Chapter 2
The call had been received just after 5am. Some workers at the dock had discovered a body near one of the warehouses. The man, whoever he was, had been shot several times.
The police had arrived shortly after they had received the call and taped off the area to keep the curious from taking a peek or contaminating the crime scene. A few police officers perused around looking for clues and interviewing the workers who had found the body seeing if they couldn't find something out about the man or whoever killed him.
A car pulled up to the crime scene gaining to attention of the officers on duty. The doors opened and two men stepped out of the car. The driver was a man with a bored look on his face and a cigarette that hung loosely from his mouth. His dark hair was pulled back into a low ponytail as to not get in the way of the hat on his head. His partner was a much more energetic looking fellow. His bright blue eyes held a determined look in them and his spiky blonde hair was a striking contrast to his dark suit.
An officer walked over to greet the two men who stepped out of the car. The pony tailed man spoke with a hint of boredom in his voice. "Detective Nara. Detective Uzumaki. Homicide"
"Detectives. We've been waiting for you." The officer spoke politely as he greeted them.
The dark haired man, Detective Nara, spoke with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Yeah, yeah. What have we got to deal with this time?"
The officer gestured behind him in the direction of the body. "We've got a male, looks to be in his mid twenties. Multiple gunshot wounds to the abdomen. He was found this morning by some of the workers here. There isn't much blood at the crime scene though. Unusual given how many holes the guy has in him."
Detective Nara took a drag off of his cigarette and tossed it to the ground before turning to his partner. "Right, let's go check this out and get this over with. Come on, Naruto." The detectives nodded to the officer as they walked past him and towards the barricades that surrounded the crime scene. His partner followed just behind him.
The two men passed the officers surrounding the body and got right to looking things over. The scene itself wasn't anything too out of the ordinary given the gang war that had been brewing. The young man was laying face down on the ground right next to one of the many warehouses that lined the docks. His suit was stained with blood and riddled with holes. Whoever shot this man wanted to make sure he was good and dead.
Naruto was the first to speak up. "Alright Shikamaru, I had to look at the body last time so it's your turn to mess with it now. I'll go check out the area around it to see if I can find anything!" Without even giving his partner a chance to respond, Naruto walked away leaving his very annoyed looking partner to look over the body.
Shikamaru groaned and started walking over to where the dead man was laying on the ground. "Man, he's such a pain in the ass…"
He knelt down over the body to look him over. The man was averaged height with dark hair that was reminiscent of a water foul's behind. He looked to be somewhere in his 20's, as the officer had stated. He had half a dozen exit wounds on his back and he was covered in blood. Shikamaru grabbed the man and flipped him over so. The crime scene photographer had already done his job and documented everything, allowing the detectives to not worry about disturbing the body or evidence.
He took his time looking the man over trying to spot any indication of what may have happened. But his face and hands looked fine. No sign of a struggle or a fight that could have led to his death. He opened the man's jacket and riffled though his pockets. The only thing he found was a had written note that was stained with blood. Lucky for him the words were unmarred and legible. It read:
CRESCENT MOON CLUB
SUNDAY, 9PM SHARP
DON'T BE LATE!
"Crescent Moon Club huh? Looks like we've got ourselves one hell of a lead…" Shikamaru took the note as evidence and looked the man over one last time to make sure he hadn't missed anything on him but the man held no more secrets.
He stood from his spot crouched over the body and looked over the scene more closely. As the officer has stated before there wasn't much blood at the scene. There was only a small amount that had been underneath the body. Not nearly enough considering how man holes the guy had in him. Shikamaru also took note at the lack of bullet holes on the warehouse behind the body. If that man had been shot here the side of the warehouse would be littered with holes. He made a mental note to find out who the warehouse belonged to, just to be thorough.
His attention was grabbed by his partner calling out to him and making his way over, having apparently finished looking around for clues elsewhere. "Naruto. Did you find anything."
The blonde shook his head in response. "That's the weird thing. I didn't find anything. No tire tracks, footsteps, or shell casings. Nothin' at all."
"Looks like our John Doe was killed at another location and placed here so someone would find him. No foot prints or tire tracks, no shell casings, no bullet holes, no blood… Man, what a pain in the ass…"The pony tailed detective groaned.
"So, did you find anything on the guy?" Naruto looked at him with a hint of excitement.
Shikamaru smirked and started walking away from the crime scene. "I found a note in his jacket pocket. Looks like our guy was heading for the Crescent Moon Club for something."
Naruto looked at his partner with a hint of surprise. "Wait… The Crescent Moon Club? Isn't that the place Okami Tsukino owns? You know, that rich business lady who owns all those bars around the city. You think she has something to do with this?"
The pony tailed man shrugged in response. "We'll find out once we get there tomorrow night. The note I found suggests he was supposed to be there tomorrow night at nine."
Naruto gave his partner a funny look. "Ah… I'll never understand what it is you have against that woman. I mean, she does so much for the police force and the community-" But before Naruto could continue his partner shot him a look that told him to keep his mouth shut.
As the two men made their way back to their car, they stopped and approached one of the officers. Shikamaru gestured towards the warehouse behind him. "Find out who owns that warehouse the body was found next to and get back to me on that." The officer nodded and the two detectives started towards their car.
They said their 'goodbyes' and 'good lucks' to the other officers before getting in their car and making their way back to the station to file their reports on the incident and prepare for their trip to the club the following evening.
The detectives rode in the car making idle chit-chat. As usual, Naruto was the one doing most of the talking while his partner just sat and listened for most of the conversation, only giving his two cents ever so often. But it didn't take long for them to reach the police station. Traffic had been light since most people had already made their way to work by that time.
Shikamaru pulled the car into the small lot on the side of the Los Konohas police station. The lot was mostly empty at this time of day. Only a few personal vehicles and a single police cruiser took up various spots. They exited their car and made their way inside the building.
They neared the front desk where a rather husky looking officer was sat doing paperwork. He looked up at the detectives as they walked in and gave them a friendly wave. "Ah, Naruto, welcome back! We're still on for drinks after work, right Shikamaru?"
Naruto returned the greeting and waved as he walked off to start on his paperwork. Shikamaru stopped for a moment and leaned his hand on the desk where his friend was sitting. "Yeah, we are. This case shouldn't keep me here too late." He smirked and turned to leave, following his partner in the direction of the room where their desks were located. "Keep up the good work, Chouji." The two waved to each other before getting back to their work.
Shikamaru walked through the halls of the police station passing by a few officers on his way to his desk. He entered the room where his paperwork was waiting for him and he sighed in relief. The room was empty except for him and his partner. Meaning there was less distractions to get in the way of his work. His blonde companion was more than enough of a distraction already. He slumped into his chair and grabbed a pen that sat nearby on his desk.
But before his pen could even hit the paper his concentration was broke by the loud voice of Naruto. "Hey! So who do you think that guy was?" He paused for a moment and tapped his chin with the pen he was holding. "I wonder why he was going to the Crescent moon Club…" Shikamaru tried to get a word in to tell Naruto to shut up and work but he was cut off before he could even open his mouth. "I bet he was someone important…"
Naruto rambled on for a few minutes about all of his theories. All the while Shikamaru was getting more and more annoyed. All he wanted to do was finish his paperwork, look over what little evidence they had, go out for drinks with his best friend, and then return home to relax. He did his best to block out what his partner was saying as he filled out the forms that were sitting in front of him.
But that didn't stop Naruto from talking. Maybe it was just his way of dealing with the kinds of things they saw as homicide detectives. The job certainly wasn't an easy one. And sometimes the crime scenes could be downright gruesome. Yet somehow he managed to keep a positive attitude through it all. Naruto was a remarkable man in that sense. And even though he could sometimes get on his partner's nerves, Shikamaru was thankful to have him around.
"Hey, Shikamaru… You never did explain why it is you don't like Miss Tsukino. I mean, she really does a lot of good for us and everyone else…" Naruto spoke with a sincere curiosity. As long as he and Shikamaru had been partners, he had never been told the reasoning behind the dislike for a certain business owner. For as long as they had been assigned to work together, Shikamaru had pursued the woman. He seemed convinced that she was hiding something.
Okami Tsukino was known as a friend to the police force and the community. She regularly helped them out with donation drives for charity, helped fund the station, and attended many of their auctions. She was even somewhat close to the police chief and his wife. And yet, in spite of that, Shikamaru had always seemed suspicious of her. He was always looking for some excuse to knock her down a peg or two or lock her behind bars. Though he never went into full detail as to why. But the sincere look in those blue eyes… Maybe that changed his mind.
"There's just something about her that doesn't add up is all." Shikamaru sat his pen down and turned to face his partner. "Putting the obvious connection with her family name and one of the most notorious gangs in the city aside, I think it's pretty obvious she's up to something. I've run the numbers a few times and she's making a lot more money than she should be given the businesses she owns. But I think tax evasion is the least of her crimes… That extra money has to come from somewhere, after all. I just need to find the proof that'll put her away."
"So you think she's connected to that gang?" Naruto let out a small chuckle. "I think you've been watching too many movies. I doubt a woman like her has anything to do with a gang like that. Not to mention, there are plenty of people in this city who have the same last name as she does. If her name is your biggest lead, then you have a lot of people to start looking at!" Naruto chuckled again before resuming his own work. It was a response Shikamaru got whenever he expressed these thoughts about a certain business woman to someone. He knew that she had everyone at the police station fooled.
Everyone but him. He just need to prove it first.
A few hours had passed in relative silence as the detectives worked before an officer walked into the room and approached the two. He held a file and some papers in his hand. "So we managed to find out the name of your John Doe. Turns out his name is Uchiha, Sasuke. Age 26. He had a previous arrest record for a few petty crimes, including possession of a controlled substance, and a couple traffic violations. He had a tattoo on the base of his neck, a snake wrapped around a sun, and was suspected to be affiliated with the Taiyo gang." He handed the papers to Shikamaru before continuing. "The obvious is, the cause of death was seven gunshot wounds to his abdomen. Time of death was placed somewhere between three to four am this morning."
Naruto had stood from his desk and walked to where his partner was sat to peek over his shoulder at the coroner's report.
"We also found out about that warehouse." The officer handed Shikamaru another piece of paper. "It's owned by Tsukino, Okami."
That gained the attention of both men. Naruto looked down at his partner in surprise. Shikamaru, on the other hand, just smirked. "What did I tell you? I knew she was involved in this somehow."
The rest of their day passed without incident. They had managed to finish the hours of paperwork they needed to do, review the evidence they had, and clocked out for the day. Naruto had said his goodbye's to his coworkers and started on his drive home. Shikamaru had met up with his best friend and the two were headed out as well.
But even as he sat there, a cold beer in his hand and a cigarette in his mouth, he couldn't seem to get the case out of his mind. He was anxious. It wasn't the first time he had investigated a crime and Okami Tsukino's name had come up. But every time it happened there just wasn't enough evidence to link her to anything. It didn't help that the rest of the department would shrug off his concerns. And yet, every time her name came up, he was anxious. He wanted nothing more than to prove he was right about her and take her down.
Maybe, he thought. Maybe tomorrow would finally be the day where he got something on her. Maybe it would be the day she let something slip and he could slap the cuffs on her once and for all. Maybe…
