As always, I do not own Fairy Tail or the characters (just the AU) they belong to Hiro Mashima and I thank him for their use in my own creative expressions *bows*
Gajeel slowly opened the bookstore's heavy front door, and a soft tinkle came from the bell hung over the frame. He took off his reflective aviator sunglasses and looked around the room while his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. The place was small and books were literally stuffed everywhere, on over-packed shelves, on the floor, stacked against the walls, on the sale counter. Gajeel shivered, he had never been surrounded by so much literature before and it was a bit disconcerting.
"Hello?" He called out into the room, "Is anyone here?"
"Can I help you?" An old, thin voice seemed to come out of nowhere and Gajeel jumped a little. Then he noticed the top of a small gray haired head from behind the sale counter, they were so small they couldn't see over the top.
"Hello," Gajeel repeated walking over to the counter and peering down. "Do you work here?"
The voice belonged to a stooped old man, with a long grey mustache and a head full of grey hair parted right down the middle, he was terribly skinny and dressed in a dark green shirt with dark grey slacks.
"I am the owner," he answered and then slowly raised a thin arm to extend his hand towards Gajeel. "Crumudgeon Crux at your service, what can I do for you today?"
Gajeel continued to peer down at him with apprehension, he looked like he couldn't even lift a book without hurting himself, no wonder the place was a wreck.
"Um, Gajeel Redfox." Gajeel took his hand and shook it lightly; afraid he would hurt the old guy with a real handshake. "Actually Sir, I was looking for someone."
"Oh?" Crux eyed Gajeel with curiosity, "who might that be?"
"A gir- err, young lady with blue hair, kinda short, she dropped this in the street yesterday and I would like to return it to her." Gajeel pulled the scarf out of his pocket again and held it up so Crux could see.
"Well, if does look like Levy's scarf," the old man answered. "I don't think I've ever seen her without it."
"Levy? That's her name?" Somehow it seemed to fit her.
"Yes, she works for me. Usually it would be her here at the counter but she was feeling under the weather this morning. I could put it behind the till for when she comes back if you would like?"
Gajeel shook his head and returned it to his pocket, "I would rather return it to her in person if you don't mind. When do you expect her back?"
"Ohh ok," Crux tried to give Gajeel what he probably thought was a knowing look but it just ended up making the situation more uncomfortable than it already was. "Well the store is closed tomorrow and Monday is a holiday, so I expect she will be back on Tuesday."
"Tuesday, right," Gajeel thought about questioning him further but he didn't think it would be wise to try and get her home address out of her boss. "Well, thank you for all your help Sir." He turned to leave as the old man chortled quietly.
"Who would have thought Levy was such a heartbreaker," he mumbled to himself as he went back to whatever he had been doing before Gajeel disturbed him. Even though it was an offhand comment, for some reason it caught Gajeel's attention and he turned around to face the old man again.
"What do you mean?" Now he was the curious one. "Does she have a boyfriend or something?"
"Oh, no," The old man seemed surprised by the question. "At least I don't think so, she is very shy and rarely talks about anything but books. But you are the second young man to come around here today asking about her, that's all." Gajeel felt a chill go down his spine, it couldn't be a coincidence, could it? It wasn't complete unlikely that a guy would come in asking about the girl, she was attractive in a cute sort of way but the timing was too fishy to ignore. Gajeel realized he was just standing there thinking and the old man was looking at him questioningly
"Oh, ah, did you happen to see what he looked like?" It seemed like a long shot, but he had been pretty lucky so far.
Mr. Crux smiled what he probably thought was encouraging smile. "Oh, you want to know about your competition?" Gajeel started to protest but Mr. Crux held up his hand in a halting gesture. "You don't have to deny it from me young man, but I'm afraid I can't help you. He was wearing a sweater with one of those hoods on it and big sunglasses like yours."
"Is there anything about him that you can remember? Hair color? Piercings or tattoos?" Gajeel was starting to question Crux like a witness, but he needed to know.
The old man thought for a second and then shook his head. "No, I couldn't see anything like that. He just came in much like you did and asked about the pretty blue haired girl that hangs around here, only one person that could be. I told him the same thing that I told you and he seemed disappointed." Gajeel knew it was time to go, not only was the killer potentially after the girl but he had a considerable head start on finding her.
"Thank you, Sir, you have been very helpful. I will be back on Tuesday." Gajeel doubted that but he didn't want to make the old man any more suspicious than he probably already was. He put his sunglasses on and went out the door calmly, making himself walk about half a block before whipping out his cell phone and hastily dialing a number.
"Wendy, I need you to find someone on your computer." Gajeel glanced around uncertainly, he felt exposed out on the street like this but he didn't have time to make it back into the office. He didn't think that whoever it was would find the bookstore worth watching when the girl wasn't there but he didn't know enough about the situation to feel confident with that decision either.
"Sure!" Her peppy voice rang in his ears. "What do you need?"
"Can you search public records for a blue haired woman named Levy? I don't know a last name and try and keep it in the Magnolia area if you can." He was convinced now that Laxus was right and she would live somewhere around here.
"Hmm… There is only one thing popping up in Magnolia and it's a power bill, there are two names on it though."
"What are they?"
"Lucy Heartifillia is registered as the primary and then Levy McGarden is the secondary. A complex over on Coral, building 213 and apartment 302, there are no other Levy's anywhere in the search, no driver licences or listed phone numbers."
Gajeel exhaled in frustration. "I'm going to go check it out even though it sounds like a longshot. Can you call the boys and see if they can do a better search? Somebody else was asking about her at the bookstore so I need to find her before they do."
"Of course," Wendy's voice was serious now. "I will tell them it is an emergency and we need information as soon as possible." She hung up and Gajeel knew that she would take care of it. Coral was only about 5 blocks away from the bookstore, so it fit with his assumption that she lived nearby enough to walk to work. He went back to his truck, parked again across the street but in a different lot and went to try his luck with Levy McGarden.
The Magnolia precinct of the Fiore Police Department was always busy, even in the early morning. Gray walked through the stone entrance with a large coffee in hand and sunglasses on to hide the bags under his eyes. He followed the steps to the major crimes division, passing uniformed officers leading away offenders or scurrying around to finish their paperwork before the next shift came in. He made it to his desk and wasn't surprised to find that Erza was already seated at hers going over reports with sharp eyes. It seemed like the woman never needed to sleep and a murder gave her extra energy from god knows where.
"Good morning," he greeted her with much more enthusiasm than he felt before taking a seat at his desk.
"Good morning," she echoed back coolly. "Did you have a restful nap?"
He gave her a long look before answering. "I got a few hours in before the kids started waking up and crawling into the bed, six people and a dog gets kind of cozy after a while." Erza gave him a smile before handing over the file folder she had been reading.
"Preliminary report is back on Zoldeo, they won't be doing the autopsy until later this morning though. Not much in there that we don't already know, he was shot once to the torso at close range with a low caliber gun, likely cause of death. He wasn't carrying anything on him unusual, no keys, wallet or ID either, unless the killer took them. It will be awhile before we get anything back from trace, so far all we have are a lot of dead ends."
Gray skimmed through the file quickly. "What about your potential witnesses, anything new on them?"
Erza shook her head. "No one else seems to have seen anything; I'm beginning to think the old man was hallucinating or something except for those fresh bullet marks. Why would you shoot at nothing in an alley? It makes no sense."
Gray thought to himself for a second. "Have you checked the tapes?"
"What tapes?"
"The 911 calls, have you checked them out yet? Maybe our mystery witnesses called in the shooting but bolted before anyone got there."
Erza frowned. "Why would they call in a shooting and then leave? And that still wouldn't explain why they were shot at if they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"I don't know, it might be a dead end but as it is right now we haven't got anything else."
Erza nodded. "I agree, we should go from all angles with this one. I don't know why but I have a funny feeling about this case, something doesn't smell right, there are too many things not adding up. Like why would Zoldeo be in that alley to begin with? He was obviously stripped after he was killed because we didn't find a thing on him but why would the killer take everything? It's not like he was a nameless criminal we couldn't identify."
Gray picked up his phone from the cradle. "I'll call somebody from tech and get them to gather all the recordings about the shooting last night and go through them with a fine tooth comb. If there is anything suspicious with those calls we will find out."
Dun dunn dunnnnnnnn, do you think that Gajeel is going to find Levy before the killer does?