Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Something Like Forever ❯ The Case ( Chapter 2 )

Okay, I can't decide if I want to drag this whole thing out for a long time or end it quick… What should I do? I don't know… Okay, I'm just gonna wing it and see how it turns out.

 

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Chapter 2—The Case

 

“This is just….disturbing.”

 

Ryo smiled slightly at Dee's disgusted tone. “Welcome to the real world. Oh my God!” he yelped suddenly, dropping a stack of pictures on the desk. “That's disgusting!”

 

Dee reached over and grabbed the picture. “Ew.”

 

The two had been in here for the past hour, looking over the case file the Chief had given them. They had spent the day finishing up the rest of their paperwork and then meeting in Dee's office to start studying the new case, and they were now devoting their entire attention to it and only it.

 

At first, it had looked like your average arsonist case—vandalism, tossing a bomb here and there, burning buildings—just burning for the sake of burning, vandalizing for the sake of vandalizing. But as they got deeper into the case file, things got more and more disturbing.

 

It seemed that the culprit had turned from meaningless destruction of public property to killing small children—orphans—by stabbing, shooting, or burning them alive. He raped the girls before he killed them and made the boys watch.

 

He was a sick and twisted bastard, and no one knew his motives.

 

The only good thing was that a little of the awkwardness was starting to fade between Ryo and Dee.

 

Ryo watched Dee's face grow more and more disturbed as he flipped through the pictures. He smiled slightly; Dee never changed.

 

“Gah!” Dee suddenly yelped, jumping out of his chair and dropping the pictures onto the desk. “That was a human?”

 

Ryo blinked at him, and started to laugh. He didn't really know why, but soon he was completely breathless with mirth. Dee stared at him, completely nonplussed, and his expression only made Ryo laugh harder. Watching him, Dee felt himself start to smile, and before long he was laughing, too. And for that one, shining moment, they were together again. Ryo and Dee, the dynamic duo. The dream team. Together.

 

At last, their laughter started to fade, leaving them with aching sides and very little breath to work with.

 

“Why….are we….laughing?” Ryo wheezed, trying to draw oxygen into his lungs and failing miserably.

 

“I don't….know,” Dee responded, similarly out of breath. “You started it.”

 

"God, it feels good to laugh," Ryo said as Dee returned to his seat. "It's been three weeks since I've cracked a grin."

 

Dee's smile faltered, and he said nothing. And just like that, they were once again Ryo and Dee, ex-couple.

 

"Are....we ever gonna....y'know....talk about it?" Ryo asked quietly, after several minutes passed in silence except for the shuffling of papers and the squeak of the rolling chair's wheels as Dee moved it back and forth between the desk and the filing cabinet.

 

Dee knew he wasn't talking about the case, and it didn't take a genius to figure out what he was talking about. He shook his head, choosing to remain silent. He didn't want to talk about it.

 

Ryo sighed inwardly, but nodded and went back to the file. “Hey, what's this?”

 

“….Looks like a riddle.”

 

“Hmm….”

 

And that was all he said. For the next few minutes, Ryo studied the piece of paper he'd just found in the file, only breaking the silence when he was certain he had something to say. “I think it is a riddle,” he concluded at last. “It doesn't seem to make any kind of sense at all, but I think it's telling us what he plans to do next.”

 

“Great, this case will be a breeze, then” Dee replied, taking a cigarette out of his pocket and lighting it. “We'll just hunt down Sandra Bullock, send her off to the Miss America pageant, and hit a bar for some late-night, down-and-dirty celebrations of questionable morality. Case closed. Let's go home.” Then, blinking, he looked up, realizing what he'd just said. “I mean…our homes. I'll go to mine and…you'll go to…yours… Want a cigarette?”

 

Ryo decided that the best course was to pretend he didn't notice the sudden tension in the room, and he did just that. “Go down to the lobby if you're gonna smoke.”

 

“This is my office.”

 

“And you're not supposed to be smoking in here.”

 

“…Goody-goody.”

 

“Addict.”

 

After a few more minutes of silence, with Ryo stealing glances at Dee when the black-haired man wasn't looking, and vice versa, Ryo said, “Okay, we're not getting any work done with both of us in here. Why don't you go home? It's getting late.”

 

“What about you?”

 

“They're probably already working on this down in Intelligence but I wanna take a crack at it. Maybe I can solve it before they do.”

 

“Don't you need to be getting home to the ape?”

 

“He's staying at Carol's this weekend, and I don't really feel like going home yet. You go on, though.”

 

“You sure?”

 

“Yeah, go on. I'm fine here. I got my coffee to drink and a riddle to solve. I could be happy here for a very long time.”

 

“Okay, if you're sure… Freak.”

 

“Dee, go away.”

 

-----

 

Hours later, Ryo still sat at his desk. His coffee cup was nearly empty for the sixth time, and he showed no signs of leaving anytime soon.

 

Ryo rested his head on his hands and sighed. He didn't know how much more of this he could take. He had decided he needed a break from trying to solve the riddle, and had instead turned to trying to figure out who was committing the crimes, and why.

 

He needed to throw himself wholeheartedly into solving this case. Otherwise he would fall to thinking about Dee, and if he spent any more time on that particular subject, he would surely drive himself insane.

 

After calling everyone he thought might know something about the case and getting absolutely no leads, he had pulled out all the files he could find about similar cases in the past. There had only been a handful of them in the past twenty years, but they were all there. And at last, after about two hours of reading through the files, Ryo thought he might have something. A name. Well, a last name. In every case like this one—with the culprit starting with simple arson and then turning to killing children—the culprit had the last name “Chintzier.” Not a surname one saw every day.

 

He looked over at the clock, which read twelve-thirty. Dee was probably asleep by now. He would just have to talk to him about it tomorrow. But there was a lot he could do now with this last name.

 

Going over to the computer, Ryo did a web search on the Chintzier family tree and found that the family dated back to a famous 1920's serial killer who was known for the unbelievably painful and drawn-out deaths he brought to children in orphanages all over the east coast. No motive other than insanity was ever found and, after escaping from three different mental health facilities and showing little to no improvement in his psychological condition, the man had been jailed for life. He died in prison only a few years after he was brought in.

 

Perhaps now his family was continuing his legacy? But then, why had Ryo never heard of this before? Why had the others not gained fame?

Ryo spent a few minutes on this question before shaking his head and, deciding that the answer to that question would probably have no bearing on the case, went back to the more urgent tasks at hand.

 

After having concluded the answer to his first question—why—he now began to look for the who. He went to the bottom of the family tree, and (though the situation certainly didn't call for it) smiled slightly. There was only one member of the Chintzier family left alive today.

 

At the very bottom of the page, Ryo at last found what he was looking for—a name. Gregory Chintzier. It wasn't much. But it was a start. He had a suspect.

 

Unfortunately, there was no evidence, nothing solid to obtain an arrest warrant with. But he would worry about that later. Right now a lead—any lead—would do.

 

Now all that was left was to track down this man's address and solve the riddle. Deciding the address could wait—going alone was just asking for trouble, anyway—he decided the riddle was his biggest priority.

 

Three hours and five cups of coffee later, Ryo tossed his pen down in triumph. In front of him were two pieces of paper--the riddle, and his interpretation of its meaning.

 

Orphanage of the Sacred Heart.

 

There was no time, no specifics, but Ryo knew almost for certain that the Orphanage of the Sacred Heart would be attacked in some way, sometime soon. And now that he knew that, he, the Chief, Dee, and possibly Commissioner Rose could formulate a game plan. One thing was sure—under no circumstances could anyone be allowed to go into that orphanage.

 

Ryo reached over and grabbed the phone, then opened the phonebook on his desk and dialed the number of the orphanage. No one answered, so he left a message for the head nun (it was a Catholic orphanage) telling her to call him immediately when she woke up, left his home phone number and his work number just to be on the safe side, and hung up. He then found his suspect's address and phone number, scribbled them down on the sheet with the solution to the riddle, and finally felt like he could actually get some sleep.

 

Sighing in relief, Ryo organized the papers and placed everything in a stack on the corner of the desk. Then he started to get up, and at that moment , he realized just how exhausted he was. Before he even thought about what he was doing, he folded his arms in front of him on the desk, dropped his head onto them, and closed his eyes…

 

-----

 

Little did he know that the entire time he had been working on this case, Dee had been calling every contact he had ever made in the police business and in his entire life trying to solve this case. He didn't want to have to go to work tomorrow.

 

And a small part of him was ashamed to admit that as serious and heartbreaking as this case was, he just couldn't face work the next day. Being with Ryo like that….it was too much. It was starting to wear on him.

 

He didn't know how long he could keep this happy-go-lucky, smile-and-stay-friends-after-the-breakup routine going…

 

-----

 

The next thing Ryo knew, a hand was shaking his shoulder. “Ryo?” a soft voice asked.

 

Ryo stirred, but he refused to open his eyes. “Go 'way…”

 

“Ryo, have you been here all night?”

 

“Huh…?”

 

“Ryo, wake up…”

 

“Don't wanna…”

 

“RYO!”

 

At that, Ryo jumped, opening his eyes. “WHAT?!”

 

“You gotta get up.”

 

Ryo rubbed his eyes. “Huh? …JJ? What are you doing here? Is Dee in yet?”

 

“Dee…took the day off. The week, actually. He had some vacation days stored up and he's spending them at the orphanage with Sister Maria. Rose is after his ass already, and so's the Chief. I thought he would have told you.”

 

“Mmm…nope. What time is it?”

 

“Ten-thirty.”

 

“WHAT?!”

 

“…Yeah. It's okay, Ryo. You looked like you needed some sleep. I'm sure Chief won't be too mad, and— Ryo? Where are you going? Ryo?”

 

But JJ's words fell on deaf ears; Ryo had already grabbed the stack of papers on the desk and rushed out of the room.

 

“…Ryo?”

 

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By the end of the day, a plan was formed. The orphanage had been called, and officers would be posted around its perimeter to keep anyone from entering. Until some rock-solid evidence was found of his guilt, Greg Chintzier could not be legally brought in for questioning, but officers would be placed near his home and tail him wherever he went.

 

Secretly, of course.

 

Ryo couldn't get hold of Dee no matter how hard he tried, and he tried to call Sister Maria to have her deliver a message when she saw him, but she wasn't answering her phone, either. He had gone over to Dee's house, but Dee hadn't been home, so he'd gone to Sister Maria's orphanage, and no one had been there, either.

 

So Ryo went to finish making the arrangements for finishing up the case, and told himself not to worry. He would just have to keep trying to get hold of Dee and get him back on the job. But then again, Ryo seemed better able to concentrate when Dee wasn't there. Maybe it would be best if he let Dee have his vacation time and just…focused on solving the case.

 

At least the case wasn't Dee.

 

And anything was better than concentrating on Dee.

 

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So there you go. Ryo's got the case solved, after a fashion—he just needs evidence. And an arrest. And a confession. And Dee.

 

Tune in next chapter! Please? And in the meantime…REVIEW!!! YAY!!!

 

NOTE: Yeah, I suck at writing this whole “criminal investigation” thing. I don't know the procedure, I don't know how riddles are solved, I don't know how they do arrests, I don't know anything. My only knowledge comes from the Fake series and repeated viewings of Miss Congeniality. What do you people want from me? Please be nice and don't point out all the mistakes I probably made about police procedure in this chapter! Oh, and if there are any readers out there who are police officers or are related to police officers…. DON'T KILL ME! I'M INNOCENT! I AM INNOCENT IN MY BLISSFUL IGNORANCE!

 

ANOTHER NOTE: I know it seems like Ryo solved the whole thing really, really fast, but I needed him to so that I could get on to the good stuff! So please don't be mad if you think things moved too fast in this chapter!

 

OH, AND… Chintzier actually means something along the lines of “gaudy, trashy, stingy, or miserly.” I thought it was a fun word, so…yeah…it's the bad guy's last name! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

Yeah, sorry, I'm hyper…