Hello! I hope everyone had a nice holiday season, I really wanted to post this chapter during the break but then events delayed me from doing so. It is a little longer than usual, but hopefully not too long!
I want to thank everyone for their kind messages and posts, the encouragement is really heartening and I hope you continue to follow the story in the future.
As always, I do not own the characters, they belong to Hiro Mashima and Fairy Tail and I thank him for their use in my own creative expressions *bows*
Back at the Magnolia precinct of the Fiore Police Department, Gray was also just finishing up his lunch at his desk while reviewing the audio recordings from the night before. It was boring and routine; mostly concerned mothers and old ladies convinced that the shooting had happened right in their backyards. Gray sighed and went to click on the last audio file in queue, but paused when he read the timestamp. It was almost five minutes earlier than any of the other calls, which had happened nearly on top of each other. He wondered if it was a mistake but decided to listen to it anyway, it was only thirty seconds long so it wasn't really a waste of his time.
He clicked on the play button and then took a big bite of his meatball sub while he waited for the audio file to load. He listened as the dispatcher asked for the emergency but was not expecting the voice that answered her; he choked a little on his sandwich in surprise. He started coughing so bad that he ripped off the noise cancellation headphones he was wearing and grabbed his take-out cup of soda to wash down the bread lump in his throat. The noise brought a couple of snickers and catcalls from the other officers but Gray ignored them as he composed himself, he put the headphones back on and replayed the message. He played it a third time just to make sure but he was convinced that he was right, when he looked up he saw Erza making her way back to their desks.
"Erza," he called out before she could sit down. "I found something in the 911 calls." She stopped in front of his desk and he handed her the headphones. As she listened to the recording he saw her eyes light up in recognition and then narrow slightly, she took the headphones off and handed them back.
"Gajeel Redfox," she confirmed Gray's suspicions.
"So they are involved then," he replied, his voice without emotion.
"It would seem so," Erza didn't try to hide the slight contempt she was feeling. "The witness said the man from the alley was dark haired and wearing dark clothes."
Gray nodded. "Should I call him in for questioning? We might be able to get the name of the girl out of him or at the very least why he was in the alley."
"No, we should wait," Erza replied. "His voice on a recording isn't enough leverage to make him cooperate, especially since our witness is unreliable. It's never easy to get information out of any of them but he would be especially difficult."
"But how are they involved?" Gray mused, sitting back in his chair. "I don't see Laxus taking a case that would mean killing someone."
"If Gajeel was going to kill Zoldeo why would he call it in? Except in self-defence but we didn't find any evidence that Zoldeo shot back."
"Unless those were his bullet holes in the dumpster," Gray countered. "It would explain why the body was clean, steal the gun and we wouldn't have a reason to look for GSR on his hands."
"Check with the morgue and see if they swabbed his hands before the autopsy, the report should be finished by now. Let's see if we can back up that possibility before we bring him in and Gray, don't put the recording into the official report yet," Erza gave him a shrewd look.
"You think that this case might get compromised?" Gray lowered his voice.
"I think that we need to proceed with this carefully," Erza explained. "If it turns out the Dragons are involved we don't want any judgements getting cloudy because of old history."
"Ahem." They hadn't noticed the young woman that was standing beside Erza's desk. She was dressed in an expensive three piece black suit with a laminated visitor's pass clipped to one lapel. "Ah, I have a message for you Detective Scarlett."
She fidgeted at Erza's hard gaze. "Yes?"
The woman grimaced slightly. "I was given specific instructions that it should be for your ears only Detective."
Erza sighed and motioned for her to follow as she led her to an empty interrogation room.
"What is it?" She asked once the door had been shut and Erza checked to make sure the camera was turned off.
The woman cleared her throat. "The, ah, Mayor has requested a meeting at your earliest convenience. I've been sent here to bring you to his office as soon as possible."
"Sent here to bring me?" Erza repeated as if she didn't believe what she heard.
"Yes Ma'am," the woman replied quietly.
"Do you know why he needs to speak with me?" She asked, crossing her arms across her chest huffily.
"He didn't specify Detective, but I'm supposed to do it by any means necessary."
Erza looked at her with veiled shock; she couldn't believe that he expected this girl to force her to go anywhere she didn't want to. As usual he was keeping her off balance, being secretive and paranoid but Erza could understand why.
"Just let me take care of a few things and I will come with you." Erza turned and walked out of the room, not looking back to see if she was followed.
When she got back to her desk Gray was on the phone with the morgue. "Yes, I understand. I will be right down. Ok, thanks." He hung up the phone. "So they have already finished processing the body," he told Erza. "They didn't swab his hands for GSR but they did get samples from under his fingernails. They also have the clothes he was wearing and if he fired a gun it would be on his coat. I think we should head downstairs and talk to the coroner, see what kind of samples they took."
"You go; I need to run an errand." Erza took her coat from where it was folded over the desk chair.
Gray glanced up at the woman who was standing a few feet away from them, waiting expectantly. "Do you need any backup?" He asked curiously.
Erza shook her head slightly. "No, I need to pay a quick visit to City Hall. You keep following the evidence so that when we do have enough to bring him in we can make it stick." She emphasized the word knowing that Gray would catch on.
"Right," he answered. City Hall explained everything and he would be no help were she was going. Erza walked out into the lobby, pulling her coat on as she went. She could feel more than see the woman follow her like a close shadow and when she walked out the front doors she saw the large black SUV with dark tinted windows obviously illegally parked directly in front of the building.
A driver quickly hopped out and opened the back door as she approached. "Ma'am," he nodded and motioned for her to get in. Erza murmured her thanks and climbed in gracefully, he slammed the door softly while the woman climbed into the front passenger's seat. Erza leaned back and blew out the breath she had been unconsciously holding for the last five minutes, she started to watch the traffic through the dark window in an effort to calm down. She knew that on the outside she looked as composed as her reputation, but her head was swimming with too many thoughts and questions. It clouded her thinking and made her feel uneasy, but that always happened when the mayor was involved, he made things difficult just by being.
It was normally only a ten minute drive to downtown Fiore from Magnolia but with the long weekend and lunch traffic it took almost twice the time. Erza sat in silence and considered the possible reasons why she was being summoned so directly but none of them seemed important enough for this situation. When they finally arrived at City Hall it was bustling with activity, the driver parked directly in front of the pathway that led to the big white stone building adorned with carved statues and shiny windows. Erza waited until she heard the click of the automatic locks before throwing open her door and getting out, ignoring the driver call out "Ma'am!" in protest.
"It's all right," the woman reassured him before following quickly. Erza entered the building an obvious woman on a mission, busy secretaries and civil servants hopping out of her way as she marched to the elevators.
The woman caught up to her as she waited for the doors to open. "You seem to know where you are going, Detective."
Erza kept her eyes forward and focused. "I have been here before, Miss…?"
"It doesn't matter," she answered just as the elevator doors dinged open. "If you will follow me."
They rode to the top floor in silence and then Erza allowed herself to be led down a large open hallway to a pair of heavy wooden doors where two uniformed police officers stood watch. They stepped aside as the women approached and the doors opened like magic, revealing the large office on the other side. It hadn't changed from the last time Erza had been there, blood red wall paper contrasted against the deep dark blue of the carpet, chestnut bookcases that were filled with books and artifacts collected over the years and portraits of mayors past took up almost a whole wall by themselves. The main focal point of the room was the massive desk in front of the farthest wall from the door, behind it was a window that went from the ceiling to the floor and overlooked greater downtown Fiore with the courtyard gardens around City Hall. Erza's attention though was focused solely on the man seated at the desk, who rose when they entered but did not move out from behind it which made his tall silhouette seem like a shadow in the noon light.
"Sir," the woman addressed the Mayor formally. "Detective Erza Scarlet from the FPD, as you requested."
"Thank-you," he answered, his deep voice sounded mildly amused. "You may leave us."
She nodded and then turned to look at Erza quickly before exiting, pulling the doors shut behind her. Erza knew that look well, it was a curiosity mixed with a warning to behave herself or else. At one time the woman's anxiety would have been warranted but Erza was the last person who would threaten the Mayor now.
"Detective Scarlet, thank you for coming so quickly on such short notice," the words were formal but the tone was too pleased to be proper.
"It is my pleasure Sir," Erza answered. "I am under orders to help your office with any requests should they arise."
Mayor Siegrain Fernandes nodded at her words. "Alright then, let us begin."
Gajeel finished the last few bites of his burger before pushing the plate forward and draining his beer. He was still amused by the sight of Levy trying to eat a cheeseburger the size of his fist and how awkward she had looked when she realized he had seen. He didn't know why it entertained him as much as it did or why he suddenly had a craving for the exact same meal, but he was willing to ignore those nagging questions for now. There was no sense in wasting his valuable brain energy on something like that, but he had been more than slightly disappointed when she had chosen to cut her burger up into smaller portions instead of eating it the right way.
He looked down at his watch and saw that it was nearly 1 pm, time to go back to work wherever that was going to be. He was pondering this when his cell phone started to vibrate in his front jeans pocket, he didn't remember turning the sound off but he must have. He dug it out and checked the display, confused and curious when it came up as Cobra.
"What is it?" he mumbled into the phone, trying to be discreet.
"Hello to you too," came the dry reply. "I think I have a situation."
Gajeel glanced down the bar, Laxus was talking to Kinana and not paying attention, Wendy and Levy were also having a quiet conversation beside him about a book and hadn't noticed the phone call. Gajeel pushed off his bar stool and walked a few feet away until he was in a quiet corner before answering.
"What kind of a situation?" He asked gruffly. "And why are you calling me instead of Laxus?"
"I tried calling the boss man first but he must have left his phone at the office," was the curt reply. "The situation is that I think we are too late with the surveillance idea. Someone wearing a black hooded sweater and sunglasses just walked out of the apartment building."
Gajeel's blood pressure dropped and then skyrocketed for a couple of beats. "That fits the description that the old man gave me, but it's pretty vague. Did you follow him?"
"Of course I followed him," Cobra sounded insulted by the question. "I am still following him."
"Is he on a motorcycle?" It would be too convenient if he were that careless.
"No, he is in a dark unmarked car and he isn't alone. We are heading into the north area around Clover; I will keep on his tail and call you when I find out where they are going." Cobra ended the call before Gajeel could answer. He lowered the phone from his ear and glanced back at the bar; Laxus was not going to be happy with this. The big man just happened to look up and meet Gajeel's gaze like he had mentally heard his name being called. Gajeel flicked his hand subtly in a summoning gesture and watched Laxus excuse himself from the bar before coming over.
"Bad news?" Gajeel wasn't surprised that Laxus had noticed him on the phone; he seemed to have eyes in the back of his head sometimes.
"Cobra, he said he couldn't get you on your cell so he called me. He saw someone meeting the bookstore owner's description coming out of Levy's building; they must have already been inside when he got there. He's in a car though, not a motorcycle, and he isn't alone."
Laxus thought for second before replying. "Does he have an idea of where they could be going?'
"North," Gajeel answered. "Into Clover, not much up there but warehouses and storage units. It could always be a false alarm, the description was bad and it isn't crime to wear a sweater and sunglasses. For all we know it's somebody that lives in her building." Gajeel knew that like this morning at the bookstore it was a coincidence that they couldn't ignore, but he hoped by throwing the idea out into the universe that it would somehow make it possible.
"We can't take that chance. Cobra is following him?" Gajeel nodded and Laxus let out a noise that was somewhere between a sigh and a grunt. "While we have eyes on him we should check it out and make sure the apartment is clear, if it is a false alarm then it won't make a difference but if he's already found her then we will have to change our strategy."
"To what?"
"You let me figure that out, hopefully we won't have to move on to plan B."
"Are we going to tell Levy?" Gajeel asked, keeping his voice as low as possible. "She has the right to know." Gajeel didn't know why, but it felt important that she knew what was going on.
"We will tell her that there is a possibility somebody broke into her apartment but we won't tell her that we know the killer is looking for her. That we are just going to check it out to make sure it's still safe."
Levy peeked over her shoulder at the two men who seemed to be arguing in the corner.
"What is that about?" She asked Wendy curiously.
"I don't know," the girl replied. "But I think we are going to find out." Gajeel and Laxus had stopped talking and were making their way back to the bar.
"What is wrong?" Levy asked when they got close. She didn't know why but she could feel it her gut that something had happened.
"Don't be afraid," Laxus started, looking at Levy. "But we have a good reason to believe that someone either broke into your apartment or at least tried to."
"What?!" Levy's heart started to race and she felt like either bolting for the door to run home or hide in the bathroom stall and not come out.
"Stay calm," Laxus continued in a soothing voice. "Gajeel is going to go over to your apartment and make sure that everything is OK. Meanwhile you can stay at the office with us but we are going to need your keys."
"No, if he is going I want to go too," Levy stated firmly. "He doesn't know what my apartment looks like; he's only been there once. I can tell if things are missing or been moved around and he can't."
"It's too dangerous," Gajeel snapped gruffly. "We don't know what he could have done in there." Right after he said it he knew that it was the wrong thing to say.
"What would he do in my apartment?" Then something very scary and very wrong popped into her head. "Oh my god, you think he planted a bomb or something? Booby trapped my apartment to kill me when I came home?" Her face paled so quickly that Gajeel was concerned she was going to faint again.
"No, No, No," Laxus was still miraculously calm. "Slow down, don't think like that. We don't even know if this guy was actually in your apartment, we just want to make sure that it's safe."
Levy shook her head stubbornly. "I'm not giving you my keys, I want to go. I will wait in the hall or downstairs or outside even until its safe, but I can tell if he's been there and Gajeel can't."
"It's too dangerous," Gajeel mumbled but Levy shot him a murderous glare. Laxus was waning, he knew what she said made sense.
"I need your phone," Laxus held his palm out to Gajeel expectantly. Clearly a little confused, Gajeel handed it over and he dialed a number on the touch screen.
"Natsu," he spoke into the phone after a few seconds. "Where are you? I need you to drop that for now. Gajeel is going to text you an address, get there as soon as possible. Priority one and bring your toolkit. He'll brief you when you get there. Yeah, bye." He disconnected and handed the phone back to Gajeel.
"I could handle it," Gajeel told him a little dryly.
"I didn't think you couldn't," Laxus explained. "But now you have backup just in case something goes wrong, getting him to do a security check on the door is being cautious."
"So, am I coming?" Levy asked quietly, not sure what just happened but she knew it was in her favor.
Gajeel gave her a look before replying. "You do what I say, you wait until I tell you it's safe and you stop asking questions." He knew the last order was not going to happen but he felt like saying it anyway, he took a couple bills out of his wallet and set them on the bar.
"Let's go." He placed a hand on Levy's shoulder and guided her gently towards the exit.
"What about my food?" She started to reach for her satchel.
"Don't worry about it, I got it." He pushed open the door and they both walked out into the sunlight.
Next chapter hopefully soon! And there will be much more Erza and the Mayor ;)