Wrongfully Accused

Chapter Eleven

Holding her head high Leanne walked through the front entrance of the Hotel. The woman behind the counter looked up from the paperwork she was completing and smiled at the young reporter.

"Can I help you dear?" She asked.

"Yes, I was wondering if you rented out the bar for private functions?"

"Oh, I don't really know dear. You'll have to ask the manager downstairs."

"Well, I tried but no one was there, so I came up here."

"In that case you might want to come back in a little while." She started flicking through the pages in front of her, indicating that their conversation was over. Leanne rolled her eyes, she was not going to be dissuaded so easily. Without another word she extended her arm over the counter and slammed her hand down on the papers.

"Listen lady, I don't have time for this. If you can't answer my question, then go find someone who can."

The woman stared at Leanne in disbelief. How could someone with such an innocent appearance be so vicious?

Leanne continued to stare the woman in the eye. "Are your feet glued to the floor or something? I said I'm in a hurry?"

"R-Right away miss." She stammered as she ran off to a back room. 'About time, I thought she'd never go.'

Using a nearby chair to stand on she jumped over the counter and sat down at the monitor in front of her. Even though her knowledge of computers was nothing exceptional, it was easy enough to find the list of current guests. Scrolling down the list she finally came across what she was looking for.

Surname: Trepe

First Name(s): Quistis

VIP: Y

Room: 204

Floor: 3

Reaching behind her Leanne grabbed the key card and bolted for the elevator before anybody saw her. She breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the steel doors close behind her. She pressed her forehead against the cold wall forcing herself to breath. Being a reporter meant she's had to tell a few lies, but she'd never done anything this serious, never anything... illegal. Hearing the doors open she turned around and walked out into the hall. A few moments later she found the room she was looking for. Room 204.

Leanne pressed her ear against the door to listen for any movent in the room. She heard nothing, but knocked just in case. She had no idea what she'd do if someone answered, but luckily no one did. Slowly she unlocked the door and stepped into the room.

"Hello, anybody here?" Silence. Quickly she closed the door behind her and headed for the opposite end of the room where she found Quistis' suitcase. Most of the items had been unpacked however there where still a few bathroom items and articles of clothing left inside, but nothing of importance. Leanne continued her search, going through draws and cupboards but still finding nothing. Frustrated, the reporter kicked the side of the bed, moving the mattress slightly and unknowingly uncovered a folder that had been sloppily hidden. 'In too much of a hurry to hide these properly where we Miss Trepe?' Lifting up the mattress with one hand she pulled out the file and laid it on top of the bed. She pulled out the two invitations, numerous police reports as well as clippings of all the newspaper reports written about the Deling murders. 'So you are involved with this.' Next was a list of functions Quistis would be attending, as well as a list of names. Leanne recognised many of them as wealthy business owners or members of the local council, but there where many she'd never heard of or could not place. The last thing she found where copies of what appeared to be police criminal files. 'Suspects? But a lot of these names appear on that list... Surely they don't suspect all of those people. Many of them are some of Deling's most respected businessman.' Glancing down at her watch she realised she'd been there for over 15 minutes.

"Shit!" Quickly she photographed all the items of use to her and placed the documents back under the mattress. Checking first to make sure the hallway was empty she slid out of the room and started to run towards the elevator. It seemed like an eternity before she got there but before she could even reach the buttons on the wall, the doors slid open and a figure casually walked out in front of her. He paused in front of the startled reporter, eyeing her suspiciously. Leanne could only stare up at his face, unable to take her eyes off his scowling mouth or the scar that ran over the bridge of his nose. It took a moment for her to realise who was standing before her.

"What are you doing?"

"Sorry Mr Leonhart, I didn't mean to stand in your way."

"No. I meant what were you doing back there?"

"Well I... I was visiting a friend."

Squall simply raised his eyebrows. "That's funny, considering that the only three rooms down there are occupied by colleagues of mine." He managed to hide his amused look, but they both knew that she'd been caught.

Leanne eyes moved down to the floor, allowing her to inspect the gunblade that hung from his hip. 'I guess a fights out of the question. Not that the gunblade would have any effect on the outcome.' "All right, there's no point in lying."

"......."

"I... I just wanted to catch a glimpse of one the famous SeeD's. I figured that if I hung around here long enough one was bound to show up, and I was right. It was a pleasure to meet you Mr Leonhart but I really must be going, I've already taken an extra hour for my lunch break." Not wanting to give the surprised teen a chance to say anything more she bolted into the still opened elevator and quickly pressed the button for the lobby.

Squall just stared as the doors closed. He didn't know who she was, but he knew she wasn't just some crazed fan. Her story was good, but it had a major flaw. 'How did she know what rooms we where staying in?' Forgetting why he'd come up there in the first place, Squall headed back for the elevator. He was going to find out why she was really there.

____________

Keeping his face hidden under the hood of his coat, Seifer maneuvered his way through the crowds of the arcade avoiding eye contact with anyone he passed. He knew it was risky, being out in public in broad daylight, but he didn't have a choice. While he didn't want to risk being caught by the Galbadian army, he couldn't just mope around Raijin's for the rest of his life. It'd been two days since he'd broken out of the military hospital, but so far he'd heard nothing of the nightclub, other than police where still investigating. There was no word about him or his escape and it was driving him insane. Something was not right and Seifer was determined to find out what it was. He planned on scoping out the nightclub during the day to figure out how he was going to break in that night. It was a risk, but if he kept his distance he shouldn't get caught. Ducking across the road he ran in the direction of the nightclub. Even though the investigation had been going on for well over a week there was still a lot of commotion around the area, and the nightclub still wasn't open to the public. He casually walked over and stood partially hidden by a group of trees near the police barriers. He knew he wouldn't be able to see much from out here but the amount of police around today would give him a good indication of how many would be around that night. He continued to scan the area for any details that may have been of use to him, but froze when he saw a person walking out of the front entrance. 'What the hell. Selphie? What the hell is she doing here? Why would Garden be getting involved?' His eyes widened further when he saw the figure of a familiar blonde follow Selphie out of the building. 'This can't be happening.'

____________

Quistis blinked as her eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight. It may have been midday but the nightclub was practically pitch black, and she'd been in there for over an hour. She and Selphie had been assigned to accompany Sgt. Wallace on his next trip to Guardian Nightclub, informing him that it was simply for 'curiosities sake', so as not to arouse too much suspicion. Luckily the Galbadian Police where a discreet group, so they could walk around freely without having to answer too any questions.

Unfortunately there was nothing she found in there that wasn't already in one of the many reports she'd read. However, the state of the club was much worse than she's expected. The bodies had been cleaned up but the rooms where still a mess. Broken furniture was scattered over the floor, many walls where riddled with bullet holes and in some cases, walls where falling apart where explosives had been used. It would take the owner months and tens of thousands of dollars to get the building back up to code.

"So, what do you think?" Selphie asked.

"I think we're wasting our time. Forensics has already gone over this area with a fine tooth comb. And besides, this isn't directly linked to our mission."

"I know, but I still agree with Squall. It's a little suspicious that this occurred around the same time as the other murders. It's still worth checking out."

"We've checked it out, but we're no better off than we were before."

"Well, what do we do know? There have been no further murders, and there's still no sign of conflict amongst any of the other suspects."

"........"

"Quistis, we've been here for three days and we've already hit a wall."

"There's been a rumor going around that the owner of this nightclub has had to turn to a some old friends for a loan to fix this place up."

"So?"

"That's a big loan, 80 000 minimum. Besides a bank, who do you think would lend a struggling businessman that kind of cash?"

"I thought you said this didn't relate to our mission."

"You said so yourself, we've hit a wall, and this seems to be our only option at the moment."

"Good point. I'll go talk to the Sergeant and see what he knows."

"All right, I'll give Irvine a call and ask him to find out what he can. He's still got a few connections in this town."

"OK, back in a minute." Selphie turned around and ran back into the nightclub.

Quistis removed her mobile phone from her belt and dialed Irvine's number. While waiting for him to answer Quistis looked around at her surroundings. Her mind began to wonder as she thought about the last few days. She hadn't told anybody about what happened that night, but she had expressed her concern to Squall that something was wrong. He had dismissed her saying that she was being paranoid. Although this had angered her, she had kept her mouth shut and simply requested that they all be careful. She'd gotten a few strange looks from them, but they all knew not to take her lightly. She rarely said anything that didn't need to be said.

"Kinneas."

"Irvine it's Quistis. I need you to do a background check on David Osmand for me."

"The nightclub owner?"

" Yeah, and find out where he got the financing for the nightclub from."

"Sure. Why?"

"Just a hunch." Quistis' trailed off as she spied something out of the corner of her eye. Someone was staring at her. Turning her head she noticed a man half hidden by a police car wearing a light brown full length coat. His face was partially hidden by the hood, but she could still sense something about him. Something that sent a chill down her spine. She hadn't realised she'd been staring back until she saw him slink into the trees.

"Quistis?!"

"Huh?"

"Come back to earth Quisty, I said I should have that information for you by tonight."

"Oh, thanks. I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah you to."

She placed her phone back on her belt and looked up at the trees again, but he was well and truly gone. 'Who was that?'

____________

'Dammit! How could I let her see me? Well done Seifer, why don't you just walk up to the nearest cop and shout ARREST ME!!' Seifer continued to berate himself until he got back to Raijin's. Walking inside the house he proceeded to shout out several profanities until Raijin walked into the room.

"What the hell are you yelling about."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"That they're in town."

".........."

"Raijin!"

"I thought I would be better if you didn't know, ya know? And besides I never actually expected you to find out."

"How the hell could I not find out."

"Well I didn't think you'd be stupid enough to go walkin' out in public. That's suicide man."

"Well what the hell am I supposed to do?"

"Just wait for it to blow over."

"This isn't going to just blow over Raijin. If I don't find out what's going on before those fucking know it all's do, I'm screwed."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There you go, Quistis and Seifer finally meet......... Well kinda. As usual just review and tell me what you think. I'm still looking for ideas so if you've got any I'd love to hear them.