Soft Light and Shadows

Chapter 3: Nowhere Kids

by: IMBSA

IMBSA: Next chappie! Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: "The cat is not trying to steal my soul while I sleep. The cat is not trying to steal my soul while I sleep. The cat is not trying to – Ahhh! Away! Get away from me you minion of Satan!!"

"Karasuma, Sakaki, your report first." Amon ordered. Karasuma cleared her throat.

"We went the scene of the crime first and found a couple of odd things." She began.

"It was a hole in the wall." Sakaki spoke up, uninvitedly. Everyone stared at him in confusion. "The window, I mean. And it's damn big hole too. You should see it. It's about this big." He held up his hands far from each other.

Karasuma gave him a look and said, "The window was severely damaged to the point of nonexistence—"

"It's huge! I swear!" Sakaki burst out.

"Will you stop about the hole already?" Karasuma asked in annoyance.

Again impeding what promised to be an ugly fight for the second time that day, Amon asked, "What else did you find?"

"She has a cat," Sakaki replied quickly before Karasuma had even opened her mouth. "And a furry one at that too." He said absent-mindedly as he stroked himself to get the remaining cat hair off. Karasuma ignored him and instead answered Amon.

"A picture. It was of Val—I mean, Ms. Brooks and her brother, who died of cancer a few years ago. She was very distraught over it. I got varied feelings when I touched it. At the time of the picture she was very happy, but later, I'm assuming when her brother died, she was crushingly depressed. Then it became disbelieving, afterwards, infuriated, and then, peculiarly enough, there came this overwhelming need to protect."

"Hmm. Interesting." Amon said.

"She has a tattoo, which surprised me because she doesn't seem to really be the tattoo type." Sakaki added, and suddenly there was an unusual amount of attention focused on his comment. Sakaki felt good, as well as surprised; it was one of the only times he felt he contributed to the case.

"What kind of tattoo was it?" Amon asked.

"A white rose. I think it fit her, actually. Why?"

Michael snapped his fingers and said, "That's why Miyagi was at her apartment. She was his last hit."

"Excuse me?" Karasuma asked, confused. The others wasted no time in informing the two about The Fallen.

"So we should find out where she got the tattoo." Sakaki suggested, feeling like he was on a roll.

"Duh, she was kidnapped and they branded her," Dojima shot him down yet again.

"But we'd have to hear it from her mouth, otherwise it's just speculation." Sakaki persisted.

"He has a point." Amon confirmed. "Karasuma, you and Sakaki pay a visit to Ms. Brooks again and ask her about the tattoo." He paused, then added, "See what you can find out about her brother."

"Another thing, I reached over and touched her arm after mentioning the picture. Her thoughts were rather...confusing. She was truly sad, but a sense of urgency and panic was present as well. I think she was trying to hide something about her brother."

Karasuma and Sakaki were getting into the car when a thought occurred to Sakaki. "Could we stop by her apartment first?"

IMBSA: Short, yes I know. Sorry! ::cringes::

AlyssC01: I thank you for your continuing readership (Is that a word?) and advice. Um, the episode I really based it off of was "Shadows" in season 1. I SORT of based it off "Soft Light" as well. (In case the title wasn't a dead giveaway.) I just took the whole "shadow" thing and put it in a slightly different situation.

Julie: Why don't you wait and find out?

Trogdoor: Thank you for, ah, "holding off from burninating" my fic. (I like that word by the way.) Sorry about the mid-fic notes. I just feel that they won't make sense unless I put them right after what I'm commentating on. 'Course I should probably add that you guys aren't here for the commentary; you're here for the fic.

And those patiently waiting for the next chapter of "Vacation Time, Please".... You're gonna wait some more. I'm sorry, it's just that the fic was intended to be a one-shot, but since people like it, I'm kind of pressured to write the rest of it. So RIGHT NOW I'm writing on it. I'll get it to you as soon as I can. Understand that (as hard as it may be to believe) I have a life outside of fanfics (GASP), as I'm sure you guys do as well, so I can't spend the type of time I'd like to on writing. Well, anyway, my point is, I WILL get it up. My muse Euterpe has to get back from vacation. :: to Euterpe:: Come on, dammit! I gave you time a few days ago!!!!!!!!