Chapter 79

"He's far more elusive than we thought he'd be." Igneel sighed heavily. His men had been scouring the city for this serial killer, to no avail. They got close a few times, but whoever he was, he always slipped away.

"The police have made him a top priority. He's gotten ten women now, all found dead within a few hours of going missing." Gildarts added. "Talking to the family members doesn't give us much. Nobody had approached them, tried to make them pay protection money to anyone else. Nobody new has entered their lives. Nothing."

"Has anyone not associated with the family been taken?" Gajeel asked them grimly. This was bad. Every week, it seemed, there was another loss. Even with orders for everyone to keep a close eye on their family members and have a weapon on them at all times.

"No. They've all had ties to us." Gildarts answered.

"Is there a trend? Anything? The kind of work their fathers or husbands do, how the women look, where they live? Anything?"

"They've all been young. In their early twenties." Gildarts sighed, looking through his notes. "Aside from that... nothing. Their connection to the family varies. We've had business owners who pay protection money, low-ranking members of the family, civilians in the know... and they've been all over the city."

"So this guy's not after money. He hasn't contacted any of the victim's families, hasn't tried to ransom the victims." Gajeel sighed. It wasn't someone trying to move in on their turf. But this might as well be worse. He was singling out their people. "This could be... what? Revenge? Someone that hates us and is targeting whoever he can get? Or maybe he's trying to undermine us. Make our people think we can't protect them."

"Aye. It could be any of that." Igneel sighed.

"The question is: how do they know who to target?" Gildarts asked with a deep frown. "Our people know better than to reveal their connections to us. Some of the victims didn't even know their family had connections to us."

"I smell a traitor." Gajeel growled coldly. "It's either one of ours, or one of ours has been providing information." The other two nodded in agreement. It was the only explanation. "Do a sweep of the family. Bring anyone suspicious to me personally. You know what to do."

"Yes, sir." They nodded together before standing and excusing themselves. Gajeel growled as he glared at the wall across from him. Another traitor in the family. Damn it all.

A soft knock on his office door got his attention. He recognized the way the person knocked, and he gave a soft sigh. "Come in, shrimp." His door opened and his small wife peeked into the office to make sure he was alone. Then the rest of her came into the office. Gajeel's eyes softened as he looked her over. She was wearing a really cute pink sun dress today, and it really showed off her baby bump. As cute as she looked, she did worry him a bit. "Nobody saw ya, did they?"

"No." Levy shook her head. "Lily walked with me and made sure nobody saw me." she assured him with a small smile. While she'd been able to tell Lucy and Juvia about her pregnancy, the rest of the family was still in the dark... and would be until after the baby came. Even the guards couldn't know she was pregnant. "Wendy just left. Little Emma is doing just fine." She smiled at her husband, holding out a small piece of paper. He took it and smiled when he realized it was an ultrasound picture of their little daughter.

"She's gettin big, huh?" Gajeel grinned at the picture. He couldn't wait to meet his daughter, to finally hold her in his arms. "How'd ya get this, though? Thought those ultrasound machines were huge."

"She brought a portable one." Levy giggled. "They just issued new, upgraded ones at the hospital. Latest technology. You should have seen it; it was really impressive."

"I bet." Gajeel chuckled at her excitement.

"Are you done with work yet?" his little wife asked then, a plea in her voice. She wanted to spend time with him, and had been rather clingy lately. There'd been a few times he'd still had a lot of work left... and she'd freaking burst into tears at this and claim he didn't love her because she was fat and ugly now, otherwise he would spend time with her. He knew, of course, that it was just her hormones making her more sensitive... but he hated seeing her cry. So he'd been trying awful hard lately to finish his work early so he could spend time with her. And avoid all the tears.

"If ya can gimme a half hour, shrimp, I'll be done. Promise." he told her gently. She pouted a bit, but thankfully didn't cry. Usually she wouldn't get too hormonal about it if he appealed to her logic or offered a kind of compromise. In this case, give him just a little longer, and she'd have him to herself for the rest of the day. She nodded easily enough and he smiled. "Why don't ya get a nice hot bath going, huh? I'll join you, and we can be lazy today."

"That sounds nice." Levy perked up at this. She pressed a happy kiss to his lips and headed for the door. "Thirty minutes?"

"Thirty minutes." he nodded, gently shooing her out the door. She smiled and left him to his work, and he gave a heavy sigh as he thought about what to do with this serial killer. Someone in the family was a traitor...

And traitors were extremely dangerous.

I'm back! Well, not completely. Still haven't caught up enough to resume the Monday/Thursday updates. I'm working on it, I promise! At the very least I will try to do weekly updates until I get caught up again. I'm just waiting for inspiration to hit me. Usually, when that happens, I'll get a lot of work done all at once.

Anyways, please tell me what you think!

Thanks for reading, and see you soon!

-Nerdy12