The boy noticed Kangai looking at him and came over, nodding at the door. "Is she okay?" he asked, concerned.

Oh, this was going to be too easy. "She's just frustrated, that's all."

"Frustrated about what?" Notaki asked, unquestioningly believing, obviously concerned. Jonathan both hated and perversely adored these easy, open types.

"She just felt that between Gurski being annoying, Li Mei being upset, you being rather useless, and me being effectively out of commission" - he shrugged wryly- "she feels like she has to do everything."

Notaki – or whatever his name was – had gone very quiet and very still. It was interesting, he got upset in the same way as his sister did. "Useless?" he repeated quietly. It was almost enough to make Jonathan feel bad for him. But, well. Almost is only just almost.

"Yeah... well, she was more talking to herself than to me... Something about how she wished she didn't have to baby you all the time, that she's saved your skin too many times to count and your sensitivities have basically kept you from returning the favor..." Hmm, Notaki was turning a lovely shade of white-gray. Maybe time to wrap it up. "I think she just wishes you would grow up. You know?"

Notaki didn't respond. His entire body seemed to be jammed into place, his eyes staring sightlessly ahead.

"Maybe I heard her wrong..." Kangai trailed off as Notaki wandered away in a daze, probably forgetting that Jonathan was there at all. He allowed himself a private little chuckle. Who said death had to be the end of having fun?

"Enough."

He looked up. It was Li Mei. Her tiny, delicate hands were fisted by her sides and, maybe it was his imagination, but she seemed to be trembling.

He tilted his head innocently. "Enough what?"

She seemed to struggle to find the words. "The confusion. The hurt. The guilt. It's...too much." She fell silent.

Ahh, Aki had mentioned that Li Mei could feel everyone else's feelings. Perhaps she was getting the backlash of all the intense emotions Jonathan was cooking up in her friends.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," he answered blithely, but the wide, pointed grin he gave her said otherwise.

Jonathan could have sworn that he heard her growl – but that couldn't be right – just as the door to the living room opened and Miko came in, looking haggard. He glanced around the room. "Where are the twins?"

"I don't know," said Kangai, looking rather confused himself. "They started giving each other these looks like both of them suddenly understood something important that nobody else was privy to, and next thing you know, they just sort of left."

"That's pretty par for the course," said the detective with a sort of long-suffering air. Jonathan patted himself on the back for a job done particularly well. "I suppose I'll just start with you two, and whoever finds the twins first can fill them in afterward."

Aw, done so soon? "Have you found the murderer then?" Kangai asked with interest.

Gurski made a face. "Not even close. If I had found the murderer I wouldn't be discussing the information with you, would I?"

"I guess not," said Kangai.

"Anyway, the interviews left us pretty much back to where we started. All three of them are hiding something. None of them have a full alibi, but that could very well be because the possible time of death is so broad in this case. I did, however, dig up some interesting information from their police records and medical files," Despite his obvious tiredness, Gurski gave them a slight smile.

Jonathan didn't need to feign his curiosity. "What sort of interesting information?"

"Well, it seems like the whole family's a bit messed up." (Jonathan would've snorted if he could. What was your first clue, Sherlock?) "Mr Hade has been arrested several times on drug trafficking charges, and did time in jail twice. And it seems like his son has been walking in his old man's footsteps – Jeremy was recently arrested for the same thing, although he was let go on a plea bargain."

Not only that, but Mrs Hades was diagnosed with bipolar disorder over twenty years ago, meaning it is highly probable that at least one of her children, maybe more, has inherited the disorder from her." Gurski snapped the file shut. "Will is the only one who seems to be sticking to the straight and narrow, but that could be a reason to get suspicious as well. For now, I'm going to investigate Jeremy further, as he seems to be the most troubled out of the lot."

"What about Mr Hade?" Jonathan asked. Maybe whoever killed Jonathan had gotten to his father as well?

Gurski frowned. "He disappeared the day after Jonathan went missing, I suppose almost immediately after the call to the police. At first glance, the boys don't seem to know what happened to him, although they're both unsurprised by his disappearance. I am positive that Mrs Hade knows why her husband left, but she's in no condition to tell us. Just bringing up the subject made her extremely upset."

"Don't you think that's suspicious?" Kangai interjected. "Maybe she's keeping her mouth shut because she killed Jonathan, and then when Mr Hade asked where their son was, she shot him too!" Gurski didn't seem convinced. Jonathan felt the familiar anger building inside him. Why did none of them take him seriously? "Detective, she's nuts, you said so yourself! Isn't that reason enough to kill them?"

"Maybe," said the detective, but it was clear that he was only saying that because Kangai-with-amnesia was too delicate and too unpredictable to be blasted outright for his faulty conclusions. "I'd like to see what Aki thinks about it first though."

Jonathan saw his chance. "Maybe I should talk to her?"

Detective Gurski gave him a funny look. "You?"

"I mean, we are together, after all. Maybe she'll tell me something she wouldn't tell someone else," Kangai said matter-of-factly.

Jonathan certainly appreciated the hiss of pain from Li Mei at that, but the best by far was Detective Gurski's horrified expression. "You're what?"

"Together," Kangai repeated, tilting his head curiously. "Didn't you know?"

"You and – and Aki?" he asked. His voice was going a bit funny. "Who was... Why did... when did this happen?"

Kangai tapped his chin, humming thoughtfully. "I don't know when it happened, obviously, but when we were speaking privately she told me that we were boyfriend and girlfriend."

"She WHAT?!"

Kangai backed up a few paces, lifting his hands in self-defense. "Sorry... I guess I just assumed that you would know. Although..." he furrowed his eyebrows. "It is sort of weird that she told me not to tell any of you guys that we were together. I wonder why she would want to keep it a secret from her own team..." He shrugged. "But I definitely believe that the two of us are together, if that's the problem. I mean, honestly, she was all over me."

"She... That..." Gurski actually looked like he was about to faint. How cute.

"Enough."

Before he could protest, he was being dragged off down the hall by petite, delicate Li Mei (petite, delicate Li Mei who seemed to be pulling his weight with no effort whatsoever). Detective Gurski was so dazed that he barely noticed that they were no longer there. Li Mei pushed him into his own bedroom and slammed the door behind her.

"We need to talk, Jonathan," she said quietly.

"Then talk," he said, smiling.

She looked hard at him for a moment. "I want to talk to Kangai."

"Sorry, no can do." Jonathan laid his hands out in an I-got-nothing gesture. "He's not even in this body anymore. For all I know, he might be dead by now."

She flinched, but collected herself quickly. "Where is he?"

"Weeeelll..." He stretched out the word, enjoying the delicious anxiety on her face. It was a shame that he couldn't really manipulate her any more than that. She was too on guard with him, and he didn't understand her, anyway. "He took over my body, so I took over his. Fair trade."

She gritted her teeth, understanding dawning in her eyes. "But your body is dead. His is alive."

"Hey, he's the one who took my body first," he shrugged.

"You will come with me – " she grabbed his arm in an iron grip " - and we will go back to the forest, and you're to switch back with Kangai."

"Uh, I don't think so." He tried to pull away from her, and failed. "Look, Little Miss Psychic. I LIKE this body. I like being alive, being able to affect things, being able to be affected by things... You know what? I like this body so much..." He gave her a full-on mischievous grin. "I don't think I'll ever get out of it."

If Jonathan had noticed that her eyes had gone blank and emotionless, or maybe noticed that her body had gone stiff, like a coiled spring, perhaps he would have stopped. As it was, Li Mei leapt at him like a feral cat, teeth bared.

"H – ahh, L-li Mei?" he rapidly backpedaled into the bedroom, feeling something else he never expected to experience again after his death – terror.

Her legs scissor-kicked far too close to where his head had been a second ago. "Li Mei, it's me!" he said in his best Kangai voice.

"You cannot play with me like you play with them," she intoned. There didn't seem to be anything human behind that voice...

He ducked a swing from her fist but couldn't see the knee going for his stomach at the same time. He groaned, and when he doubled over, she locked together both fists and smashed them into his head. He collapsed to the floor.

She stood over him, studying him impassively. Then she picked up one tiny foot and prepared to drive it through his skull. Something told Jonathan's addled brain that if she tried, she would succeed. He closed his eyes, thinking bitterly of how much fun there was still left to have.

And then the door opened. And the twins entered.