7. Roy, Havoc, Fuery, Falman, and Breda sat in front of her, waiting for a response. Her eyes were wide in shock and she seemed a little irritated. Roy watched her silently, wishing that there was some other way to solve the case.
"That's silly! He wouldn't take himself hostage!" she objected, though she didn't sound as sure as before.
"You haven't known him for long," Roy pointed out, "and the culprit hasn't contacted you directly until after you mentioned the case in front of him. If this is his doing, he's definitely not doing a good job of hiding it." He resisted a smirk.
"He can't be this stupid is he's a lawyer," she argued.
"People can get desperate when it comes to money."
Riza looked over the group once more before reaching into her bag and pulling out a set of keys. "You can go, but I'm coming with you. I'm thinking that it would be better if only three of us went, because it'll be too obvious otherwise."
"We'll continue investigating while you work on that," Fuery said, pointing at Falman and Breda.
Riza held out the keys to Roy. "Here."
He took them, smiling sadly. "Somehow, I was wishing you wouldn't have them, even if it's going to help the investigation."
"What do you mean, sir?"
He shrugged, putting them into his pocket. "Nothing…nothing."
…
They went into the house that night, when they were least likely to be seen, even if it was legal, since she had the key. They could always say they were looking for clues as to who took him if anyone asked.
"I can't see any signs of a struggle," Havoc observed as they wandered through the house.
"He could have been threatened with a gun," Riza pointed out.
Havoc skimmed through a notepad on his desk. "I don't think we're going to find anything…"
Roy looked at his calendar. "Nothing."
"I'll check out the computer," Havoc suggested, rushing into the backroom.
Roy turned to Riza. "Does he have an address book?"
She looked at him curiously. "What do you expect to find there?"
"I saw a passage on his sister, Kayla's, Live Journal talking about his financial problems. I'd like to ask her some questions is we don't find anything here."
Riza seemed reluctant, but she led him upstairs into his bedroom. She opened his desk drawer and pulled out a small notebook, which she handed to Roy. "Here. But don't be too nosy. You can go ahead. Havoc and I will stay here."
He nodded, taking the notebook and leaving the house.
…
On the second ring of the doorbell, Kayla answered the door. She took one look at Roy's uniform and frowned. "Uh, my parents aren't home right now."
"How about your brother?" he asked.
She frowned. "W-well…he's here, he's just not feeling too great. He hasn't left his room and he told me that he doesn't want to talk to anyone, but I'll make an exception for you." She glanced at his uniform again. "I can bring you to him."
Roy grinned. "Thanks."
She led him down the hall to a door. She knocked once, calling, "You've got company!" and opened the door. Matthew was inside, sitting on his bed, terror in his eyes as recognized Roy.
"I told you not to let anyone in, Kayla!" he cried in a desperate voice.
"Yeah, but he's in the military," she explained, turning and leaving the room.
Roy turned to Matthew once she was gone. "Was that the masked kidnapper? That little girl? Oh, I forgot! The kidnapper's a man!"
Matthew frowned. "They let me go. I paid them the 25,000. But they still want the money for the research!"
"You couldn't afford 25,000! You can't even afford to fix your air conditioning. You've been out of work for months!" Roy crossed his arms, leaning against the wall. "You fell into possession of Mr. Hawkeye's research and linked it back to his daughter. Being desperate for money, you decided to exchange it for money. To make it so no one would ever suspect you, you began dating her and sent the threat notes to a different person. Once she found out about it, you decided it was safe to start sending the notes to her, and you took yourself hostage so you could be paid more and take more suspicion off of yourself. You didn't do a good job, though. You left too many clues behind, and see how easily we were able to catch you!"
"'We'?" he repeated. "You mean you're not the only one making this big mistake?"
"Don't try hiding it now, Matthew. Not when I've pinned you down like this!"
In the blink of an eye, Matt had reached under his pillow and whipped out a gun, which he pointed at Roy. "Well, if I couldn't hold myself hostage, I can do it to you instead! No one else needs to find out about this! All I need is my money, and then I'll leave you alone! I'm hoping you'll cooperate with me…" He clicked his gun into place to fire threateningly "…I wouldn't want you to have to lose both of your eyes, Roy Mustang."
Roy wanted to reach for his ignition gloves, but if he moved, Matt would probably shoot. He should have been more prepared before coming!
"Matthew, give up," Roy said in as calm of a voice as he could manage. "You don't want to get yourself into more troub-"
A gunshot went off. Roy thought it had come from Matt's gun, but he hadn't felt anything, and it was Matt who fell backwards, onto his bed. Roy whipped around, wondering who had saved him.
"Lieutenant?" he asked.
She stood, with Havoc behind her, with her gun raised. She was frowning deeply as she stepped forward, closer to Matt, who was clutching his bleeding hand. She snatched his gun and tossed it to Roy.
"I see your sharp shooting skills are as good as ever," Roy commented with a brisk laugh.
"You didn't clean up after yourself very well," Riza hissed at Matt. "I found this in one of your trash barrels." She held up a small piece of paper. "My father's research. So I want you to put your hands above your head and come with us."