The Whitechapel Case
Fox-Trot-9

PG-13
Horror/Suspense/Mystery (How-Catch-'Em)
Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost Hunt or Death Note.

Prologue
Part 1

Day 1—After fifteen hours of flying from Japan to England, Noll and Lin should've been sleeping after taking the afternoon flight across nine time zones but neither could. Both stayed wide awake, anticipating the moment when a flight attendant would say over the intercom to fasten their seat belts and get ready to land. Neither of them wanted to break the news to Luella and Martin about Gene's death, but with every minute that elapsed and every mile they passed, they knew it would have to come to that.

Noll rested back onto the seat, closing his eyes and listening to the steady drone of the airplane's engines, thinking about the moment the paramedics opened the body bag for him to identify the corpse that was his brother. It was unspeakable. Eight months of decomposing in that lake had pickled Gene into a bloated wrinkly horror of his former self. No longer did Noll see the handsome image of himself whenever he looked in the mirror. He saw Gene's grotesque face staring back at him, staring with those open eyes that had lost their original hue of dark blue, which threatened to make him hurl at the sight. And who could blame him? Noll was staring into the face of his twin's death. For him, that was the most disturbing part. That meant no amount of embalming fluid can restore Gene's original looks; thus, no open-casket funeral for Gene in England.

Lin and Noll were the only ones who saw him that way. Noll had forbidden Mai and the rest of the SPR (*) team from seeing such a sight; of course, none of them knew the body was Gene's. All they knew was what he told them—that he found a body at the bottom of some lake. But sooner or later, they'd know more about it in the press releases and the updates of the evening news. So he decided to hedge his losses and reveal the truth. He knew he was taking a risk, but he figured that sooner or later they would have questions about his recent habits—like why he takes a few days off to be by himself in between his cases, why he studies a map to help him relax, why he never plays any music in his office. Not to mention why he involved them in the high-profile Blood-Stained case just to root out an impostor instead of a ghost.

So the morning after he found Gene's body, he had Lin gather his team—Mai, Monk, Ayako, John, Masako and even Yasuhara—in the SPR building. Everybody was tired this morning, especially Yasuhara who had taken two night classes the night before.

Once they were all seated around the coffee table, Lin shut the door before standing beside his boss, which made Monk turn in his seat.

Why would Lin shut the door? thought Monk.

Then Lin whispered into Noll's ear, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Lin, I'm not changing my mind."

Silence. Everybody exchanged perplexed looks, then looked at Noll and Lin.

Monk said, "You don't normally have the door closed whenever we have meetings here, Naru. What's the occasion? Is it another case?"

"No."

"Then why bring us here if there's no case?" said Ayako, irritated. "Surely, you have some reason to have us all here. Especially since it's 6:30 in the morning." Ayako was not a morning person, after all; she didn't even have the time to put nail polish on her fingernails.

"I do. Since Lin and I are leaving for England in three days, I might as well clear a few things up before we go."

Everybody said, "WHAT!"

"Naru, you're kidding, right?" said Monk.

"Since when do I ever kid around?"

"But..."—now he turned to Noll's female assistant—"Mai, did you know about this?"

"No, I d-didn't. I-I..." and her words drifted off, incomplete. The usual sunny expression had drained from her face, replaced with—well, she didn't know. She couldn't describe it. Her mind had drawn a blank, as if she was stunned before going into the slaughter house. Something wasn't right. She could feel it in her bones, but she can't put her finger on it.

Masako, on the other hand, had that same feeling and something else: she had a sneaking suspicion what it must be but was afraid to acknowledge it. Then she looked over at an ashen Mai before turning to Noll again. What are you thinking, Naru? Is it about your...identity?

But aside from Masako, the rest didn't have a clue. At least, not yet.

Nevertheless, Monk eyed Noll, trying to figure him out. "You know, Naru, I've noticed some unusual things about you during the last two cases."

"And what's that?"

"Well, for one, when we investigated the Urado mansion, you used a body-double. Then there was that argument you had with Lin. And on top of those, you closed the investigation after you exposed that old man as an impostor impersonating Oliver Davis. And on our last case, we found out that you're a psychic strong enough to take on a deity."

"And your point is?"

"I'm not sure, but...It's almost as if you're...hiding something," said Monk.

"You're right. I am hiding something. In fact, I've been hiding it for months now."

Silence ensued.

All eyes were on Noll.

The kid breathed in and out, then said, "You all know me as Kazuya Shibuya, but that is an alias. My real name is Oliver Davis,"—and everyone but Masako gasped in collective revelation at that—"and Lin and I came to Japan to look for my brother, Gene Davis, who's been missing for the past eight months."

Everybody sat glued to their seats, staring at the kid in sheer disbelief. Especially Monk, who felt as giddy as a ten-year-old wanting ride a ferris wheel and angry as hell at being lied to. Everyone else was shocked, even Masako who didn't expect Noll to divulge his secret in front of everyone.

As for Mai, she failed to realize her hands gripping onto the sofa cushion, leaving sweaty imprints on the fabric, as her head reeled. A million thoughts raced through her head, but one of them nagged at her; she just couldn't push it out of her mind. That body bag, she thought, remembering the time when she followed Lin and Noll to the cold-storage room of the morgue, peeking in through the double doors. She didn't see much, because both men had blocked her view of the body bag, but she could have sworn they looked inside it. What did you see? Naru, what did you see?...

"Naru, what did you see?" she said under her breath, but it was loud enough.

Everybody else looked at her.

"What did you say?" said Noll.

"Nothing."

Noll eyed her. When he and Lin exited the storage room after identifying Gene's body, he could have sworn he saw something of dread in Mai's face in the waiting area; he noticed it then, just as he noticed it now. "Mai, did...did you follow us into to the morgue?"

Ratted out, she turned away from Noll out of shame.

He sighed again. "I specifically asked you not to go there with us."

"But—"

"Haven't you realized that curiosity can get you in trouble?"

"I'm sorry; I just wanted to..." and the rest of her words drifted off into space. Mai didn't know what else to say. Right now, she just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry. Though she didn't see it, she knew who was in that body bag.

"Wanted to what?"

Mai stayed silent, cowering under his glare.

Everyone began catch on.

Monk said, "Naru, or...Oliver, or Noll...I meant..." Geez, Monk, get a hold of yourself! "Was the body you found in that lake Gene Davis?"

Noll nodded yes. "I've spent eight months looking for him. All I had to go on was that he died somewhere near a lake in Japan."

"Wait," said John, "how did you find that out?"

Noll sighed; he knew he had to resign himself to telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So he said, "Gene and I are twins with different psychic abilities. I have PK, while Gene had perfect mediumship. But we shared some abilities, such as psychometry and the ability to read each other's thoughts. So when he died, I witnessed his death as it happened from his perspective. I won't go into details of how he died; you don't need to know. All you need to know is that I'm taking Gene's body back to England to give him proper burial."

Silence.

"When will you come back?" said Mai in a weak voice.

"I don't know if I will," and his words cut her to pieces.

Monk said, "Wait, you're just gonna up and leave? What about your business here?"

"Lin and I have already taken care of it. Now that you all know everything, I'll put my trust in you to keep all of this to yourselves."

"But why go to such lengths, Big Boss?" said Yasuhara. "I know you're trying to keep a low profile, but did you have to keep your identity from us the whole time?"

"Just so I won't attract too much attention, especially when in comes to the Urado case and your case. That's why I initially declined to investigate your school. There was too much media covering it." He then took one more look around at everyone and said, "I'm entrusting you with my identity. Do you promise to keep it to yourselves?"

Everyone looked at each other and then nodded yes.

Noll smirked. "Good. So if you will excuse me—"

"But Naru, wait." Masako this time. "Won't you let us to say...goodbye, first?"

"I said Lin and I are leaving in three days, not in three hours. We need time to get everything in order before we go. There's no need to rush things if it can be helped. If you all have nothing else to say, you are free to go."

And with that, everyone filed through the door and left.

But before the door closed, a reluctant Masako looked back at Mai, still sitting on the sofa looking down at her shoes as if waiting for the executioner; she said to herself, "Go easy on her, Noll."

Now only Noll, Lin and Mai were left inside. A long silence ensued.

"Lin, if you don't have anything else to do, you may leave. I need to talk to Mai alone for moment."

Lin looked at his boss, then at Mai on the couch. He thought of saying something but decided to against it; he just nodded and stalked off towards the door, but not without instructing one of his shiki to keep an eye on them. Even when Noll was his boss, Lin wouldn't take crap from him if he ever did anything to Mai.

Oh man, why did you have to leave, Lin? One look at Noll made her cringe; Mai braced herself for the inevitable, whatever that was.

"I could have you fired for what you did," said Noll; tears rolled down her cheeks at his words. "But I won't. Maybe I was wrong not to tell you earlier about Gene."

Mai's head snapped up, shock on her face; then she looked down again.

"I'm not angry at you, but I'm definitely not pleased, either."

"I know. Naru, I'm so sorry—"

"You don't have to apologize." Silence; he thought of his next words before saying, "I'm sure you've noticed many things about me, but I've also noticed many things about you, too."

Her head snapped up again and found herself face-to-face with Noll. She avoided looking at his eyes, as heat began to build in her cheeks. You noticed things about me? she thought. "W-what do you mean?"

"Generally, how you look at me. More specifically, how you blush whenever I look directly at you. And there are times when I catch you looking at me with that dreamy look on your face, while you're at you desk when you should've been working."

Dreamy look? Oh my God, he caught me staring! She wanted to say something but couldn't find the words. And all at once, she felt self-conscious and claustrophobic, thinking, What is he seeing now? Am I blushing? Am I...? Geez, Mai, get a grip on yourself!

The kid smirked an all-kowing smirk and said, "It's almost as if you were looking at somebody else, somebody who looks just like me."

"But nobody could look exactly like..." Then it hit her; she was staring at the mirror image of the man of his dreams. "You...You said you and Gene were twins."

"Identical twins; and when he left for Japan eight months ago, he wore black, just like me," and without another word, he went into his office and came back with a photo, handing it to Mai.

What she saw startled her. It was a family photo of the twins in a study or library, a snapshot of happier, more innocent, days. Both looked no older than thirteen years old. Both were sitting on a couch behind a coffee table. Neither were wearing black; one with a stoic expression was holding an enormous book in his lap, while the other had his arm around the other's neck, smiling for the camera. Cute, one would say. But for Mai, after learning of Gene's death, she couldn't help but... cry. When she was done crying, she looked up at Noll.

"You can keep it," he said.

"Oh, no, I shouldn't."

"I insist."

Well, no need to refuse something from her boss. So she nodded and went to her desk, placing it next to her own picture, staring at both. And yet another trickled of tears rolled down her cheeks.

"You should start gathering you things, Mai. In three days, this building will be closed."

"Naru," she said.

"Yes?"

"How do you do it, Naru?" The girl looked up and stared at Noll, wiping away tears. "How can you not cry over Gene's death?"

That question lingered in Noll's head for the next three days, still unanswered even now as he stared up into the ceiling of the plane. There was something about Mai that had always perplexed his analytical mind. How could someone so naive keep throwing him the most difficult conundrums? Time and time again, he found himself unable to fit her into his many equations, unable to solve the mystery that was Mai Taniyama. She was the one variable that somehow cannot be placed anywhere. Could she be an anomaly? Could she possibly be more than the sum of her parts? Maybe, but he didn't know for sure.

Then the intercom overhead told them to buckle up, because they were about to arrive at the airport in a few minutes. Everyone did just that. And as the plane began its descent, Noll and Lin felt the pressure building in their ears and a sense of dizziness creep into their heads, but that was temporary. In less than ten minutes, they felt the heavy touch down of over 300 tons of Boeing rolling on wheels, as it taxied to a side lane out of oncoming traffic. And before they knew it, the intercom announced their arrival.

But Noll and Lin stayed seated as the other passengers boarded off into the jet bridge.

Lin said, "Do you want me to break it to them?"

"No, I'll do it. He was my brother, after all."

"Was?"

Noll looked at him. "Is."

Lin nodded. "Come on; let's get off," and both dragged their weary carcasses off their seats.

Through the jet bridge and through the lounge area full of people waiting for their flights, they walked into the terminal of the London City Airport. Then they had a hell of a time trying to explain to security that the big metal box was a coffin with a body inside, but security had it x-rayed anyway. Noll tried everything he could to keep his cool without discharging his PK, especially when they swept their wands over it for explosives. But Lin took the lead, having them transfer the coffin to a cold-storage area just outside the luggage area of the terminal, where it would get picked up a few days later.

Once through the security clearance gates, they passed the baggage check-ins where crowds of people were waiting in long lines for their for their luggage to check out. Figures. Every airport in Britain was choked with the crowds at all hours of the day, it seemed. So the two had to wade through the throng, taking a long swinging left towards the carousels, where a conveyor of luggage and freight lumbered past waiting recipients; they waited about half an hour before their luggage appeared for them to pick up. With that done, they went straight for the exit.

Then they took the cab from the London City Airport ten miles into the suburbs of London, in the Woodside Ward of Croydon, with the sky just starting to quicken to lighter shades of blue to the west against a sea of black. After half an hour, they entered a residence at Langley Drive and Newberry Road, dropping off at the right side of the lane near the corner at 2846 Langley where the old Davis House stood. It was still dark outside with the street lamps aglow on a chilly 4:45 in the morning of April 9, when you can still see your own breath, but they were in overcoats. They walked to the entrance, carrying their luggage; actually, Lin was carrying the luggage. Then Noll rang the door bell. They waited and heard two muffled voices, then foot steps. After a couple of minutes, Noll rang it again. More muffled voices, then silence, then more footsteps.

Noll was about to ring again when, a split-second later, a gruff male voice came through the door. "Who is it?"

"Father, it's me, Oliver," said Noll.

"Oliver! Noll, is that you?" The door swung open and revealed the weary figure of a middle-aged man, graying at the temples and thinning at the crown. "Good God, you almost put me and your mother in our graves!"

"I tried calling earlier, but I couldn't reach you. Did you change phone numbers?"

"Oh, that, well...It's a long story. Come in. No need to freeze in the cold." Then he noticed Lin for the first time. "Ah, Lin. I almost didn't recognize you there. My eyes must be getting bad. You've been doing what I hired you to do?"

"Yes, sir," he said.

"Good."

"Martin, is it really—?" came a female voice from upstairs, followed by a middle-aged woman running down the steps.

"Yes, Luella, it's him," said Martin, closing the door and locking it. "Watch your step, now. There's no use for an early grave."

But Luella ran anyway, making it down the steps and to her son, bear-hugging him in her arms and failing to notice Lin watching. For any normal 17-year-old, this would be positively embarrassing, but Noll was not that kind of kid. Being the calm and collected kid he was, he returned the embrace, albeit more gently.

"Oh, I missed you so much." Luella then noticed Lin. "Lin, have you grown a little taller the last time I met you? Or am I growing a little shorter?"

"Uh... Maybe a little shorter," he said.

"Indeed. You both must be hungry. You two want something to eat?"

Lin looked at Noll, and both nodded, yes.

"You two can leave your luggage here," said Martin. "We'll move them, later."

5:15 at the breakfast table, and the two got served heavy blood-sausage and pork-sausage with bacon and eggs, all fried up in the same skillet. In other circumstances, this breakfast would be the top of the morning for them, as the English used to say, but for Noll and Lin—for Noll especially—, they couldn't eat anything.

"What's the matter?" said Martin.

"You two feeling okay?" said Luella. "Is it food? I can prepare something else if you want."

"No, it's not that," said Noll, not knowing how to break the news to them. He didn't have the chance to tell them on the phone when he was in Japan, but even if he did, he would not have gotten through, since his parents changed phone numbers for some reason. "It's about Eugene."

"Eugene?" both parents said.

"How is he?" said Martin. "Did you get to see him while you were in Japan?"

"I hope he's all right," said Luella.

Noll tried everything in his power to keep his emotions in check. "He's not."

Martin and Luella held their breath.

Noll sighed, then said, "He was killed in a car accident."

"Oh my GOD!" Luella screamed, cupping her mouth and tears streaming down her face.

Martin was too shocked to say anything as leaned back in his chair, barely holding his wife in his arms as she cried into his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," said Noll, not knowing what else to say.

"You don't need to apologize. It's nobody's fault for changing that phone number...except—" said Martin, tears now streaming down his face. "Just give us a moment, all right?" And he got up and lead Luella to the living room, trying to comfort her the best he could.

Other people would have cried their eyes out for the death of a family member, but not Noll. At least, not in front of people. Even Lin had to shed a few tears, but not Noll.

"Noll," said Lin, "how can you not share their grief?"

"I do, damn it. With every breath I take, I do," and he got up and went to the living room, Lin following and watching.

Noll found his mother still crying and sniffling over his father's shoulder, both having eyes red with tears. He went to his mother's side, placing a hand on her shoulder, even going as far as embracing her, with his father holding both of them, but Noll still didn't cry. In matters as painful as this, the last thing he wanted to do was to add to the pain with his own tears. Soon, Noll withdrew from them. And when Lin came over, he told him to keep his parents company, which he did.

Then Noll walked into the private study and closed the door behind him. It was just as he remembered it the last time he was here, eight months ago. Dusty books in their shelves on the right. The big framed masterpieces of Manet's Music in the Tuileries, The Prune and the The Player Fife on the left. English furnishings here and there. The giant globe still standing next to the desk in the back corner on the left. Rolled-up maps, statuettes and other artifacts lying near the globe. It seemed everything was the same as it had always been. He walked along the right side where another shelf had the photographs on them, walked slowly from picture to picture and recounted the memories each invoked from childhood to early adolescence, when he and Eugene still lived under one roof.

Then he came across an old record player on the coffee table and turned it on, the vinyl record already in it; the last symphony of the late John Mahler was on it. If there was a secret his friends never knew (except maybe Lin), it was his love for classical music. None of the singers would do for him, no matter how good they sang. For him, the sweet sound of orchestral music was the closest thing to perfection mankind has invented, for it did not speak the language of a mortal tongue. It spoke the universal language of the passions and the soul, the music of the heart.

Despite this, Noll was never an emotional kid, not even in his childhood, because he had to be strong not only for himself but for those around him. This made him cold, calm, collected and authoritative, even narcissistic at times; that's why he never played the radio-clock in his office at the SPR headquarters, no matter how boring it got. Not even Mai's pleas or Masako's threats of blackmail could convince him to turn it on. But everything was different, now. He wasn't in his office at the SPR building, a world away where he was the head honcho; he was in his parent's house, in his private study that he and Eugene used to share, where he (for a little while, at least) could be himself. But most of all, he was alone and suffering, though he hid it well when he and Lin identified Gene's body in the morgue.

Then his composure melted away when the softest sound of violins in unison filled the room. The music weakened his knees, so he sat down on the sofa. Then the violins broke their unison, scattering their sounds into a million flowing ripples of unrivaled musical beauty. It suited Noll well. The music was as turbulent as his soul, a mix of happy and sad memories digging themselves rapturously and painfully into his heart, filling him to the heights and depths of glory and grief in the memories of Noll and Eugene's first convincing magic tricks—of levitating cards, and crystal balls, and furniture, and people on furniture, and even Eugene himself sitting on a chair floating in thin air!

Until he fell off the embankment and into the lake as a corpse.

A bloated and decaying imitation of his brother.

Noll tried to fight back the tears. Of all the pitiful things he had could succumb to—and only he and God knew about those—, he wouldn't allow himself to sink that low. Crying was never his forte, nor will it ever be one. Crying was but the first and most common way of showing grief, of mourning the loss of someone so close. Instead, he closed his eyes and tried to remember the good memories. But to no avail. All he could see was the bloated grotesque corpse.

So he got up, turned off the record player and willed himself to think of other things—working in the SPR office, taking and refusing cases, Monk, Ayako, Masako, Yasuhara, John, Mai. Especially Mai. Will he return to Japan? Don't know. Will he forgive her for stealing a look into the cold-storage room? Don't know. But of all the questions, Mai's last question proved the most difficult to escape from. Every fiber of his being wanted him to cry for Gene, to curse the fates, to be human for once in his life. And not just the over-confident pompous genius that he makes himself out to be.

But before he knew it, before he could do anything to stop it, silent tears trickled down his face, a face of marble. He sat there listening to the sound of silence—

The sound of death.

(To be continued...)

A/N: I'd be surprised if you guys have heard of Ghost Hunt, but I'll put it here, anyway; thus, the story line might feel a bit... strange. So if you're wondering what Ghost Hunt is, check it out. It's one of the few anime's that actually scared me. And I'll try to keep any swearing down to reasonable levels, but I think it'll be hard in the next chapters... And I hope I'm not too wordy.

(* SPR = Shibuya Psychic Research, located in Shibuya, Tokyo. Fictional.)