Chapter Twenty-Four - Bones
The bones forgotten.
They sleep beneath the cold earth.
Their stories unheard.
"We haven't found anything yet," Andrews' tired voice tells me. I nod, and then remember that he can't see me.
"I understand, thank you. I'll let you know if I need anything else," I take the phone away from my face and press 'end call'.
I thought that I would have found her by now. I even expected that I would at least find B's hideout. I haven't found either, and it's getting on my nerves. With a sigh, I get to my feet and move to the little coffee-maker on the desk next to the small television in our hotel room. I watch it silently as it brews a new pot.
With a small groan, Light wakes and sits on the edge of the bed. He rubs his eyes before getting off the bed and stumbling towards the bathroom. I hear the water being turned on.
What am I doing wrong? There must be something I missed. I've looked everywhere that has come to mind for a killer to hide. There's been nothing, absolutely nothing.
So what have I missed?
Scowling, I turn the coffeemaker off and pour myself a fresh cup.
It's early morning, three days after we checked out the last of the sites, the place where B had attempted suicide.
Pasadena Valley, an apartment complex stood tall and proud in the daylight, showing no signs of the horrors that had occurred within. Kurai looked at the building, a small frown tugging at her lips.
This did not seem like a place where a killer would hide. No, in fact it seemed like the opposite. It wasn't well hidden, and the busy streets teemed with people.
"Do you think this could be the place?" a nervous looking Matsuda asked. Kurai shook her head.
"No, I don't think so. I should have someone look in to it anyway."
"What a shame," Aiber chuckled.
It is a shame. I had Andrews' team look into the area (no-doubt scaring a couple of citizens at the same time), and from the report I just received, he hasn't found anything yet.
I take a sip from the black coffee, feeling it spread through my stomach.
What have I missed …?
Light comes out of the bathroom, towel tied around his waist. He goes and fetches some clothes from his bag before returning to the bathroom to change.
There must be something …
This is just like last time. When I was looking for a lead, I was at a dead-end because I couldn't think like Kira.
Am I looking at this the wrong way? Maybe …
I need to think like B.
A smile spreads across my face. That's the key to detective work. Not thinking like the majority. When you're dealing with crafty and intelligent people, you have to be able to get inside their heads, to think like them, to be them.
Took me quite a while to figure that out. Brains are no good if you can't apply them correctly to a situation.
I go and sit in the chair, slowly sipping at my drink. If I were B …
Firstly, it's pretty obvious that he has something against L. What that is, I have no clue. He even went to the extent to take his appearance. He wanted to tarnish his name by making the perfect case, one that he couldn't solve.
B is a practical person, maybe OCD and insane, but practical. If he wanted to kill himself before the end of the case, surely he would care where his belongings were before he passed, even if those belongings had helped him kill. Knives, guns, weapons or things to kill the victims are of little consequence to the police if they already know how the victim died. The string he used to lock the doors probably would have been burned in some random location, not kept with his stash.
If the weapons were of no consequence, then he wouldn't care if someone found them. Though he would want to hide while still alive, probably somewhere that a person wouldn't expect to find a person hiding, somewhere that a person would look last.
No, that's too simple. Maybe … a mixture of the two? Somewhere you wouldn't expect him, yet still easy to find. I blink.
Idea!
I quickly flip open my laptop and bring up some satellite images of LA.
Minutes later Light comes out of the bathroom fully clothed. He blinks at me, face behind computer and fingers typing. I'm totally engrossed in what I'm doing.
"Find something?" he asks.
"That's it!" I shout again, and grin wildly. I look up at Light, "I think I might have found a possible place. We can't wait for the FBI; get ready to go in ten minutes!"
"What?" Light blinks. I get up, shutting the lid to my laptop and head towards the door. I rush down the hall to Matsuda's room.
"Matsu, are you awake?" I shout through the door. I wait a minute before knocking loudly. This time there's some shuffling before a tired looking Matsuda opens the door.
"Oh, hey Kurai, what's up?"
"Be ready to go in ten minutes," I say, and then leave just as quickly as I came to go get Aiber.
As soon as I get back to the room, I call Andrews.
"What's going on? Something happen?"
"Yeah, I got a brilliant idea. I need you to-" I quickly tell him to hook me up with the landowner to the place I want to go. He manages to get me connected when Matsu and Aiber get here. I have a quick conversation with the landowner.
I learn a few things. Firstly, they own twenty storage warehouses that can be rented out to different people. Secondly, there were no suspicious people renting out one of them during the time of the LABB Murder Cases. Thirdly, I hear exactly what I want to hear.
I end the call and am just beaming when I look up at the others, "We might have just found what we wanted to find."
Aiber drives us to the site. The landowner gave me permission to go snooping about, and unlocked the warehouse in question just five minutes before we arrived, as I planned it.
We head into the warehouse, and I am greeted by metal rafters, tall towers of boxes and a strong scent of gasoline.
"Auh, this place smells horrible," Matsu says, making a face.
"I can second that," Light agrees, and I just nod.
"So, what exactly are we looking for?" Aiber asks.
"Naomi, what else?" I reply, smiling lightly. I start looking around the warehouse, just looking for tiny details. I have an extremely good feeling about this place. Well, when I say good feeling I actually mean I have the feeling that we're going to find Naomi. A person dying is never a good thing.
We all spread out and wander aimlessly for a few minutes. That's when I see what I was looking for. "Found it!" I shout, and the others run towards the sound of my voice. We gather in front of a large iron door.
Behind that door …
"One of the doors in Warehouse 13 won't open. We've looked for the keys, but they've just disappeared. I've been meaning to call a locksmith … just haven't gotten around to it yet," The landowner gave a well-meaning chuckle through the phone.
"What's behind the door?"
"Just a small back room, used to be an office, but it can be used as extra storage. All the warehouses have one. They're identical."
"Aiber, can you pick the lock for me? Matsuda, go stand by the door and keep watch," I instruct. Matsuda nods and heads off to the entranceway, while Aiber reaches into his pocket for something.
"What can I do?" Light asks.
"I don't know," I shrug. Light gives a small sigh and leans against the wall a few feet from the door. Aiber pulls out a small, thin knife from his pocket (which is completely awesome) and kneels down in front of the door.
There are a few minutes of clicking coming from the lock. I should put 'learn how to pick a lock' on my to-do list, with as many different items as possible.
"Almost there …" I hear Aiber whisper. Then there's a very loud click. "Done," he stands up, putting the knife back in its place in his pocket.
I stare at the door for a few seconds and take a deep breath.
"Well, let's see if our search was successful," I say, and chuckle lightly. I press on the door, it opens slowly.
The stench of death fills the air.
I turn away, and with wobbly knees head off to the side. Light has to catch me so that I don't fall over. My stomach constricts and I feel nauseous.
"I … I need to get out of here," I mumble. Light leads me outside, where I put my back to the wall and slide down to the ground.
"Are you alright?" Matsu asks, coming over to stand by me.
"Warehouse thirteen. One plus three looks like B. There's a locked door. It's a place that nobody would look, except if you think like Beyond Birthday. Apparently Naomi could think like him, that's how she solved the LABB Case. She found Beyond's hideout all right," I mumble to myself before I look up at them.
"Are you okay?" Matsu asks.
With a scratchy and strained voice I say, "We found her."
I make a quick call to the FBI and let them know that I've found her. Andrews gives a cry of shock and started questioning me. I tell him that I want him to come and pick up the body to bring it to the Forensics Lab. I'm 100% sure that this body is Naomi, but they still need to run a DNA test to prove it. I also tell him that he'll meet Aiber who is working under me at the moment. After that, Light and Matsu support me from either side and help me over to the car parked outside the lot.
I relax in the backseat, trying to get the image out of my head. It's been burned into my memory it seems. It's one thing to look at pictures … It's another to see it up close. Sick.
Light doesn't see the body, and he makes some valid excuses not to. I think he just doesn't want to see the consequences of his actions, and I stare at him through narrowed eyes.
Shortly after, a large black van rolls up behind us. The windows of our car are tinted, and we're in the backseat. If they tried to look inside, I doubt they would be able to see, which is good for me.
I watch Andrews and a few other agents climb out and look towards the warehouses. I see one man eyeing our car, but his attention is drawn to Aiber strolling up to them. I can't hear them speak, but I have a pretty good idea of what they're saying. Aiber specializes in being able to charm any man or woman.
He leads them inside and shortly after they come back out. I take out my phone and dial the agent's number.
"What are you doing?" Matsuda asks, and I bring a finger to my lips to show him to be quiet. It works.
"Red, I can't thank you enough for finding her."
"No, I should be the one thanking you. I need a DNA test run on her, for evidence's sake. I'll probably need your assistance a little while longer, as I want to gather evidence of her murder."
"You still think it's murder? I mean, it certainly looks like a suicide."
"I don't think it's a murder, I know so."
"Oh, I just remembered something that I forgot to tell you …"
"What is it?"
"Raye proposed to Naomi in LA a year and a half after she solved the LABB Murder Cases."
Oh, that's interesting. "Thank you, Agent Andrews. It's been good working with you," I say, and hang up. I look out the window and see him glance over at the car, but he doesn't make a move towards it.
I'm packing for the return flight to Japan (eleven and a half hours … damn) when I get another phone call. I take my phone from my pocket and answer it.
"Hello?"
"Red. We just got the tests from the Lab back. It really was Naomi."
"Thank you," I say, and this time he's the one to hang up. I give a sigh and run my hand through my hair. Light's off having lunch with Matsuda, so I'm the only one in the room.
"Well, you finally found her," Vile chuckles. I look over at the Shinigami and smile sadly.
"Yeah, I guess I did."
"I'm just curious, but how did you know that she would find that guy's hideout?" He asks.
"It's simple, she likes doing things her own way, and will take challenges head on. Her curiousness got to her. The case wasn't really over. So she went looking, and found his hideout, probably wondered who he really was."
"Do you wonder who that guy was?"
"Yes, yes I do. I just don't think Panda-Face would tell me if I asked."
"Well Kurai, you sure are fun to be around."
"Why do you say that?"
"Interesting things seem to be drawn to you. It's fun that way."
I smile and give a small laugh, "If I thought every 'interesting' thing in my life was fun, there'd be no end to my troubles."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
I laugh.
When we touchdown in Tokyo and are safely outside the airport, I quickly call Ryuzaki.
"Ah, Niiro, good to hear from you, how was your trip?"
"I found her," I say quietly into the phone.
"Is that so …"
"Yeah, Warehouse thirteen, in a locked room," I say and hang up again. My shoulders slump as I give a small sigh.
I did it.
Ryuzaki disconnected the call, and turned his chair around to look at the Task Force. The three members assembled blinked at him with questioning gazes.
"Niiro found Naomi Misora's body in Los Angeles," the detective said. The other three men in the room blinked and collectively gasped. A girl, a young woman no older than eighteen, had found the body of Naomi Misora, the body that no one else could find, the person who had disappeared without a trace.
How could a kid do all that?
Maybe we underestimated her … Aizawa thought to himself.
Mr. Misora received a phone call. The older man reached over, picked up the still ringing phone and brought it to his ear.
"Hello?"
"Mr. Misora, this is Red," the voice of a young woman answered. He recognized this voice to belong to the detective in question. The young woman who had knocked on their door and had requested information on his daughter's past.
"Red …" he said slowly. He hadn't been expecting a call from the dark detective. She had presented herself as a no-nonsense sort of person who was down to earth and knew how to get things done, yet she was also mysterious and upfront. So if she was calling, then there must have been news.
"I've found your daughter."
"What?" Mr. Misora blinked in shock. His wife came out of the kitchen from where she had been preparing dinner.
"She died by hanging herself, in a warehouse in LA."
"So it really was …"
"No. The case has not ended yet. I am currently investigating the circumstances around her disappearance. I will bring her killer to justice, I promise you that."
"Thank you," Mr. Misora said quietly as the line went dead. He laid his head back in his chair as his chest constricted. His daughter was dead … Tears rolled down his face as his wife came over to him and embraced him in their grief.