***
Chapter 4 : All that Glitters
***

Truth and illusion. How far apart are they? One
person's truth is another's lie.

\\Do you believe? Do you see?\\

Gold only has worth because society says it does.

\\Do you want to?\\

Do you only see what you want to see?

\\Ignorance is less painful.\\

People are blind and deaf when they wish to be.
History has proved that time and time again, how easy
it is to turn away, how easy it is to let it be
someone else's problem.

***

Hilde was glad to get a message from Duo. They’d been
together so much that she was going into withdrawal.
He’d left a number to reach him at and told her when
he’d probably be in. So what if it was the middle of
the night? That didn’t make that much difference,
she’d been on a weird schedule since Duo left, trying
to keep up with work.

Pouring herself a coffee, she sat down and punched in
his number. She hoped he was still up.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Hello, Duo Maxwell speaking.”

He sounded tired and hadn’t even looked at the screen
yet to see who it was. This case must be tough,
whatever it was. He hadn’t said when he’d left. Well,
why else would they ask for his help? **Girl, you’re
just being silly again. You probably should get sleep
too.**

“Duo, it's me.”

“Hilde?” He blinked, then smiled at her. “It’s great
to see you.”

“Likewise. How are you? You look tired.”

“So do you. And yeah, I feel tired. But other than
that, I’m doing good.”

She hoped he just wasn’t trying to make her feel
better. But, if he was, he was at least pretending to
be cheerful. After Heero left, he hadn’t even bothered
to do that. And if she ever found out where Heero
went, they would have 'words'. She didn’t care if he
was the 'perfect soldier', he’d regret what he’d put
Duo through.

“I’m glad to hear it. You’ve been looking after
yourself, right?” She inspected him. “Have you been
eating?”

“A mother hen, that’s what you are,” he said, but
nodded anyway.

“Well, you need one.”

He sat straighter with dignity. “I am perfectly
capable of taking care of myself.”

“I know, I just like to worry.”

He stuck his tongue out at her. She smiled back.

“You don’t need to. Things are actually really good.
Well, not exactly. We’re totally lost on the case and
‘Fei is being, well, himself, but other things are
looking up.”

“Such as...” 

“Well,” Duo said, more smirking than smiling, “I’ve
met somebody.”

She wasn’t sure to be happy for him or not. This was
probably a replacement for Heero. Hilde, though,
smiled outwardly.

“Not only does he look like sex on legs, he’s got
everything else AND I think he likes me.”

“And who is this mysterious man?”

“Zechs Merquise. Tall, blond and gorgeous. I think
he’s the reason Wufei being so pissy, doesn’t like it
when we’re together.”

Zechs Merquise, the name was familiar. But she
couldn’t place it. 

“And I know what you’re thinking, but he isn’t like
that at all.”

She wasn’t sure what he meant. Maybe that he was like
Heero.

“If you’re sure.”

“Absolutely positive. So, anything happening back
home?”

“Besides me working myself ragged for your benefit...”

“Hey, you’re half owner. It’s not just for my
benefit.”

She giggled. He definitely sounded more like himself.
Maybe this Zechs fellow wasn’t so bad.

“Whatever you say. Well, Mrs. Norbert’s cat had
kittens. I’ve adopted one, but we’re waiting until
it's a bit older. He’s really cute. Actually, he looks
like you.”

“What?”

“Like you do in that priest’s outfit of yours. Yes,
just like you.”

“Are you trying to replace me?” he asked with mock
suspicion.

“Don’t worry. I don’t think anyone could do that.”

“Good. But if you call it Duo, I’ll get really
confused.”

“I’ll remember that.”

There wasn’t much else that had happened since he
left, except...

“You probably have seen this in the papers already."
He shook his head.

“I haven’t been paying too much attention to what’s
going on back home.”

“They found the Ghoul dead in his home. Someone had
tortured him to death in his own basement.” The Ghoul,
nickname for the serial killer who had been plaguing
L2, with an obsession for blood of young teenagers.
“His wife found him after a two week business trip and
told the papers as well as the police. Trying to get
her moment of glory, I guess. Now the press is
accusing the police of trying to protect the killer,
’cause he’s apparently done it since the Eve war.
Weird, huh?”

“Well, I can say I’m one of the one’s who glad.”

“Yeah, me too. A monster like that deserves what’s
coming to him. But the other guy is a murderer too.
Why would anyone try to help him?”

Duo cocked his head in thought for a moment. “Probably
’cause he’s makin’ their jobs easier. I mean, if I was
them, I'd want someone who'd do what you couldn't.
Sometimes, don't you think that some people don't get
what they deserve? And if someone does it, would you
try and get rid of them while wishing you had the guts
to do the same thing?”

“I guess that’s it.”

People could ignore a lot of stuff if it helped them
or they didn’t want to see it.

The topic was depressing, though, and Duo was under
enough stress. Maybe she should change the subject.

“Well, Dave’s also starting to change his mind about
renting more space.”

“Really?”

“I think he’s feeling sorry for me since you hared off
somewhere.”

Duo shook his head. 

“What?” she asked. "So what if I'm using this to my
advantage?"

***

Duo pressed turned the com off. He felt better.
Getting up and stretching, he looked at all the stuff
piled around him. **Maybe I should get some sleep.**

One hand reached and scratched the back of his head as
he headed to the bathroom and got out his toothbrush.
To many caffeinated beverages had made his teeth feel
fuzzy.

It was sort of strange that Hilde hadn’t reacted to
who he was interested in. Hilde really did tend to
worry, and she probably would have made more of a fuss
after the thing with Heero.

It was only when he turned off the light that it
occurred to him that not everyone knew Zechs and
Milliard Peacecraft to be the same person.

***

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Duo woke immediately to the noise, already on his feet
before his brain identified it as an incoming
communication. He padded over in bare feet, boxers
displaying yellow smiley faces to his empty single
room. They'd managed to procure the last vacancies.
Duo was just glad he didn't have to sleep on the floor
or in the bathtub of one of his companion's rooms.
Though sharing a bed wouldn't have been bad.

Flick.

"Yes, Duo Maxwell speaking."

"Maxwell, there's been another killing." Wufei's eyes
narrowed. "Get dressed, we're leaving now."

He nodded his agreement as the link went dead. **Jees,
I just woke up after two hours of sleep. What did he
expect?**

He pulled on a pair of pants and threw on a shirt as
quickly as possible.

Duo grabbed his gun, tucking it away out of sight.
After a moments hesitation, he grabbed a pair of
knives as well before heading for the door.

***

This was the second such scene he'd paid witness to in
the past few weeks. The other had been a private
investigator who had found himself a bit too close to
something or someone. This one had, at one time, been
the president of Atlantis Enterprises, as well as his
recently acquired bodyguards. Someone had followed
through on their threats. Gruesome was probably the
best adjective to describe it. They hadn't finished
moving all the bodies.

People swarmed like worker ants, taking pictures,
documenting evidence, sealing and bagging things away.

Duo took in everything. Three shots fired. Only three.
Towards the back wall. None had stuck anyone.

At first glance it had seemed that the killer might
have come in the front and missed, but he knew this
wasn't the case. One man had died of asphyxiation,
another with a cut throat, the third had his head
twisted completely around. Of the one bodyguards, only
his right arm had been found so far. They were still
looking.

"What do you think?"

Duo turned to Zechs. "Something got inside without
them noticing."

He pointed at where the bodies had been positioned. It
didn't make sense otherwise.

Zechs murmured his agreement. "That's what I thought.
It's definitely the same killer."

"I'd check to see if there were any shady deals going
on in the background. I don't think this is random.
Someone's creating a fence for himself. They got into
the killer's bad books somehow."

**Someone might even be willing to spill once they
hear what happened to boss.** Compared to this,
company loyalty wasn't that big a deal. Offering them
protection would go a long way to loosening lips if
the person thought they were next.

***

Samantha Toores, Sammy to her friends, had sweaty
palms. Many people would have been surprised if she
had made such an admission at any other time since she
was loud, outgoing and athletic. Of course, many
people would have been surprised to find that she
worked in forensics. A, perhaps unfortunate,
fascination with mystery novels had lead her away from
a seemingly sure shot as a professional athlete to
this. 

It was not the disturbing nature of her job that was
the cause, but her attire. Sammy was so used to things
like this that it scarcely mattered. Even so, her
palms were sweating and itchy underneath her gloves.

"Specimen #283," she muttered to herself as she
labeled. She wasn't even sure what it was. Some sort
of collector's item probably. The rich had strange
hobbies. "Art Piece." She sealed the bag shut.

Just a bit longer, then she could blow this joint. She
and the girls were going out tonight.

***

It was mutually decided that Zechs would be the best
choice to do most of the interview with the secretary.
Wufei knew he didn't look old enough to reassure her
and Duo would have been worse, even if he hadn't gone
off at the morgue with the coroner to look at the
bodies.

The room was a sterile white that had probably been
intended to reassure, but only made everything in it
look dead and out of place. Wufei watched through the
video feed as Zechs sat down and nodded his greeting.
The dark haired woman looked pale, even compared to
her surroundings, and was biting her lip.

"I'm Preventor Wind, Miss Blake. I'd like to ask you a
few questions. Are you feeling up to it?"

There was a fractional paused before she bobbed her
head in a minute nod. Thank the Ancestors that the
woman was coherent and talking.

Zechs smiled at her gently. "Had anything strange been
going on recently at work?"

Nod. "Mr. Anderson said that he'd been receiving
strange calls. That's why he hired the bodyguards. We
aren't a big company, there'd never been any reason
before for anything like that."

"Did he inform the police?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. I guess so."

She might not know, but Wufei could guess. Mr.
Anderson might not be totally innocent himself and
wouldn't have wanted the scrutiny.

"Do you experience any incidents personally?"

"No."

"Anything else?"

"No..." She swallowed. "I just can't believe... He was
such a nice man, who would want to hurt him?"

"That's what we're trying to find out."

Tap. Tap. Zechs was thinking again. **He's probably
debating her going over the whole thing again, or just
asking her to fill in blanks from her story.** The
first might be too much stress on the woman to be
useful. The man apparently came to a decision.

"You said in your previous statement that no one but a
guard entered the room when you started to hear
noises."

"No, no one was there. The only person who went in was
Tony, like I said before."

"Are you sure no one else was in there?"

"Yes, I had to get Mr. Anderson to sign for a package
half an hour before. They made so much fuss about
scanning it and all it had in it was some old
antique."

"Who was it from?"

Her knuckles were white.

"I don't remember."

"It's alright. We'll check your records and the
delivery company's."

Her clinched fists loosened slightly.

"So, you heard something and Tony ran into the room.
What did you do then?"

"I, I heard shots."

"How many?"

"Two, maybe three."

"Then they started screaming and I... I..."

"What did you do?"

"God forgive me. I ran," she uttered softly.

***

"That's funny."

The one specimen was missing.

Reggie scratched his head with his index finger. The
bag with the catalog number was right where it should
have been. Unfortunately, it was empty.

Damn, someone was probably going to take this out of
his hide. He was just an errand boy. It wasn't like he
could argue.

**Well, it's not my mess up and not my problem. I'm
just moving the stuff to the right room.**

With a shrug, he pushed the cart onward.

***

Nothing, utterly nothing. That was what they had come
up with. They had suspicions, certainly, but that was
all.

Duo knew, in his heart and in his gut what was going
on, but that didn't bring them any closer to where the
culprits were hiding. Still, it was a good hunt. He
hadn't had this much challenge in a long time. But his
prey couldn't keep escaping. Eventually, someone would
mess up.

But they were under pressure to find the killer now
from all sides. Both Preventors and civilians had been
killed. And he knew that they were no longer the only
team on the operation, just the one with the most
freedom to act independently.

Days had passed since the third kill and Duo hadn't
been sleeping very well since. He'd kept dreaming of
all those strange symbols associated with the Order of
the Gash. Dreams of red pure enough to make him weep.
Dreams of golden boxes spinning, glittering, amid the
stars, drifting into unsuspecting hands. Glittering
gold... shining platinum...

**Urg. Concentrate.**

Duo was lying on his bed and opened his eyes to the
ceiling. **Well, that attempt to clear my head
certainly didn't work very well, did it?**

He knew it was all just out of reach, one piece of the
puzzle waiting to make everything fall into place.

No, the dreams weren't helping. They were too
beautiful.

***

"There's been another one."

"Where?"

"L4. First shuttle there is at three. It was Jean
Mannings."

**L4, huh? And Jean Mannings. That name sounds really
familiar.** Zechs had obviously expected him to
recognize it.

"I'll get ready to go."

Duo went to grab his stuff together, but he had one
thing to do first. Now he remembered where he'd heard
that before.

Click, click, click, click...

"Hey, Q, how's it going?"

TBC...

NOTES

Well, not really anything to put here this time. Just
that Miss Blake was named so in honor of Anita Blake,
Vampire Hunter in spite of their opposite personalities. 
Reggie was so entitled after the character in Phantasm.