It was hours later and Jayson was slowly examining the victim's rooms. He was here alone having told Meia to go for lunch not wanting her to witness the horrors that lay before him. And now here he was with his basic knowledge in criminology and an expensive camera borrowed from Nida. Funny how you never find out things about people until the strangest circumstances.

He stood in the centre of the first victim's room. He closed his eyes and pictured the file he had read previously. Her name was Hanna Litton, aged 17, Martial arts and Magic specialist, which meant Zell ought to have known her in passing. She was a petite figure similar in stature to Selphie although her brown hair was longer.

Jayson opened his eyes and slowly turned to face the bed where white sheets were rumpled and stained a deep reddish brown where blood had pooled. He slowly crept nearer to the bed breathing deeply through his mouth as he looked at the end of the bed where her head had lain and noticed the strands of hair on the sheets. Kneeling down by the end of the bed he collected the hair strands with tweezers and gently slid them into an envelope, which he sealed and labelled.

He then stood and proceeded to take photographs of his own of the room, in particular the patterns of blood spatter on the walls and floor. Then he opened the file he had brought with him and noted the areas in which the other SeeDs that had investigated the scenes had found traces of Seifer. Jacket fibres had been found on the door frame and around the bed whilst hair had also been found only by the bed. Strangely there was nothing found of Seifer's on the girl's body or any tissue under her fingernails suggesting that she hadn't or wasn't able to struggle.

Jayson thought about how strange all this seemed... the girl had been murdered by stabbing, mainly to the abdomen. They were trained mercenaries surely if someone stabbed them with a knife they'd lash out automatically in retaliation? Another thing that struck him was that there was no evidence of Seifer's presence at all at the places other than the bed where the victim was wounded otherwise they'd be something of him near the walls where the speckles of blood suggested gushing from wounds or back spatter from the blade... unless there was something he couldn't see.

He closed the file and sighed deeply. He left the room and sealed it off once more. Before going to the other murder scene he decided on visiting the SeeDs in the impromptu lab that had been set up in the MD level a couple of months ago.

'So what you got so far?' Jayson asked the young blonde girl at a microscope as he slipped the envelopes on her desk.

She looked up at him from the microscope, blinking slightly. 'You?' she gasped.

'Yeah me.' Jayson said grinning. 'I'm taking over the Seifer case so what does the evidence say so far?' he asked.

'Well these supposed hairs of Seifer's were shed not pulled out... but they seem older than the few days we're looking at.' She told him.

'Well that's a start. Are you the only one here?' he asked casually.

'At the moment. The others are busy combing crime scenes over the world. We've been pretty busy since Commander Squall decided to develop a forensic lab.' She replied.

He then pulled out the photographs he had developed. 'Can you work out how the attacks happened from the blood spatter? Also the files said there was no trace of blood on any of Seifer's clothes, admittedly they could've been burnt but we all know he treasure's his possessions especially that coat of his. Would it be possible for him to have attacked either of those girls avoiding the amount of blood that seems to have been bled whilst shedding fibres of jacket? I assume that means he wasn't wearing anything to cover it if he was there.' Jayson asked whilst telling her his own ideas.

'Well the fibres did get there by frictional transfer which means, yes he would've had his jacket exposed and the fibres matched those of the jacket he was wearing at the time he was arrested but we found no traces of blood on it.' She told him.

'So we can say it was true he had been there but not necessarily during the murders. Do you think I'd be right in suggesting that the evidence shows that Seifer had been present in the rooms but not the murders? There's no trace of him on the bodies... the only thing linking him to the murders is his Firecross.. but anyone could've done that.' Jayson mused aloud.

'Well he wasn't officially arrested... just that when they were found people saw his symbol and went berserk.' She told him.

'Typical mob.' Jayson muttered. 'Well thanks a lot... uh...' he fumbled.

'Lin.' She filled in for him.

'Right Lin. Get back to me on what I brought in if you don't mind.' He told her walking out the door.

'No problem!' she called out to him as the door closed.

As Jayson took the elevator back up to the ground floor and went looking for Meia, a plan started to form in his head. It would be a risky plan, the responsibility being solely his, but if he could pull it off then he could prove beyond doubt that Seifer was innocent.

He stopped walking towards the Cafeteria and headed back to the lift and took it to the second floor where Squall's office lay.

Squall looked up from his desk as Jayson entered the room.

'Anything wrong?' Squall asked.

'Not really... finding lots of tenuous evidence for Seifer's innocence but so far nothing conclusive. I have an idea as to how to prove it however.' Jayson told him as he walked across to the desk.

Squall looked up at him. 'And what's that?' he asked.

'We give the killer a reason to make an appearance.' Jayson replied.

Squall's eyes flashed briefly in realisation. 'You mean...' he said softly.

'We let Seifer go and see if the killer tries striking again.' Jayson said bluntly.

'That's rather risky. The students will attack Seifer and there's a chance another girl might die. Besides if another murder happens Seifer will be blamed for sure.' Squall replied.

'I know but firstly we'll have SeeDs we trust guarding the dorms and secondly I'll guard "Seifer".' Jayson told him.

Squall frowned at Jayson's strange way of saying Seifer. 'What am I missing?' he asked bluntly.

Jayson smiled. 'The fact that Seifer won't really be free... we just make everyone believe he is.' He explained beaming.

'Then if it works why would they believe that Seifer is innocent?' Squall asked cautiously.

'Because we'll have people watching him in his cell who'll testify to that and hopefully we'll have the real killer.' Jayson said.

Squall sighed in resignation. 'Fine and how do we get them to believe Seifer is free? We can't just let him out for a little while and put him back the killer will probably notice that, besides it'll be cruel to Seifer.' Squall told him.

'Leave that to me... I just need some of his blood.' Jayson told him.

'Fine I'll see what I can do... I won't ask what you intend to do with it, I probably won't like the sound of it.' Squall said making a note.

'Thank you sir.' Jayson replied quickly saluting and left the office, shutting the door quietly leaving Squall to mull over the plan whilst trying to sort out his own paperwork.