Heartaches

Chapter 34

By KellyQ

Trudge glanced at the digital clock that displayed that it was 10:45AM. I can't believe that I'm doing this for that ungrateful slut! The more he watched the tape, the drowsier he got. When they left Kiryu's room, Mina suggested they look at the video to see if they could come up with something unusual in the tape.

Trudge yawned loudly, and shifted in his seat. They had been watched the video for an hour and Trudge was starting to get a little restless. Mina sighed, feeling her own patience growing thin. She reached out and pressed the pause button on the computer. Trudge blinked a few times, feeling more alert. He turned to see her scowling at him.

"I guess we can take a break," Mina said, keeping herself from scolding him. "And have something to eat."

Trudge was even more awake. He rose to his feet and held out his arm for Mina to take. The young woman sighed and hooked her arm around his. They both walked out of the security room, and made their way to the cafeteria.

On the way, Mina and Trudge saw Yusei and Martha walking toward them. Mina was the first to notice how tense and worn out Yusei looked.

"Mr. Fudo, are you alright?"

Martha smiled. "He'll be all right after he goes home and freshens up ..." Yusei gave her a sideways glance.

"And maybe a little T.L.C. from Mr. Atlus," Mina suggested.

By this point, Trudge had all ready went on ahead. Martha eyed Mina for a moment before she glanced at Yusei. A teasing smile made its way to the old woman's face.

"Oh, that's right," Martha said, eyeing the young woman. "You're Jack's housekeeper. Mina, right?" A light blush made its way to her cheeks and and bowed. "I hope my boys are behaving themselves."

Mina straightened up and smiled, but it changed when she noticed the teasing look Martha's eyes. The blush returned to Mina's pale cheeks, trying to keep some naughty images of Jack and Yusei out of her mind.

Mina merely squeaked. "I ... I have no complaints with Mr. Fudo!" she said quickly, stumbling over her words. She didn't want to embarrass Yusei in front of Martha. "He's a nice person, and I enjoy his company."

The one thing that went unnoticed by the two was Yusei still standing there, taking it all in. He was baffled. Yusei wasn't embarrassed about Mina knowing what he did behind closed doors with Jack, he was more perplexed about Martha pointing out that he needed to take better care of himself.

Yusei knew that he was going to hear about it later from Jack. Martha glanced from the corner of her eye to see that Yusei looked a little uncomfortable; Mina noticed too. She felt bad.

"I do need to get going. Trudge is waiting for me." With that, Mina bowed.

Martha stepped out of the way for the young housekeeper to go on and met up with Trudge. She made her way into the cafeteria. Trudge had all ready poured himself some coffee and got a breakfast croissant.

Mina wasn't paying any attention to the fact that there was still another person in the room and that was Carly. She was still sitting at one of the tables. Mina walked over to the coffee stand and poured herself some. Trudge glanced up and watched her make her way over. Mina pulled the chair out and sat down.

After a few moments of Trudge eyeing her, He sighed. "What's wrong?"

"I'm just worried, that's all," Mina spoke softly, staring down at her cup of coffee.

Trudge raised a brow. "How so?"

Mina sighed. "I managed to hack into Godwin's personal file and found some disturbing things ..." she trailed off before continuing. That grabbed Trudge's attention. Mina then realized that she was ready to reveal some dark secrets. "Promise not to say a word?"

Trudge raised a brow. "Yeah. I promise."

Mina frowned and looked into the officer's eyes. "You can't say a word to anyone! Especially not Godwin! He'd have me fired from my job as Jack's housekeeper, and I don't want that!"

Trudge blinked and a twinge of jealousy could be seen in his eyes. "Why would you worry about that?"

Mina bit her lip. "I met Mr. Atlus through Godwin. I fell in love with him at first sight. He was nice for the most part.... even though he was hardly home, and when he was, he was with his friends. As time went on, my love for Mr. Atlus grew. There were multiple times I wanted to tell him how I felt; before I could, however, I discovered that he loved Mr. Fudo." Trudge studied her for a moment and saw that she looked happy. "I was happy for Mr. Atlus, but I wanted to make sure that Mr. Fudo wasn't going to hurt Mr. Atlus so I did a background check on him. I got enough info on him to satisfy me ..." Mina paused to take a sip of her coffee. "So I wasn't worried until ...," she sighed. "You kind of know the rest with Rudger and the situation with Kiryu. That's when I was determined to know more about Mr. Fudo ..."

By this point, Trudge was in suspense. So was Carly, several tables away, from where she had been eavesdropping. And …. They both thought. Mina sat there for a moment trying to collect her thoughts.

"Mr. Fudo's father, Hakase, was a very successful businessman. He had everything - a beautiful wife and a son …" Mina started to explain, trying to keep her voice calm. "Unfortunately, Rudger wanted Hakase for himself … so he killed his wife first and he went after Yusei, but Hakase had Martha hide him …" Mina paused, feeling her heart race. She wasn't sure if she should reveal the rest. After a moment, she was ready. "As a result, Rudger beat and raped Hakase before he killed him."

Trudge made a face. Carly gasped loudly. Mina and the officer glanced at her. A nervous laugh escaped from the back of Carly's throat.

"I'm sorry for overhearing your conversation, but are you two detectives?" Carly asked.

Mina eyed Carly for a moment and recognized her, but Trudge didn't at first.

"More or less, yes. Why?" Trudge asked.

"Oh! No reason," Carly said, laughing nervously again. "I just couldn't help but overhere! Sorry about that!"

Carly got up and walked out. Mina narrowed her eyes.

"That was weird," Trudge muttered. He took the croissant and brought to his lips. He bit hungrily into it, chewing quickly.

"That was Carly," Mina hissed softly.

"Who?" Trudge asked, after swallowing his first bite.

"Carly Carbine. The stupid bitch who hasn't gotten a clue yet that she has no chance with Mr. Atlus!"

With that Mina got up and walked out. Trudge groaned. As much as he liked cat fights, he was going to have to make sure that they didn't go far as killing each other.

To Be Continued ....