"Is there any coffee left?"

Naomi was running her fingers through her wet hair as she stood in the kitchen doorway.

Watari put down the frosting knife and reached for the coffee pot. "There is," he replied warmly. He proceeded to pour her a mug and added just the right amount of cream and sugar.

Naomi smiled. "Thank you, Watari," she said as she accepted the steaming mug. "I actually had coffee on the way home, but something tells me it could be a late night," she remarked, glancing in the direction of the living room. She took a long sip, the combination of the hot beverage and her cold, wet hair making her shiver.

Watari smiled in response. "I'm glad you had a nice afternoon," he commented.

Naomi tipped her head. "It was nice," she said thoughtfully. "Thanks again for the coffee!"

She turned and made her way into the living room.

L was stacking chocolate sandwich cookies on the desk while looking at something on the computer screen. The tower was about 7 or 8 cookies high and wobbled as he placed another on top of it.

Naomi sat down in the chair next to L and brought her feet up to sit cross-legged. She held the mug with both hands and leaned forward with her elbows on her knees.

"Alright, what have we got?" she asked.

L cast a glance in her direction, his finger and thumb hovering a cookie over the edible tower.

"Well," he began, delicately placing the cookie on the stack, "I believe we may have met The Bishop this morning."

Naomi's eyes widened. "Are you serious? When? Who?"

L leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms atop his bent knees. "When I went outside ahead of you, I noticed that the policeman who had been standing guard at the border of the crime scene was no longer there. And, when I asked about him, no one seemed to know who I was talking about. I requested a list of all the officers who had been sent to the scene this morning and look-" He leaned forward again and used the mouse to scroll down a list of names and photos. "He's not here."

Naomi placed the coffee cup on the desk and rolled the chair closer, looking intently at the computer screen. "Oh my gosh... you're right! So that scruffy, y guy is our serial killer? Ugh!" She shivered again but this time, it wasn't from cold. The idea that they had been standing so close to the murderer without knowing it gave her the creeps.

"Yes, it's very likely," L replied, eyeing the vertical pile of sandwich cookies. He reached his long arm out and flicked his index finger, toppling the tower over. He picked up a cookie and put the whole thing in his mouth. With his mouth full, he added, "In fact, I am about 70 percent sure of it."

"Okay, well, who is this guy? How do we find him?" Naomi picked up her mug again and clutched it tightly.

"Well, tomorrow I'd like you to speak with a forensic artist- I assume you got a good look at his face?"

Naomi nodded. "Yes, very."

"Good. But first things first," L said calmly, holding up another cookie like he was examining a coin. "If we can continue researching the victims, details connected to their identities could lead us to the killer. Now that we have a face to work with, we have a useful tool for cross-referencing information."

"Did the most recent victim provide any new information regarding a connection with the others?" Naomi asked.

"Mm." L's mouth was full again. "Her hair."

Naomi thought for a second, then remembered. "It smelled like roses."

"Yes." L swallowed and continued, "Her hair contained an oily substance, some kind of hair perfume. It is likely that the killer added the fragrance himself as a personal touch, perhaps to satisfy a or for sentimental reasons." L draped one arm over the back of the chair and selected another cookie, spinning it like a dreidel on the desktop. He watched as it rotated and toppled and added, "It is only relevant, however, if the other victims have the same substance in their hair, so I have made arrangements for that to be confirmed."

"You're going to... dig up the bodies?" Naomi was aware that sometimes such measures had to be taken. Still though, it was unsettling to disturb those who had already been laid to rest. "So, we just need to wait for consent from the families, then."

The cookie in L's hand stopped halfway to his mouth. "No, that takes too much time. My team should be finished with the extractions and running the tests as we speak." He tipped his head back and dropped the cookie into his mouth. "Omm."

Naomi's eyebrows furrowed uneasily. "But that's... illegal."

L's eyes narrowed and he sighed loudly. "Misora, legality is simply a man-made set of rules. Rules that I, at times, must be above. If I did everything according to the rules, a lot less would be accomplished." He spoke the words, not as though to defend himself, but rather with an air of laid-back importance.

Naomi opened to protest but then shut it again. There was nothing she could do now. Instead, she cleared and asked, "Did you find anything in the photos I took?"

L had removed the top of one of the sandwich cookies and was the icing in the center of it. "Mm... Not upon first inspection but..."

.

"...I'd like you to compare your photos with the ones sent over from the police report."

. .

Naomi acknowledged the order and stood to move over to the couch where her laptop was sitting. L began working on some algorithms that would provide new methods of cross-referencing the victims and their families. They worked in silence. Every so often, Watari appeared to present a new tray of sweets.

Naomi had a system when it came to comparing photos. She used a program to line up the police photos side by side with the ones she had taken herself. She began with photos of the victim, lining up pictures displaying various angles and close-ups on every little detail. Then, she ordered them by sections of the room. There were wide shots of the entire scene, the view outside the window, and more close-ups on things like the candles. Everything seemed to match up until she came across a particular photo she had taken herself.

It was a close-up photo of the floorboards in the Northwest corner of the room. Although no fingerprints or footprints had been found at the scene, Naomi had discovered three small, circular marks, about the size of an American quarter, in a triangle on the floor. They were spaced evenly, about half a meter apart from each other.

But there was no such photo in the police report. In fact, upon closer inspection, she realized that there were no photographs whatsoever of the Northwest corner of the room.

"I think I've got something," Naomi said slowly, scrolling with her finger on the mousepad to double check if she'd missed anything. She was sitting with her ankles crossed on the coffee table and the laptop settled on her stretched-out legs.

L swiveled to face her, a small plate of cake in his hands. "What is it?"

Naomi turned the laptop so he could see the screen. "I photographed these strange marks on the floor but the police seem to have missed that detail. In fact, they've missed an entire section of the room."

L stuck his neck out and stared at the screen intently. "Well," he said at length, "either someone is slacking on their job or someone is tampering with evidence."

Naomi raised her eyebrows. "Could it be the phony policeman?"

L didn't answer right away. He finished the cake in a single bite and set the plate on the desk before standing and moving to hop up onto the couch next to Naomi.

"Show me the photos again?" he requested.

Naomi scrolled down the page displaying her side-by-side comparisons. L's eyes were fixed on the screen as he chewed on his thumbnail. Finally, he spoke.

"Misora, I'd like you to return to the crime scene. Look for anything that may be different from the way things were this morning. We may be on to something if we can show that someone is removing data from the police reports."

"Right now?" Naomi looked at the clock. It was almost midnight.

"Yes, we cannot afford to lose time. Watari will go with you and take your gun just to be safe. Call me when you're at the scene."

Naomi nodded and stood. L handed her a key to the abandoned house that he had obtained that morning. She retrieved her handgun and a flashlight from her apartment upstairs and she and Watari headed out to the car.

Within a few minutes, they were pulling up in front of the deserted house. Police tape still lined the perimeter but there was no one else around.

Watari remained in the car as Naomi stepped out and shut the door. She fitted the Bluetooth earpiece onto her ear that would connect her to both L and Watari simultaneously. She nodded at Watari who nodded back. He was armed as well and would stand guard outside.

Naomi held the gun and the flashlight up in front of her as she made her way to the front door. The electricity in the house was turned off and so she had only her flashlight to rely on. She took the key out of her jacket pocket and unlocked the door. It opened with a rusty creak.

She stepped into the house and scanned each room on the ground floor, gun and light held out before her. When she was sure that all was clear, she headed upstairs to do the same thing. She shone the light into each room, confirming that she was alone in the house, and made her way to where the young waitress had been found early that morning.

The body and the candles had been removed by the police and the room was completely empty. The faint, blue moonlight beamed in from the window, casting a rectangle on the floor over the tape outlining where the victim had lain.

Naomi dialed L's number and heard the ringing through the earpiece. He picked up.

"Misora. Are you at the crime scene?"

"Yes," Naomi spoke with her voice low, even though there was really no reason to. The eerie darkness seemed to call for it.

"And Watari? Are you in on the call?"

"Yes, I'm here," Watari confirmed.

"Good." L spoke as though he had candy in his mouth. "Agent Misora, tell me what you see."

Naomi knelt down in the corner where she had discovered the strange circular marks and tucked the gun into the back of her jeans. She held the flashlight up by her shoulder, the beam of light pointing down at the floorboards. But there were no markings.

"They're gone," she said, her voice still low.

"What are gone?" L questioned.

"The markings... I photographed them this morning, but..." She reached out and ran her other hand over the rough wood flooring. "...they've been scrubbed away..." She looked at her fingertips and rubbed them together. They were damp.

Suddenly her shoulders straightened and she was all at once very alert. Still in a kneeling position, she the soles of her boots and shone the flashlight in all corners of the room.

"Misora? What is it?"

Naomi swallowed hard. "He's here," she whispered.

"What?"

"The floor is still wet, I think he's still here."

Slowly, she rose to a standing position and reached back to grab ahold of her gun again. She held it and the flashlight out in front of her as she silently made her way back to the doorway of the small room.

"Misora, please be careful," L's voice advised.

She didn't answer. Standing with her back against the wall adjoining the doorway and the flashlight pointed at the floor, she could see into the room across the hall. The light from a passing vehicle briefly illuminated the tall windows. A shadowy figure was concealed in the curtains.

Naomi's breath caught in . She had no way of knowing if the suspect was armed.

"I have eyes on him." Her voice was so low, it was nearly undetectable.

"I'm sending backup," L responded.

Naomi's heartbeat was pulsing in her ears. She shut her eyes and took a few deep breaths in preparation. Then, she whirled around and stuck just her arms out of the doorway, pointing the light and the Glock toward the window in the next room.

"Come out slowly with your hands up!" she called out.

There was no response.

Naomi was about to repeat herself when she heard the whooshing sound of a sliding glass door. The light from another passing vehicle revealed the silhouette of the person behind the curtains leaping off of the second story balcony.

Dropping the flashlight and holding the gun down with both hands, Misora dashed across the hall into the next room. She stopped herself abruptly when she reached the edge of the balcony and looked down to see the form of a stout man sprinting away down the back alley. Without hesitation, she flipped herself over the cast iron railing. She landed on both feet and broke into a run.

"I'm in pursuit of the suspect!"

The man was a ways ahead of her but Naomi was fast.

"Keep on him, Misora!" L instructed firmly. "Watari, use the GPS in the Bluetooth to head him off!"

Naomi ran hard, her elbows bent like an Olympic racer and her long hair streaming out behind her. She was gaining on him. Just as she was about to catch up, the man sharply turned a corner. Misora followed close behind.

She rounded the corner and instantly, a blinding pain crashed into her jaw. She flew backwards and landed hard on the pavement.

Her head was spinning. The starry night sky above her blurred and swirled like she was looking through a kaleidoscope. She could hear L's voice saying her name through the earpiece, but it sounded hollow and far away. In the distance, she heard police sirens approaching. A shadowy figure appeared in her window of vision and a boot lifted to hover above her head.

And then everything went black.