"Cruel Kindness"
3. 'Real Bad News'
"I didn't get around to kiss you
Goodbye on the hand.
I with that I could see you again
I know that I can't.
I hope you can hear me,
I remember it clearly,
The day you slipped away
Is the day that I found
It won't be the same."
'Slipped Away' Avril Lavigne
Ken pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut before finally removing his glasses all together and bending over his desk to rub his forehead. A pile of photographs depicting a bloody corps lay strewn over the table in front of him.
A tall youthful looking woman with blond hair poked her head in the door. "Anything?" she said, stepping into the lab.
Ken didn't look up as she leaned over his shoulder to look at the photos.
"Nothing." He sighed deeply. "I thought if I stared long enough at them, something would hit me." Finally he faced the woman, "Is that my toxicology report?" he indicated to the paper she was holding.
She nodded and held it up, "Just finished it a few minutes ago. Came right here to give it to you."
He took it from her and studied it.
"We found trace amounts of alcohol in her blood along with a sedative, benzodiazapine."
"Benzodiazapine? Same as the other girls. Thing is, that's not your standard tranquilizer. The usual 'date-rape' drugs are Rohypnol and GHB. Why use something that he would need a prescription for?"
She shrugged, "He can get a refill whenever he needs?"
Ken made a quiet huffing sound, "It's stupid. He's been so careful and cleaver at not getting caught, leaving behind hardly any physical evidence, but he leads us to a prescription drug? Besides, the fact that benzodiazapine is a dangerous drug, which is sometimes used in extreme cases with mental patients."
"So our suspect is a mental patient?" she asked sitting down on a stool.
"Or he's a doctor."
The young woman leaned forward over the table and spread the photos in order to get a better look at them. She sighed, "She's so young, this one."
"Thirteen. She's thirteen."
"That's the youngest so far."
Ken stood up and turned to the board behind him, which had five more photos on it, each of a woman. "So far he's killed women ranging from age thirteen to thirty. He only goes after natural blondes with brown eyes."
"Rare combination, especially here in Japan." She pointed out.
"That would explain the large breaks between murders. None of the women were originally from Japan. Each was here on business or visiting. He had to wait for them to arrive in the country."
"Makes you wonder why he ever left LA, doesn't it? There he was going after girls just about every week, but he comes here and he has to wait for them?"
Ken nodded, "It is strange. There must be a reason for him coming here. We'd put out an APB on our suspect but we have nothing in which to recognize him."
"We're sure it's a male?" she asked looking at the photos.
"Almost a hundred percent. It's a sexually orientated murder, so I'd have to say the killer was male."
Ken pinched between his eyes again.
She smiled at him, "Your shift finished over an hour ago. Go home, get some sleep, be with your family for a while and then you can come back in the morning and try to figure this all out."
Ken gave her a weak smile and nodded. He removed his white coat and latex gloves and walked out the lab.
He entered the parking lot, and subconsciously looked around, over his shoulder and then got into his car. He turned on the radio and drove down the highway, the streetlights illuminating him every beat of a second.
The music played quietly in the background and it was only when the song was halfway through, Ken realized that he liked it. The voice sounded very familiar but he couldn't quite place it and it made him feel somewhat nostalgic.
"I got love and anger
They come as a pair.
You can take your chances
But buyer beware
And I won't make you feel bad
When I show you
This big ball of sad isn't
Worth even filling with air…"
He turned up the radio and before he knew it, he was pulling into the parking lot of his apartment. Feeling incredibly sleep deprived, he walked to the elevator and as it rose up, he leaned against the back wall, trying not to close his eyes, else he might fall asleep there.
The door opened and he stepped out onto the corridor, the cool night air tugging at his hair and tan trench coat. He reached his door and pushed the key into the lock. He opened the door and took off his shoes, to replace them with his slippers.
He stepped into the living room and found Yolei sitting reading a novel while his eight-year-old son, Sam sat on the floor watching television.
Yolei looked around and saw Ken standing there, a small smile on his face. She jumped up, "Ken! You're home. I kept your dinner for you in the warming draw. I hope it's okay."
His grin widened, "I love you." He said as he hugged her around the waist and gave her a kiss.
"Ah! No mushy stuff!" their son protested and Ken laughed lightly.
"Where's Takara?" he asked looking around.
"She's in her room, doing homework. She said she needed help with math or something by the way." Yolei called from the kitchen.
Ken frowned a little, "Why didn't she just ask you for help?"
Yolei looked at her husband knowingly, "I think she just wanted to bond with her papa."
Ken smiled, "Ah."
He turned and walked to her bedroom. He knocked once and said, "Takara? Can I come in?"
"Yes, papa." Was the muffled reply from the other side of the door.
He stepped into the room and found his eleven-year-old daughter sitting at her desk in front of her computer. Music was playing in the background; the artist was familiar to him. It was the same singer he'd heard in the car. A
He stood next to her by her desk and picked up the CD box, which was a swirling design of purple and black with the name, "Charlie Jane" on it.
"I didn't know you were into angsty girl music." He said with a hint of a laugh in his voice.
She looked up frowning and snatched the CD from him; "There's a lot you don't know, 'cause you're always working."
He pulled up her spare chair and sat down opposite her. "I'm sorry sweetheart, it's just, this case…"
"How is it going?"
Ken sighed deeply, "I'm not really sure to be honest." He stopped and listened to the music some more. "Who is she?"
"Charlie Jane? She's a singer papa."
He narrowed his eyes at her; "I know that. I mean…"
"She's been around for a few years but she's not that well known, especially here in Japan, but I think that's one of the reasons I like her so much. Plus she's really good, probably my favorite artist. You like her music?"
Ken nodded, "It sounds familiar and comforting."
Takara nodded with a smile, "I know."
Ken opened up the CD case to look through the small book.
"There's no pictures of her in there, if that's what you're looking for."
Ken flipped through it and glanced at the lyrics. "Would you mind if I borrowed this sometime?"
She shrugged, "Sure, if you come with me to the concert. She's on tour here from LA and giving a concert next week."
Ken smiled and put the CD case down again, "Sounds like a date." He paused and looked at the computer screen, "Now, your mother told me you need some help with your math homework?"
"Ah, no, I lied. I just wanted to talk to you. You know, like we used to."
He nodded and grinned at her. She was tall for her age, much like he was when he was eleven. Her eyes were bright blue and her hair was the same colour as his, reaching between her shoulder blades. She wore reading glasses at this moment and looked remarkably like her mother. Ken knew she would be a heart breaker some day.
She joined her father in the living area, while he ate his dinner at the table. When he was done, she cleared his plates away and began to rinse them. He joined her a short while later, along with Yolei who had just put Sam to bed.
Takara was washing, while Ken dried, but just as he got to the last plate, his cell phone rang. He dried his hands and answered it.
"Hello…Yes…already? Are you sure?" Ken paused, the furrow on his brow got steadily deeper. "All right, I'll be there as soon as I can."
He turned to Yolei but she already knew. "Another one?"
He nodded, kissed her on the cheek and then hugged his daughter goodnight. He looked at Yolei before going to the door, "I'll try not to wake you when I get home."
She nodded and watched her husband leave to go do his job.
------
Ken got out his car, put on his latex gloves and picked up his box of necessities for his job. He avoided the cop cars and police and stepped under the yellow tape, depicting the words, 'Crime Scene Investigation. Do Not Cross.'
"Aneko." He called to the tall blond, his partner on the case. She turned, waved, then bent down to another colleague of theirs, a male with spiky red hair who was taking photographs of the crime scene and body. She walked over to Ken.
"What have we got?"
"Same as usual." She stated.
Ken looked at her, "Two in two nights? That's new for him."
"I guess he stalks them simultaneously when he gets the chance." She replied bitterly.
The crime scene was in an alley way, a short walk from a near-by club. Ken knew the area well. The near-by club used to be 'Moonbeams' but that was fourteen years ago. Now the club was still a club, but the name changed every so often.
"Blond, brown eyes, naked, strangled and pretty much gutted."
Ken bent down to look at the body. The woman appeared to be in her late twenties, early thirties. She lay neatly on the tar of the alley. Her eyes were closed and if it had not being for the fact that she had severe bruising around her neck and knife wounds to her lower torso, she would have appeared to be sleeping.
He looked closely at her eyes, lifting the lids of each and frowned.
"Something wrong?" Aneko asked, bending down too.
"Cause of death was strangulation with all the others."
"And it wasn't with her?"
"Look at her eyes. All the others had Petechial Hemorrhaging on the inner surface of the eyelids, but it's absent on her."
"Which means she didn't die from being strangled, she died from blood loss?"
They looked at the stab wounds.
"Six stabs, as usual." Ken murmured, "She bled out before he strangled her." He looked around; "There's not enough blood here."
"He killed her somewhere else, dumped the body here, then what? Strangled her? Why strangle someone who's already dead?"
"To make sure I guess."
"Sick bastard." She muttered.
"Got a time of death for me?" he asked looking up.
"Not sure yet, but she couldn't have been here more than two, three hours, rigamortis hasn't set in yet and this is a busy alley."
Ken stood up and looked around. "There's no pattern to this guy. He doesn't work in a hot spot. Not even in LA. He goes to them, doesn't wait for them to come to him."
"Well, no he can't afford to, not if he's only going after blonds with brown eyes."
Ken looked around, then found what he was looking for. A trail of blood lead from the woman to the edge of the alley.
"Cast off trails." Aneko noted, "You were right, she bled out."
"The trail stops here, which means she was transported here. This is our second crime scene. Now all we have to do, is find our primary one."
"Can you say 'needle-in-a-haystack'?"
"Maybe not." Ken leaned forward.
"What do you see?"
"Tire track, in her blood." Ken stood up, turned and called to the photographer.
"What is it Ichijouji?" the young man asked.
Ken pointed.
"Tire tracks! He's getting sloppy." He commented and began taking pictures of the tracks.
"Good news for us, bad news for him."
------
"What have you got for me?" Ken asked as he stepped into the morgue.
A man a little older than Ken in a white lab coat stepped closer to the table, where the young woman was lying.
"Time of death was approximately nine-thirty, so I'm guessing she was in that alley for about an hour or so before someone found her."
"No identification?"
The mortician shook his head, "Jane Doe for now." He uncovered the body, "You were right. The bruises around her neck were made post mortem."
Ken frowned, "Do you think we have a copy-cat?"
He shook his head; "All the other girls died due to asphyxiation, but the stab wounds would have been enough to do it. Like you said, he was just making sure they were dead. This girl did it in a different order. She died due to the stab wounds, he might have realized it, but strangled her anyway."
"To stick with his MO." Ken nodded. "He buys them a drink, laces it with a sedative, Xanax or something similar, they get drowsy, he takes them to wherever it is he stabs them, then strangles her with a wire and dumps her. None of them raped, nothing."
"What are you thinking?"
Ken narrowed his eyes and stared at the body, as if he were reading answers off her. "I'm trying to figure this guy out. He kills females age thirteen to thirty. Always blonds with brown eyes. Each of them have traces of alcohol and benzodiazapine in their blood, even the underage ones. Six stab wounds, strangulation and naked. Yet, he doesn't touch them. I'm starting to think it's not a sexually orientated crime after all. The nakedness could be ritualistic, more than anything else. None of them have identification. As if he's trying to say, 'it doesn't matter who she is'."
"But, he goes after specific women, there has to be some link."
Ken sighed deeply, "Wish I knew what it was." Ken picked up a folder on the table next to the body, "This her fingerprints and DNA?"
The mortician nodded.
"I'm going to run a few tests, see if we can find her an identification." Ken left the room with the folder, feeling incredibly heavy.
------
Aneko stepped into the lab once again, where Ken was sitting, his head in his hands.
"Ken." She said gently, "Go home. There's nothing else you can do right now. We'll have the results in the morning. You've been here for hours and you look like hell. Go get some sleep."
"What about you?" he asked looking up.
"I'm just about to head out myself."
He nodded, took off his white coat to replace it with his tan trench coat.
------
On the way home, Ken drove passed the crime scene, with no intention of looking at the alley. He was more interested in the club. He parked his car outside it and knowing full well that the detective over-looking the case had already done this, he entered the club and headed to the bar to talk to the barmen. To his slight surprise, it was a woman behind the bar. She had long red hair and deep brown eyes. She smiled kindly at him, the noise of the club was so loud, he had to shout across to her.
"The detective already asked me a bunch of questions." She replied.
From what Ken could hear of her voice, she had an accent, so she obviously wasn't from Japan originally.
"I know, but I was just wondering if you could answer some more?"
She shrugged, "Sure."
"Did you notice a couple here at the bar, or anywhere in the club? The woman was blond with brown eyes."
"Look, I'll tell you what I told the detective. I see a lot of people every night. But yeah, I think I might have seen her."
"Did you see who was with her?"
"Quite a good looking guy, I think. I can't really remember. Sorry."
Ken nodded sadly and left the bar.
Something made him turn his head and look in the direction of the bathrooms. He narrowed his eyes as he stared at the door to the men's bathroom.
"HELP ME! PLEASE SOMEBODY HELP ME!"
The scene played over in his head like it was yesterday. His feeling of complete loss of control, letting the anger take over, letting the Emperor take over.
He walked outside and stood in the exact same spot he had done that night.
"I want to walk."
"It's not safe…"
"It's not far."
Fourteen years. Fourteen years since he had last seen her, walking away from this very spot. The cold air whipped at his hair and coat. After all these years, it still made him feel empty inside. There was a space missing inside him, something Yolei and Sam and Takara could never fill. He loved his wife and children with all his heart and he would always love them, but there would always be a place in his heart for Catrina Harris. She was his first after all, his first in every sense of the word.
He often wandered what had happened to her. Was she dead in a gutter somewhere? Was she married? Was she happy? He just wished he knew, then maybe he could move on.
Breathing deeply, he turned and got back into his car.
As he entered his apartment, he took off his shoes and put on his slippers. He was too wide-awake to go to bed; he would only disturb Yolei, so he went to the kitchen. He poured himself a glass of milk and put it in the microwave to warm it up. He sat down at the counter and pulled out his Crest of Kindness from his pocket and started twiddling it between his fingers like he always did when he was deep in thought.
"And where did she get the design for her tattoo?" he asked aloud.
"What Ken?"
He looked down to see a very sleepy looking Wormmon.
"Hey buddy. Did I wake you?"
"Not really, I was waiting for you. Yolei was too, but she fell asleep."
Ken nodded and picked Wormmon up and put him on the counter.
"You still think about her don't you?"
"Who?"
"Cat."
Ken stared at his friend and then nodded silently.
He put his head in his hands and stayed like that for a long while, taking a few moments in between to drink his milk. Then, finally feeling sleepy, he went to the bathroom, had a quick shower and quietly slipped into bed next to Yolei, who was fast asleep. He rolled onto his side and slipped his arm around his wife's waist and fell off to sleep with her.
------
"Morning." Ken heard whispered in his ear and then felt Yolei's soft palm brush over his hair and then his cheek.
He turned over to face her, "Morning." He said with a smile and gave her a quick kiss.
"What time did you get home?" she asked as he sat up.
"Not sure. One, two o' clock maybe." He tossed the covers aside and walked to the on-suit-bathroom.
"You're going into work this morning aren't you?" she called to him from the bed.
"I have to."
"Ken, it's Saturday." She reasoned.
"I know it's Saturday, Yolei, but I have to work on this case."
"Just don't miss Sam's first soccer match. He's been looking forward to you seeing him play for weeks."
Ken re-entered the bedroom.
"I won't miss it, I swear."
She gave him a sly, disbelieving grin and he leaned over the bed to kiss it off her face. "I'll be there."
"You know," she started, "Takara is sleeping over at a friend's house and Sam is spending the night at one of his team-mate's house tomorrow night…" the corner of her mouth lifted, "So I was thinking we could…" she trailed her hand up and down his bare chest and then lay down on her pillow with her arm over her head.
He laughed lightly and smiled at her, "It's a date."
------
"Makoto," Ken said quickly as he entered the lab, "what have you got for me?"
The spiky haired photographer from last night stood up and handed Ken a piece of paper; "We got a match on the tracks. They belong to a van that was reported stolen a month ago. The cops found it this morning, abandoned in pretty much the middle of nowhere."
"Okay, team, looks like we're going on a field trip."
Ken's forensic team followed him to the van and they drove to the sight where the van was abandoned. They cautiously opened the back, only to find it sparkling clean.
"Guy did a good job of cleaning it up." Aneko commented.
"To the naked eye." Ken replied.
They spent a good half-hour spraying the van with a chemical, which causes blood to show up where it's been, even after it's been cleaned away. Not to Ken's surprise, when they closed the doors of the van the entire floor and most of the walls glowed a pale green/yellow, indicating blood.
"Team." Ken announced, "We found our primary crime scene."
They spent the rest of the morning collecting DNA wherever possible, fibers and any other trace evidence they could find.
"Guy's getting sloppy." Aneko voiced suddenly.
Makoto turned to her, "What?"
"Well, I mean, for months and months, this guy has been untraceable, a complete shadow and now, he leaves this van here where he knows we'll find it."
"Maybe he wants to be caught?" Ken replied.
"What makes you say that?" Makoto asked.
"Most serial killers want to be caught," Ken sighed, "it's like a game to them. They're sick and they know it, and all at the same time, they want to get caught and want to get away with it. He wants to be stopped because he can't stop himself."
"How do you know?"
"Trust me on this one."
------
Back at the lab, Ken spent the rest of his morning sorting through the collected evidence, while Aneko and Makoto were having it analyzed. He kept glancing at his wristwatch, checking on how much time he still had before he had to leave for his son's soccer match. He was just considering leaving when Toshiro, the mortician entered.
"Ken," he said, a note of urgency in his voice, "do you have a moment?"
Ken looked up and was about to say he needed to go, but something from the look on Toshiro's face caused that thought to vanish.
"What is it?"
"Our recent victim."
"What about her?"
"Come down to the lab and I'll show you."
Ken followed Toshiro down the passage, passed the numerous labs and offices, past the interrogation rooms, down the stairs and finally into the morgue.
Toshiro opened the steal door and pulled out the table on which the body of their recent victim was lying. Her skin was a pale gray colour now. Her lips were a purple/blue.
He pulled back the cover so Ken could see the stab wounds. He frowned and then looked at Toshiro.
"What?"
"Count them."
Ken spent a few seconds counting the stab wounds and then gasped and looked up shocked at Toshiro.
"Seven. Not six."
"I thought it was strange, since all of them had six stab wounds, but this one has seven. The thing is about the seventh stab wound is, it's at a peculiar angle to the wound next to it."
Ken studied it and saw that it was parallel to a stab wound, almost identical.
"These two, next to each other, they look more like puncture wounds."
"That's what I thought."
"What do you think caused them?"
Toshiro shrugged, "Not really sure. The angles on all the stab wounds have been the same, so he's using the same object, even with those two wounds. The only difference with those two is that they are slightly narrower than the others are. Do you think maybe he slipped up and miscounted?"
Ken narrowed his eyes and shook his head; "I don't think so. He's starting to leave clues now. Maybe the seventh stab wound wasn't intentional, but he's getting sloppy these days."
Ken left the morgue with more on his mind to think about. He walked back to the lab, collected some photographs of the recent victim, put them in his briefcase, intending to study them at home and left for his son's soccer match. He glanced down at his watch and felt his stomach sink; he was late.
------
Yolei looked down at her watch and sighed. The second half of Sam's soccer match was about to start and Ken was nowhere in sight. Takara was sitting on the seats, looking a little bored, but waved happily to her brother when he looked over at the stands.
Finally Yolei saw Ken running from the parking lot over to the stands. He climbed up and sat down next to his wife.
"I know." He gasped, "I'm sorry. How much did I miss?"
"The first half, but no one's scored yet, so don't worry." She said kissing him hello. "What took you?"
"Don't worry, I'll tell you later at home."
She nodded and looked back at the game, which had just started again. Sam had spotted his father in the stands and looked much happier as he waved enthusiastically. Ken stood up and waved at his son, a large grin on his face.
The game, though consisting of mostly eight and nine year olds was actually quite exciting. The ball went from one side of the field to the other so many times, it was almost like watching a tennis match. Sam's team had a fantastic goalkeeper, who managed to block all the shots aimed at the net. Then, finally, Sam got hold of the ball and with much screaming and cheering from his family, even Takara, he kicked the black and white ball with such force, it flew threw the air, past the goalies hands and hit the back of the net. Everyone jumped up and down and cheered, but the game was not over yet.
Ken wasn't sure if it was his presence there, but he noticed that Sam was playing with a great deal of passion and determination. As if to confirm his thoughts, Yolei leaned over and informed him that Sam was playing much better in this half.
Ken grinned to himself.
Then with only a minute to the end of the match, the other teams' Striker was going in for a goal. Sam saw this and using quick reflexes and the moves his father had shown him, he went in for a sliding tackle. The Striker tripped and the ball went in the wrong direction. The whistle blew and the game was over. Sam's team had won!
Ken thought Yolei might scream herself hoarse, but he smiled widely at his wife's beaming face as she threw her arms around him and then rushed to do the same to her son.
"Did you see Papa? Did you see?" Sam jumped up and down in front of his father.
Ken bent down and lifted his son onto his shoulders, "I saw. Davis will be very proud when I tell him about your sliding tackle."
"Okay, I think ice-cream is in order." Yolei commented happily.
------
Ken sat busily at the table that evening, focusing his attention on the photographs of the recent victim. Sam was sitting with his sister in front of the television and they were cutting and gluing pieces of paper and pictures into a book. It was a school project Sam was working on and Takara was helping him.
Ken looked over at them and marveled at the scene for a moment. Takara was Sam's older sister. She was wiser and smarter than Sam was, but then, she was after all, older. She was kind and gentle, but occasionally headstrong and cruel. Ken had seen a little of himself and Osamu in her, but he also saw a lot of Yolei in her. Sam reminded him of himself when he was eight years old. A bright child, but also kind and naïve. He was grateful that Takara was very patient with Sam at times, when she was busy or studying.
He turned back to the photos in front of him. He tried to make sure they could not see the pictures he was looking at, because he knew they would greatly disturb them. Sometimes, they disturbed him and he was thirty-two years old.
He took a deep breath and frowned at the photo focusing on the stab wounds. How could he have missed it? There they were, plain as day, seven stab wounds, not six. But then, he reasoned, he'd seen five girls with six stab wounds, not seven. He just assumed there were six. He huffed at himself. What else had he assumed with this case? Has he missed other small clues? Was that the idea of this killer? To make them believe one thing and then change the rules all of a sudden?
Something flickered in the corner of his eye. He turned to see Takara holding up a pair of scissors and cutting carefully along a line. The scissors were catching the light of the lamp and reflecting it towards Ken. He frowned deeply at the scissors and the way they opened and closed. How the two blades came together to make one blade. Narrow at the tip and widening towards the handle. Much like the stab wounds. Takara opened the blades again and it struck Ken.
"Scissors." He said aloud.
Takara and Sam paused and turned to their father.
Ken got up and walked over to them.
"Takara, can I borrow those?"
She looked a little blank at her father but handed them over, "Sure."
He took them and studied every inch of them. Then he walked to the kitchen and looked around for something. He spotted the fruit bowl and picked up an apple. Then he plunged the tip of the scissors into the shiny green flesh.
Yolei walked into the kitchen suddenly and stopped dead at her husband's odd behavior, though she was getting used to this sort of thing.
"What are you doing, Ken?"
"An experiment." He said absently and proceeded to open the blades and then stab the apple again.
He pulled out the scissors and studied the apple. Then he went to the table and compared the punctures. They were very similar.
------
"Scissors?" Aneko questioned the next morning when Ken enlightened them.
"Scissors." He stated.
Makoto raised his eyebrow, "That explains the seventh stab wound. The blade could have opened accidentally just before he stabbed her."
Aneko nodded, "Okay, but why scissors? I mean of all the weapons to stab someone with? Scissors are the type of weapon used in a crime of passion. You know, the person flips out, grabs something sharp, an envelope opener or a pair of scissors and stabs the person, once or twice, but to use it as a weapon in a chain of murders? It's strange."
"I'm not arguing with you there Aneko, it is peculiar. But it does fit with my 'ritualistic' theory. It's like he's re-enacting something."
"What makes you say that?" Makoto inquired.
"I'm not really sure, just a hunch you could say." Ken confessed.
------
"What are you thinking?"
Ken rolled onto his side to look at the woman next to him. She was playing with his long dark hair, letting her fingers run through it. He loved it when she did this; it made him feel warm and relaxed.
As he turned, he looked into her deep brown eyes and brushed away some of her brown and red hair.
"I was just wondering what I should do after I graduate." Ken confessed.
Cat smiled at him, "I'm sure you'll think of something. You're smart."
"What do you want to do?" he asked gently after a pause.
She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, giving her time to think of an answer.
"You'll scoff." She finally said.
Ken sat up and rested against the headboard of her bed, then folded his arms, "I swear I won't laugh."
She narrowed her eyes at him with a disbelieving look but knew that he would keep his word.
"I want to be a singer…"
Ken smiled at her despite himself. She frowned at him, "You said you wouldn't laugh."
His grin widened, "I'm not laughing, I think it's cool. No seriously, that's great. You have a beautiful voice and your lyrics are really touching and real. I think you have a really good chance."
She blushed slightly and smiled at him, "Thanks, Ken."
She lay down on her pillow, her arm under her head and looked up at him as she asked, "So, do you have any ideas what you want to do?"
He shrugged, "I want to be a detective in forensics. You know, crime scene investigation."
She looked amazed for a moment, "Really? What made you decide on that?"
Ken turned away from her and stared out the glass sliding door to look at the setting sun. Then he moved to the edge of the bed, his back to her.
"I guess, I just wish I knew how Osamu died you know? It was a hit and run, but I don't think they ever caught the guy. If they'd had someone investigate the scene, I'm sure they would have found something."
She looked up at him, feeling useless to make him feel better. So saying nothing, she put her hand on his and gently squeezed it, letting him know that she was there for him.
"You really miss him don't you?" she finally whispered.
He nodded, still with his face away from her. She sat up and moved closer to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and putting her face in the dip between his shoulders and neck. She began kissing him there and then breathed in his ear; "It's okay."
She could feel him quivering, shaking, holding it all inside.
"Let it go."
"It's my fault." He finally sobbed, though no tears fell from his eyes. "I wished him gone! If only I wasn't so jealous and selfish, none of it would have happened!"
"His death was a tragic accident Ken, there was nothing you could have done. And people say things and they shout things, but they never really mean them. You loved your brother so much; it couldn't have equaled to the amount of hate you had for him. Your wish meant nothing to the universe…it was just his time and your time to grow and mess up and become the person you are and the person you will be."
She felt him shudder again and when she looked at his face, slow tears were crawling down his pale cheeks. She moved in front of him, so she was sitting with her legs around his waist and kissed the tears away.
"You are the strongest person I have ever met, Ken, so don't ever mistake tears for weakness."
The memories and morning faded into the afternoon, which swiftly fell into dusk.
Ken had been sitting at his table in the lab. He was looking at an old photograph; one Kari had taken fourteen years ago. He wasn't quite sure what had made him pull it out of his desk draw, but he had and he was remembering one of his favorite memories of Cat.
His thoughts were interrupted when Aneko entered the lab, where she found Ken going over the evidence again.
"Dental records are in." she announced. "Our victim is Jennifer Macintosh from Manhattan, New York, age thirty-two. She was head of an advertising company. She was here on business."
When she hardly got a reaction out of him, she sat down opposite him and tucked some of her short blond hair behind her ear.
"What are you thinking?"
He looked up sharply and stared at Aneko for a moment, then he glanced down at the photographs and regained his composure; "None of these women had anything in common, except the fact that they are all natural blonds with brown eyes. That's it." He huffed and sat back in his chair, "Lucky you have blue eyes."
She chuckled and shrugged, "I'm not a real blond either."
"I don't understand it. He targets blond women with brown eyes, age thirteen to thirty-two, doesn't matter what their occupation is, who they are, nothing. He watches them, learns their habits…"
"Bearing in mind he has a limited amount of time to do so."
"Exactly. With the older women, he charms them, gets them to a bar, or takes them out for a drink. In the case of Ashley, the thirteen-year-old victim, he watched her and then kidnapped her…"
"Forced her to drink the alcohol which was laced with the sedative…"
"So for the older women, he makes contact with them. Gets friendly maybe even seduces them. I'd say he worked at the hotel they were staying at, but not even their hotels are something they have in common. There must be some way he's…" Ken's eyes widened and he pinched his nose between his eyes. "Of course!"
"What?"
"The airport! He must be an employee at the airport! How else will he know when a blond woman with brown eyes has come into the country?"
Ken stood up swiftly as if to walk out the lab and contact the detective to inform him of this lead, but as his knees straightened, the blood rushed from his head, causing white spots to explode in front of his eyes. He sat down quickly on his chair again and as Aneko looked closely at him, he saw the edges of his vision go blurry and then finally black.
He moaned and rested his head on his desk for a minute.
"Ken!" Aneko said alarmed.
"I'm…I'm okay." He slurred; his face was still a bit numb.
"Ken…you haven't slept properly in over a month…you can't keep doing this to yourself."
"I'm fine." He insisted and lifted his head.
"No you're not. This is the 'Ino' case all over again." She stood up, walked to the coat stand in the lab where Ken's coat was hanging and picked it up.
"Right," she began, "you're going to go home to your wife and get some sleep! Don't even think about coming back here unless you've had a good night's sleep, because quite frankly Ken, you're useless to us when you're in this kind of condition." She frowned at him but the upturned corner of her mouth let Ken know she was being harsh to him for his own good.
He took a deep breath and exhaled as he stood up slowly and took his coat from her. "Yes, ma'am."
He made to walk out but turned back.
"I will inform the detective about the airport." She cut him off before he could start and he just shook his head and smiled as he walked to the parking lot.
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Ken stepped into his apartment just as he remembered that Sam and Takara were spending the night at a friend's house and Yolei had made tonight a date for the two of them. He glanced down at his watch and saw that he was home in time to make it look like he had remembered all along. He put down his briefcase and took off his shoes in order to replace them with his slippers.
He walked down the entrance hall and paused when he saw Yolei setting the table for the two of them.
Her lavender hair was tied up in a twist, which had a few stands hanging loose around her face. She was wearing her contacts obviously because her glasses were absent and she wore a pretty rose pink dress, which fell to just over her knees. Her feet were bare, since she was probably running back and forth from the kitchen to the dinning area and the slippers slowed her down.
Ken smiled widely at her. The woman he loved. The mother of his children. His wife. She was beautiful, even if she was wearing sweatpants and a dirty T-shirt.
She turned to head to the kitchen and as she looked up, she spotted Ken.
"I wasn't expecting you back so soon."
Without a word, he walked forward and brushed a strand of hair away from her face as he rested his hand on her cheek. "You're beautiful."
She flushed and put her hand on his hand, "Thank you Ken." She said quietly and made to move to the kitchen.
He followed her and as she checked on dinner, she looked back at him, "You're pale. Are you all right?"
He shrugged, "It's just stress."
She turned sharply to him; "Did you pass out again?"
"Yolei," he began exasperated, "I didn't pass out, it was just a dizzy spell."
"Okay, that's it…" she put a lid on one of the pots, "this date is postponed until you are well. Now, you get into bed and…"
He smirked, "And?"
"No, I mean it Ken. You need rest and sleep and…"
He silenced her with a kiss and she seemed taken aback. "I love you." He whispered.
She looked into his eyes and frowned slightly, "Ken, what's gotten into you?"
"You." And in a second, he picked her up into his arms and walked to the bedroom.
She looked concerned at him, "Are you sure you're feeling well enough…?"
He nodded and placed her gently onto the bed. She smiled and put her hands on his face, kissing him.
He slowly unzipped the back of her dress and removed it from her body, while she unbuttoned his white shirt and slipped it off his shoulders.
He pulled the chopsticks holding her hair up, out and it fell around her to her shoulders.
He kissed her again and caressed her arm as she lay down on the bed and he leaned over her.
------
Ken lay awake for a while, stroking Yolei's arm as she lay on her side, staring at him. "I love you." She mouthed and he smiled. Then she rolled over and off the bed.
"Where are you going?" Ken asked as she put on her dressing gown.
"To take dinner off the stove." She chuckled, "I think it's ruined by now."
Ken laughed with her and lay back down on his pillow.
"Get some sleep Ken," she added on her way out; "I'll join you soon."
Ken nodded and before he could even register just how tired he really was, he had fallen asleep.
------
"Are you going in today?"
Ken turned to face Yolei, "Aneko said I shouldn't go back until I had had a good night sleep. I certainly got that last night, so…"
"But it's…."
"Just because the kids are on holiday right now, doesn't mean I am." He laughed lightly.
"Ken, it's just, you're exhausted, you could really use the day off."
He sat up; "I can't Yolei."
"This one is getting to you isn't it?"
Ken put his head in his hands and pressed his palms into his eyes. "Yes."
She looked down, "Then you should go."
They sat in silence for a while, still, unmoving, until finally Ken stood up and began to get ready for the day ahead.
He ate breakfast with Yolei and then drove to the station.
When he got there however, Aneko rushed to meet him at the front desk. She seemed excited for some reason. He frowned deeply at her and asked her what was going on.
"Charlie Jane is here." She said breathlessly, "For some reason she's here to see you Ken. She's sitting in your office."
Ken's frown increased, "What? Why would a singer be here to see me?"
"Apparently she said she has info on the case, which might make some sense."
Ken shook his head, closed his eyes for a second and then looked at Aneko again, "Why?"
"Well, she has blond hair and brown eyes, maybe the killer has targeted her and she can identify him."
Ken's mouth opened slightly and he felt a wave of excitement. This could be just what they needed to catch this guy and put him away forever.
He marched passed Aneko and toward his office.
He opened the door and saw the woman sitting at his desk, her back to him, her blond hair reaching between her shoulder blades.
He walked around to the other side of his desk and made to greet her, but he froze at the sight of her.
She was fourteen years older now, her hair was blond, but her brown eyes were exactly how he remembered them. There was no doubt; the woman sitting opposite him was Catrina Harris.
------
(A/N)
Okay, I just know I'm going to be pelted with stuff from reviewers. I just had to end it like that! I am mean. I hope you all still enjoy the story, and the forensics stuff doesn't put you off. It was a bit heavy in this chapter, but I needed everyone to get a good look at the life Ken leads now. This is his job and sometimes it takes over. I wanted you to see the relationship between Yolei and Ken and how his work might effect it and put strain on it. With this story, there is a lot of reading between the lines. There are tones and things that I have not spelt out, but which you might get a sense of. I've done that for a reason, you'll get it later.
Anyway, the next chapter is going to be awesome for some obvious reasons.
I hope you are enjoying it and hopefully I'll get the next chapter out soon.
I should add, those song lyrics are from Aimee Mann 'Real Bad News' taken off her 'Lost in Space' album. I'm going to be doing a lot of reference to Aimee Mann's songs from this chapter onwards (you'll see why later), so if anyone knows her and has the album, I suggest you listen to it while you read, because it sets the mood in some places.
Also, I used a lot of Avril Lavigne's stuff, off her new album "Under my skin", and that also sets the mood.
Now for references: the apple idea came from an episode of CSI (not sure which one). However, the scissors were always there, way before I saw that episode. I just liked the idea oh how they figured out the murder weapon was a pair of scissors.
I was going to give you the links to the sites I used for research, but it seems the links won't show up. So never mind then.