Sick Little Game
by JamieRay
As expected, the arrival of the detectives, if they could be called that, was nothing short of disturbing. Kai stood back surveying the room, the damage they had done was irreversible, it was a good thing he had arrived early, he wasn't sure he'd be able to work with this.
"Well we can put Pyro on his profile for sure." Brooklyn commented mildly, he too seemed to be surveying the damage. Kai refrained from rolling his eyes, he could have determined that much. He didn't much understand the concept of having the shrink on the field, but Hiro insisted.
"Figure anything out?" The detective in charge came up to stand beside him.
"Isn't that your job, Detective?" Hiro sighed, Kai was being difficult again. The shorter slate haired man smirked. "His name was Robert Jurgen."
"Get your source on that, see if he gets anything." Kai nodded and Hiro moved further into the room, where the others were working.
Brooklyn standing over the tea table in the center of the room, was examining something small in his hand. Something Kai knew to be the small identification card he had picked up off the table not five minutes ago, yet another disturbance. Kai silently chided him but didn't comment as he watched the man holding it in his gloved hands. Later it would be checked for prints and come up short, the significance of it lying out openly on the table completely forgotten and disregarded, that's why Kai was here: to pay attention to those few seemingly insignificant details that no one else did.
Kai turned his eyes now to the pink-haired woman that knelt on the floor by the horribly disfigured body of the victim. Her gloved hands examined what was left of the man, eyeing the places where the flames had eaten away at his skin and flesh, the gruesome image not seeming to affect her as much as it should have. He had been found with a plastic bag melted to the skin of his face, and the ropes, charred and burned like the rest of his body, melded into his flesh.
Mariah hadn't been in this practice for all that long, two years to be accurate, give or take a few months, but she'd examined her fair share of bodies in that time and before (she hadn't always worked with Hiro) before this detective work, it had been the morgue, and before that some hospital. But as the 28 year old woman examined the body that lay before her, charred and damaged, she couldn't help but think something was off about the way this murder was conducted. The same thoughts ran through the mind of each of the officers standing throughout room this was definitely different.
The open window let in a strong wind, blowing out some of the revolting odor of burning flesh, and with it yet more evidence, replacing it with the crisp New York air.
-o-
Hiro passed between the desks, lined up in the department building, on his way to the top floor where his department's offices where located. Hands stuffed in the pockets of his long beige trench coat, he didn't pay much attention to his surroundings, that was until the barely noticeable force of a paper ball struck him at the side of the head. "Hey, Granger, congrats on the case, man." The voice of the blonde called over the heads of their colleges.
"We haven't solved it yet, Parker." Hiro replied in a monotone drawl to the cocky man that sat lounging in the chair of one of the many desks in the room. The DIA officer smirked.
"I meant congratulations on actually getting one." Hiro glared at the younger man's crack at his team, as he snickered, some of the officers surrounding them chuckled along as well. Michael Parker was a head officer in the department of internal affairs, he was also one of the force's grade-A slackers.
"Shouldn't you be filling paper work or something, Parker?" Hiro replied callously over his shoulder, as he turned back to his original path. He smirked as he walked away, he could almost feel the other man seething behind him, the laughter of some of their colleagues once again filled the room, along with mumbled comments of 'nice try, Parker' and 'you had than one coming to you' and some others to that effect.
Michael had once been one of the city's best field officers, the former homicide officer had worked under his brother, Tyson, in the 'other department', but too many wrong moves had landed right where he was now, working in the DIA's libraries and archives. It was safe to say Michael missed the action.
Hiro climbed the final flight of stairs and passed down the narrow hall to the end where the voices of his team could be heard conversing rather loudly. Hiro pushed the door open, calling order into the single room where his five underlings gathered, all eyes fell on him for only an instant before voices rose again, Hiro sighed. "Alright people, reports." Hiro called over the voices that once again faded into silence.
Kai smirk from his spot in the back, leaning back in the only chair in the room, behind the desk where Hiro should have been sitting. Hiro remained standing in the front of the room, deciding addressing his team from there would be more appropriate.
"What have you got Mariah?" he started turning, to the pink haired girl that sat upon the desk currently occupied by Kai.
"Well, he definitely didn't do it and run, seeing as the body was still there when we arrived and not charred to bits, he hung around long enough to put out the flames." She handed a file to Hiro as she spoke, "There was no sign of a fight, but he has markings on his wrist almost as if he was bound, and then there are the ropes, burned into his flesh." She continued as Hiro flipped through the photos the file had contained. "From what I can tell he seems to have suffocated from the smoke and lack of oxygen, not much else is discernable, you know how fire destroys virtually all evidence. But I'm going to need to examine the body one more time, just to be sure." The equipment, or lack of, allowed at a crime scene didn't allow them to gather all the information possible, she was going to need to examine it in a more suitable environment.
Hiro nodded to her, "and the tests?"
"Results should be in tomorrow morning, then we'll be able to figure out if there were any additional factors." Mariah reported.
Hiro nodded turning his eyes to his next victim, Ian Papov sat on the floor, leaning up against the wall behind him, forearms resting on his raised knees, and he watched his captain. The violet haired boy was a former member of a SWAT squad; Ian specialized in weaponry and physical evidence.
"Got anything to add?" Hiro regarded him.
"The ropes and the plastic bag, that's about it, no other weaponry was used, though we did find his wallet, that took damage from the fire too, there wasn't much else going on, looked as if the bastard was just having a normal day. Aside from that the rest of the place was untouched, nothing seemed to be stolen or damaged."
When Ian finished speaking Hiro turned to Salima, leaning up against the wall next to Ian, she hadn't been at the crime scene, Salima Adair was well versed in the study of people, people and relations was her specialization, while the rest of the team had been investigating the crime scene, Salima had been locked away in the office she shared with Ian, searching through records and cashing in favors at the department, compiling a profile of the murdered victim.
"Robert Jurgen was an heir, the last son of an old British family, most of his cash and possessions were thanks to his inheritance, but recently he's been selling some old art works for quite a bit of cash. Before that there was some form of income into his bank account, were not sure of the source." She held the file in her hand, though it wasn't open, she relied strictly on her photographic memory. "He's got no criminal record, a couple parking tickets, that's about it, we don't know much else about him."
"According to his phone bill, the last person he talked to was a Jonathan McGregor, someone he's been in contact with a lot in recent years the phone call was traced back to Virginia, it was about two minutes before the estimated time of murder. He should be flying in later tonight, we've got a couple people set up to meet him, it couldn't have been him, but it's possible he's an accomplice." She stuffed her hands in the pocket of her leather jacket as she spoke. "Other than that, no friends, no family."
"I'm going to need you to take care of the interrogation tomorrow, he should be kept in custody until then." Salima nodded. "And what about records? Anything on him?"
Salima shook her head "he used to be a huge business owner a little while back. But then it crashed, he's currently unemployed now, but there are signs of business dealings between him and Robert, there has been record of transactions between the two bank accounts. No criminal record."
Hiro sighed, processing the information as he advanced across the cramped room towards his desk, the chair of which Kai had evacuated at some point during the meeting and moved to stand against wall beside it. Dropping into the chair he rolled it up closer to the desk, taking in his hands the remaining file that had been left there by Ian before the meeting began. Things weren't looking good so far.
"And what about the kid the officers found in the back room before we arrived."
"Oliver Polanski, age19, of French origin, he has yet to be questioned, no records whatsoever." Salima answered automatically. Hiro nodded, then picking up the rectangular cut wire rimmed glasses from the desk before him he placed them on his nose, and opened Ian's data file.
"Kai?" He gave the ok for him to start reporting as he flipped casually through the photographs in the file before him.
"Jurgen's an intended target." Kai began, his voice calm and monotone as usual, "It's obvious in the way he works that this guy is out for some sort of revenge. Considering of course that his valuables were left untouched, as was the rest of the place, the only damage done was in the room he occupied at the time of the murder. It could possibly have something to do with his assumed illegal activities, according to the doctor we've got ourselves a dead art forger, hundred year old paintings were found in the back room…still drying." Kai paused for a minute.
"It's highly doubtful this was a random act of murder. The ID the murderer left lying out on the table is plainly a challenge, he wants to be chased, so there will probably be other murders, it could possibly be a game he's playing."
Brooklyn raised his eyebrows at that final comment, and what a very twisted game it was, Brooklyn silently concluded, pacing across the room to open the small window in the corner, the room was far too stuffy with so many people crowded inside of it, Kai was probably right.
"If so, than there's probably something that we've missed, something that will hint us to his next attack, considering we haven't already found it."
"How can you say that?" Mariah turned to him shocked at his cold attitude.
"Let's be realistic, Mariah," Hiro cut in, "We don't have nearly enough information right now, and this guy wants to play, he'll string us along until he accidentally lets too much slip."
"So what do we do?" Brooklyn asked, standing beside Mariah.
"We play his game." Kai answered in Hiro's place, shrugging one shoulder.
He let out an exaggerated sigh, and ran his hands through his hair in an aggravated manner. "Brooklyn, I want you to be there tomorrow with Salima, for the interrogation. Ian and I will go back to the crime scene, and see if we can dig anything up." Hiro pushed his glasses back up his nose as he spoke, and closed the file he hadn't been paying much attention to.
"Mariah and Kai, the two of you have your assignments." He stated, just for the sake of having something to say. "Well if no one has anything else to add..." He mumbled standing from his seat and removing his glasses.
"I've got something to add," Hiro turned to the small lavender haired man. "If you're planning on having another one of these little gatherings, you might need a bigger office." He smirked, and Hiro rolled his eyes.
A chuckle rose around the room, "Well I'm going home" Hiro sighed slipping his glasses into his pocket, "meet me in front of the building at nine" he spoke to Ian before pulling open the door and leaving the room, "'night." He called back to them as he walked down the hall.
-o-
"Hello." He stood just outside the building, leaning up against the wall with the small black device to his ear.
"Miss me already? We just spoke this morning." The voice that answered him back was as cold as his own.
"I've got another name for you." He told the disembodied voice of the red head on the other end of the line.
"Besides Jurgen? Shoot."
"Jonathan McGregor."
"Ah, Johnny huh? This one's still among the living." Kai smirked. "Deadline?" he asked.
"You've got until tomorrow night, Tal, dig up whatever you can find."
"You got it." with that he hung up the phone, slipping into the pocket of his black coat.
TBC
This chapter was written by JamieRay for the Beyblade Community Project.
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