Chapter 22- News
Shadow was having a very nice time with two very lovely females. For the last two days, all he had done was spend some quality time with his women. After a particularly stressful job, such as the one he had just finished, usually he would 'relax' for a couple of days before he took on a new job.
Now the job itself hadn't been that stressful, he did stuff like that all the time. It was the person he and his partner, Locke, had been working with. The man was insane. Sure he had been able to think of some very creative ways to torture a person- Shadow had been thinking of using some himself in the future- but doing that to your own son was a little over the limit.
But that was just his opinion.
Completely forgetting about Rehtaf, Shadow went back to the task at hand. Just as he had asked his 'spare' woman to go get him a drink, Locke burst into the room waving a newspaper in his hand.
"What do you want?!" Shadow yelled. "Can't you see I'm busy?!"
"This is important." Locke said and threw the paper onto Shadow's bed.
Sitting up, Shadow grabbed the paper wondering what was so important about it. "Since when do you read the newspaper?" He asked.
Locke chose to ignore the question and allowed Shadow to examine the paper. Not seeing anything, Shadow looked back up to Locke with a scowl.
"No..." Locke admonished and flipped a few pages. "Here." He pointed to an article.
"Boy Hurt In Fire Expected To Recover." Shadow read aloud. He spared one more glance at Locke before he continued reading.
The boy, now known to be Vegeta Ouji, was transferred to Capsule Corporation's medical center Thursday afternoon. He is receiving some very high tech treatment and is expected to recover fully in less than three months.
A statement by a detective working on the case says that there is foul play suspected, but there is no evidence yet as to exactly who is responsible.
Furthermore, the case will...
Shadow, not even bothering to finish the article, balled up the newspaper and threw it across the room. "Get out." He ordered the girl in his bed and the one who had just walked back into the room. Both girls knew Shadow very well and knew also not to question him. Quietly, they both complied.
After both of the women were gone, Shadow stood up and started slipping on his pants. "Does Rehtaf know about this?" He asked while zipping himself up.
"I don't think so." Locke answered.
Then we'd better tell him."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Goku was crashed. His date with ChiChi had not gone great, and they had stayed out past two. Goku, listening to one of his fellow football player's advice, had bought drinks not knowing that ChiChi didn't like alcohol. Of course, he could see no reason to waste them, and so he had drank them himself. Goku, however wasn't much of a drinker either, as he was so recently finding out. He hadn't really tried it before, but given the circumstances with his best friend, he figured it was as good a time as ever to waste his problems away.
Unfortunately, he wasn't very good at holding his liquor and so had spent half the night throwing up. After about three hours or so in the bathroom of a club he was not supposed to be in, ChiChi finally drove him home.
He was very thankful that it was Saturday- he would hate to go to school feeling like such a mess. He looked at the alarm clock on the side of his bed. 11:00. Still too early. He would visit Vegeta later. Pulling the covers over his head, he rolled over and went back to sleep.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Rehtaf was furious! He had just gotten a call from Shadow saying that Vegeta was still alive. At first, he thought it was some kind of joke, but Shadow swore that it wasn't.
Now, he was heading back towards West City as fast as his car would go. He was already a two-day's drive away from West City, but it didn't matter. Time was not a problem. After the condition he had put Vegeta in, there was no way he could defend himself even if he got there a year from now.
Plus there was the fact that he wasn't in a real hospital. That gave him an advantage. At a real hospital, there were a lot of people who could see you. But at a place like Capsule Corp., he figured, all the workers would go home for the night, leaving Vegeta completely unprotected.
Yes, this was just another setback. Vegeta would die.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Okay. So here's what we've got." Brianna lectured pointing to a dry-erase board that the detectives used. "Vegeta Senovitz, or Ouji if you want. Four years old. Father kills mother, tries to kill him. He lives, gets taken in by a foster family. Foster family divorces, kid gets sent to an orphanage. Later, his uncle claimed custody. All that happened in about a year."
"Who's the uncle." Johnson asked. "If he's his legal guardian, why haven't we talked to him yet?"
"The uncle's name was Zachary..." Brianna said and then flipped through the file for clarification. "Yeah...Zachary Taylor. He worked at a bar. Just what he did, isn't said though. A few years after he took Vegeta, he was shot and killed."
"So he can't tell us anything." Dakotah said sardonically.
"When you say a few years, how many are we talking?" Johnson asked.
"Umm..." Brianna pulled the file she had found on Zachary earlier. "...eight or nine."
"So that would have put Vegeta at...what? Thirteen?" Dakotah asked raising an eyebrow.
Brianna nodded. "Seems that way."
"Well, who took him after that?" Johnson asked.
"Doesn't say." Brianna said after giving Vegeta's file another going over.
"Does it really matter?" Dahotah asked bored.
"Not right now it doesn't. But, if the kid doesn't wake up, we're going to need more info." Johnson said.
"We already know his 'daddy' tried to kill him. What do we need more evidence for? Why can't we just stamp the man and throw him in the vault?" Dakotah asked, frustrated.
"Because we don't know where he is!" Johnson yelled, earning a few turned heads within the office. "Yes we know his father tried to kill him before, but there is nothing linking him to this! And if our witness is correct, we are still down two suspects!"
"Guys!" Brianna yelled breaking up their argument. "We still have more evidence to go over."
Johnson and Dakotah both calmed down and turned back to the board.
"Okay." Brianna started. "The alley where the gunshots were heard is only a block away from Vegeta's apartment, and the gunshots were heard roughly three hours after he was last seen. There was only one person checked into the hospital that night with a gunshot wound, and that was entirely across town."
"So there is little doubt that the person gunned down in the alley was our boy." Johnson stated more than asked.
"Seems that way. But we can't be sure. The blood samples we found haven't come back form the lab yet." Brianna said.
"What's taking them so long?" Johnson asked.
"The blood we found was sitting in that alleyway for days. It was rained on and who knows what else. Besides, even if we had them, we don't have the kid's blood type so we can't very well match it."
"Okay then." Johnson said before barking out his orders. "Dakotah and Brianna you two go check out that alley again. See if there is anything we missed. I'll go to Capsule Corp. and try to get a blood sample."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Bulma was bored. She had just called ChiChi to ask her how the date went. She had had to stop herself from laughing when she got the details. ChiChi hadn't thought it was very funny, but despite that, had seemed even more obsessed with Goku. She'd even made him, some chicken soup to bring over to his apartment later.
Bulma thought they were a cute couple, and had sat there thinking about her own love life for a while. For the past few years, she had been pretty off and on with Yamcha. They were currently labeled as 'dating', but Bulma really wasn't sure if she still liked him in that manner. Yamcha would always be her friend, but Yamcha didn't seem as though he was the right boyfriend material.
Vegeta, on the other hand, seemed perfect. He was just like the 'knight in shining armor' that she had heard about in all those bedtime stories as a child. He was handsome too. Dark and mysterious. She liked that in a guy.
She briefly wondered if she was just crazing over him like all the other girls in school, or if she really liked him.
She was broken out of her thoughts when the doorbell rang.
"I GOT IT!" She yelled to her mother who was humming happily in the kitchen.
"Okay, dear." She called back, but followed her daughter toward the front door anyway.
"Um...Hello." Bulma greeted the tall aging man in trench coat. "Can I help you?"
"Yes. I'm..." The man started but was cut off by Mrs. Briefs.
"Detective Johnson! How good it is to see you! Oh my, come in! Would you like some tea?"
"Um...No thank you. I've actually come to ask a question of your husband. Is he in?"
"Oh! Why yes he is. He's in his office. I'll go get him. Here." She grabbed his arm and led him toward the living room. "You just make yourself comfortable. Would you like some tea?" She asked again.
Detective Johnson opened his mouth to answer but was cut off again.
"How about cakes? I have honey cake."
"No thanks. I ate already."
"I'll go get you some then." Mrs. Briefs turned around ignoring his reply, and scurried into the kitchen. A minute later, she came back with the tea and cakes. "Alright. You just eat up, and I'll be right back with my husband."