1 o'clock by: transcendent.
A.N.: If there are any spelling or grammar mistakes, I am very sorry. My lovely editor hasn't gotten my fic back to me with revisions yet so all of you will have to wait a day or two.
I wasn't really planning on updating this so quickly. Actually, I had intending on writing chapters for my other stories before writing this chapter. The only reason I have for updating this instead of my others is that I like this story the most and I always think of ideas for this fic, instead of the others. But I will get the others out...I have a deal with AinoYuy. Hehehe, if I update Deadly Lies then I can tell her whatever story to update next. Isn't that great? ^___^
Dedication: SilverCaladan - I live off of your words. You're like my little notebook but lifesize and less handier *cough*
ALL STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY. READ CAUTIOUSLY IF YOU ARE UNDER 13 YEARS OF AGE.
Chapter Three: Accusations She had instinctively known to lock her windows and doors before leaving for work. But she couldn't help but be worried about her friend sleeping helplessly in her spare bedroom all alone.What would happen if someone sneaked inside while Minako was sleeping and killed her? Some might think this was highly unlikely, but in the situation that both Minako and Ami had been put it, the possibility was reversed to a dangerous outcome.
Ami had thought about calling in sick to work that day, but she knew she couldn't. She had patients to treat and things to accomplish. People could be left to die if she wasn't there.
But on the other hand, Ami would rather loose a life of one she did not know than loosing a life that was dearer to her. Someone so close to her heart couldn't be killed suddenly without as much as a good bye. She couldn't let that happen.
Debating still, Ami stopped in the middle of the hallway. Should she turn back and call work? Make up an excuse to at least come in late to make sure Minako would be safe? Or should she just continue to work, hoping Minako would be safe from all danger?
Like that would ever happen, Ami thought to herself. Minako was always in danger with her father still alive. No matter how much Minako had run and whenever she hid, he had always tracked her down. So many noble women had been killed at the hands of Aino Kin.
Ami knew so well what he did to his victims, as did Minako. She had examined all of the bodies and then had come to Ami, always. Minako would never fail to come by sometime at night and discuss how the murder was played out.
They'd first start off how he'd target the prey, in all cases it was a young lady in a range of fifteen to nearly twenty years old. They'd all been blonde, or had light chestnut colored hair. Each girl's hair had been rather long and usually had half pulled up in some fashion or another…and they all had large clear blue eyes. The women had bodies to kill for; slender but muscular lengthy tanned legs with slightly wide hips and toned buttocks that were round and firm. The bodies included a small flat waist with hints of well muscled abs that went well with fairly large breasts, petit shoulders with relatively muscular slim and long arms and dainty hands. Connecting to the shoulders, the necks of the women would be not quite long, more medium, average if one could call it that. The faces were heart shaped and silky smooth to the touch. The perfect woman, the image of Aphrodite.
Minako never failed to point out that she had each attribute. Ami merely figured that he was just going off of old myths of the Goddess Aphrodite. But Ami couldn't help but realize the features of the girls' faces. Those blue eyes were stunning and reminded her of Minako's eyes more than any regular pair of blue eyes.
That would mean these girls had secrets, many secrets that had to be well kept. These secrets made them different. Different in a way that made them stand out from others. They were happy creatures, always smiling brightly like Minako. Always joking and laughing loudly, flirting casually with men of all varieties.
But their secrets made them hide behind that bubbly exterior to protect their deeply shrouded secrets. Those secrets were the cause of their death.
Ami shook off the images of the girls from her face. Was Minako always doing this? Trying to get rid of the haunting eyes of those who had died at the hands of her father? Is that why she had always been the way she had been?
Minako was more of a mystery than why killers kill and rappers rape.
After discussing the girl's physical features and mental capabilities, Minako would direct their conversation towards what Aino Kin had been thinking when he had first spotted the ladies. They both figured he'd either seen them on TV before and targeted them especially, not just going on a whim and killing the next girl with blonde locks that passed by him.
He would spot her in the distance, remembering her happy, always smiling face from television. He would casually walk up to her, strike up an ordinary conversation and maybe flirt a little. He didn't have to do much, he was a handsome man; taller than six feet, slim and muscular with a very clear debonair look. He was blonde with stunning blue eyes, like his daughter, although his eyes were darker and colder and more lifeless than Minako's always animated orbs.
He was a skilled man. He was intelligent and that is what had most likely always had drawn the women to him. He could talk about any subject for hours. If he had been younger, Ami would have even gone for him; he was the man of every woman's dreams.
That's why both Ami and Minako thought he had lured the women easily to anywhere he had willed them. He might have taken them to a room in a hotel and exercised his right as any human man to mate with the opposite sex. He probably had the women take showers so no trace of semen would be found. He'd take them home and kill them. Just like that without any emotional attachment to them whatsoever.
He was no hit man. He never killed and left. Ami had pointed out to Minako several times the position of the dead body; it was always propped up against something. Sometimes a mirror, a television, on the kitchen counters next to the sink, on the toilet or leaning over it, in the bathtub, or the bed. Skin had always been removed, either it had been chewed on before and then removed or had been cut into a pattern and then been exorcised.
Only he knew why he did these things. Why he would pick these women and why he'd cheat on his wife with then. Only he knew why he would kill them after a pleasurable night with no affections, only lust.
Minako saw this all as a huge warning. She thought he had always been after her and he only killed the others to fulfill his enjoyment until he could kill her and finish his 'mission in life'. She tattled about the facts, the girl's resemblance to her, their physical and mental attributes, and where they had always been placed. Each place meant something to her, sometimes an old memory either old or new, good or bad, but the meant something to her and her father.
The mirror resembled Minako's beauty. Her father would always look at her in a mirror, smiling to himself at her beauty. Minako knew this, she had always watched him and cringed when he put his hands on her shoulders or tightly hugged her from behind.
The television was when Minako starred in the 'Sailor V' series that had been so popular. She was just thirteen when she had gotten the job and started her acting career. After that and many years to come she had been scarred and turned away from fulfilling her dream to be an idol.
But she was always on the news. Being a Coroner had its downfalls. She was always needed in court to present the information she had found when she did autopsies. She was always questioned about the deaths of her clients. She was almost like a local celebrity, and a well hated one at that.
The kitchen counters was where Minako had almost gone too far with her first boyfriend. Her father had caught her and punished her severely and later punished her boyfriend in near death. This happened again on the toilet, her father had caught her then, too.
Drooping over the toilet was Minako's first hangover when she wasn't even old enough to legally drink. He had yelled at her while she poured the contents of her many drinks and various meals that she had had during the day into the toilet.
Lastly, the bed. That was were Minako witnessed his first murder, the murder of his own brother, Aino Renjiro. Minako had loved her uncle like she would have loved her father. Renjiro had been her only father figure, and he had also loved her mother dearly for who she was inside instead of what her father loved her for. He only loved her because she was beautiful.
Ami always brushed off Minako's past. She never added it into any equation, mainly because it was most likely a coincidence that the bodies had been placed in certain places.
Besides, Minako had been afraid of her father since she was ten. He had always used her fear against her, threatening to do things to her if she didn't do something he told her to do.
So, Ami just saw it as Minako's father taking Minako's fear once more and using it against her. He took her obvious fear and made her do things for him, such as get evidence from certain crime scenes and destroy it. She would have never done any of his tasks had not be scared of what he might do to her.
Ami tried to think of the view point. Maybe he hadn't been using her fear against her. Or at least, he had been using it against her for quite some time until he finally decided he wouldn't mind killing his only daughter in cold blood as a punishment.
"You know, if you stand in the middle of the hallway like that someone is bound to either knock into you, push you out of their way, or at least yell at you. But not me."
Ami snapped back into reality, pushing her foreboding thoughts to the back of her mind instantly and focusing more on what was to be done currently.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Ami apologized; her voice was weak as it had always been. She'd never been the one to speak up.
The man in front of her shrugged it off easily. "I came to talk to a Mrs. Ami Mizuno?"
"Dr. Ms. Ami Mizuno," Ami corrected.
"Divorced, eh? What happened?"
"Disagreements," Ami answered simply.
Very large disagreements, and they had been about her friends. Her former husband had never liked her friends, and he especially disliked Minako. When she would come over frequently to talk about deaths and random murders he would storm out of the house and get drunk. She had had enough once night when he came home drunk after one of Minako's visits and she filed for divorce.
"What's the topic at hand?" she asked, not caring much for where the conversation was headed.
"The very popular topic of Relena Peacecraft is what is at hand, here," he mocked her clearly, his smile grew wider and his deep indigo eyes twinkled down at her.
Ami felt a twitch, but kept herself collected and disregarded his rude manner. She just nodded instead. "I don't know much."
"You know enough for my partner to be suspicious of you. But you don't look to suspicious to me…You're too beautiful to be suspected of anything."
Ami's cheeks flushed suddenly. It made her uncomfortable slightly and she could only look down at his black shoes. First he was being rude and now he was flirting with her. He was an odd one.
He seemed pleased with himself as he gave a slight chuckle. "You're a shy one, aren't you…Dr. Mizuno?"
She didn't answer, but continued to look down slightly, her briefcase held tightly in both her petit hands in front of her dark blue silk sinuous skirt.
"Ah, come on, Doc," the man begged for a response from her now.
"Well you came to talk…and I do believe our discussion is over," Ami nodded curtly. "I am going to be late for work."
"You're going to leave your beautiful friend by herself with her mad-father killer on the loose?"
Ami paused. "And you know this how?"
"My partner, Heero Yuy…I believe you mended his wound yesterday evening."
Ami took note of this, and his attire which was remotely close to that of his partners; black casual dress shirt with the two top buttons undone with no tie and black slacks, his hands were deep in his pockets.
"I'm Duo Maxwell," he pressed on. He stuck his hand out in front of him, daring Ami to take his hand.
She met his hand half way in a firm handshake; his hands were warm to the touch and soft and easily engulfed her own hand in his. She pulled back quickly when it ended. "Nice to meet you."
"A pleasure," he returned the civility. "About your friend? Shouldn't you stay with her to make sure she's alright?"
"She can take care of herself, she's a big girl. Besides, she should be safe in my humble home."
"What if she's not?"
"Do you think she's going to be killed next? I highly doubt it. I'll tell you now that once he misses his target, he doesn't come back to finish his job for a while."
"You know this how?" Duo asked, his curiosity rising in the subject.
"He's tried to kill Minako before...about three times to be exact. It's quite a mystery to what is going on in his mind. But that is not for me to figure out."
"Indeed…it isn't…but why don't you take it as a consideration to work on the case? I've heard you've solved multiple cases with Minako before."
"This one should not be handled by a victim and her friend."
"Why not? I mean, it should intrigue you more and it should give you that extra…what's it called?"
"Motivation? Inspiration? Incentive? Raison d'être?"
"The first," he nodded, pleased with himself once more.
"No. I'd rather mind my own business than meddle in the affairs of the police."
"Well I'm meddling in their affairs," Duo huffed.
"Well you're an idiot," she fired back.
"Hey, that wasn't too nice."
"No one ever said I had to be nice. I'm pressed for time, Mr. Maxwell, we can have this little conversation later. By all means, you can wait for Minako to come out and question her just like Mr. Yuy did."
He gave her a worried look. "You seem stressed; maybe you should take the day off to tend to your friend."
She nearly growled out loud, but bit her tongue. "How would you know if I'm stressed?"
"Your attitude, missy," he joked. "And you're posture. I'm a people person."
"A people person, indeed!" Ami snarled.
She was not being her usual self, but this man brought out a side of her she never knew she had. She was usually impassive and easy persuaded into doing things she did not want to do, but now she was being assertive and difficult? This was a change.
"No need to get yourself in a fuss, Dr. Mizuno."
"Too late," Ami replied. "I am going now. You know my address, obviously…and most likely have my number. Maybe we can set up an appointment for another day. Pleasure to meet you and good-bye!"
She brushed past him, her regret hung in her head. She remembered the proverb, 'never burn bridges' and shuddered. She hoped to never meet this man again. At least, she never wanted to meet him if he held a position higher than her.
"Wait, wait!" Dou called from behind her once she reached the end of the hall and had begun descending down the stairs.
She didn't stop to wait, or even slow down her pace.
"I'm sorry, Dr. Mizuno," he said breathlessly. His long lightly colored chestnut braid swung behind him and his long boisterous bangs flung about his face as he tried to catch up to her.
"No need to be sorry," she called to him, going down the stairs that led to the underground parking lot.
"I don't think you…" he stopped short, a few steps behind her as she ran up to her car.
"What happened?" she yelled, touching her car, stroking it slightly. Her gray-ish blue metallic customized Mercedes had been trashed; the tires were slashed, the windows were broken and beautiful paint had been scratched, and the passenger door had nearly been ripped off. "Who did this?"
"I don't know, I was hoping it wasn't your car."
"Was it you? DID YOU DO THIS TO MY CAR? MY PRECIOUS CAR?" she yelled. She couldn't control her overwhelming anger anymore. "THIS COST ME OVER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY GRAND AND IT WAS CUSTOMIZED JUST FOR ME! HOW DARE YOU DUO MAXWELL!"
She walked up to him briskly, putting her hands on his collar and pulling up down to her level. He put up his hands in defense.
"It was me!" he protested. "I swear on any blue moon that it was not me!"
"I can't believe you would go to this length to get me to talk to you!"
"I didn't do it, Doc, listen to me!"
"You owe me one hundred and seventy grand, young man, and I want every penny in my hand right now!" Ami was shaking in her anger. "I will also see you in court!"
"Dr. Mizuno, it wasn't me! Look at the damn security cameras for Christ's sake. IT WAS NOT ME!"
She steamed, her anger boiling over. "How dare you say it was not you! No one in this condominium would ever do such a thing like this!"
He grabbed her hands off of his collar and held her fists in his hands. He looked down at her, calmly. "I did not do it, Dr. Mizuno. I would never do anything this cruel to someone so undeserving…and beautiful I might add."
Her fists still shook. "Okay, Mr. Maxwell, but you better help me catch the culprit. No one damages any car of mine and gets away with it."
He laughed despite the situation. "You're even more beautiful when you're angry, Dr. Mizuno."
The comment sent her back to realism and her anger faded away. "W-w-well…thank you, I guess."
He just smiled down at her, letting her small hands slip from his grip. "I'll drive you to work, if you'd like."
Ami's emotions were going haywire. First she was worried about Minako, of whom she had forgotten about in the past five or so minutes. She was so worried she had debated on whether to miss work or not, which she never did. Then when she met Duo, she had grown cold, trying to avoid him at almost all costs, even being inconsiderate and impolite. She had acted rude to him, and had gotten him to chase her down the hall after she had grown fairly angry.
Ami couldn't even remember the last time she had been truly this angry with anyone besides her ex-husband. Duo made her feel emotions she hadn't felt since she was in her younger years.
Then her car! Oh Lord, her beautiful car…in near shambles when she had reached it. She had accused Duo, she never accused anyone without cause. Not even those who were guilty. She had always followed the axiom 'innocent until proven guilty'. And since when had she ever jumped to conclusions? She had jumped on him several times in such a short time.
Duo Maxwell was just an irksome man, a rather attractive irksome man, but a man of irritation nonetheless. He come make her calm one moment and angry the next. But she felt safe with him.
Safe? If it wasn't for Ami's nice upbringings she would have shouted bullshit to herself. Ami had never been safe. She had never been safe from feeling alone or safe from being hurt.
"Come on, my car is this way."
A.N.: Alright. For all of you who are wondering if I'm going to get some Ami/Heero and Minako/Duo scenes in this fic, I will. I'll get to it all, I promise. I still don't know if I want definate couples, but I know which couple is for sure. I will not change that couple, no ifs, ands, or buts about it, it's final. And no, I'm not planning on telling you either ^__~ And be cautioned now, the next chapter has murder in it. I'm going to be pretty graphic, or as graphic as my writing skills will allow me to be -_- That's it for now, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I encourage you to flame if you want. But I'd really like some fucking CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. That's all, folks. Transcendent (with much love).