I Know, You Know (Death Note) *L/OC*

03. On The Team

There was a long silence once I'd finished describing as much as I could. I sure as hell wasn't going to break it. This was all up to Gibson after all.

Eventually, he broke the silence. "Do you think there's a strong chance that Carter's possible affair could be linked to this case?"

"No," I admitted. "Not a strong chance. But it's a definite possibility. And I think that checking out Elizabeth's boyfriend has the potential to be very useful."

Gibson drummed his fingers on the desk. "Shou Tanaka has already been interviewed."

"Not by me he hasn't," I added confidently.

We stared at each other for a while until Gibson finally sighed. "You're not gonna let this go, are you?"

I smiled. "Not a chance in hell."

I thought I saw a hint of a return smile, but he controlled his expression before I could be sure. "Fine. You're on the case. I'd prefer you to be investigating alongside the police, rather than running around doing it on your own."

I beamed at him. "Thanks, Gibs, you're the best!" I leant over the desk and promptly kissed him on the cheek. He actually looked a little embarrassed. Bless his socks.

He held up his index finger before I could get too excited. "There are a few conditions... Take a seat."

"Okay, shoot," I said, settling into the chair opposite.

"Well, as I said before, we've already hired another detective for this," Gibson reminded. "So for anything relating to this case, you'll be answering to him."

Oh, yeah. I'd actually forgotten about the other detective... Damn, this was gonna make me competitive as hell. I tried not to flip out like I had yesterday. "Yeah, I remember," I said casually. "So who is it? Anyone I may have heard of?"

"I should hope so," replied Gibson. "I presume you've heard of L..."

To say I was surprised would be an understatement. "L? Are you serious; you got L on this?"

L was known to be the best detective in the world, followed by Eraldo Coil and Deneuve. I always liked to think I was the healthy fourth. I wouldn't have exactly said I idolised L... For one thing, I'm not prone to hero worship. And for another, nobody really knew anything about him, except for his case record as a detective. And I had to say, it was impressive.

The simplest way to put it was that I'd always had a lot of respect for him. And it made me a lot happier that he was the one Gibson had chosen over me for this case. It hadn't just been any old detective – it had been the best. Gibson hadn't been kidding when he'd said he was highly commended. I then remembered something else that he'd mentioned yesterday.

"Hang on, you said yesterday that Kenichi had worked for him," I pointed out. "Ken's really worked with L before?"

"That's right," Gibson confirmed.

"Well, he never told me," I said grumpily. Stupid, secretive bastard.

Gibson just laughed at the sulky look on my face. "I wouldn't worry, Gee. You know as well as I do that Kenichi's hardly the talkative type."

"True," I had to agree. "Man, I'm still shocked... So you've actually met the famous L?"

"Not exactly," answered Gibson. He saw my questioning look and carried on. "Technically, none of us have actually met him." He gestured quotation marks with his fingers.

"What; you guys have been doing all this over the phone?" I said, somewhat bemused.

"Close," said Gibson dryly. "We've been communicating with him via computer screens. Almost like webcam, except without video feed. And he uses voice emulators to disguise his voice."