Chapter 2

"Dragneel! My office, NOW!"

Natsu looked up from his paperwork, his brow furrowed in confusion.

Lucy looked over at him from her chair next to his desk. "What do you think that's about? He seems really worked up."

Natsu shrugged, getting up from his chair. "I have no idea."

He walked to the chief's office and knocked once, opening the door soon after.

"Hey, Gramps. What's going on?"

Makarov was sitting behind his desk, his hands folded beneath his chin, a solemn expression on his face.

"Sit down."

Natsu, still beyond confused, did as he was told.

Makarov sighed. "Natsu, do you remember Lapointe?"

Natsu raised a brow at that. "You mean the Zentopia asshole we arrested a couple months back? Yeah, I remember him."

"That's good. Because he was just broken out of prison."

Natsu sat up straight. "What? How?"

Makarov sighed again and rubbed his forehead. "Someone set off a bomb at the prison and used the chaos as a distraction to bust him out. We're still working on the details."

"Gramps, I get that we need to find him again, but why call me in specifically. I wasn't even the one who made the arrest."

Makarov looked up at the detective. "No. But you are the one who shot Dan Straight."

Natsu furrowed his brow in confusion. "Who?"

"Miss Heartfilia's stalker."

Natsu's shoulders tensed. He hadn't even bothered to learn the man's name during that whole incident. He was more concerned with Lucy's well-being.

"What does that matter?" Natsu asked stiffly.

Makarov grabbed his computer monitor and turned it around so it was facing Natsu. On it was a picture of a letter written with cut out magazine letters.

THERE WILL BE VENGEANCE FOR THE DEATH OF DAN STRAIGHT.

THE ARCHANGEL HAS COME TO SMITE THE MURDERER.

"Straight was a member of Zentopia. When you killed him in defense of Lucy, the Archbishop asked to meet with me. He wanted an explanation for the death of his follower. After I told him the full story, he accepted that Straight was disturbed and you had done what needed to be done. Lapointe disagreed. He was furious and wanted to see you punished. He even placed some sort of blame on Lucy, though I can't see the logic in that. Nor the blame on you, to be honest."

Natsu slumped back in his chair. He had never had this sort of backlash for doing his job.

"Gramps, you can't tell Lucy about this."

Makarov looked up from his monitor, one brow raised. "And why is that?"

Natsu leaned forward again. "She already has nightmares about what happened. If you told her that my life was in danger because of what I did to protect her, she would blame herself. You can't tell her."

"Fine. Under one condition."

"Anything."

"You are not to go on any investigations alone until Lapointe is recaptured. Miss Heartfilia does not count. You must have another officer with you at all interviews and all follow ups."

Natsu pursed his lips, obviously not happy with this condition. "Gramps, I can take care of myself."

"I don't care. Either you do this, or I call Lucy in here right now."

"Alright! Alright, I'll do it," Natsu relented.

Makarov let a small smile onto his face. "It won't be for too long, Natsu. Just until we catch him. In the meantime, I want you and Lucy and Gray to investigate that armed robbery on 3rd."

Natsu scoffed. "Gramps, I'm a homicide detective. I don't investigate robberies. That's Sparky's department."

"Natsu, you will investigate what I tell you to investigate. Laxus is on a different assignment right now and you don't have any other cases since you caught Erigor. Think of this as a punishment for charging into that house completely unprepared."

Natsu sighed in exasperation. "Fine."

Natsu left the office and went back to his desk, slumping into his chair. Lucy looked up from the file she had been reading at her spot on his desk.

"Is everything okay? What did the chief want?"

Natsu sighed again. "He's putting us on the armed robbery case."

Gray perked up at this. "What? Why?"

Natsu pouted. Lucy took one look at his expression and smirked.

"Because Natsu was being a reckless idiot and almost got shot. Right?"

Her boyfriend crossed his arms and sulked harder. "Maybe," he mumbled.

Gray chuckled and crossed his arms, leaning back into his chair. "That's what you get for being an idiot."

Natsu scowled. "Don't act so mighty, Ice Block. You have to come too."

Gray shrugged. "I don't mind a change in pace. At least there won't be a body."

Lucy nodded her agreement and turned to Natsu again.

"Where are we going?"

Natsu stood up, grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair and his keys from his desk.

"3rd Street. It was a laundromat that was hit."

Lucy followed Natsu out of the station, Gray not far behind. Her brow furrowed in confusion.

"A laundromat? That's odd. What was taken?"

Natsu opened the passenger door of his car for Lucy to climb in, nodding to Gray as he walked to his own car. When Natsu was seated behind the wheel, he answered Lucy's question.

"I think there's a cafe or something there for people to go to while they wait on their laundry. It was that place that really got robbed."

"Ah, that makes much more sense," Lucy said, buckling her seatbelt.

Natsu nodded and pulled onto the road. Ten minutes later, they were pulling into the laundromat. The front doors were smashed and crisscrossed with police tape.

Lucy climbed out of the car and put her hands on her hips, assessing the damage.

"So, what happened?"

Natsu came to stand next to her and shrugged.

"Ice Block has the file."

Lucy rolled her eyes at the name and walked towards the doors.

"Might as well go inside."

She ducked under the tape and stepped through the broken doors, her shoes crunching on the glass inside. She straightened up and looked around her. Half of the building was dedicated to the laundromat while the other half was occupied by the cafe.

"I don't understand."

Natsu walked past her towards the cafe. Gray stopped next to her and crossed his arms.

"What don't you understand?" Gray asked.

Lucy tilted her head, her brows furrowing.

"This was an armed robbery. If these guys had guns, why didn't they rob a place that would net more money? Like a jewelry store."

Natsu looked up from where he was examining the cash register.

"Well, most jewelry stores have a panic button system, kind of like banks, that notify the police or their security company that a robbery is happening. A place like this wouldn't have anything like that, which guarantees that the perps have a little longer to get away."

"Huh. I guess that makes sense," Lucy mumbled, looking down at the glass around her feet. "What happened to the doors, Gray?"

Gray pulled the file out from under his arm and opened it up.

"Witness statements say that the guys broke the doors on their way out after hearing police sirens coming their way."

Lucy frowned again. "Why?"

Gray looked up. "What do you mean?"

Lucy turned to look at the doors again, examining the glass on the floor.

"Why break the doors? It would be easier to just open them. Less of a chance of cutting yourself and leaving DNA behind too."

Gray shrugged, glancing at Natsu, who had walked over to join them.

"Maybe the doors open in and take longer to get out of?"

Natsu shook his head.

"Fire marshals require that doors to public buildings open out to prevent people getting trapped during a fire."

Lucy looked up at her boyfriend and raised a brow.

"Why exactly do you know that, Natsu?"

"What? I like fire and stuff," he shrugged.

Lucy rolled her eyes and looked back at the glass.

"Lucy, what are you thinking?" Gray asked.

"How many witnesses were there?"

Gray opened the file again, flipping through the pages.

"Uh, looks like two. The owner and one of the employees. There weren't any patrons at the time of the robbery. Why?"

"Are there any security cameras?" Lucy asked, looking at the corners of the building.

"One, but the owner said that it malfunctioned last week and he hasn't gotten it fixed yet. Again, why?"

Lucy pointed to the glass.

"Look at the way the glass is spread out. It's all over this entry, inside the building. But I can't see any on the outside. These doors weren't broken by someone going out. They were broken by someone coming in."

Natsu crouched down to examine the doors.

"Okay. So, what are you thinking?" Gray asked, tucking the file back under his arm.

"Don't you think that it's a little convenient that the one camera in the whole building is down and the only people who were here at the time of the robbery were the owner and his employee?"

Gray shrugged. "I guess. But it could have been good timing by the robbers."

Lucy shook her head.

"I'm still standing by my question from earlier. Even if a jewelry store or a bank were too risky, there are plenty of other places in town that would give these robbers way more money than this place. Hardly anyone uses laundromats anymore. Most apartment buildings have laundry stuff in-unit or in-building."

Natsu started nodding slightly.

"You're right. This location doesn't make any sense. And these doors were definitely broken from the outside."

Gray waved a hand in the air.

"Hold on. You guys think this is fake?"

"It makes sense. If the place is robbed and things are broken in the process, the insurance payout might be bigger. What if the owner faked this whole thing so he could collect insurance money? He could have threatened the employee's job so they would go along with it," Lucy explained, gesturing wildly.

Natsu stood up from his crouch.

"I want to talk to the employee."