Chapter 9
Zuko saw the flashing lights of police cruisers long before he turned onto Katara's block. There were officers milling around, and crime scene tape holding back neighbors and curious onlookers while CSI did their jobs. Haru spotted Zuko and ran over to the car. He was on the verge of tears.
"I'm sorry," he babbled before Zuko had gotten out of the car. "I'm so sorry. I should have called her. I should have left sooner. I...I…"
"Calm down, Haru." Zuko placed his hands on the officer's shoulders as much to comfort him as to get him out of the way. Zuko climbed out of the car and started walking towards the house.
"What happened?" Zuko asked Haru. He ducked under the police tape and flashed his badge to one of the investigators.
"I'm not sure," Haru said. "Like I told you earlier, I tried the door when I didn't get an answer, and there was blood on the floor... and...and I-"
"Panicked." Zuko turned to find Jin standing in the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest, and a dark scowl aimed at Haru. "I'm surprised you didn't piss on the floor."
Haru flinched, but met Jin's eyes with a hard glare of his own. His fists balled at his sides and he leaned forward ready for a fight.
"I didn't panic!" he snapped. "I followed protocol." Jin let out a derisive snort that caught Zuko by surprise.
"If by followed protocol, you mean neglected to secure the scene or look for the perp, then yeah. It was totally by the Complete Coward's Guide to Solving Crime. Honestly, why did you even-"
"I don't have to take this from you!" Haru cut in. "I did what I was supposed to-"
"Would you both cut it out?" Zuko's voice cut into the bickering angrily. "Agni! We don't have time for this. What do we know so far?"
"Just what I told you," Haru said nervously.
"Have you canvassed the neighborhood yet?" Zuko pressed. "Did anyone see anything?" Haru and Jin exchanged a glance before the shook their heads.
"Everything's been going so fast…" Jin's face blushed in embarrassment. But Zuko was relieved.
"I want you two on that," he ordered the officers. "And if I hear that you are bickering while you're working, I'll have you both brought up on disciplinary charges. We have a very small window to save Katara. You need to be on top of your game right now. Am I clear?"
Haru and Jin nodded shamefacedly. Zuko dismissed them with a wave and the ran off to carry out his instructions. Zuko sighed and turned back to the crime scene. As Haru warned him, there was a dried pool of blood on the tiles by the front door. It wasn't enough to signify a fatal wound, and for that Zuko was grateful. He didn't want to think about her physical condition beyond that. Not before he found her.
Another officer came up to him, and this time Zuko was able to get a more complete picture of what had happened. It wasn't much to go on still. The crime scene unit was still in the middle of gathering evidence, but they let Zuko inside once he had put on the protective paper shoes, gloves, and mesh hairnet.
"It looks like everything happened here," one of the investigators told Zuko. "We did a preliminary search, but nothing else looks like it was disturbed." She pointed out Katara's duffel bag and purse sitting neatly near the door, and a single sneaker not far from them. "We found the other just outside the door. My guess is she let our guy in and he clocked her while she was getting her shoes on. She had some reason to trust him. Either she knew him or-"
"Or she thought he was her ride." Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose. He had met Koh face to face.
Had had a conversation with him. He'd gotten just close enough to spook the killer, but he hadn't figured it out fast enough. And now Katara was missing.
"We found her phone." The investigator- Zuko was sure he'd heard her name before- held up the phone, now in a plastic evidence baggie. "Someone named Sokka has called three times in the last hour."
"That's her brother," Zuko sighed. The investigator held her hands up and backed away.
"That's way above my pay grade." Zuko forced down a wave of anger- a person was missing. Katara was missing! But, Zuko remembered how detached he usually was on a case, and he knew he couldn't hold it against the CSI who hadn't met Katara, or gone running with her, and didn't know that she preferred coffee to tea. She hadn't sworn she would keep Katara safe.
"I'll answer if he calls again," he said. Sokka should be getting on a plane soon anyway. Maybe he wouldn't get the chance to-
BUZZZ
BUZZZ
BUZZZ
Zuko rolled his eyes as Sokka's name popped up on the screen. He hadn't even gotten to fool himself for a whole minute. The CSI winced and hurried to busy herself with some asinine task, leaving Zuko to handle Sokka on his own. He took a breath and accepted the call just before it stopped ringing.
"Mr. Imiq," he greeted Katara's brother grimly. "It's Detective Kaji-"
"Where's Katara?" Sokka demanded. Zuko shut his eyes.
"...Sokka, I'm sorry-" Sokka cut him off.
"No!" Sokka was shouting now. "No! I don't want to hear you're sorry! What happened to my sister?" Zuko held the plastic bag encased phone pressed to his ear, despite the ringing. He figured Sokka deserved someone to let out on.
"Koh has her," he told Sokka quietly. There was no reason he saw to dance around the fact. For a moment the silence on the other end let Zuko hope he had made the right choice. Then Sokka's mind caught up with the news. He said things that Zuko hadn't heard even from hardened criminals.
"Sir, please," Zuko heard someone, probably a security guard say. "You can't-"
"Don't touch me!" Sokka bellowed. "Tell me where my sister is!" Zuko ran his free hand over his face.
"Sir, I'm going to ask you to come with me," said the security guard.
"No!" Sokka sounded near tears now. "My flight is about to board. I have to...to…"
"Sokka," Zuko cut in authoritatively. "Please calm down. Let me speak to the guard."
"Calm down!" Sokka snapped."I-"
"Sokka!" Zuko raised his voice, but he kept his own anxiety out of it while he tried to help Sokka. "I'm so sorry. I know it's asking a lot of you right now, but you have to listen to me. Calm down so they'll let you on the plane." Sokka agreed begrudgingly, and handed his phone to the security guard.
"Hello?" The unfamiliar voice greeted.
"This is Detective Zuko Kaji from the Republic City police department, Zuko told him. "The man you're speaking to just got some really bad news, but he's not a danger to anyone on the plane."
"I don't know, man," the guard said. "The guy just started screaming and cussing a blue streak. He scared a lot of people. And the way he's looking at me now..."
"I know, I know," Zuko said. His fingers squeezed the bridge of his nose. "That's partly my fault. I'm sorry. But the situation is extremely sensitive. Please don't stop him from boarding."
"What happened?" Zuko was fairly certain that the man was just being nosey, but if it got Sokka on his flight, Zuko decided it was worth indulging him.
"His sister has been kidnapped," he told the guard. "She's his only family. I'm sure you can understand his reaction."
"Aw geeze!" The guard gasped. He spoke to Sokka next. "I'm sorry, man. I'll let you get on the plane. But you can't blow up like that again. Alright?" Zuko heard Sokka grumble something, then he had his phone back.
"I'll be home early tomorrow morning," Sokka said. He sounded drained. Zuko's heart clenched in sympathy. He hated dealing with families of victims.
"We'll find her," Zuko promised. The words must have sounded as hollow to Sokka as they had to Zuko. Sokka snorted in disbelief.
"Detective," he said.
"Yeah?" Zuko waited for the accusations to come.
"If that guy hurts her, I'll kill him." That was a promise. Sokka hung up before Zuko could say anything else. Zuko stared at the darkened screen, and then sighed. He waved the CSI he had been speaking with earlier and gave the phone back to her.
Jin and Haru returned not long after Sokka's call. The air between them was still cool, but they weren't fighting. Zuko was grateful for that at least.
"Did you find anything out?" he asked them. They both opened their mouths to speak then stopped. Haru shrugged and motioned for Jin to tell Zuko.
"Go ahead," he said. "You spoke to the lady." Zuko fought the urge to roll his eyes.
"Fine," Jin nodded. "Only one neighbor saw anything. There was a man here around the time the last message went out from Ms. Imiq's phone. The neighbor said he was wearing a police uniform, but he wasn't driving a marked car." Zuko's eyes snapped up to Jin.
"Did she see what kind of car it was?" he demanded. Jin took half a step back and blinked in surprise.
"Um...ye-yeah," she said. She gave him model details and the color of the car.
"We have a partial plate, too," Haru added. "The neighbor said that it stuck in her head because the last part of the plate looked like it spelled 'dog'." Zuko quickly typed that into his phone before he called Jun.
"Yes?" Jun greeted, sounding bored, or tired. Zuko wasn't sure, and he didn't care.
"Warden, it's Detective Kaji," he said. "I need you see if anyone working at the prison drives a car with plate number ending in -D09." Everyone at the prison was required to record their license plate number. Zuko was sure that if his suspicions were right, Jun would be able to track the number.
"No hello?" Jun drawled. "What's this about?"
"Koh's struck again," Zuko told her. The other end of the line went unnaturally silent. When Jun spoke again, she sounded more serious than Zuko thought she was capable of.
"So, he's one of ours, then?" she sighed. "Wonderful. Give me the numbers again." Zuko repeated himself and waited as Jun typed them into her keyboard. "We're in luck Junior. That only matches one plate number on our records. Yon Rha. I wish I could say I was surprised. They guy always gave me a weird vibe. Like he was too happy to be here, or something."
"Can you text me his address?" Zuko asked. "I'll send someone over to bring him in for questioning." Jun gave him the information.
"Good luck, Detective," she said. Zuko ended the call grimly. Luck, she'd said. He'd need a lot of it. Haru and Jin were still nearby, and Zuko waved them over.
"I need you two to go to the address I'm going to send you," he explained. "If Yon Rha is home, bring him in for questioning. He's a person of interest now." Jin nodded once and headed out.
"We'll take my car," Jin said. Haru followed, protesting that it would be better to take a cruiser, since neither of them were detectives.
"Detective!" Zuko spun away from the to officers to find the CSI he had been speaking to earlier rushing towards him. She was waving the baggie containing the phone around wildly.
"What happened?" Zuko asked.
"You're going to want to see this." She pressed a button on the side and the lock screen lit up. There was a new notification from an app that Zuko recognized as the one Katara had shown him earlier that day. It was the one she used to keep track of her running stats, and to track where she had gone.
Congratulations! It read. You found a new running path.
-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-
Emergencies have a way of clearing the mind, Katara found out. Minutes after Koh had left her alone in the dark room, she managed to calm herself enough to assess her situation. Her shoulder and head ached from where she hit the concrete floor, but nothing appeared to be broken. Once she was certain of that, Katara threw herself against the back of the chair. It rocked a bit, encouraging her to try again. Then again. The fourth time she tried, she managed to flip on to her back, but it was enough to encourage her to try again. Then again. The fourth time she tried, Katara managed to turn herself onto her back.
"Great!" she huffed. "Now what, Imiq?" She assessed the situation. She was still tied to the chair, but it was only duct tape. Theoretically, it shouldn't be too difficult to rip it. If she had a free hand, or something sharp…
Katara bent upwards at her waist and tried to reach her wrist with her teeth. She couldn't quite reach the tape, though. Only the fear that Koh might be listening nearby kept Katara from screaming in frustration. She looked around her fruitlessly, but she knew she had to find a way out. There was nothing to cut the tape with, and no way for her to use it even if she could find something. With a deep disappointed sigh, Katara let her head rest against the cold concrete floor.
There had to be something she could do, she thought. She refused to give in to the wave of frantic helplessness tightening her chest and threatening to overwhelm her. If she was going to get out of this alive, she couldn't give into panic. Once again, Katara focused on calming her breathing. When the worst of the panic had passed, she tried the only thing that was left. She pulled hard against the tape binding her to the chair, straining her arms inward. Nothing happened at first, but she kept trying until she heard a slight rip. Katara's head jerked up. Panting, she tried to see if she had made any progress, but the dim lighting made it impossible. Still, she tried again, pulling as hard as she could, until finally.
Rrrip!
"Ooff!" Katara's arm, suddenly free of resistance, flew in and hit her middle with bruising force. Katara was grateful, both for her freed hand, and for the fact that winding herself had made the triumphant laugh that almost escaped her throat impossible. She took a moment to catch her breath, but only a moment. Then she made quick work of the rest of the tape holding her to the chair. She scrambled to her feet and resisted the urge to kick the chair across the room. It wouldn't do her any good to escape the chair only to call Koh's attention to the fact that she was free. Well, freeish.
Katara stared at the door across the room. Had Koh locked it? She couldn't remember if she had heard a lock, but surely he must have. Katara went and tried the handle. It was locked. Unsurprised, but still disappointed, Katara weighed her options. The lock looked old, and not very complex. Sokka, engineering genius that he was, had taught her how to pick a lock years ago, when she was in middle school, and she was fairly certain she could pick this one. If she had anything to pick it with. Katara ran a hand through her hair. It was still in the messy braid she had put it in earlier. No hair pins. Katara swore under her breath, and turned the main lights on. The fluorescent glow filled the room with harsh white light. The most obvious place to look for tools was Koh's work area.
Katara turned towards the makeshift surgery stage with a body jarring shudder. From where she stood, Katara could see rust colored stains on the mattress. There was no mistaking what they were. Her legs refused to move for a long few minutes.
"C'mon," she hissed at herself. "The bed won't attack you." Her spine stiffened with resolve and she crossed the room to the bedside tray. All of the surgical tools looked worn and dull. Katara swallowed bile rising in her throat and tried not to imagine the blunted scalpel cutting into her face. Succinylcholine would do nothing to reduce that pain. Katara shook the image from her mind.
There was nothing long or thin enough to use as a pick on the operating tray. Katara's hands itched to flip it in frustration, but her self-imposed calm held. She took another deep breath and thought a moment. If she was still in the room when Koh returned, she could at least slow him down long enough to…Katara couldn't think that far ahead. She gathered the surgical instruments on her hands and hid them in various places around the room. The drain in the middle of the room was the best spot. The scalpel and two probes, which made satisfying plinks on the way down to the bend in the pipe. She would have dropped all of the tools down there, but the three already down the drain left the scissor looking clamps poking out of the top, and the final tool she didn't bother trying to fit in the drain. It was a curved piece of metal that didn't seem to be made for cutting and was far too big to be useful for anything involving a face.
Katara threw the clamps up on top of the tall shelf and tucked the last last confusing but still upsetting tool behind a heavy looking file cabinet.
That done, Katara looked around once more. There didn't seem to be much else she could do, to her chagrin. She pressed her hands to her forehead tried to think of something- anything- to get out of that room. She didn't know how long she had, but she wasn't banking on much time.
Time!
The thought hit Katara like a bolt. Koh hadn't taken her fit tracker, she suddenly realized. He probably hadn't even known what it was. Katara snorted derisively as she hit the sync button on the face of the device. Someone should be looking for her. She just hoped he was looking in the right place. In the meantime,if she couldn't find another way to escape, she would have to stall as long as she could.
There was nothing around that could be used as a weapon, telling Katara that either Koh was incredibly paranoid or not paranoid enough. There weren't any good hiding places, either. The lone cabinet was locked when Katara checked it. Besides, it was the most obvious place. Koh would have found her immediately. Her only advantage was surprise, and she would have to make it count.