THE INVESTIGATION

Day II

Kai awoke with newfound determination. His eagerness gave him unforeseen energy. He jumped out from under the covers, pushed the curtains aside and leaned on the window sill. The sky was light from imminent sunrise. He went into the kitchen made his coffee and wanted to reach for one of his early morning wake-up munches only to have reality catch up with him and slap him in the face. All the cookies were gone. And he had never manages to get a hold of new ones yesterday. He growled and sipped his coffee gloomily. The cockwheels of his mind turned mercilessly. So while he sat in the kitchen, wearing nothing but his boxers, the drummer’s thoughts looked somewhat like this:

Someone sneaked into my room – found the cookie-jar and then… what then? How did they get away with the loot? The jar had been full to the brim. Did they just eat them there and then? Maybe while I was still asleep? He turned a little pale at the thought. – No. He calmed himself. I would have noticed. But then how? The jar was still in its place. Did they just carry an arm full of cookies out of my room? He burned his tongue on the steaming coffee because his anger surfaced again and he had tried to gulp it down. He needed to focus.

…

…

Nope. Still furious. How had someone gotten away with carrying off an arm full of cookies? Maybe there was more than one thief! One standing guard, while the other committed the crime. Partners in crime. His eyes narrowed to slits. If the table had been alive this look would have killed it stone dead. But really, there had to be evidence. It only happened yesterday. He scolded himself for leaving so quickly last night, when he should have been perpetuating evidence. Now the culprit had had time to destroy it. What needed to be done now, was to be hot on the trail. He had to be subtle about it though. Can't risk to raise suspicion. Need to behave normally. Absentmindedly he scratched his , while continuing to think.

I can't trust anyone now. Have to remain cool headed. Someone took my cookies. And I will not rest until I discovered who it was. So he would get started immediately. While the others are still asleep.

I am glad to tell you, that Kai did not start to scratch DNA off of any surfaces of plug hairs from cushions with a pair of tweezers. That would have been over the top, even in his current mental state. Though, if given enough provocation...

Kai had risen to his feet and looked determined. He would look for crumbles, chocolate stains, anything. He could just see himself rummaging through his mates' dirty clothing to fins suspicious stains. He rubbed his forehead and sipped some coffee one arm akimbo. Did he just really consider this method? He desperately hoped it wouldn't come to this and he would not be forced to resort to methods like that. Would cookie theft justify that? If it served his cause? Not yet. He had not yet crossed the line. But given enough provocation...Someone HAD stolen his cookies. Just how many drastic methods did that justify?

He shook his head. There were times to think and times to act. And right now it was time to get a move on. The early bird...

What followed was an investigation, that, from an observes point of view looked rather funny. In retrospect, when the members of the Gazette talked about the cookie-jar incident, this is what they laughed about most. Though at the time- it was dead serious stuff. And if anyone had dared to burst out laughing during Kai's conduct- he would probably have gone berserk.

The dark-haired drummer tried to be most quiet in his pursuit, as to not wake his friends. They would not rise before 11 on their day off. So he had a few hours left to scour the appartment. He crept around the corridor, living room and kitchen trying to find any clues at all. Unfortunately, his friends had a habit of dropping crumbs everywhere. Cookie-monster was nothing compared to them. At times they were even as hairy... and as blue*. He made several attempts before he dared to look under lie down on the living room floor and sneak a peek under the sofa. He made a sound of disgust. There was no way to discern the bits and pieces down there. It was probably a mixture of leftovers from pizza crust, crisps and cookie. This was clearly getting him nowhere. He needed tools.

Around 10:30 a.m. - in one of the adjoining rooms

Aoi stechted contentedly under his covers. He had had a good-night's sleep and was glad to have a free day today. He checked his watch, sighed and pushed his blanket aside. He had to look several minutes for his shirt which had been carelessly discarded last night. When he found it, smell-ckecked it, grimaced, hesitated, shrugged, and pulled it over anyway. He only wanted to grab a coffee from the kitchen, when he opened the door, the delicious smell of roasted beans and hot brew already wavered towards him. Smiling he made a step out of his room, gasped when his leg caught on something that blocked his way, and fell over.

Kai knelt before Aoi's room. He held a magnifier in one hand and inspected the carpet on the threshold to Aoi's room.

“What the ... KAI!?”

The dark-haired guitarist lay spreadeagled in the corridor. The drummer ignored him. Instead he just progressed to Reita's door. For a brief second, Aoi considered the possibility that the drummer hadn't heard him. A second later it dawned on him that there was no way Kai had not noticed him. A memory surfaced.

“Something about Kai and an impending nervous break down.” Reita's text message, last night. What was Kai doing there... with a magnifier? Tentatively he asked again

“Kai, what are you doing there?”

The drummer didn't even look up

“HUSH!” he silenced the other “I'm in hot pursuit!”

And indeed he was. Kai had discovered a trail of crumbles that looked suspiciously like crumbs of double-chocolate cookies which led from his room, along the corridor towards the exit. That way were Ruki's, Reita's and Aoi's room. So he had managed to narrow down the pool of suspects. Or had he? The trail led on, past Aoi's room who had so blatantly disturbed his investigation, past Reita's room... before he could continue his paperchase Aoi's voice interrupted him.

“...you are still in your boxers...”

The guitarist's voice sounded slightly disturbed. Kai cursed inwardly. He had wanted to appear normal. Damn.

You may realise that Kai's perception of “normality” had already been badly affected.

“Kai...where did you get the magnifying glass?”

Aoi was somewhat afraid to explore this, but his gentle nature got the better of him. He was inclined to worry at this point nonetheless. He was trying to find a sensible explanation for this situation, but for the life of him he couldn't come up with one.

“The carnival store.”

This answer did nothing to drive away Aoi's worries. Plainly he didn't want to know the answer to his next question “Did you go there in you boxers?”

Meanwhile, Kai sat on his knees. The trail had let past all rooms and out the front door. So the thief had taken his cookies and made a run for it. Just walking out made it so much harder for Kai to gather evidence. Sneaky bastard! He made a “hrumph” noise of exasperation, stood up, walked past Aoi and headed back into his own room. The he remembered his normality dogma and stuck