A/N: If there's one thing I can confirm, it's been too long! I reckon it's been a month since my previous post, and this time I actually have a legitimate reason, other than pure laziness. I've moved to university! It's my 2nd full day here, and I'm still adjusting, so my schedule for posting chapters may still be a little odd... It's been a nerve wracking past three weeks for me, because I'm extremely close to my family, and now I've had to suddenly leave the nest for a bit and stand on my own two feet! It doesn't help that I'm a naturally nervy person, so my physical conditions haven't been ace this past month, whence I went on a planned hiatus (I mentioned it in my profile, but I honestly don't expect people to check that). I think I'm definitely getting better, and I've met some lovely people whilst here. It's all about getting used to my new living conditions, as well as getting to know my other flat mates. I've heard it can take up to 2 weeks to full get used to this, and I've still been a little shaky in terms of health, but I'm definitely on the mend! My lectures start next week, so those'll keep me busy, too!
My hiatus also means I may not have replied to everyone's reviews... I'm sorry if I don't get back to you, but I sometimes lose track of which messages I have and haven't replied to! I'll try not to miss anyone out, because I rather enjoy speaking to my readers, but please don't be offended if I never respond! It's purely because I've lost all sense of who I've sent messages to!
If I start feeling for the worse again (which I really hope doesn't happen), I'll be sure to let you all know this time. It was quite sudden, so I couldn't put it in the previous Author's Note, and I wasn't fit for writing the next chapter, so couldn't announce it then. However, if I start feeling rotten once more, I should probably mention it on my profile (and I'll make sure to remove the current message). It's a tough time for me, but I'm not the only one, so I should get used to it in a relatively short amount of time! I'm actually quite glad to be getting back into writing, because I haven't been doing too much of it recently, and it is one of my biggest hobbies...
Anyway, with all that aside, I love all of my readers and I'm glad to say the next chapter is finally here! Please enjoy and leave a review!
Chapter 14
Yao held the single sheet of paper in his hands. Written at the top in the same messy scribble was 'Mr G. Beilschmidt'. There were several details; a number, the address they'd investigated, and the name of a car alongside a string of letters and numbers Yao assumed was the number plate. There was also a date. Although seemingly unofficial, a signature at the bottom of the paper marked that Gilbert Beilschmidt had agreed.
"How did he pay for the car?" Yao asked.
"How did he pay?" Esteves looked lost for a moment, but quickly recovered. "Cash."
"Is that usual?" Yao glanced around.
The employee offered him a nervous laugh. "Why so many questions for me, Mr Investigator Man? I thought you said you believed my innocence…"
"I don't doubt your innocence," Yao insisted, looking back at the anxious young man, who shifted from foot to foot. "I just need to know about Beilschmidt. You see, I'm currently looking for him."
"You're looking for him?" Esteves' eyes flicked towards Yong Soo. "Both of you?"
"Yes, both of us, aru," Yao replied patiently, although he was slowly losing his patience...
"Well, um… yes, actually," he deflated a little. "Most people pay in cash here…"
"That's fine," Yao wandered around a little, with Esteves following close behind. "When did he rent a car from here?"
"About a week ago, now," Esteves replied. "I'd say Saturday. Night."
"Saturday night?" Yao glanced over his shoulder at Esteves, who had stopped dead.
"Well, no… not night," Esteves looked uncomfortable. "Afternoon, actually. No, evening."
"Do you have a specific time?" Yao felt he was getting nowhere with this man.
"Six," Esteves said. "In the afternoon. Or evening."
He was oddly anxious, but Yao had to guess he had never believed himself to be serving a potential criminal. He didn't quite know the kind of world Esteves lived in, but looking around the ratty workshop told him that a certain type of person would wander in through the garage to demand a rental car.
"He paid in cash, at six o'clock on Saturday?" Yao confirmed, and Esteves nodded. "What was his manner like, aru?"
"He was blunt," Esteves' lip curled slightly. "But I thought that was how all Germans acted."
"Was he in a hurry?" Yao desperately hoped the young man never committed a crime, because he would not be able to deal with police pressure if it came right at him.
"A hurry?" Esteves pondered. "I don't remember."
"Was he desperate to get away? Did he have anything with him? Anyone? Do you remember anything from Saturday, Mr Esteves?"
Yao knew he needed to be patient when dealing with people, but he was beginning to grow anxious at the thought that, every second he and Yong spent at Esteves' workshop, Gilbert Beilschmidt was readying his passport to leave the country.
"He had a suitcase with him," Esteves' eyes shone with memory. "I remember now, and I remember he didn't care what colour biro he used for his signature. I barely had time to check how much money he gave me before he'd taken the car. Actually, he accidentally paid an extra tenner, but I…"
Esteves trailed off, and didn't say anything more. Whatever dodgy dealings occurred at this place, it wasn't Yao's problem. He wasn't a good Samaritan. However, if he was one day commissioned to investigate the workings of this workshop, Esteves' accidental scam would instantly come to mind from the folds of his memory.
"Can I keep this?" he held up the paper.
"Ah, um, no," Esteves winced. "I don't have a spare copy, but… you can write down any details you need from it? Wait, I forgot to ask – do I get paid for helping you?"
"No, aru," Yao took a screenshot of the paper in his hand and held it out to Esteves with a bright smile. "But thank you anyway, aru."
Esteves took the piece of paper with a slightly sullen expression in his eyes. Yao had a feeling that, if he wanted any future information from this young man, he would need to have a bribe prepared. He couldn't use intimidation due to his small stature, and Yong Soo was too gangly and innocent to be played as a sinister bodyguard or thug.
"Goodbye, Mr Esteves," Yao called over his shoulder as he walked back to the sunlight the entrance revealed. "You've been a wonderful help."
"Yes, Mr Investigator, you're welcome," he said coolly. "Just remember not to mention my name in any court, OK? Beilschmidt probably doesn't even recall what I look like."
"Of course, Mr Esteves," Yao no longer cared for the conversation; he was finished here.
Without even a look over his shoulder, Yao returned to the Old Civic and geared up the engine. Yong Soo jumped in beside him.
"Weren't you a little too harsh on him?" his sidekick glanced in the mirror at the garage as Yao drove away.
"Not really," Yao shrugged. "I thought I was quite reasonable, aru."
"We should've tipped him," Yong Soo sighed sympathetically. "He probably barely has a living, scraping off of anything he can find from anywhere."
"He'll be fine," Yao insisted. "You could say Beilschmidt gave him a hefty bribe payment of ten quid."
He felt Yong's eyes on him as he drove, but nothing was said.
"OK, so we need to show this number to Lei and have him trace down this car," Yao explained. "I think we're really onto something here, Yong. Once we've traced down the car, we'll find Beilschmidt in no time, aru."
Yong Soo remained oddly quiet.
"Yong?" he repeated, and tried a glance, but driving held most of his attention.
"I hope Mei's OK," the boy sighed.
Yao felt his hands tighten on the wheel. The very thought of her right now made him clench his jaw; but some part of him had to agree with Yong. Yao had almost liked the idea of Mei being an official member of the Investigasians. There was something about her bitchy company that made Yao's day. He couldn't answer or reply, because he didn't know how. Silence swept into the car, even though the windows were closed. Eventually, Yong Soo reached forwards and turned the radio on. Yong never had the radio on. It was usually the sound of Yong Soo's voice they listened to when it was just the two of them in the car. He pretended not to be bothered by this change in routine, but in truth, Yao noticed Mei's disappearance just as much as Yong did. Perhaps it had been a mistake to let her just resign there and then?
They arrived back at the Honda Ramen Bar in good time. It was there, in the familiar and busy atmosphere, that Yao called Lei to tell him they'd achieved getting the number plate.
"That quick?" he sounded surprised.
"Hey, we're efficient, aru," Yao scowled. "When are you able to come?"
"Any time," Lei replied. "In fact, I'll come over right now. I might as well have lunch at Kiku's whilst I'm there, checking the cameras and all."
"Right…" Yao nodded. "So…?"
"I'm coming," Lei said, and hung up.
"I heard Mei quit."
Yao turned to see Kiku stirring a large batch of ramen in broth, an inquisitive expression in his eyes.
"Uh…" unsure of what to say, Yao fumbled for the correct words. Quit? Resigned? Fired? Made redundant? "I guess."
"Ah, that's a shame," Kiku focused on the food. "She was nice…"
Yao fell silent once again, and Yong Soo said nothing, either. It was rare for Kiku to make connections with people, and if he did, it usually took a long time. Speechless, he watched his friend from high school make a satisfying meal for a hungry customer.
"Do you… want to talk about it… aru?" he finally mumbled.
"Do you?" Kiku glanced at him as he moved onto the next order.
"Oh, well…" Yao didn't know himself. Surely, to answer a question, you needed to have an answer to give.
"We don't have to," Kiku shrugged. "I just thought she was nice."
"She was," Yong Soo finally pitched in.
It was then that Yao actually didn't want to talk about it. Mei just made him feel mad, because, at the end of the day, she'd been unreasonable. This was the second time in a single day that she'd suddenly been mentioned. Yao felt like karma was trying to suggest something. Kiku seemed to sense his change in mood, because a vacant expression filled his eyes.
"Are you two staying for lunch?" he sounded almost hopeful.
"Oh, I got a tonne of pocket money this weekend," Yong Soo chirped excitedly, his stomach becoming more important than Mei. "We're definitely staying."
Kiku smiled before returning to his food. Yao had to admire his cleverly placed art of manipulation.
Somehow, Lei was late. Yao always imagined he lived the life of one of those shut-ins. Were they called NEETs? Either way, Yao could only see his life reaching out to the programmes on his computer and the Internet. Nothing seemed to progress beyond that life in Yao's opinion. That was why Lei's ability to be late confused him. If Lei did nothing at home, how could he be too busy or preoccupied to be late?
"I'm having my lunch first," he announced, and Yao had to go along with that – his stomach had started to grumble, after all.
He ordered his usual, and Kiku was set to busy work serving all three of them. Yao waited patiently for his ramen to arrive, and when it did, he idly slurped away, indulging in the beauty of Kiku's city famous ramen. In truth, he was anxious to get going, because he desperately wanted to finish this case and receive the end of his payment. Never once had Yao let the end goal out of his sight. He had been striving towards his payment since the beginning; he would probably get back the five per cent he accidentally gave to Mei. He needed to forget about Mei...
Once they were finished with their food, the three of them retreated to the top of the ramen bar. Deep into the recesses of the upstairs living quarters, they huddled amongst the computers.
"You have the number plate?" Lei set the devices up, their ancient engines whirring into life.
Yao located the picture on his phone and pushed it towards him. The handwriting was bad, but Lei managed to decipher what Esteves had scrawled just last week. Although they were promised it would take some time, Yao and Yong Soo hovered in the room, every now and then watching in fascination as Lei cracked into the camera systems along the roads. It looked like a lot of effort and hard work, so Yao was glad to have someone like Lei to do this for him. It would've been harder asking for the entire database of cameras just to find a number plate.
It was drawing later when Lei finally announced he'd found something.
"Here," he pointed to the screen.
Yao watched as a dusty car that may have been either white or silver breezed along the relatively quiet roads on the Saturday night. Its number plate was proudly cleaned compared to the rest of the car, and matched the one Esteves had given. His heart racing, Yao gripped the back of Lei's chair as he watched it sail across the road.
"I managed to follow it and close down the locations," Lei changed the screen to a remote little neighbourhood. "Here. This is the closest street I could get; it shouldn't be hard to find a car like that, though…"
"Thanks, aru," Yao took down the details and tucked his phone in his coat pocket. "We'd best be off, then, Yong."
His sidekick checked his watch. "This late?"
"Are you quitting on me, Yong?" Yao sighed as he headed towards the door.
"What?" the young man's eyes bugged out. "No, of course not, Aniki."
"Thanks, Lei," Yao said, as he breezed past. He could trust eLi to let himself out once he was done organising all his folders.
Kiku seemed to be heading off somewhere when they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Closing early, aru?" Yao blinked.
"Ah, no, my dad is holding the fort whilst I make a delivery," Kiku explained awkwardly, plastic bag in hand.
Yao turned, pale, to see Mr Honda standing at the bar.
"Hey, Yao," he said, smiling, but with a glint in his eyes.
"M-Mr Honda," Yao winced, forcing a strained grin. "How good to see you. How has your day been?"
"Oh, great… just glad that you paid last month's rent," Mr Honda beamed. "But, um… I'll just warn you. Next month's rent is in about…" He lazily cast a glance at the date written on the blackboard behind him. "…two and half weeks?"
"O-oh?" he blinked.
"Yeah, I just thought I'd let you know so you're not too much in debt when the payment comes…" that was added with a mean smile.
"Y-yes, Mr Honda," Yao swallowed.
"You're looking strong today, Yong," Mr Honda noted the younger man then.
Yao gritted his teeth and allowed them their conversation. Mr Honda made it clear he despised Yao scrounging off his family, but he loved the youthful face of Yong Soo, who still had "considerable potential in life" – and, yes, that was a quote from the man himself when aiming the harsh bullets of reality at Yao.
"When did you guys start doing deliveries, aru?" Yao asked.
"Oh," Kiku looked embarrassed. "This is a special case."
"Right, OK," Yao nodded.
"I have to go," his friend insisted. "I assume you're busy tonight, so we'll talk tomorrow?"
"Sure, aru," he watched Kiku rush out, pulling his woolly hat over his ears in the cold.
Snow had started to become a regular occurrence. A thin layer had built up over the ground, but not enough to disturb the busy life of the city.
"Yong, we have to go," he checked the time, and turned to see his so-called assistant tasting a new broth Mr Honda possibly intended to release.
"Coming, Aniki," Yong Soo coughed. "That was very tasty, Mr Honda! Thank you very much!"
Once they were outside in the elements, Yao had the opportunity to become bitter. "Aren't you the suck up?"
"What?" Yong Soo frowned as Yao jumped into the car with a dark expression on his face. "Aniki, you know Mr Honda dislikes you greatly, whereas he finds me like a distant nephew or something. Surely it shouldn't surprise you that he should act negatively towards you, someone he dislikes, and positively to me, someone he much prefers?"
"You are a pale imitation of Kiku," Yao sulked, firing the Old Civic into life and rumbling away.
He had Yong Soo direct him once again. The drive was long and perilous. Lei had only shown them a fraction of where they needed to go, and Yao was soon bored. It was bad enough that he had to listen to the personal radio sitting in the passenger seat about how he should become a food connoisseur.
"Why are we going there so late?" he suddenly asked out of the blue.
"Huh?" Yao blinked tiredly.
"How come we're going so late?" Yong Soo repeated. "I mean… Beilschmidt will be asleep, right?"
"That doesn't matter," Yao replied. "We're talking to him, even if it means hammering his door down, aru."
"Wow," Yong Soo suddenly became uncertain. "Is that legal?"
"It's necessary," Yao sighed impatiently. "We can't afford to give Beilschmidt the chance to escape."
Yong Soo nodded, determined, just as Yao rolled into the cut off road Gilbert Beilschmidt had driven his car to on Saturday. However, there was no sign of the car parked in any of the drives.
"Well, that's weird," Yao murmured, eyes scanning the street, until he found one house without a car.
Usually, he would pay it no mind, but it was the only house there without a car. He zoomed in on it and parked the Old Civic into the drive.
"Do you think he even stayed here?" Yong Soo asked nervously.
Yao pulled his phone out of his pocket and gave Lei a quick ring.
"Yo."
"Aru, did Beilschmidt stay here?" he demanded.
"There was no further activity from his car, as far as I'm concerned," Lei muttered. "Oh, wait."
"Perhaps you should've told me about this beforehand?" he huffed.
"I didn't know, and besides, this benefits you…" Lei said.
"What?" Yao scowled.
"He's headed back to the city," Lei replied.
"Oh, yeah, so he took the next flight to Antarctica, never to be seen or heard from again, aru," Yao spat. "What the Hell, Lei? We've just lost the prime suspect and you're calling that a benefit? It seems we'll all just have to forget about the rest of our payment, because Edelstein sure as hell won't look into an incomplete case."
"Yeah, could you just, like, listen?" he sounded agitated.
"What, aru?" Yao folded his arms and leant back in the car seat, Yong Soo watching his every movement with wide, anxious eyes.
"He went past the airport turning," Lei explained. "He headed towards the city."
"So we should tail him!" Yong Soo cried excitably.
"Take the opportunity to look around his house," Lei instructed. "This could be your best chance."
"True, and it would confirm if he truly intends to leave, aru," Yao pondered, realising the benefits for himself. "OK, we'll do that. C'mon, Yong."
He disconnected his call with Lei and slid out the Old Civic, Yong Soo joining him. The two of them walked towards the front door.
"Now, we don't know what to expect," Yao warned his sidekick. "We're about to enter the house of a man capable of murder, understood?"
Yong Soo nodded, his face suddenly ashen with fear as he watched Yao rummage through his pockets for his trusty lock pick. He held it up in the darkness and brought it towards the door. Yao knew that Mrs Im would slaughter him if she discovered what kind of work he was getting Yong Soo to do...
He turned it once clockwise, several times anti-clockwise, then back round once more. After carefully wiggling the lock pick – which was really just a bent into shape paperclip – Yao managed to click the lock open. He returned the paperclip to its home in his pocket and wrapped his fingers round the doorknob. After one more glance towards Yong Soo, he pushed Gilbert Beilschmidt's door open.
A/N: Well, we still haven't met Gilbert, but I promise you that we will soon! I hope you've enjoyed the chapter, and I hope to get back onto a schedule that's decent for me. It may be that my posting schedule might shift from Friday night to Saturday morning, just because I am a bit more of an early bird! As far as I'm concerned, I don't have any lectures on Mondays or Wednesdays, either, and only have a single lecture on Thursday morning- a free day after that! I'm so glad to be back to the community and I promise not to do another disappearing act! If I don't post in about a week or so, it may be worth checking my profile once more just to see if I've shifted off the radar once again! Thank you for your patience with Investigasians!
On a note, I've been listening to music by Gorillaz recently, and absolutely love their tracks Clint Eastwood and Melancholy Hill. If you're looking for something a little different (Alternative, I suppose), then I definitely suggest you check them out! Also, the concept of the band is a cartoon, which created characters with their own personalities and stories! It's very interesting- seriously, check them out! Until next time xx