I kissed her passionately, feeling everything her plump, pink lips had to offer. I held her hips and pulled her close to me before backing away and resting my forehead onto hers. She ran her fingers over my lips while smiling sweetly at me.
"Sasuke…" Sakura said, trailing off.
"Sasuke. Sasuke!" I awoke to her voice jolting me out of my slumber. I blinked a couple times before looking at her. "It's 8, go get ready," she ordered.
I grumbled about how annoying she was before grabbing a change of clothes and disappearing into the bathroom. I emerged 10 minutes later, clad in a short sleeve Jaguars shirt and a pair of black joggers. She wore a plain black shirt with jeans, we looked like regular people, which was the goal. People trusted people who looked like them more than fancy suits.
I walked behind her to the car and threw her the keys.
"You drive," I mumbled while getting into the passenger seat. She smirked at me while getting into the driver's seat.
"Poor Sasuke, you must be so tired, that's why I woke you up after I was done, cause I'm considerate." I snorted, "More like annoying."
"How about you wake up first then?" She suggested. I pouted at her, causing her to laugh before pushing my face away. She drove off and sped to the station.
"So they guy is an expert sniper, but he made his attack look like it was done by a novice, presumably to put him under less suspicion," She explained. "We know his size and stature and have 3 names from the marketing firm without alibis, so let's get to work from there," I answered. We reached the station a little while after and started researching the names in the boardroom the police provided us with. "Jamie Richardson," Sakura said.
"5'10, 150 pounds and a schoolteacher, why was he visiting a marketing firm?" I inquired. Sakura pulled up the employee records for the firm and siphoned through them.
"Has a sister who works there, Kathleen Richardson."
"Pull up facial recognition," I told her. She did, and the cameras found Jamie at the front desk dressed in a suit and tie, not our guy.
"Next name is Howard Price," she said. Again, facial recognition found him.
"Edward Castliofi." Facial recognition found him. None of these guys were our perp.
"Maybe he snuck in?" Sakura suggested.
"Doubt that, receptionist would've confronted him about it and he would've drawn unwanted attention. There were also no other trucks or cleaning services scheduled except for the two paper guys, and they were nowhere near the rooftop." We thought about all other possibilities in silence for a couple minutes before she broke the silence.
"Are there any cameras on the staircase of any other floor?"
"No, but if we go back and ask them to rewind the footage we could find whatever you're looking for."
"Let's go," she got up and briskly walked out, leaving me running after her.
"Why the sudden interest?" I asked when I caught up. "What if we've been looking at this the wrong way? What if instead of some newcomer going into the building or sneaking in, the perp was already inside the building?"
"You think he's an employee," I summarized.
"Check the company's employee record for any hits," she told me. I looked through the accounts for anyone who looked anything remotely like the man caught on camera.
"I've got 6 guys that we're looking at, all around 6'1 and around 175-185 pounds," I announced to her while she drove to the marketing firm.
"Criminal records," she said. I checked off three more names, none of which had criminal records.
"We have Jeff Moziato, charged with petty larceny and assault 6 years ago. Martin Forbury, charged with petty arson. Arthur Shelby, charged with illegal possession of a weapon and public intoxication, and get this, he was a military man, sniper in the 14th platoon. If I was a betting man, than my money's on Shelby, he called out sick a couple days prior to the attack, too."
"What department does he work in?"
"Logistics, 4th floor," I told her. We reached the firm and flashed our badges to the receptionist before walking straight to the CEO's office.
"Wait! Mr. Patel isn't expecting visitors!" His secretary protested who we happily ignored. We walked into his office to see him enjoying a cigarette while talking to someone who seemed to be his wife.
"Sweetheart, I'll call you back," he said before hanging up the phone and putting out the cigarette. "What can I do for you, agents?"
"We need to see that footage again, but this time rewind it further," Sakura demanded. He pulled up the footage and turned his computer to us. We saw the figure standing before the door to the rooftop.
"Rewind it," I asked. He did so until we told him not to. We saw a man walking out of the 3rd floor, not the 4th. "Do you have an employee named Arthur Shelby? If so, when does he take his lunch?" I asked.
"Employees usually take lunch around 1-2, we don't give them fixed timestamps," the man replied.
"Were you aware of his criminal record when you hired him?"
"I was."
"So why hire him?"
"He was...different, as in he was particularly perceptive and his skills were sharp."
"Interesting choice of words," Sakura muttered to me. He had to be our guy.
"Why did he take a couple of days off?"
"You would have to ask the logistics manager on the 3rd floor that."
"Ok, by the way, do you guys have a bathroom I can use?"
"All of our bathroom facilities are located on the 3rd floor."
"Hm, interesting," I replied before leaving the office.
"So he changes in the bathroom and takes the stairs up so that no one can see his attire," Sakura concluded. We went to the 4th floor and went to the corner office of the logistics manager. Her office was littered with awards and pictures of her family, basic scenery of an office. "Hi, we're agents Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha with the FBI, we just have a question for you," Sakura said.
"Linda Hayes, how can I help you?"
"Why did Arthur Shelby take a few days off from work?"
"He said he was visiting his mother over in San Antonio."
"Thank you," Sakura said before leaving. "By the way, is he in today?" She shook her head.
"His mom died in 2015," I whispered to Sakura as we went to the elevator.
"We need his address, he might already be on a plane out of here," she told me. I called one of the guys at the police station and quickly got the address for his apartment.
"Sakura," she turned to me, "use the siren." She nodded and proceeded to do 120 on the way, siren blaring the whole way.
"Lieutenant! We got him, name is Arthur Shelby!" I told her over the phone. "Alright, we're on the way," she said before hanging up. We got to his building and ran up to his 2nd floor apartment.
"Shelby! FBI! Open the door!" Sakura shouted while banging on the door. When no response was given, we kicked the door open to see that things were scattered everywhere. I ran and checked his closet to see numerous pairs of clothes missing. "There's a safe!" Sakura yelled to me. She pulled out her pistol and shot the lock open, revealing an empty safe.
"He's missing clothes and there's no bags in sight, he's probably at Dallas International right now, he found out that we knew somehow, he must've gotten a tip," I stated.
"We have to go," Sakura said before running to the car. I ran behind her while dialing the chief of police.
"Chief! Put an APB out on Arthur Shelby, 37 years old, brown hair slicked back, 6'1 and 179 pounds at the airport, now! Tell TSA!"
"You got it," he responded. I hung up as we pulled into the airport. TSA was already waiting, and they had halted all flights going out right now in an effort to prevent Shelby from leaving and escaping our jurisdiction.
"Look everywhere! You know what he looks like!"
"What if he dyed his hair or something?" One of the security guys asked.
"He didn't have enough time to do that, he was tipped most probably while on his way to work today, he would've have to have gotten hair dye and waited for it to dry, which would've taken a couple hours itself, not counting the time it took him to pack and book a flight as well as to get here," Sakura explained, "Now split up, and find him!"
"He's most probably trying to go international so he can get out of our jurisdiction," I told Sakura.
"Let's canvas them all ourselves then," she replied. We ran to the international flights and scanned the area. One was going to Rome, but he wasn't there. Another to Sicily, still no sign of him. One to Greece, but he was still a ghost. One to India, not there.
"Sasuke!" She tugged my sleeve and pointed to a Starbucks where someone was sipping on coffee with a hood over his head and sunglasses on his face. Worth a shot, after all he did look to be hiding from someone. We inched our way closer to him, slowly studying his features. Looked pretty tall and pretty slim. Caucasian, just like Shelby. Didn't have a mustache like Shelby, but he could've shaved it off right before leaving, especially because it was sloppy. There were still hairs poking out and cuts above his lip, like he shaved in a hurry. My fingers inched closer to the holsters at the side of my joggers where my guns were hidden. We walked close enough to see hair poking out from beneath the hood. Brown hair.
"Arthur Shelby?" Sakura asked.
He took off.
Found him.
Sakura and I gave chase, running after him through hordes of people crowded around us. My legs pumped faster and faster as I shoved people out of my way en route to Shelby. He was a runner, but I spotted TSA moving to intercept him. He turned around and tried to get onto the escalator, but I reached my arm out and grabbed a handful of his shirt in my fist. I pulled hard and yanked him back. He flailed and fought against me while I pinned him to the ground and cuffed him.
"Fucking cocksuckers! Assholes!" He screamed at us. I just smirked at a giggling Sakura and shoved him ahead of me while gripping his cuffs from behind. I read his rights to him while walking him down to the nearest police car.
"Nice try getting your mustache off," I taunted, to which he growled and cursed at me some more.
"We just want to talk, Shelby," Sakura told him.
"You think you two are so great, huh? Well how about fuck you both to hell!"
"Creative, walk faster," I said while tightening his cuffs. Sakura and I escorted him outside, where a police car was waiting for him, along with two cops.
"Thanks, we'll get him down to the station," one of them said. I nodded and walked back to our car with Sakura.
"We just need a statement now, right?" She asked me.
"Very perceptive," I replied.
"Did you jus-"
"Yes, I did," I cut her off, knowing exactly what she would say next. She pouted at me and drove off towards the station while blasting some music.
"We can finally not speed and stuff," she proclaimed while nodding her head along to the music.
"Hn." I looked out the window at the shining sun. It covered the city in its rays, bathing it in its golden light as we drove through the city at a leisurely pace.
"So...who's going to get it out of him?" She asked while turning the music down.
"I'll do it, you watch and see how I do it, cause in the future you'll be doing stuff like this," I answered, leaning my head on the window. We pulled into the station a little bit later and walked into the interrogation room where they were keeping Shelby. He was cuffed to the table and sitting there, scowling at the wall. "He looks happy," I muttered before grabbing a cup of coffee and sipping on it.
"Do your thing, agent, just don't rough him up too bad, his lawyer's on the way," the chief told me. I nodded and sipped on my coffee some more while Sakura enlightened me as to what the top 10 movies on IMDB's top 250 list were, just like before. Shelby's lawyer arrived right when Sakura was telling me the number one movie was a Shawshank Redemption, one of my favorites. He went inside and started whispering to Shelby while I finished my coffee.
"We'll watch those movies once we're back in Jacksonville, right now I got a date with a lawyer and a sniper," I told her, throwing my cup in the trash.
"Don't have too much fun," she called out when I walked into the interrogation room. I took a seat and opened the case file that was placed before me.
"Well, Mr.-"
"He admits to doing it so long as he doesn't get the chair," the lawyer said. I closed the case file and nodded.
"We have a deal, Mr. Shelby admits to doing it and probably gets life in prison," I restated before walking out.
"Um…" Sakura trailed off and cocked her head to the side in confusion.
"Must've been my birthday," I told her.
"Really?"
"No, idiot my birthday's in July."
"Mine's in...what's the date?"
"March 13th."
"Oh, in 15 days! I'm turning a quarter of a century old!"
"Old and annoying," I muttered.
"25 is not old! You're gonna be it in 4 months!" She protested. I poked her forehead and smirked while she glared.
"Come on, we gotta get out of here, it smells beef jerky," I said.
"Don't we need boarding passes for the return flight?"
"We get them at the airport, now come on." We said goodbye to the chief and lieutenant and dropped by the hotel to get our stuff our things and get onto the next flight to Jacksonville.
"Next flight is in...an hour and a half," Sakura said while checking her phone for the flight times.
"Let's hurry then." I gathered my things and she gathered hers. We sped to the car rental and dropped off the vehicle. 45 minutes left. We were gonna have to be quick. I sped up into a speed walk with Sakura following suit. I pulled up the virtual boarding passes that Ibiki sent me and printed out our actual boarding passes at the kiosk. I handed Sakura her pass and motioned her towards security. Most of the flights had been delayed about 15 minutes because of Shelby showing up at the airport, but luckily, the holdup didn't cause our flight to be bumped down. We made it through security with 15 minutes to boarding, so I slowed down and walked calmly to our gate.
"We literally just got the gate and I'm already bored," Sakura exhaled as we sat down and waited for our group to be called for boarding.
"If you want I could start dancing around and pull out my guns for your entertainment," I mumbled.
"You don't have to be sarcastic, you dick."
"Who said I was being sarcastic?"
"Jerk."
"Good one, my feelings hurt now." She laughed at my remark and laid her head onto my shoulder.
"Group 6 for boarding," the gatekeeper called. Sakura groaned and dragged herself up in a dramatic fashion for no reason in particular. We handed our passes to the lady and boarded the plane. I sat down in my window seat and she sat in her middle seat, just like last time, except she didn't wait for the flight to take off to lean her head onto my shoulder and fall asleep. The feeling of her sleeping on me drove me to become drowsy myself, and once the plane had taken off, I laid my head onto her cherry-scented hair and knocked out for the duration of the flight.