Unchained Memories *complete*

Author: JadeHeart
Fandom: Gravitation
Warnings: none really
Author’s Note: I’m going to play with Nittle Grasper a bit now, trying to draw on a lot of different things that are mentioned in the manga but we don’t necessarily get a lot of back ground information about. So I’ll just twist it to suit my universe of Gravitation!
Summary:. The bonds that tie Tohma and Jim Harris together - and introducing Kumagoro. (Side story to ‘The Key to My Heart’)
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this, apart from Jim Harris and Brian Turner; the rest belong to the creators of ‘Gravitation’.


Unchained Memories Chapter 6


Jim laid out the last of the pieces of papers and stared at the sheets of multicoloured portions before him. At first glance they all looked different; different sizes, different types of paper, different colours, different text. Looking at this rainbow there seemed nothing similar with any of it.

“So, what do you think?” he said, looking across the table to the person beyond and waiting for the answer.

When Tohma had first approached him at the party he had mentally shrugged and figuratively rolled his eyes at the paranoia of celebrities. He had been a little surprised when he had seen the sports bag almost filled to capacity, as he expected to be presented with only one or two, but this only made him slightly reassess his original viewpoint. After all, being a popular pop band as Nittle Grasper had become would surely also attract the weird and not-so wonderful followers. So he had still been unconvinced as to the seriousness of the situation. Deep down he had still felt that Tohma was probably over-reacting to everything but he had made the appropriate noises and promised to look into things, tucking the bag under his arm when he left.

However, despite his personal opinion, he had called in a favour by contacting an old friend, Brian Turner. The two of them had actually attended college together, all those years ago, and it had been a surprise to both of them to find themselves in the police force and in precincts adjacent to each other before they were amalgamated. Brian had branched into forensics and Jim had managed to, perhaps not exactly fast-track, but at least steadily, climb the ladder towards his goal; that of joining the FBI. He was now awaiting the final selection process to move into that elite group and leave the beat of a standard detective behind him - but until that happened he wasn’t going to rest on his laurels, nor would he let anything mar his clear work record.

“Hmm,” The other man leant forward, resting both hands flat on the table, peering down. Jim remained silent, just letting the other continue his examination. Brian walked slowly around the table, occasionally reaching out to shift a paper slightly.

“Well?” Jim queried after the other had completely circumnavigated the table and returned to where he had started.

Brian reached up a hand to push the hair back from his forehead to clear it from his eyes and tucked a stray strand behind his ear; the rest was caught back in a pony tail that trailed down his back.

“Well, you’re right,” he said, leaning forward once more and carefully picking up the sheet closest to him. “I would say these are all definitely by the same perpetrator.”

“You sure?” Jim was still a little skeptical; he couldn’t see any similarities between the multitude of pages before him. They had spent hours earlier this morning carefully sifting through the papers that had been stuffed into the bag Jim had brought in. The two of them had sorted every individual sheet into different piles in accordance to Brian’s instructions although Jim had had no idea what the criteria was for each. When they had reached the end, the largest heap was carefully laid on to the table as it was now.

Brian smiled at him, “I’m the expert, remember? That’s why you asked me about it.”

Jim acknowledged this with a shrug as he reached out and picked up a scrap before him. “So do you think we’re over reacting?”

“No,” Brian looked up from what he was examining. “I think there could definitely be something more here.”

“Like what?” Jim asked.

“Well,” His friend picked up two sheets and turned both pieces around to face Jim. “What do you see?” he asked.

Jim gazed intently at the items then shook his head as he shrugged. “Writing?” he hazarded a guess.

Brian laughed. “That’s why you need me!” he replied. He pointed to the letters and said, “Those that are handwritten are a little easier to work with, and even without checking in detail, I can see on these two that the letter ‘e’ is written in the same way so it’s more than likely it is written by the same person.”

“Really?” Jim leant forward peering at the pages, trying to see it the way Brian did. “I can’t see it.”

“You don’t have the eye,” Brian replied loftily. He frowned at the portions in his hands. “The author doesn’t appear to have made any effort to try to disguise their handwriting on these.”

“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Jim questioned.

Brian shrugged a little, “Usually. Hard to say just yet,” He laid the pages back on the table in their original places, before stepping back with his hands on his hips, surveying all they had laid out. “Well, you’ve certainly given me something to work on here,” He flashed a smile at Jim. “I haven’t had something this good for ages!”

“Glad you’re enjoying yourself.” Jim responded dryly also returning a sheet to the table between them.

Brian just grinned in reply. “Give me a couple of days and I should have something more to give you.” he promised.

“Sure, no rush,” Jim said.

He stripped off his gloves and dropped them into a plastic bag to be checked later for any possible residue traces that may have transferred to them from the papers. They were both wearing gloves, careful in what they were touching and trying to limit the contact as much as possible.

Jim left Brian to his task, confident that it was in good hands, and made his way back to his own office a few floors up. He would need to fill out the appropriate paperwork to show that this operation was undertaken by direct request from the complainant; that being Tohma Seguchi. He would also need to have a quiet word to his Chief about trying to keep this one under-wraps as much as possible, on a ‘need to know’ basis only, or it was liable to turn into a three-ring circus with the media speculation. Tohma had been very specific about that – very specific. Jim knew he could trust Brian, but he wasn’t too sure about some of the others who might try and get involved. After all, any case involving a high profile celebrity would be a real feather in the cap of an up-and-coming detective wanting to be noticed by the big-wigs upstairs. However, this wasn’t a time for flashy announcements and front page details. This time the case called for quiet and discrete.

He sat down, pulling the forms to be completed towards him and began briskly filling in the details, frowning. So Tohma hadn’t been over-reacting after all, he mused, the scratching of his pen filling the silence of the room. He had thought Tohma had seemed unusually subdued when he had been discussing things; now he realized that it had been due to worry.

He flipped the page over to begin on the second. Well, you shouldn’t have been so cocky, he mocked himself. Just because Tohma Seguchi was younger than himself, and in a profession that just didn’t seem like a real job to Jim, didn’t make him stupid or have poor judgment.

He had a flashback to a number of months ago, looking through the one-way glass at the person sitting in the room beyond. He had watched the interrogation from start to finish and in all that time he had been unable to read a single contrary emotion on that calm face, and the even tone of voice had given nothing away. It had seemed like he had been watching a brilliant actor, someone able to make every word and look perfect to fit the part that was being played. It was flawless – and Jim hadn’t known if it was the truth, or a lie.

Even now he didn’t know. Tohma Seguchi was not someone who let others know what he was truly thinking unless he wished them to. Jim couldn’t help but wonder if there was anyone who did really know that man. Perhaps his two friends, his other band members, but just how far would they go for him?

Jim raised his pen to his lips and chewed absently on the end for a moment as he gazed unblinking into the distance. Did Noriko and Ryuichi know what happened that night, he wondered. Had Tohma told them? Had they perhaps been involved even? He continued to chew. He knew it wasn’t as simple as the case had been made out to be. His gut instinct told him that and he trusted it completely. And he knew that it all hinged around Tohma Seguchi. That alone should have made him realize that this matter was more than what met the eye at first.

A bitter taste suddenly filled his mouth and he grimaced in distaste, removing the pen and wiping his lips with the back of his hand.

“Ah, geez!” he exclaimed as he stared at the blue smear over his skin. He could now see that he had succeeded in biting right through his pen to the ink-filled centre and the result was evident.

He tossed the damaged pen angrily into the bin and stormed out of the office to the bathroom. The ink taste was gross. He was going to have to have a very strong coffee afterwards to get rid of this after-taste.

************

“So what are we going to get Noriko?” Tohma wondered out loud as he and Ryuichi walked along the street lined with expensive stores.

They had headed out at lunchtime with the intent of finding a suitable engagement present to celebrate Noriko’s engagement to Tetsuya Ukai. Tohma still felt a little bemused about the whole event. No mater how he tried he just couldn’t picture those two together as a couple. He mentally shrugged. Well, they didn’t need his permission or acceptance to their union and it just goes to prove the old adage, ‘opposites attract’.

Despite Noriko’s initial threat of having Tohma and Ryuichi as bridesmaids, she and Ukai had opted to go for a more traditional wedding after all. Noriko was bound to have looked beautiful either way, and Tohma was of the opinion that perhaps a traditional setting would show Ukai off in a better light than a more modern event.

Although the wedding was some time away, one thing that Noriko was excited about at present was the engagement and the gifts that were beginning to come in; a broad mix between traditional and very modern. The news had leaked out quickly in Japan and much ado was made of it, yet it had remained a non-event so far on this side of the ocean.

Tohma knew that wouldn’t last for long but he also wasn’t certain what to expect from the media here; not when it was a Japanese marrying a Japanese, and the ceremony would be held back home as well. Sometimes the media was very insular in what it reported; and if it wasn’t occurring in their own back yard they didn’t want to know about it. Anyway, they would no doubt find out soon enough what the response would be.

At this stage however, it was still all quiet, and it had been the perfect opportunity for he and Ryuichi to try and sneak away whilst Noriko was busy with well wishes and preparations, in an effort to try and find a fitting gift.

“What do you think?” he asked his friend.

Ryuichi was looking very casual today; his normal charismatic stage presence completely masked beneath baggy jeans, brown sweatshirt, baseball cap and dark glasses. There wasn’t even a necklace or earring in sight. He had really made an effort to remain unnoticed for this excursion; a clear indication of just how important it was to him also, even though nothing he had said stated this. Tohma also had dressed down, and the two of them would be hard pressed to be recognized as the members of Nittle Grasper.

“It should be something nice, something Noriko can keep for a long time to remember us by,’ Ryuichi replied. He looked at Tohma as they casually strolled along. “Something she can hand down to her daughter.”

“Daughter?” Tohma raised an eyebrow in query. “She’s not even pregnant yet.” He peered harder at Ryuichi. “Is she?”

Ryu shook his head, “No, but she will be. She wants a family as soon as she can.”

“Hmm,” Ryuichi was probably right in that. Noriko would just love to have a child, someone she could lavish all her copious affection upon unstintingly. “She still might have a son though.”

Ryuichi gave a little shrug. “I think she’ll have a daughter,” He sounded very certain.

Tohma let it slide. “Well, you have a 50% chance of being right,” he said.

Ryu flashed him a wicked grin. “Unless you end up with both as one!”

Tohma nearly choked. “Do you mean a hermaphrodite?! Ryu!” He was a little shocked. Sometimes his friend came out with the most bizarre things!

Ryuichi just chuckled. “Think about it,” he said, linking arms with Tohma and pressing in tight against his side, still grinning wickedly. “Just think of the…..pleasure you could have on your own.” His voice had dropped to a seductive tone, and his hot breath caressed Tohma’s ear.

Tohma tried not to but was immediately assaulted by a very vivid and coloured vision in line with what Ryuichi was implying. He tried to shake it away but it stubbornly refused to fade quickly, as though deliberately trying to tantalize, tease and tempt. Sometimes it was a curse to have such a sharp mind as he did which acted so quickly to visualize everything said!

Ryuichi suddenly let out a laugh, breaking the mood, and abruptly disappeared into a mall they were just passing, leaving Tohma standing alone on the pavement. He wasn’t particularly worried at the sudden departure, so just waited patiently for Ryuichi to reappear which wasn’t long before he bounded back out through the doors he had entered, clutching a large plastic bag.

“What did you get?” Tohma asked curiously.

“This!” Ryu reached inside and pulled out a bright pink object.

Tohma blinked, trying to take in the item being waved before him. What was staring back at him with large unblinking eyes was a stuffed animal with long floppy ears. Tohma assumed it was supposed to be a rabbit, but if so it was the oddest looking bunny he had seen!

“Uhm, Ryuichi, I don’t think that is really an appropriate engagement present.”

“Aw, come on, Tohma. Don’t you think he’s cute?” Ryu said with a broad grin, bringing the toy up to bat it against Tohma’s face lightly.

Tohma gently brushed it away. “Ryu….” he began.

“Oh, don’t stress,” Ryuichi said airily. “We’ll get something proper as well. But everything’s going to be so formal and stuffy; I thought we should get Nori something different as well. I’m sure she’d appreciate something a little more fun!”

Tohma looked at the pink thing clasped tightly in Ryuichi’s arms. His friend had a point. Noriko did have a hearty sense of humour and probably would find it highly amusing. Then would promptly whack Ryu over the head with it afterwards. He smiled at the picture in his mind. That alone would be worth seeing.

“Come on then,” he said indulgingly to his friend, indicating his acceptance of the proposition. Ryuichi stuffed the toy back in the bag and linked arms with him once more, laughing. Tohma smiled at him, unable to remain serious in the face of such unbridled joy. “We’ve still got to find something a little more appropriate.”

************

Tohma looked and looked, and waited and waited, and all the while the feeling in the pit of his stomach grew; a feeling that he identified as not fear, it was far more intense than that. It was terror – pure terror. And with every passing moment it grew, raging inside his breast and ravishing his heart.

After a number of hours he had finally come to a decision then. Somehow, deep inside, he knew he wasn’t going to find Ryuichi here. His friend was gone, vanished without a trace. He had looked everywhere, retracing their every step that day, backtracking to every point of call. Nothing.

He had checked with everyone he could think of, which was a considerable list, everyone who could possibly have been in contact with Ryuichi in any conceivable way to see if anyone had seen his friend. There had been no favourable responses. He had been able to disguise his increasing agitation from the callers, able to brush of his own query with plausible excuses, and he knew that it was completely convincing, but when he had hung up from the final call all he felt was numb. No-one had seen or heard from Ryuichi. He had even called Noriko, but had been forced to cut short the conversation after she had replied in the negative to any knowledge of Ryuichi’s whereabouts for he knew that she would quickly pick up on his growing dismay and he hadn’t wanted to worry her. No doubt he would get an earful from her later on when she did find out but just then wasn’t the time.

He was now at a loss. He had walked the streets of New York, traveled to every place he could think of that Ryuichi might have been interested in going to or wanted to see, or liked, just anything! He had scoured shops, parks, attractions, businesses, he had walked until his feet hurt and talked until his voice was hoarse. Now, hours later, he had finally admitted defeat and returned to his dark apartment. His whole body ached – but not as much as his heart did.

He leant back against the wall not even bothering to turn on the lights, the thought of any illumination only serving to emphasise the dark despair that was wrapped around him. He didn’t know what to do. He had exhausted all avenues - except one.

His hand was shaking as he pulled out his phone once more, staring down at the silent object. Should he? He didn’t have any choice. He was out of options. It was time to face the demon.

He fumbled a little trying to draw his wallet out of his pocket, his usual calmness having completely deserted him. He flipped through the cards and notes contained within, finally clasping a small scrap of ragged paper tucked amongst the rest and pulling it out. He looked at it and then pushed the corresponding buttons, hearing the ringing in his ears, waiting. His anxiousness grew with every unanswered tone as hope plummeted once more. He had almost given up when finally he heard the click as the call was connected and a voice answered, “Hello?”

Tohma opened his mouth and found he couldn’t speak, his words completely frozen in his throat. It seemed that his fear had stolen his voice.

“Hello?” the query came again, in a tone slightly sharper.

Tohma tried again, forcing a word out. He had to try and pull himself together “Jim,” he all but croaked out.

“Who is this?” Jim’s voice sounded wary obviously not recognizing Tohma’s.

“Tohma,” he identified himself.

“Tohma?” Jim didn’t sound like he believed it was really him, and his surprise was evident. “What’s up with you?”

“Ryuichi….” He almost choked on the name, feeling like the air around him was trying to suffocate him. “He’s gone.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” There was confusion now.

“He’s gone. He was with me, and now he’s gone.” Tohma couldn’t come up with any other way to say it except the cold hard facts, each word cutting through him.

“Well, he can look after himself,” Jim began, “I’m sure he’ll be back soon.”

Tohma shook his head although there was no way Jim could see him. “You don’t understand,” he rasped out. “He’s gone. He’s not anywhere. He’s gone!”

There was silence for a moment. “You sure?” Jim was more serious now, and Tohma began to feel a small thread of relief as the man seemed to believe him. Jim wasn’t stupid, he could make things happen.

“Yes,” he replied a little more firmly, his normal certainty beginning to assert itself.

“Where are you?”

“My apartment,” Tohma replied, letting himself sit slowly onto his sofa. He felt short of breath for some reason.

“Sit tight. I’ll be there shortly.” Jim said briskly and he hung up.

Tohma put the phone down on the coffee table before him before clasping his shaking hands together, squeezing them tightly. He was still having trouble breathing, his throat so tight even as simple a thing as an inhalation of oxygen strained it.

Ryuichi, where are you? He called out with every fibre of his being but there was no answer. Nothing. Only silence - a deathly, lengthy, foreboding silence.

He dropped his head into his hands, feeling the tears sliding between his fingers to drop to his knees as his shoulders shook.

************

Jim almost ran to his car as soon as he hung up, ignoring the startled looks from his colleagues at his abrupt departure. He was beginning to have a bad feeling about this.

When Tohma had said Ryuichi was missing he had been inclined to brush it off as just more of the erratic behaviour of the unpredictable singer. He had only met Ryuichi Sakuma a few times but each had left him completely bemused and torn between puzzlement, amazement and just wanting to down-right snot the jerk! If he had thought Tohma Seguchi was an enigma, compared to Ryuichi Sakuma he was a simpleton! Jim didn’t have a clue what was going on in that nutcase’s mind – and he was absolutely positive he didn’t want to know either!

But then he had heard the tone of Tohma’s voice and his insistence that this was much more. He knew Tohma Seguchi was not one to loose his cool for anything. Jim had seen enough evidence of that. That he sounded close to a break down on the phone had set off alarm bells like air-raid sirens in Jim’s head. He had followed more than one hunch in this lifetime himself to completely ignore Tohma’s feelings on this matter, not when he had seen the evidence himself of how close the three band members were. If Tohma was worried, it probably meant there was something to worry about. It was just left to see how bad it really was. And that was the really scary part.

He had barely finished the first knock on the door when it swung open under his hand. He stood there for a moment looking on in shock at the being before him, almost unable to even comprehend what he was seeing. This was a sight that he couldn’t ever have conceived seeing in this life. Tohma Seguchi looked like hell.

The blond hair was in complete disarray, the normally bright clear eyes were dull and red rimmed. Lines around his eyes showed up starkly on the more than pale skin, and there were lines marring the usually smooth brow. Clothes that usually were crisp and smart and elegantly arranged to make a clear fashion statement no matter the circumstances, hung about his frame in disorder, rumpled and skewed and nothing like his normally dapper appearance at all.

“Please come in,” Tohma said quietly, stepping to one side.

Jim managed to shake his shock aside and stepped over the threshold. Tohma closed the door softly behind him, walking past where Jim stood uncertainly. “Please sit down. Can I offer you a drink?”

“Ah, no, thanks,” Jim sat as Tohma poured a stiff drink for himself, noticing the slight quiver of the hand and watched as Tohma tossed half of the drink down his throat in one gulp before turning to look at him. He didn’t even try to put on a fake smile. Jim realized then that this no false alarm; before him stood a man in the depths of despair. He now realised that this was probably the first time he had ever seen a glimpse of the real Tohma Seguchi.

“So what happened?” Jim asked getting straight down to business. Tohma didn’t look in any condition to drag this out and he had no intention in trying to make this any more painful than it already was for the other man.

Tohma slumped, he didn’t sit, he actually slumped, into a chair opposite Jim, raking fingers through his usually immaculate hair and the way that it was standing on end was evidence enough that it wasn’t the first time he had made this gesture.

“We were out shopping,” Tohma said softly, both hands now clasped tightly around the glass held between his knees. “We weren’t doing anything different to what we had done hundreds of times before. Then he was just…gone.”

“Where were you?” Jim said, opening his notebook.

Tohma told him as Jim accurately wrote down the information. He had Tohma go over the entire day, step by step, carefully questioning everything, clarifying, checking. He was thankful that Tohma was a very observant person, someone who was very aware of his surroundings and remembered events in great clarity. He was also glad that Tohma was able to obviously put aside his extreme pain and fear to be able to answer all Jim’s questions calmly and clearly and for however long it took.

Tohma had long finished the drink he had begun when Jim finally closed his notebook. The man before him looked completely wrung out, his eyes haunted. Jim had seen that look before, on too many faces over the years. That was the worse part of the job he believed. Seeing the anguish that the people involved in his cases went through. And too many times there were no ‘happy’ endings. He was desperately hoping that this one would prove to be the exception.

He stood to leave, there was nothing more he could do here. Tohma didn’t even acknowledge his movement so withdrawn was he. Jim’s heart went out to him.

He stepped over to where the other man sat and gently placed a hand on a shoulder, feeling Tohma start at the contact. “Try and get some rest,” he said quietly. “Leave the rest to me.”

Tohma said nothing as Jim walked to the door, but as he opened it, “Do you…?” Tohma began.

Jim didn’t turn. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly, not wanting to give any false hope. “I’ll be in touch.”

He gently closed the door behind him, catching a glimpse of the still seated figure where he had left it and trying to not let it remind him of a small abandoned broken doll.

********

Jim went straight to the station and found Brian already waiting for him. He had called him on the cell phone as soon as he had walked away from Tohma’s apartment and arranged to meet.

“What’s up?” Brian asked upon seeing Jim, pushing away from the wall and stubbing out his cigarette.

“We’ve got a problem,” Jim replied, leading him into the station and down to the lab.

“How come?”

“The recipient of those threats?” Jim said. “He’s missing.”

Brian paused in the act of slipping on his lab coat. “For real?” It wouldn’t be the first time that someone had panicked over someone’s absence and reported it, and yet the person concerned has turned up safe and sound a matter of hours later.

Jim nodded though. “I think this one’s for real.”

Brian pursed his lips. “Not good then,” he replied, as they pushed through the next set of doors and into Brian’s ‘inner sanctum’, as he liked to call it.

“What have you got?” Jim asked, pulling up a chair.

Brian sat and tapped quickly on a keyboard, pulling up some graphs and slides on multiple computer screens before him. “We’ve had the experts in and they were able to definitely identify the handwritten ones as being by the same person. They don’t appear to be taking any particular care in trying to disguise their style, the differences are simply due to the different mediums like pens and paper, and also likely the type of surfaces that the pages may be resting on at the time of writing. The type-pasted ones are more difficult but there are some similarities in residues on the pages that indicate that they too could be by the same person also.” He tapped one screen before him lightly. “These graphs have plotted all the different types of products we’ve identified for each. You can see the similarities.” Each identified sample was shown in a different colour and sure enough the majority overlapped between the multiple layers.

“So it’s a pretty safe bet we’ve got one person behind the most of it?” Jim questioned, scanning the data. He knew enough about what he was seeing to make some sense of it. Brian had only shown him the simplest identification data so he could follow it.

“So it would seem,” Brian agreed.

“So we’ve identified that it could be the same person doing all this, but does this mean what’s written in them really means anything?” Jim asked.

Brian pulled a folder closer and passed it to Jim. “A profiler put this together after going through this lot. You didn’t say you didn’t want it done so I made an executive decision. They weren’t told anything about who was receiving the letters, although it probably wouldn’t have been too hard to figure it out, although I don’t know if you had noticed but the author doesn’t mention your receiver by name once. There’s lots of references to sort of nicknames that the author has obviously labeled him with but his real name doesn’t come up once.”

Jim hadn’t noticed that, but he hadn’t truly read through every letter in close detail after taking them from Tohma. He had left it all in Brian’s capable hands to carry on with the relevant tests and he had honestly thought that there was plenty of time to deal with this situation. However, at that time he had thought he was just dealing with a harassment case. Now, he was far more afraid of just what he might be facing.

Brian continued, reaching out and tapping the file in Jim’s hand, “I don’t think it says much more than most of us could guess from it. We’ve all had dealings at one time or another with various nutters.” He didn’t sound like he put much faith in this part of police work, which was understandable. Brian dealt with the hard facts and liked it that way. The more abstract aspects dealing with the psychological areas of the cases he tended to brush aside.

Jim scanned the report, feeling a chill settle over him as he reread the last few paragraphs before looking over at Brian once more. “So they reckon this person could be a serious threat? That they could actual be motivated to carry out what they are saying?”

“Yep,” Brian agreed bluntly. “They seem to think that this is one boy who just might have a bite worse than his bark.”

“It’s definitely a male?” Jim flipped back through some pages, re-reading portions.

Brian shrugged. “Well, we all know they could be wrong, but they said that everything seems to point to it being a guy. No accounting for taste.”

“Hmm,” Jim dropped the file on the desk top, still feeling the chill. This was not looking good. “Okay,” he said standing. “I’ll get the paperwork rolling on this one ready for the Chief. Can you kick things up a notch on this one? See if any of this,” and he tapped the brightly coloured graphs still on the screen, “Can be narrowed down to something more useful.”

“It’s not likely it’s going to give you your man just from this,” Brian warned. “Even if we pick up any DNA from the stuff you need a body to match it with.”

“Yeah, I know, don’t sweat it, I’m not going to expect the impossible. But if you can narrow it down to any location, anything to maybe even give us a region to start with, that would help.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Brian then grinned at him. “The team’s going to love you,” he said cheerily. “You’re going to owe them donuts for the next month.”

“Tell ‘em I’ll even throw in the coffee if they make something happen,” Jim said with a return smile.

“You’re going to have to,” Brian said as he picked up the phone. “Because I’m calling them in now and we’ll be burning the midnight oil on this one.”