Chapter Four

There was a meeting back at the station. Roxas and Sora entered; Roxas yawning in front of everyone and clearly showing he didn’t want to be there. Their father glared and waited for them to sit down before starting the meeting. He stood in front of a huge dry-erase board, behind him was all the “evidence” they had gathered so far for the case. He turned and pointed to the first number.

“Shooting.” He read. “One witness.” His eyes scanned Roxas, “You spoke to her, correct?”

Roxas nodded and sat up in his chair. “Yes. She…”

He didn’t really want to tell them about Namine’s psychic ability out of fear they would shut him down or think he was completely mad. Instead he went on to tell them that she knew the guy and it was a random encounter after such a long time. There really wasn’t much more to mention. His father looked over to Sora.

“And what have you done?”

Sora cleared his throat. “Well, today Roxas and I went to Riku’s house and told his mother… we also gathered some more information…” He waited for him to pull the cap off of the marker to write on the board, “Mrs. Matsumoto said that Riku moved out a while ago and went to live with a guy named Ansem. She didn’t know his last name. We searched through Riku’s old room only to find that all of his belongings were there, as if he didn’t take anything with him when he left.”

“We believe he changed his identity… or something.” Roxas added.

“Well, the forensics examined the bullet from the shooting. There weren’t any fingerprints.” Tifa joined the conversation. She looked over at Roxas for a moment and then looked away.

“Strange…” He wrote that down.

“We… also think it was a sniper shooting.” Roxas didn’t want to get Namine involved in this too much, even though he knew she could help out a lot. However, Sora, their father and most of the people that worked here would find psychic abilities to be blasphemous and even joke about it. Roxas didn’t want to risk it. He hoped Sora and Tidus wouldn’t say anything either, out of respect.

“Anything else?”

They all looked at one another. After nobody said anything else, they were dismissed. The chief called his sons over.

“Yes?”

“Forty-eight hours are almost up. You’re slacking.”

“Sorry, dad. We’re doing the best we can.” Roxas reasoned. “It’s hard when there aren’t really any good leads.”

“You have a name, so find him.” His father demanded, shooing them out of the room.

Sora and Roxas went back to Sora’s office. Sora sat down at the computer and searched for anyone in the database named “Ansem.” Nothing came up.

“What if it’s a fake name?” Roxas fiddled with a pen in his hand. “And besides, Namine said she—“

“Namine doesn’t know anything.” Sora interrupted. “We can’t rely on her. Stop it.”

“She can help us!” Roxas leaned forward in his chair, staring at Sora from the other side of the desk. “Stop being so closed-minded. Everyone around here is like that.”

“Or are you just saying this stuff because you’re fond of her?” Sora’s eyebrow rose. Roxas sat back and looked away.

“No, that’s not why. I believe she has some real talent.”

“You were always the one to believe in silly things like that.” Sora said, offending him.

“Anyway, we can’t worry about whether she’s right or wrong.”

“What?”

“What if she’s right? What if it was a woman? If it was, there are plenty of reasons why a woman would kill a man. He was most likely close to her. We need to figure out who Riku was associated with, what his relationships were, everything. That’s just general stuff.”

“I don’t think you’re putting everything into account, here.” Sora said. “Riku left his home. He barely made contact with his family. He lived with a guy I’ve never heard of in a different town. Something tells me he wanted to get away from here.” Sora sighed. “I don’t know why… but he just did. He wanted to start over. Either that, or…”

“Or what?”

“He has connections to something bad.”

“Thanks for being so specific.” Roxas said sarcastically.

“You know what I mean.” Sora looked back at his computer, scratching his head in the process. “I just… can’t figure it out.”

“He was your best friend. What was he like then?”

“He was… nice. He got along with everyone; he always knew how to throw the best parties… I don’t know. Riku was very smart, even though his grades didn’t always show it. He was lazy at times. He felt like he knew enough not to study. Sports were important…”

Sora’s head was starting to hurt. “But I just don’t understand why he would just leave like that. It didn’t make any sense.”

“Wasn’t he with someone near the end of the school year?” Roxas tried remembering.

“He broke up with a girl shortly after prom, but I doubt it has any sort of significance.”

“What was her name?”

“Selphie Rodgers… or something. I don’t know. She cheated on him.”

Roxas stood up. “Let’s go talk to her. Look her address up.”

“What?” Sora said at the sudden idea. “We can’t just—“

“Look, I want to find out whatever I can. If Selphie knows something, then we’ve got ourselves a lead. If she doesn’t, at least we’re trying. I can’t let any possibilities slip away. We must consider all of them, no matter how silly they may seem.” He thought of Namine.

Sora guessed he agreed, but still didn’t see the point in asking Selphie. She was probably married with children by now, probably not wanting to remember her high school days. However, he typed in her name and found three people with the same name.

“Maiden name… Rodgers.” Sora read on one of the links and clicked it. There was no photo, but it was obviously her. “She’s still in town.” Sora said as he wrote down the address. “Rose Street…”

“Lovely name.” Roxas said as he got his stuff and waited at the door for Sora. There was a knock. Roxas moved out of the way and let Tifa inside.

“Hey, what are you guys doing now?” Tifa asked. She was carrying a tray of crackers and such, offering them to the guys.

“We’re about to go check something out. Thanks.” Roxas grabbed a cracker and scooted out the door.

Tifa waited until Roxas was out of hearing range and walked over to Sora’s desk. Sora was putting his jacket on and getting ready to go.

“I’m so glad I broke up with him. He’s so rude at times.” Tifa sighed.

“Yeah… you two dating wasn’t exactly the best idea.” Sora agreed, walking past her.

“We weren’t right for each other and we knew that early on.” Tifa went out the door first, followed by Sora who locked it. He wasn’t sure why they were talking about this all of a sudden, but Roxas was waiting for him outside. He waved to her and left.

“She was talking about me, wasn’t she?” Roxas said as Sora got into the passenger’s seat. Sora put on his seat belt, almost acting as if he didn’t hear the question. He finally answered ‘yes,’ and said nothing more about it.

“Gosh.” Roxas turned the key and started the car. “So where are we going?”

“Rose Street. It’s not that far.”

0o0.0o0

Namine’s last client had just left. She had a lot of paintings to do and she really wasn’t looking forward to it. Everyone always asked someone about their lover, work, money, so on. She was losing strength and motivation to even do this work anymore.

“I need to quit…” Namine said, exhausted from what seemed like a long day.

She was able to go home two hours later; her paintings were left at work because she didn’t want to go through the hassle of having to carry them back to her apartment. She had two weeks to get back to the people. For now, she just wanted to rest. She fell asleep, drifting off into a dream world.

“Namine Himura?”

“Here.”

A few more names were called. ‘Here,” was usually all she ever said in the classroom. Her peers talked to her every now and then, but Namine knew she was alone. Riku’s name was called. Every time she heard his voice, she couldn’t help but to feel butterflies. Even though he barely knew her, she knew him. Someday, she figured, they would be together. She silently hoped for it, watching him go in and out of relationships with other girls, patiently waiting for her turn. She was a hopeless romantic at best; quiet, secretive and very shy. Riku never paid any attention to her, except for a smile one time, but that one smile made her blush like there was no tomorrow.

She would go home and write silly things on notebooks and draw pictures of them being together; maybe she was a little too obsessed. At one point, her parents figured out her liking for him and threatened to tell him, scaring Namine to death. She laid low for a while, making them believe that she had indeed gotten over Riku. However, she knew she never would.

“You don’t even know him!” Her mother yelled. “Stop fantasizing over someone you know you’ll never have! Move on!”

“But mother, I love him!”

Okay, that was a little much, but to her, he was love.

“You’re so harsh…” Namine cried and retreated back to her room.

Namine’s eyes shot open. Her phone was ringing. Confused as to who in the world would call her, she saw her work number. She ignored it and laid back down.

0o0.0o0

“See, Roxas? I told you she didn’t know anything.” Sora said as he drove.

“Yeah? But she did look pretty strange when we mentioned his name.”

“What do you expect? She’s his ex!” Sora yawned and stopped at the light. He was definitely ready to go home; he was sure Kairi missed him. He hated working fifteen hours a day. He would always leave early in the morning and most the time come back really late at night from working over time. Their relationship suffered because the only time they were able to see each other was when it was time to go to bed.

Sora sighed and drove again. Roxas noticed his sad demeanor.

“How’s your fiancé?” He asked, as if he was able to read his mind.

“She’s fine.” Sora lied, keeping his eyes straight ahead. However, his mind was far from focusing on the road.

Sora and Roxas got back to the station and loaded into their own cars. Roxas was ready to pass out from such a long day. His stomach grumbled at the sight of a late-night café down the road.

Roxas stepped inside the café and sat down on one of the stools at the bar. The man turned around. There was a toothpick coming out the side of his mouth, he had a badly shaven mustache and to top it all off, a strange goggle hat. Roxas was too tired to criticize him in his mind, so he just ordered a drink. Someone sat down next to him.

“I saw you come in here.” It was Tifa.

“Oh, stalking me, huh?”

“Not really. It was more out of boredom.”

Roxas took a sip and set it down, waiting for her to speak again. However, she couldn’t come up with anything, so he felt like he had to.

“How was your day?”

“Just as terrible as yours.” She gulped down the entire shot and asked for another. Roxas was not about to be around a drunken Tifa; not on his life. He knew how that would turn out.

“Right.” Roxas paid the man and got up. “Be careful, okay?” Just as he was about to leave, he heard some men in the back of the room laughing and mentioning something about a shooting. The bathroom was right behind them, so Roxas decided to head over there and pretend he was going in there. There was a small hallway leading back to two separate doors, so Roxas just stood against the wall where he couldn’t be seen and tried to listen.

“Who was shot? When?” Said one of the men; probably the bulkier one because of his heavy voice.

“Riku. Don’t you remember that kid?”

“Riku?” Roxas couldn’t believe they were talking about him.

“Ohh, that guy. He was such an idiot for thinking he could get in on that group.”

“Group?”

“Yeah, you have to have godlike powers to join. That bastard was nothing.”

“I don’t know…” Someone said thoughtfully, “he seemed to get pretty far.”

“Yeah? Well they saw right through him.”

Roxas wanted to jump out and interrogate them, but it wasn’t the right environment. They looked like a pretty dangerous pack of men, something he didn’t want to get involved with by himself. He had a gun, but there were a lot of innocent people around.

“So Riku was part of something… like…”

Only one group fit the short description they talked about: one simply called The Organization. They were notorious for tons of robberies, murders, drug trafficking and anything else you could think of.

“Gah! Why didn’t I think of that before? Namine said she saw a black cloak… which reminds me…” Roxas was talking aloud without realizing it, but he thought of all Riku’s belongings he and Sora had gathered. He suddenly had the urge to go over to Namine’s, but was interrupted by one of the men who had heard him.

“Were you listening to us?” He was definitely bigger than Roxas and probably a lot stronger. He folded his arms and glared down at him.

“N-no. I was just waiting for the bathroom…” Roxas lied. “Uhh… I don’t have to go anymore!” Roxas swooped past him and hurried out the door. He knew his comment would probably gross them out, but he didn’t care. He got the information he needed.

As he was about to leave, he remembered Tifa was still inside. A little worried about his co-worker getting drunk around a bunch of dangerous guys, he hesitated before starting the car. The man sat back down with his group. Roxas opened his phone and was about to call her from outside, but decided to suck it up and go get her out of there. Unfortunately for him, she was already under the influence.

“Hahaha… Roxas, I’m so glad you came back… I don’t have the money to pay for all the drinks I’ve gotten… could you…?”

“What?” Roxas beamed. Tifa laughed. There was no use in fighting; he could see the guys staring in the corner of his eye. Roxas pulled his wallet out, set a twenty down and pulled Tifa out of there.

“There is no way I’m letting you drive home, so I’ll take you.” Roxas said, opening his car door. She stumbled as she stepped off of the sidewalk and into the car.

“Oh, thank you, dear. So kind of you…”

“God, help me…” Roxas mumbled as he went to the other side, eager to leave.

Tifa stared out the window on the way to her house, mentioning random things about the road. Roxas had to admit, it was pretty entertaining, but the awkwardness of it overrode him. She was his ex. They dated for eight months. It wasn’t long ago.

“Roxas, you’re so cute in the dark!” She giggled, hiccupping shortly afterwards.

“Thanks.” He said sarcastically, coming up to her apartment. He parked on the side of the road.

“Wait, Roxas!” She reached over and tried to grab him before he opened the door, missing and falling over onto his shoulder. She fell asleep instantly.

“What the hell?!” Roxas yelled, freaking out. Tifa was knocked out.

Roxas carefully pushed her back into her seat, where she fell and hit her head on the window, surprisingly still not waking up. He pulled her out of the car and put her hand over his shoulder, carrying her all the way down to her room at the end of the hall. He tried shaking her, because he didn’t want to dig into her purse and then be scolded and smacked for it, but she didn’t budge. He saw the keys hanging out of her jacket pocket and went for them, feeling really strange at the same time. He unlocked the door and carried her inside, laying her down on the couch.

Roxas sighed and set her keys on the table. He hadn’t been in her apartment for about two months. It looked the same; extremely clean. One reason they couldn’t stay together was because of how much of a neat freak she was.

Tifa rolled onto her side. She was sleeping peacefully. Roxas had the urge to just watch her for a little bit; he wasn’t sure why. He snapped out of it a few minutes later. Roxas left.

It was probably too late to head over to Namine’s, so he decided to wait until tomorrow. Roxas arrived at home, met by his two dogs. He fell asleep on the couch after watching some TV, not even setting an alarm.

0o0.0o0

Sora ate breakfast at Yummy Bagels the next morning. He waited for his food; he ordered a simple bacon and eggs meal that wasn’t supposed to take that long but ended up feeling like an eternity, probably because he was late for work. He wasn’t in too much of a hurry, however.

Namine wanted to go out and get something for breakfast; she didn’t have anything in her house. Afterwards she would definitely go grocery shopping, but right now her stomach was doing all the deciding.

She walked into Yummy Bagels; the smell of fresh, strawberry pancakes filled her nostrils. She looked around for a place to sit, but was spotted by Sora.

“Hey, I know you.” Sora pointed absentmindedly. Namine blinked.

“Oh, hi.” She noticed his attire and realized he was from the police station.

“You can sit here, if you want.” Sora said casually. Namine accepted and sat down in the booth across from him. Sora handed her a menu.

“Thank you…” She felt this was a little awkward. Sora looked out the window as she scanned over the menu. There were so many choices; she couldn’t possibly choose. However, she was starving.

“What can I get you?” The waitress asked.

“Um, triple stacked pancakes, some bacon strips, eggs, two sausages and… a biscuit.”

Sora stared at her profoundly, a smirk forming across his face. “Wow… you must be really hungry.”

Namine’s face reddened as the waitress went to place her order. She couldn’t make eye contact; she wasn’t very socially skilled. It must’ve been a very uncomfortable situation, but Sora didn’t seem to mind at all.

“So… what’s your name again?” Sora asked.

“Namine.” She said quietly. “You?” She glanced.

“Sora. Nice to meet you.”

Namine nodded. The waitress set their drinks down on the table.

“So, what do you do for a living?” He tried starting a conversation.

“Uhh… I’m…” She didn’t know what to tell him. She knew he didn’t believe in her psychic ability, so she just didn’t answer.

“You don’t work?” Sora raised an eyebrow, continuing to stare. Her innocence was getting to him a little; it was almost adorable. After a few moments of sitting around not saying anything, he said,

“I’m getting married soon. I can’t wait.”

As if speaking about his personal life wasn’t bad enough, this only made Namine feel a little more awkward. “Congratulations,” was all she was able to spit out.

“You don’t talk much, do you?” Sora laughed a little. “That’s okay. I talk a lot.”

“That’s for sure.” Roxas was standing next to the table. “Sora, you’re late.”

“So are you.” He said back.

“I’ve already been down there. Right now I’m doing some top investigative work.”

“Oooh, how impressive.” Sora rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, something you should be doing.”

Namine watched as the two brothers argued back and forth. Sora was definitely the more childish one; compared to Roxas who seemed to be pretty serious.

“Hey, Namine.” Roxas said, sitting down next to Sora. “Scoot over.”

“Why?” Sora pouted, scooting closer to the window.

The food came. Namine was a little embarrassed to have a lot more food than Sora did, but she was starving.

“Sora, I’ve got some new leads.” Roxas said. He looked at Namine. “You remember the black cloak you saw?”

“Yeah.”

“I heard these guys talking last night. Riku wanted to join The Organization.”

“What?” Sora nearly spit his food out. “That’s insane!”

“The… what?” Namine looked confused.

“It’s a criminal group with a long history of terrible crimes. Everyone fears them.” Roxas said. “However, nobody knows who exactly is in this group. They could be walking beside us and we don’t even know it.”

“Well, good job, idiot for broadcasting that.” Sora said. Roxas felt stupid, but he recovered.

“Anyway, I need you to help me… if you don’t mind.” Roxas said to her. Namine thought about it for a moment.

“With… what?”

“I have some of Riku’s old stuff. Whenever you’re available… could you try to do that thing you do and see if you get anything from it?” Roxas lowered his voice. “It would help a lot…”

Sora sighed. “This again?”

Roxas ignored him and kept his eyes locked on Namine’s. She shrugged. “Sure… I guess.”

“Awesome, thank you.”

Sora looked bothered once again, but kept his comments to himself. However, he couldn’t help but watch Namine as she ate her huge pancakes; she was so petite it was almost funny. Roxas, on the other hand was really enjoying being around her. However, he wasn’t in a relationship. He could act that way.

They all went back to the station after they were done eating.

0o0.0o0

A/N: Review, please!