Okay so here's the next chapter, enjoy!

Chapter 3
9:06 am - A few days later
Mai struggled to hold the bouquets of flowers that she had received whilst in hospital. She looked up as Monk pulled round with the car.

"That's my ride." Mai said to her nurse who nodded and wheeled her over to the car door.

"Well Mai, it was a pleasure having you as a patient. If every one of my patients were like you my job would be so much easier!" The nurse said, grinning back at Mai.

"Take care!"

"Bye!"

Mai piled herself into the car and Monk drove away from the hospital.

"How is the case going?" Mai asked. Monk grimaced.

"Not too good. Yasu has been swamped with homework so he can't do any research, Masako is busy as is John and Ayako and I have been worried about you so, not much has been done" he concluded.

"Ah."

"Yeah, on the upside though, now you're out of hospital, the three of us can get to work!"

"Awwww." Mai groaned but she knew he was right so she sucked it up and begrudgingly agreed to help.

Mai's Apartment
"Ah home sweet home" Mai breathed as she hauled herself, her flowers and her weekend bag through the narrow door frame.

"Are you sure you're going to be ok Mai?" Monk asked with concern.

"I'll be fine. Besides Ayako is staying a couple of nights just to make sure" She smiled happily.
Takigawa looked around the apartment, Mai now had a smaller less expensive TV and that now seemed to be the trend around the room. Ever since she wrecked it a few months ago, she had taken the precaution of buying less expensive stuff so that if it did wreck again, it wouldn't matter so much.

"Well okay then but call me if anything happens." He hesitated a moment as he turned to leave, then walked over to Mai and gave her a hug before turning to Ayako. He walked over quickly and clumsily kissed her on the cheek, blushing furiously he quickly hurried out of the apartment before either of the astonished women could comment.

10:43 pm
Mai rolled over in bed and looked at Ayako.
"Are you gonna tell me what's going on between you and Monk or am I going to have to do some detective work?"
Ayako huffed and rolled over.

"Well?"

A mumbling was heard from the red head.

"Huh?"

"I may or may not have certain feelings for a certain shaggy haired bass playing Monk."
Mai smirked a little. She poked Ayako in the back, who flinched, and proceeded with her questioning.

"So, how long has this been going on?"

"Mai . . ."

"Have you kissed yet?"

"Mai-"

"Or been on a date?"

"MAI!"

"Yes?"

"Shut up."

"Well I -"

"No. Shut Up."

It was Mai's turn to huff now and she rolled away from Ayako. 'Well I suppose I shouldn't force Ayako

to tell me anything' She thought, 'I'll just wait. Or interrogate Monk instead.' Mai grinned to herself in the dark and closed her eyes. She started to drift off to sleep when she heard Ayako mutter "It started a couple of months ago, and he took me out to dinner last week."
Mai opened her eyes and turned over to look at the red head. Ayako kept her eyes closed as her face flamed up to match her fiery hair.

LineBreak-LineBreak-LineBreak

Papers with vague descriptions of certain people at certain times littered the floor of the apartment. Folders towered over the three people on the floor and paperclips glinted as the sunlight straggled in through the half open curtains. Three thick notebooks lay open with scrawls of writing and the occasional doodle, the three people who these notebooks belonged to were presently snacking on instant ramen.
"I think we've done rather well" Monk began, "considering the fact that we've learnt everything we need in 48 hours."
"Hmm yes but some of those hours were spent playing 'how much stuff can we draw on Ayako before she wakes up'!" Ayako retorted as she glared at the two mischievous players before her.
"Still, all we have to do now is go and exorcise this thing!" Monk shouted.
"Yeah" Mai agreed. She looked over the notes she had made in her notebook. The guy who had been murdered was Akiko Amano, he had had an ongoing rivalry with the man who had killed him, Gorou Himura. It had started when the two had opened restaurants next to each other. Things had quickly spiralled out of control as nasty pranks were played on the two restaurant owners daily; food would seemingly rot overnight, litter would adorn the previously spotless floors and bad odours would waft in and hang around in the air for days. The police had been called in numerous times to caution and even arrest the two menacing restaurant owners but they never listened. Within days they would turn back to their tricks.
Things finally stopped when Gorou's wife had died due to arsenic poisoning. Akiko had managed to put some in to all the food in the kitchen. Not enough to kill anybody, but definitely enough to make them as sick as a dog. Unfortunately Gorou had already closed the restaurant to attend a close friend's funeral, reluctantly leaving his wife all alone in the flat which resided above the restaurant. Asahi (Gorou's wife) had extremely poor health and was already sick due to influenza and the stress of her husband and neighbour's constant mischief and malice towards one another. Her sister, who had come over to look after her whilst Gorou was away, went down to the kitchen one morning to prepare a meal for Asahi and herself, ignorant to the fact that it was poisoned.
Asahi's frail body couldn't take anymore and she had died, suffering, that night.
Shortly after Gorou came home and found his wife dead. An autopsy was issued and the facts were learnt that Asahi had died due to arsenic poisoning (found in the stomach). Upon receiving the results, Gorou flew in to a frightful rage and stormed into Akiko's house. He was never seen again. At least, not alive. The tragic thing was that Akiko's wife and Asahi's sister were both killed in the brutal bloodshed. It seemed Gorou had gone mad with grief.

Mai shivered slightly. The most horrible thing about this case was that it only happened just less than a year ago, it saddened her to think that people could still behave so violently towards one another. The restaurant she currently worked in had been built over the previous ones; they had both been closed and bull dozed after the serial murders that took place. She re-read through her notes. She frowned. Something seemed a little off about this case, surprisingly she hadn't had anymore dreams to help them out and every time she thought about her first dream, her head went fuzzy and the picture blurred, the sounds muffled. A slight headache pressed lightly on her temples.

"Mai?" Monk said as he looked up at the petite woman,

"Are you okay? You look a bit pale."

Mai raised her head.

"Ah, I'm fine I'm just getting a slight headache, it's probably from all the reading." Mai replied,

shrugging off Monk's concern.

"Maybe we should take you back to the hospital, just in case." Ayako mused as she brushed a strand of hair from Mai's face.

"Hmmmm."

A sudden bang at the door was heard and Mai stood up to open it. A whirlwind of papers came flying through the door, in the midst stood Yasuhara.

So yeah, admittedly not a lot of action happens in this chapter but you do need the back story to understand the next one. And Naru will turn up soon! See you next week, Byeeeee