Chapter 3
Katara's neighborhood was nice, Zuko noticed. It wasn't a gated community, but he had seen a few security kiosks, which he made a note to stop by later. The house itself was a brick-faced rowhouse with an iron fence separating the small, well-kept lawn. The fence was meant for show. There was no lock on it, only a latch. It only came up to about Zuko's neck, so even if it had a lock, there was nothing to stop an intruder from scaling it. It was a solidly upper-middle-class home built for and by people who neither feared the type of crime prevalent in poorer areas, nor had the paranoia of the rich protecting their hoard.
"This is a nice place on a waitress' salary," Zuko commented. Katara turned the key and pushed the door open.
"It's my brother's place," she said with an off-hand shrug. "I just live here." Zuko raised his good eyebrow.
"It's pretty nice for a soldier's salary, too." Katara turned to him, her nose wrinkled in confusion, her sweater halfway off.
"What?" she asked. "My brother isn't a soldier." Now Zuko was confused.
"I thought you said he was in Ba Sing Se with the military." Understanding dawned on Katara's face.
"Oh! Yeah, he is, but he's not military," she explained. "He's an aerospace engineer. Private contractor. He's just working with the International Aeronautics and Space Agency. Sokka's crazy smart. He's helping to build the new space station."
"That's...impressive," Zuko said. Katara smiled proudly and nodded.
"He thinks so, too." She pulled her phone out of her bag. She motioned to the kitchen. "Please help yourself to anything in the fridge. Oh! Except the fruit tart. That's my reward for holding it together through this nightmare of a day."
"Thanks," Zuko grunted. He turned to the front door and examined the locks. Katara paused a moment, waiting for...she wasn't sure what exactly. Detective Zuko Kaji was not a chatterbox. Katara huffed and went to go make her phone call.
As she expected, Sokka did not react well to the news.
"What?" he shrieked. 'Katara, a freaking serial killer is after you?" Katara rubbed her temple with her free hand.
"It's under control, Sokka," she told him."There's going to be patrols on the block all night every night until Koh is caught. There's even a detective here as we speak. You got your wish after all." Sokka didn't rise to the bait. He sighed and was quiet for a few moments.
"I'm coming home," he said at last. Katara fidgeted, and bounced on her feet.
"No, don't, Sokka," she pleaded. "I'm alright. Really! You've worked so hard for this-"
"Katara, I don't care!" She had to pull the phone away from her ear, but she could still hear everything he said. "Some psychotic killer is after you. I'm not letting you deal with that alone. I'll let my boss know that I've got a family emergency, and I'll be on the first flight I can catch. I'm not arguing with you about this."
"Fine…" Katara grumbled. "You win.' Sokka's tone softened.
"Hey, don't worry," he assured her. "It's not like they're going to fire me. Most of the ideas we're using are mine. They've been bending over backwards to make sure I'm happy here. They'll let me have a couple of weeks to make sure my sister's okay." Guilt made Katara's stomach clench. She did want her brother home, but not at the expense of his dream. Still, she knew that if their positions had been reversed, she'd want to be there for him, too.
"Okay," she relented at last. "I guess the IASA didn't hire you for your humility, huh?" Sokka snorted.
"It ain't bragging if ya done it!" He paused for a moment. "Hey, you said there's a detective there with you?"
"Yeah? He's in the kitchen, I think."
"Let me speak to him," he said.
"What on earth for?" Katara asked.
"Just do it, you brat." Katara rolled her eyes and went into the kitchen. Zuko's brow furrowed when she held her phone out to him.
"Mr. Big-Shot-Genius want to talk to you." Zuko took the phone hesitantly.
"O~kay," he said. "...hello? This is Detective Kaji."
"Yeah, yeah...hey, hi, hello," Sokka greeted. "Look, I need to know what you're doing to make sure my sister doesn't die." Zuko rolled his eyes and shot an accusatory look at Katara. She just shrugged.
"We have it under control," Zuko promised his charge's brother.
"Do you have a gun?" Sokka asked. "Because Katara does not have a gun. No matter what she's told you." Zuko pressed his thumb in the space between his eye and nose.
"Please don't worry about that. Our best officers will be patrolling the block."
"And how many will be posted outside the door?" Sokka pressed. "Who's going to be driving her to work? Her car is an absolute piece of crap that doesn't work six days of seven. Do not let her drive it."
"Mr. Imiq-" Katara looked up from where she was getting some water. She bit the inside of her lips in an ultimately fruitless attempt to hide her amusement.
"I have offered to buy her a new one, you know, but no~o! Miss Independent insists on paying for her own. Whatever. I don't care. I'm absolutely getting her a car as soon as I get home-"
"Sir-"
"And do you have the pull to get the diner to take Katara off of the night shifts? Because, if not, tell her to quit. She might actually listen to someone with a badge if her life is on the line. Maybe..."
"Sokka!" Katara nearly dropped her glass of water in surprise, but Zuko didn't care. Sokka had finally stopped talking. "The entire Republic City Police Department is motivated to see this guy behind bars. I promise, your sister is in good hands. We will update you regularly, and if anything happens, you will be the first to know."
"Sheesh," Sokka said. "Alright. One more thing. That's my little sister you've got. I'm trusting you to keep her alive until I can get home. Got it?" Zuko's lips tightened into a thin line. He heard his uncle in the back of his mind urging patience.
"I got it," he said. He handed the phone back to Katara, and moved into the living room. Clearly, Katara thought, he had reached his daily word limit. She said her goodbyes to Sokka and followed Zuko.
The detective was at the front window staring at the sign declaring that this property was protected by the Bei Fong security system. Zuko glanced back at her.
"You have a security system?" he asked. "That's great." Katara chuckled nervously.
"Um...actually," she began, "that's just for show. My friend's family owns that company. She gave it to us to put in the window. She...ah... said that it was the next best thing to actually having a security system."
Zuko tried to remind himself that Katara was facing a very extreme situation. One that most people using the security sign in the window bluff would never face. He tried to remember that she was scared, and stressed, and that if it got back to his uncle that he yelled at her for using that stupid trick, there would be trouble. Still….
"I'm sure your very scary sign would give Koh a least a couple moments' pause," he said drily. Katara scowled at him.
"You don't have to be rude, guy," she muttered.
"That's 'Detective." Katara sneered at him. Zuko was certain that she only just stopped herself from sticking her tongue at him.
'Detective Guy."
"Whatever." Zuko turned his attention to the locks on the windows. They were sturdy at least. Not easily broken. "Why not just go ahead and get the security system? If your friend's parents own the company, I'm sure she could have gotten you a deal." Katara shrugged. They went to the den at the back of the house. Katara had put a wooden plank in the door to stop it from running on its track, even if the lock were somehow pried open. It was, in Zuko's opinion, a much more effective defense than the fake security badge in the front window.
"Sokka and I are hardly ever home," she explained. "Between his job, and my job and school, we couldn't commit to being home to let them install it. This was easier." She motioned towards the shield shaped window decal carelessly. "How were we supposed to know there was a serial killer on the loose?"
That made a flawed sort of sense, Zuko admitted to himself. He finished checking the first floor, then moved on to the second. The townhouse's downstairs had a comfortable, if straight forward design. The furniture was chosen for comfort and utility rather than style, and was so distinctly masculine, that Zuko assumed that Sokka Imiq had chosen it all. When he saw the siblings' bedrooms, his suspicions seemed to be confirmed. Sokka's room had a twin sized bed and a non-descript dresser and desk. Most of the useable surfaces were covered in what Zuko took to be projects of some kind. He had to pick his way carefully past blueprints, tools and half-completed...were those robots?...to get to the window.
Katara's room was like entering a completely different home. It was neat and organized, and there was art all over the walls. Everything was done in shades of blues, greens and the occasional splashes of purple and white- the color of Sokka's room hadn't even registered to Zuko. There were various pieces of kitsch all around, from the koala-cat lamp on the bedside table, to the statuettes of sea creatures doing random jobs standing sentry on the purple bookshelf. Her desk was the messiest area in the room, but even there Zuko could see the organization among the chaos of papers, books and laptop accessories.
Her window faced the backyard, Zuko noted with consternation. The yard was separated from their neighbors on the opposite side by a narrow strip of grassy alley. There was no way the patrol vehicles would be able to see the back of the house from the street. Zuko checked the window lock and considered the problem. Maybe Katara could sleep in Sokka's room. After speaking to the man on the phone, Zuko didn't think he'd care if Katara accidently upset any of his work.
"Are you hungry, Detective?" Zuko spun towards the open door. He hadn't heard Katara coming up the stairs. He wondered if she was trying to sneak up on him, or just incredibly light on her feet. She looked up at him guilelessly. Zuko released a breath and shook his head.
"What?"
"Are you hungry?" Katara repeated. "I'm about to fix lunch. It seemed rude to not offer you something." Zuko shook his head, and turned back to the window
"I'm fine," he said. Katara didn't leave immediately. When Zuko glanced back over his shoulder, she was eyeing the different corners of her room. She seemed...lost. Zuko groaned internally. Comforting people was not his strong suit. Usually, his victims were dead by the time their cases were assigned to him, and he rarely dealt directly with their families and friends. This was new territory for him.
"A-are you alright?" he asked. Then he slapped his forehead. Katara blinked in surprise. "I'm sorry, that was a stupid question. Of course you're not alright."
"Well, I-"
"You're going to be alright," Zuko promised, cutting off whatever she had been about to say. Katara wrapped her arms around her middle, and dropped her gaze to the fluffy navy blue carpet beneath her feet.
"I-I know," she said quietly. "It's just...this kind of thing...it doesn't happen to people in real life. Not to people like me. I'm...I don't know...boring, I guess. I'm not supposed to be on some serial killer's hit list."
Zuko's first instinct was to assure her that she wasn't boring. Or at least she didn't seem boring to him. But he had only met her a couple of hours ago. How would he know?
"It's not your fault he picked you," he said instead. "Koh's a psychopath. He kills because he wants to. It's nothing to do with who you are personally." That seemed to be the right thing to say. Or at least, it didn't make her feel worse, Zuko thought. Katara dropped her arms to her sides, and sighed.
"Still, I wish I knew why he picked me of all people," she admitted. Zuko placed a hand on her shoulder.
"I'll ask for you when we catch him," he promised. "Now, you mentioned something about lunch?" Katara rolled her eyes.
"I'm not even hungry anymore," she told him. He led her towards the stairs.
"Well, now I am," he said. "How about I fix us some sandwiches? And maybe some tea. Do you like tea?"
"I prefer coffee, honestly."
"Then I'll make coffee." Katara paused on the stairs behind him. Zuko looked back and she had a hint of a smirk on her face.
"Is this how detectives treat all crime victims?" she asked. "Or just the ones with serial killer stalkers?"
"Just the ones who aren't irritating," Zuko told her, completely deadpan. Katara stared at him for a moment, and then laughed incredulously.
"Be reasonable! I can't not go to work!" Zuko gritted his teeth and held the phone away from his face as he counted slowly.
"I am not saying don't go to work," he said with slow deliberate syllables. "All I am saying is that you can't take the bus. You need to an escort. There is a serial killer after you, in case you forgot." Katara snorted on the other end.
"O~kay," she drawled. "So, tell me, Detective Kaji, when can I expect my escort? Don't forget, I told you while you were here that I had a shift tonight. You do remember me saying that, right?"
"...yes." Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose and wondered what it would take to get another detective to take over with Katara.
"Great! So, why isn't the escort, that you insisted I have, here to get me in time for my shift?" There was a long drawn out pause. After a moment, Zuko heard Katara let out a long suffering sigh. "You forgot about sending someone for me, didn't you?"
"Of course not!" he lied. "I'm on my way. I just got held up at work." Fortunately, Zuko was off duty and not too far from Katara's. He swung his car around and sped off down the street with his light flashing and sirens off.
"Alright…" Katara didn't sound convinced. Zuko scowled, not sure if he was more annoyed with her or himself. He concluded that it was probably about even.
"I'll be there in a few minutes. Hang tight." Zuko hung up and tossed his phone on the passenger seat. Now he turned on the sirens as he weaved through the early evening traffic. He turned them off when he got to Katara's neighborhood. No need to let her know how big of a rush he had been in. She was sitting on the front stoop, elbows on her legs and chin resting on her fists, when he pulled up.
"If I'm late," she told him when she got into his car, "you get to why explain to Aunt Wu." Zuko frowned at her.
"I thought you said you didn't have any family in town." Katara waved him off, and motioned for him to drive.
"She's not my family," she explained. "Everyone calls her Aunt Wu. The diner is called Aunt Wu's. Come on! I'm supposed to clock in in ten minutes, and she will freak if I'm late."
Despite Katara's rush and her warning about Aunt Wu's intolerance for tardiness, the woman herself was unconcerned with Katara being a few minutes late. When she learned who Zuko was and why he had escorted her, though, she was extremely concerned.
"You'll be staying for the whole shift, I'm sure," she said rather than asked Zuko. Katara turned to him with a raised brow.
"I'm sure he's arranged for another officer to take me home...right?" Surely Zuko hadn't planned on sticking around for the entirety of Katara's six hour shift. But to her surprise, Zuko- a bit flushed and shamefaced- nodded his head yes. Aunt Wu seemed relieved by the news.
"Honestly, I'd let you stay with me, dear," she told Katara apologetically. "But you know I live in that shoebox studio in midtown." She turned to Zuko and explained, "Oh, it's not that I can't afford anything bigger. It's just, I'm an old woman on my own, and I never have company. I didn't see the point of paying for anything bigger. Though, now I suppose I should consider it-"
"Aunt Wu," Katara cut in to Zuko's immense relief. "I'm going to clock in now." Aunt Wu waved her on.
"Yes, yes, dear! Of course. I was just on my way out, actually. Unless you think I should stay…?"
"That won't be necessary," Zuko assured her firmly. Aunt Wu nodded and pulled Katara into a tight hug.
"Yiyi is closing tonight," she told Katara. "I'll let her know what's going on, and if you need anything, you tell her to call me right away."
"Ah...thanks, Aunt Wu." Katara pulled away as gently as she could. She tried to smile at her boss, but even she knew it was strained. The last thing she wanted was all of her coworkers making a fuss. At that moment, she was more annoyed at Koh than afraid of him.
"That's fine, Aunt Wu." Zuko placed his hand on her elbow, and led the older woman towards the door. "It's actually better that as few people as possible know what's going on. We don't want to start a panic and disrupt your business." Aunt Wu's eyes widened. She hadn't considered either of those possibilities.
"Oh, well...if you're sure-"
"Positive," Zuko said. Aunt Wu paused by the door and glanced back at where Katara was throwing an apron over her green dress uniform.
"You take good care of her," she instructed Zuko. "She's a good egg, and I won't have some monster ruining all the work she's done to get through grad school." Katara grinned at her.
"I love you, too!" she called after Aunt Wu.
"I never said that," Aunt Wu snapped. She turned back one more time. "Detective-" Zuko stood up a little taller, "-anything you have tonight is in the house."
"Um... thanks." With that Aunt Wu was gone. Katara stowed her jacket in her locker.
"I need you around every time I'm running late,' she said, throwing Zuko a smirk over her shoulder. "I think she likes you." Zuko reached up and rubbed the back of his neck.
"She's... interesting."
"That was nothing." Katara grinned at Zuko before she flipped her hair over and gathered her wealth of chestnut brown hair into her hands.
"What are you doing?"
"What's it look like?" Katara righted herself and pulled a hair tie around the base of the ponytail. "Whew! Alright. Let's go. I'll put you in my section."
The first few of hours of Katara's shift were uneventful. Zuko was grateful that he had a book in his car he could pass the time with. Katara stopped by a couple of times bringing a pot of tea, and later a full meal. None of her co-workers seemed to find anything odd with him being there so long. Zuko noticed a few other patrons camped out at tables surrounded by books, papers and laptops, and he understood. The university was nearby, after all.
It was about halfway through the shift when Zuko noticed one diner paying too much attention to Katara, even considering the diners who clearly came in to try to chat up the attractive waitstaff (Aunt Wu was obviously going for an aesthetic). It was typical, pushy male behavior at first. He made sloppy attempts to flirt with Katara, but she seemed more than capable of handling him herself, so Zuko stayed out of it. The man watched Katara leave as she went to go hand his order in to the kitchen. Then he slid his phone out of his pocket and started taking pictures of her. That caught Zuko's attention. His eyes narrowed as he watched the man closer.
He was young. Around Zuko's age. Twenty five or six at most. He had messy brown hair and carefully curated stubble on his chin. He was cocky. This didn't seem much like the profile that had been worked up for Koh, but it was possible that Koh had never been after Katara, and it had been this man all along. When the man left his seat and surreptitiously followed Katara towards the employee break room, Zuko went after him.
Katara turned with a shriek when she heard the thudding of Zuko throwing the man against the wall. He had the patron's arm twisted and pinned behind his back. The man grunted and pushed against Zuko futilely.
"What's going on?" Katara gasped. She looked from Zuko to the patron,not sure who to direct her annoyance at.
"Get off of me!" the man demanded. "I was just looking for the bathroom!"
"Sure, pal," Zuko growled. He yanked the man away from the wall and pushed him into the break room onto a chair. Fortunately, the hall leading to the break room wasn't immediately visible from the dining room, so no one had seen what had just happened. Katara shut the door to ensure that it stayed that way.
"What's going on?" Katara asked again. She frowned at the overly flirtatious customer she had just left. He glared up at Zuko.
"That's what I want to know." He tried to jump out of the seat, but Zuko forced him back down, pulling out his badge in the same movement.
"I'll ask the questions," he told the man and Katara. "What's your name?" The man snorted.
"None of your business." Zuko glared at the man stonily. He took out his cell phone.
"We can do this here or at the station after you've been processed. What. Is. Your. Name?" The man sized Zuko up, his eyes drifting from the badge, to the phone, to the telltale bulge of a gun beneath Zuko's leather jacket, to the dark scowl on his scarred face. Whatever snarky reply he had loaded he seemed to think better of. He huffed in disgust.
"Jet Tang," he mumbled.
"Alright Jet Tang." Zuko hovered over Jet, a threat evident in every syllable and movement. "Why were you taking pictures of her?" He motioned towards Katara with his head. Katara gasped again. Jet sputtered and protested.
"I wasn't-"
"If you want, I we can go down to the station right now, and I can get a warrant to look in your phone." Jet threw his hands up and groaned.
'Look, man, I was just…" He unlocked his phone and showed it to Zuko. "See? I just sent it to my friends." Zuko took it and scrolled through the messages Jet had sent to his friends about the hot waitress he was determined to make his next conquest. Jet scowled up at him. "Can I go now?"
"No," Zuko told him. "Unfortunately for you, you just put yourself in the middle of an ongoing investigation." Jet's mouth fell open. He looked from Zuko to Katara and sputtered angrily.
"Wh-what are you ...what investigation? Who even are you?"
"My future parole officer if I ever catch you near me again." Katara folded her arms and glared at Jet stonily. He had been awful from the moment he sat down in her section. To find out now that he had been taking pictures of her without her consent had stoked a rage in her that was further fueled by the pictures she had received earlier that day. She couldn't believe this was the guy who had everyone so worked up.
"You're coming to the station with me," Zuko told Jet. "I have some questions for you." To keep from causing too much of a scene, Zuko didn't put handcuffs on him. With a promise to send a uniformed officer to take Katara home, he left Aunt Wu's diner.
"Make sure the next guy is on time!" Katara called after him.
She had gone to the police. It wasn't the first time this had happened, but it was the first time the police had taken a complaint so seriously. Koh wondered if he had moved too quickly by sending the pictures. His studio wasn't quite ready yet, after all. But the look of fear and confusion on her lovely face that morning had been worth it.
There were already more police around her home, and one detective had even spent the better part of the day with her. This would make things more difficult. More challenging. More fun. It would simply be a matter of finding the weak points in the police detail now surrounding Katara. That shouldn't be too difficult, Koh smirked to himself.
He watched the detective lead a man to his car and guide him into the backseat. He drove off, leaving Katara behind at the diner. From his position across the road, hidden by the shadows of the broken street lamp, Koh took his camera out and peered through the viewfinder. She was talking with another waitress, her expressive mouth split into a grin before she threw her head back and laughed. Koh snapped a picture of the moment.
Disappointment welled in the pit of his stomach as he scrolled through the evening's pictures. They were all missing that extra something that drew Koh to Katara. They were flat and lifeless compared to the real thing. It was no matter, though. Soon he would have the real thing. But not tonight.