ANOTHER SIDE, ANOTHER STORY

Chapter Twenty Three

Red.J.K.

A police officer saw Steven and Amanda approaching them and waited patiently by the car. He could see the looks of shocks on their face and knew they must be the ones who lived here.

"What happened?" Amanda demanded first.

"We got a call from your neighbor. Said that they heard breaking noises outside." The cop started. Steven frowned, glaring at the broken window where he could see the inside of his family room. His immediate thought was that something had been stolen. But nobody had ever broken into their house before.

"When we got here—" The police officer went on. "—the window was broken. There was nobody in the house."

"So they got away…" Steven muttered darkly.

"Is anything stolen?" Amanda asked stupidly.

"We…don't know." The cop raised a burly eyebrow. He was a big guy, African, and had a nice bristly mustache to make up for the bald head. "We were waiting for someone to get home."

"It's a good thing mom wasn't home for break today." Amanda sighed, clutching at her chest. "She had a field trip with her kids at the—um—Kindercare."

The cop didn't look like he needed information. Instead, he led them both down the driveway through the house.

"Do you have any idea who it could be?" Steven demanded.

"There have been a few petty thefts in this area lately, but when I say "petty", I mean they stole things from the yard like a lawn mower or a car's gas—nothing big. This is the first actually Break in we've seen in about three months around here."

"So in other words you don't have a clue." Steven sighed with disappointment.

They looked around the family room but Steven desperately wanted to investigate his room and see Zando so he could find out exactly who had broken in and what had happened. It occurred to them there was a chance it was the Hunter but he doubted this for two reasons. One, Ryoku didn't know where he lived and two, as a Shinigami he could simply faze through the glass instead of breaking in. Whoever did this was definitely a human.

The television was still there. The china cabinet looked untouched. The coffee table, however, looked a little rearranged. Normally Steven kept all of the pictures he'd drawn all over it because he enjoyed drawing whenever he was watching television but now they were on the floor all over the place. Someone had shuffled through them, looking for something.

"Can't you get finger-prints or something off of these?" Amanda asked.

"We can, yes, assuming they weren't wearing gloves." The cop said.

"What about hair? Or something!?" Amanda cried out, running to her room to make sure everything was still there.

"Forgive her." Steven said. "She's easily shook-up."

"I understand." The cop sighed. "Does it look like anything was stolen to you?"

"Not in here." Steven said. "It's a mess but…everything that could've been stolen is still here."

"That's what I thought." The cop sighed. "What kind of guy breaks into a house and doesn't steal anything?"

Steven walked into the kitchen, gave it a quick glance around but everything was still there as well, before stepping into his bedroom to find it in complete disarray. His bed was his shambles. The curtains had been torn. The drawer full of clothes was in a mess. The clothes themselves were strewn about everywhere. The board games up in the top of his closet were now on the ground, covering the secret hatch that Zando had hidden in so many times. Zando, himself, however was nowhere to be seen and Steven felt a sudden weight of dread in his stomach and hoped that the Shinigami had remembered to hide in the ground in case something like this had happened.

He couldn't risk calling out to Zando. Instead, he thumped loudly on the floor a few times with his foot while the cop looked briefly into the bathroom.

As if on cue, Zando rose out from the board games looking fearful. "Thank god it's you." Zando said with relief.

Steven nodded his head to the cop to show that he couldn't say anything. Zando understood and fell silent. Steven looked over at the cop and thought of a hundred different ways to get rid of him so he could find out what happened himself, but none of them were very plausible.

"Find anything?" He asked.

"Nope. Everything looks normal." The policeman sighed. "When do your parents get home?"

Steven hated feeling like the cop was talking down to him, but he was. And his desire to kick him out intensified. "My dad will get here around five-o-clock. Do you want to leave and he could call you when he gets here?"

"I think it'd be safer to call him now and let him know." The cop said. "I don't want you kids here alone."

"I can handle myself." Steven said coldly.

The cop noticed his tone of voice and smirked. "I bet. I just want you to be safe just in case. So give me your dad's number and I'll call him up. Your mom, too."

Steven obliged, begrudgingly. He just wanted him gone. He couldn't think clearly with this cop here. He felt strangely naked now that he knew what it was like to have someone break in. He took the opportunity, while the cop was on the phone, to sneak into his room and look around.

"Where's the other Death Note?" Steven demanded in a hushed tone.

Zando looked worrisome. "I'm sorry, Steve." He said. "I forgot that it was in your drawer and hid before I could get it."

"Was the Hunter here?" Steven asked.

"I don't know. I didn't want to risk looking." Zando gulped.

Idiot! Steven glared at the drawer and opened the one where he'd hidden his Death Note. And he felt a rush of relief that it was still there, hidden underneath all the clothes. So whoever had broken in either wasn't looking for the Death Note or they just didn't find it. Thank god.

"It's still here." He sighed.

"That's good." Zando grinned weakly.

But something just wasn't right. Who the hell would break into his house?

"Steven." The cop said suddenly.

"Yeah?" Steven looked up, not expecting to be addressed so suddenly.

"You better come take a look at this." The cop said, waving him over from across the kitchen. Steven and Zando, hidden from the policeman's view, followed him into the computer room.

Over on the desk everything was a mess. There were papers everywhere and a glue stick was sitting on top of them next to a blue pen.

"What do you think they were looking for?" The cop asked.

"I don't know." Steven shrugged, picking up the glue stick and pen. He looked at the computer. It was turned on. And so were the copier and printer. It seemed that whoever had broken in needed to use them for some strange reason. But none of it was clicking in his head. It didn't make any sense at all.

His dad came home about an hour later. So did his mom. They talked to the cop for about an hour after that until finally he left and they were stuck to clean up everything. Steven cleaned most of his room in silence with his door shut. He didn't want to talk to his family right now. Zando had failed him by not protecting the Death Note. He couldn't trust anyone anymore, damn it.

Steven lied down on his bed thinking. There was only one person he could think of that was still alive who would do this. That damn government official, Mr. Redman. He worked with the government; he could get away with crap like this. He was probably an expert. Breaking the law didn't matter to him as long as he found out who Kira was, that was probably his philosophy. The Greater Good. Same as him.

Redman was the only one who could've done this. He followed Steven because he was a prime suspect. Had the fact that he'd argued with him made him suspicious? Steven had been so sure that he'd fooled the man.

He took out the Death Note from inside his drawer and flipped it open. The front page still had Dez's name written on it. It was the only one written in pen so he couldn't erase it like he'd erased the others. If Redman had found this and went online to see if Dez was dead then Redman would know the power of the Death note. But then why didn't he take it with him? And why was Steven not being taken to jail? He must've not seen it, then. But still, none of it made sense.

"Damn it all." He grunted into his pillow.

"Stressful, eh?" Zando grinned.

"Shut up." Steven muttered. "I just need to think…"

He wanted to kill Redman right now, that bastard. He wanted to write his name in the Death Note and be done with it. But he knew this wasn't possible for many reasons. He didn't know his first name. And even if he did, if he killed him then whoever had made the team of officials would be able to narrow it down to who the killer was because the chances of the killer being a student Redman had interrogated would be high. Steven would only become more suspicious if Redman died.

Damn, Damn, Damn! Steven punched his pillow.

"At least they didn't take the Death Note." Zando grinned. "You didn't lose."

"Yes I did." Steven growled and he explained to him about Mr. Redman. Zando still didn't seem to understand how he'd lost.

"I became suspicious enough for him to break in and trash my room." Steven said. "I don't know how many other kids had that happen to them yet but I'm willing to bet I'm the only one."

"Why would he suspect you, though?" Zando asked, scratching his chin.

"I don't know." Steven sighed. "Maybe I was too up front with him or something. I was probably the only one who snapped back at him. Everyone else would be too afraid to talk back to him because they wouldn't want to be accused of being Kira. I should've done that too but I couldn't help myself. That's how I lost."

"Well the game's still going." Zando said. "Everyone feels a sense of defeat every now and then."

"I won't lose again." Steven said. "I'll probably see Redman tomorrow and I'll bet he will try to talk to me again."

"What will you say?" Zando asked.

"He's gonna try and test me, of course." Steven said. "I already know what he'll try and do. If I don't tell him that my house was broken into and I act like everything is normal, then he'll think that I don't trust him and he'll be able to act off of that mistrust. But if I tell him that it was, then he'll ask me questions like "why would someone break into your house" and he would trap me like that."

"So then what will you say?" Zando asked.

Steven smirked. "The truth."

Steven expected to see Mr. Redman in second period again but when he walked inside he was surprised to find that this was not so. Luckily it didn't take long to figure out why. As soon as class started Mrs. Shaunesty started talking about how Redman had told her that he no longer needed to interrogate students in her class.

"Do you think he found out who the real Kira is?" Big Mac asked.

"Yeah right, Mac." the red-head, loud mouthed Kyle scoffed at his side. "It would be all over the news if that happened."

"Wouldn't that be weird if Kira really was in this class, though?" Sarah Schmidt said and Steven couldn't help but smirk, just a little bit.

He wondered for the rest of the class period where Mr. Redman was right now. He'd seen people in suits everywhere he went in the hallways and there were long, black cars in the parking lot that weren't normally there so he knew that the government was still investigating the school, just not this class in particular. But Redman had broken into his house, Steven was sure of this, which meant that she was especially suspicious of him. It was Redman's mistake, however, to think Steven was stupid. He was the type of man who thought that kids these days weren't very intelligent. He could tell by the way Redman had humored him in their conversation outside of the woodshop.

The real reason he isn't here is because he's avoiding me for now. Doesn't want to cause a scene in front of everybody. But I know he'll try to find me eventually and test me. I'll be ready… Steven thought, glaring at the white board in front of the class as the lesson ended.

"Hey, Steve." Jennie said, approaching him suddenly. He'd been so focused on what he was doing with Mr. Redman he'd forgotten about her.

Steven had to force himself not to light up. "Oh, hi."

"I know I procrastinated this for so long." Jennie began, smiling. "But we still have to have that picnic and I've been thinking to myself when we could do it, and—" Steven was only half listening. The other half was admiring her and enjoying the way she sounded like he, personally, was involved in this picnic idea of hers too.

"So how does that sound?" Jennie asked.

"Huh?" Steven blinked. "Oh, great."

"Were you listening?" Jennie asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course." Steven grinned, though his insides gave off an uncomfortable twist. "Uhm, when are we doing it?"

"I knew it." Jennie smirked.

You have no idea… Steven thought happily.

"Tomorrow sound good?"

"Sounds good."

"Good."

And she walked away.

Steven found Mr. Redman about an hour later after third period. He was walking out of the portable when he saw him striding across the big, green stretch of grass that connected the portables to the main building. Steven felt a surge of disgust for the man when he saw him. Redman looked confident and was giving Steven a look that clearly said he had him pinned down and defeated.

"Hello, Mr. Redman." Steven greeted.

"Just the man I was looking for." Redman greeted as well. "I was hoping we could have another little talk."

"Of course." Steven said. "I was looking for you too."

"Huh?" Redman blinked and it was obvious he hadn't expected this. Though, he could also be a good actor. Steven wasn't sure yet. "What for?"

"It's obvious you think I'm Kira." Steven said and he knew from the look in his eyes that Redman hadn't expected this, at least not so quickly. "You want to talk to me so you can prove the idea more plausible, right?"

"I never said I thought you were Kira." Redman frowned.

"Then why do you want to talk to me?"

"Because I think I've figured out who the real Kira is." Redman said and Steven felt a sudden jolt run up his spine. He'd not expected something like this. But Redman was surly lying.

"Why would you want to tell me that?" Steven asked darkly.

"Because after what you said yesterday, it's obvious you have strong feelings against Kira." said Redman, a look of pity on his face as if he were talking to someone who'd just lost a loved one at a funeral. "I want to show you who I think the real Kira is. I want you to see for yourself so…So you can decide for yourself."

"Does this person go to our school?" Steven asked and they started walking back into the portable building, heading toward Mr. Goodboy's (The computer teacher) class.

"Yes." Mr. Redman said and looked a little grim for some reason. "This may come as a shock when you find out who it is. This is only suspicion, however, so please don't get mad when you see."

"Why would you think I'd get mad?" Steven asked.

"You'll find out shortly." Mr. Redman said, opening the door. Mr. Goodboy was nowhere to be found. Steven wondered, briefly, if Mr. Redman was somehow friends with all of the teachers except for, perhaps, Mrs. Shaunesty.

He led Steven across the empty classroom full of computers on desks to Mr. Goodboy's computer. He motioned for him to sit in the comfortable, red chair and Steven obliged a little hesitantly. Mr. Redman bent over, taking the mouse in his hand, and clicking a small folder in the "My Computer" tab. It brought up a screen full of different sub-folders and one of them was labeled "Red.J.K."

"Brace yourself." Redman said and Steven sensed that he was a little eager for what was about to come next. Steven focused on the screen as he clicked on Red.J.K He wondered, briefly, what it meant. Red was probably for Redman but what about the J.K.?

And then a window opened up and it had seven, small black screens. Redman clicked on the first of them and a video started up. Steven realized, with plummeting horror what the J.K. meant.

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