Here comes my generic Disclaimer (with a Scottish accent): Fullmetal Alchemist obviously doesn't belong to me. WARNING: Some…okay most characters will be OOC (out of character), Riza for starters.
BTW, thank you for all the reviews :)
…
"Nothing is going to ruin my Christmas! Not work and certainly not dead people!" Rebecca shouted, not minding at all, the strange stares she was getting from everyone around. It was bad enough that Thanksgiving was a total bust for her. (She had spent it with Mustang and company and not to mention, Miss Jane Doe.) She wasn't able attend her niece's birthday a week ago, and to top it off her pet goldfish died. (and yes before you ask, she couldn't even attend her own goldfish's funeral.) Work is getting hectic and she wondered how she hasn't gone postal on anyone. She needed this Christmas Party to go off without a hitch. "Why are people getting killed so much?" She slumped down on a marble bench and rested her shopping bags in front of her. She eyed her friend beside her, who was snacking, without a care in the world, on a caramel apple. The caramel was extra thick.
"I hate you, Riza. Do you know how many calories that thing has?"
"But it tastes good."
"I'm sure it does. All right up and at 'em. We can't miss the event. They're going to unravel that huge present box that has been on display all this month down at the mall lobby. Come on! I want to see what's inside." They got there but there was already a huge crowd around the circular platform that displayed the colorful box. The size was extravagant enough, but the big red bow on top just added to the merry atmosphere of the surroundings. "I can't see a thing!" Riza nudged her side and pointed up the second level.
"Great idea. I knew you were the brains between us. After all, I'm just the pretty face." There weren't many people up there and it wasn't close but beggars can't be choosers. They hurried upstairs before the announcer man unveiled their display. After minutes of build-up, Rebecca was starting to get impatient. "C'mon you clown, just show it!" She gritted her teeth.
Then, it opened.
It was quiet at first and the audience didn't know if this was part of the big reveal but then someone screamed. Someone fainted and soon a domino effect rippled in the people. Loud screams erupted in the lobby as parents rushed their kids out of the place. There was a stampede of people and there were also other people who were just too stupefied to move because of the sight before them.
Riza finished the last bite of her sweet treat. She wanted more. Rebecca stood there, dumbfounded. No! This can't be happening! I didn't see it! I didn't see it!
"Becca."
"Yes, Riza?"
"Merry Christmas."
"Riza."
"Yes, Becca?"
"Shut up."
…
Roy whistled. Now that is something. Inside the box was a single white chair and on it was, yes you guessed it, a body. It was wrapped in a blue and white gift-wrapping paper. There was a translucent bow on top of its wrapped head. Where the mouth should be was one of those stickers you would usually use in presents, with the To: and From: labels already written in it. "From: Me To: You." Roy read. Joy, an early Christmas present. How thoughtful. He sensed the dark clouds on the person who was taking crime photos of the gift-wrapped body. "Catalina, I'm sorry if you had plans but now everyone's plans are canceled."
"Its fine detective. It's not this guy's fault he died, although he could've waited for a bit." She muttered the last bit in a whisper. She was about to take another picture when Riza got in a way of her view. "Riza, your ass is great and everything but can you move?" Riza tilted her head to the right, then, to the left. "There's room inside, Mister Detective." She approached the box.
"That's nice, Miss Hawkeye…wait what are you doing?" She squeezed herself inside the small corner space beside the chair. It looked like she was reaching for something. "Miss Hawkeye, get out of there!" He tugged her arm but she wouldn't come out. He pulled one more time and just like that, she popped back outside, holding a small surprise.
"Mister Detective, look. Exhibit A." She spoke in a mocked professional manner. She held out a medium sized brown carton box. The Staff turned their attention on the box and then to the blonde woman, who had already infamously made herself known to everyone in the lab. "Miss Hawkeye, are you insane! What if there's a bomb inside? Don't move anymore." Before he could radio in the bomb squad, she rattled it, like a nosy child who couldn't wait to open her gifts up. He felt his heart stop. "It's pretty light for a bomb. Here" She was giving it to him. "I swear, Miss Hawkeye." Mustang gladly confiscated it from her and went ahead and unsealed it.
On the center, was a lone rectangle shaped paper, which was folded one time horizontally. He lifted it up with tweezers and opened it with gloved hands. "Huh." He murmured. "Huh." Riza looked over his shoulder. He mouthed the foreign language written on the paper. "Falsario…" Roy remembered that term from a few years back. Back when he was still…
"Il falsario. Ti ho fatto un favore." She read out loud.
"You understand what this means, Miss Hawkeye?" He asked but he sounded distracted.
"The Forger. I did you a favor, is what it says, Mister Detective." He gave it to one of the CSI staff and it was then sealed in an evidence bag for further analysis.
"What an interesting little note." Rebecca added. "The Forger? Isn't that that painter/counterfeiter/killer from a long way back?" She got no reply. "Sure, I was only talking to myself."
"I heard about it on the news. He was never caught." Fury squeaked out. "Were you and the Detective involved with that case?" She snickered, and she covered her mouth with a hand to keep from breaking into a full on laughter. "Oh yeah, the Detective was involved all right." Whatever the joke was, it flew right over Riza and Kain's head.
"Finish up here and we'll discuss everything back at the lab." Mustang ordered and swiftly left the scene. "Well Riza, I still got work to do…Riza?" Despite her usual blank, expressionless face, Riza looked worried for once.
"Oh don't worry about him."
"I'm not. Just hungry." And truth be told, Detective Mustang was far from her mind. It was message that left her more…perturbed. Riza shook her head and pushed it back in the closets of her mind. She buttoned up her black pea coat and was prepared to leave but Rebecca stopped her. "Hey, if there was something going on, with you I mean, you'd tell me right?" The question caught Riza off guard. Without a single thought about what she was going to say, Riza simply said, "Yes, Becca, of course I would." This seemed to placate Rebecca and returned back to her duties.
Riza got in an elevator and Darius was already inside, waiting for her. The elevator door closed. "Kimblee seemed to have left the States and departed home. He won't be back for awhile." He informed her. "A piece is gone, Miss. Blaise Bergeron, they disposed of him." He growled. "You're becoming far too close to this detective friend of yours. If you think I can turn a blind eye about this, then you are—" She raised her hands, which quelled down his sudden outburst. He bowed his head. "I have spoken out of place, my deepest apologies." The elevator reached the ground level.
"No, this is right, DK"
…
Jean and Rebecca peeked through the clear glass of Mustang's office from across the hall. "Who is he calling?" Rebecca wore a big clown like smile on her face. With what happened yesterday, he's going call her now. "Oh look at him sweat. Come, you ass, think! Who can make him sweat like that? This case might be the best one yet." He thought about it and the more he thought about, the more he didn't want to think about what he thought about because thinking about it scared him. "No! Not her! Didn't we fulfill our Armstrong quota from the last case?" For once, she was excited about a case. "Yes! This is great." They noticed Mustang walking towards them, donning a weary expression on his face. He sighed tiredly. "So, what's going on? She's coming right? Because The Forger's name turned up again?" Catalina's words were spoken like she was on a sugar rush. He nodded a yes to answer her question.
"Mira will be here tomorrow."
"So our breaks done?" They turned their attention to the evidence table. The note was at the center of the table, in a bag, protected from the elements "I did you a favor, it says. It could be interpreted as a type of warning or by someone who truly believed that murdering this certain individual could only benefit this, Forger character." Havoc said. She nodded. That made sense. An intern handed her two folders. "Thank you." She flipped to the next page. "Hmmm. So our victim is Matthew Moretti. Age, 22. He was here on a student visa from Italy. He's somehow related to The Forger." Jean took the other folder and raised a brow.
"He's blue."
"Oh? Is he an Avatar?" He didn't know how to respond to that. "No, Catalina. According to Falman's report, he was exposed to extreme frigid conditions. He died from severe hypothermia." Rebecca pursed her lips. "Torture, perhaps?" She shivered at Jean's suggestion. "Great, more sociopaths. I love this job." She changed her mind. This is definitely not the best case ever. Roy looked over the reports. "It says here that he has a flat down in Midtown. I'll head over there. Keep me updated." Roy grabbed his coat and headed for the door. When he turned the knob, someone was blocking his way.
"Hello, Miss Hawkeye."
"Are we ready to go?" A dog obediently stood by her, wagging his tail. "Miss Hawkeye, you're not coming with me." She stalked after him.
"You need backup. Detective Hughes isn't here."
"I can handle myself, if not, an official police officer will assist me instead."
"But I'm your bodyguard."
"Miss Hawkeye, you are not coming with me!" Next thing you know, they were already in his car with an officer, Heymans Breda, seated at the back. "Hello, sir." Riza's nanny, as she liked to call him, situated himself in the back seat as well. "Detective, I do not think you and I have been properly introduced. I am Darius and I am at your beck and call." Roy eyed the side mustaches of this Darius person. Impressive... Mustang this isn't the time to be impressed. How does this always happen to him? "See Mister Detective. We'll protect you." He was receiving unsolicited help…again. He drove off and it was a quiet and awkward ride, but they finally reached Moretti's apartment.
Roy questioned the landlord about the living conditions of the victim. "Moretti? Oh the kid's a quiet fellow. Always paid his rent with cash. I think he's some sort of art student from abroad." The landlord led the group upstairs to the apartment.
"Here's his place" He opened the door with his set of keys. There were shredded paintings scattered throughout the entire place. The windows were covered with monthly old newspaper and the only furniture in the room, beside the desk, was a white loveseat. "What the hell is this?" The landlord exclaimed. They walked around the broken canvases. "Search the place." Mustang ordered. Roy wanted to get to the computer that was on the desk. He turned the power on but a password-encrypted screen greeted him. "Great. Let's try The Forger?" It was incorrect. Guess that was too obvious. A hint popped up at the bottom of the text box.
"What ends everything always." It read. He saws this before. It was just a simple riddle, just worded in a very confusing manner. He typed in the answer. "Okay, we're in." He looked around the desktop and clicked on the only icon on it. Internet explorer. The home page was a blog site, titled "My Return." He skimmed the page, reviewing the various posts and rambling of the late Matthew Moretti. It was mostly nonsense and he couldn't imagine anyone would want to read these insane writings . "Who is this Forger person, Mister Detective?" Riza suddenly blurted out curiously.
"I'm not sure. He started out as a well-known painter a decade ago in Italy. He signed his paintings, with the signature, Il Falsario. Then, for some reason he changed his profession to a high-profile criminal, making counterfeits of notes and the like and then, to a murderer. I was only a lowly grunt working for the police back then, but he brought a couple of murders, in his name, here in New York that messed up the city. He always managed to evade the officials. The lead investigator working on The Forger is flying from Italy, so she'll be here." He was nervous again. "She can provide more information about him." He returned to the computer and noticed the blog entries for each had no comments on the bottom except for the last two entries.
On November 23nd, the commenter asked, "What is the greatest gift one can give?"
"Twizzlers." Riza said. He ignored her. Moretti never replied but he wrote another entry the next day. It was more incoherent babble but there was another comment at the bottom. "Liar!" It proclaimed. "If you cannot answer, then you are not him. Io verrò per voi." After that, there were no more entries made from Moretti. "If you cannot answer? Is it a passphrase or something? What does the last part mean?" He asked his personal translator. "I will come for you or something like that." It sounded like threat. "Then, whoever this was, he was true to his word." His cellphone vibrated in his pocket. "Mustang."
While the Detective was distracted with his call, Darius pulled Riza aside. "Miss." He spoke in a hush voice. He was carrying the dog in his arms. "Yes?" He looked embarrassed.
"The dog needs to pee." He whispered.
"Is that code for something?"
"No, it means, the dog needs to pee."
"Then, take him out, DK and buy me some food." He bowed his head. "Yes, of course." And left.
"You're pretty bossy to him, Miss Hawkeye." Roy had heard the last bit of their conversation. "He's my nanny." She announced. "Yes, you've told me plenty of times. Anyway, go back to the lab. There's something Rebecca needs you for." She blinked. "She asked for me, specifically?" He replied with a yes. "Yes, so go and find out what Catalina wants."
…
The lights of the room were closed. She flipped the switch. On the table, there was an object that wasn't there before that attracted her hazel eyes. "Turn it off! Huh? Oh, hey Riza." Apparently, Rebecca was taking a short snooze before she came in. She stifled a yawn. "Good thing you're here. Look what Falman found inside the vic's stomach. How sick is this? The murderer went to all that trouble to insert this in, after Moretti's death. Get some gloves."
It was a Rubik's Cube. "Could I eat that?"
"Did you not hear the part where I said it was in the vic's stomach? I've been trying to solve this, damned thing. Havoc tried, but he's an idiot too. I googled solutions but that was a bust. It wasn't working. You solved one before so I figured you could do it! It's literally killing me!" She threw it over to her. "It's peculiar though. Some of the cube pieces have a red x covering it, but no matter. Just do it!" Riza twisted it and turned it until a minute later, it was solved. "How you do that?" Unexpectedly, a click was heard. It came from the cube. Rebecca shrieked loudly. Something was unlocking inside of it. The superior portion of the cube, where the yellow area was, separated, creating a small slit in the middle. A piece of paper protruded from the thin opening. "Wow." Havoc and Fury barged in the room with panicked faces. "You girls all right? I heard Catalina and…whoa. You solved it." When the paper was taken out, the cube closed.
"What does it say, Riza?"
The handwriting seemed alike from the other note. "I hope its in English."
"I salute you. Now our play begins. Go forth, to where the lone lady stands, waiting, expecting, and watching, for faraway faces. Tick Tock"
"A game? I love games." Rebecca chirped. "The murder is clearly toying with us with this debasing riddle. Notify the Detective and tell him to meet us at the Statue of Liberty." Jean said with such confidence, but they were talking over him, muffling him in the background. "A lone lady, huh? It could be the Lady Liberty since she does wait for foreigners, which must be the "faraway faces" in the message." Rebecca took the cube from Riza's grasp and placed it securely in its box. This time, all evidence will be handled with double the extra care, to prevent from anyone meddling in it. "That makes sense, Miss Rebecca. We should hurry and inform Detective Mustang." Kain suggested.
"Am I no longer visible?" Jean felt his life ebbing away. He was completely ignored. "Did you say something, Doctor? At any rate, there's no way I am going to miss this. Kain, handle the fort while Riza and I take care of this." Kain watched as both women cleared out the room. Then, he shifted his eyes towards the bewildered Jean Havoc. "You should do some work too, sir." Kain closed shut the door behind him, leaving Jean by himself.
…
"Whew, thank god, we caught the last ferry to the island. You took your time, didn't you Detective!" Roy was catching his breath. When he got a call from a certain brunette woman to meet Riza and her at Battery Park because there was an emergency pertaining to the case, he drove and ran here as fast as he could, without questions.
"Catalina, you didn't explain!"
"That's because you hung up before I could, Detective…you look a little green Riza." Riza's face paled and she hugged her stomach. Something in her stomach wasn't agreeing with her. She moaned painfully. Mustang cupped the side of her head and nestled her on his lap. If his action surprised her, Riza made no comment about it. Rebecca said nothing too about the Detective's surprising and thoughtful action as she began to summarize what had happened. "Another note…let see here. Tick tock? The last part is a bit daunting. So I guess we're going to play his game? Boy, this guy is in for a surprise." They soon arrived at the Liberty Island dock. There was a plethora amount of people at the island, taking and posing for pictures. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. Riza groaned on his back. In fact, they might be the most conspicuous ones, with his over-dressed suit and Rebecca's CSI jacket.
"What could we be looking for?" They scouted the area. Roy grilled the island's security guards if they saw anything out of the ordinary and to no avail; everything seemed to be the usual, peaceful day. "Tick Tock." Riza muttered under her breath. "What was that Miss Hawkeye?" She repeated, "Tick Tock." Nearby, there was a red street light clock at the center of the picnic area. People ate and mingled, crowding around the tall clock.
"That clock, Miss Hawkeye?" Rebecca ran over to the clock. There was a flower bush around that covered the feet of the clock.
"Wait a minute, are you feeling better now?"
"Yes."
"Why am I still carrying you then?"
"I didn't want to be a bother." She climbed down from his back. "You're not exactly light, Miss Hawkeye." He wished he didn't say that. He remembered that women were bit sensitive when it came to their weight. "I'm not? I just ate." He should've expected that reaction. "Is that so?"
"Hey you two!" Rebecca called out to them. "Well there's nothing…oh maybe in the dirt." She brandished out her pair of emergency gloves and started digging. To avoid anymore-funny looks from the onlookers, Roy flashed his badge out. "Police business. Don't mind us." Rebecca dug around until she tapped on something. It was a brown carton box, big enough for an object, like a cell phone for example.
"A prepaid phone?" There was a mini post-it stuck on the phone's front. "Pick me up," was written. "That's obnoxious."
Then, it rang.
"You are speaking to, Detective Roy Mustang of the New York Crime Lab. You have my utmost attention." Roy strained to hear the other person's voice. "Indeed I have." The man cackled. "I am so pleased that…I have it." He was laughing crazily.
He spoke slowly. "I will call again. Then we can resume our play."
"Hey!" But it was too late, the frenzied man hung up.
…
Chapter end. I hope it wasn't disappointing. My Italian is probably not that accurate since I got it from a translator but it was part of my idea so if you know Italian, correct me please. ;)
Don't be afraid to review and tell me what you think XD
C3 pt2: Nothing