Dorothy set the laptop on the round table that took up most of the space in the small conference room they had hijacked for their use. While Lady Une had so far not granted their request to turn it into a permanent office, they had no qualms about borrowing it for working on the current case. It would be easier to fit all three of them into it than into either of their official offices; and less likely that anyone would overhear them investigating a murder that hadn't been discovered yet.
"You brought Epyon?" Duo asked as he propped his feet up on the table and gestured to the nondescript computer. Dorothy flushed, and shrugged a little uncomfortably.
"I thought we could use all the help we can get." She muttered defensively. While they knew she talked to the computer, this was going to be the first time anyone watched while she did it.
"Good idea..." Zechs nodded, and seated himself. "So let's watch the security disk, and then go back over everything we have so far."
"Fine..." Duo shrugged casually. "But you guys get to tell Une you kept me up all night on my first day back in the field."
"That's what the couches out there are for." Zechs grinned at their partner. Duo laughed softly, as he pulled the disk out of his jacket pocket and tossed it to Dorothy. Ignoring the banter behind her, she booted the computer and inserted the disk, then placed her palm on the screen for a while.
Epyon?
Here/others here/pilot?
"Yes, Zechs is here... and Duo," She muttered softly, still feeling rather odd about having two sets of eyes locked on her. She couldn't help wondering if this was how Zechs felt, when he talked to Treize.
Hide?/hear now?
Only long practice enabled her to figure out the question. "No... they still don't hear you... but they know you're here. We don't have to hide..."
The screen changed color quickly beneath her palm, then returned to the normal main menu.
"Ok... now I know why you guys give me such weird looks all the time," Zechs sighed.
Duo just smirked at her. "Oh, man, if Yuy could see you do that... he would be beyond jealous."
The easy acceptance of her companions eased most of her nervousness, though it was not like like either of them could say anything about it, with their own gifts from Epyon.
No one spoke again as the disk started playing. Pulling her palm off the computer, she turned the screen so that all three of them could watch the images. There were shots from various cameras positioned around the interior and the exterior of the mansion, all motion controlled. Several people left through the front door, but none were carrying anything that could conceivably be a small girl. And none of them were particularly scary looking. When the record stopped, all of them felt the frustration of knowing that they were no closer to the truth than they had been when they left the Senator's house.
"Damn... that security system is good..." Duo muttered. "It should have picked up something, assuming there was something to pick up."
"Ok... so what do we know?" Dorothy frowned. "There has to be something we're missing."
"The little girl vanished sometime between 7 p.m. and 9:30 a.m., and she's dead. Someone called in and requested a 5 million dollar ransom about noon...."
"Wait..." Duo frowned, then grabbed up a legal pad. "We're mixing our information."
"What?"
"There is what is known... and then there is what we know using less than normal sources, and then there is what we don't know."
"Okay..." Dorothy shook her head. "So how do you see it?"
"What we know, absolutely without doubt and can be proven?" Duo scribbled for a moment. "We know Seely Jameson, age six, was last seen by her nanny at approximately 7 p.m. At 9:30 the next morning, her family noticed she was missing, and started searching. At 12:00 p.m., her mother received a ransom call. There is a broken window in the pantry, but it was broken after all the security alarms were turned off, and it was broken from the inside. We know that the Senator is a paranoid man, and his security is tight." He scribbled something more, then smiled tightly. "Okay, what do we know that no one else knows? We know Seely is dead. We know she had a favorite hiding spot under the table, but her favorite toy is not there, nor is it in her room. We know she doesn't remember being taken anywhere, but she's in a dark place. We know that at some point, she encountered a man that her father knew, that scared her." He stopped and stared at the pad of paper. "Which leaves...what we don't know."
Dorothy blinked, and saw the same look of concentration in Zechs' eyes as he watched their younger partner. "Which is a lot..."
"So we narrow down what we need to know...." Duo flipped the sheet over and started a new list. "How did she die? Where is her body? Where is the teddy bear? How was she taken out of the house without any traces? Was she kidnapped?"
"We know she was kidnapped..." Zechs started, frowning a little.
"No... we know someone called and asked for a ransom. Almost three hours after she was first reported missing."
"You are thinking the same thing Solo was... that it wasn't a kidnapping?"
"I'm not sure what I'm thinking...except that... something isn't right about this."
"So what if we ignore the ransom call." Dorothy tugged absently at a lock of blond hair. "We have a murder. We still have no body, and we still have no proof."
"We also have no motive, now." Zechs said quietly. "So... why would someone kill a six year old child?"
"Lot's of people do it, all the time," Duo muttered, a dark look in his eyes. "The question is, why did someone kill this particular six year old child."
"And was she murdered or is she simply dead, and someone is hoping to capitalize on the fact that she's missing?" Dorothy said quietly. The two men turned to stare at her. "We might as well consider all the possibilities."
"Alright... I obviously need to try and talk to Solo again... If I can get him to come back," Zechs sighed.
Duo nodded, then looked up. "More questions then... who gains anything if she's dead? Who gains anything by hiding that she's dead...?"
"Whoever killed her, obviously."
"I'm beginning to think that nothing is going to be obvious in this case," Duo sighed. "Dammit..."
"Add this to your list...why was the window broken?"
"And was it broken by the alleged kidnapper... or the alleged murderer?"
Dorothy sighed, and glanced away from the guys to see that Epyon was processing something. His screen was flickering rapidly, images from the disk they had just watched replaying in reverse.
"Epyon...?" She touched the monitor, and saw the frantic motion of images slow.
copy/not complete
"What?"
copy
"Copy?" She frowned. "I don't understand, Epyon."
"It's not a copy, Gary said he took the original..." Duo frowned at the laptop.
copy/ edited
"Duo...how do you know Gary?" Zechs asked suddenly.
"He was assigned by the Senators' Head of Security to show me around, at Une's request."
"Did he lead the way, or did he just follow you?"
"Both..." Duo hesitated. "You think it's a setup?"
"I don't know. Did he offer to get you the disk, or did you ask?"
"I asked. He said at first, he wasn't supposed to give me the disk. I kept after him, on the grounds that it could be crucial information. He finally said he could sneak it to me... which is what he did."
"Did you go with him when he got it?"
"Yes." Duo nodded thoughtfully. "We were in the security room on the first floor. There is a rack of disks, each labeled with the date."
"Why?" Dorothy asked grimly.
"We have been making a lot of assumptions about this case, as Duo pointed out earlier. What if we throw out one more assumption."
"Which is...?" she pressed.
"That someone came into the house from the outside."
"Christ... an inside job?" Duo blinked, looking startled.
"Which is why forensics is showing nothing that shouldn't be there... and we have found no way that someone got in." Zechs nodded. "If it was someone with access to the security system, of course nothing is going to be on the video feed..."
"If no one came in..." Duo groaned. "Shit."
"What?" Dorothy and Zechs asked in stereo.
"What if no one went out either?"
"You think the dark place is inside the house?"
He nodded. "And think of this. If you murdered a six year old girl, and knew you couldn't get the body out of the house, what would you do to keep people from looking too closely inside the house?"
"Call and ask for a ransom, so that it was obvious that the girl had been taken by someone... outside the house."
"This is making a scary amount of sense..." Dorothy muttered.
"Only if you know the girl is dead. Which we do..." Duo shrugged. "Otherwise, the investigation would be doing exactly what it is, focusing on finding the kidnappers."
"Who don't exist. What do you want to bet there's no call tomorrow, and no instructions for the ransom drop? And later the body turns up somewhere far away and long decomposed. The case is becomes unsolvable, because there is never going to be any evidence to pin to a suspect. Obviously, the kidnappers got nervous, or an accident happened, and they dumped the body and ran, leaving a fortune behind."
"And someone gets away with murder."
They sat in stunned silence for a few minutes.
"This is really thin," Zechs finally muttered. "We still have no proof of anything."
"True..." Duo sighed, then rubbed his eyes wearily. "But do we have anything else to go on at this point?"
"No..." Dorothy muttered. "So... now what?"
"Duo goes to sleep, so that Une doesn't freak and drag him off the case." Zechs grinned. "And you and I start doing a full background search on everyone that was in the house last night."
"While you're at it... think the floorplans to the house are available anywhere?" Duo asked as he stood up. "I'd really like to know any likely places to hide a body, before we go looking for it blindly."