"What's with the hat?" Shino finally broke the silence of their drive through Konoha's financial district.
"Oh you finally noticed it? Gift from my sister Hana. I guess she thinks I need something to fit her perceived image of how a detective should look. I'm humoring her by trying it out." Kiba half hoped driving in his convertible with the hat on would blow it away in the wind, but the city streets did not allow him to build up enough speed for that.
"It's a good looking hat," seemingly reading Kiba's mind, Shino snatched the hat off Kiba's head and put it down by his feet, "You never know what you might need to change your image when following someone or on a stakeout."
"Always some new angle with you isn't it Shino?"
"It's no new angle, just one you didn't bother to see."
"As long as you're looking at angles answer me this, why would Freeman take Patricia with him after losing a big, go to the Fontainebleau, kill her, steal the ring, and blame the band?"
"When you put it all together like that, it's messy. We can guess his desperation from his financial worries, but is he really the sort to kill out of desperation?"
"Guess we're going to have to find out his character on the fly." Kiba pulled the car into the parking lot of the building with 'Freeman Real Estate' written on the outside of the second floor. Going up the stairs to the offices, Kiba was surprised to find that it looked like business as usual in the office.
"Officers Aburame and Inuzuka here to see Mr. Freeman, we have some questions for him." Shino's approach was always so straightforward; it was no wonder the chief rarely used him for undercover assignments.
"Do you have an appointment?" The receptionist didn't look nervous, but something seemed off.
"His office is back here right? I'll just show myself in." Kiba was in no mood for the runaround today and just barged through the room to the back offices, ignoring the receptionist's objections. Sure enough the back offices were in contrast to the front, things were in disarray, papers unorganized, empty rooms, file cabinets flung open or tossed to the ground. Kiba's hand instinctively went to his sidearm in his coat but Shino tapped him on the shoulder and shook his head.
Moving over to Freeman's office Shino quickly opened the door to find it a mess. The open window carried a breeze which scattered all the papers to the floor. But amidst the rustling papers, Kiba heard a sound on the air. Quickly moving to the window, Kiba looked out to find Freeman had jumped to the next building's roof and was making a run for it.
"Never a dull day on the job." Climbing through the window as best he could, Kiba jumped off the ledge and hit the roof ten feet below with a roll and gave chase while yelling, "Konoha PD, freeze dirt bag!" Freeman had a healthy lead, and seemed to be in pretty good shape, but Kiba lived for this. Jumping over air condition units, running across the uneven rooftops of the low rent commercial district, climbing the ladders which only the construction or maintenance crews ever got to use; this was the stuff they ought to put in shows about police, but no film crew would ever be able to capture the first person excitement of leaping from one roof to another.
Sure enough Freeman was running to the end of the alley where Kiba noticed a hot rod was parked. With the lead freeman had, running down the steps of the building's fire escape, he knew wouldn't be able to catch up just by following. Quickly looking to the other side of the alley, he noticed a ladder running from the top of the building to the ground. With a great leap, Kiba jumped through the air and managed to grab the rungs of the ladder long enough to shift his grip, allowing him to slide down the sides of the ladder with his feet on the outside. Reaching the bottom he pulled out his pistol and pointed it at Freeman as he started to get into his car. From the connected street, Shino pulled in with his car, trapped them in. Knowing he was caught, Freeman gave up without a fight.
Rather than go back to the station, they just took him back to his office to sit him down in one of his own cubicles. This wasn't standard procedure, all the facts of the case seemed to point to Freeman as the one they wanted, but they only found him after sorting through one diversion after another and Kiba felt they were just getting the run around.
"Why'd you kill the girl Freeman?" Shino's cold tone cut through the warm Konoha afternoon air.
"I don't know what you're talking about." It was the standard answer from a two-bit shyster like this.
"We've got you pegged on the pleasure cruise, we know you lost a hundred grand that night, we have your description from the Fontainebleau, you're going away for a long time, better to confess now and save us the trouble." Kiba stepped up the heat, as Shino had that keen look as his gaze swept across the office.
"You bozos haven't even arrested me yet, you sure you're cops?" A slight nervous edge crept into his voice, good sign that he was ready to break.
"Lose at poker, kill a girl, frame a band, but you don't skip town. Instead you ransack your office. Were you going for a certain look by the time you figured cops would show up, or were you looking for something?"
Kiba stood up and went over to the one file cabinet in the room that wasn't ransacked or on the floor and motioned for Shino to toss him Freeman's keys.
"I know my rights you can't do thi-" Shino cut the man off with a stare.
"Miranda Rights are meant to preserve the admissibility of statements said by potential criminals after their arrest. It's true we haven't formally read you your rights, so do us all a favor and just keep your mouth shut for now. Because to be perfectly honest, neither of us care about anything you have to say. So let's start by saying you have the right to remain silent…"
Opening the file cabinet Kiba saw the typical housing files, a lot of shoddily filled out folders. A file in the third drawer down finally caught his eye, labeled "SHOKEN", a name he had heard earlier that day. Pulling it out all he found was a receipt for Federal Express international shipping to Japan.
"We lost the ring Shino, already on its way back to Japan. Read him his rights, I know where I have to go to finish this case."
"Remember not to take too long, chief wants you back on the station to start your next assignment. All right dirt bag, how about I finish reading your rights on the way back to my office?"
Kiba made a quick call out to the police chief in Patricia's home town and had him send a car out to pick up Mr. Goro on Suspicion of Conspiracy to commit murder. Musing for a moment, Kiba thought that this would be the moment on a cop show where they have that epic confrontation between the detective and the real mastermind of the murder. Goro would say the dishonor of his daughter's profession forced his hand, that the Ring was property of Imperial Japan, and that he could no longer live with the disgrace so he made a deal to kill his daughter and take back the ring. The whole grieving parent call between them was just an act, as far as Mr Goro was concerned his daughter had died years ago.
Pausing for a moment, Kiba wondered about his own situation. His own mother was notorious for her relationships with men in high society, but while it didn't sit comfortably with him he still trusted and respected her. When it comes to family, love and understanding are more important than approval.
Yet, that was a conversation which was never going to take place. The Goros lived five hours away and were definitely out of Kiba's jurisdiction. But he could get the ball rolling at least. The ring was a loss, but perhaps it was better off going back to Japan. It hadn't brought the Goro family any manner of luck at all.
The drive back to the station gave Kiba time to think about things, he figured it had been some time since he had seen his mother; probably needed to get together for a big family dinner soon. It had been a while since he'd been on a case that needed Akamaru, should ask his sister how her K-9 unit was going. Truth be told, it had been a long time since he'd done anything non-work related with Shino and Hinata as well. Hopefully the case the chief had for him wasn't going to be anything too demanding, so he could schedule time for those.
Finally getting to Captain Hatake's office, Kiba found Inspector Hiruzen was seated in the desk and Kakashi was standing to the side. Taking a seat, Kiba leaned back and said, "I finished up the Goro case, Tampa PD is going to handle the rest so contact Captain Miller for anything you need to coordinate."
"That's fine Inuzuka, thanks. Good work." Captain Hatake added the 'good work' as though it was an afterthought. Typically he'd forget to add something like that, whether it was in part because he was absent minded or just rude Kiba never knew.
"So you wanted to talk to me about an upcoming case?"
"Yeah about that, you see…" Kakashi nervously began.
"Turn in your badge and side arm Inuzuka, you're off the force." Inspector Hiruzen said with all the blunt force of a boxer giving a right cross to the jaw.