Riddles {a Death Note MelloXOC and NearXOC story}

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow

A/N: This is not the last chapter, by the way. There will be an epilogue after this that takes place in the present (early 2015), so don't worry: this isn't the conclusion.

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Patience

As L, Near now had a whole lot more resources at his disposal, so I decided to use that to my advantage. He allowed me to access old police files of closed cases. It took hours; so many people with similar names and trying to deduce if it was related to me or not, but then one file in particular caught my interest as I delved further into its contents.

1993. Maine. Names of those involved included a man by the name of Casey Riddle.

The Endrizzi crime family. That was what the majority of the report was about. A mafia gang whose territory was located throughout New England.

An attempt to infiltrate the mafia's hideout in Maine was made. Over the course of several months, Casey Riddle, using the alias Guido DiStefano, made contact with members of the Endrizzi family, working as an undercover agent for the authorities. After a while, things became suspicious, and it was unclear if Casey was still loyal or if he was now working with the Crime Family, discretely feeding them information. A raid on the base was planned. It's still unclear whether or not the raid had been a surprise or if Casey had secretly informed the Crime Family, but it ended with casualties on both sides, including the death of Casey Riddle, who was shot in the heart.

Casey Riddle. There wasn't much information I could find on him, seeing as he worked undercover. I marked the file so that I could come back to it if needed. It only held a few potential connections to my past, though.

I did more searching until I eventually came upon another report. A suicide report; it's custom for the police to look into suicides to make sure that there wasn't any foul play involved.

1993. New Hampshire. Victim named Emily Riddle, maiden name unknown. Died after jumping off of a bridge.

No parents, siblings, or other relatives of which to speak. Little information on her past could be found, though it was noted that she grew up in Winchester, Hampshire, in an orphanage called the Wammy's House. Further investigation revealed that her husband Casey had died after being shot during a mugging, though the case was never solved. Emily had lived in Maine with her husband and child, but she killed herself in New Hampshire.

After a New Hampshire newspaper published a story about her death and the unknown location of her child, a woman came forward, claiming that the child was left in her custody shortly before the death of Emily, whose intentions had been unknown to her. Attached to the report were copies of the wills of Casey and Emily Riddle stating that, in the event of their deaths, their daughter was to be put into the custody of Casey's sister, Annabelle Riddle.

The child's name was Piper.

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I walked into my bedroom and dug through my drawers until I found the business card Jessica had given me, and then I fished my RAZR out of my pocket. (Birdie was right, I really needed to get a new cell phone.) I punched in the numbers and listened to the dial tone until I finally heard the click of a phone being answered.

"Hello?"

"It's Piper." I hadn't used that name in a long time.

There was silence.

"Not Patience?"

"No," I said. "Piper."

"What can I do for you, Piper?"