AN: And here's chapter 4 a little later than I anticipated again /sighs - I'm working on a page on my tumblr for this however. With character profiles, who's in what, murder scenes and locations and yeah. I'll update this chapter with the link when it's done ~
Shout out to my Eren who motivated me to finish editing this last night while killing my feels.
Also if you guys have any questions or anything about this or about anything just send me a message on my tumblr (fuct-tape) because I'm more likely to respond to that there than here ~ Same for tags. I'll be tagging posts about this story, questions you guys ask me, important things like that on my blog and if you guys want to too then please use the tag: fic: h&s
Enjoy!
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Downtown Trost
Cafe Diem
17:15, October 2013
Eren Jaeger
...
"Let's start with generic questions first, shall we? Start with your name."
The café was calm, surprisingly enough for how hard the rain continued to pour and how relentless it remained. They were the only two there, aside from a small business meeting, he could guess, that was keeping to themselves tables away. One of the baristas was scrubbing a table by the door. A young girl with a pretty face and light blonde hair. If he remembered right, her name was Krista. She'd been the one to politely ask them to remove their jackets before they made puddles everywhere and had hung them up on the rack by the door. The overly baggy one that he'd borrowed from Krischtein, in exchange for half of his lunch, belonged to him, and the standard black windbreaker with 'FBI' in bright yellow on the arms was his company's.
Eren spun his coffee cup around in slow circles on the table. The tea inside of it rippled in the center, spreading out to the edges. It was warm, a complete parallel to the man's face who sat across from him.
Special agent Levi, last name classified, as he'd told him. Eren had remembered him from the two times they'd met before. At the crime scene, where Eren had left, and at the coffee shop, where the agent had been too slow.
Eren took a drink. Some things never change.
"You already know my name sir," he smiled. "why would I need to tell you it again?"
The man sighed in agitation and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a thin device with buttons on the side. It didn't even have to touch the table for Eren to know what it was; a voice recorder, made for situations just like this.
The agent leaned across the table towards him and pressed the button with the little red circle on it. The tape in it jarred to life, and Eren felt a surge of excitement. This is was what he'd been looking forward to, right? The first step in the game.
A game that he was set on winning.
"Name." the agent ordered again.
"Eren Jaeger."
"Age."
"Nineteen." he returned. Simple as that. He took another drink.
The agent drummed his fingers against the table. "So you work at the coffee shop in Lawson's."
"Only on the weekends." Eren replied. The cup turned easily in his fingers, and he resumed creating ripples in the surface. Little breaks and waves that messed up the balance. "Other than that I'm a student."
"Weekends, huh." Levi paused and leaned back in his chair. The movement was stiff, Eren noticed, like he was trying to intimidate him. "What were you doing there today then? Last time I checked it's a tuesday."
"Marco was alone today and asked for help for part of his shift. Right before he had to close, I left." Eren offered a nervous smile. "I had things to do."
The sudden change in the man's posture wasn't something Eren was actually expecting. He would have expected Levi to tense up, to be honest, not relax. It was a complete change of game.
"Things to do." Levi crossed his arms. "Downtown in the rain isn't a safe place to be, especially for a kid your age. Gangs and thugs and shit like that that'd grab you in a second and use this weather for cover. Isn't this part of town a little far from the bus that'll take you back to Shinganshina?"
He paused. Was that going to be Levi's game?
"Are you insinuating something officer?" He asked. It came off as politely, as well as confused, just how Eren wanted.
Levi wasn't phased. In fact, it seemed like Eren's response was what he wanted. "Should I be?"
You are. Eren shook his head no. "It's just that in shows whenever an officer says that, it means they actually are." he retorted.
The man rolled his eyes and the cold grey narrowed into a glare. "Then if it helps you answer things, think of it that way. What were you doing at the crime scene this morning?"
Ah, he asked the question later than expected, Eren mused. He scratched the back of his neck sheepishly and let out an awkward chuckle. "So you noticed, huh?"
Oh the look the officer was giving him would kill him if it could. He'd never thought that eyes could seem so angry and venomous because of a simple question. It was a fun discovery.
"You skipping around the question doesn't make yourself look good. In fact it's putting you another notch closer to my dragging your ass back to the bureau. We'd keep you there, you know, for as long as we needed. Locked in a piss poor excuse for a cell, all alone. Is that what you want?"
Levi was playing the bad cop now, it seemed. Eren shook his head. He gripped the cup tighter. "N-no sir."
"Then answer the question."
"I have a friend that's a trainee there. Some days he has guard duty first thing in the morning, and I usually try to bring him coffee and something to eat before his shift. It's a tradeoff for bringing us food on our lunch break, really."
"Bertholdt Fubar." Levi twisted the recorder to look at the tape. Apparently it was full enough, because he shoved it back away and resumed glaring at Eren. "He's been taken in for questioning. Not showing up to his shift on time and having a body dropped off in his work space doesn't look too good, now does it."
"But Bertholdt wouldn't do anything!"
Eren watched Levi pinch the bridge of his nose. It was obvious that it was an annoyed reaction, especially when Levi narrowed his eyes at him again. Those cold grey were so hard to read, Eren realized. He couldn't pick out any one emotion or hint in them.
"Your opinion on that matter doesn't mean anything to me."
Oh but it should. It should matter so much.
Eren sighed in defeat and slunk farther down into his chair. One more drink and his tea was gone.
"How do you usually get to the military base? It's not like there's a bus that drives out that far that early in the damn morning."
"My sister takes me on the way to work."
"So she drives you there, to the coffee shop, and then…?"
"To the gym." Eren finished. Levi raised a brow but didn't say anything else on the matter. He didn't have to; Eren could still see the doubt clear on his face.
"Why did you leave the crime scene?"
There's the other question, Eren mused. He straightened up in his chair before replying. "Everyone started freaking out. I started freaking out. It wasn't too hard to notice the other officer screaming. It scared everyone there."
"So that's why you left. Nothing more?"
Eren smiled. "Nothing sir. I didn't want to get in the way of the investigation, same with the crowd."
If the agent didn't buy it, he didn't say anything. Instead he let out a sharp breath. "So where were you headed before walking in front of my car."
The tape stopped with a loud click. Levi didn't touch the recorder, didn't even let his eyes wander to it. He was completely focused on Eren and it was exciting.
"Back to the bus stop. My sister's an instructor at the gym at the end of the block; she forgot her gloves at home and asked me to drop them off after I got done at work."
"What is she, a boxer?"
"Exactly that." Eren laughed. It was a breathless laugh that he mentally waved off. "Then I got caught in the downpour and took a wrong turn. You nearly hit me, and here we are."
"Having tea." Levi added bitterly.
Eren laughed and waved the comment off. "No, I'm having tea. You didn't want anything."
The agent snorted and went back to tapping his fingers against the table. A habit, Eren assumed. A bored, irritated habit. It also hinted to the fact that the agent was thinking about leaving.
But they were just starting to have fun.
"So how did he die?" Eren asked. He had to keep the nice officer there just a bit longer. He wanted to know how much they knew. He wanted to know how much Levi knew.
"That's classified information, brat. You'll have to wait until the news picks it up."
He frowned. "But you could just tell me now."
"You know for a kid who saw a dead body, you're sure eager to relive it." Oh the agent's voice turned cold again. He must have made him angry. "Or is there another reason, huh?"
"No, sir. Just curious. Do you blame me?"
"No, I suppose not. Brats like you get too into the media these days. Let me guess, you watch a lot of crime shows." it came off as condescending. Just how Levi probably meant it.
Eren smiled sheepishly in return. "How'd you know?"
"What else is there to do anymore besides watching people get killed on tv?"
He hummed in agreement at that. Such a true statement for this day and age; you couldn't flip through the local channels without some sort of violent media. Commercials, shows, the news… it didn't matter. Eren couldn't keep track of how many stories there would be about gang violence in Shinganshina, or drug dealers in Trost. He rarely heard anything from Sina though, which was expected. It was, after all, the rich city.
That was soon to change, however.
"You have a point," he finally replied. Levi rolled his eyes. The rain outside had finally subsided into practically nothing, which Eren assumed meant that their meeting was over. That fact was sealed once the FBI agent's phone went off and he answered it in a hushed tone. Mumbled words about downtown and the bureau weren't hard for Eren to pick up. Same with Bertholdt's name being said on the other line.
Levi ended the call with an irritated sigh and picked the voice recorder back up and slipped it into his pocket. In its place he left a business card; a standard one from the station in Trost.
"I've got some shit to go take care of. Your friend is about to be questioned and I have to go play bad cop. If you learn anything about the guy doing this, or remember anything else, call the bottom number. It'll send you to my desk."
"Will do officer."
"Expect a call from either myself or agent Smith tomorrow too. We'll need prints, another statement, and your picture."
That was new, Eren realized. He honestly didn't expect that. Not this early, at least.
"If you need someone to pick you up just say something. When it comes to cases like this we're allowed to play taxi. Even for some kid who lives out in the damn boons."
Eren walked with the agent towards the door. Levi remained behind him the entire time, even to put his coat on. At full height, the man came up to Eren's shoulder, which was hilarious in its own way. He didn't have much time to dwell on the thought before he was being rushed out the door and back into the fall air. The rain was still coming down in a drizzle, but it wouldn't be too bad.
No, the rain was nice to think in. And Eren had a lot to think about.
The car that nearly hit him earlier was parked across the street with the blonde agent in the driver's seat. Just from intuition, that would be agent Smith. He looked up and over at Levi, flashing a manilla envelope in the window.
"Keep out of trouble kid," the agent turned to give him a quick look that Eren couldn't pick out the meaning behind. "Be at the station by noon."
With that Levi crossed the street without another glance back. He watched the man slip into the passenger's seat, and he watched the car drive off and around the corner. It wasn't until a few minutes after that that Eren smiled.
He drew his jacket around himself to block out the wind and started walking towards the bus stop that would take him back to his apartment.
This was going to be more fun than he originally thought.
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Shinganshina Outskirts
Apartment Complex C
18:00, October 2013
Eren Jaeger
...
When he got back to the apartment, the first thing he noticed was the note. It was scrawled quickly, and stuck on the corner of the half wall that lined the door and separated the entrance from the living room. He recognized it automatically as Mikasa's. Another late day with work, she made food when she got home for a break. Heat it up when you get hungry.
It was funny how motherly she acted, Eren thought to himself. He walked around the wall to find his bag sitting on the coffee table, surrounded by a couch and two armchairs. He must have forgotten it in Mikasa's car then.
He opened the front pouch of it and found a silver ring. It wasn't anything fancy, and the diamond that sat on the top of it was fake. Such a horrible replica of the real thing, really. Which is why she wouldn't miss it. He twirled its plastic bag under the light. One of the stones was missing from the top. Such a shame; it was actually quite pretty.
He walked across the living room to the kitchen. There was an island in the center of it, with a breakfast bar that separated it from the living room. Faux granite counters, a horrible excuse for a stove and fridge, and a dishwasher that didn't work half the time. He grabbed a pen off the bar and ripped a piece of paper from the notepad that was sitting there. He wrote out a question, titled it to Armin, and sat the ring on it.
Now to wait.
It took about another half hour for the door to open again and for someone to shuffle into the apartment. From the sound of the footsteps that disappeared down the hall, he guessed it was Mikasa. A split second later and, sure enough, she walked into the kitchen. First stop was the cabinet above the sink for a glass, second was the water dispenser in the fridge.
"You're home early," she commented. "I thought you were going to come back to the gym?"
"Had an interview,"
Her eyes lit up at that. "Somewhere besides the coffee shop?"
"Different kind of interview, Mikasa. One of the new feds that's on the case."
She stood on the other side of the breakfast bar, practically throwing the glass down onto the counter at Eren's words. Her hands tightened around the cup, tight enough to make her knuckles turn white. "Did they hurt you?"
"No. The man who questioned me suspected me, I'll tell you that now." he replied. He watched as one of Mikasa's hands went up to twirl in the ends of her scarf. Nervous habit, one that she'd been doing more and more recently, he noted. She tugged on it, tightened it, then met Eren's eyes.
"They took you downtown?"
"No. Just a few blocks away from the Garrison at the corner cafe. They'd just finished looking at the second body," he paused to fold his arms and lay them on the counter. "He knew what he was doing. The way he acted, the way he treated the entire situation. He watched me like a hawk; it was pretty creepy, really."
"Did you tell them anything." she pressed again.
"I'm not that stupid. I can handle myself around these guys without needing a babysitter, okay?" He laughed and waved the hand that tried to grab his shoulder away. "You act like you're the one they're after."
Well, that's partially true, he realized. Mikasa may not be the actual killer in these murders, but she was just as at fault as Eren was essentially. The loving girl who seemed distant, yet people loved and asked about wherever Eren went, his sister was known around the city. Both for being an instructor at the gym and one of the only kids to get a GED then skip straight to college. She was smart, taking standard classes right now in order to get a feel for things.
But Eren knew better.
He knew what made her tick. He knew just how careful she was when it came to keeping Eren safe, making her the best person to turn to when it came to setting the bodies up. She hated it, Eren knew that for sure, but she wouldn't leave him. She wouldn't leave him even if it meant her downfall as well. That's what he loved about her. As overbearing as she could be half the time with constantly hanging over him, she was there. She didn't care what it was as long as Eren was involved. Even if it came to disposing of his habits.
"They took Bertholdt in," he blurted out. Mikasa paused. The glass was halfway to her lips.
"Fubar?"
"Late to guard duty," he replied. "Sad fate, isn't it? Being dragged into such a crime. Reiner will kick his ass once he gets back."
"Eren-"
"You know it's true. They're wasting their time, they're looking in the wrong spots."
"Stop-"
"We wasted so much blood for the first scene, barely any for the second. What about the third? How much will we have to drain to create a picture that'll stick-"
"Eren." She chided. The glass slammed back down against the counter. It snapped him from his thoughts.
"I know, I know." he sighed. "Can you do me a favor, though?"
"What is it?"
"Well two things, really." He picked up the pen and notepad again. Quickly he jotted down two names and slid them over to her. "Levi and Irwin. I want as much information as you can find on them. I want to know what cases they've been in, what they've seen, what makes them perfect for this case."
She tore the paper out. Slipped it into her pocket. "I'll see what I can find. What's the second thing?"
"The one who asked me questions told me to be at the station by noon tomorrow."
Mikasa's face fell and complete panic took over. He quickly reached out to cover her hand with his own, soothingly. Her free hand tangled itself in the scarf. Again.
"Nothing bad, Mikasa. They need my picture and fingerprints. It's a precaution they have to take, especially since we left the first scene. The question is: do you want to take me there tomorrow?"
"Eren that's too dangerous."
Wasn't everything? He smiled briefly. "If you don't want to, the nice agent gave me his desk number to call, I can get someone to pick me up."
"No." She frowned. "No. I'll take you. I don't want you going there alone."
"He might notice you too, you know. You'd have to do the same thing then."
The way she paused then. She was nervous. Her shoulders hunched, and he would take a guess that her breathing was picking up it's pace. Not an overreaction, just a normal human reaction to the thought of this. It was walking into a lion's den so to speak.
"It'll be fine." she murmured. In a second the nerves were gone. Her shoulders straightened out, and she ran a hand through her hair. "You're not going inside without me, though."
That was why he loved Mikasa. Her adaptability. How quick she could snap back into the cold and distant girl he saw when she wasn't mothering him.
He grinned, stood up and walked over to her side. He straightened her scarf, picking out the strands of black that got stuck in the rough fabric and with a laugh simply said, "Wouldn't dream of it."
He smiled.
Eighteen hours left until he had to see them again.
Eighteen hours until he planned out the rest of the game.