They still didn't have a plan.
Not a clear plan, at least. The successors spent the whole night before debriefing L and Jubilee on their respective observations throughout the day, before the conversation began to disintegrate into an argument between Mello and Near. L, having quickly mastered the fine art of breaking up fights via diversion, had interrupted before it could escalate.
"The only way I see around avoiding your deaths," Near had said, the robotic filter masking any hint of feeling from his voice, "Is to apprehend the weapon that Kira plans on using to kill you, before he has a chance to do so. In other words, we need to find the Death Note that Teru Mikami is using."
"What do you think we've been doing, genius?" snapped Mello.
"Thank you, Mello," returned Near calmly, "For your long delayed acknowledgment of my intellect."
L spoke up before Mello could reply with an inevitable outburst of fury.
"There are two things to note," the detective announced, sticking two pale fingers in the air that only Jubilee could see. "One...if we were to apprehend the notebook that is currently in Mikami's possession, we may well be able to prevent both our own deaths and that of criminals—but we would lose our current lead on finding Kira. In which case, I believe that we'd only be stalling those deaths. And two...Mello has pointed out in his recent report that Light is likely in possession of a third notebook. True, he may be reluctant to surrender it over to Mikami, as he would lose his memories again...but it serves as an effective back-up, and I have no doubt that he would do so as a last resort. Near, I imagine you have already formed similar suspicions."
"Yes," responded the younger successor tonelessly. "As I said, I was merely stating what would prevent yours and Miss Julie's immediate deaths, and the rest of the Task Force."
Something about that statement finally clicked in Jubilee's brain, and she gave a gasp of realization. L glanced at her.
"What is it, J?" he asked.
"The Chief..." she whispered, staring ahead in horror. "Mr. Yagami is part of the nine that is supposed to be there at the warehouse. Light couldn't—he wouldn't...!" She turned to L with wide eyes. "Would he kill his own father?"
"Yes," answered L and his three successors simultaneously.
"Finally got the memo, J?" said Mello dryly. "The guy is a blackhearted killer. He won't hold back, so neither should we."
"You're so innocent, Jules," added Matt with a sigh.
Jubilee bristled slightly and was about to point out that she was a decade older than him, when L cut in once more.
"Back to the point," said the detective. "I do agree that we should find the notebook that Mikami is using. J, as you have reported based on Wedy's surveillance, we have yet to even witness him writing in it. That leaves a lot of holes in our physical evidence, and as you already know we cannot apprehend either him or Light based solely on the hazes you see over them. If we can discover the location of where he is hiding the notebook, as well as the times when he writes in it, then we will have the upper hand and can form a clearer plan."
"But how do we do that?" she asked despairingly. "I've watched hours of footage of him and haven't caught him pulling out a notebook or writing. Wedy's got his apartment bugged pretty well, and it doesn't look like he's doing it there. She's installed cams in his cubicle at work too, and she follows him and watches him when he's on the train or at the gym...but still, neither of us have seen anything. It's got to be another time that he writes in the notebook, but I don't know when."
"Maybe Aiber should be the one monitoring him instead of Wedy," suggested Matt. "So that he can follow him into the bathroom at work and the gym's locker room."
"Aiber's already been hired as one of Takada's full-time bodyguards," refuted L. "To abruptly pull him from that position so that he could infiltrate Mikami's workspace would arouse suspicion. Besides, I believe that Wedy is capable enough."
Jubilee brooded over this for a second. "I guess I can ask her if she can infiltrate the men's locker room," she began thoughtfully, then made a face. "Though if she ends up installing cams, I might make either her or one of you guys monitor that bit." She shuddered at the thought of sweaty naked men—all gung-ho gym junkies, based on Wedy's description of the general demographic populating Mikami's gym of choice—strutting around to compare muscles...and other things.
L had turned to her. "Why?" he asked curiously. "It's nothing you haven't already seen plenty of before."
She whipped around to him, her jaw dropping. His tone had been matter-of-fact and the expression he wore now was completely blank and uncondemning, but the sudden indirect reference to her checkered past made her turn scarlet. She reached over and furiously jabbed the mute button.
"Can you not say things like that in front of the kids?" she hissed.
L looked genuinely confused now. "Things like what? I was merely stating a fact."
She sputtered for a few seconds, at an utter loss as to how to explain tact and propriety to someone this socially oblivious.
"Boys' locker room shenanigans is something I never have, nor ever want to see," was all she could finally manage to say, with some shred of dignity.
L thought about that for a second, then gave a nod. "Fair enough." He turned back to the monitor and unmuted the call. "As I was saying," he went on without missing a beat, "Our priority now is to discover the location of Mikami's Death Note. Please make that your primary objective until further notice."
"Yes, sir," chorused all three boys.
Now Jubilee was seated on the floor of her room again, staring ahead at the lower-case w on her screen as her mind whirred to reevaluate the entire situation.
"What do you think of tailing Mikami into the locker room?" she asked Wedy.
"No problem," answered the pro thief easily, her low voice filling Jubilee's headset.
Jubilee was a little stunned by her lack of hesitation. "Really?"
"I just have to slip in without anyone noticing me." Wedy's tone was dismissive. "The majority of the gym-goers there can hardly take their eyes off of themselves. It'll be easy."
Jubilee envied the other woman's confidence. "If it's so easy, then why didn't you do it from the get go? And what about once you're inside the locker room? How are you going to avoid a bunch of men seeing you?"
"I spent the last two days scoping out the layout of the women's locker room and the rest of the building, so that I'd know the most discreet route to traverse from one row of lockers to the next without being seen," said Wedy, effectively answering all of Jubilee's questions in one sentence. "Based on the building's structure, the men's locker room most likely has the same layout as the women's. On top of that, assuming Mikami keeps up his precise schedule like he has for the past two and half days—and I'm willing to bet that he will, because I've never seen an individual function like clockwork the way he does—he will work out half an hour longer than the rest of the after-work crowd, and then there will be few if any others left in the locker room by the time he goes in. Also, it's the middle of the week—pretty low crowd as it is."
Jubilee shook her head in bewilderment. Was everyone that L associated with always so brilliantly analytical?
"If you're wanting me to follow him in when he first gets to the gym, though," Wedy went on, "That's trickier. You're better off just waiting for me to install cams."
"Uh, no, that's okay," said Jubilee quickly. "Let's just start with you following him in after he's done working out, and then...and then we'll go from there."
"If I'm there already, I might as well."
Jubilee thought fast. Despite the awkward conversation with L last night, she would still most likely end up having to watch any such footage because of her sight.
"I mean, I just think it's unnecessary," she countered. "You said that by the time he's done there's barely anyone still around. If the locker room is where he's writing in the Death Note, then that would be the time to do it, not when there's a bunch of other gym-goers around."
There was a slight pause, and then Wedy acquiesced, "That's logical."
Was it? Score.
Hellenos quietly laughed at her from his position behind the couch, as Wedy continued, "I'll get that done when he leaves work in a few hours, and I'll report to you what I see. In the meantime I'll let you know if anything else comes up."
"Great, thanks Wedy," said Jubilee, and the other woman hung up. She turned to glance at the angel behind her. "Do you have to keep laughing at my expense? I was freaking out too much last night to see you the whole time, but I'm pretty sure I heard you cracking up when L dropped that one line on me, too."
I wasn't laughing at your expense, said the angel innocently. I was laughing at your expression.
"Oh, that's better," she muttered, turning back to her laptop and pulling up surveillance footage. Moodily she fast forwarded through all of it, her eyes scanning every corner of the screen to look for anything noteworthy.
I don't know what you were so displeased about, continued Hellenos airily. Clearly, between you and that boy, you're the only one who still sees something wrong with yourself.
Her fingers paused for a moment over the mouse before she continued clicking on to the next video. Not wanting to think about what L did or did not see in her, she adamantly focused her entire attention on surveying footage. Time passed by in a blur as hours and hours of Teru Mikami going about his day played before her eyes. Mikami having the dinner the night before. Mikami lying in bed, his eyes staring up at the ceiling before slowly closing. Mikami getting on the train, Mikami getting off the train. Mikami sitting in his cubicle and steadily typing away.
Besides the darkening haze over him and the ever present Cheshire grin above him, there was nothing suspicious happening around him at all. Nothing that could count towards physical evidence.
Finally, at six' o clock', she watched the grainy live footage of Mikami entering the downtown gym and disappearing from view. Not long after, the tall and lithe form of Wedy, clothed in a black tank top and sweatpants, walked through the doors also. Then, nothing.
Jubilee sighed heavily and lowered her face into the crook of her arm. Her head hurt. And she was hungry. Pulling off her headset, she dragged herself upright onto her feet, and made her way over to the kitchen to start on dinner.
Hellenos glided over, coming to a stop beside her at the stove. Together they watched meat sizzle in a skillet for a few minutes.
Now what? he finally asked her.
"Now I fuel this earthly vessel called a body with food, and I wait," she answered grumpily. "For Wedy to hopefully discover something earth-shattering in the locker room, so that we don't have to resort to installing cams there."
Hellenos graciously said nothing. The truth of the matter was that Jubilee couldn't afford to be embarrassed by what she may or may not witness over surveillance and she knew it. If it had to come down to it, they were going to install cameras in a men's locker room, and she was going to monitor the footage, naked men or not. That didn't mean she would like it though.
She ate her dinner in despondent silence, then washed the pile-up of dishes in the sink and was halfway through cleaning the entire kitchen, just to stall from having to go back and watch more monotonous footage—Hellenos tutted quietly at her as he watched, but still said nothing—when her headset started buzzing from across the room. Relieved to have another excuse to procrastinate, she hurried over to answer it.
"Hello?" she said to the w that popped up on her screen.
Wedy neither greeted her nor announced herself. "I saw him using the notebook," she declared without any introduction.
Jubilee's mind came to a standstill. "What?" she said dumbly.
"Mikami's Death Note," the pro thief enunciated slowly. "I saw him use it. It's in his locker."
Jubilee's heart started to pound. "...Really?"
"Do I sound like a woman who makes jokes?" returned Wedy, her voice as stoic as ever. Yet underneath the aloof tone was a rare trace of excitement. "I took photos of all the names written in it."
"You what?"
Wedy sucked in a sharp breath, like she was about to tell Jubilee to stop saying what and to please keep up, but at the last second reined in the impulse and repeated, "I photographed all the pages that had names on them."
Jubilee was dumbfounded. "But how?"
"I broke into his locker after he left."
"So you touched it!"
"Obviously," said the other woman, not unkindly. "I'll send the files to you. What are your next instructions?"
"Wait, hold on..." Jubilee's head spun as a thought occurred to her, and her voice trembled at her next words. "If you touched the notebook, then did you—did you see—"
"I didn't see a shinigami, no," said Wedy. "But I broke into Mikami's locker after he was gone. So maybe it's with him."
Though the thief's voice remained level, it was the first time Jubilee had ever detected a hint of nervousness in it. Even someone as cool and collected as Wedy wasn't entirely prepared to come face to face with a demon then. Which made it rather brave of her to have risked the possibility of that happening at all. Jubilee wondered which shinigami might Wedy have encountered, had it been around. She shuddered to think that it could have been Ryuk. She didn't wish such an encounter on anybody.
Returning her attention to the situation at hand, she said softly, "So we've got sufficient evidence to apprehend Mikami now." But it's still not enough evidence to incriminate Light...
"Your next instructions?" prompted Wedy again.
Jubilee hesitated. It still made her uncomfortable to think that someone as capable as Wedy was willingly acting as a subordinate under her—especially when she had no idea what she was doing half the time. Again she lamented the fact that L had thrown her headfirst into being in charge when she had no experience or skillset.
A fading Hellenos sighed from beside her.
Has it ever occurred to you, said the angel, the volume of his voice soft as his form flickered in and out, That if he, of all people, believes in you...then there is something in you that is worth believing in?
She covered the mic of her headset with one hand. "I have no idea what to do," she whispered.
You do, Hellenos dismissed with a wave of his hand. You just don't know that you do.
Jubilee stopped short at that. She didn't know that she knew what to do? How did that even make any sense?
On the other end of the line, Wedy waited.
Jubilee uncovered her mic. "Okay...so we know where Kira's current weapon is located now and what times he writes in it," she began to babble, deciding to taking stock of the situation out loud until something came to her. "And we have photo evidence, enough to apprehend the current hand of Kira—if we wanted to."
Wedy didn't interrupt, letting her verbally process.
"But if we apprehended him now," she continued, "We'd lose our lead on Light. We could confiscate the notebook, to prevent any further deaths—" Including our own, she thought. "But then Light would be on to us, and we'd probably still lose our lead on him," she finished, a sinking feeling in her stomach. Having run out of things to say, she went silent, thinking hard. Then an idea hit her. "Wedy, what does the paper in the notebook look like? Could—could you replace it?"
"It looks like normal notebook paper," answered Wedy. "It would be fairly easy to replace. But, based on what I saw from flipping through it, it looks like he writes exactly one page of names a day. Judging by how meticulous he's been in literally everything he does, he'd probably notice if even one person that he wrote down failed to die...let alone a whole page."
Jubilee thought quickly. "Maybe we can have the news falsely report their deaths. It would only have to be for about a week, until after the whole warehouse incident is over. L could probably think of a way to swing that...right?"
"Probably. He's managed to do that sort of thing before."
"We'll need to know the exact names that Mikami writes down each day though," Jubilee realized. "You'd have to break into his locker each night to find out and take pictures. Can you do that?"
"Yes," affirmed Wedy without pause. "So is that what you want me to do? Replace the rest of the blank pages tonight, and then take pictures of each page he writes every night after that?"
Jubilee hesitated then. "Maybe—maybe I should check with L, first...or—?" She flailed for a few seconds, suddenly frozen at the idea of calling the shots. What if this was a bad idea? Or what if—her stomach dropped at the thought—what if, somehow, this was what Light was already anticipating?
Was that even possible?
"So you want me to hold back then?" asked Wedy, to the point as always.
"I—" she stammered, unsure, then admitted, "I don't know. I could run it over with L tonight, but I don't know if losing any time is worth it. How long would it take you to replace the pages?"
"Probably the whole night to do a careful job and leave no trace."
"So if you don't do it tonight, we'd lose a whole day until you get the chance again tomorrow," she concluded, her head suddenly swimming with indecision.
"Right."
Jubilee rubbed her temples. "I don't know," she repeated. "I don't want us to waste any time, but I don't know if doing something like this would be rash. What do you think, Wedy?"
"Ryuzaki told me to follow your instructions," said the thief simply. "If you tell me to replace the pages, then I'll do it. If you tell me not to, then I won't. That's all I have to say."
So make a decision.
Jubilee bit her lip. It had been a long time since she'd gone out on a limb and taken initiative. Throughout the case she had always defaulted to L's orders, even back when she still resented him. Before that, she had higher-ups at Wakahisa whom she had deferred to. The last time she'd made a decision that had major impact was when she came to Japan—when she had decided to run away from all her problems. And before that, it had been when she started stealing, and decided not to stop.
The track record of big decisions that she had made so far in her life was not something she could look upon without cringing. Not that she regretted coming to Japan—after all, she would have never met L or all of the friends she had made at Wakahisa and the Task Force otherwise. But, deep down, there was an inherent fear that she couldn't trust herself to make the right choices anymore.
L trusts you.
A warmth fluttered through her heart at the thought, and the image of a faraway and radiant face flitted through her mind's eye.
Dad trusts you.
That revelation overwhelmed her for a second. She didn't deserve anyone's trust, not after all she had done. So why was it being given to her so readily?
Next to her, Hellenos gave her a wink. He does everything for a reason, doesn't He?
Jubilee thought of Pastor Andrews and how he had just happened to be at the scene of her death to pray for her. She thought of how Light had just happened to pass her in the street on the day L was monitoring him and apprehending suspects. She thought of how all of that had led to her becoming a part of this investigation and, ultimately, to falling in love with L and being present at the scene of his death.
How would things be now, if even one of those scenarios had played out differently?
Yes, she realized suddenly. Yes, He does.
Taking a shuddering breath to steady her nerves, she said, "Okay. Do it, Wedy."