Chapter nine. Enjoy! I onw nothign, as always.
"Maes, what are we looking for?" asked Roy, frustrated.
"To be honest, I'm not really sure," answered his friend. "But there's something here, I'm sure of it. There's more to this case than meets the eye- and more to the Elrics than they let on."
"Maes, they came in, they let us question them, they haven't made a run for it..."
"Camping at the time the murder happened, but they can't tell us where? Come on Roy, that's suspicious."
"And why," Roy asked, annoyed, "would they attack a woman they don't even know?"
"But they do know her, or at least, they know her well enough to want to kill her," Maes said. "She abandoned Envy, she tried to kill Trisha and Edward. I think that could be a motive."
Roy sighed. "But Maes, how would they find her? The police have been hunting her down for years, what resources do they have that we don't?"
"Connections." said Maes. "Hoenheim dated her. That could give him an advantage."
"Alright, fine, fine, I can see why you suspect them. But why are we here?"
Maes grinned. "Let's go have a chat with the locals."
Roy waited impatiently beside his friend as yet another 'local' denied ever seeing either the Elrics or Dante.
"Sorry," she shook her head, "I've never seen them before in my life."
"Ah well," sighed Maes. "Thanks for your help."
"Can we go yet?" asked Roy irritably.
"Not yet," said Maes. "I'm going to ask at the pub over there. Coming?"
"Well, at least they'll have a bar," Roy muttered to himself as he followed his friend across the road.
"No drinking on the job!" Maes called back to him. For a moment, Roy found himself considering how much trouble he'd get in for smacking someone 'on the job', but abandoned his thoughts as they reached their destination.
Maes pulled him over to the bar, and laid his police ID and his photographs out in front of him.
"I'm Officer Maes Hughes of Central Police, and this is my Colleague Roy Mustang. Have you seen any of these people?"
The barkeeper blinked at them for a second before reaching for the photographs, mulling them over with a slight frown on his face.
"Hm," he murmured, "The lady, no," he said, pushing the picture of Dante back across the bar. "These guys look kind of familiar though," he added thoughtfully, spreading the Elrics' photographs out in front of him.
"They do?" asked Maes, giving his friend a victorious grin. Roy ignored him.
"Mm, can't think where from though... give me a minute, would you?"
"That's not a problem, take your time," said Maes.
"Ah!" he said. "Yeah, I remember. They got a room here a good while back, can't recall the exact date. I wouldn't have remembered them at all, but it was weird... when they came in," he pushed the photograph of Hoenheim at them, "He had black hair, but he left with blonde. And this guy," he put Envy's photograph on top, "Well, he came in dressed in some rock band t-shirt with black hair in braids, but he left dressed like a girl with green spiky hair. And these two," he added, pushing forwards the pictures of Edward and Alphonse, "He came in with black hair and glasses, and he came in with dark brown, but they both left looking the way they do in these photographs. I wouldn't have remembered them, but it was pretty weird, so it stuck in my mind." he said with a shrug.
Maes smiled warmly, but Roy knew that behind the friendly face his friend's mind was working away as quickly as it could.
"Really? That's very... interesting. Thank you very much, Mr...?"
"Peter Cass."
"Mr Cass. Could you give us your contact details in case we have anymore questions?"
"Sure," shrugged the man, jotting them down on the notebook Maes passed him. "You mind if I ask why you're after them?"
Maes smiled again, "Nothing important," he said brightly. "We just think they might be able to help us with an investigation of ours. Thank you for your time, Mr Cass. We appreciate it."
"Not a problem, Officers. Drink before you go?"
"No thanks, we're working. Thanks again, Mr Cass, but we'd best be on our way."
Peter Cass nodded. "Sure, I understand. Well, come by if I can help, I work the bar here most days. Bye."
Maes nodded. "Bye, Mr Cass." he gave him another wide smile. "We'll be sure to come by if we need anything else."
"Okay, you were right, but what are we looking for now?"
"Photos of the crime scene," said Maes. "It's months old now, I want to see what it looked like when it was found... ah!"
He dug out the folder he was looking for with a triumphant grin.
"Here we go... hm. I'd say it looks like there was bit of a scuffle, what do you think, Roy?"
Roy took the photograph and looked it over. "Well, I'd say there was definitely more than one person there. Didn't you say she was a gang leader?"
"You think it was a gang fight? How do you explain the Elrics, then?"
Roy shrugged. "Maybe they're gang members too."
Maes frowned at the photographs. "Maybe, but I don't think so... Edward would've had the automail roughly six months at this point, right?"
"Yes..." Roy said, "Why is this relevant?"
"Well, if he was here, then he must've been using it, or there would be the tracks from the wheelchair somewhere. If he was using it, then he's cut the rehab time by a third, which has to be painful. What would drive a kid to do that?"
"I don't know, Maes, you're the one who seems to understand all this. Maybe Riza can help you."
"What if Dante wasn't the victim here?" Maes asked suddenly.
Roy gave him an odd look. "...Pardon?"
"What if we're looking at the wrong crime? She was murdered, but that's just the tip of the iceberg, and the rest of it's still hiding under the surface... what if the murder isn't the mystery here? What if it's just a clue, and we're missing it... There's something going on, something happened there, but what?"
"I don't know, Maes. Why don't you go bother the Elrics about it, make them confess?" he muttered- but the sarcasm didn't have quite the same effect as he'd been expecting it to.
Maes nodded thoughtfully. "That... might not be a bad idea, actually."
"What?" asked Roy, exasperated.
Maes grinned. "Get Riza. We're going to see some boys about a murder."