A year after the war, my family moved to another city. A city right at the west end of The New World, La Arcangeles, The city of archangels. I followed my father's footsteps to be a policeman, and after a while after gaining some money and a stellar arrest record, I decided to be a private investigator.
The office I rented, which is now basically my second home, is at a mid-priced, three-story townhouse Downtown, with my office being at the top floor. I had prepared my belongings and the necessities of being a private investigator, and I awaited behind my desk for my first case.
The dial phone on the desk rang, and I quickly answered.
"Private Investigator Keiji." I greeted.
"Mr. Keiji, this is the Captain of the La Arcangeles Police Department's Traffic Desk, Richard James."
"What seems to be the matter, Captain?"
"I've got a case for you, as the other detectives in this desk are having their hands full. This case is a head-scratcher, to be precise. I'll tell you more at the crime scene, it's on the parking lot near the tram station downtown. It should be blocks away from your office."
"Understood, I'll be right there in a minute."
I hung up the call, and I walked towards the coat rack near the door that leads outside to the hallways of the townhouse. I put on my tan trench coat, and black hat as I looked at the mirror to fix my tie before walking out to the hallways.
The interior is not too shabby nor too fancy, with maple wooden flooring and tan painted walls. I locked the door to my office, and placed my keys in my coat's inner pocket. I walked towards the stairs, where the janitor, Mr. K, a man in his fifties wearing a pressed cap, a flannel shirt and black overalls.
"Morning, Tak."
"Morning, Mr. K." I greeted back as I descended down the stairs to the ground floor, and took my car keys from my shirt pocket.
My car is reminiscent of a 1940s sedan, and according to Dad, the one who bought the car as a gift for me during my preparations, the car is a "Chevy FleetRuler". It has a dark blue paintjob with iron front grills and bumpers, and it has a license plate that he personally picked, "T4K-001". I unlocked the car door, and went inside before inserting the key to the ignition, and started the engine. The car is brand new, so it doesn't sound like a train's wheels scraping asphalt.
I drove to the location the captain told me, and arrived in a minute since it's only a couple of blocks away. I see that several police officers are already surrounding the place, alongside a coroner. I parked my car, and exited to talk with the captain, who is viewing the scene in his brown suit, and a tan fedora that obscures most of his hair, and shades over his blue eyes.
"Keiji, you've arrived!"
"Sorry if I missed anything. What's the sitrep, captain?"
"Abandoned Caesar Freezer, with the backseat basically a bloodbath, and a girl knocked out in the front passenger seat."
"Any ideas on who owned the car?"
"The car is rented. You can see it for yourself on the dashboard. Oh, and don't forget to canvass the lot guard. He called it in." The captain said, pointing to a man wearing a grey jumpsuit, chowing down on some jerkies.
"Understood, Captain."
"Dismissed, and good luck, war hero."
Before I go to canvass the guard, I walked to the car where the coroner stood up from his inspection, and turned his gaze at me. The coroner is an elf with short brown hair, and some freckles on his face. He wears a distinctive grey suit, and black shoes.
"Keiji Takumi, Private Investigator."
"My name is Rorik. I guess you are here for the details of what I can find?"
"Yes."
"Alright. Whoever sat on the backseat are clearly cut up, which explains the large blood splatter in it. We found a girl on the front passenger seat, knocked unconscious with a blunt instrument to the head, and the driver's seat has a sign of a struggle. See the cushion?"
Rorik points to the cushion nested on top of the driver's seat, which is torn apart.
"The captain said that the vehicle is rented." I mentioned to him.
"Yes, there's the address of the car rental shop on the dashboard. Feel free to check out, I need to get this blood sample back to the lab."
Rorik walked away, as I put on my black leather gloves before opening the driver's door. I ripped the sticker on the dashboard that has the rental shop address, and took a read.
'MARSTON CAR RENTALS – RENT YOUR CAR FOR A CHEAP PRICE! 10 BUCK PER DAY! 619 Brighttown Street, Downtown L.A.'
"Maybe I can pay the Marstons a visit to see if they can remember who rented this… If the girl hasn't woken up yet." I said, as I took out my pocket notepad, and listed down the address.
After noting the address down, I walked over to the security guard, who has finished eating his jerky. The guard is a Wood Elf, human age 30 years, with spiky auburn hair and brown eyes.
"Keiji Takumi, Private Investigator."
"My name is Carlo Mendoza. I worked here, and found this car in the morning. After seeing the knocked-out girl and the bloodbath inside, I called it in."
I begin to ask him some questions, first of all, if he sees anyone suspicious.
"Have you seen anything or anyone suspicious before you found the car?"
"No, sir. The car wasn't here last night, and it's here when I got here to start my shift this morning."
I took a moment to see Carlo's expression. His reply is calm, and there are no signs of him trying to lie out on me. His eyes met with mine, and his body posture is still.
"Do you recognize the girl inside the car? The one who's basically knocked out over there?"
"No, Sir."
Again, no clear signs of him lying. He clearly doesn't know the girl, so there's no need for me to doubt.
"Are you familiar with this address? The Car Rental Shop?"
"Sure. It's at Brighttown, close to the library. My son often passed that place whenever he wanted to read."
With no more questions to ask, I bid my farewells to him.
"Be sure to file in a report at the Downtown Police Station. If you find out about anything that's related to this case, call me." I said, as I gave him one of my cards.
"Yes, I'll make sure of it."
I walked over to my car, only to hear grunting. I looked to see that the girl, who has been watched over by one of the officers, waking up.
The girl glanced up towards me as I approached her. She is a fair skinned human who has a shoulder-length brown hair, and a pair of brown eyes. She wore a white sundress, and a pair of white high heeled shoes.
"…Where am I? What happened?" The girl asked.
"You got knocked out. Do you remember anything, Miss…?"
"Delaney. Grace Delaney."
"Nice to meet you, Grace. I'm Keiji Takumi, call me Takumi if you want. You still haven't answered the question."
It took a couple of seconds before Grace widened her eyes, and puts a hand to her forehead.
"Leah… She's…! Is she fine!?"
"Calm down, Grace. Who is Leah, and what exactly happened?"
"My memory's a bit hazy, but Leah is my friend whom stayed with me since high school after I lost my family. I was planning to go to the All-Action Theatre, downtown."
"Does this Leah told you where she was going?"
"Yeah. She said that she wanted to go to the small-time clinic across the theatre."
Raising a brow at that reply, I pressed on gently.
"Did she tell you why she wanted to go there in the first place?"
"Sorry, Detective, but I forgot to ask."
"I told you, it's fine to call me Takumi."
After she is finally able to stand up properly, I asked her again.
"Do you have a place to stay?"
"If Leah really is… Well, if that happened, then no. I have no place to stay."
"If you'd like to, you can stay with me. My office has a bunkroom in it."
"R…Really? I don't want to be a burden, though."
"It's fine. You can stay as you please."
"T…Thank you, Detective." She faced away, as I see her blushing.
"Now, let's go to my car."
We left the parking lot with my car. She sat on the passenger seat beside me, as I drove off.
The drive is slow, as we stopped on a red light. Feeling curious, I struck a conversation with Grace.
"You said you lost your family. No offense, but curiosity just got the better from me."
"I lost my family after our home exploded. The arcane-powered generator that Dad bought for us to be used in emergencies malfunctioned during a blackout. I was out with Leah at the time so…" The brunette begins to sob.
Arcane energy is a type of magical energy that anyone can do in this world. It helps out a lot, but also needs the skill to control it since it uses a lot of mana for beginners. Feeling bad, I stopped her from telling even more.
"I'm sorry to hear that… I-I shouldn't have asked."
"It's alright… Wait, did you say that you are Keiji Takumi?"
"Sure, why?"
"I heard you won a survivor medal during the war—"
"I'd rather not talk about it, sorry." I cut her.
"A-Alright…"
The lights turned green, and the drive went on finely until we reached the rental shop. I checked my watch, it's still 10:14 in the morning. I parked on the reserved space near the pavement in front of some parking meters.
"Stay here, Miss Delaney. I'll talk to the owner about Leah."
She nodded, and watched as I walked into the shop's yard. Well, it is a rather large fenced yard with a few cars put on display. As I looked at the horrendous prices of the cars, the owner tapped me on my shoulder.
"You lost, partner?"
A man with a cowboy hat, wearing a brown vest and blue jeans asked me.
"Keiji Takumi, Private Investigator. I am here after finding a clue that led me here."
"I'm Jake, last name's obvious already, if you see that sign over there. What case is it, partner?"
"Traffic called it in, but it also has clues of homicide."
"Hot damn, I… I didn't know."
"Did a woman rent a green colored Caesar Freezer here this morning?"
"Sure, a young woman of your age, looking a bit desperate rented my car and drove off."
Jake looks at me in the eyes for a moment, but then gazed away as he gulps, giving me some doubts.
"Unless you want me to get the rest of the police here, give me more details." I said sternly.
"Relax, partner! She really looked desperate and seems to be in a hurry, when I asked her what car to use, she just pointed randomly, and I gave her the keys. She dashed over to the car and drove off."
"What time is this?" I asked him.
"Around 5 A.M; People are barely awake except for me, since people rent cars at random hours."
"A rental shop is supposed to have a list of the people who visit and rent a car. Do you have it somewhere?"
"Sure, here you go."
He then gave me a clipboard, attached to it was the list of the cars rented today. I inspected the list carefully. He's not joking when he said that people rented the cars at random hours, as some are rented at 3 A.M, 5 A.M, and even more ridiculous hours. Does this man even have time to sleep?
I stopped, when I see the customer's name, Leah Simpson.
"Huh. Leah Simpson, rented a Caesar Freezer, at 5 A.M. Pretty sure this is her."
So, she really did rent the car here, but who could have possibly followed her and Grace all the way to the tram station, to kidnap Leah and beat up Grace before leaving her in the car?
The case becomes much apparent, and this is the job of an amateur, as the culprit is stupid enough not to bring Grace with them as well. And what's with all the blood back there?
The only way to find out is to visit the address on the list. Since Grace said that she has been living with Leah since high-school, then she must know the address.