"Just as the flower stretching to reach the sky, just as the traveler who crosses the sea,
you're always being lead to where love calls you." Shindou Haruichi, Ai ga yobu hou e

Leon stood in Jill Valentine's apartment, feeling guilty for what he was about to do. As a detective, he had to snoop in her personal things for any information as to why she was shot and why Chris disappeared. "Detective? Shall we get started?" A fellow officer questioned, snapping on a pair of latex gloves.

"Yeah…listen, she's a friend of mine so try to…be respectful upon your findings, okay?" Leon stumbled. He wasn't exactly sure what they were going to find, but he didn't want anything embarrassing coming up.

"No problem. I'll start in the kitchen." The younger man said, walking past Leon, who was heading towards the bedroom. Things were neat and in order, her bed wasn't made though. He walked over to her dresser and pulled the first drawer open. Personal stuff…please forgive me Jill. Biting his lower lip, Leon quickly felt around in the drawer. His hands roamed over underwear and bras until he felt something hard. Holding his breath, he pulled it out.

"Oh thank God." He sighed, realizing that it was a gun. It was the one issued to her when she joined S.T.A.R.S. He returned the weapon into the drawer and closed it. He rustled through the other drawers and found nothing.

"Hey Jones, find anything?" He shouted, glancing around the room again before going towards the kitchen.

"Not much. Clean dishes, fresh food in the fridge…nothing abnormal at all." Jones replied, sounding kind of disappointed.

Nodding, Leon went into the living room. He checked the answering machine for messages. "There are no new messages." A robotic voice told him. There was a note pad and a pen beside the phone. Picking it up, Leon inspected it. It looked as if the top piece of paper had been torn off. Turning on a lamp, Leon tilted the note pad towards the light. "Jones, you got a pencil?" He asked, seeing slight impressions on the paper.

"Uh…no but there's one on the chair next to you." Jones replied.

Spinning around, Leon grabbed the pencil and began to lightly mark the note paper. "What is it, detective?" Jones asked, stepping closer to try to get a better look.

"A partial address…and phone number." Leon said triumphantly.

"That's good…I guess. Where is the place?"

"Ajo, Arizona. Who the hell's in Arizona?"

"Is there anything else on there?"

Leon sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Ok…okay, let's get back to the station house. We're gonna find out where this is, and hopefully that will lead us to Chris." He muttered, sticking the paper in his pocket and heading for the door.

"But Kennedy, shouldn't we finish looking around here? I mean what if that was the address for some infomercial or something?" Jones questioned.

"You can stick around, I gotta get back to the house." Leon answered.

When he arrived back at the station house, Claire was waiting for him. "Hey sweetie, what's up?" He greeted, kissing her briefly.

"You will never guess what happened today!" Claire gushed, following Leon into the coffee room.

"Well, what happened?" Leon asked, pulling his coat off and tossing it over a chair.

"Okay, I went over to Sunrise to let them know about Jill, right? And I went with Stacy, my agent, to talk to the photographer who was supposed to be working with Jill next week for a magazine ad. Well, guess what!"

Leon shrugged. "I don't know, what?" He asked.

"What kind of detective are you? Anyway, he's letting me take her place! This guy is a big-shot photographer too. If I make an impression on him, imagine where this will take me!" Claire exclaimed, barely able to keep her excitement in.

"Oh. Wow, that's really great. I'm sure Jill would be happy for you." Leon said, giving her a hug. "I don't mean to shoo you away but I have to get some work done. We have some info that we need to look at."

Claire nodded and smiled. "Sure, I'll get out of your hair. Call me if you find out anything about Chris, you got it?" She said gleefully. Leon nodded and waved as she skipped out of the office area.

"She seems happy." Leah Rosa remarked as Leon sat at his desk.

"Yeah. Her modeling career is finally starting to shape up." He replied.

"That's great. So did you find anything at the victim's house?" Leah continued.

Leon pulled the paper from his pocket and handed it to her. "It's a partial address and phone number. You ever been to Arizona?" He questioned.

"Nope. 'Ranchero Grill'? Is that a restaurant or something?"

"Maybe. I'm hoping we can get the rest of the number, and call this place up to see if they've seen Chris." Leon replied

"Well I sure hope we find him soon. This place is gonna fall apart without him."

Leon's face fell slightly. "What's that supposed to mean? Everyone pulls their own weight around here, we all make this a great squad." He said, quite defensivly. Leah held up her hands.

"You know what I mean, Leon. Chris is just…the heart of this place. It feels so wrong without him here." She replied.

"That's why I'm gonna work my hardest to find him."

Not longer after his conversation with Leah, Leon reported to his boss and began to work on completing the number. As it would turn out, someone that worked in the same building had a brother in Arizona, so he was currently getting information on the "Ranchero Grill". Leon sat at his desk, zoning out and feeling depressed. His partner and best friend was missing. He was slightly disturbed by Claire's lack of compassion for Jill. There was a bit of competition between the two when they first decided to start modeling.

Jill was in the hospital, near death, and Claire seemed more interested in working. A ringing phone shocked him out of his daze, and he hastily picked it up. "Hello, 90th precinct…" He greeted.

"Hey, is Kennedy there?" A gruff male voice questioned.

"Speaking."

"Oh, hey, this is Horowitz from anti-crime. Listen, my brother got back to me about that Ranchero thing. He called a few people down in Ajo and they got all the information for you."

"Great, thanks a lot. I'll come up and get it from you."

"Alright, see you."

Leon jumped up from his desk and headed towards the stairs, blinded by the possibility that he might be able to locate Chris. He jogged up the stairs to the offices on the next floor. As a man approached him, Leon extended his arm and a finger. "Horowitz?" He asked.

"That's me. Here's the info." The man replied, handing it over.

"You'll be the man of the hour if this is where Chris is."

"Ha ha, it'd be nice to get some respect around here…but most importantly, we want our guy back. You goin' to look for him?"

"Yeah. Hey, man thanks a lot. I owe you." Leon shook his hand and returned to the detective offices.

Leon sped into his boss' officer to alert him of the news. "Boss?" He questioned, knocking on the open door. Mark Houston looked up from his paper work.

"What's up, Kennedy?" He asked.

"Horowitz from anti-crime got some information off a partial address we uncovered from the victim's house. It's for a place down in Arizona, a restaurant. We're thinking that Jill might have brought that address to Chris, and that he's on his way there." Leon explained.

Houston nodded. "Alright. I'll take it that you'll be making the trip down there."

"You bet." Leon replied with a grin.

"You know how to get there…which county is it?"

"Ajo. Yeah, I'll take I-5 through California…and according to Horowitz's info, jump onto I-8 from there and take route eighty-five right on in."

"You're in for a helluva drive."

"I'll fill up here. Who knows what gas prices are down south."

"Leon, you better keep in touch with us, ya hear? I can't have two officers go missing…two of my finest." Houston warned. Leon smiled.

"I'll give you a call after I'm on my way." He assured him. Leah glanced at Leon as he fell into his chair with relief.

"Something come up?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm going on vacation!" He replied, turning off his desk lamp.

"I hardly think vacation is appropriate when your partner is missing."

Leon jumped up and pulled his over coat on. "Well, it is if you're going to find him while vacationing. I was kidding about that, anyway. Since Chris might be down in Ajo, I'm going to go down there and look for him. I can find the guy who owns this grill place to see if he's seen him around. There's gotta be something down there. Anyway, keep this place in order, would ya?" He babbled, putting files away and straightening his desk out.

"Sure, I'll hold the fort down. Be careful, will you Kennedy?" Leah replied.

"Of course. Take care!"

END