Hello again! Here is a long chapter, we are starting to get back into the good stuff.
As always, I do not own Fairy Tail, it belongs to Hiro Mashima and I thank him for it's use in my own creative expressions *bows*
Laxus was putting on his coat to leave the office when the phone rang one last time, he thought about leaving it for his machine but it might be important. "Hello?"
"Laxus."
When he heard who it was on the line he wanted to groan but she would have picked up on in right away. "Erza, what can I do for you?" He tried to sound as nonchalant as possible.
"I need to talk to Natsu, do you know where he is?" She was straight to the point, he didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing.
"Like I told Mest yesterday, Natsu is out on a job right now and I don't know where exactly he is." Laxus was lucky that he could lie through his teeth when he needed to, especially over the phone. "What is this about?"
There was silence over the line and Laxus wondered if he was about to get an infamous Erza lecture. "He is a person of interest in an open case," she replied finally, echoing exactly what Mest had said yesterday. "It is very important that I speak with him, Laxus."
"What kind of a person of interest?" Laxus knew he was pushing his luck with her but he wondered how much she would be willing to tell him.
"You know I can't tell you anything about an open case." Erza's tone was more warning then a reprimand.
"Come on Erza, at least let me know if it has to do with any of my cases."
"I don't know what your cases are Laxus," Erza replied patiently. "But I can tell you that we have solid evidence tying him to a crime scene. It would make things a lot easier if he would turn himself in."
"What does the case involve? Please Erza, as a professional curtesy."
Erza sighed. "We need his statement in regards to an assault and potential kidnapping. Look, I know that he was the one who assaulted the victim; he needs to come forward and tell us what happened before things get out of hand."
"There is something you aren't telling me." Laxus couldn't put his finger on it but he had a feeling she was fishing for something else.
"I should ask you the same thing." She was starting to lose her patience. "Every time something happens in Magnolia your guys seem to be right in the middle of it and this time it involves murder." She stopped suddenly but the damage had already been done. "You are not a cop anymore Laxus, you can't take matters into your own hands."
"I will see what I can do." She wasn't going to let anything else slip now but he had already gotten lucky, Erza didn't often make mistakes like that.
"This is important Laxus; don't make me take the next step in this." She hung up and he put the phone down slowly back into the cradle, absorbing the information he had just learned.
According to what Natsu had said there was no way that anyone could have been killed at the salon. The only other murder that she could be talking about was Zoldeo's, which meant that the police knew that Gajeel was involved. If they knew about Gajeel then that meant they probably knew about Levy too. Laxus groaned, this didn't change anything except that they needed to be even more careful. He glanced down at his watch, Mira would be expecting him home soon and he didn't want to be late.
Back at the Magnolia precinct Erza slammed the phone down in anger, mostly at herself. Talking to Laxus always seemed to bring out the anger in her, even when they were children and it had gotten worse after he left the police force five years ago. She admired his loyalty and strong personality, but it was also two of the things about him that annoyed her.
"That went well," Gray commented as he peered over at her from the top of his computer screen.
"Don't even." She wasn't in the mood for him either.
"Come take a look at this." He motioned to the monitor. Erza sighed and stood up, this better be something important.
"I thought about the connection between Lucy Heartifillia and Levy McGarden so I dug a little deeper. According to the records they have been living together for the past few years all at the same place, so what if they were friends before they were roommates? I searched online for Lucy to see if I can find anything out about Levy and I hit the jackpot."
On the screen there was a picture of a pretty blonde girl with her arm around a much smaller blue haired girl, they were both smiling for the camera.
"That is Levy McGarden?" She asked Gray as she leaned in closer to take a better look.
"According to the caption that is Lucy Heartifillia with her friend Levy, last name isn't listed but I doubt that she has two close friends with such an uncommon name."
"Where did you find it?"
"The online profile of one of Lucy's co-workers, I checked to see if they had similar accounts on one of those sites but no luck there. The picture is dated to about a year ago but I'm sure that's still recent enough to make an assumption that Levy is our unknown blue haired girl."
"It would seem so," Erza murmured. Her mind was turning, was this why Laxus did not seem surprised when she mentioned murder? It still didn't explain what the connection was between Gajeel and this girl and why they were in the alley when Zoldeo was killed.
"See if you can find if thy have any history with Seven Dragons or Grimoire Heart and run their names through the database to see if they are attached to any cases on file."
Gray nodded and turned back to the monitor. "What are you going to do?"
Erza walked back to her side of the desk and started putting on her coat. "I'm going to go find Natsu and Gajeel myself."
Zancrow went back to his high rise office, dark and quiet because all the regular staff had taken the day off but it was perfect for right now when he didn't want to attract unwanted attention. A few coded text messages and half an hour later two of his most trusted hired men arrived ready for their next orders.
"What do you need, boss?" A bulky man with big ears and thinning brown hair that he tried to over compensate for by having a bushy and long goatee flopped in one of Zancrow's nice leather guest chairs and immediately put his two booted feet up on the desk. Yomazu was the smarter of the two although neither of them had the intelligence to make it to the top of the Grimoire Heart food chain, but he was severely lacking in tact and class. Zancrow hid his displeasure and refrained from breaking the man's legs as a reminder to leave his feet off the furniture, he had bigger issues to deal with today.
"Have you found anything out about the girl," Zancrow leaned forward in his office chair and laced his fingers together over the desk while giving them a hard look.
"Well," Kawazu had an annoyingly high voice and a large nose that took up way too much of his face. "Not exactly…"
"I waited in that apartment for most of the night," Yomazu boomed, leaning back further in his seat. "Neither of them showed up. I did do a better search of the place, the envelope is definitely not there boss. Wherever she is hiding she must have taken it with her."
Zancrow ground his teeth in frustration, did she know the importance of the document she had in her possession? He didn't think that she would considering what they knew of her background but he couldn't take the chance. He had to get it back and make sure that she couldn't ruin his plans, by any means necessary.
"Did you find out any information that could tell us where she might be hiding?" He talked slow and easy like he was lecturing a child.
Unfortunately Kawazu chose to answer again. "Everything we've found so far is just dead ends but we will keep looking Sir."
Zancrow glared at them harder. "You had better come up with something soon. Hades is getting suspicious and if he figures anything out you two will be the first to go down, understand?" The two men gulped and nodded, choosing not to speak anymore. "Now go. Call me in an hour with information we can use." They almost knocked each other over trying to jump out of their chairs and hurry to the exit, Zancrow smiled on the inside. He loved the fact that he had a reputation as a man you did not want to cross and who always carried out his threats, no matter how insignificant. He leaned back in his desk chair as the door slammed shut behind them, they would waste no time now that they knew how serious he was.
Jet had finished looking through the printed police file, his mind was buzzing from lack of sleep and caffeine so he paced the room back and forth. He didn't know what to do, he could go to the cops but they might not be able to do anything. Besides, he couldn't admit that he knew Gajeel Redfox was a dangerous criminal without telling them about the stolen police files and that would just get him into trouble.
Jet was still racking his brain and trying to come up with a plan when he heard a noise from the hallway, at first he thought it was just his other neighbour but when the footsteps went passed his door he realized they were going to Levy's apartment. He raced to the front door to look through the peephole and see if she had come back or it was the police again looking for her. He caught a large dark figure standing in front of the door for a few seconds before going into the apartment. Jet's heart started beating even faster and his thoughts were going a mile a minute. That Gajeel guy was back? Then where was Levy? Somebody had to be home to let him in but why hadn't he heard her or Lucy come back. Jet made up his mind; he was going to get some answers once and for all. He wrenched open the door and marched into the hallway, his anger growing.
He pounded on the wood with a balled fist. "Open up! I know you're in there!" He hit the door a few more times and waited for a response but nothing came. "Open the door Levy; I need to talk to you!" Still nothing came from inside, he grabbed the doorknob and was surprised when it turned in his grip.
"I know who you are!" He bellowed as he pushed the door open. He had expected Gajeel and Levy on the other side; instead it was two rough looking men he had never seen before in his life standing there staring at him like he was crazy. Then one of them moved and Jet knew he was in trouble. "Where is she?!" Jet rushed forward and tackled him into the wall like a football player. "What did you do with her?!" He didn't know why these guys would be in Levy's apartment but he knew it couldn't be good. Before he could say anything else stars exploded in front of his eyes and everything went black.
Yomazu and Kawazu pulled up in front of the girl's apartment building, it was mid-afternoon and the small street seemed to be deserted and quiet unlike everywhere else.
"I don't know if we should go in the daylight," Kawazu mumbled to his partner as they sat and watched the street.
"You heard the boss, if we don't find that girl we're screwed." He'd left the balcony door open for easy access but it was getting really annoying climbing up there every time. Yomazu pulled the hood of his sweater over his head and got out of the car, trying not to look suspicious, he heard Kawazu following him closely. "You wait here, I'll buzz you up."
Yomazu looked around before picking up a rope that was hidden in the bushes that grew alongside the building. He threw the looped end up and it hooked around one of the balcony railing poles, pulling it taunt he climbed the rope until he could grab the rail and pull himself up the rest of the way. Looking around to make sure the street was still deserted he unhooked the rope and then slipped into the apartment through the unlocked sliding door.
He hit the door buzzer to let Kawazu in and unlocked the front door. The apartment was untouched from when he had left this morning, the girl and her roommate hadn't come back yet. One day could be a coincidence but two meant that they were definitely hiding out somewhere. Yomazu remembered yesterday when they led that Seven Dragon's detective to the old warehouse to throw him off, that had to be the people helping her but so far he hadn't found any connections between her and the agency.
He heard the front door open and Kawazu slipped in quietly, he hadn't been inside the apartment before so he looked around with slight interest. "Nice place," he muttered.
"We aren't here to look at the decorating," Yomazu replied dryly. "Help me find something useful." He had already searched the girl's room pretty thoroughly looking for the document but he had just skimmed over the roommate's. "You look in the kitchen, I'll do this half."
They split up and Yomazu went down the hall to the second bedroom; this girl must really like pink he thought to himself as he started to search. The bedside tables had nothing in them that was important, he scanned a few of the half-filled notebooks to see if they would tell him where they might have gone but didn't find anything there either.
He moved on to the desk and pulled out the first drawer, it was just as cluttered and unorganized as the rest of the room but there was an obvious empty space like something had been taken. He frowned, he didn't like the fact that they might have come back without him noticing. He poked around the drawer but there was nothing in there he wanted; he pulled out the second one and saw it was filled with old bills and receipts. One jumped out at him, it was from a phone company. They didn't have a land line so he assumed it must be from her cell, he took one of the bills and stuffed it into his pocket, maybe they could trace her number. He had just shut the drawer and was about to open the third when he heard a pounding coming from the front door.
"Open up! I know you're in there!" And then a couple more loud bangs. Yomazu froze, had someone seen him enter the apartment? Or had they seen Kawazu come in.
"Open the door Levy; I need to talk to you!" The unknown man called out again. So they hadn't seen him, they thought the girl had come back. He crept out of the bedroom, hoping that the unwanted visitor would just go away so they didn't have to draw more attention to themselves by killing him. He met Kawazu coming from the kitchen to the front door, he was about to whisper to his partner to bail from the balcony and run like hell for the car when the door burst open and all hell broke loose.
A man with bright orange hair stormed into the room. "I know who you are!" He shouted at them and then stopped.
The three of them stared at each other in surprise for a split second before Yomazu reached for the knife he kept in a holster on his belt. The movement shook the man out of his daze and he ran into Yomazu before he could lift his weapon. "Where is she?!" He yelled as he knocked the larger man backwards. "What did you do with her?!"
Yomazu slammed into the wall and gasped as the air was knocked out of him. Who the hell was this crazy bastard? All of a sudden the weight on him went limp and the man slid to the floor in a puddle. Kawazu was standing behind him holding and umbrella; he must have hit the guy over the head with it and knocked him out. Yomazu struggled to his feet and stepped over the man, he considered checking to see if he was dead but he knew he noise was sure to attract the other neighbours so he couldn't risk it.
The two criminals scrambled into the hallway and ran down the stairs before anyone called the cops. Yomazu jumped behind the wheel of their car and peeled out before Kawazu could even close the passenger's side door, it smacked one of the other parked cars on the street and an alarm went off.
"Shit!" Yomazu muttered and turned sharply down an alley.
"What the hell was that?" Kawazu asked, his voice even higher than usual.
"I don't know," Yomazu muttered again. He thought about what Zancrow would say about them getting caught and he didn't want to know what the boss would do to them if the police got involved. "Did you get anything from the kitchen?" He asked, hoping that they had something they could use.
"Just a picture from the fridge." Kawazu pulled it out of his pocket and laid it on the dash; the blue haired girl was plain looking but the blonde was stacked and had a pretty face. "We can show this around and see if anyone has seen them around with the Dragon's men."
Yomazu nodded, he had seen the picture before but hadn't thought about using it like that. He remembered the phone bill in his pocket; hopefully they had enough to please the boss, at least for now.
Jet moaned as he came awake, blinking a couple of times to try and clear up the black spots dancing in front of his face.
"Don't move sir, you've been hit on the back of the head." A face swam into view, one he had never seen before. Jet jumped a little and suddenly the fog cleared, until he sat up abruptly and his head screamed in protest.
"Sir, you should lie back down so I can finish examining you for more injuries." He realized the person was dressed like a paramedic and they were talking to him.
"What?" He asked, nothing was making sense.
"You've been hit on the back of your head," the paramedic repeated slowly, pointing to the base of her own skull to emphasize her words. "Can you remember anything about what happened?"
Jet lifted a hand and poked at a spot just above his neck that was throbbing along with his headache, it was tender to the touch but the lump hadn't broken the skin. He tried to think back to what he was doing before it all went blank, and then it came back to him in a flood. He looked around, he was still in Levy's apartment but those two guys were nowhere to be seen.
"Did they catch them?" He asked the paramedic anxiously.
She looked at him in confusion. "Catch who?" She asked.
"The two guys that broke in here," he continued hurriedly. "Did someone catch them?"
"What did they look like?" Jet looked up at who spoke; he hadn't noticed the police officer standing in the doorway watching them. It was one of the cops who had been asking about Lucy and Levy yesterday, the older guy with dark hair.
"I didn't get a clear look at them," Jet lied. "It all happened so fast."
"How do you know they broke in?" The cop asked.
"No way Levy would let anyone like that in her apartment, especially when she isn't home," Jet growled. Although it didn't explain how they had gotten there in the first place.
"Anyone like what?"
Jet grumbled. "They looked like bad guys." Was all he said.
"Was it the same man as yesterday?" The officer asked, ignoring Jet's tone.
"No, it wasn't him." Jet remembered Gajeel Redfox and neither of them had been him.
"Have you heard from your neighbours since yesterday?"
"No," Jet replied. "That's why I got suspicious when I saw someone go into the apartment. Did you find out where they are?"
"It's an ongoing investigation," the officer replied vaguely. He scribbled something into his notepad before look down at Jet again. "Did they say anything to you? Tell you why they were here?"
"No," Jet answered again, getting tired of this questioning. He used the wall to pull himself up against the paramedic's protests. "Who called the cops?" He asked.
"Your roommate." The officer stepped back and motioned to the hallway; Jet slowly walked up and saw Droy talking to the other cop from yesterday. "He heard the noise, found you knocked out and called 911."
Jet couldn't even be mad at Droy for getting the cops involved; he probably would have done the same thing.
"Are you sure there isn't anything else you can tell me about your attackers? Anything about them jump out at you or seem strange."
"No, not really." Their image was burned into his brain.
The cop stared at him like he could tell Jet was lying but didn't press him any further. "Well, you have my card from yesterday. If you can think of anything else give me a call, or if you hear your neighbours come back home."
"I will," Jet lied again. Something more was going on here and he wanted to find out himself what it was.