! Are you crazy?" Merle snorted, crossing her arms and looking off nonchalantly. "We have motive, and really no alibi. What more could you want?"
Turning on his heel, Van shortened the distance between the two of them, getting into Merle's face as he seethed, "How about a murder weapon, huh? Unless we find that, we can't prosecute anyone. And for god sakes, show a little more compassion, will you?"
Although Van's confrontation shocked, Merle was quick to retort, "I was showing compassion, back there, where she needed it! Why don't you show some goddamn common sense! After he raped her, he probably threatened to harm her if she told, and she just snapped. We both seen it happen, and you know we need to think this from all angles! I've worked on this case way too long to let it end like this!"
As soon as those words left her mouth, Merle immediately regretted them as Van's gaze grew cold and hard. Silently he turned back around and continued down the stairs, his voice barely above a growl. "Don't ever think I'm not giving this case everything I got. If we told her she was a suspect, no doubt she would clam up and not tell us anything."
Merle gasped audibly, and chastised her partner, "It's a smart plan, but don't you think it's a little deceitful?! It's like we're leading her on to get what you want!"
"What can I say? 'Nice guys finish last'," Van explained, shrugging as they climbed into their squad car. "And for once, I want the blue ribbon to wrap around the son of a bitch's neck who always took it from me before."
From the turquoise velvet furniture scattered haphazardly around the poorly lighted room, to the bamboo beads hanging from the mirror tile ceiling, it was clear that Slyvie's was not an ordinary club. To top off the swanky interior, lively pump organ music filled the air, along with a sickly sweet scent.
"Ten to one that isn't incense burning," Merle whispered, unconsciously scanning around to find the source. Van nudged her in the side, making the motion to stop as the organ player finished playing. Opening his chocolate brown eyes as he hit the last ivory key, he turned to notice the two standing near the door, and smiled eagerly as he stood up from the bench, smoothing out the imaginary wrinkles in his outlandish outfit. The man totally ignored Van, and instead Merle hungrily. "Well, hello hello there. Tell me darling, is that your natural hair color?"
"There's only one way to find out, and not even in your dreams will you even come close," Merle quipped, plastering a fake grin on her face. Guffawing, the man ran his fingers through his long brown hair and winked at Merle. "Catty are we? I do so love a challenge. So, how can I help you on this fine afternoon?"
Tired of this banter, Van whipped out a picture and held it out in front of the man's face. "You're Dryden Fassa, right? We're investigating the death of Charlie Seers, and we were curious on why another club owner such as yourself was doing in Mr. Seers establishment the night of his murder."
Taking the picture, Dryden studied it, his mind clearly straining before he lit up. "It was a redhead who took this didn't she? I thought so; god she was a nice piece of-well, she must work for you guys if you have these. That explains those legs; they must be used a lot to chase down criminals. Let me tell you though, I personally wouldn't resist arrest if she-"
"Mr. Fassa!" Van shouted, interrupting Dryden just as his eyes began to glaze over. Dryden jumped and shook his head in shock, and gave Van a lopsided smirk. "What detective? Don't say you haven't thought the same thing, especially about your luscious partner here."
The urge to throttle the other man rose quickly inside Van, but he managed to supress the feeling as he calmly repeated, "Mr. Fassa, let me ask you one more time: Why were you at Heavenly Skies that night?!"
Fumbling around in his pocket, Dryden found a cigarette and lit it, much to Van's chagrin, before smoothly replying, "You officers should loosen up a bit you know? Too much stress isn't good for anyone. Yeah, I was there, but only because I was researching business."
"What do you mean by business?" Merle asked just as her cell phone rang. Excusing herself, she walked outside to get better reception. Taking a long drag on his cigarette, Dryden hoarsely chuckled, "As much as I hate them leaving, I love to watch them walk away. That's why I was there that night: Eriya and Naria were originally my dancers here, but Charlie stole them away with the promise of higher wages. I went there in hopes of talking to them after their performance about coming back to me for a even better price then he was paying them."
Van was about question Dryden further until Merle called for him. Telling Dryden to stay where he was for a minute, Van walked outside to face a very concerned Merle. "What? What happened?"
"I just got off the phone with headquarters," Merle explained, pinching her sinuses. "There's been another shooting at Heavenly Skies only an hour ago. It's the sisters; apparently killed instantly in their apartment with a gun matching the previous model, but they're not sure if it was done by the exact same murder weapon yet."
Instinctively Van glanced at Dryden, but the man was engrossed as two girls kissed him on the cheeks for a photo opportunity. Cursing under his breath, Van suddenly snapped, "Wait! What about-"
"Hitomi?" Merle finished, a solemn smile tugging at her lips as she assured him, "At the police station at the time, still filling out her report. Only problem is, she heard the news, and we currently have a frantic prime witness on our hands."
Hiding his extreme relief, Van groaned as the realization hit him. "Not to mention a serial killer."
A/N: I made this chapter longer in apology for the first one, as well as taking so long to update. And ooh, the plot thickens! XD