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Circumstantial Evidence

Chapter 6: A New Day and New Revelations

Cka3ka

The Next Day…

Beep… Beep… Beep. *SLAM*

Damn alarm clock. I hate that thing, thought Videl as she groggily dragged herself up. It was 5:00 in the morning and she cursed herself for her ridiculous desire to keep on training even though she hadn't been in a hand-to-hand combat situation in over a year. She'd given up trying to scare people with her fists. It just didn't work. People always tried to pull something despite her reputation. Yet, she couldn't give up fighting. Her dad had started it on her when she was just a little girl claiming that the 'bad boys' out there would take advantage of her and insisted that she keep at it. She had eventually learned to like fighting, love it in fact. The adrenaline and the rush were addictive. So, today, like every other day she got up at this god forsaken hour and packed her gym bag, got dressed and headed to her father's gym.

It was 5:30 when she got to the Satan dojo and unlocked it. There were only a few other of her father's students there at this hour. She smiled at the dedicated young men who were determined to succeed her father as the 'Greatest Martial Artist' in the world.  Too bad they won't ever beat daddy, she thought to herself, No one's stronger than my dad except… me. As she began her workout, she couldn't help but let an evil grin cross her face at the memories. She could remember that day as if it happened yesterday. It had been great to beat her dad and the after effects had been even better.

"DAD! You can't dictate to me who I can go out with and who I can't… Jeez I'm going off to college and you're still treating me as if I'm ten years old!"

"Don't talk to me like that Videl… I'm still your father and I'm the Strongest man in the world. The day you are stronger than me is the day you can talk back to me… until that day Videl you better do what I tell you to!" shouted her father at her. Hearing those words caused Videl such frustration that she nearly broke out in tears. She hated when her father used them. He was the man who defeated Cell. Who could beat her father? Yet, something within her shouted at her that she had nothing to lose. She was her own person and it was time for the bird to leave the nest. Fight him it cried! And she did.

Three minutes later he was lying bleeding on the ground with her on top of him pounding him. A minute after that she had him locked in a hold that he couldn't break extorting him to admit that she was stronger.

Videl cringed at the memory. She still felt guilty that she had actually BEAT UP her dad, but at the same time she was proud and happy that she did. To her utter disbelief, her father had, after he had recovered a bit, embraced her and actually cried tears. "My little girl's all grown up now…" he cried. She had been able to see the pride in his eyes and she had cried herself. The two of them had spent a while talking about the past and about the future. Her father wanted her to be the next World Champion. She had adamantly refused. She had no desire for the publicity or the lifestyle that her father lived. She'd also realized that she couldn't take over her dad's role as the World's Champion. He wasn't just a martial artist. He was a hero and role model for millions. She knew he played to the camera, but he never did it in ways that were morally reprehensible. He didn't go onto camera with an attitude that said that I'm the one that's important. I'm tuff and care only for yourself and you can be like me. No, his attitude came across differently. He was constantly exhorting people to work harder so they could be LIKE him. A subtle difference but one that Videl found to be amazingly important.

As her workout began to heat up, her mind began to turn elsewhere. She began to think about the current case and what she'd have to do to solve it. The first thing she had to do today was to find Yamcha and ask him about his relation with the dead girl. That wouldn't be too hard. He was a celebrity and his whereabouts were easily found. After that she'd have to go back to the club in the evening and see if she could find those two young men that the bartender had said had come in with the girl on the night of her death. Those two men had to be found since they might be involved with the so called narcotics aspect of the case. And then there was Son Gohan. Just the thought of him made her flush. Damn him…why does he always have to be so secretive. She'd have to find about what his relations with the Briefs were. He was obviously close to them and she wasn't quite sure if she could whole-heartedly trust him. This made her extremely angry. He had been a close friend in high school and now she felt barely knew him at all. The Briefs thing made that crystal clear. What the hell else was he hiding? With a cry of anger she unleashed a powerful kick and sent the hundred pound punching bag flying across the room. When she calmed down she noticed that the entire gym, which had began to fill up over the two hours that she had been there, was staring at her.

"Sorry about that," she said nonchalantly. "Can you guys put another one up? I've got to get to work." Saying nothing more she went and hit the showers.

***

9:30… At police headquarters…

Gohan walked into the office with quite a bit on his mind. Bulma and Vegeta had disclosed more than he ever really wanted to know about their operations. He never thought that Bulma could sign off on Vegeta doing some of the things that they had been involved in. If he hadn't lived in West Capitol for three years he would probably have been angry. However, he'd seen life in West Capitol first hand and knew it was one of the best places on Chikyuu to live. No crime, a booming economy, great schools, and almost no drugs. He'd never realized that it was Vegeta that was responsible for cleaning out the city. In fact, the Saiyan Prince had done a much better job of cleaning out the city than he and Videl had in Satan City. Of course, Vegeta's methods were just a tad more ruthless. Yet, they'd been far more effective. Oh well… Vegeta will always be Vegeta, he thought with a mental laugh. Though he wasn't really that upset about Bulma's illegal activities, most of them were more beneficial than harmful, he didn't like the fact that they were purposely withholding information from him. He had asked them about this murder and was told by both Bulma and Vegeta, with identical smirks, that this was his case and it was his job to solve it. That frustrated him, but he knew it was Bulma's way. He could just hear it now. Gohan… Experience is the key to any career. You need the experience so that you can solve other cases that Capsule isn't involved with. Sorry kiddo, you gotta figure this one out on your own. He had to put up with his own mother, he didn't need Bulma acting like one too. Damn corporate businesswomen and their stupid games.

"GOHAN!" came an angry shout that nearly knocked him over. He looked up and realized that Videl was standing their angrily tapping her foot and pointing at her watch. "You're thirty minutes late Gohan… It's your second day and you're already slacking."

"Sorry Videl… I had a late night." That was definitely true. In fact, they'd been up to 3am talking. Lucky he was a Saiyan and didn't need much sleep.

"And you go out on a work night?" she said shaking her head. "I should beat you. Now let's get going. We have to make it to the stadium by 10:00 so we can catch Yamcha before the game starts today."

"We're going out to the stadium to see Yamcha?"

"Yeah… we agreed on this yesterday remember?"

Gohan thought for a second and then recalled that during their car ride to Bulma's that they did indeed talk about seeing Yamcha. "Alright let's get going."

***

Gohan was scared. He'd never ever seen anyone drive as recklessly as Videl. The day before she had been drive at a nice and comfortable pace but now she was weaving in and out of traffic at 90 miles per hour with the top down. "VIDEL!!! Can't you slow down???" cried Gohan terrified as they narrowly avoided slamming into the railing.

"You shouldn't have been late Gohan…" smirked Videl. "Now we've got to make up time." She hit the gas increasing their speed. She reveled in inner delight as the wind whipped her hair back. She loved her car. There was nothing like the smooth ride of fine German craftsmanship.

"You're going to get yourself hurt driving like this!!" screamed Gohan. He wasn't at all worried about himself. Even if a three ton Mac Truck were to suddenly slam into them at twice the speed he'd hardly even be bruised. Videl on the other hand would be hamburger and he was a bit worried about her.

"Still the goody goody huh Gohan?" laughed Videl into the wind. Not wanting to piss Gohan off too much she decided that she'd had enough fun and slowed down to a more comfortable 70 or so.

"Videl it's dangerous going that fast… you hit something and your dead."

"Thanks for the tip Mr. Safety, but I'm just as dead if I hit something now," she smirked, "Anyway did you find out anything from your GOOD friend Bulma last night?"

Gohan didn't miss the emphasis on the word 'good'. "No. No, I didn't."

"You sure Gohan?"

"Yes, I'm sure that Bulma didn't tell me anything relating to this case. I mean we already have access to all of Capsule Corporations files relating to this case. What more do you want from her? A signed confession?" he said a little bitterly. He didn't like Videl's tone.

"That would make things too easy. As for full disclosure, I'll believe when I see it," she remarked back. "Look Gohan, I'm not trying to be a bitch here. It's just that we were really good friends and you never told me about you knowing the Briefs, let alone being a 'member' of their family. And yeah… I'm kind of a little hurt that you never told me about that."

"Videl… I didn't think it was a big deal back then. I mean she's been around my whole life. She's just been Bulma, not the Capsule Heiress, not the CEO of Capsule Corporation. She was just Bulma who my dad and I were great friends with, whose been calling me Kiddo since I was five and probably will be calling me Kiddo when I'm 40. I didn't even realize how famous she really was. Don't forget I grew up in the sticks."

"Alright, Gohan… Sorry. I know it's kind of petty for me to pissed off about it but sheesh next thing you're going to tell me is that you've known Yamcha for your whole life also."

"Umm… well. I have," admitted Gohan quietly.

Videl didn't reply. She just sat there quietly, but she was tapping her finger on the wheel. Gohan KNEW that she only fidgeted when she was pissed off and that was a bad sign. "Are you being serious?" she said in a quiet voice.

"Yeah, I've known him as long as I've known Bulma. You know the two use to date?" Hopefully the connection between the two would make Videl calm down. That was a perfect reason for him to know Yamcha and he wouldn't have to explain Yamcha's bandit past or anything more.

"Really? I didn't know that," replied Videl, her anger draining away immediately at the explanation. Obviously if the two use to date then Gohan would know Yamcha.

"Yeah… they started dating when they were sixteen and up until Trunks was born."

"You mean Trunks is Yamcha's kid?" asked Videl incredulously.

"NO!" shouted Gohan. He didn't mean to insinuate that. "Trunks is Vegeta's son, but part of the reason why Yamcha and Bulma broke up was Vegeta."

"Really now… he steal her?"

"Well you could kind of put it that way, but not really. Bulma and Yamcha both knew their relationship was over like a year before they actually broke up. It was just hard for them to end it because they really do care for each other. I mean they love each other still but they aren't in love. You get what I'm saying?"

"Wow Gohan… That's some subtle thinking on your part. Who'd have thunk it? Son Gohan, relationship counselor," joked Videl with a smile.

Gohan laughed. "Yeah. Well, I was the safe guy in college. Everyone went to me for relationship advice since I'd tell them straight up how it was. Actually at first I just called it as I saw it and didn't realize I should have been discrete. One of my friends once came crying to me telling me how her boyfriend was cheating on her and asking me why. You know what I had the audacity to tell her?"

"That's a dumb question… how would I know?" scoffed Videl. "What did you tell her? That it was his fault not hers? He wasn't good enough for her?"

"No… I told her she needed to lose weight."

"WHAT??? You did not say that!" exclaimed Videl. Then again, that wasn't something Gohan wouldn't say. He was naively honest to a fault and probably meant it in the nicest way possible.

"Yeah… I kind of realize now that it was rude of me to say something like that. But at the time I had no idea I was saying something wrong," he said. "Well it turned out that she took my advice to heart and had the guy crawling back wishing he was still hers. I mean she's a great girl but she was a little chunky back then. She's pretty drop dead gorgeous now. After that people started coming to me for serious relationship advice… it really is kind of bizarre."

"I agree with you there," commented Videl as she made a right hand turn into the stadium parking lot. "Let me tell you one thing Son Gohan. If you ever say I'm fat I'm going to smack you. Got it?"

Gohan barked out another laugh. "Sure Videl. I'll file that one away for future reference."

"Good. Now let's get going. We have to interrogate Mr. Yamcha now," smirked Videl.

Several minutes later the pair were knocking on the door of Yamcha's office.

"Come in," came the familiar voice.

Gohan opened the door and flashed his old friend a smile. "Hey Yamcha, How've you been?"

"Gohan!" smiled Yamcha as he saw the young Saiyan. "I've been doing great bro. I think we're going to make the playoffs this year and man am I excited about it. First time I'm going to be managing a playoff team."

"Congratulations, Yamcha… Hey, I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine," said Gohan as he turned to Videl. "This is Videl and she's my partner now."

"So this is Videl," chuckled Yamcha as he got up from behind his desk. "It's a pleasure to meet you Ms. Satan. I've heard a lot about you from Gohan when he was back in High School."

"Pleasure is all mine Mr. Yamcha," smiled Videl as she shook his hand.

"Please, just Yamcha. No need for such formalities."

"Alright. I hope everything Gohan told you was good… if it wasn't then I deny it ever happened," she said with a grin.

Yamcha let out a chuckle. "Oh Gohan isn't one to bad mouth people. I'm sure you know that."

"Yes Indeed. Anyway, I guess you probably know why we are here," said Videl getting down to business. The pleasantries were nice, but she wanted to get down to business.

"Yup. Bulma gave me a call last night telling me that I'd probably have to talk to you guys."

"A heads up huh?" smirked Videl. "So… can you tell us your relationship with Amanda Rochester?"

"Sure… I've got about thirty minutes free before the game," said Yamcha. "Mandy and I've been dating for about six months. She was a good girl. She's from a small town in the country and moved to the city a few years ago to attend college. She graduated really high in her class and Capsule hired her. That was about three years back. I met her at a Capsule reception and we hit it off pretty well."

"Were the two of you an exclusive item? Did you plan on proceeding further with your relationship?"

"Well… Yes we were exclusive, but as for the long long term, I don't know. She's a bit young and had a really addictive personality. That's probably why she got into drugs."

"So she was into drugs? How'd you find out about it?"

"Well she started acting weird and canceling dates on me starting about a month ago. About three weeks ago I spent the night at her place and found a few razor blades and a few grams of coke in her dresser."

"What did you do with the drugs?" asked Videl.

"I flushed it down the toilet and told her she had to quit. We had a huge fight over it and pretty much broke up. She was a really good girl though and I cared for her so I kept trying to get her to quit."

"And why were you with her two nights ago? The night when she died."

"Well… I was at this club, Ciara's Haven, with a few baseball buddies of mine. She and I use to go there a bit together so I guess it wasn't surprising that I saw her walk in with these two guys. I didn't like the look of them so I went over there to make sure she was alright. The two of them were pawing all over her and it didn't seem like she was liking it. I basically grabbed her and dragged her away. She wasn't happy about it and told me to mind my own business. Then the two guys came over me and threatened to 'break my legs'. Well, I've done a bit of combat training in my time and I just told them to go screw themselves. I grabbed her and walked her out of the club but apparently the two punks had other ideas. They said something to her about her not getting her fix and about the 'boss' hearing about this. She started to freak out then and demanded that I let her go," recalled Yamcha. "Well… what could I do? I couldn't force her to leave with me. So I let her go."

"Well… the desk clerks said you were there that night. How'd you meet up with her again?" asked Videl with a hard expression on her face. She wanted to grill this guy hard and make sure that he was telling the truth. Yamcha, being the boyfriend, would definitely be under a lot of scrutiny very soon.

"Well… she called me about two hours later crying and asking me to pick her up. When I did, I saw that her makeup was ruined and her clothes were rumpled. I didn't press and just told her that if she needed to talk I was there. She just cried on my shoulder for a while when we got back to her place. I put her to bed and left."

"Do you think she had sex with those guys?" asked Videl.

"Yes, I do. I think they forced her to have sex so she could get her drugs," he said with a hard tone in his voice. Yet, one thing Gohan noticed was that Yamcha was really not that broken up about it. It seemed that he was bitter about something. He immediately knew that Bulma's call wasn't just a heads up. She had no doubt instructed Yamcha to keep something back. Grrr… What is she up to? I don't like this game she's playing.

"You don't seem too broken up about this Yamcha," he asked out of the blue. For most of the interview he had kept quiet letting Videl ask the questions. She was a lot more experienced at this. However, he wanted the truth and the whole truth.

"Gohan's right Yamcha… you don't seem too upset with the death of a girl you've been dating for six months. That seems a bit suspicious to me," added Videl.

Yamcha turned and gave Gohan a hard look, but then shrugged. "I've seen a lot of death in my time. Gohan can vouch to that. I've lost a lot of good friends and I was one of the survivors from that alien attack on East Capitol. I watched one of my best friends, Gohan's dad, die in front of my eyes and I didn't cry then. Why would I cry about some girl that was probably just using me because she knew I was friends with Bulma?"

Yamcha's comments stopped the questions in their tracks. Videl was shocked speechless about Yamcha's comment about Gohan's dad. She never knew that Gohan's dead was killed. She had always thought that he had left him and his mother for another woman.

"There was no need to bring that up Yamcha," said Gohan through gritted teeth

Yamcha's eyes widened when he saw Gohan getting angry. He suddenly realized that Gohan had probably not told Videl about any of his past. That surprised him since he knew that the two were suppose to have been good friends in High School. He'd assumed that Gohan had told Videl a bit about the Zfighters. "Damn," he cursed himself. "Sorry Gohan… I didn't mean to bring up bad memories. I didn't know," he said cryptically hoping that Gohan would know to interpret the I didn't know was intended to explain about his secrets.

Gohan shook his head accepting the apology. "It's ok Yamcha. Thanks for the info," he said as he got up to leave. He motioned for Videl to go, and she got up as well.

"Thanks for your time Yamcha," said Videl. "I think you need to come down to the station after the game though. We're going to need a description of the two men she was with and probably ask you a few more questions."

"Sure thing," agreed Yamcha without hesitation. "I'll be down there later today. Thanks for keeping this quiet."

"No problem… it sucks to be famous sometimes and I definitely know it," sympathized Videl. She indeed knew how much it sucked to have scandal surrounding you. In fact, after her prom date with Gohan there had been several articles in the tabloids about her. This was a lot worse and she knew that if this became public then Yamcha would have some serious problems on his hands.

"Take it easy Yamcha," said Gohan as he and Videl left the office.

Once outside Videl put her hand on Gohan's arm stopping him. "So… want to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?"

"Well… your father."

******************************

Longer chapter than usual… let me know what you think. Are things going too slow? Is the dialogue a little… too dry? Too forced? Inquiring authors want to know.

Also… Soon to be released from your neighborhood author will be a near Canon Gohan/Videl fic starting from their final semester at OSH. I've come up with a lot of neat ideas about Videl and her relationship with both her father and Gohan. It won't be your typical Gh/V. Nope… lots of original scenes that do not include field trips to Capsule Corp and going to Camp. The oneshot prequel to it will be released by tomorrow. Cya then.

Quick Review Response:

Thanks Elizabeth and Jacob for pointing that error out for me. It's now fixed. I tend to change a lot of stuff after a reread. I go through like three drafts per chapter and sometimes I mess up when I change things. Please please let me know if you see more mistakes like that!

Ciao,

Cka3ka.

Give a hoot, don't pollute and ummm leave a review too.