Justice and Vengeance
Author: Qaddafi the Ripper
Summary: AU: Light misses running into Misora Naomi, and she is able to tell L what she knows about Kira. Working together, can Naomi and L catch Light?
Disclaimer: Death Note belongs to Ooba and Obata.

Part 2: Clues

"My son? Kira?" Yagami breathed out in disbelief. His hands trembled on his lap.

L nodded. "Yes. He was the one Penber was following the day of the bus-jacking. At the moment, he is our top suspect. However, I am willing to consider all those Penber was following as suspects until further investigation, and that includes your wife and daughter, and the family of Director-General Kitamura. Until we find further hints, they are all suspects, Yagami-san."

Naomi watched calmly as Yagami bent his head. She could clearly hear his breathing. It took less time than she had thought for him to look back up. "Fine," he said. "Investigate my son, and the rest of my family. I'm sure you'll find that he couldn't possibly be Kira."

"I will then," L murmured. He turned to Naomi. "Would you be willing to go through the tapes on Penber with me, Misora-san? Since you knew him best, you might notice things I would miss."

"Of course," she murmured. A few minutes later, an older gentleman had entered the room carrying a police badge and a belt.

"Hello," he told her with a smile. "I am Watari. I'm glad you're here to help Ryuuzaki."

She blinked and realized that Ryuuzaki must be L. And the Watari she recalled from Los Angeles was this old man whom she was just now seeing clearly. "I want to be here," she assured him calmly. "I want justice for Raye." She wanted Kira to pay for his crimes. She would do anything for that goal. Watari nodded solemnly and handed her the badge and the belt. She flipped open the badge to find that it was a fake police badge, with her picture and her fake name, Maki Shoko, written on it. She stuffed the badge into her purse at the very top. The belt came next, and Watari explained that she could press the middle to contact him at any time. Naomi put the belt on too and began to feel more safe. L – Ryuuzaki, or whatever name he went by – wouldn't be taking any more chances than necessary. It was a relief to know.

Mogi had gone off to find whatever details he could about the bus-jacking. Matsuda was helping Watari set up video equipment, and Yagami was sitting by himself on the couch, staring intently at the floor. Naomi turned away from him; there was nothing she could do to comfort him, and nothing she wished to do to comfort him. She sat down next to L once the video equipment was all set up, and Matsuda left them alone to sit with Yagami. They watched the tape through its entirety the first time without saying a word to each other. Naomi could barely breath at the very end, watching Raye fall down to the ground just as he left the subway car. She felt tears prick at her eyes, and she quickly brushed them away. L said nothing, and she wondered if he hadn't noticed, or hadn't said anything in an attempt to spare her feelings.

L had the images from when Raye entered the turnstile and when he boarded the train show up at the same time in different screens. "Very strange," he murmured. "He boarded the train at 15:33. At 16:45, he gets off the train and dies within seconds. One full circle on the Yamanote train line takes an hour, but he was on the train for an hour and a half. His ticket indicates the train he did board, but there's nothing to indicate that he got off at any point. If he was following anyone at the time, or being followed by anyone, the image isn't clear enough to see..." he trailed off.

Naomi frowned and studied the images more intently. They weren't good quality, and it was mostly luck that they were able to identify Raye at all, much less another person. She tried not to look at the third screen, the one showing Raye's death, focusing instead on the other two. She frowned as she watched him walk. "He looks nervous," she observed. "He's walking stiffly, and more slowly than he usually does. Could he know that something was going to happen?" Had Raye known he was going to die? Had Kira toyed with him personally before killing him? She grit her teeth and tried to force the anger down. There would be plenty of time for anger later, when Kira was caught.

"Perhaps," L agreed. "He received the file with the names and faces of all the FBI agents on his computer at 15:21. That's just eight minutes after he boarded. Then he sat on the train for an hour and a half with the file on him..."

"Kira can control a person's actions before they die," Naomi reminded him angrily. It was beginning to look more and more sure that Kira had manipulated Raye before murdering him. "That could explain why he was acting strangely."

L nodded in agreement before jerking his head sharply, looking at the screens more intently. "What happened to the envelope?" he demanded.

"What?" Naomi asked and frowned at the screens.

"At the turnstile and on the platform, he's holding something that looks like a manila envelope," he said.

She gasped as she noticed the envelope beneath Raye's left arm. "You're right," she agreed. "He's definitely holding an envelope." He had it when entering the turnstile and up to the point when he boarded the train.

"No envelope was found on his body," Matsuda said, coming up behind them.

Naomi barely noticed him. "Which means he left it on the train," she said.

"Maybe the envelope contained the file on the FBI agents," Matsuda suggested. "And then Kira got it from him on the train before he killed Penber."

"No," L contradicted him. "Penber only got the file at 15:21, after he was on the train. He couldn't have had it before hand."

"Oh yeah," Matsuda muttered, chagrined.

"Get every station on the Yamanote train line to give you all the footage they have of December twenty-seventh," L instructed Matsuda. Matsuda nodded and walked off again.

"This last image," Naomi murmured. She had finally made herself look at the third screen, the one on which Raye died. "Doesn't it look like he's looking back into the train?"

L nodded. "Yes, it does. Wouldn't it be interesting if Kira were on that train with him?"

Naomi jerked and sat up straight. She frowned at him. "Kira can kill from afar," she reminded him. "There'd be no reason for him to be on the train with Raye." Even if Raye had been looking back into the train desperately... If Kira had been on the train with Raye, wouldn't that mean he had been toying with Raye?

"I agree," L said. "However, he might have guessed we would think that, and took the risk of coming out into the open." He bit the tip of his thumb again. Naomi wondered distractedly why he kept doing that. Perhaps it helped him think. "Well, even if it was Kira on this train, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't let himself be captured on a security camera with the envelope. A public place like this, he would have checked the camera locations in advance and used the blind spots, if there were any. If not, he'd hide behind someone. We'll double check all the tapes we get, and see if we can recognize someone."

Naomi nodded and looked away from the screens. She didn't want to look at Raye dying again. It was just too painful. Better to focus on finding his killer. She wouldn't let herself start crying in front of L. She wouldn't let herself cry now. But she still felt tears prick at her eyes and threaten to slide down her cheeks. She sniffed quietly and rubbed a hand across her face as L looked the other direction.

Thankfully, she was distracted when Aizawa came up to L with a sheaf of papers. "I've been reading through Penber's report," he said. "On the day in question, he doesn't say anything about a bus-jacking, but, as Misora-san said, he didn't plan to say anything about it. He does mention that he was following Yagami Light that day, and that he followed Light-kun onto a bus headed to Spaceland. He said Light-kun was going there on a date with a girl whom he addressed as 'Yuri.' He said he didn't follow the two to Spaceland, so that's all we have."

L held out his hand and Aizawa gave him the papers. He skimmed through the report, then nodded. "He does say that he followed Yagami-kun onto the bus to Spaceland around 11:30 in the morning. Find me the bus schedule. I know to know which train was hijacked that day." Aizawa nodded and scurried off. Since L wasn't looking at the report anymore, Naomi took it from him and began skimming it herself. Sure enough, Raye hadn't mentioned the problem on the bus, only that he had followed Yagami Light onto the bus. Then he said that Light and his date, Yuri, had gone on to Spaceland, and he hadn't followed that far. As she continued to read, L called Matsuda over and asked if he could find out the identity of this Yuri person Light was with.

Naomi flipped through Raye's report for other days. He had seen nothing suspicious from any of the people he had been following. His report was dry reading, but Naomi read every word of it anyway. It was so impersonal, but it was as close as she could come to listening to Raye. She must have been reading for over a half hour when Aizawa came back.

"Osoreda Kiichiro was killed at 11:45 on December twentieth when he was hit by a car," he reported. "After authorities spoke with the bus driver and the other passengers, it was determined that he got on the bus at 11:31. Shortly after getting on the bus, he checked on a passenger in the back. He saw something that made him panic, and he was yelling that he'd seen a monster. He fired all of the bullets in his gun before running off the bus, only to die." He looked up and handed the report to L. "Of course, none of the other passengers saw any monster. There was no interview with the passenger in the back who Osoreda checked on. There is no mention of Yagami Light as one of the passengers, or anyone named Yuri. However, it doesn't mention Penber either, so they could have slipped away before the police arrived."

L flipped to the page with the bus route schedule. "According to this, the bus made an 11:27 stop just before the 11:31 stop when Osoreda boarded. The bus stop for the 11:27 time is close to the Yagami residence." He paused and continued to scan the schedule. "According to this, there other buses that were going to Spaceland and stopped anywhere close to the Yagami residence were a half hour earlier or later."

"Ryuuzaki!" came a shot from behind them. Naomi, Aizawa, and Ryuuzaki all turned to see Yagami on his feet. He was pale and sweating. "Are you saying that my son was on that bus?"

"It appears that way," L confirmed. Yagami drew in a deep breath and steadied himself with a hand on the back of the chair. "However, this does not automatically make your son Kira. Everything we have discussed here is circumstantial evidence at best. We have no real proof one way or the other. However, right now, your son does have the greatest probability of being Kira, and is the only real lead we have."

Yagami sat back down heavily, clearly shaken. For the first time Naomi felt some real pity for the man. What could it be like, to learn one's son is a mass murderer? It must be awful, she thought, knowing her sentiment was shallow. She could hope, for Yagami's sake, that his son wasn't Kira. But if that was true, then they would be no closer to finding the real Kira, and that was something she could never hope for.

Matsuda came back. "There are a number of girls at Light-kun's school named Yuri. We can't know which one it is for sure, but there is one Yuri in Light-kun's class. She would probably be the best one to start with, if we needed to ask around."

L nodded, biting his thumb again, and told Matsuda to keep the list handy. "What are the chances that my son is Kira?" Yagami asked straight out.

Leaning back a bit with a frown, L chewed on his thumb for a moment longer before answering. "The probably that Kira in among those Penber was investigating is fifteen... no, ten percent, based on Penber's actions before he died, and on the bus-jacking incident. The probability that Yagami Light is Kira is... Hmm, twenty percent. I can't say more, since Penber merely stated in his report that Yagami-kun was the typical studious, college-bound third-year student. I would like to more closely investigate your son, Yagami-san, and the others Penber was following."

"How do you plan to investigate?" Aizawa asked. "If Kira might be among those families, we can't bring them in to investigate. It'd be too dangerous, since we still don't know how Kira kills people."

"I agree," L said. "And we don't have enough evidence for an arrest at this time. So, in order to collect more information on the suspects, I would like to install secret cameras and listening devices in the homes of both the Yagami family and the Kitamura family."

"What?" Matsuda exclaimed. "This is Japan! That's totally illegal!"

"Yeah, that's going way too far," Aizawa added right after him. "If news of this got out, there'd be a huge scandal. We'd all get fired. No, worse, we'd get arrested..."

Naomi scowled hard at the two officers. "What's this?" she demanded. "You're not willing to risk your jobs to catch Kira? I thought you were willing to risk your lives!" Aizawa and Matsuda glanced away from her guiltily. "Surely we can risk this much. People are dying right now, and not just criminals any more, but people like my fiancé who weren't guilty of anything expect doing their jobs!" She caught her breath and stopped, feeling tears once again threaten her. She took a few deep, calming breaths.

"For a ten percent, or even twenty percent possibility..." Yagami muttered darkly. He kept his gaze locked with L's while Aizawa and Matsuda continued to mutter about how low the odds were and low illegal it was. Finally, he announced, "I find it galling that my family, and my son in particular, is under suspicion. So I give you permission to install cameras and listening devices. However, I want you to go all the way with this. I want everything bugged: the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the hallways, everything. Don't miss an inch."

"That's what I was planning to do anyway," L replied.

"Sir!' Matsuda cried. "Are you sure about this? Think about your wife, and your daughter--"

"I know exactly what this means!" Yagami snapped, rounding on Matsuda. "Now shut up!" Then he turned and staggered over to the floor-length window. The entire room was silent for a long moment.

"It's decided then," L said. "We will install cameras and listening devices in both homes as soon as we're sure no one is at home. As a courtesy to Yagami-san, only he and I will survey his house. For the rest of you, two people at a time watch the Kitamura house, and one person needs to man the NPA office. Another person needs to watch all the tapes from the Yamanote line, to see if anyone from the Yagami or Kitamura family is there. Finally, Misora-san, if you could conduct interviews with the girls named Yuri at Yagami-kun's school. Use whatever pretext you need, but find out if any of them were on the bus to Spaceland that was hijacked on December twentieth." She nodded, coolly thinking through what strategies she might use. They were only high school girls, so she shouldn't need anything too sophisticated, but she wasn't willing to take any chances.

"We will plan to have the homes bugged for ten days," L continued. "That period can be shortened or extended as I see the need. However, Yagami-san, you can be assured that I will notify you first of any changes in the plan. Is that acceptable?" Yagami didn't turn around, but he gave the barest nod of his head. "Good. Then, Watari, how long will it take you to set up the cameras?"

"I can start tomorrow if no one's at home," Watari replied calmly. "I will also conduct a brief search of every room, to see what we can find. I will have Yagami Light's room searched carefully." L nodded and reached for his cup of tea, which Naomi had seen him out four sugar cubes into earlier. As easily as that, the chase was on. Naomi felt a thrill at it. Finally, they were moving closer to a target, and finding proof for Kira's identity. She could barely wait.

Notes:
Once again, many lines come directly from the Viz translations. If I get far enough, I'll use fan translations, but the Viz one is a bit smoother.
Yes, I do have a reason for investigating Yuri. Basically, they need to know whether or not Light was really on the bus that got hijacked or not, and she's the only one who knows.
Writing this, I can't help but feel sorry for Yagami. If Light gets caught, it so isn't going to go well for him...