Findings

Chapitre 6

The day Pieck had discovered Levi's letters, excitation from a whole new investigation in time she had just started had been her major driving force. Though she hadn't missed Reiner's first astonishment when she had told him the letters' content. "He kept writing without any answer? For two years?"

Of course, two years surely was long. It surely had to be. When she had thought about her own last two years, Pieck had looked back at a lot of her own achievements, a lot of first-times typical of a young student life, first diplomas, first flat, first part-time job, first wages, first holidays with friends, first hangover after getting smashed, first protests, first festivals... She lived all of this in such a little lifespan, and her own daily life seemed radically different two years ago. Her last two years had been one of the most disrupting of her life, her parents' divorce aside.

Surely Levi would have felt the same a decade ago. Two years of waiting an answer from a loved someone had to been a hell of an ordeal...

That day, after Commander Pixis had generously helped them, once Pieck and the guys got back in Porco's car, the latter had triumphantly stated:

- We know what happened! This Petra Ral was jealous!

They had decided to first get back to their flat so they would be well settled to call the phone numbers Pixis gave to them. Porco had taken the wheel, while Reiner had sat down with Pieck at the back seat, and they were searching on his computer the names they had finally got, while their driver was exposing his own personal, fantasy theories.

First, for her peace of mind, Pieck searched again for "Levi Ackerman", adding "Stohess" in the browser. However, they got confirmation that Levi was nowhere to be found on internet or on social medias. So she instead started to search for an Erwin Smith. And this time, it was the other way around. She found at least four Erwin Smith, of course nowhere on social medias where she could have contacted them, but on various websites; one was at the head of a publishing house, another was an history teacher, the third one appeared on an article about a non-profit organization's event, and the last one seemed to have won the fourth price of a cake contest. None of those guys were around Stohess at all, from what Pieck could find. She searched if it was possible to find any photo she could compare with the records they got, but it seemed like she got lucky enough for the day: out of the four suspects, she didn't find any portrait.

- And what if we try to contact them to ask them whether they know any Levi Ackerman or not? The one we're searching must be among them, Reiner suggested.

She nodded. It would be what she would do if Erwin's old phone number didn't allow them to contact him. She made sure to save the links with all those Erwin Smith, and then started to search for any Petra Ral.

- Why are you searching for Petra? Porco asked from the driving seat. She's most likely our first suspect, isn't she? You really want to contact her?

- I'm just searching, Porco.

Browsers didn't find any Petra Ral, but then Facebook suggested her some profiles, including one which especially caught her attention. They had saw Petra's photo on her records, and in 1996 she had been a little red haired teenager with a bob cut which gave her an angelical look. From the archive, Petra was born in 1981, she was fifteen years old when she did her internship at Cayez's post office. She was three years younger than Levi back then, and at this day, she was twenty-nine. Pieck had just found a "Petra AuRL" in Orvud's urban area, around this age. But Pieck wasn't sure of the profile picture, and for good reason: this Petra was posing in front of a mountainous landscape, so quite away from the lens. She was all smiles, wearing sunglasses, and overall, in her arms was a young baby.