Salvation for the Broken Children

by Ocena Strex

When Sephiroth is found dead in his home, Tseng and his team of investigators set out to find the murderer. But as they slowly get closer to solving the case, Tseng makes a discovery that makes him doubt his determination to do so.

2. Chapter 2

A/N: Welcome to chapter 2 of Salvation for the Broken Children!

Woah! As I was reading through this chapter just now before posting, I actually added a few bits here and there. It's now over 6000 words long! Happy reading every one :).

Warnings: This chapter may contain triggers if you're sensitive to the subject of this chapter. Reader's discretion is advised when you get to the part where Tseng finds the secret room. There are no other markers in this chapter to indicate the part.

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.

0o0o0

Chapter 2

"So what do we do now boss?" Reno inquired.

They had returned to Tseng's office on the ground floor. Now that most of the preliminary investigation was either done or underway, Tseng always need some time to think at this point. There were several ways to continue with the investigation, but he wanted to take the route that would most likely prove to be the most effective.

"Has Rude gotten back yet?" Tseng asked instead.

Reno shrugged, "Dunno, yo. Want me to go look for him?"

"Yes. He should have the statements of the victim's neighbours. We'll need those before we can plan our next course of action."

"On it boss."

Reno left the office, leaving Tseng alone with his thoughts. Something just didn't feel right about this case. Everything so far led to the conclusion that this was a very personal crime. The killer had gotten a hold of a gun and the crime scene seemed to be clean, which was a clear indication that this was a planned murder. Yet the obvious anger that was let out on Sephiroth's face indicated that the murderer had been severely angry at him, which often led to mistakes being made.

Then there was also the problem of a motive. The only people who could have gotten easy access to the victim's house were a small group. His colleagues certainly had access to a gun, but neither seemed to have any reason to want their boss dead. His only real lead was Genesis. He would have access to the house, to a gun, and he might have had a personal issue with the victim. Yet for some reason it just didn't feel right. Why would Genesis have been so upset upon hearing the news of his death? Was he really that good of an actor to fool Tseng? The latter prided himself for being able to read people well, and it really didn't seem like the man was acting. Checking his alibi was the only way to really find an answer.

But what if the alibis checked out? They would be at a dead end then. Tseng knew he was missing something. His gut had never failed him before, not even with the AVALANCHE case. Even though that one had yet to be solved, he knew he was slowly getting closer, and that it was just a matter of time before they slipped up.

"Here's the reports boss." Reno said upon re-entering the office, waving a small file that was in his hand.

"Let me see them." Tseng replied while extending his hand.

Reno placed the file there and then leaned back to allow his boss the time he needed to go over the reports. He took an unlit cigarette from behind his ear, popped it between his lips and took a lighter out of his pocket to light it. Luckily Tseng didn't mind him smoking in his office. Though his boss was not a smoker himself, he'd rather have the redhead smoke in his office or while on the road than when he was investigating.

While Reno casually enjoyed his smoke, Tseng looked at the file. It contained the photographs shot at the scene of the crime and the preliminary reports. Among them were the statements of Sephiroth's neighbours. They weren't very helpful though. The man had lived in a fancy neighbourhood. There was only one neighbour that could have noticed anything, and she claimed she and her husband had gone out that night. Considering that the victim was killed somewhere last night, it fit the timeline.

More interestingly though, was the report about the bullet Rude'd found. It wasn't a match to the victim's own gun, which he had been expecting. This meant that the killer had brought his own gun to the scene. Finding that gun would mean finding the killer.

"Reno." He caught the attention of his subordinate, "I want you to focus your efforts on Genesis for now. See if his alibi checks out and confiscate his handgun for analysis just to be sure."

Reno nodded, taking a drag and placing this cigarette between his fingers, "And what are you going to do boss?"

"I'm going back to the crime scene." He said, "I have a feeling that we might have missed something there."

"All right." Reno took a final drag before he put out his smoke on the ashtray that was on his boss's desk, "You can count on me, yo. If this guy is guilty I'll find out." He added confidently.

"I know you will." Tseng acknowledged with a nod. The two then left the latter's office to go their separate ways.

0o0o0

It was late afternoon by the time Reno finally tracked Genesis down to his own residence. As soon as he'd received his orders from Tseng he went back to the Shinra Building first, only to hear that his suspect had gone home as soon as he could. After that it took a while to get his address, but he managed to get it in the end, and was now standing on the front porch.

Genesis lived in a decent area. Not as fancy as Sephiroth's, but surely respectable. Then again, he was one of the more highly ranked officers. Reno guessed the pay must have been good.

Deciding not to dawdle any longer, the redhead marched up the few steps leading to the front door and knocked on it. There was silence first, which made Reno wonder whether the man was even at home, or if he might be unwilling to open the door. He raised his hand to knock again, but then heard some shuffling on the other side. Sure enough a haggard looking Genesis opened the door not soon after.

"What do you want?" He said gruffly, obviously not in the mood to talk to his visitor.

Reno didn't let that deter him though, "Mister Rhapsodos, I would like to ask you some more questions about the case. Will you let me in, yo?"

Genesis sighed and Reno could see he was holding back the tears that threatened to fall, "I've already told you all I know. I would appreciate it if you would leave me alone and find the mother fucking bitch who killed Seph."

"Mister Rhapsodos, you are a suspect in our case." Reno said bluntly, observing the reaction he got from the man.

His eyes grew big and his mouth was slightly agape. It was confusing to Reno, since he was pretty satisfied that this man was actually their murderer. He doubted it now though. Judging from Genesis's appearance he had spent quite a few hours grieving over Sephiroth's death. That he could see as a delayed response of intense guilt to the actual murder. But it was the fact that he could only see genuine surprise that threw him off. Genesis couldn't be that good of an actor, could he?

"I did not kill Sephiroth!" Genesis hissed angrily as soon as he had composed himself, "Why would I kill the man that I loved?"

"That's what I'd like to know too yo, but it might be better if we discuss this privately." The redhead gestured towards the interior of the house.

Genesis glared at him then, but eventually gave in and opened the door further to allow Reno to pass. The detective made his way to the living room with Genesis closely behind him. The latter took a seat on his sofa and grabbed onto the glass that was sitting on the coffee table in front of him. Reno didn't need to smell the stuff to know it was some sort of strong alcoholic.

"I told you, I did not kill Sephiroth." Genesis started speaking then, taking a swig of his drink afterwards.

"You said you loved him, yes?"

The man nodded.

"And you were in a relationship with him?"

"If you could call it that." Came the murmured reply.

Reno cocked his head, "Care to elaborate on that, yo?"

Genesis sighed again, "We were…involved yes, but not in the way I would have liked it to be."

Reno crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow in question, "It was one-sided?"

The auburn-haired man shook his head in denial, "No, I do believe he felt something for me. Seph wasn't the type to let simply anyone close, and certainly not like that." A strained smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he reminisced, "I actually hated his guts when I first met him, you know? I thought he was the most arrogant bastard I'd ever met, but as I got to know him I started to see that it was not arrogance, but rather a genuine lack of social skills." He shook his head, draining the glass in his hands before setting it back down on the coffee table, "Once I knew that, I started to see him in a whole different light. Over time I realised that I was falling for him."

"But he didn't really reciprocate your feelings." Reno deduced.

"Yes…no…I don't really know." Genesis hesitated, "He accepted my advances, but never made an effort himself. I don't know whether he just didn't know it was expected of him, or that he just didn't have an interest in me that way."

Reno cocked an eyebrow, "So you were what? Like, friends with benefits or something?"

Genesis shook his head as he lowered it, pressing his palm against his forehead, "Perhaps on the outside, but I wished it to be more." He took a deep breath and lifted his head to face Reno again, "But whatever we were I didn't kill him."

Reno crossed his arms, thinking about what this man had told him along with his growing doubts. It just made no sense to him. He decided he would just have to pressure the man to see whether that would yield any results, "Sounds to me like you do have a motive to, yo."

"What?!" Genesis shot up from the couch, "How do I have a motive? I loved him. I didn't want to see him hurt!"

"But you also wanted him to love you back, yo." Reno pointed out, making Genesis back off a little, "We know that whoever killed Sephiroth must have let him into his house willingly. The autopsy report also revealed that he was shot by a standard handgun. You certainly fit into the small group of people who had the opportunity."

"Opportunity perhaps." Genesis conceded, "But no motive."

"Really now?" Reno smirked, "How about this. You decided to go to his house last evening. He lets you in without a fuss. You try to advance your relationship, but he is oblivious or rejects your advances. You get frustrated, because you're not getting out of it what you need. Somewhere along the way you get into a fight. Feeling sick and tired of the heartbreak you're going through you grab your gun and shoot him. Then you kick his face in because you hate yourself for falling for that pretty face."

"That…" Genesis fervently shook his head, "That's absurd!"

"Is it?" Reno questioned, "Believe me I've heard worse reasons why somebody chose to harm another."

"I didn't kill him!" Genesis pressed desperately, "I wasn't even near him last night. I already told you that I was at the LOVELESS play in Sector 8. You can verify that."

"And I will. But since you're so adamant about not being our killer, then you would not mind me confiscating your gun for our investigation."

Genesis glared at him, and for a moment Reno thought he was going to refuse handing over the weapon. It would be pointless if he was truly innocent, but his current anger and grief might just make him unwilling to just hand it over. If that were the case, the redhead could always come back with a search warrant.

By this point though he truly believed he had it wrong. The man's reactions were just too genuine to be considered fake. The theory hadn't sounded odd to Reno. He was truthful when he said that he'd heard of motives that seemed superficial to practically everybody other than the one who committed the crime. But it just didn't seem like Genesis was the type to do such a thing. He would probably have walked away from the relationship before it would come to that.

After a few moments Genesis finally disengaged his glare. He turned around and walked to the desk that was sitting in a corner of the room. He opened the drawer to take out his handgun. Reno tensed briefly at that moment. It was reflex basically. If he turned out to be wrong and Genesis would decide to point the gun at him he'd better be able to react fast.

Luckily for the redhead the auburn-haired male had no intention of shooting him. He held it in such a way that it was clear and walked back to the investigator, "I'm positive you will find out that this is not the gun that has been used. And you'll find out that my alibi checks out. Now stop bothering me and find the one who killed Sephiroth."

Reno tentatively took the gun and nodded, having every intention to do just that.

0o0o0

By the time Tseng arrived at the crime scene he found it calmed down considerably from this morning. The tape to keep intruders away while the investigation was still running was still there, but otherwise the house was empty. Finally Tseng would be able to do a detailed search of his own. He found that he could investigate better while he was alone, instead of having a lot of people roaming about, taking photographs and collecting the obvious evidence.

He knew that the team was always very thorough in their scouring of whatever crime scene they encountered. It hardly happened that they missed anything. Right now it also wasn't that Tseng thought they had overlooked anything, but he did have a feeling that the answer to solving this case might actually be hidden in this house.

He was standing in the middle of the living room as he looked around. There was blood on the floor where the body had been, but other than that Tseng was struck again by how clean the scene was. Remove the bloodstain and it wouldn't even be a scene of a crime. Everything was clean and in order. Nothing was out of place. Sephiroth was truly killed without being able to react.

But strangely enough that wasn't what drew Tseng back to this place. He had known this since this morning when they'd first arrived here. No, he wasn't going to find any clues by wondering about how clean the scene was. He needed to dig further.

He moved from his position in the living room to the adjoining rooms. Again there wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The kitchen, the study, the bedrooms, the bathroom, all rooms were checked out, but nothing of note could be found. It frustrated Tseng. His gut told him he was missing something and it had never failed him before. His gut also strangely drew him back to the hallway.

The hallway was a fairly long corridor leading from the front door to the living room. It contained everything one would expect. There was a long table along the side near the door with various items on it. Among them were a few bits of mail and a small bowl which had contained the man's keys before they had been confiscated. It didn't contain anything out of the ordinary otherwise. Sephiroth obviously kept his place tidy, since the table was devoid of any real clutter.

So why then, was Tseng drawn to this part of the house? It didn't make sense, since the hallway wasn't any different in appearance from the other rooms. Except for…

Tseng's eyes grew has he realised something. Where was the basement? He knew for certain these kinds of houses had one. Knowing what he did about architecture, there should be a doorway leading down at the end of the hallway. His eyes drew to the spot the door should have been, but instead of that there was a closet. He presumed it to be a place for coats to be hung up. Judging from the rest of the house Sephiroth wasn't the type of man to use an ordinary coat rack which could be cluttered with coats. A closet to store them in made much more sense, hence why he didn't think twice about it before now.

He tentatively walked towards the closet. He ran his hands over its smooth surface as if that would give him some kind of clue. He noticed the key that was in one of the knobs then. He briefly thought how it was odd that a place to store coats in had an actual lock. He shrugged it off though and turned the key in order to open the door, seeing that it was indeed being used a place to store coats and jackets. He pushed those to the side and felt for the back wall. He felt nothing though, but there was something a little bit off. Now that it was open the closet seemed to be less deep than the outside made it seem to be. And after a quick check Tseng could confirm that particular observation. He was growing excited. He was definitely on to something now. Somewhere behind this closet was most likely a secret door leading to the basement, and Tseng dreaded to think why the man would want it concealed.

He continued his investigation of the closet. Searching and feeling around for any hidden switches or locks, but didn't find any. Raising his eyebrows in slight confusion, he closed the door and took a better look at the outside. There was nothing hidden on its sides, he couldn't get around the back, and even the front held nothing special. It was just a closet door with a lock and key in the knob.

It was that last observation that made Tseng frown again. The closet had two doors, which wasn't odd. However, the fact that both knobs had a keyhole was. He didn't have to use the key in both knobs to open both doors. So why then did both knobs have a keyhole?

He was getting so close to the answer that Tseng could practically feel it. He took the key from the knob it was in and tried to use it on the other knob. With a frown he realised that it didn't fit. Now this was starting to make even less sense. Did it need another key perhaps? That was the most logical explanation. He suddenly didn't like it that the keys that had been found in the hallway had been confiscated. One of them might have been the one to fit this other knob. There was no other option than to get back to the department and retrieve them.

For some reason however, Tseng didn't think that was where the missing key was. It was becoming increasingly obvious to him that their victim was trying to hide something here. This contraption just seemed too elaborated to have the answer be hanging on that keychain. He decided to continue exploring before he would take that consideration more seriously.

He took the key in his hand, turning it over a couple times as he studied it. It looked to be a normal key; one with a thin bar with a small head at the end and a circular handle. He also took a look at the keyholes themselves. He could now clearly see that the two were different. He almost wished Cissnei was here with him. She was something of an expert on locks and could tell what kind of key would fit what lock by just looking at it.

Tseng nearly face palmed then. Without hesitation he took out his phone and took pictures of the two locks and the key. He sent them both to Cissnei before calling her right afterwards.

"What is it boss?" She asked as she picked up the phone after the first ring.

"I just sent you some pictures of two locks and a key. Did you get them?"

"One moment boss." She replied. Tseng could hear her type on the other end of the line while she downloaded the pictures from the email, "Got them." She said after a while.

"I found the key in the first lock, but want to know what kind of key would fit the second one." Tseng told her, hoping that she could help him.

Cissnei hummed as she took a closer look, "Well, the first lock is pretty standard, but the second lock certainly doesn't seem to be. It almost more like it's a coin slot than an actual keyhole."

"A coin slot?"

"That's the best way I can put it boss. I'd say the key you are looking for has the shape of a coin; flat with a round head, like the handle of the key you've got there."

Tseng looked back at the key in his hand. Was it really that simple? He turned his attention back to the phone then, "Thanks Cissnei. Tell me if you find anything else that's significant."

"Of course boss." She confirmed before ending the call.

Tseng pocketed his phone and prepared himself to try out his suspicion. He turned the key around, and pushed it into the keyhole. With a slight feeling of elation he realised that it was a perfect fit. He carefully turned the key then and heard a distinct click of something opening up. He carefully opened the door of the closet back open then. With satisfaction he saw that a doorway had now appeared at the back to the closet. He stepped up and walked right in, following the lightly illuminated steps down into the basement.

Contrary to how they were often displayed in films, these steps weren't creaky and nearly buckling under the man's weight. They were steady and covered by soft carpet, allowing Tseng to descent with relatively little noise. Once he reached the bottom step he was faced with another door. It wasn't locked, but Tseng could immediately tell that it was no ordinary door. It was much thicker and heavier, and it took him a little bit more strength to push it open. When he had, he allowed the light from the stairway to show him the light switch that was on the wall next to him. He hit it and the room was immediately washed in gentle yellow light.

What Tseng saw actually made him gasp. The floor was covered by the same red carpet that covered the stairs, though the floor itself was slightly lower. The walls were covered by pointed structures that had also been painted red, though in a lighter hue. Other than that there was little furniture in the room. Directly to Tseng's left was a wooden desk with a chair. On the same side but at the far corner was a double bed, neatly made with deep-red silk sheets. There were handcuffs chained to the headboard. The right side of the room was filled with several cabinets. For several of them the doors were partly made of glass, and Tseng could see their contents. What he saw disturbed him. Displayed before him was a wide range of sex toys, including BDSM equipment.

Partly with fascination, partly with horror, Tseng moved into the room to examine it further. He noticed how there were no windows. The door had also automatically moved back to close itself. That was a weird particular sensation. It felt as if everything around him was slightly muted. He could hear himself walk around, and hum quietly to himself, but it sounded as if he was listening through a filter. He then understood what the carpet and the pointed structures were used for. His suspicions were confirmed when he noticed that the padding on the wall was made of Styrofoam. He knew that the carpet and Styrofoam made it harder for sound to reflect, reducing echo and making the room sound proof. It wasn't that hard to guess why it was made that way.

Tseng immediately revised his theory on this case. It was becoming fairly obvious that Sephiroth had some dark obsession, and it was quite likely that their killer was one of his victims. But who were his victims? And what kind of atrocities had he done? Those questions and a lot of others were roaming through his head. He decided to look for more clues.

His search was quite short lived. His first place to check was the desk in the corner near the door. Upon opening the drawers he found several interesting items. The first drawer held two cameras, one photo and one video. In the second drawer he found the necessary fluids and equipment for developing photographs. But it was the third and last drawer that held the most interesting item.

On the outside it was just an ordinary binder which had been filled up with quite a few sheets of paper. It wasn't overly full, but rather decently filled up. What Tseng saw on the inside though, made him pale slightly.

They were pictures mostly. Hundreds of pictures. And on them were children.

While leafing through the binder Tseng felt disgust rise within him. These children all seemed to be in their early to mid teens. And they were all naked, often bound to a chair or to the bed. On some pictures the children were either sleeping or unconscious; on others they were awake but they always had a fearful expression on their faces; on yet others they were involved in some kind of sexual act.

At some point Tseng actually had to close the binder and set it back on the table. He was used to seeing corpses all day long, and he'd seen quite a few cases involving rape and abuse. It never got to him. It was part of what made him such a good detective. But this…this somehow got to him. Perhaps it was the massive scale upon which this man had been able to operate, or the obvious effort he'd taken to make sure his dark activities remained undiscovered. Who knew? But at least Tseng now knew in what direction they should look. He was convinced that one of these children was their murderer.

However, he wasn't so sure whether he really wanted to find out who it was. He was having a personal moral debate in which he weighed the murder to systematic child abuse. It all honesty the latter weighed more heavily. Still, he couldn't forget that a crime was a crime, and that it was his responsibility as an investigator to solve it. Whether he sympathised with the criminal was irrelevant.

Keeping that final thought firmly in the forefront of his mind, Tseng emotionally detached himself from his discovery. He closed the binder for now and continued investigating the room. There was little else to be found, though there was one other discovery that he made. Besides the cabinets with the toys, there was also one that was filled to the brim with DVDs.

Tseng guessed there to be at least one for every victim in the binder. He took a look at a few of them to see whether they held any clues as to the children's identities. Sadly, none of them did. They were all titled, but none of them held a name. Instead the titles indicated what was on it. In particular what kind of sexual act could be viewed on it.

He knew he wasn't able to retrieve all the DVDs right now with the amount that was displayed before him. So instead he decided to take along two of them, along with the binder, and leave the rest. They would still be here if they needed them somewhere along the investigation.

With his evidence in tow, and his gut feeling satisfied, Tseng left the room and the house behind him, and returned to the office.

0o0o0

"What have you got for me now boss?" Cissnei asked in curiosity when Tseng had returned to the lab.

He held up the binder he had found, "I want you to start analysing this."

Cissnei reached out to take it from him, but he moved it away from her before she could. She retracted her hand with a slightly confused look on her face, silently asking the man to explain himself.

"I want to warn you before opening this binder Cissnei." He said softly, "What's in here isn't pretty, and might upset you."

Cissnei swallowed thickly then. She asked herself whether she wanted to know what the binder held in that case. She could be a bit sensitive - of that she was aware – but Tseng had never actively kept stuff away from her. When she'd first started working here some of the things she saw had upset her. Tseng had always been the one to talk to whenever it really bothered her. He would provide a kind and patient listener to her emotional outburst. Afterwards he would place a gentle hand on her shoulder, telling her she was doing a great job and that it was okay to be upset. It was better to get it out of her system that way rather than to push it all away.

In a way Tseng knew her better than many of the others working for the MPD. If he anticipated her being bothered by certain evidence she trusted in his judgement. But for him to warn her of it, to see the man she looked up to himself being uncomfortable, was disconcerting to say the least.

Still, she nodded with surety and held out her hand again to take the binder. This time Tseng relinquished it. Taking a deep breath, she opened it to look at what was inside. After a few moments of flipping through it, she had paled considerably.

"I need you to see whether you can find out how old these pictures are, and whether you can identify those who are on it." Tseng said.

Cissnei closed her eyes and firmly shut the binder. She then turned her head to face her boss again and reopened her eyes, "Did our vic do this?" She asked softly.

"Yes." Tseng confirmed simply, "And I believe our killer is one of those people."

She nodded in understanding. She then straightened herself en steeled her expression, "I will do my best boss." She said firmly.

"Of that I have no doubt Cissnei. Call me when you find anything." He reassured her before leaving her to do her job.

He looked at his watch as he walked down the hallway to his office, noticing that it was nearing the end of his shift. There was also nothing much he could do by this point. He needed to wait for Cissnei to finish her analyses so they could get some more leads. He could technically go ahead and view the DVDs he'd taken along, but felt that it might be better to leave that until tomorrow, since he was sure he would have trouble sleeping if he viewed them right now otherwise. He might as well go home to get some rest, since he had no doubt he might be getting little later on during this investigation.

However, upon entering his office he could see that he had a guest. Veld was leaning against Tseng's desk with his arms crossed and tapping his fingers impatiently.

"So you finally decide to come back to your office." He snapped, moving to stand up straight and face his subordinate properly.

"I was working on the investigation." Tseng replied calmly.

"By harassing one of the other important men within Shinra and placing false accusations on him?"

Tseng frowned in slight confusion. Though he did get that his chief was most likely referring to Reno's interrogation of Genesis, he failed to see how he was in the wrong here, "Genesis Rhapsodos is a viable suspect in this case. It would have been wrong not to investigate him."

Veld glared and grabbed a report that was sitting on Tseng's desk en pushed it into the detective's face, "This report clearly states that Genesis's alibi checks out. If you had bothered to wait for just one hour you would have known he was not your man." He slammed the paper back down then and took a few steps to advance on Tseng, making the latter having to look up slightly so as to properly face his chief, "You acted presumptuous Tseng, and in this case I cannot allow that to happen."

Tseng, despite having to look up, was not intimidated however, "You wanted this case solved as soon as possible. There was good reason to believe Genesis could have been involved. If that had been the case you would have probably been scolding me for not having gone after the man as soon as I could." He argued back, crossing his arms as he did so.

There was a moment of tense silence between the two. It wasn't often Tseng talked back to Veld like this, but whenever he did he knew he was in the right. He also knew Veld would listen to reason despite him being emotionally influenced by the sensitivity of this particular case. That was also exactly what the latter was processing right now. He knew Tseng was right, but the stress caused him to blow off some steam somewhere. In that sense Tseng really was the best man to serve directly under him. He was the only one who could take a hit like that and give one back in return.

So, after that moment of silence, Veld eventually backed up slightly and didn't argue back. He instead changed the subject, "What have you found out so far?"

"While Reno went out to interrogate Genesis, I went back to the crime scene to see if I could find something that had been missed. I came upon a rather interesting discovery."

Veld's eyes grew in interest, "And what is that?"

Though he wasn't really comfortable with divulging what he'd found inside that house with his chief, Tseng knew that he couldn't lie either, "A secret basement, hiding evidence of Sephiroth's sexual abuse of a substantial amount of children."

Veld's eyes grew even wider at that revelation, "Sexual abuse? Are you certain?"

"Yes." Tseng confirmed firmly, and continued to provide a brief but complete report of what he'd found in that basement, including showing him the two DVDs he'd taken along, "I'm having Cissnei analysing the binder now, and will view these videos tomorrow myself. I'm certain one of those people is our killer." He concluded.

The chief nodded, though his face was grim. He took a step back towards Tseng again and spoke to him in a low voice, "Make sure this information will not leak to the press. You need to find the one responsible for his murder and you need to do it discretely. Shinra will not be happy if the world finds out that one of their top men turns out to be a child molester."

"You want to cover this up?" Tseng challenged back.

"I need to cover this up." Veld corrected him, "It cannot be known to the people what kind of person the most iconic man in history actually was before his death. It would ruin Shinra, and the president will take his anger out on us. He'll have my hide as well as yours and the rest of the MPD if this news goes public. Do I make myself clear Tseng?"

Though he had difficulty in doing so, Tseng nodded. He understood his boss's reasons, even if his own moral compass refused to go along with it. It wouldn't be the first time he would have to disregard it though. Some things were best left unsaid, and it was clear that this was one of those things.

0o0o0

A/N: Professor Layton ftw? I actually got the idea for the key from one of those games.

Anyway, I hope I did the characters justice. I picture Cissnei as this girl who's totally badass, but as CC taught us, she also has a sensitive side. I also didn't want Tseng to be totally detached from the impact of his discovery, while also be able to stay professional and do his job. And Gen! He was difficult to write, because of the position I put him in. I still wanted to keep him cocky and a bit arrogant while also obviously grieving for Seph's death. And Reno I just love to death. I think he did well.

As always, I'm happy to read your thoughts. Leave a review and I'll always reply back to you. See you next time!