Kindergarten Heero Part 12
"Well damn." Hilde scowled at the results of her latest research. The thin stack of yearbooks from Leia Barton's high school had just - finally - arrived by courier today. They proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Duo Maxwell had attended the same high school as Leia Barton. And that "Elisa Maxwell" had not.
Which still didn't prove that Leia Barton and Elisa Maxwell were the same person. But combined with the fact that she couldn't find any proof that Elisa Maxwell had existed prior to a few short years ago... And that Elisa Maxwell's death had occurred after the alleged sighting of Leia at Astoria Elementary...
Well, the evidence was piling up pretty heavily in support of the theory. But that still didn't explain where the millions of dollars stolen from Khushrenada by Leia had gone. Duo Maxwell simply did not have that kind of money. Nor was it held somewhere under either Mariemeia's or Helen's name.
Hilde shook her head and leaned back in her chair. "It just doesn't add up," she muttered to herself. "Where the hell is all the damn money?"
***
Wufei followed his wife into their bedroom, closing the door behind them to ensure a few minutes of privacy. He waited while she locked her service weapon safely away, then asked quietly, "Did you find anything else out about Yuy?"
Meiran's shoulders slumped slightly. She closed her eyes and nodded silently.
When no further explanation was forthcoming, Wufei put two and two together, came up with an ongoing investigation that could not be discussed, and said simply, "Oh."
In a flash of temper, Meiran flung her belt and cuffs across the room. They struck the wall and fell to the floor. "Sometimes I hate this job!"
"And the rest of the time it satisfies something deep inside you," Wufei reminded her quietly. Enforcing the law did not, unfortunately, always mean that justice was served for everyone involved. Meiran never accepted those instances very well. He stepped close to her and slid his arms around her in a gentle embrace. "Duo has plenty of friends, good friends. We will be here for him, no matter what happens."
Meiran leaned her head wearily against her husband's, slipping her arms around him as she accepted the offered support. She could never right all of life's injustices but she would always do her best to fix those that she could. Especially when her friends were involved.
Firmly, she vowed, "Yes. Yes, we will."
***
Duo carried another armload of wood into the house and piled it beside the fireplace. It was just barely cool enough to justify lighting a fire tonight. He built the fire carefully, making sure to use enough kindling to get it going nicely. Glancing at his watch, he decided that he should have enough time to get changed before Heero arrived; he really didn't want to greet him while wearing clothes smudged with dirt and covered with bits of bark.
Hurrying upstairs, he took a quick glance into Helen's room to make sure that she was ready for their guest. "All set, kiddo?" he asked. "Need help with anything before I get changed?"
Helen shook her head in response to the query. "I'm ready." She'd tidied up her room in case her teacher came upstairs and she was wearing clean, comfortable clothes. "You'd better hurry up, Uncle Duo. It's almost time for Mr. Yuy to get here," she warned, pointing at the clock on her nightstand.
"Don't worry, I've got time," Duo assured her.
"Wear that really soft purply shirt," Helen suggested. "Mommy always said it brought out your eyes."
Duo grinned and ruffled Helen's hair. "Alright, my little fashion consultant. Any other instructions?" he teased.
Helen tilted her head thoughtfully, then nodded firmly. "Leave your hair down. It's your c...cr..." She frowned, trying to remember what her mother had said.
Swallowing hard, Duo offered, "My crowning glory?" He'd offered to have it cut to make a wig for Leia when her own hair had fallen victim to the treatments she was taking. She'd been horrified at the suggestion; she'd called his hair his crowning glory and made him promise not to cut it.
"Yeah! That's it. Your crowning glory." Helen nodded again, glad that Uncle Duo had recalled the right words. Sometimes she had a hard time remembering things that her mother had said and done; she didn't like forgetting. It made her afraid that, someday, maybe she'd forget her mother entirely.
"Well, it's kind of a pain to leave it down but I'll see what I can do," Duo told her. His hair really was too long to leave loose. Maybe a ponytail instead of a braid would be a good compromise. He did want to look attractive for Heero, after all.
***
Holding the phone a cautious distance from her ear, Hilde said, "Yes, sir. I understand, sir. But we are very close, sir...
"In fact, I believe that we've found Leia and her daughter." 'Of course, Leia's dead and buried so she's not much good as a witness...' Hilde qualified silently. She wasn't about to tell Jaye that particular piece of information just yet; he was already threatening to pull them off the case.
"What about the money?" Jaye demanded.
"We're looking into it..."
"Have you located it?"
Hilde frowned darkly and admitted, "No, we haven't found the money yet." And she wasn't too sure that they were going to. Something about this whole thing just felt - wrong.
Chief Jaye instructed sharply, "Tell the woman that Khushrenada knows where she is and that we're letting him go. If she wants police protection, she'd better come up with the money. Otherwise, I want you and Yuy on the next flight back here."
***
Holding the door open courteously, the grey-haired attorney apologized, "I'm sorry it took so long, Your Excellency."
Treize gave a dismissive wave of his hand in response to Pargan's words. He was distinctly displeased with the length of his incarceration and if it were not for the fact that the attorney's family had been in his family's service for generations, he would have made that displeasure quite clear. Under the circumstances, however, he was prepared to be gracious. "See to it that future problems are dealt with in a more expeditious manner and we will not speak of it again."
"Of course, your Excellency." The attorney halted at the top of the stairs, leaving Treize to proceed down them alone.
"See to it," Treize ordered without looking back. The legal system had been distinctly less than cooperative but surely Pargan could have done something to obtain his release sooner.
He smiled in satisfaction as a tall form unfolded from the driver's seat of a gleaming silver convertible. Pargan might not have been able to handle matters efficiently but Milliardo had taken care of things quite neatly. "Milliardo," he murmured, clasping the hands extended to him. He brushed a kiss of greeting over first one, then the other, side of his lover's face. "My beloved Milliardo... My thanks to you."
"It was my pleasure, my dear Treize..." Milliardo responded. "Your private jet is on standby. Shall we be departing tonight? Or," his voice lowered, becoming more intimate, "might one persuade you to - celebrate - your freedom and your imminent return to fatherhood before we depart?"
Treize shivered at the sultry tone and hooded gaze. He was eager to reclaim his daughter but after all this time, one night would make little difference. It had been much too long since he and Milliardo had been together. Still, it wouldn't do to appear too eager. A persuasive Milliardo could be very creative. "I could, perhaps, be persuaded... If one were to find the right incentive..."
A soft, sexy chuckle and a toss of platinum blond hair as Milliardo turned to open the car door greeted his words. "Oh, I'm sure that one could come up with something..."
***
Pulling up to the gate, Heero rolled down the car window and pressed the buzzer, conscious of the security camera pointed in his direction. A few moments later, the intercom crackled and a cheerful, "Hi, Heero. C'mon up," was heard. The gate swung open slowly and Heero pulled through, heading up the long driveway. In the rear view mirror, he could see the gate slowly swinging closed again.
'The security here is good. Very good. Not perfect by any means - but very good...' Which maybe wasn't all that surprising, considering who the estate really belonged to - but still, it seemed like serious overkill with just an elementary school teacher and a kindergarten student living here. So many of the pieces of the puzzle that was Duo Maxwell came so close to fitting yet didn't quite match the pattern that seemed to be correct. Was Elisa Maxwell really Leia Barton-Khushrenada? If so, where was the missing money? Did Duo even know about the money?
'No. I'm not going to think about that. Not tonight. Tonight is for me, the man, not the cop...' With an effort, Heero turned his thoughts away from the case. He'd already turned off his cell phone; he'd called and left a message for Hilde warning her that he would be out of touch for the evening. As far as he was concerned, he was off-duty. Tonight was personal, not police business.
The house's door opened in welcome even as Heero parked his car. Helen raced down the sidewalk and demanded, "Mr. Yuy, did you bring Zero?"
Heero chuckled and opened the back door to reveal Zero's pet carrier. "Yes. Hilde doesn't like ferrets very much so I try not to leave him with her very often. Go ahead and take him inside but don't let him out of his carrier without asking your uncle first." He didn't think that Duo would mind but he didn't want to make any rash assumptions.
"Okay!" Helen picked up the ferret's carrier and headed inside, handling it very carefully.
Heero closed the back door and went around to the passenger side to get the food out. Duo joined him, holding his hands out to help. "Fong's?" he said, noting the distinctive boxes. "Great, I haven't had Chinese in... well, in ages." Since Leia died, actually. Helen wouldn't eat anything other than the fortune cookies and it wasn't much fun ordering Chinese for just one. He liked lots of variety when he had it and leftover Chinese food really wasn't very good. "Umm, Helen's not too fond of Chinese; I'll just fix her a burger..." Duo's voice trailed off as Heero smirked and triumphantly retrieved a pizza box from the back seat.
"I thought that maybe she wouldn't like Chinese," Heero explained. "She does like pizza, though, right? I didn't get a lot of toppings on it..."
Duo grinned and assured him, "Oh yeah. She loves pizza. As long as you didn't get anchovies or pineapple - stuff that leaves its flavour even after it's picked off - on it, she'll just pull off anything that she doesn't like and eat the rest."
"No, no anchovies or pineapple. Just extra cheese and a couple of different kinds of meat."
"Perfect," Duo assured him as they headed into the house. 'Really perfect, in fact,' Duo thought happily. Despite the fact that tonight was supposed to be a date, Heero hadn't treated Helen as an unfortunately necessary participant. Instead, he'd taken Helen's wants and needs into consideration when making his plans. 'He accepts that we're a package deal and he's still interested...' Yep, it was definitely time to make a few careful admissions and see what happened; time to find out whether Heero's interest in him could survive even a fraction of the truth about Helen, Leia, and himself.
TBC...
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