InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dead Famous ❯ Say it Isn't So ( Chapter 13 )

Author's Notes: I can't believe it. My sites only been up for three days and already it started crashing because too many people were using it. I'm flattered, seriously, but then I had to get an upgrade. Four dollars it cost me, people! Four! I'm broke!

Oh well… no more annoying ads at least, and no more down time…for now. ^_^

Dead Famous

Chapter 13

Say It Isn't So

There was an embarrassingly large crowd of people outside the main entrance to the sport's arena when the police hauled him off to their escorts.

"Quite a turn-out." The oldest officer who pulled Inuyasha along by the elbow commented. Inuyasha didn't have much choice but to follow seeing as how his wrists had been cuffed together behind his back.

"They were expecting to see a fight." Kikyo said coldly as she hurried alongside them.

"Well they're gonna see an arrest instead." The officer replied curtly.

Inuyasha glanced over his shoulder to see Sango and Miroku being frog-marched along by more officers. Kagome was escorted at a slightly more polite pace by a young lieutenant, obviously she was under no suspicion since she was merely a temporary guest.

He tried to ignore the lines of shocked faces in the crowd as they passed. This was unbelievable… and Kikyo was worried that smoking was bad press?

"Don't you know who I am?" he grated out the immortal question to the officer beside him.

They stopped beside the police escort vehicle and the officer in question gave him a scrutinising look up and down. Obviously this man had no teenage daughters, or he would have made the connection instantly. Then suddenly it clicked. "Yeah, I know who you are." But then he went on to say… "You're that guy who got shot in the gay bar last year."

Inuyasha's insides literally froze in horror. Miroku, having overheard, was breaking down into a poorly suppressed fit of laughter. Sango and Kikyo looked distinctly uneasy while Kagome looked downright shocked. "Who got shot in a gay bar?" she chirped in disbelief, staring at him.

"No one! Let's go already!" Inuyasha snapped and quite eagerly ducked down into the police car, praying to god that no one else had heard that.

Kagome watched the door slam after him in shock. She wanted to go over to Miroku and Sango and ask about what on earth that little story was about, but the lieutenant on her arm was insistent about not letting her speak to anyone. She was still wondering what on earth was going on. Kouga had been shot? What had that got to do with Inuyasha? If Kouga had been shot that morning then Inuyasha couldn't have done it… he was busily arguing with her, not shooting down boxing opponents in the middle of the street.

"Miss, come this way please." The guy holding her elbow gently ushered her towards another awaiting police car. She did as he said… after all, her mother had always told her to never antagonise the police.

Someone should have told that to Inuyasha.

~*~

"This is just typical of the police department, you know." Inuyasha ranted. "Just because I don't happen to like the guy, doesn't mean I would go out there and kill him for it."

He was sat down in one of those little grey interrogation rooms. Two detectives in suits rather than uniform sat opposite him across a rather simple wooden table. A little tape recorder whirred slowly at the edge of the table while a one-way mirror on the wall behind the detectives hid three police and another detective. 'Hid' being the not-so-operative word, seeing as how Inuyasha could see them quite clearly, as if looking through a slightly tinted window.

He ignored them anyway.

"Where were you at eight o'clock this morning?" the detective asked in a neutral voice, watching Inuyasha carefully.

"Probably eating breakfast."

"Probably?"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "What, you think I make note of the time every time I do something. Like 'Oh, I'll go get a glass of water - and the time is zero-eight-hundred hours'. I don't think so."

"Where did you go when you finished breakfast?" the detective continued, jotting something down on his note-pad. Inuyasha glanced at the other guy who didn't seem to be saying very much… he looked familiar but Inuyasha couldn't place him.

"I went down to the gym to train for the match." He scowled. "Now see there - why would I bother training if I planned to pick off Kouga?"

"Do you have an alibi to say that you were training this morning?" the talkative guy prompted.

"Of course. Sango Nakamura. Kagome Higurashi. They both talked to me whilst I trained. And I have security tapes to prove it."

"What time did you finish training?"

Inuyasha thought for a moment… he'd finished when Kagome had left. But what time had that been? Well… Good Morning had been about half-way through so it would have been about… "Half past ten."

"And where did you go?"

"My room."

"To do what?"

"Finish up my crude plans to take over the world." Inuyasha said with deadly seriousness. "I may have also watched Tv."

"Until?"

"Until Kikyo came to fetch me for the match which was at two o'clock." Inuyasha glanced past the two men to look through the one-way mirror. He could see Kikyo stood there now, and if he squinted his eyes he could make out the three familiar shapes of Kagome, Sango and Miroku in the back behind the police.

"So you were in your room from half past ten through to two o'clock." The officer said in that tone of voice that made him sound slightly critical. "What about lunch? Didn't you come down for lunch."

"Wasn't hungry." Inuyasha shrugged.

"But surely you would eat something before a match?" the man raised his eyebrows.

"If I eat before a match then it would slow me down. Ever heard of indigestion?"

"Do you have any proof that you were indeed within your rooms between these hours?" the detective went on. "Security videos?"

"There are no security videos in the bedrooms. It's for privacy." Inuyasha said, knowing that he was turning a bad corner as he said it.

"Oh, how… convenient." The officer said with a slight curl of the lip.

That was where things started to only get worse.

~*~

"What did he mean when he said Inuyasha got shot in a gay bar?" Kagome whispered to Sango. "Was that what happened in 1992?"

"God no!" Sango looked shocked. "That happened last year."

"What was he doing in a-"

"Near, Kagome. Near." Sango corrected her quickly. "It was all a bit of a mishap. They were coming back from a party and then this guy just walked past, recognised Inuyasha and then pulled a gun out of no where. It only got his shoulder so it wasn't too bad… in fact the only painful thing about that incident was that it happened to be on the pavement outside a gay bar and it was a drag queen army that came to his rescue." She giggled. "Actually it's quite funny to watch his face whenever you mention that night."

"He obviously mustn't be very secure about his sexuality." Kagome shook her head with a faint smile.

"No… never has been." Sango snorted. "Do me a favour and ask him about it later, yeah? That is the one event that he doesn't mind talking about so much."

"Unlike 1992…?" Kagome asked hopefully.

"Forget it, Kagome, I'm not telling you." Sango said bluntly, making Kagome sigh in defeat and tune back into the conversation going on in the small interrogation room.

Things weren't going well.

~*~

"Can you please identify this car?" the talking detective pulled a photo out a large brown envelope and shoved it across the table towards Inuyasha.

Inuyasha took one look at the silver coloured sporty number and shrugged. "It's one of the cars in my garage." It had even been taken in the garage.

"When was the last time you drove it?"

"I've never driven it." Inuyasha frowned hard at the detective. "I haven't got my licence and my first lesson is next week for your information. And that car hasn't been driven for three years. The last person to drive it was the MOT inspector."

"Strange… we never found any of his fingerprints on the wheel." The detective was obviously going somewhere with this if the tone of his voice was anything to go by.

"Well the last time someone touched the wheel was three years ago." Inuyasha pointed out as if they were idiots. "It has been cleaned since then."

"But we did find yours."

Inuyasha stared at him neutrally.

"And we found catalyst residue on the exhaust which indicated that the car has indeed been driven within the last twenty four hours." The detective pulled another photo out and set it down before Inuyasha. "And… we also found these bullet shells under the driver's seat. Fresh. The bullets were only fired a few hours previous."

Inuyasha gazed down at the picture blankly. Then he looked up. "So?"

"So did you or did you not attempt to murder your opponent?"

Inuyasha shifted uncomfortably. "…no…"

"If you lie now, it will only bring a harder sentence down on your head later on in court if you are found guilty." The detective pressured. "Did you drive that car this morning?"

"No." Inuyasha said quietly.

"Did you shoot Kouga with a semi-automatic machine gun."

"…no." He rubbed a hand against his forehead.

"Did you-"

The silent detective put his hand out to cut short his colleague's words. "I think we should stop now."

Inuyasha glanced up at the man, confusion pinching his face for a moment as he desperately tried to remember where he'd seen that face before.

"What?" the talkative cop barked at his co-worker. "But we're just about to-"

"The way you were going you'd make that kid admit to anything even if he was innocent." The detective picked the photos up and slid them back into the envelope. "We'll keep him here. In the mean time we can go talk to the other witnesses and get more evidence and follow this up later."

That's when Inuyasha recognised him. He groaned slightly and let his head drop into his arms on the table as the recorder was switched off and the detectives gathered their coats and papers. Kikyo entered the very moment they both left the room.

"That man makes me sick." She said spitefully as she sat down opposite him. "Just talks fast trying to make you trip up-"

"Leave off Kikyo." Inuyasha sighed, his voice muffled by his arms. "He's just doing his job."

That sounded too sensible and reasonable to be coming from his mouth. She immediately frowned in concern. "Are you alright?"

He lifted his head out of his arms with a slight pout. "I don't like the police." He commented bluntly.

Kikyo folded her arms primly with a penetrating look. "I know. You won't be here long though. I promise."

Inuyasha glanced past her to look through the one-way mirror. They were alone. "Where's the other three gone?"

"They're being interviewed." Kikyo told him. "They are your alibi's to your innocence after all."

He frowned at that. "But Kagome's just a kid, they can't treat her like…" he noticed Kikyo was looking at him strangely. "What?"

"So you do know her name." She gave him a approving look. "And all this time I thought you were just being your usual scatty self."

He blinked at her, then scoffed. "You know I only do it to annoy her."

"You'll only get bad press." She reminded.

"Ain't she going home tomorrow?" he cocked his head.

Kikyo nodded. "Once she's out of the way we can afford to let our hair down behind the scenes." She switched onto business mode. "They're going to escort you to a cell after I'm finished talking with you. I'm acting as your defence attorney as well so you can talk freely with me whenever you want. But I'm arranging a meeting with you and Sango in a few hours so you two can work out the finer details of where you two were at what time. She says she left you in the gym around half past ten and went to study. If we can destroy the evidence that proves she left the gym then she can be your alibi to establish that you were in the gym at quarter past eleven when Kouga was gunned down."

Inuyasha shook his head slightly with a weary frown. "I already told them she stormed out on me at half past ten and that I was alone in my room till two."

Kikyo threw the previous idea out of the window. "Fine. If I can get one of the maids to say that they were with you in your room between half past ten and two o'clock then that girl can be your alibi."

"Right. How convenient." He said sarcastically. "They won't believe that just some random maid happened to be with me to ensure my innocence. It's too easy to set up… that detective will see right through it."

Kikyo glared at him sharply. "Well if you're innocent come up with your own proof." She snapped. When he failed to say anything to that she smoothed out her ruffled fur and tried again. "It'll have to be Sango. She won't like it, but we'll have to say that it was Sango with you in that room. And the only reason you didn't mention it in this interview was because Sango wants to protect her reputation."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Alright. But you better tell her that it was your idea, and not mine."

~*~

"He said what?!" Sango hissed.

"He said that he wanted you to act as his alibi." Kikyo told her mildly. "You have to say that you were… 'prepping' him for his match."

"Unbelievable!" Sango was fuming with anger. She folded her arms tightly over her chest and hunched down in her chair. "I can't believe that idiot…"

Kagome glanced around at the three employees in the waiting room of the police station. They were all firmly set on getting Inuyasha out of this pickle… but was it right. "Are you all so sure that Inuyasha is innocent?" she asked suddenly, making them all give her startled looks. "Are you?"

Miroku rubbed his neck. "Who knows…" He shrugged. "Inuyasha's hard to predict. He could be guilty… but if he is then it's in everyone's best interests if he's proven innocent. We lose our jobs if Inuyasha goes down…"

"Fans lose hope…" Sango added grumpily.

"And he would have learnt his lesson anyway." Kikyo nodded seriously.

Kagome frowned at them all. Jeez… what kind of friends were they?

Honest ones was probably the best answer. They didn't know what Inuyasha was really capable of. No one did. Kikyo probably knew him best and even then Kikyo was probably too far detached from him and everyone else in the world to truly understand. Kagome barely knew him at all… and she had her doubts about his innocence, especially after all the hints that he'd dropped over the past couple of days.

Had he shot Kouga…?

"Well," Kikyo looked down at her wristwatch in a prim manner. "They should let us speak to him about now."

They stood up and Kagome followed them as they headed towards an adjoining door to the waiting room which was guarded by an officer. "Hey," she said suddenly, causing them all to stop and look back at her. "Can I… talk to him first?"

They looked surprised by her request and Miroku and Sango turned to Kikyo. The agent frowned slightly in confusion, but nodded all the same.

The room they were let into was the stereotypical communication room between prisoners and visitors. It was a fairly long room, divided into two separate zones by a divider with little glass windows and a phone to speak into. It reminded Kagome prominently of bank cash registers… but instead of talking to a bank attendant you'd probably find yourself talking to a bank robber.

She was told to sit down in one of the chairs at the divider and to wait for the 'suspect' as the officers had dubbed Inuyasha. They treated him like he was already guilty though, despite all their politically correct terms. Somehow it was always guilty till proven innocent.

When Inuyasha appeared he didn't exactly look pleased to see her.

"Why am I talking to you?" he asked hotly when he picked up the phone. "I thought I was supposed to be talking to Sango."

"She isn't exactly happy with you." Kagome scowled at him through the glass. "Your plan is going to ruin her reputation."

"If it will save mine, I don't care." He said bluntly.

Such an ass… she thought in passing. "Well at least they didn't make you wear black and white stripes." She told him, eyeing the outfit that he'd worn he'd arrived.

"I'm only a suspect, not a prisoner." He was getting impatient. She could tell by the way he rapped his claws on the counter in front of him.

He was glaring at her mildly, and she stared back just as intently. Trying to identify if that was the face of someone who would try and kill another person. "Did you… did you shoot Kouga?"

His nails stopped drumming and he shrugged. "Nope."

She narrowed her eyes at his flippant attitude. "I'll tell the police that I was with you at quarter past eleven when Kouga got shot." She said quietly.

He snapped a shocked look on her, his eyes widening slightly. "You'll do what?" he breathed in disbelief.

"Not that way." She huffed. "I already told them that I don't really like you. I said that I had an argument with you in the gym before storming out. I also said that I went down to your room half an hour later to continue the argument with you."

"But that won't fit in with my story…" he said slowly.

"Well the only reason you didn't tell them about our continued argument was because you thought it would create bad press if it was known that you were arguing with your 'guest'." She said pointedly. "I'll go back and confirm the story… if you do one thing."

"Which is?" he said eagerly.

"Look me in the eye and tell me that you didn't shoot Kouga." She said with a steely seriousness that unsettled him.

He stared into her eyes. "Didn't shoot Kouga. Now go tell them to let me out of here!"

"But you weren't serious!" she said in exasperation. "You don't care if you're serious or not! You'll just say what you have to in order to get out of here! In which case I'm not going to help." She moved to put the phone back down.

"No, no!" he knocked on the glass with his knuckles to get her attention and to stop her leaving. "I'm not lying - I really didn't shoot Kouga!"

She pulled the phone back towards her ear. "All you do is lie and cheat people, Inuyasha. You never say what you really mean and never how you really feel. You seem to think that life is just one big play and if you act your part right then everything will go your way." She narrowed her eyes. "But I'm telling you for the last time… if you don't drop the act and tell me honestly what you did then I am going to let you and your phoney character finish up here."

He tensed and glared at her. "You think I'm lying? You think I really shot him, don't you."

"No. I think you're innocent." She said bluntly. "But I want you to look me in the eye and mean it when you say you didn't do it." She softened slightly. "Please… don't pretend anymore."

He'd had a tough morning. He'd been pulled from a match he'd sorely been looking forward to. He'd been dragged off to the police station like a guilty man and confronted with dry pieces of evidence that framed him for a crime he hadn't committed. So the car belonged to him? A lot of cars belonged to him. So his fingerprints were on the wheel? Chances were he'd probably sat down in the seat a few months ago and wondered if that would be the main car he used when he got his licence.

And not only that… but he'd come face to face with the detective who'd dealt with the 1992 case. Exactly the same man…

He dropped his head into his hand for a moment, rubbing his face as he tried to figure out which tone of voice to use to convince the girl that he was innocent.

Then he realised.

Don't bother…

"I didn't do it." He said flatly. No feeling behind the words. No act either. He just said it. "I swear, on my parents' graves that I didn't shoot that idiot. And I didn't send someone else to do it either."

Kagome had watched him for the past few moments, watching his face slowly slacken and grow weary, as if he were almost ageing before her eyes. Then he'd told her the truth, no false sincerity embroidering his words, no flippancy. Just the plain truth.

"I'll keep telling them that I was busy arguing with you when Kouga was shot." She said gently. "You just have to back up what I say and you'll be out of here in no time."

Maybe she wasn't that bad. "You're annoying." He told her. "You know that right?"

"Don't say that, I'm your alibi." She raised an eyebrow. "I may just decide to let you hang."

"You're gonna make me kiss your feet aren't you?" he rolled his eyes. "Only a weirdo like you could bend a superstar over to your whim."

"Your spine is just very weak, that's all." She grinned wryly. "But thank you… for being honest with me."

A tingle of irritation worked through him. It was weak of him just to bow down to her little plea. He forced a smile in return. "Any time. I'm going to give you a big thank you later for your help." He winked at her suggestively, desperately trying to establish some of his previous control.

Kagome's smile slipped slightly as she realised she'd lost him again. "So I hear you got shot in a gay bar." She flung at him from out of the blue and watched him flinch and twitch.

"Near! NEAR a gay bar!"

~*~

"So did he do it?" Eri asked that night. "Is he guilty?"

"No." Kagome sighed slowly. "He's innocent. I'm certain that he had nothing to do with it. Either someone tried to frame him or it's just an unhappy coincidence that someone used his car to shoot Kouga."

"Or are you just sticking up for him because you're in love with him?" Eri quizzed.

"What?" Kagome pulled a face. "What the hell gave you that impression?!"

"Everyone knows it." Eri said in a bewildered tone. "The way he kissed you at the awards - the way you're sticking by him so firmly when he's been convicted of attempted murder and the dress that you-"

"Eri, believe me, Kouga probably adores him more than I do." Kagome said hotly. She looked down at her bedroom floor as loud music started pumping up from the floor below. She stamped as hard as she could and raised her voice. "He gets on my nerves. He's never straight with anyone and he keeps shirking responsibility and people the way… the way… the way Souta suddenly decides to get a bad back when he's asked to sweep the grounds."

"Jeez… you don't like him do you?" Eri said quietly.

"He has the potential to be better… but if I'm going home tomorrow then I won't see if he gets any better than he is now. Hang on a minute," she covered the mouth piece of the phone with her hand and stomped out onto her balcony to lean over the edge. "WOULD YOU KEEP IT DOWN??!!" she screamed to be heard.

"WHAT?!" Inuyasha shouted back, popping his head out of his room.

"I'M GLAD THAT YOU'RE HAPPY TO BE FREE BUT YOU NEED TO KEEP IT DOWN! I'M ON THE BLEEDING PHONE!!"

"WHAT?!"

Kagome growled irritably and stomped back into her room again, closing the balcony door after her. "Sorry," she said, taking her hand off the mouth piece. "Where was I? So it can't be Inuyasha who shot Kouga anyway because an eyewitness came forward earlier saying that the driver of the silver Porsche had black hair and couldn't possibly have been Inuyasha."

"Of course not." Eri agreed with complete confidence.

"So he's been let off for now… but the police are being a bunch of pigs and saying that he's still suspect for organising the shooting." Kagome shook her head. "And Kikyo says that they're going to be paying a few too many visits here over the next few days until the matter is solved."

"Kouga isn't seriously hurt is he?" Eri said incredulously. "I mean… he's a demon. One little bullet won't hurt him that bad… right?"

"The news sugar-coated it, Eri." Kagome told her. "Apparently the shooter practically unloaded a whole clip of bullets from an automatic machine gun into him. If he was human he would probably be lying in splinters over the pavement."

"Ew… Kagome!" Eri squealed. "That's gross."

"Sorry… but it's true!" she defended herself.

"Well… come back tomorrow and tell me all about it in more detail, ok?"

"Ok. I will." Kagome smile and bid goodnight to her friend before hanging up.

She stomped futilely on the floor a bit more before giving up. What did she care? She had a complimentary set of ear plugs waiting to be used in her draw.

She needed a good night's sleep if she wanted a good journey back home tomorrow. She sighed contentedly at the thought of seeing all the familiar faces of her friends and family again. But at the same time… she realised what she would miss out on at the villa…

She'd never find out what happened in 1992…

AN: So is this the end of the story? Nope ^_^ I'm barely half-way through it. And for those of you who are itching to set their sights on some Inu/Kag fluff… then I think you'll like the next chapter if all goes according to plan…