The Little Dove #3 ✔️

60. Kenji + Edmund = Testosterone Dynamite

Nothing else.

We were clueless.

"You never know, one day maybe." Mom says, smiling widely. Her sunshine blonde curls flying with the wind as she widens her smile more, it felt good to actually spend time with her. I miss the business trips, I could tell her anything and I truly missed that.

Something Dad got jealous of.

When Mom made him hang with Mathias and Marvin the second I had an 'apparent' look on my face and needed Mom's motivational talks.

I roll my eyes, "If anything, I would have assumed you'd believe Marvin and Lorraine would be first on that spectrum?" I question, getting closer to the airport. We were on our way to Tokyo, where there had been a sighting of both Thea and Charlize. Mom called Hideyoshi, she set up a meeting, despite Dad's grumbles, even as Edmund asked me discretely if Kenji would also be involved and when I said he was, well-Edmund has had a clenched jaw ever since.

"Diana always said she knew those two would hit it off." Mom says, still grinning as a knowing look reaches the smile in her emerald eyes. I park in front of the family jet, removing my seatbelt.

Mom's smile turns small as she looks at me, "We're getting there, sweetheart."

I nod slowly, stepping out of the car after I give her a warm embrace. The jet felt so familiar when I stepped on with Edmund behind me after Dad gave him a swift talk about keeping it neutral in front of him and Mom...whatever that means. I take a small seat on the beige couch seat as Mom instructs the pilot, Dad rubs his hands down his face as Grandpa Stevens takes a seat on the side of Edmund and I, placing files on the desk. Marvin tugs Lorraine close into his side when they take a seat opposite us, while Mathias flicks the television on, in his own couch chair that twirls around.

Edmund presses a kiss to my temple, his hand rubbing circles along my mid back, "Are you alright?" He whispers, concern laced in his voice, but the strength in his expression calmed me enough to just nod as I place my head on his shoulder, he snuggles into me as his arm circles my hip and he holds my outer thigh, glancing over to Grandpa Stevens.

Who holds out a file to me, "This is all the information gathered on Charlize Northern, also known as Charlize Celestial. It was Ace Johnson who signed off the case as a suicide, when obviously it wasn't. Pictures of her sliced wrists were photoshopped and altered, meaning he did take photos of her, but we must assume she was alive at the time he did, he had her permission to stage her death in such a way." He explains, Mom takes a seat directly next to Dad, both in front of a table, where she spreads out more photos. Edmund takes a look at the script Johnson wrote about the so-called crime scene that was also staged.

I reach for another file on her and open it, only to regret what I see and slam it shut.

Edmund freezes next to me, "Open it, lemon." He tells me, his voice low as his thumb runs smooth, circular motions on my outer thigh.

I close my eyes, "Edmund-"

"I know what he's done, I've already seen it. Open it, baby." He says again.

I open the page, a woman-brunette hair and dark brown eyes, naked and bloodied on a dark red bed with a knife sticking out of her bare chest and the crime scene statin the woman was a prostitute and her last known client...was Oswald Creed. I flip the photo face down as Mathias side glances us, Marvin and Lorraine took a glance at it as well. Lorraine gasps with a hand over her mouth.

I take a deep breath as I look towards the details of known fingerprints on the murder weapon, the kitchen knife, large enough to slice an entire pumpkin, or thick, hard meat. I wasn't sure why it was related to Charlize, until I saw the hidden images of Oswald Creed and her out in public, this would have been over eight years ago, she looked younger with a furry hat over her head, they were sighted in Moscow. A black eye on her face and an aggressive-looking Oswald gripping her chin, making him stare up at her.