June 8, 2005- Ebacusta's two year anniversary

Ebacusta: Hello everyone. Today is a great day. And this is a special update. I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed so far. Your reviews were all wonderful. I'm sure you're all anxious to find out what happens. Please leave a review.

TK: Fic time!

That Day Was The Last Day I Saw Your Smile

By ebacusta

Chapter 3

Dangerous Investigations

"We've gotten a reply. From Mimi," Kari told him as he approached the computer screen. He read it aloud:

"Hi Kari.

Of course you can use our Vacation home. What's going on? Why so sudden? I hope you, TK, Tina, and Kei are all right. Izzy and I (along with our kids) will meet you there.

Sending our love (and concern),

Mimi"

"We should get going soon, then," TK said.

Kari nodded. "Let the kids finish eating breakfast and then we'll hit the road."

- -

Izumi Vacation Home

- -

Kari and TK got out of the car. Izzy and Mimi, along with Rachel, their eleven year old daughter, and Martin, their ten-year old son, were all unloading things out of the car.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Izzy asked, putting down a box.

"Er, what is all this stuff?" TK asked looking around at the boxes that were stack up on the porch.

"Oh, this? We decided since we were coming up here to meet you anyway, this would be the premier time to bring up all of Izzy's computer upgrades, and the other stuff we got for the house. I've got a lot more kitchen updates, that I'm hoping Izzy will help me install," Mimi said. She looked around to make sure Tina, Kei, Rachel, and Martin were all busily playing. "Anyway," she said lowering her voice, "what's all this about? What's going on?"

"Somebody is trying to kill our family," Kari said. Mimi gasped.

"Oh no!"

"We figured, he would come to our vacation home next, so, we decided to come out to yours. He doesn't know where yours is. At least we don't think he does," TK said.

"And you haven't figured out who it is?" Izzy asked.

Kari and TK shook their heads. "No."

"If I may suggest something," Izzy said, "I think first of all, you should give Tai, Sora, and Matt a call. Then, you should call Ken and have him look into this. Investigate the TK's office and Tina's classroom."

"You're right, we probably should."

"But you two look awful. Did you get any sleep last night?" Mimi asked worry all over her face.

"No," Kari said, "we stayed up to make sure nobody got into the house."

"After you make those phone calls, you two are going to sleep!"

- -

Sometime Around 1 a.m.

- -

The sleeping girl rolled over in her sleep, her dreams pleasant and happy. Her mouth curved into a smile. Quietly, the window slid up and a figure slinked into the room. Reaching out, it grabbed the girl by the wrists and covered her mouth with a hand.

Her eyes popped open. She tried to scream, but a power smell entered her nose, and instantly the world spun out of focus. She slumped into its arms. Quietly, the figure left, closing the window behind it.

- -

Morning

- -

"Tina certainly is taking her time," Kari said. "I wonder why she hasn't come out to take a shower yet." Mimi and Izzy regarded her curiously as she headed towards the bedroom of the door Tina had been sleeping in. Kari knocked.

"Tina? You awake?" Kari paused. Upon receiving no answer, she knocked again. "Tina. It's time to get up. You need to eat some breakfast." Kari frowned as silence greeted her ears. Kari reached out and twisted the door knob. Kari went into the room and came out a minute later with a horrified expression on her face.

"What?" Mimi asked standing up.

"Tina's not here!" Kari exclaimed. "Where is Tina?"

"Maybe she went outside," Izzy said, "and she isn't back yet."

Kari spat out angrily, "I should hope, for both her sake and mine, that she is smart enough to leave a note when she leaves the house early in the morning."

TK stood up as well. "You think she just left? Where would she go?" Kei regarded his parents with questioning eyes. Mimi spotted this, and quickly gathered the children.

"Lets go play outside kids," Mimi said as she pushed them out the door.

"But mommy, I haven't finished breakfast yet," Martin said reaching back for his bowl of cereal.

"That's all right," Mimi said, "we'll eat something special later."

"Where's Tina?" Rachel asked as she was pushed out of sight.

Mimi began to laugh nervously. "Oh, Tina? Well, she doesn't feel so well right now. She won't be joining us." She laughed loudly as she closed the door behind her.

"Where do you think she is?" TK asked as he went to the room and looked in. Izzy and Kari joined him inside.

"It doesn't look as if a struggle took place," Izzy said. He went over and examined things. "Nothing looks out of place."

"You think she went back to the city?" TK asked.

"Why?"

"I don't know. Maybe to go get something."

Kari's anger was forgotten, worry took its place. "You think maybe something happened to her? Like she got hit by a car?"

"I don't know."

"Why don't you two go look for her in the city, and I'll call Ken," Izzy said. "Then Mimi and I will look for her around here."

Kari and TK nodded. "Okay." They dashed out of the house, got in the car, and went flying down the driveway.

"Tina, please be all right," Kari pleaded softly.

- -

Izzy and Mimi

- -

Having finally convinced the kids to lay down and take a nap, Izzy and Mimi stepped out of the house, closing the door softly behind them.

"Where do you think we should start?" Mimi asked.

"We should look around the house first," Izzy said. He and Mimi sat off looking around.

"What are we looking for?" Mimi asked after they'd been around the house once.

"Anything out of place," Izzy replied.

"Like a bit of mashed grass?" Mimi asked pointing at a spot beneath a window. Izzy regarded it a minute and then he exclaimed, "Mimes you're a genius!" He grabbed her and kissed her before he hurried over to the spot. Mimi grinned as she joined him. Grabbing hold of the ledge, Izzy helped push Mimi up to look into the window.

"This is the window of the room Tina was in," Mimi said when Izzy lowered her back down. "The room she shared with Rachel."

"Hmm… okay," Izzy said. "So, obviously this means that Tina was kidnapped."

"Unless she climbed through the window," Mimi countered.

"But Rachel would have heard her," Izzy said.

"Unless, Tina left at a time Rachel wasn't in the room. Like she had left to go use the restroom or something," Mimi said. Izzy thought this over. He turned and then looked down the sloping lawn.

"Hmm, what do you say we follow these mashed grass areas a bit and see where they lead us?" Izzy suggested. Mimi agreed and they headed off carefully staring at the ground. As the trees around them began to thicken the grass faded away.

Mimi gasped. "Footprints."

Izzy smirked. "That's not all. Look." He pointed at the ground. "Two sets." Mimi knelt down to examine.

"Izzy, you said nothing was missing from the room right?" Mimi asked.

"Yes, nothing," Izzy said.

"Well, the prints are shoe prints. And Tina doesn't wear shoes to bed. And furthermore… the prints look to be too big for Tina's small feet," Mimi said.

"Exactly," Izzy said, "this indicates, that Tina was kidnapped by two people."

"Men, most likely," Mimi said. "These feet look a bit to big to be a woman's."

Izzy smiled, "Mimi have you been watching a lot of detective movies lately?"

Mimi's face flushed. "Well no, not a lot. Just a few. But, er, I learned this from Ken."

Izzy grinned. "You could be quite the detective yourself." The sun was setting in the west as they continued down the hill.

"We've been at this for quite some time haven't we Izzy?" Mimi said.

Izzy nodded, "True but we got off to a late start due to the children."

"I suppose Kari and TK are back by now." Mimi said. "We should probably get back soon as well."

"Yes, but just a few more minutes," Izzy said. They walked in silence. Half an hour later, the foot prints faded away to a dirt road.

"This must have been where the getaway car was.

"I don't recognize this," Mimi said. "I wonder how you get on here."

"Do you want to follow it?" Izzy asked. Mimi looked at her watch.

"Sure why not?"

- -

TK and Kari

- -

"Oh, TK, we spent all day looking and we didn't find anything. Not so much as a trace. I can't believe the killer knew where Mimi's vacation house was," Kari said.

"I don't think he did," TK said. "I think he was actually there that morning when we left the house and he followed us to Mimi and Izzy's."

"But, if he had the chance, we didn't he just kill us?"

"To many people around. We would have struggled and that would have awoken Mimi and Izzy. A scream might pass of somebody's lips. That would awake the children. They'd be scared. They might even start crying. With all that noise, anybody who hadn't waken up will have. Izzy and Mimi will come to see what this was all about, and called the police," TK replied.

"Something told me to stay awake last night," Kari said. "I should have."

TK sighed as he parked in front of the garage of Mimi and Izzy's vacation house. "Kari, I know, it's hard. I'm worried too. But, worrying about what we should have done won't help the situation. We should concentrate on what can be done, and try and locate them. Izzy will have called Ken by now, and Ken will be looking into the matter. I'm certain he will be."

Kari nodded. "You're right, but I can't help but feel that I've failed some how. I should have paid more attention."

"It will be okay Kari," TK said. "Things will work out." 'At least I hope they will,' TK added silently.

- -

Izzy and Mimi

- -

"So this is where the street comes out at," Izzy said.

"This thing is certainly deceitful. I've passed this street a hundred times, and I see it every time, but I've always assumed it was the driveway up to that house there. Not ours. This must have been at least five miles off course for ours," Mimi said looking down the street, and then back up at the big house on the hill.

"Yeah," Izzy said. By then night was almost upon them.

"We should start heading back," Izzy said. Mimi nodded. As they reached the place where they had first discovered the street, footsteps suddenly caught their attention. Mimi turned around and screamed as she jumped out of the way of a man with knife as he tried to stab her. Another person fell from a tree.

"Mimi, start running," Izzy said. "You get away." Mimi screamed as one of them grabbed her arm. Smacking it as hard as she could, she leaned down and sank her teeth into the hand. A grunt emerged from the attacker's mouth. With out wasting any more time, Mimi turned around and kicked the man as hard as she could in the groin with the point of her boot. He gasped in pain and sank to the ground.

"Come on Mimi," Izzy exclaimed as he grabbed her hand. They began to run up hill.

"These aren't the best shoes for running Izzy," Mimi said. But, nevertheless they made it back to the safety of their home. Kari and TK were in the kitchen feeding the children. They looked up startled when Mimi and Izzy ran into the house and slammed the door behind them.

"What's up?" Kari asked as she sat the pan down.

"Nothing!" Mimi said brightly. "We were just playing a game." Instantly, Kari and TK picked up on the fact that something was indeed wrong. But they let it drop to talk about later. Izzy's body went rigid as he felt the mail flap lift up. Izzy looked out of the corner of his eye and watched something flutter to the ground. Carefully, he lowered himself even more, scooped up the piece of paper, and pocketed it. The four of them would have to talk later.

- -

Later

- -

Mimi came out of her children's bedroom and walked into the kitchen where TK, Kari, and Izzy were waiting for her. She sat down on one of the stools beside Izzy across from TK and Kari.

"What happened?" TK asked.

"Well, after I called Ken, Mimi and I looked around, like I told you we would. And the things we found weren't too good," Izzy said.

"Tina has in fact been kidnapped," Mimi said. "The clues lead up to it. First, we found a bit of mashed grass beneath Tina's window. And when I was putting Rachel to sleep, I found a blade of grass under the bed where Tina was."

"Second, upon following the mashed grass, we found footsteps when we got to the dirt. Two sets of footprints, both to big to be Tina's, and we suspected to big to be a woman's. This means that two men kidnapped Tina through her window," Izzy said.

"Third, upon following those footsteps, we found a dirt road that we had never known about before. The footsteps stopped here. We suspect that is where their getaway car was. Following the dirt road we found where it connected with the main street. The road is about five miles away from the main road you take up to our house. And the way it's positioned, most people would think that it leads up to the house on the hill," Mimi said.

"Fourth, is the thing that proves everything," Izzy said. "This note." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the paper that had been pushed through the mail slot. He unfolded it and laid it out on the counter in front of them. Kari read it and her eyes widened in horror.

TK read it aloud, "If you want your precious Tina Satsuki back, come to the harbor at 12 a.m. Saturday morning. Come alone and we may be able to work out a deal." The note was of course constructed out of words from various magazine and newspaper articles.

"But-" TK began.

"The note makes sense," Mimi said. She had already known about it as Izzy had already shared it with her. "On our way back up after to checking up the road, we were attacked by two men. Probably the attacker and his accomplice who ever that may be."

"We ran from them," Izzy said, "but, when we got back into the house, this note was pushed in through the mail slot. It is very possible therefore, the kidnappers had been up here to deliver this note, and saw us on the way back up. I don't know if they thought that maybe we were you and they could kill you then as you were heading back up the house, but, with this everything seems to fall into place."

"What are you going to do?" Mimi asked. She leaned forward concern written all over her face. TK and Kari were silent a minute.

"We're going," Kari said firmly.

"But it is very possible that this is a trap," Izzy said, "and that the killer is lying in wait."

"True," TK said, "but that's a risk we'll have to take.

- -

Saturday Morning – 12 a.m.

- -

Kari and TK looked around. "This is the place," Kari whispered. "Let's go." As the waves crashed onto the beach, TK and Kari entered the warehouse that lay in front of them.

"Let's split up and meet back here in thirty minutes," TK said. Kari nodded and headed right. Kari looked around. In the darkness she couldn't see very well. She stumbled over a chain lying on the floor. As she flung her hand out to catch herself, she felt something snap around her wrist. Kari her wrist up into a ray of moonlight. The thing sparkled brilliantly.

"Handcuffs?" Kari asked. Suddenly, as if that had been the magic word, something began dragging Kari across the floor. And then, her heart jumped into her throat as she felt her feet leave the ground. The lights snapped on and Kari gasped. There lying in a heap on some blankets was her beloved baby, Tina Satsuki. Kari cried out as she realized that she would not be able to reach the unconscious girl. The convener belt to which her handcuffs were attached stopped.

Kari heard footsteps and then TK entered the room. She watched as he spotted Tina on the floor and ran over to her. He knelt and picked the girl up. Her long blonde hair hanging down. As TK stood he noticed Kari and nearly dropped his daughter.

"Kari!" he called out. More footsteps began to echo through the ware house. TK didn't pay them much mind as suddenly, the convener belt was moving again. It stopped in front of a gap in the boxes on the second floor. A man stepped from the shadows. He had brown hair and was wearing black clothes. He pulled from within them a gun and pointed it down at TK's head.

O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O

Haha! Another cliffhanger. Er, well I know I promised you'd find out the killer. And you did, he's a man with brown hair and black clothing. But you'll find out his name in the next chapter. I thought it was this one. I really did.

Anyway, before you decide to kill me I would like to point out that this is a very special update for me. It's my two-year anniversary on this site. So everyone, I would like to thank you so much for putting up with me, my antics, and all my excuses. You are the best audience a budding writer, such as myself, could ask for. I would like to tell you how much I appreciated all of your reviews, and how close I hold them to my heart. They really do brighten my day every time I get one.

Arigatou minna-san!

We've spent two wonderful years together, and I hope to spend many more.

Happy two year anniversary!

Love,

ebacusta

P.S. REVIEW!