Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Family Ties ❯ Chapter 62 ( Chapter 62 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

The detectives turn up to investigate the murder victim and discover a whole lot more than they bargained for. Preventer on L2 suceeds in getting hold of the security tapes.

Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Hentai / Romance / Suspense / Angst | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 08.02.2009 | Pages: 9 | Words: 8.6K | Visits: 288 | Status: Work In Progress

“Family Ties”

January 2007 ShenLong

Chapter 62

Tom finally stopped heaving and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. Still feeling nauseous, he made his way around the side of the house and back out the walk to where his partner was sitting inside the patrol car. “What did the boss say?”

“Chief said to sit tight, cordon off the area and wait for the homicide squad.”

“Right.” Tom reached into the vehicle and grabbed his bottle of water. Taking a swig, he rinsed out his mouth, spitting the water to the grass on the verge. “We should have some tape in the trunk.”

Barry popped the trunk and Tom fished around in the depths, locating a roll of police tape and bringing it out. The pair walked in silence back to the front fence of the house, Barry taking one end of the tape and tying it to the end fence post whilst Tom began to unwind the roll as he walked to the other end of the fence. Tying that end off the pair went back to the car to await the homicide squad. Neither man really wanted to go back inside that house.

“Uh oh. Don't look now but there's a neighbor at six o'clock,” muttered Barry.

“Great,” groaned Tom.

The pair did their best to look normal as Mrs. Penshaw approached.

“Ma'am,” greeted Barry.

Mrs. Penshaw gave them a smile before looking to the tape and then back to the officers. “I don't mean to be nosy, but it seems my calling you out to investigate has turned up something?”

“Yes, ma'am, it has. I'm sorry though, I'm not at liberty to inform you of what has been found or any other details at this point in time. We're waiting for a special police squad to come in and investigate as it's out of our jurisdiction, however, I'm sure they will want to speak to you in relation to the house, its occupants and anything at all you can remember from the past several days,” Barry informed the woman.

“I see. Well, I'm happy to help in any way I can, officer.”

Tom pulled his notebook from his shirt pocket. “If you wouldn't mind, ma'am, could I please get your details? I need name, address, phone number, things like that to pass on to the investigating officers and then they will contact you when they wish to speak with you.”

“Certainly.” Mrs. Penshaw moved to the rear of the vehicle with Tom who began to write down the necessary information. Once completed, the woman went back to her house and Tom joined his partner in the car.

“I hope they get here soon,” Barry said as he fidgeted with the sleeve of his shirt. “I could really go for a strong whiskey.”

“I think a couple of Valium would be better,” snorted Tom.

“After seeing that I'd be inclined to have the Valium and the whiskey!”

“That looks like them now,” Tom said as he spotted a blue van approaching.

“Yep, it's them alright. Time to get back to work.”

* * *

Heero finished doing up the buttons on the pajamas and picked up his son. Cradling the infant in his arms, he rocked Keitaro for a few minutes, watching the child's face. The babe was focused completely on his father, blue eyes with a purple tinge locked onto the familiar face and a small smile played over the rosy lips. Heero ran his hand lightly over the downy hair and stroked a finger over a chubby cheek.

“We're going to find your mother, Keitaro. I swear I will bring him back to us,” Heero whispered as he lay the child in his cot and pulled the blankets up around the small body.

Keitaro gurgled and then snuggled down to sleep.

Pressing a kiss to his son's head, Heero smiled and then pulled away to wind up the mobile. With the soft music playing he watched his son for another minute before leaving the room and heading back down to the lounge where the other three were waiting for him.

Quatre gave the Japanese man a warm smile as he entered and took a seat. “Keitaro okay?”

“Hai, he's just about asleep.”

“Good.” The blonde thought for a moment before speaking again. “Heero, if it will help any I can ask Siska to watch Keitaro for you during the day?”

Heero shook his head. “Thanks, Quatre, but Siska already does enough around here, it wouldn't be fair to ask her to babysit as well. Besides, Nurse Brown should be released from the hospital tomorrow.”

“But her wrist will be in plaster for some time yet. Are you sure she will be able to cope?”

“I'll talk to her.”

“Look, how about we come to a compromise? I'll ask Siska to keep an eye on both Keitaro and the nanny, if assistance is required I'm sure she would be happy to help out.”

“Okay.” Heero gave in, he really wasn't feeling up to a battle of words with the blonde, his mental reserves were pretty much exhausted.

“When do you think Une will have the security camera footage?” Trowa asked, changing the subject.

“She did say it would be tomorrow. If Preventer moves pretty quickly I'd say we should have it by mid morning,” Wufei replied.

“I hope so. We really need a break in this case and this seems to be our best chance so far,” Trowa stated.

“I couldn't agree more,” replied Wufei.

“If it is Duo on that tape, then I will be going to L2,” Heero stated in a voice that brooked no argument.

“Don't worry, Heero. If it is Duo on that tape then all of us will be going to L2,” Quatre said in a quiet but firm tone.

“Thank you," whispered Heero.

“No thanks needed. We're family and that's what family does - stick together, watch out for each other's backs.”

Heero didn't say anymore, there wasn't any need too.

* * *

“Officer Stevens, Officer Pritchard, I'm Kevin Royce and this is my partner, Darren Trimble.” He nodded in the direction of the other two men. “The other two are Peter Lawrence and Mike Harvey, both are forensic officers,” Royce said as he shook hands with the two police officers and showed his ID. “HQ said you have a homicide case here?”

“Yes, that's correct,” Barry replied and proceeded to tell the detective all they had discovered from the call out to the discovery in the lounge room. “It's not a pretty sight,” Barry concluded.

“That's an understatement,” muttered Tom.

“Lost your lunch did you?” Royce chuckled.

“Yeah, you could say that,” Tom sighed.

“It's okay, most officers do when confronted with a homicide scene, even we still throw up on occasion,” Royce replied.

“Can you show us to the crime scene?” asked Trimble.

Barry groaned. “I'd rather not go back in there if possible.”

“That's okay, I understand. Can you give us an idea of the house floor plan?” Trimble needed to know so they could make their way directly to the crime scene without touching or disturbing anything else in the house and possibly ruining evidence.

Barry nodded and explained the lay of the house. He also told the detectives exactly what he and Tom had touched.

“Thanks. I'll need you guys to remain here for a while longer to control any crowd that might gather,” Trimble stated.

“Great,” muttered Tom with a roll of his eyes. “I'd better call the missus and let her know I'll be late for dinner.”

The two detectives returned to their vehicle and the other two of their team who were getting themselves ready to enter the crime scene. Royce and Trimble joined them in donning the protective clothing; paper coveralls, masks and what looked like paper shower caps were slipped over their shoes. One picked up a camera, the other a large, black case. All set, the four went around to the back of the house and entered through the open back door.

Following the directions that Barry had given them, the detectives located the lounge room easily enough and took in the sight before them.

“Bloody hell,” whispered Trimble through his mask.

“Not all that pleasant, is it?” replied Royce as he stepped further into the room.

The other two officers in the squad entered and looked around before setting down the case and getting the camera ready.

“I'll get a few shots of the body before you examine it, sir,” said Peter and pulled the camera from around his neck and into his hands. Moving across the room, he was careful not to disturb anything and began to take his pictures. After a few minutes, he deemed he'd gotten enough on record and turned back to the detective. “You can continue now, sir. Please try not to disturb the body too much if you can, there's still the autopsy, cataloging of evidence and such to be done.”

“I'll be as careful as I can,” Royce replied. The officer wasn't being smart, just doing his job and Royce knew that. With a nod to his partner, the pair approached the body and left the other two to continue their photographing of the rest of the scene.

Trimble had his notebook out and started to take notes as Royce examined the body.

“Male, Caucasian, roughly thirty five years of age, wearing blue jeans, green shirt, brown socks and combat boots,” Royce stated as he began his preliminary check. “It appears he has a gunshot wound to the left hand and one to the calf - both non fatal. There's another gunshot wound to the left temple. Without an autopsy at this stage, I'd be confident in saying the wound to the head is what killed him and I'd approximate he's been dead for at least three days. It appears to be an assassination type killing, close range from what I can tell,” Royce continued.

Trimble wrote everything down as his partner continued in his examination.

“I'll check his pockets, see if there's any form of ID on him.” Royce looked to Trimble for confirmation, the other detective nodding in the affirmative. Royce carefully felt around the pockets, doing his best to fend off the queasy feeling he was starting to get in his stomach. A corpse was not exactly pleasant to deal with, one that was three days old, possibly longer, was even more unsettling. Besides the smell, the body had bloated quite a bit and was very unstable due to the decomposition that had started to take place. [1]

Royce was lucky, amongst the items he found in the victim's pockets was a wallet. Placing all the other items into a forensics 'bag', he opened the wallet and began to look through it. “Bingo,” he said quietly as he pulled out the man's driver's license. “Our deceased here was one Paul Murphy,” Royce said.

Trimble added the name to the list of information then paused and scratched his head. “Can I take a look?”

Royce handed over the license and Trimble studied it carefully for a moment.

“What's up?” asked Royce. “You know him or something?”

Trimble shook his head. “No, I don't know him, just his face seems familiar. I could swear I saw a picture of him just recently, but I can't for the life of me think where.”

“It's okay, don't try to overtax that brain of yours,” snickered Royce.

Trimble gave his partner a glare. “I'm sure it will come to me when I least expect it,” he huffed. “Come on, we'd better hurry up, we need to call in the coroner soon and I'm sure he'd rather collect the body before he has his dinner.”

“Yeah, yeah, don't get your knickers in a knot,” Royce replied and turned back to the body.

The pair worked in silence, cataloging everything they could in the room whilst the other two officers continued in their photographing of the entire house. Trimble called the coroner who arrived within an hour and met him at the door.

“Thank you for coming, sir. We still have a bit to do before the body can be removed, but it shouldn't take long.”

“No problem,” replied the coroner. “Mind if I take a look?”

“Of course, come right through.”

The coroner grabbed the body bag from his vehicle and duly followed Trimble into the house and through to the lounge room, careful not to touch anything.

“Coroner's here,” Trimble informed the other three.

Royce came over and greeted the man with a handshake. “Good to see you again, Ben,” he said.

“You too, Kevin. What have you got this time?” the coroner replied as he set the plastic body bag on the floor next to the body.

“Murder victim by the look of it. There's three gunshot wounds evident on the body, but the one to the temple was the fatal shot.”

Ben gave a low whistle as he looked the corpse over. “Any ID?”

“Yeah, we got lucky in this case, guy still had his wallet on him. Driver's license says Paul Murphy.”

“Can I have a look at that?” the coroner asked, his excitement rising.

“Sure.” Royce handed over the license.

Ben took it and looked steadily at the picture, he switched his attention to the body again and compared the two. “Royce?”

“Yes?”

“I think you should cease your investigation for the moment.”

“Why?” Kevin Royce looked up, shocked. Trimble also stopped what he was doing and looked to the coroner with the same question in his eyes.

“This man is on the Preventer missing persons list. I think you should call them, this is a case for them, not the State.”

“Pardon?” Royce clearly didn't follow.

“All coroners offices are given a daily update on current missing persons on the off chance one might turn up dead. I had the latest update this morning and there was a photograph of this man in the file. Preventer are looking for him,” replied Ben.

“I knew I'd seen his face before,” exclaimed Trimble. “I saw him on the television last night. There was an advert break and they ran their usual segment with photos of missing people; this guy was one of those photos.”

Royce gave a defeated sigh. “Okay, I'll give them a call and see what they want to do, then I'll call back to headquarters and let them know what's going on.” Royce pulled his cell from his pocket and stepped out of the room to make his call.

“You sure it's one of those guys?” Trimble asked the coroner.

“Positive,” replied Ben. “I'm sure Preventer will be very interested in him and these circumstances. I hope no one moved or touched anything?”

Trimble shook his head. “No, nothing has been touched, other than us turning the body to catalog the wounds and such. The other two are still photographing everything and were about to move onto the next phase when you got here.”

“Good. I'm sure Preventer will want to take over and will probably wish to speak with all four of you, not to mention take any evidence, including the photos, that you have thus far.”

“They'd be most welcome to it,” replied Trimble. “We have enough on our plate to deal with as it is, we really didn't need this case as well.”

Ben chuckled. “I can well imagine,” he replied.

* * *

Une glared at her cell phone as it rang, especially seeing the caller ID on the screen. With resigned sigh, she hit the receive button. “Commander Une, this had better be something important to interrupt my dinner,” she growled.

“My apologies for calling you at home, Commander, but we've had a call from a detective Kevin Royce, he wishes to speak with you in regards to a body they have found. He said it was urgent,” the agent said.

“Why the hell the police force can't deal with their own cases of bodies is beyond me,” muttered Une. “Okay, agent, give me the number and I'll call him back,” Une sighed.

The agent passed on the number and apologized again for interrupting the commander.

“It's okay, agent, it's not your fault. Thank you.” Une disconnected the call and sat for a moment. With another sigh of resignation, she got up and placed her dinner in the microwave and picking up her coffee, went to the lounge room to make the call.

“Kevin Royce, speaking.”

“Detective Royce, this is Commander Une from Preventer. One of my agents contacted me and gave me your number. They said you have found a body and wished to speak to me about it?”

“Ah, Commander Une, thank you for returning my call and I'm sorry for calling after hours,” replied Royce.

“That's okay, detective. Now, could you please tell me why you wish to speak to me about a body? I'm sure you are quite capable of dealing with this sort of thing yourselves.”

“Normally we wouldn't have a problem, but in this case the body in question is listed on the Preventer data base as being of interest to Preventer.”

“I see.”

“The deceased is one Paul Murphy. I believe Preventer is looking for him.”

“Murphy?” whispered Une.

“Yes.”

Une's mind was racing but she quickly pulled herself together, the commander instincts taking over. “You are correct, detective, we are looking for a man named Murphy. Are you certain it's him?”

“Yes, Commander. His wallet was still on him and his driver's license confirms that's his name. The coroner arrived and informed us he is listed as being of interest to your organization so we haven't proceeded any further in our investigation. Commander, what would you like us to do?”

Une had gotten up and walked through to the dining room, grabbing a pen and paper. “I need details, detective, to start with the address where the body is.”

Royce gave the address along with other details the commaner asked for.

“Thank you. I trust that the scene has not been disturbed?”

Royce related all they had done thus far, including a preliminary look over the body.

“Right. Detective, please remain at the property until my agents arrive, I'll call you back with who they are so you will know to let them pass. I trust we can count on you and your teams' full cooperation in relation to the crime scene?”

“Frankly, Commander, you're welcome to it. We have enough to deal with without another case on our hands. We will give you all the information we have so far including the photographic evidence.”

“Thank you, your assistance is appreciated. I'll contact my agents now and call you back shortly.”

“I'll be waiting. Good bye.”

Une hung up and pondered the news for a moment. Picking up the cell again, she dialed a number and waited for the call to connect.

“Agent Summer here, Commander.”

“Summer, get your team together, we have a body, it's one of the terrorists that was with Agent Night.”

* * *

“What did Preventer say?” asked the coroner as Royce walked back in.

“I spoke with Commander Une and she confirmed this guy is on the list of people of interest to Preventer. We're to hold on our investigation and remain here at the scene until her agents arrive,” Royce informed everyone in the room.

The other two officers didn't look all that pleased, but Trimble gave a nod and a grin. “Fine with me,” he said.

“I suggest we wait outside, that way we're not disturbing the crime scene any further than we already have. I'd better call the Inspector and let him know what is going on too.”

“I suppose they're going to want our camera and pictures too?” muttered Peter.

“Yes, and anything we have collected so far as evidence,” replied Royce.

“Figures.” Peter and Mike began to pack up their gear, grateful in one way that they hadn't gotten any deeper into their investigation. With Preventer taking over it meant time saved for them, time they could be spending working on another case, and right now they had more than enough of those to deal with.

The group made their way back outside the property to where the two police officers waited and a few onlookers had gathered. Barry and Tom were brought up to speed on the case, both officers a little shocked upon hearing that Preventer were now involved.

With nothing more to do now than wait for the arrival of the Preventer team, Trimble produced a pack of cards and the men began to play a few hands of poker to pass the time.

* * *

Agent Summer was quick to scramble his team, meeting at headquarters to collect all the gear they would need to assist in their investigation of the crime scene. Once they were mobile, Summer contacted Une to keep her informed of what was happening.

“Thank you, Summer. You and the team know what to do so I'll leave you to it. I'll expect a brief report from you tomorrow morning. Une out.” Une glanced at the clock, it was getting late and she debated whether to call Agents Fire and Day. Given the hour, she decided against it, she'd risk their wrath and let them know first thing in the morning - at least then she should have a little more to work with if Summer had gotten his report to her.

Knowing there wasn't anything more she could do that night, Une took her shower and tumbled wearily into bed.

* * *

“Thank you, you've been most helpful,” the agent said to the security chief in the L2 cargo space port. He checked the bag, eyes scanning over the discs.

“You're welcome. I hope that there's something on there that can help,” replied the chief. “No need to worry about returning the discs either. I've had them copied so we still have our records, those are the originals.”

“Much appreciated.” The agent turned to his partner. “Come on, we need to get back and get these to the tech department. The almighty Commander back on Earth is chomping at the bit to get these, or so I'm told.”

The pair exited the building and drove back to the L2 branch of Preventer. Upon arrival, they made their way directly to the tech department to meet with the head tech, Kirby.

“Those the discs?” asked Kirby.

“Yeah,” replied the agent and handed over the bag with the discs safely inside.

“Thanks.” Kirby took the bag.

Knowing a dismissal when they saw it, the two agents left the tech to get on with doing his job.

Kirby sat down and slotted the first disc in the computer, scanning through it quickly. There were seven discs in total; a lot of footage to scan through to locate the section where Agent Night was alleged to have appeared.

From what the guy who had called had said, the two men were noticed late afternoon. Kirby removed the disc and inserted another, taking note of the time. As the footage was from the morning, he figured he could safely discard that one.

Having put three of the discs aside, Kirby started with the fourth, this one commenced recording mid afternoon.

Eyeing the discs still to be looked at, Kirby settled deeper into his seat and got himself comfortable.

This could take a while.

He was onto disc five when he jerked upright in his seat. Hitting pause, he then rewound a little and pushed 'play'.

“Bingo,” he whispered as the figure of Agent Night came into focus.

~ * ~

tbc...

[1 ] All information on the process of decomposition of the human body was gathered from the following sites:

http://www.coronerstories.com/2005/06/02/human-decomposition/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decomposition

AN: Duo will be back in the next chapter. ^_^