In an apartment in another part of the city Jill sat transfixed in front of her computer monitor. She bit her lip thoughtfully listening to the conversations in Leon's apartment. Well, she really shouldn't have placed a bug under the bedside stand but there had been no way for her to be prepared for what came through the microphone. She reasoned with herself she hadn't meant any harm, after all, she had only wanted to make sure Leon was being nice to D (and apparently he was being very nice indeed). The first night she had been thrilled and scandalized to listen to Leon and D making love. It was so much more then what she had hoped for and so much better then watching Fake again. She had instantly gone on line and chatted with her friends on the yaoi list about how her two real life bishonens (of course she kept identities secret) had actually not only admitted they loved one another but had gone all the way! She was sure all of them had been pea green with envy. The various posts and emails just kept coming with questions and speculations. It seemed all of them wanted an update ASAP on the morning after. She had blown out of the office at 4:49pm and cut every corner she could think of in her rush to get home to listen. Jill had been stunned, to put it mildly, to find herself listening to not only their lovemaking (purring? D was purring?) but also a very in depth discussion of D's true nature. An instant message popped up over the top of the Chinese mythology website she was scrolling.
'Hi ya, Zodiac2000, so what's goin on with your boys huh? Trebledark' Jill blew out her nose in annoyance. Damn, she was going to have to get rid of them. She drummed in her fingers trying to think of something plausible. Two more im's popped up while she was turning it over in her head. Ahh, she had it!
'Zodiac2000 here! Hi everybody. Look, I hate to ask this but I need a black out on the little matter we were discussing last night. I have La Choy over spending the night. Had a little tiff with the Wild Cat…More later. Bye for now. Zodiac' Jill sent it up to everyone on the list using the code names she'd created for D and Leon. One by one the im's signed off some with little notations that they'd got the 'hint'. She hated blatantly fibbing to her friends but what else could she do considering the situation; put a little post that said gee thanks for being interested you'll be happy to know that my boys are doing just fine, lots of screwing going on and oh yeah, did I mention that La Choy isn't human?
Jill went back in earnest to scouring the web for all the vital information she could gather about kamis. Every now and then she'd stop the digital recording and back up to some piece she wanted to go back over and forage on with the information. Jill, by personality, was an amazing researcher. She could ferret out the smallest piece of information be it in electronic or paper form. Two core issues drove her to her task, and unsatiable curiosity of the unknown and the very real feelings she had for Leon and to a lesser extent D. Jill had a soft spot for the unruly detective and couldn't bear to see the lovers torn apart. Her fingers flew over her keyboard sending out a rhythmic clicking in the still room.
Jill had a knack for picking up acquaintances her intelligence and bright persona a magnet for others. One such fellow just happened to be Chinese and an expert in folklore. It was to her immense delight that he pointed her in all the directions she wanted to go. Chan answered her questions without hesitation or reserve. He also was amazingly polite and did not try to pry into why she wanted the information. Jill would have hugged his neck had he been there. She settled for sending him her complete thesis on the Zodiac Murders which he wanted to hug her neck for since they had been bantering the subject back and forth ever since they had both logged into the world's greatest unsolved mysteries as Zodiac2000 and Zodiac1970 respectively.
Jill copied everything to disk and shut her computer down her eyes burning from staring at the screen for so long. She ran her hand through her fine curly hair and smiled ruefully down at MoJo her cat.
"Well FatCat it seems its time for me to face the music and tell Leon what I know." The cat picked its ears up and twitched its tail.
"Yeah, I know, I'm so dead for this one. Still he might not kill me when he sees the information I got." Jill picked up the obese calico and carried her slung over her shoulder as she put the house down for the night. She checked on the water and food level in all three cat bowls, ditto for her rats, and ditto for the iguana. She absently scratched MoJo behind her ears as she went. Satisfied that all was well with her assorted animals Jill dropped the heavy cat onto her bed and went about getting ready to go over to Leon's.
Jill was glad she had changed into a comfortable pair of jeans and sneakers once she'd gotten out on the road. The air was chilly in the aftermath of the storm. She adjusted her glasses and pushed her hair back into a loose ponytail staring up at the darkened window of Leon's apartment. Now that she was here she was more then a little apprehensive about going up and telling them she'd eavesdropped. She really felt bad about it and if circumstances were any different she would never admit to it either. She scuffed her shoe against the pavement trying to build up her resolve. There was nothing for it really, the information she had could make a difference or at least give them hope. Jill looked up at the building again and nearly yelped when she saw a man standing on the thin ledge of window. She squinted her eyes trying to get a clearer look at his face. The wind picked up again and sent the clouds scurrying across the previously covered moon. The moonlight glinted off his long dark hair and the man lifted his face to the moonlight as if in welcome. For just an instant Jill was dumbstruck by the beautiful sculpted face and it's uncanny resemblance to D's. An electric jolt went through her though when she saw the long curved blade shimmering in his hand. Jill pulled her service revolver, released the safety and aimed it at the weapon. Police training dictated that she call for backup and wait unless the situation proved critical. Jill wobbled between her training and her gut instinct unsure which to follow the gun clenched tightly in both hands. A passing car backfired a block over and Jill jerked in sudden panic. Her gun went off with an equally loud bang and she watched horrified as the figure fell in a tangle of limbs from the building.
"Oh my God." Jill holstered her weapon and ran over to the figure. The car backfired again down the street and then all was quiet. She looked around the deserted streets and blackened windows. No one seemed to have noticed the gun shot. Probably thought it was the car back firing she mused to herself. She reached the man's side and kneeled down beside him. A puddle of blood had formed beneath him and everywhere the blood was small tendrils of vines had begun to form. Jill reached out tentatively and touched one of the plants. She began to shake violently as the enormity of what she had heard took a sudden sickening crash into reality. It had not been real to her before, like hearing a person is dead but not really believing it until you see the corpse. She reached for the man rolling him over on his back. A palm size exit wound could be seen where her bullet had torn through part of his chest. She snatched off her jacket and pushed it against the wound applying pressure unsure if it would help or not. A gurgling noise brought her attention to his face. Two deep purple eyes blinked back at her in shock a thin tendril of blood ran from the side of his face down into his neck and jaw line. He tried to rise but Jill put a steadying hand on him.
"No, no. Don't try to get up just yet you're injured." He blinked at her again in confusion and then his eyes rolled back and his body went completely limp.
"Oh, great, now what?" Jill muttered to herself. She couldn't believe she'd gotten herself into this. She couldn't take him to a hospital and she couldn't just walk away from someone who was injured and she sure as hell wasn't leaving him to cause Leon and D anymore trouble.
"Damn, damn, damn, and damn." Jill hooked her arms underneath his armpits and started lugging him back towards her car. Well, there was nothing for it she reasoned I'll just have to take him home with me. She clamped her handcuffs on him and drew the symbols Chan had told her to on his forehead with a black grease pencil
"Guess you and I are gonna find out if these Chinese holding spells really work, huh?" Jill asked the silent form closing the car door on him. She drove off back towards her apartment unaware of the woman watching her from Leon's bedroom window.