Chapter sixteen

Riza didn't join Mustang and Hughes. She couldn't just leave the boys alone at the flat at night and there was no way she'd bring them to the crime scene. And so she took the boys with her back home and tucked them into bed.

After that she sat reading until there came a couple of knocks on the door at about eleven. Riza opened the door to find Mustang standing there, looking slightly awkward. "Sorry, Sergeant, only realised the time after knocking."

"That's fine, sir. Are you here about the body?" Riza had to say that the visit was surprising.

"Yes. It seems that we're dealing with a serial killer." He looked at her seriously and Riza stepped back to let him inside.

"Please have a seat, sir," she said, pointing towards the kitchen. He was carrying a large folder under his arm.

And so she followed him over to the kitchen table where he dumped the folder before sitting down. "I'm sorry about coming this late, but I think I might have a way to prevent any more murders, but I need some help."

"Of course, sir." And so Riza sat down herself.

"The latest victim was Chris Karbowski. He was stabbed just like Solaris Bailey, but he had the word "gluttony" carved into his tongue."

"So both victims belong to the Church of Eternity."

"Yes, and both victims had one of the seven deadly sins of man carved into their bodies. Bailey was a prostitute and Karbowski hardly had the physique of a man who starved himself. I was thinking that if the murderer will keep going after members of the church, then it would be a good idea to look through the members' testimonies to see if any of them exhibit another of these seven traits. That way we could hope to prevent any more murders from taking place."

"I see, sir. I guess I'll make some coffee for us."

"Thank you, Sergeant. I'm sorry to drop this on you like this, but Havoc and Breda are busy taking statements and Hughes is working on trying to finally get some dirt on Yoki Yandell."

"Of course, sir. As long as we don't wake the boys, then I'm more than happy to help."

"Thank you, Sergeant."

And so Riza figured that brewing four cups in the first go was probably a very good idea. Then she sat herself down and set to work, reading through the transcripts of the over two hundred interviews along with Mustang. It was tedious work and most of it was fruitless, although the one Havoc had talked to clearly seemed greedy, so she put that interview aside in the slowly growing pile.

They were done at five o'clock. They had managed to sidle out a few possible people, but the problem was that some of them inhabited the same qualities. They had a total of six possible greeds, four prides, another lust because of the way she was obviously flirting with Havoc during the interview and there were a group of four sloth/gluttony candidates as well. Envy and wrath were hard to filter out, though, so there was a strong possibility of more murders, but at least they had a start.

"Now we just need to find out if these people have talked to each other or a particular person and we may just have our killer," Mustang announced with a grin right before he yawned. "Good work, Sergeant."

Riza was pretty exhausted too and sighed happily. "Thank you, sir."

Mustang looked at her for a bit, sipping his coffee. "Is something wrong, sir?" Riza asked. There was clearly something on his mind.

"Tell me, Sergeant, how are you doing?"

"How do you mean sir?" Riza was surprised at the question.

"I mean that there's less than three hours left until I'm supposed to pick you up and it's something I've been curious about for a week now." Mustang spoke calmly, but the question came from a place of kindness. "I know you've got a lot on your plate and it's obvious that you're not talking to anyone about it."

Riza was a bit uncomfortable at that. Was she that obvious?

"Don't get me wrong, Hawkeye, but you might as well tell me. I'm your partner after all and I don't want to worry about you." He smiled kindly at her. Riza suddenly realised that she actually already had a friend in the man.

She sighed. She knew she could trust him and if he really knew what was going on already then there was no point keeping it to herself. Like he said, he's her partner, he actually had a right to know where she was mentally. He was supposed to trust her after all.

"I'm doing as well as I can, sir," she said with a sigh, gripping her coffee mug even if it was empty. It just felt good to hold it, like it gave her some comfort. "I'm still not over the separation, but that's only to be expected and it's not easy to try and put myself back together enough to take care of the boys, but I think I'm managing. Even if what I'm doing is merely keeping my head above the water without actually swimming."

"So you think you'll drown at some point?"

Riza hadn't even thought of that, but that was certainly what the metaphor would end with. "I don't know, sir. I keep trying to stay positive, I guess. And I've got the boys as a reason to keep it together. That helps me a lot."

Ed was woken up by his arm aching, only to find out that Riza was sitting in the kitchen, talking to Mustang of all people judging by the sound of their voices. He froze where he lay. He hadn't heard the man come. How long had he been here? Had he spent the whole night here? Because grownups only did that for one reason.

Ed felt anger boil in him. He had begun trusting Riza just a bit, and this was how she repaid them?

He got out of bed angrily and opened the bedroom door with his foot. Riza kept the door slightly open so that Ed could easily get to her in the middle of the night if necessary. He stomped out into the hallway, looking at the two surprised adults. "YOU TRAITOR!" he shouted angrily.

"Edward? What are you talking about?" Riza asked, looking at him curiously.

"LIKE YOU DON'T KNOW!"

"I don't actually. What's wrong, Ed?"

"YOU REALLY THINK I'M JUST SOME STUPID KID?!" Ed was furious with her. Even when he'd caught them red-handed like this, they still tried to act all innocent. Did they think he was that naïve?

"Brother? What's going on?" came Al's voice to his right.

"THESE TWO BACK-STABBERS HAVE BEEN SLEEPING TOGETHER!" Ed hollered.

Both grownups blushed furiously, their eyebrows shooting into the air.

"Who?" Al asked sleepily. Ed was still glaring at the guilty adults.

"WHO DO YOU THINK, AL?! RIZA AND THAT BASTARD MUSTANG!"

Ed could hear Al getting out of his bed and was soon standing next to Ed. Riza seemed to gather herself a bit. "Edward, why would you believe that?" She was still looking stunned as she spoke.

"SO YOU'RE TRYING TO TELL ME THAT HIM SPENDING THE NIGHT LIKE THAT IS JUST NORMAL, INNOCENT BEHAVIOUR?! DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH!"

"I swear, we have only been working on the case, Edward," Mustang said.

"SHUT UP YOU BASTARD! I'VE SEEN THE WAY YOU'VE BEEN ACTING! YOU'RE ALL CONCERNED AND HELPFUL AND NICE, TRYING TO GET IN HER GOOD BOOKS! JUST LIKE BARRY DID WITH MOM!" Ed then turned on Riza. "AND YOU! YOU THINK THAT JUST BECAUSE YOU GIVE ME A FUCKING GORILLA, YOU CAN JUST INVITE HIM OVER FOR THE NIGHT?! AFTER ALL YOUR FANCY SPEECHES ABOUT HOW YOU WANT TO HELP CHILDREN AND TO GIVE US A GOOD HOME, YOU CAN'T EVEN GO TWO WHOLE WEEKS BEFORE YOU SWAP US OUT?!"

Mustang slammed his fist on the table, looking sternly at him. "FOR GOD'S SAKES, EDWARD! WE'RE WORKING ON A MURDER CASE AND NOTHING MORE!"

Ed wasn't even going to listen to him, he wasn't done with Riza. "YOU'RE A TRAITOROUS BITCH AND NOTHING MORE! I HATE YOU! I WISH WE NEVER MET YOU! IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER IF BARRY HAD JUST FINISHED THE JOB!" Ed couldn't stop the angry tears that were running down his cheeks. "YOU KNOW, I WAS BEGINNING TO THINK THAT YOU WERE DIFFERENT! THAT YOU WEREN'T LIKE THE OTHER FAMILIES, BUT YOU'RE WORSE!"

Riza looked pale, beginning to open her mouth to speak.

Mustang, however, got to his feet and stomped over to Ed, grabbing his right shoulder and turned him around towards the door. "Come!" he said, absolutely furious.