The Whitechapel Case [abandoned]

Prologue (Part 1)

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!"