decay [1/3]

Dec 09, 2009 00:58

title: decay
author: hika_nishi
pairing: masuda/tegoshi
rating: pg-13
disclaimer: I own the computer I typed this on. That's it.
summary: He ducks under the designated police line, people in uniforms standing around under the streetlamp, a young girl laying face down on the sidewalk.


Another cold city night, walking down another crowded sidewalk, people gathered near the corner behind plastic yellow tape. At times like these, he hates his job. Sure, there a good points to it, that rush of satisfaction when they handcuffed someone, but more often it was this. A body, a victim. They were the ones they sent when those calls came in. Homicide detectives rarely get to save anyone.

He ducks under the designated police line, people in uniforms standing around under the streetlamp. He lets out a heavy sigh when he catches sight of the latest victim, a young girl laying face down on the sidewalk. “You’re late, Masuda.” He looks at a man leaning against the light post.

“Yamashita,” he nods a hello, crouches down beside the body. “What have we got tonight?”

“Ishimura Maiha,” Yamashita says kneeling down beside him. “Found a school ID on her. Sixteen years old, died of asphyxiation.” He pushes her hair away from her neck with a gloved hand. “Ligature marks around the neck say she was strangled. Kato took some photos, we’re having them sent to forensics as soon as possible.”

“What, they’re not here? Shouldn’t they be combing the crime scene for evidence?”

“This isn’t the crime scene.” Yamashita points to the side, just past the yellow tape where Masuda’s partner is talking to two visibly shaken girls. “They saw some guy drop her here, meaning she was killed somewhere else. Nishikido’s trying to get a description or something. Oh,” he pauses for a moment, “and we found a note.”

Masuda sighs heavily again. “Let me guess.”

“Bunch of incoherent bull shit,” he lowers his voice, leans in closer to Masuda. “Five.” Shit.

++++
A new photo is pinned to the board, a cute, smiling picture of their most recent victim, hanging at the end of a line of seemingly random people, young people with varying causes of death, all dumped along a one mile stretch of sidewalk, usually in allies or in a parking lot, all found tagged with a note of what read like scribbled nonsense.

Masuda blinks his eyes sleepily, leaning against the wall near the door with his arms crossed as a room full of people discuss the details of the most recent of these crime, what little they managed to get from witnesses and evidence at the scene. Their forensics expert goes over what they’ve managed to get from the body, Masuda hears her grumble quietly about victims being found in high traffic areas. He feels a tap on his shoulder, a mug of coffee pushed into his hands. “Don’t fall asleep,” a cheerful voice says quietly. Masuda smiles to himself, backs out the door for a second.

“Thanks, Yuya,” he whispers.

“I’m leaving now,” the younger boy holds up his bag. “You’re going to be home late again, aren’t you.”

“Probably.” Tegoshi pouts his lips. “I’d say wait up for me, but…”

“I know,” he forces a smile. “Massu’s a big shot detective.”

“And I have to get back to that now.” Masuda leans forward, kissing his lips softly before Tegoshi heads for the door, waving back at him with a smile, mouthing bye-bye.

++++
Nishikido sighs as he catches a glimpse of Masuda as he ducks out the door, knowing he’s going to have to recount for him all these horrible details for him later. The least he could do after being late to the scene was stand there and pay attention, especially since he was the one with the psychologist boyfriend.

He gripes in his own mind as he flips through sheets of paper reviewing the details of this series of murders. Ishimura, like the previous victims, had been reported missing by he parents after she failed to come home after school. Five hours later, police were roping off the street corner where he body was found. It’s a change from his normal MO in terms of the victims age and the place she was dumped, but it’s close enough to make them assume it’s connected to this case. He’s getting bolder, that or he’s just flaunting his brilliance in their faces. Nishikido jots notes in the margins of the pages in the file, insights and assumptions.

The captain dismisses everyone, most of them intent on immediately heading home after the long night. He drops his heavy file on Masuda’s desk as he walks by, taking Masuda’s from his hands. “I made notes. Give that to Tegoshi to look over.” He raises an eyebrow. “You’ll see him tonight, right?”

“Funny,” Masuda mumbles, putting the file in his bag as he packs up for the night. “Going home?”

Nishikido nods. “I’ll probably heat up some dinner, look this over again,” he taps on the folder in his hand.

“You never stop working, do you?” Masuda says with a hint of a smile.

“There’s a serial killer out there targeting young people, you should be working hard, too. You’re in his target age group, you know.” He can see that he hit a nerve with that statement, just as he intended to, tries to hide the smirk that crosses his lips in response to Masuda’s uncomfortable expression. “Just let Tegoshi take a look at that. I don’t have to tell you he’s been dying to be a part of this investigation.”

Masuda presses his lips together, nods reluctantly. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” he says with a slight wave, Nishikido nods his head in response, sitting down at his desk when he Masuda has disappeared through the door. He opens up the file, lining up photos of the victims on his desk. Honestly, he likes it better like this, during the late night shift when there are less people and more silence. It’s easier to work, easier to think, and cases like this required a lot of thought.

His eyes glaze over the first photo, he’s memorize every detail of this one by now. A twenty four year old woman working as a teaching assistant in an elementary school, found leaned against a dumpster in front of an apartment building. The second was a young man, a college student, twenty one, found in a parking lot down the street from the first victim. Another young man of the same age was next, at first they thought there was a connection, but they went to universities on the opposite sides of town, didn’t participate in any clubs or activities that would have crossed their paths. He was left on the doorstep of an apartment building where residents had walked in and out of all night before discovering he wasn’t some homeless man taking a nap outside their door. Then there was the twenty year old female, found in the same parking lot as victim number two.

Now there was this Ishimura girl, sixteen, dropped in the middle of a street, under a lamp at the corner, an almost theatrical place to leave a body. Everything about it screamed of need for attention, that this person wasn’t one to be ignored. He looks over the photos one more time before standing from his desk and heading down the hall, to the section of the station where one found evidence and scientist and a host of tests and machines with long names Nishikido had a vague memory of.

He pushes off a the door with Forensics written on it in plain block letters, taps on the desk of a petit girl with her eyes focused on a computer screen. She jumps a bit, pouts her lips, almost glaring at him. “Any hits on the fingerprints, Konno?”

“No,” she yawns, leaning back in her chair. “Just like we thought, he’s not a previous offender. We found some evidence, though.” Konno stands up excitedly, hurrying over to a table laid out with photos and other small things. “First, there’s the ligature marks. Like the other victims, there’s some on the neck, wrists, and ankles. The size and pattern of the mark on her neck,” she points a finger at one of the photographs, “look like some kind of rope, or more like a cord. If you guys find something like that, I’ll be able to tell you if it’s a match.”

“Anything more, concrete?” Nishikido asks, impatiently.

Konno pouts her lips again. “I’m not done. The marks on the wrists and ankles are different,” she starts digging through one of a series of drawers on the wall, pulling out a pair of plastic handcuffs and setting them next to a photo. “He uses these on the wrists. The good thing for us - or you - is that these aren’t the kind of handcuffs that just anyone buys if they want to be a little kinky with their lover. Ask around, maybe some store owner will be able to point you in a direction. Last, there’s this,” she holds up a small back to Nishikido’s face. “We found it on Ishimura’s body.”

He takes the bag from her hand, studying the contents carefully. “Carpet fiber?”

She smiles and nods. “Specifically they kind you find in automobiles.”

“Maybe from when she was abducted.”

“Or he could have driven to the area where he left the body.” She takes the back from his hands, places it in a file with the photos to lock it in a filing cabinet. “There’s no way to be a hundred percent sure.”

Nishikido sighs heavily, rubbing the back of his neck. “If he’s driving to secondary crime scene then our search area just got wider.”

“We’ll see if Tegoshi comes to the same conclusion,” Konno walks back to her chair, grabbing a coat and purse. “You better go home and get some sleep, just in case. You guys may have a lot more work to do tomorrow.”

++++
Tegoshi is sprawled out on the couch when he gets home, eyes closed, a half empty cup of coffee sitting on the table next to him. He can feel Masuda lean down over the sofa, kiss him gently on the lips. “You’re late,” he mumbles sleepily, making Masuda jump a bit in surprise.

“You knew I would be,” he laughs a bit. Tegoshi always smiles when he hears that sound, lately Masuda hasn’t been laughing much. He crawls to the other side of the couch when Masuda sits down, snuggles next to him, kissing along his jaw. Tegoshi pouts when he pulls away a bit, digging through his bag. He hands him a thick folder. “Nishikido said you should look at this.”

He flips open the cover, eyes scanning the first page in the folder. He looks back at Masuda wide eyed. “This is the file for those serial murders.” Tegoshi stands from the couch, turns on a light so he can read more clearly, sitting on the floor and spreading pages out on the coffee table, studying photographs and autopsy reports and police briefings.

“Yuya,” he can hear Masuda whine slightly, his head snaps up. “I’m not getting any attention anymore, am I?” Tegoshi smiles, pats the floor behind him before looking back down at the papers on the table. He doesn’t need to look to know Masuda has moved behind him, arms wrapping around his waist, lips pressing against his shoulder blades and the back of his neck.

“You guys are searching all the apartments on that five block strip?” Masuda makes a questioning sound, peaks over Tegoshi’s shoulder, resting his chin on it. “I don’t think you’re going to find him there.”

“What makes you say that?”

“It’s all apartments. And he abducts people during the day, when there’s a lot of people around. Someone would notice if their neighbor was constantly bringing people back to his place against their will. This guy has a house somewhere.”

Masuda laughs quietly. “You know, it’s sexy watching your mind work.” It makes Tegoshi smile, turn his head to catch Masuda’s lips. “How do you know he’s doing these murders in his home? Blow my mind.”

Tegoshi smiles confidently. “If he’s doing it anywhere other than a house, people would notice his bringing frightened, unwilling people home, or hear something going on.” He starts arranging the pages on the table, pulling certain photos out to make his point. “These marks, they were most likely made from struggling while they were bound. Like that time I had marks on my wrist for a couple days because you thought it would be fun to cuff me to the bed.”

“That was your idea,” Masuda pokes at his cheek.

“Doesn’t matter. I’m just saying, he does these murders somewhere where no one is going to be bothering him. The time between the abductions and when we find them is only about five hours going by the previous victims, relatively short. With his time table, he can’t be waiting around until he knows there’s privacy.”

“Why such a strict time table?” he rests his head on Tegoshi’s shoulder, yawning loudly.

“Give me some time to go over this and I’ll give you me best guess.”

“You’re not going to be coming to bed, I assume.”

Tegoshi gives him an apologetic look. “This is important. Massu is, too, but this is life and death kind of stuff.” He kisses Masuda, deep and tender, watching him as he disappears into the bedroom. It takes all he has not to follow him, so he distracts himself. Facts and findings and death.

--------------------------

I failed to think of a title yet XD I'll put one when I think of something.

This was supposed to be a one shot, but I've been getting distracted so it's taking too long xD I've decided to split it into 3 parts. I know basically how this is going to go and I've spent way too much time thinking over every little detail. There's lots of explainations in here because of that. Majorly inspired by the movie Seven because I love it XD

Maiha and Konkon thrown in there for my own amusement, though only one person her probably knows who they are XD Scientist!Konno was taunting me, I had to do it XD

I have at this point accepted that I am Tegomass author and that probably isn't going to change, at least not often.

p: tegoshi/masuda, series: decay, ~johnnys, ~hello! project

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