Wrongfully Accused
Chapter Twenty One
"It's a key all right!" Irvine said to the figure behind the partially opened door while holding up the small card.
Squall, still half asleep, opened his door slowly and stared angrily at him. "Irvine, it's 7am. What the fuck are you doing?" Squall snapped.
"It's 9:30."
""
"How much did you drink last night?"
"No more than everyone else, which is why you should let us all sleep." Squall closed the door and collapsed on the bed. He noticed that Rinoa had already gone back to her room.
"I know you're probably not up to this, but we can't really leave this to the last minute."
Squall jumped at the sound of his voice. He rolled over quickly to look up at Irvine who was standing at the foot of his bed.
"What the fuck?!"
"You didn't lock your door."
"That's not a fucking invitation."
"Squall, get dressed and meet me down in the restaurant."
"Since when do you give the orders around here?" Squall was in no mood to act like his normal reserved self. He felt like shit and had nothing against taking it out on the nearest person.
"Since I'm the only one not suffering from a hangover." He quickly walked out of the room and left the commander to recover.
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"Ok, what do you have?" Squall grumbled as he sat down opposite Irvine.
"It's definitely a key" Irvine closed his mouth as the waitress came up to their table.
"What can I get ya?"
"Coffee." Squall grumbled.
"Basic Breakfast. Make it two."
"Two Breakfast's and a coffee. Got it." The waitress walked off quickly.
"Hungry?" Squall asked, not really expecting or wanting an answer.
"One's for you. I spoke to Rinoa in the halls. She asked me to make sure you ate something."
Squall rolled his eyes. "Fine, you say it's a key. What for?"
"A security box at the bank."
"Who's?"
Irvine smiled. "Chant."
"Son of a bitch. What the hell was he at the night-club for?"
"I'm guessing he had something to do with the attack."
"That still doesn't help with our mission. We've yet to find a link between the nightclub and the murders."
"Yes we have. All the victims were either customers of Chant or one of his subordinates."
"So it's proof that Chant was at the nightclub. Is that enough evidence to convict him."
"I don't know, but the security box might hold something we can use."
"That doesn't matter."
"What?"
"Deling law states that no items or accounts located inside the Deling bank can be used for evidence unless withdrawn by the owner."
"So we can't even see what inside?"
"No, we can use the Deling police to see what's in there, but regardless of what we find, we can't use it against him."
"Unless he makes a withdrawal."
"Exactly."
"So what do we do now?"
"First thing we do is find out what's in that box. I'll send Zell down to the police station and get their authority."
"Why do we need their permission?"
"It's an agreement we have with their government, it's a pain in the arse but we don't have a choice. We'll get Zell to call us when it's done then I'll head over to the bank with Selphie. I'll leave you and Rinoa here to keep an eye on Quistis."
"Why do I have to stay behind?"
"You've done enough already. I'll need you to stay behind and get things ready. If this goes as well as I hope it will, we'll be going home very soon."
Just then the waitress came over with their order. "Will there be anything else today sirs?"
"No, we're fine." Irvine yawned. "I'll go inform the others of the plan. You stay here and eat." Irvine began to get up.
"Sit down Irvine. We're not done here yet."
""
"What happened with Tasmin last night?"
Irvine sighed. "She told me she worked for an advertising company. Her company's been hired by Benson and Sons, which is why she was sitting with the old fart."
"That's it?"
"There really wasn't much chance to talk once we got inside."
""
"But she gave me her office number. She told me to give her a call some time." Irvine said, looking down at his plate.
"We'll leave it for a few days. If things work out you won't have to call her at all."
Irvine's face brightened. "Best news I've heard all day."
Squall rolled his eyes again. "Whatever."
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"Squall?" Selphie turned to Squall who was leaning next to her on the wall. Squall didn't say anything but he looked at her from the corner of his eyes. "Have you noticed anything strange about Irvine?" She asked, hoping the aloof commander wouldn't brush her off like he normally would.
"Why do you ask that?"
Selphie stared up at him in surprise. Unless they were discussing the mission he barely said two words, let alone encourage her to continue by asking a question. "Well he disappeared suddenly at the party last night, and when I saw him this morning I barely got a word out of him. I'm usually fighting keep his hands off me, but today he barely noticed I was in the room."
"Irvine's got a lot on his mind. He stayed up all night tracking down information for this piece of plastic."
"Why would he stay up all night? He wasn't ordered to. He had days to get that information."
'Why indeed?' "Like I said, he's got a lot on his mind."
Selphie looked down at the ground, trying to make it look like she was shielding her eyes from the sun.
Squall sighed. 'Why me?' "Look Selphie, next to Quistis, Irvine's been the most involved in this case. There's a lot riding on this and he's been put under a lot of pressure. We're expecting a lot out of him."
"I know, it's just..." Selphie was cut short by the sound of Squall's mobile.
"Yea?" He asked. "Right. Good work." He turned off the phone and placed it back on his belt. "That was Zell, he got us clearance. Let's go."
Selphie nodded and followed him through the banks front entrance. Once the manager realised who they were it was only a matter of minutes before they were allowed into the vault.
"So you say these things are opened with a key?" Selphie asked. "So what's the point of the card?"
The manager tapped the box. "It's a case of security, the person requesting a withdrawal will need both to open it."
"But we don't have a key!" Selphie exclaimed.
The manager pulled out a small case from his breast pocket. Inside was a small silver key. "The customer holds on to the keycard, we hold on to the key."
Selphie leaned over and whispered to Squall. "I'm surprised Zell found it so easy to get us permission for this. I thought it would take weeks."
"We don't have permission. Zell snuck into the back of the police station and faxed through fake details to the manager."
"What?!"
"It would have taken weeks, and the whole thing probably would have gone through court before we'd be allowed access."
"Squall, this is illegal."
"What the police don't know won't hurt them."
"And what do we tell the police if we find something?"
"Ever heard of an anonymous tip?"
The manager opened the first lock. "Now swipe the card through here." Squall swiped the card. The box beeped and clicked open. "Well," the manager placed the key back in the small case. "I'll leave you to it then."
After he'd left the room Squall walked over to the box and lifted the lid.
"Well?" Selphie asked excitedly.
Squall slowly emptied the contents of the box. A gun, several wads of cash, jewelry and.....
"What the hell is that?" Selphie asked, her eyes wide.
"What does it look like?" Squall asked sarcastically, holding up the small disk.
"I know what it is, but what's on it?"
"That's what we're about to find out."
The manager allowed them access to the computers in the back rooms.
"Holy shit!" Selphie yelled. Looking at the screen "But is it enough?"
"It's more than enough. That bastard's fucked."
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"No fair!" Zell yelled as he punched the air. "We found the information, we should get to do the bust."
"Zell, this is out of our hands, we found the man in charge of the murders, our job here is done." Rinoa said.
"But...."
"Besides, they can't really make the bust until he accesses the safety deposit box. So most of our time would be spent hiding out in a cramped space." Irvine pointed out.
"Why?" Quistis asked. "If the information was in there, there should be no problem for the police to get an arrest warrant for Chant." The whole group had met in Quistis' room. She was grateful for the chance to still be included in the mission.
Squall hesitated for a moment. "It wasn't exactly authorised...."
"Forget it! I don't want to know!" Quistis stuck her hand out in Squall's direction, signaling him to stop. "There is one thing I do want to know, what was on that disk."
Selphie jumped up before Squall had a chance to speak. "It was a list of all these drug dealers and locations of where they were, as well as security details, times, dates..... Everything!"
Squall interrupted the over excited Selphie. "It was basically a list of all the victims. Plus some that were obviously doomed to meet the same fate."
"Doesn't get any more obvious than that." Quistis said, surprised that anyone would be stupid enough to leave a list of their victims. 'Something isn't right about this. It was too simple, too easy.'
"So how are we going to get the information to the police?" Rinoa asked.
"All ready taken care of, I've got contacts on the inside, leave it to me." Zell said.
"We've all got contacts on the inside dickhead." Irvine sneered.
"Who asked you Kinneas?" Zell growled.
"Enough!" Squall snapped. "We'll hang around here for the next few days to keep up appearances. Zell, I'll leave the rest up to you."
"YESSSSSS!!" Zell continued to punch the air.
"As soon as Chant is officially arrested, we head back home."
"What if our plan falls through? What if he isn't arrested?" Selphie asked.
"Then our mission isn't finished and we have to stay here."
"This is getting dangerous." Quistis sighed. "We've stayed here long enough. People will soon start to suspect something."
"Hopefully we won't be here for much longer. Dismissed!" Everyone got up and started to leave the room.
"Zell." Quistis stopped him at the door. "Don't forget to call her."
Zell smiled cheekily. "I'm surprised you can even remember that."
"Hey!" She swatted the back of his head and kicked him out of her room.
"Calm down Quistis, it was only a joke."
"Remind me to laugh when this is over."
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Leanne kicked angrily at the side of her bed. She'd been searching for information all morning but had hit a dead end. All her information sources had been bled dry, Seifer and Quistis had both vanished off the face of the planet and on top of that Zell hadn't spoken to her since last night. She'd ran all the way to the hotel only to be denied access by the late night security guard.
She flinched at the thought. 'Why hasn't he called yet?' "Because you blew it Denver!" 'Forget about him, you have a job to do.' Suppressing the urge to call and apologise she continued to flick through the files in her hand. Still nothing.
"DAMMIT!!" She went over the information in her head again. 'Ok, the nightclub is attacked by unknowns, the only real substantial clue they found was Almasy. He disappeared from the military ward in the hospital only days after being captured. Then a few day's later Quistis and the SeeD's turn up. They're researching the murders and linking them to some of Deling's most prominent businessmen..... Barret!! Most of their energy is focused on that old fart! But what role can he play in all this? All this is connected somehow, I just know it!.... Of course!! Barret has many military connections, he could have ordered Almasy's capture.... No why the hell would he do that? Unless...'
She ran over to her computer and turned on the power. She tapped her fingers impatiently as she waited for it to warm up. "Stupid piece of crap!"
She spent the next two hours researching every single part of Baret's life. 'There has to be something you're trying to hide.' Another hour passed, and still nothing.
"AAAARGH!! I give up. This guy's record is cleaner than my mothers!"
A noise sounded, informing her of incoming mail. "Shit. What now?!" 'It's probably my boss giving me my weeks notice. I haven't been in for the last few days.'
The single email in her inbox had no subject. The sender's address was vaguely familiar.
"I hope this is from who I think it is."
He's heading for Esthar.
Leanne stared at the screen for several minutes before it finally clicked. She reached over for today's paper and stared at the front headlines. 'TWO PATROL OFFICERS FOUND DEAD NEAR CITY ENTRANCE.'
"Clean kills.... Broken necks..... Done by professional..... Suspect expected to have fled city..." She said out loud, reading over parts of the article.
"Professional? Broken necks..... Seifer's trade mark kill." She's stared back at the screen. "This is too good to be true."
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Four days passed before the police decided to take action. Security was monitored at the bank, two days later Chant made an appearance, requesting a withdrawal. He'd removed all items from the deposit box but was arrested before he got to the exit. He was being held in custody until the date of the trial. The next day Squall began packing his bags, preparing to leave with the rest of the SeeD's that night.
He'd just started to clear out his bathroom when Selphie came running into his room.
"Squall! You here?" Selphie ran inside frantically searching for the young commander.
"In here. What's happened?"
"It's Chant."
"What about him?"
"He's been murdered."
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I think I've finally figured out what I want to do with this story, so hopefully it should all start coming together soon. A lot of my friends have told me that it's becoming a bit confusing :S. Ok, same deal as last time, review and tell me what you think.