Hello, sorry for taking so long. I know it's been a couple of weeks but well... uni... Just moved in and there's been more to do than I expected. Anyways here's the next part. Enjoy :)

"Oh hi, Shannon, how's the new job coming along?" The kind greeting she received made the doctor think twice about what she was going to do. She didn't feel happy about misleading her former coworkers and Emma was one of the kindest people she knew. The receptionist was in fact a nurse but she had accidentally ended up working behind the desk and her love for children prevented her from accepting a promotion outside the pediatric division.

"Emma! It's been such a long time," Shannon smiled.

"Yes it has, I didn't see you at the annual Christmas party this year," the lady said. "I'd hoped you'd come! You may have moved to a private clinic but you're still one of us!"

Shannon felt warmth and guilt mixing into one somewhere inside her chest. "I know, I meant to come but something came up. I won't miss it this year!"

"That's a promise! So what brings you here today?" Emma asked.

"I'm actually looking for a file on one of my patients. His name was Russell Edward King?"

Emma tapped the name into the database but her face showed that there were no results found.

"Maybe just Russell King?"

"No, unfortunately..."

"I was sure he was a patient here. Could you maybe try the archives? I know it's a lot to ask but it's really important. I'll make it up to you, I promise!"

"Shannon... You know I could never say no to you," Emma smiled. "I'll take a quick peep and be right back. But I'm not promising anything!"

"I know, I owe you one!"

Emma left her post and Shannon let out a sigh of relief. The first part of the plan was going well. She tapped her fingers thrice on the counter - the signal to initiate the second stage.

Within moments she heard commotion. Shannon couldn't help but feel respect towards the newly-met couple. Their reaction was fast.

"Oh my god, Rhys!" Gwen's voice was wavering, full of terror and anxiety. "Help us! Somebody call the doctor! Rhys! Rhys!" Shannon smiled at how good the women's acting was. "Don't just bloody stand there, do something! No! Don't touch him! Make some air! Oh, God, Rhys!"

By now all the eyes in the corridor were fixed on the couple: Gwen kneeling on the floor only a few meters away from the desk, next to her Rhys now lying on the floor faking a heart attack. The diversion was set. Shannon took this opportunity and moved behind the counter. Her fingers shifted quickly on the keyboard. She searched for the personnel logs for March 17th, the day Alex was born.

Her eyes passed tens of people, some of whom she knew personally, some of whom she'd heard of. She dismissed the regular staff and found temporary workers. And then she noticed that weird name. Doctor Johan Marinus, guest surgeon on 17th of March. No further details were available. Shannon skimmed through the rest of the list but she knew that this was the person they were looking for.

She left the desk leaving everything as she had found it. She looked around prolonging her movement hoping that Gwen was not too distracted with shouting at various members of the staff as well as patients and visitors to notice the signal. It turned out she underestimated the Torchwood operative. Working first in the police and then in Torchwood made these kind of under-cover operations a piece of cake.

"Stop shouting, I'm fine already!" Rhys said, "waking up". "I only felt a little faint! You don't have to get the whole hospital involved. I'm all right!"

"Oh, thank god!" Gwen hugged Rhys and then turned to everybody gathered around them. "He's alright!" Her eyes were tearing up.

They then left making sure to refuse any and all help they were being offered. Shannon heard various comments being passed around after their leave. She had to wait a few more moments to apologize to Emma for making her pointlessly take a trip to the archives and to set up an appointment with her for next week to catch up. She felt she owed Emma at least that.

Fifteen minutes later she was back in Gwen's blue honda hearing Rhys's bragging about how well he faked his heart attack. Gwen skillfully cut this short by praising him nonchalantly and then turning to Shannon.

"Got anything?" she asked.

"I think I do, in fact: his name is Doctor Johan Marinus."

o*o*o

The phone rang out a few times before Ianto fished it out from his jacket's inner pocket.

"Ianto Jones speaking," the formula slipped his lips almost automatically.

"Hi, Ianto this is Gwen," the caller said.

"Oh, hi Gwen. You got anything?"

"Yeah, I was hoping you'd look up one Johan Marinus for me?"

Ianto swerved right noticing his turn at the last moment. He immediately pushed the breaks coming to a stop just in front of a pair of students crossing the street. They ignored the car oblivious to the fact that if Ianto's reflexes were just a tiny bit late they would've been hit.

"Ianto?" Gwen called worried by the sounds she had just heard.

The man didn't answer at first. He felt cold sweat running down his spine. The sudden distraction caused by that name had had almost cost him his life and he didn't know where that sort of reaction came from. When he stopped to think about it he was almost certain that he had never before heard that name. Then why did his mind suddenly started looking for something? Could he have known who this person was?

"Ianto?" Gwen called again this time louder and more angrily.

Ianto drove on slowly. "Yes, sorry. Some people jumped out onto the street," this wasn't strictly speaking a lie but it wasn't the truth either. He knew he would have to research this Marinus properly later. "I can't do that right now. I need to check something for Jack first. I won't be back for some time I think. You can wait but it would be quicker if you just did it yourself."

He didn't wait for an answer. He was almost at his destination; the empty street and the police tapes marked the end of his ride. He parked just next to the tapes blocking one of the uniform cars while he was at it.

"You can't park that there!" one of the policemen called after him. But Ianto was already making his way past the yellow tapes ignoring the accusations of law breaking shouted after him.

Only when he reached the door of the building did one of the PCs catch up with him. "You can't be here! This is a crime scene. Police only!"

Ianto stopped and looked at him. "I'm Torchwood," he said.

"Whatever the hell is Torchwood it doesn't matter. Should I spell it out for you? You can't be here. If you don't leave this instant I will have to escort you to the station for disrupting a police investigation!"

''Dixon! It's alright. He's with me."

"Andy!" Ianto greeted the PC with relief. He knew that it would've taken Jack two seconds to get the officer to let him in but Ianto didn't have that talent. He didn't enjoy explaining to the police why they should let him in as well as why and how he was taking over their investigation. He preferred office work but sometimes field work was inevitable. And yes, most of the time also fun.

"If you'd told me you were coming I'd have warned them," Andy said once they were already inside the building.

"It was sort of short notice," Ianto explained.

"So where's the rest of the team?"

Ianto sighed. "Mostly in London on a job. But if that body upstairs is who I think it is then I'm guessing they'll be coming back soon."

"So should I get everyone packing again?" Andy didn't even attempt to hide the frustration in his voice.

"No need, I just want to look around. If they didn't get anything from the bodies in London then I doubt I'll find anything here."

"Well, whatever you're looking for I hope you find it," Andy said quietly. "Between you and me, this looks like a case similar to the one in London and if you think so as well then it must be. That Deadeye serial killer. Just thinking about it makes me shivers. A serial killer? In Cardiff?"

"Oh, you'd be surprised Andy," Ianto said. "You'll find weirder things than that here..."

"Yeah, but that's your expertise. It's not like I have to deal with it directly, thank God."

"For all we know this might be just some copy-cat killer," Ianto added trying to ease Andy's mind a little.

"And you hope to find out if it is or not?"

"I'm just here to confirm this person's identity," Ianto said dismissively.

"Well, when the authorities catch wind of this they'll send someone over from Scotland Yard and you'll probably have it a bit harder sneaking onto all the crime scenes. Anyways, we're here."

Andy opened the door to flat number 7 and showed Ianto in. The door opened to the living room and there were four policemen taking photos and searching the flat for evidence.

"Hey everybody this is Detective Inspector Jones here to investigate and report back to the capital so just let him do as he pleases," Andy's voice broke through the noise of conversing people and equipment. There were sighs of irritation that Ianto noticed were nowhere as near obvious as the ones he used to hear when he had been introduced as Torchwood.

Ianto looked around the flat. It appeared pretty average with a TV set and a stereo, sofa, armchairs, a shelf holding CDs, DVDs and books and a little bar next to the window. All that set on a slightly stained beige carpet and against plain white walls with the paint coming of in small patches here and there. Overall nothing was too new but nothing looked too used up either. A home as plain as any other.

Except, of course, for the dead body adorning the leather sofa.

Ianto took out a pair of new plastic gloves from his pocket and put them on. He usually used them for cleaning but nobody here needed to know that of course. How does a detective behave? What did he have to look at to conceal actually searching for something else? He knew that reading all of Sherlock Holmes stories would eventually pay off.

Ianto leaned over the body. The dead man was probably in his late thirties or early forties. His face was slightly square, but not chubby. A few wrinkles appeared here and there but overall the man didn't look old. On top of a handsome face he had a two day stubble that looked anything but unkempt. His eyes were firmly shut; they didn't look like the eyes of a person who went to the other world peacefully - more like the eyes of a man trying desperately to look away. Well there was no surprise there: the hole in the man's forehead was not something anybody could look forward to.

But it was not the injury that Ianto was looking for. Or at least not this injury. He casually looked at the man's fingernails only to convince the others - who were obviously staring at him - that he was indeed who he claimed to be. He moved his hand down and lifted the man's T-shirt. Yes, it was there. The scar: a white imprint of an animal jawline against the man's pink skin.

"That's one nasty scar, that there," Ianto heard a voice coming from somewhere above his head. The policeman originally following his actions with distrust but was now only left with curiosity.

"Yes, I wouldn't want to be in his shoes when he got it."

"Look at those teeth! What could've done that? Must've been one massive beast."

"A lion, maybe," Ianto lied. He knew exactly what had caused this and it wasn't an animal. It was a Weevil. Daniel Bay: case of 2007, a man saved literally from the jaws of a Weevil. Later healed and retconned by the Torchwood team.

Ianto stood up. Now he was certain. This was a Torchwood-connected murder.

"Well the autopsy will reveal what it was. Probably..."

"Definitely," Ianto agreed, hoping the exact opposite. He didn't want people to know about the existence of Weevils. It would cause so much trouble.

"But I didn't expect you to be Welsh, Detective Jones," the officer continued.

Ianto felt the blood rush from his face. He forgot he was supposed to have been from the capital. Well he didn't know how to fake any English accent anyway. At least not when he was sober.

"Well..." Ianto started explaining himself but it turned out there was no need for that.

"It's nice knowing there's one of us making his way up to the top up in the big bad London."

Ianto thought about the Torchwood Cardiff team investigation in London, most likely breaking all red tape possible along the way. Yes, he did feel a little proud.

"Thanks," he said slightly abashed.

Ianto moved to what seemed Daniel Bay's office. He looked at the desk and saw piles of correspondence, a planner and some stationery lying around. He looked briefly through it until he saw a Millennium Center brochure - one he knew he had in the information center - with writing on it. It was a single date: May 23rd. Barely two weeks from now. He looked at the planner only to see that the hand-writing on the leaflet did not belong to the victim. It was a message. For him. For Torchwood. A shiver went down his spine when he realized that the murdered man's surname was Bay. A coincidence?

Of one thing he was certain. This was a murder connected to the ones taking place in London.

He left the room and found Andy.

"If you find anything that could be even remotely connected to Torchwood in this case tell me," he ordered squeezing his arm a little too tightly.

The pattern was obvious. Everything was suddenly taking place at the same time despite the constant standstill when these sudden rushes ceased.

"Okay, I'll do it, just calm down a bit..." Andy said.

"I'm off, tell me when the real Scotland Yard comes over," Ianto said leaving.

He took his umbrella and made his way to the car. He could see the sky brightening a little on the horizon but it was still raining here. He squeezed into his car throwing the umbrella on the backseat caring not even a bit if the seats got wet or not.

He took out his phone and dialed Jack's number.

"Hey, Jack, there are a few new developments in Cardiff you should know about," he said not bothering to wait for a reply.

"Hi Ianto, I was just about to call you," Jack said. "Looks like we'll need to stay in London for a couple of days. We've got nothing on the killer."

"Well, don't worry about that. He's here. In Cardiff. Remember Daniel Bay, the man bitten by a Weevil? He was murdered this morning and from what I can say about bullet holes this one seems to be exactly in the middle of his forehead."

There was silence on the other side. Jack was waiting for more.

"It's not just London, now, Jack. I wouldn't be surprised if we find more bodies in Liverpool, Bristol, I wouldn't surprised if there were any on Orkney! Whatever this is we're at least two steps behind, constantly! Jack, that man, Longrass..."

"Well, we're coming back to Cardiff tomorrow then."

"No, Jack. This is like a disease and we're only treating the symptoms. Whatever we do it's a temporary solution. We need to find what this is and then fight whoever it is that's leading us astray. I think it's a distraction."

"Okay, I'll give Tobey and Lois till tomorrow to find something and if there's nothing I'm returning to Cardiff."

"There's one more thing. There was a message. For us, for Torchwood. It was one date: the twenty-third of May."

"We've got two weeks then... We'd better make the most of it.

Next part most likely in the next week. I hope I won't go missing for another month in the mean time :P Huge thank you to Ash-Varnei for beta-reading and to you for reading. Hope you all enjoyed this :)