Fake Fan Fiction ❯ FAKE In Love: Act XXI, Above And Below ❯ Chapter 2

Warnings and Disclaimers: I don't own FAKE. I make no money off of this. This is yaoi with adult situations included. Huzzah!

 

 

“Ah, fuck,” Dee muttered and deliberately didn't shine his flashlight down at whatever he'd just stepped in. “I hate these damned tunnels.”

“Yeah,” Jack agreed. “It gets worse the further in you go.”

“I remember,” Dee said irritably. “How far in was our guy?”

“About another fifty feet,” Jack said. “Fortunately, he was close to the surface. That's probably why he was found so fast; the patrols don't usually go much deeper.”

“Where are we?” Ryo asked quietly.

“North end of Central Park,” Dee said. “The tunnels stretch all over the city. I don't know if anyone ever got around to mapping everything. Foot patrols go through the upper levels every now and then and clear out any squatters living in them.”

Dee grimaced a little.

“It's not a good job,” he said.

“You were a rouster?” Jack asked, his flashlight beam glancing back across Dee's face.

Dee scowled and threw up a hand to shield his eyes.

“Sorry,” Jack said sheepishly.

“Yeah,” Dee said. “When I first left the academy. It's the NYPD equivalent to hazing.”

Ryo snorted laughter and Dee shot him an annoyed look that was wasted in the dark.

“What was your first job?” Dee asked.

“I graduated with sharp shooter credentials,” Ryo answered. “I walked a beat, but I got pulled for shooting jobs.”

“Typical,” Dee muttered.

“Here we are,” Jack said.

His flashlight was locked down on a few muddy looking towels and a blob of misdirected footprints tracked through dirt and garbage.

“He was right here,” the CSI said.

“You sure?” Dee asked as he frowned at the mess.

Jack grinned and tapped his temple.

“Photographic memory. He was here. We processed the hell out of this scene. Took samples of everything.”

“Great,” Dee muttered. “Are all of you CSI's so damned over zealous?”

“Hey,” Jack said defensively. “You look at all this garbage and tell me what's case relevant and what isn't. We got what we could, and everything we left has been completely ripped apart now.”

Dee frowned and shined his light further down the tunnel. The air was thick underground, and filled with the smell of bodies; sweat, piss, just skin close together. They hadn't seen anyone on their walk down, but that didn't mean that they were alone. And more than that, it didn't mean that minutes after they left the place wouldn't be swarmed again. Cops weren't welcome down here, and Dee wasn't going to pretend they were going to find any help for their investigation.

“What was he doing down here?” Ryo said as he knelt down and looked a little closer at the detritus strewn through the tunnel.

“Who knows,” Jack said. “Did the coroner tell you about his clothes?”

“No,” Dee said. “He assumed the kid was just another dead bum and gave it the rush.”

“Figures,” Jack said absently. “We found him in dirty clothes, but not old clothes. They looked like they'd just been bought and then rolled around in some dirt somewhere. And he still had some cash and jewelry on him. There was nothing that implied robbery, kidnapping, or even that he came down here against his own will. It's weird.”

“Weird,” Dee echoed. “Is that scientific analysis?”

“Definitely,” Jack answered. “I sent everything up to the lab, but it's probably going to be a while before we get any word back. I'll let you know when I hear anything.”

“Great,” Dee answered. “Let's get out of here.”

 

“Jack could be wrong,” Ryo said. “Someone could have grabbed him. It could have been a kidnapping that went wrong.”

Dee shrugged and poked his chopsticks down into the broccoli and beef carton.

“Maybe,” he said. “But why didn't they take anything? Why leave behind the kid's cash and Rolex?”

Ryo frowned. “I don't know.”

Their meal was spread over the paperwork covering the conference room table. They had finally gotten their copy of Jack's scene report, including photos and a preliminary analysis. Things were sketchy at best, and while they knew how Alex Cage had died, the scene was proving to be too contaminated with traffic and everything else to give them any information that couldn't be explained as coincidental.

Ryo sighed and set down the teriyaki chicken, his chopsticks tossed aside as he ran one hand back through his hair.

“We need to find out how he got there,” Ryo said.

“And who wanted him dead,” Dee agreed.

 

April Lee sat at the very edge of the couch, her eyes red rimmed and expression completely crumpled. The condo hadn't been difficult to find, but Dee and Ryo had both been required to show identification and then wait in the lobby while it was first verified with the station and then their presence announced upstairs. Everything was chic finery and crafted elegance hinting at the amount of money Alex Cage had grown up with.

April sniffled and rubbed a hand over her cheeks.

“His mother can't talk to you right now,” she said. “She can't even get out of bed. She called me right after she found out, and I came, but I can't…She doesn't really want to be comforted.”

Ryo gave her a small encouraging smile and April shakily returned it.

“I'm sorry for your loss.”

April bit her lip and nodded a little, her eyes blinking as she tried to hold back another wave of tears.

“We grew up together,” she said. “I was…I think I was just waiting for him to pop the question now.”

A harsh bark of laughter escaped her and she shook her head before she slumped in on herself.

“Guess that won't happen now.”

Dee and Ryo exchanged a quick look, and Dee nodded to his partner.

“Miss Lee,” Ryo said gently. “I know it's hard, but we need to ask you a few questions.”

She nodded and wiped her arm across her face again, a faint line of moisture running over her skin as she leaned back into the couch.

“Whatever I can do,” she said.

“Good,” Ryo said. “We need to know more about what he was doing that day. Did he have any appointments or plans?”

April bit her lip again and shook her head.

“Only the usual,” she said. “He was skipping out on most of his classes this term, but on Mondays he always went to organic chem. Um, he had lunch with me downtown and I think he was going to come back here. We were supposed to go out that night, but I got sick so I cancelled.”

Her eyes closed and they could both practically feel her blaming herself for what happened.

“Okay,” Ryo said, his voice still soft and calm. “What had you planned to do?”

The change in the room was immediate. She stiffened and shrugged almost petulantly as she looked away from them. It was like hearing an alarm go off.

“April?” Ryo asked.

“We were going to a party,” she said defensively. “That's all.”

“What party?” Ryo asked.

“Just a party,” April answered quietly.

“Where at?” Dee asked.

Her eyes darted over him and then away. She shrugged.

“We found him in a tunnel under Central Park,” Ryo said. “Does that have anything to do with your plans?”

April's lips thinned and she stared determinedly at the floor.

“I think you should go now.”

 

The lighter clicked loudly as Dee paused outside of the upscale apartment building. The doorman stared at him with open distaste and Dee smirked back as he let out the first plume of smoke.

“I hate to say it,” Dee said. “But I think that girl gave us our first lead.”

“He went down there on his own,” Ryo said as he nodded. “No kidnapping.”

“Yup,” Dee agreed.

They stood under the building's striped awning as Dee slowly smoked, the detective taking as long as he possibly could as the doorman continued to glare. Ryo pretended to be oblivious to the whole thing and flipped through the file they'd managed to accumulate on Alex Cage.

“We should talk to more of his friends,” Ryo said. “Someone should know why he was down there.”

Dee snorted.

“I think we're going to find that most of them know, but the problem's going to be finding someone who will tell us.”

 

It was a cavalcade of the rich and the powerful after that. They were all young, most finishing up their college educations and all with their futures either planned out or at least outlined for them. Every interview was conducted in high class luxury, velvet soft music in the background and enough taste and style to remind everyone just how much money ran through the hands of these families. Three of them had their lawyers present. Only one had a parent sit in with him.

No one would say anything about just why Alex Cage was down in the tunnels under Central Park.

Square one was not a good place to keep falling back to.

 

“Dammit,” Ryo muttered as a fine stream of rain began to filter down from the sky. “We're getting nowhere.”

“You know, I thought homicide passed this case off to us because they thought it was just another homeless death, but I'm starting to wonder if they knew what a pain in the ass it was going to be,” Dee said. “I'm sick of talking to all these…kids.”

“Feeling old?” Ryo asked with a chuckle.

“No,” Dee snapped. “I'm feeling impoverished.”

Ryo snorted laughter and ticked his finger against the steering wheel.

“How many names left on the list?”

Dee paged through the file and slumped down a little.

“Fifteen,” he said and shook his head. “I say we have time for one more before we knock off for the night.”

“Yeah,” Ryo answered.

Dee bounced his head against the seat and stared up at the ceiling. He was really starting to get fed up with all these damned interviews. They always started with their subject offering to do whatever they could, and ended with an iron stare when they asked about the tunnels. They all knew why Cage had been down there, but no one was talking. They were all the same.

Dee frowned suddenly. The same.

He yanked open the list again and slid his finger down the addresses, his eyes darting back and forth as he read. His finger suddenly stopped and he tapped the paper loudly.

“This is it,” he said. “This is our last one for today.”

Ryo leaned over and read the address.

“Well,” Ryo said. “That's…”

“Different,” Dee said with a grin. “Not exactly in the nice part of town, is it? Let's find out just why our pampered boy had this guy's phone number programmed in his speed dial, shall we?”

 

The guy had been listed in Alex Cage's phone under the name “Blackjack”. His phone number was registered to Carson Struthers, but looking at him, Dee already knew he was always going to think of him as Blackjack.

He invited them in almost boredly, one hand pushing back the long dark brown dreadlocks that hung against pasty white skin. He looked blurred somehow, but his eyes were sharp and didn't drift away during the questioning.

“Look,” Blackjack said finally. “I know why you're here. April called me this morning and told me not to tell you anything.”

Cigarette smoke, thick with the apple that had been added to the tobacco, clung to his nostrils as he leaned back in his chair. The little apartment was dirty and well lived in, the noisy streets outside filtering in with a constant stream of sound.

“And what aren't you supposed to tell us?” Dee asked.

A faint smirk pulled at Blackjack's lips and he shrugged a little.

“You done a tox-screen on him yet?” he asked.

Dee and Ryo exchanged a glance and Blackjack chuckled.

“If you do,” he said as he raised his cigarette to his lips again. “You'll find out he's clean. Alex Cage wasn't into drugs…yet.”

“And what's that mean?” Ryo asked.

“It means I wasn't his dealer. It means he got his highs in other ways.”

“Under Central Park?” Dee prodded.

Blackjack shrugged and leaned back into the couch.

“You got my name from his phone, didn't you?” he asked. “You want to know why I was in there? I know where to go. That's all there was to it.”

Blackjack shrugged again and stared at them through glittering eyes as the fruit scented smoke drifted around the room.

“They're just stupid kids playing games that they don't know are dangerous.”

Dee's eyes tightened and Blackjack shook his head.

“You want to know what he was doing underground? No problem. They never paid me to keep my mouth shut.”

 

They sat in silence, the rain pattering over the car as both stared blankly out into the night. Dee spoke first.

“I can't believe it.”

Ryo closed his eyes and slumped back into his seat. Mole parties. What next? They'd find some tunnel that looked like it'd been recently abandoned or could be rented from whatever homeless gang ran it, and pretend that they had nowhere else to go for the night. They lit fires and did drugs and fucked around in the dark until they got tired or hungry and then headed back to their high class lives high above ground. A night of pretending to be dirty and hopeless before they cleaned off and returned to caviar and champagne. And it meant a steady stream of high money targets walking blindly around down through an area of the city that the cops had little power in.

“Those stupid kids,” Dee muttered.

“We need to write up a report for Rose,” Ryo said tiredly. “And you know what he's going to say.”

“Dammit,” Dee hissed and pressed his palms into his eyes. “I don't want to spend that much time underground.”

 

“You're kidding?” Jack blurted out. “That's what he was doing underground? Pretending to be homeless?”

“Yeah,” Dee grunted and poured two cups of the station's almost deadly coffee. “They have little parties down there.”

“Wow,” Jack said. “The rich really are different from us.”

Dee snorted and they walked back towards Dee and Ryo's office, the door propped open to reveal Ryo hunched at the computer. A dark frown was on his face and it didn't lighten when he looked up.

“These maps are a mess,” Ryo said. “They keep contradicting each other.”

Dee groaned and set the coffee down on Ryo's desk.

“Maps?” Jack asked.

“You can bet that the next step in our investigation will be a stake out underground,” Dee said grimly. “Our damned commissioner is big on things like that. He'll want to know how things work down there.”

“And we'd rather not get lost while we're investigating,” Ryo said and tapped his finger on the screen. “This is the tunnel where we found Cage. It looks like it's mostly an entry tunnel to these off shoots down here.”

“Makes sense,” Dee said. “They wouldn't want to go in too deep and the people down there wouldn't want them near anything important.”

Ryo nodded and pulled up a wider view of the map under Central Park.

“The problem is the number of entry tunnels we have.”

Dee lost count and shook his head.

“Shit,” he muttered.

“You know what we're going to have to do,” Ryo said.

“Blackjack,” Dee said flatly. “Let's hope he's still feeling cooperative.”

“Blackjack?” Jack asked.

“The hook up for the mole parties,” Dee explained distantly. “He organizes them and then tells all the little would be homeless just where to meet up.”

“So he knew Cage was going to be down there,” Jack said. “He knew where the guy was going to be walking and it probably wouldn't take much to set up a trap to get the guy alone.”

“Yeah,” Dee said. “Except Cage was paying him a lot of money to set these things up and killing his meal ticket isn't exactly smart.”

“Oh.”

Dee looked up with a grin.

“But we'll keep it as a possibility.”

“Alright,” Ryo said as he shut down the computer. “Let's get out of here for the night. Sign that report so we can drop it off with Rose and go home for a while.”

Dee scribbled his name next to Ryo's and stretched as he stood up. It had been a long day and Dee had a feeling that it was going to be a damned long case.

“You'd better get your report into him too,” Ryo warned. “Rose likes to stay on top of things.”

“Yeah,” Jack said with a grin. “I was warned about your commish. Apparently he can't keep his hands off CSI's.”

There was the quiet sound of someone clearing their throat, and Berkeley Rose stepped into the room with a cool expression in place.

“Why do we never get any new people who can make a good first impression?” Rose asked icily.

Jack turned, grin still determinedly in place, and shrugged.

“Because any little detail can change a first impression later on,” he offered quickly.

Rose stared at him.

“I shoveled enough bullshit today,” the Commissioner said flatly. “Don't add any further.”

Jack practically shrunk as Rose turned to Ryo and Dee.

“Your report?”

Ryo handed him the file and Rose skimmed his eyes over it. He closed it with a sigh and shook his head.

“I'll read it later. Just give me the summary.”

“Alex Cage went underground for a mole party,” Ryo said.

“Mole party?” Rose echoed.

“A bunch of rich kids pretending to be homeless,” Dee supplied, as he lit a cigarette.

“Put that out, we're a non-smoking building and have been for years,” Rose said. “What else?”

Dee scowled as he pinched off the cigarette.

“We're looking into who else was attached to these parties,” Ryo said. “But most of Cage's friends aren't interested in talking about them. Our source is the man who worked out their underground locations and times. We're planning to see him again tomorrow so we can get some more information about when the next one is going to be held.”

Rose nodded.

“Good work,” he said. “Keep me up to date. And keep the cigarettes out of my building.”

His hard eyes darted over Jack once more on the way out.

“I'll expect better from you in the future,” Rose warned. “Make sure you cc me on the reports you make to your boss.”

“Yes sir,” Jack mumbled.

Rose disappeared back into the hall and Dee climbed up from his desk. He peered out into the hall and then shut the door carefully. The lighter's flame clicked against the cigarette.

“Let me smoke this and then let's go home.”