Monday, November 28th, XXXX
100 hours (1:00 A.M)
The unexpected news made Kanda lapse into a state of indifference.
He made his way down the stairs and stepped onto the ground floor just as police came bursting in through all doors.
"Clean this place out. I want very single weapon, every single bullet accounted for. Make sure that list makes it to my desk," Kanda ordered out to the masses.
"Yes, sir!" responded the police in his immediate area.
He found his way over to Lavi who was standing by the back entrance. He was leaning with his back against the wall, hands in his trench coat pockets, staring directly at Kanda. The wound on his head was being tended to by one of the medical officers, but Lavi shooed them away when Kanda approached.
"Where is he?"
"Kanda, I-"
"Know your place rookie, and just tell me where he is." The fact that Kanda didn't even yell, glare, or threaten Lavi probably scared him more than all of those three combined. He just seemed, tired.
"He's in his office, back at the Main Branch building," Lavi stated, and they both simultaneously started moving towards the black Lincoln they had arrived in.
"Maybe you should let me drive?" Lavi suggested concernedly.
"In your dreams. If you were to mess this car up they'd come after my head, not yours," Kanda replied in an almost half-smirk.
Are you kidding? You're more likely to damage this thing than I'll ever be.
Kanda was in the car first once again, but this time he waited until his partner was securely inside as well with a seatbelt on before he started it and drove off, leaving the sea of police cars behind.
They drove in silence all the way back to the police station. Kanda didn't even drive like a mad man anymore. All he did was run every single red light they passed, which is something huge in Kanda's case.
Making it back to the station they both got out of the car and opened the back doors to the building. It was the complete opposite as to when Kanda was in there only two hours earlier. The place was swarming with police. Some were equipped with cameras and every one of them was wearing gloves.
Sighing, Kanda walked over to the Chief's office with Lavi following silently behind. The door was wide open and inside was where the police were concentrated the most. Some were just standing outside the office as on-lookers and others were inside taking pictures of Kanda could only guess what. Two police officers walked out of the office carrying manila envelopes in their hands and upon seeing Kanda stopped to hand them to him.
"Detective, these are the only traces of evidence that could be found in the room so far. There isn't much to see really except for-"
"A dead body," Kanda finished the statement for the officer. He took a pair of latex gloves handed to him from the second officer and took one of the envelopes and opened it. The first officer jumped into an explanation.
"The Chief was shot in the middle of the forehead. In that envelope is the bullet we just extracted from his head." Kanda took out the plastic baggie from inside and examined the bullet. It was covered with blood and looked like any other bullet he's seen before.
"We don't know the model of gun used to shoot it yet," the police officer added as Kanda handed the package to Lavi to look at.
"What's in that one?" Kanda questioned, and the second officer stepped forward and handed the envelope to him.
"This was what the Chief was holding in his hand when he died. We've looked at it, but we don't know what it means," the second officer explained as Kanda opened the second envelope. He reached his hand into the bag and knew what he was going to pull out before he even saw it.
"It's just a card with a star on it," the second officer said, completely confused.
Kanda stared at it for a few seconds before turning to the two officers and dismissing them. "Take the bullet down to forensics and get the tests done. I'll hold on to this for a while," he said, holding up the card. Lavi handed the envelope with the bullet back to one of the officers and they both left. Kanda and Lavi just stood there staring at the card in Kanda's hand.
Just as the officer had said, the card was completely blank on both sides except for a blood red Pentagon in the middle of one side.
"So it happened again, huh?" Lavi sighed.
"We'll have to get this checked anyways," replied Kanda blankly.
"What for? We already know it's Chief's blood," Lavi said.
"Standard procedure," Kanda said, just as blankly. He placed the card back into the envelope and handed it to Lavi. They both walked into the Chief's office and looked straight at his desk.
The Chief was an old man, in his late fifty's or so. His head was bald at the top and the remaining hair on his head was completely white. He was wearing a white collar shirt with dark kahki pants which were now both stained with blood.
He was sitting there, head thrown back against his seat, arms dangling limply from his chairs' sides. There was a trail of blood running down the side of his wrinkled face from the bullet hole in his head. The wall behind him was splattered with blood, indicating the bullet made it all the way to the back of his head and cracked through his skull to allow blood to escape and explode on the wall.
"This is an open and shut case, really, if you think about it," Lavi addressed to Kanda. "We already know they are behind this. I mean, they even left their little business card to let us know it was them! We just won't be able to stick this to any individual."
"That's not our job, anyways," Kanda said, staring in the Chief's general direction. "We won't be in charge of this case, just looking over it because it's indirectly involved in our own."
They stood in silence for a few minutes before Lavi spoke up again, "you know, that kid back at the warehouse-"
"I know. He had the mark."
"To think a little kid like him would be involved in something like this," Lavi said disbelievingly, "It's just unthinkable."
"Well he must be pretty damn important in order for them to have recruited him at such an age," Kanda stated.
"You think so?"
"I already know so, and that's why we're going to find him."
"What are you serious?!" Lavi yelled. Some police turned to looked at him and at the same time Kanda hit him across the head. He dragged both of them out of the Chief's office and outside the front doors before he addressed Lavi again.
"Yes I'm serious you idiot. He's a weak link because he's so young. He'll be easier to find and coax information out of."
"No no, I know that, but I mean, how are going to find him? This city's huge!"
"You should already know how," Kanda said, rolling his eyes. At Lavi's confused face he went on to elaborate, "He's going to return to the warehouse. All we have to do, is wait there."
Lavi was still confused, "What makes you so sure he's going to come back?"
Kanda put his hand into his trench coat pocket and dug out a small item. He held it up in front of his face and showed it to Lavi.
"Because of this."
***
Monday, November 28th, XXXX
130 hours (1:30 A.M)
Finally free from the place he had been kept in for a whole week, Allen Walker couldn't help but run as fast as he could as soon as he had the chance to get away from the warehouse. He really thought he was going to die in that place.
Damn mafia.
He continued running down the deserted street. It was cold outside from the winter wind blowing through the city. The rain from earlier in the evening still stuck to the buildings and made puddles on the sidewalk. It was too cold for the water to evaporate, yet too warm for it to freeze over. Allen just stepped right through the puddles, the chilly water splashing onto the bottom of his pants, but he paid it no mind. He was too concentrated on getting as far away from the warehouse as possible to notice much anything.
Finally stopping at an intersection to catch his breath he noticed he was missing something.
Shit.
He dug his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. Not finding what he was looking for he went on to search his pants pockets. He still didn't find it.
You've got to be kidding me, the kid thought disbelievingly as he stared back in the direction he just came from.
There's no way I'm going back there, but there was nothing definite in his mind when he thought that. He already knew he was going to go back to the warehouse whether he wanted to or not. The item he was missing was important enough to risk his life for, but he couldn't just go back now and waltz right in the place with it infested with police. He figured he'd have to wait it out for a couple of days.
Turning the corner and heading down the street he walked into an alleyway. Halfway down he turned to face the building on his right and kneeled down in front of a small vent. Removing the gate that covered the hole Allen slipped his body through, he was just small enough to fit through it.
When his feet touched solid ground Allen reached back up and replaced the gate on top of the hole and secured it in place. He was a good seven feet below street level now. Turning back around to face the room he was in he walked to the middle of it and blindly reached upwards searching for a string dangling from the ceiling. In finding it, he pulled it, and the small light bulb that it was connected to flickered on, illuminating the small room with its light.
Putting the condition of the room into simple terms, it was unsanitary. It was hard to believe any human could live in such a place. Empty liquor bottles littered the floor. They varied from Jamaican Rum to Dry Gin to unlabeled bottles of Vodka. Unopened bottles were cluttered in a corner around and on top of a brown wooden shelf standing lopsidedly in a corner.
The floor was covered in a thick layer of dirt, making it seem as though the floor was made out of dirt. There was a beaten up and shabby looking table leaning up against the corner of the farthest wall. All its legs were uneven and there were random items placed underneath them to try to level them out. There were two chairs next to it, one was tipped on its side and the other was standing up, but only had three legs. The missing leg had been broken off and thrown across the room by Allen himself in one of his fits of rage. On the table stood a large wooden box, among other things. Its top was open, and a large pile of what looked like grass from a distance poked out from the top.
Allen walked over to the liquor shelf and grabbed a brand new bottle of Bombay Sapphire's Dry Gin. He popped out the cork with his bare hands and downed a quarter of the bottles' contents. Holding it in one hand he walked over to the table and along the way picked a piece of brown scrap paper from off the floor.
Reaching the table he set the bottle down on it and reached his hand into the brown box, grabbing a handful of the grass look-alike. He placed it in the middle of the brown paper and started wrapping it expertly around the green substance.
Now holding an oval-shaped cigar in his hand he took a lighter from the table and lit the end of it. Bringing the opposite end up to his mouth he breathed in deeply. Leaning his head back he let out a ring of smoke that slowly dissipated into the air. He stood up the fallen chair and sat down on it heavily. Reaching back to the table for the bottle of alcohol he didn't even bother with a glass as he brought the rim to his mouth and drank deeply. A small trail of the alcohol escaped his mouth and slid down his chin. He missed the taste of the drugs and alcohol that his body had been deprived of for a whole week.
***
Monday, November 28th, XXXX
600 hours (6:00 A.M)
The hours spent at the police department were eventless and long. Nobody was allowed to go home, or else, nobody wanted to. After the pictures were taken and the crime scene evaluated to more than its fullest extent the Chief's body was taken down to the morgue. His office was turned almost literally inside out from police searching it for just about four hours.
Kanda and Lavi were sitting in Kanda's office waiting for the tests results on the only two pieces of evidence there were.
Kanda was sitting at his desk staring at the red, yellow, and blue map again. Lavi had fallen asleep on his mahogany couch in a sitting position, left arm propped up on the couch's arm holding his head in his hand. It was relatively quiet in the room for you could not hear the chatter of the people from the other side of the door. The only real noise to be heard was the ticking of the clock that hung above and behind Kanda's desk on the wall.
When someone knocked on the door to the office Lavi woke up immediately and stood up from where he was sitting while Kanda followed in suit. Lavi opened the office door and an Asian man around the same height as Kanda wearing a lab coat walked in. He had short black hair that spiked out from his head. He was carrying a manila folder along with the two manila envelopes that held the two pieces of evidence.
"Shifu, what did the test results say?" Kanda addressed the man now standing in front of him.
The man handed Kanda the folder and envelopes in his hand while responding to his question, "Something quite shocking, actually."
Lavi walked over and stood beside Kanda to look over the information as he opened the manila folder.
"According to the tests, the gun that shot the bullet that killed Chief was one of our own."
"One of our own?! You're not saying that, one of our police officers shot him, are you??" Kanda had not expected that answer. He flipped through the papers and reached the page that went into more detail about the gun. Shifu went on to explain as Kanda read down the page.
"It was a Taurus PT 92, a standard one. Funny thing is the bullet was shot through a silencer."
"Wait a minute Taurus's don't have any silencers. Are you sure you got your information right?" Kanda looked at him skeptically.
"You're talking to a professional here, detective," Shifu said, a hint of indignation in his voice.
"How is it that you know it's been shot through a silencer?" Lavi questioned, not following the entire flow of the conversation.
"You already know that when a bullet is shot the gun leaves special marks on the bullet right? Almost like the guns' fingerprints, in a manner of speaking," he looked to Lavi to make sure he was following. When he saw him nod he continued. "Well, a silencer is an extra attachment to the barrel of the gun, but not part of the gun, and thus does everything in its own way. The hole in a silencer is smaller than the barrel's hole it's attached to by about a millimeter. This forces the bullet, when shot, through the hole and at the same time lessens the explosive sound a bullet makes when exploding from the barrel, thus the name 'silencer'."
"But wait, I still don't get it, how do you know the bullet was shot from a silencer?" Lavi asked, tilting his head some in confusion.
"Because the silencer also leaves marks," Shifu answered knowingly. "They overlap with the ones the barrel makes while they're still hot and fresh, and mold into completely different marks. However, unlike how each gun has its own fingerprint, silencers' marks are unique to their brand, and we don't carry silencers for average police to use or even in a place where they can be easily accessed. "
"Which means…What, exactly?"asked Lavi.
"Which means," answered Kanda, now getting annoyed at his partner's lack of intelligence, "That the silencer was one of their own, they got it somewhere else."
"Then, shouldn't it be easy to just find out the brand, where they bought it, and track them down that way?" Lavi directed his question to Kanda.
"No, you idiot. If you've been following this conversation at all, you'll have heard us say that Taurus's don't have silencers! Which means, it was custom-made to fit that one specific gun, which also means that this was a predetermined murder, And who's better at customizing things than-"
"The mafia", Lavi said under his breath.
Now Shifu was the one confused with the flow of the conversation, but he held his tongue.
"And knowing them, they didn't leave the gun or the silencer behind. Just the bullet and a damn card," Kanda whispered to himself.
"Did you check the surveillance cameras?" Lavi questioned.
"We did, but from six o' clock P.M to two hours ago when we checked them they were turned off."
"As expected, they leave no traces," Kanda exhaled. He was exhausted and just wanted to sleep right now. "Thank you, Shifu. Is there anything else?" Kanda asked before dismissing him.
"Yeah, about that card," Shifu said, pointing at the manila envelopes in Kanda's hand, "That pentagon on it was drawn in the Chief's blood."
A brief moment of silence hung over the room before Kanda spoke up again. "I see, thank you Shifu, for everything."
Shifu just shrugged and said "It's my job. See you later," and he turned around and walked out the door.
"They'll be moving again, won't they?" Lavi asked Kanda. He stood there in silence, staring at a page in the manila envelope before answering Lavi.
"Another city, and we don't even know where they're going next." He suddenly turned to face Lavi, a determined look in his eyes as he said "We have to find that kid."
Ooooooh Allen's a druggie! And an alcoholic to boot!
This chapter was pretty bad, I'll admit it. I didn't go into too much detail about some things, like how Allen did the whole cigar thing, because I don't want to get into trouble or teaching children how to make their own joints *cough cough*
Also, the whole gun business. Yeahhhh I kinda made up some things about the silencer because I also don't want to get in trouble about teaching children how to use a gun with one. I know how one works, don't mistake me for some idiot who really did just make shit up, but I don't want things to just revolve around the guns in my story so I made it up.
But admit it, I was pretty good, right, right??? . *looks away*
ANYWAYS, I GOT LITERALLY NO RESPONSE TO THE POLL. SERIOUSLY, ONLY ONE PERSON VOTED. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ALL ARE?! No, jk, jk. Please, go vote if you want a say in how this story will end, I really want to hear from you all!
Remember, you're voting to say if this should be a KanddaxLavi (Kandi), KandaxAllen (Yullen), or just keep them straight.
Oh, also! In this story, ALLEN DOESN'T HAVE HIS DEFORMED HAND. Trust me, if he did it would mess up the whole storyline. Sorry for not giving the head up earlier…
Well, time to wrap up this Author's note.
Anyways review, vote, and stay strong.
-Xenophili