Heero looked up with pure murder radiating from his eyes when Trowa came to get him. He heaved a sigh of relief when he saw Duo standing next to the detective.
“Duo!”
Duo didn’t answer him, just walked right into his arms and they embraced for a moment.
“Otto,” he addressed an elderly looking agent with sideburns, “if you would look after Mr. Maxwell, please? Mr. Yuy, this way.”
“Go with him, Heero. And... behave, okay?” Duo showed a weak smile. Heero embraced him once again, pulling him closer.
“You’ll get through this, I swear.”
“Just go with him, Heero.”
They let go and Duo averted his eyes when Heero looked at him. He frowned, only to give attention to the detective when he obstinately cleared his throat.
“This way, Mr. Yuy.”
Trowa felt Heero’s eyes sweeping through the hallway, to focus and burn on his back the whole way down to the interrogation room. He seemed to mutter something to himself, and Trowa couldn’t help himself.
“What are you saying?”
“I said that, if you haven’t been treating Duo well, I will make you pay for it,” Heero repeated, as calm and composed as anyone could be.
“We don’t like threats and there are many coming from you,” Trowa answered, a bit irritated. He was convinced Heero would live to pursue his threat, but the hairs on the back of his neck kept tickling because of Heero’s hostile attitude. “Besides, your partner can take care of himself. He’s not made out of sugar, you know.”
Heero didn’t answer, but Trowa noticed he hadn’t favoured himself with his remark. They remained quiet until they reached the interrogation room.
“Mr. Yuy, take a seat. Coffee, or tea, perhaps?” Wufei motioned to the chairs.
“No.” It took a few seconds before Heero added: “No, thank you.”
He took the seat close to the door, while Duo had sat close to the window. Wufei observed him closely. “You’re a difficult man to find information on, Mr. Yuy.”
Heero saw the files and his lips curled into a snarl. “You did a background check on me? Why? What’s the reason for this?”
“At ease, Mr. Yuy,” Wufei’s voice was harsh. “We have two dead girls here who were students of your partner. The girls died both of broken necks. Clean fractures, Mr. Yuy. You two have weak alibis, and heaven knows we’re still puzzled about the motive.”
“We are good citizens,” Heero objected. “We don’t go out at night to stalk or murder girls! Why are you insinuating something like that? We pay our taxes, we donate to charity. We have both our happiness and misery. We try to make a living...”
“You don’t,” Trowa said.
“What?”
“You don’t try to make a living,” Trowa repeated. He tapped at the files. “You don’t have to do anything to do for it. According to your life partner you don’t have to work, because you have a war pension. Aren’t you a bit young for that? Besides, how high must a war pension be to live off it completely?”
“Your questions are out of line,” Heero said. His eyes flicked to the door and back. “I clearly don’t see what my war past has to do with the two girls.”
“We’re trying to find the bigger picture of what we’re dealing with here. Please understand that, even though you’re not suspect yet, it looks suspicious for you and Mr. Maxwell. You both clearly can’t vouch for your alibis. For instance, your life partner claims to have been asleep at the time of Dorothy Catalonia’s death, and awake at the time of Hilde Schbeiker’s death. When he was awake, you weren’t there, Mr. Yuy. You came in fifteen minutes later, with a bag from the night pharmacy.”
“Duo was having a nightmare. We were out of his medication, so I got some.”
“At 3.00 AM?” Wufei sounded incredulous.
Heero didn’t flinch. “His nightmares can happen at any possible hour and the medicine needs to be available whenever it’s necessary.”
“He couldn’t recall any of his nightmares,” Trowa said.
“The better for him,” Heero cut him off. “This altogether has given him more nightmares than I could’ve ever imagined for possible. It’ll take some time for him to get over it.”
“I wish you’d give your partner some more credit,” Wufei said. “He’s not the fragile character you think he is, Mr. Yuy.”
Heero slammed with his fist at the table, startling the two detectives. “How dare you even think of insinuating that he’s fragile! Duo is the strongest person I’ve ever met! He’s gone through hell and worse, and this situation isn’t making everything for the better! Still he bounces back on his feet, stronger than ever, refusing to go under! He’s as alive as no one else can be!” He lowered his voice. “He just needs some protection. He tends to approach the world with… some naivety, and I don’t want him to get hurt again and again.”
“What do you mean with that ‘protection’?” Wufei eyed the tape recorder. The tape was almost at its end.
“I was at the night pharmacy,” Heero said, ignoring Wufei’s question, “and if you want to, I can show you the receipt. You could’ve asked me that earlier, that would’ve saved us both some irritation. I can’t think of any other way to prove we were in our bedroom, sleeping. We don’t keep cameras there. We don’t need to be out in the night.”
“Which pharmacy did you go to?”
“The only 24 hours open pharmacy is the Corner Pharmacy,” Heero answered. Trowa tried to make a quick calculation in his head. The Corner Pharmacy and the location where Hilde’s body was found were too far away from each other. Hilde was estimated to have died at 3.00 AM Even though the exact time of death couldn’t be pinpointed, Hilde was estimated to have died at 3.00 AM. If Heero would’ve been at the Pharmacy at that time, it would take him at least thirty minutes to get to the other location. He refrained from gritting his teeth.
“We must have that receipt,” Wufei demanded. Heero immediately rose from his chair.
“I told you that you could’ve asked me that earlier. It’s at home and I’ll bring it to you first thing in the morning. As long as you don’t have any solid proof and we’re not officially suspect, I believe this conversation is over.”
He moved aside and stalked to the door.
“Your alibis are not waterproof,” Wufei said.
“You don’t have any proof at all.” Before Heero opened the door, he turned around. “This may sound like a threat, again,” he eyed Trowa disdainfully, “but I really don’t appreciate you doing background checks, on me or on Duo. I will see a lawyer about that.”
“Any lawyer will tell you this is normal procedure. Quit obstructing the course of justice, Mr. Yuy.”
“There is no justice to obstruct,” Heero answered, still looking disdainful. “If there was any justice, detective Chang, detective Barton, you’d be superfluous in this society. If there was any justice, I wouldn’t have to protect Duo from this kind of sleaziness.”
The door slammed shut at the exact moment the tape recorder stopped with an audible ‘click’.
Trowa saw Wufei’s hands tremble. His colleague was suppressing his anger with all his will power.
“That arrogant son of a…! He knows we have nothing to hold him on, nothing to work with, nothing, damn nothing!”
Trowa noticed he himself was also agitated. The spoon in his coffee cup tingled from the force he was shaking it with. “We can’t arrest him for having a classified background.”
Wufei eyed the files, one of which was clearly marked with a red stamp. “He’s a goddamn soldier, at least some commando. He is the exact kind of person able to snap a woman’s neck in two without leaving any traces. Damn! Why don’t we have anything to work with?”
“I’m going to call the lab if they’ve found any traces, on the plaid blanket or on Hilde’s clothing. I’ll tell them to process Dorothy’s belongings once again. There must be something we missed, there must be something we can find!”
Trowa stood up from his chair. “If only we could find some motive…”
He pressed ‘rewind’ on the tape recorder.
“I’ll have the tape transcribed,” Wufei said. He picked up the folders from the table. “And,
Barton, you better make sure you dig up some information about Yuy. I don’t care if you have to turn this town upside down for it.”
“Innocent until proven guilty,” Trowa softly said. Wufei spun around.
“I don’t need to be reminded of that, Barton!” he barked. “I vowed to protect and to serve, and to have justice have its fair course! Yuy mocks all that I stand for, and--“
They both jumped up from a firm knock on the door. Wufei bellowed “Enter!” and the secretary, Lucrezia, came in with a padded envelope in her hand.
“This came from the lab for you, they said it was urgent.”
Trowa took the envelope. “Thank you, Lucrezia.”
She left with the thermos and the dirty cups. Wufei took the cassette out of the tape recorder.
Trowa opened the envelope, and a little tape slid out and fell onto the table.
“What’s this?”
“It’s too small for a normal tape recorder. Looks like a tape from an answering machine.”
Wufei stalked out of the room. “Let’s get back to the office. We have lots of work to do, and I have to think of how to brief lady Une. She’s going to have my head if I don’t come up with something good. No doubt Duke Dermail has called again to inquire about our progress.”
When they walked past one of the reception desks, Trowa stopped and leaned over the massive teak desk.
“Do you have an answering machine here? Can you play this tape?”
The receptionist nodded, took the tape and put it in an answering machine. She closed the lid and pressed the ‘play’-button.
“1 message at 09:30 pm”, a mechanical voice sounded, followed by the obligatory beep.
“Hey, Hilde baby, where are you? I’m getting worried over here! You’re way too late for your class sweetheart, don’t make me wait any longer. Call me, okay? I’m worried.” The sound of a click was heard.
“Duo,” Trowa said. He asked the tape back.
“What’s so important about that? So he called her to ask her where she was!”
“It sounded like real anxiety,” Trowa mused while they continued their walk to the office. “I don’t know about you Wufei, but I think we can dismiss the piano teacher. He’s too honest, too emotional.”
“I’m not so sure,” Wufei answered him. \\A strength struggling to surface. What if it already surfaced and he’s making a fool out of us all? \\ “It may be too obvious to appoint Heero as the perpetrator and dismiss Duo. We both have seen a lot in this job, and we both know to expect the unexpected.”
“Still, the unclear motive remains.”
“Yes, you’re right.” Wufei clenched his fists. If there was a motive, some motive at all, he failed to see it. What could possibly be gained by killing two music students who had nothing in common but their piano teacher? And why this voice keep whining in his head, about ‘being safe’ and ‘protection’ both Duo and Heero had talked about? He squashed the urge to rub at his temples. He’d have to call Meiran again and tell her that he would be coming home late this evening, if he was coming home at all.
Chapter 8 | Chapter 10 |