Zechs opened the door to Seely’s room, somehow not surprised to see Solo sitting in the middle of the bed with the little girl still clinging to him and clutching her teddybear. Treize was leaning against the wall to one side, out of Seely’s line of sight. Zechs had waited until the forensics team had finished, so that there would be no interruptions when he asked Seely about her kidnapping. He was under no illusions that this was going to be easy or pleasant for any of them, living or dead.

Solo looked up as he entered, wary gray eyes dark with anger. He was glowing again, which Zechs was learning was a sign of extreme anger with him. Thin arms tightened protectively around the little girl. Closing the door behind him, Zechs moved closer to the bed.

“Solo…” He sighed, speaking softly but out loud. Dorothy was lurking in the hall, keeping watch and prepared to keep everyone away from the room for a while; so he didn’t worry too much about being overheard. “I need to talk to her….”

Solo glared up at him, tightening his arms protectively.

‘It’s the only way we’re going to find out what happened, kiddo,’ Treize said softly from behind them. Zechs was oddly relieved to have his friends support. I’ve really got to ask Duo why Solo is so hostile towards us…

‘Nothin’ she can tell you is gonna help,’ Solo finally muttered. ‘I already asked.’

“Did she see who took her?” Zechs prompted evenly, trying to be patient with the ghost. It was still rather odd to have Solo actually speak to either of them, and not just hover behind Duo.

‘No…’ Solo frowned, and looked disconcerted for a bit. ‘She doesn’t r’member being taken nowhere.’

“Does she… know where she is…? Where her body is…?”

Solo looked away. ‘Someplace dark.’ He shrugged. ‘She don’t know why her parents won’t hold her… she don’t understand… what happened. She’s just a kid.’

“Shit…” Zechs frowned. “There has to be something she can tell us….”

‘It may take a while.’ Solo scowled at him. ‘Even for ‘dults, who’re old enough to know what’s happened, dying is fuckin’… confusing.’

‘He does have a point there,’ Treize sighed. ‘I… it is rather disorienting at first.’

“Great….” Zechs rubbed his eyes wearily. “And while we’re waiting for her to understand and be able to tell us what happened, the bastards who kidnapped her are also getting away with murder. And I can’t prove it without a body.”

‘You sure?’

Zechs frowned at Solo. “You’re holding her ghost. Yes, I’m sure. But I can’t just tell her parents that I know she’s dead because I saw her ghost in their living room.”

‘Not about her bein' dead. That she was kidnapped.’

“What?” Both Treize and Zechs stared at him in surprise.

‘I was listening to Duo too,’ Solo muttered sullenly. ‘Of all of us, he was the best at breaking an’ entering. He didn’t find anyway somebody coulda got in or outta the house. And she doesn’t remember being taken.’

“Maybe she was already dead?”

‘Why would anyone, even a nutter, wanna bother taking a kid as was dead?’

“To get the ransom,” Zechs shrugged. “They did call and demand one. It was a kidnapping.”

“An' I thought nuns were bad ‘bout seeing stuff in black an' white…” Solo muttered, and suddenly vanished, taking Seely with him.

‘Well… I think that went rather well.’ Treize rolled his eyes. ‘Is Duo that stubborn a pain in the ass?’

“On occasion,” Zechs sighed. “At least now I see where he gets it from.”

* * *

Dorothy glanced up as Zechs stepped out of Seely Jameson’s bedroom. His expression told her that it hadn’t gone well, and she threw him a sympathetic smile.

“You okay?”

“I’ve been better,” he sighed, and rubbed his eyes wearily. “Though right now I really want to strangle Duo’s friend Solo. Too bad he’s already dead.”

“That could make it difficult.” She shook her head ruefully. “Duo’s waiting downstairs.”

“Good…” Zechs stretched a little. “Hopefully he’s gotten the surveillance video from his friend.”

“Yeah….” She nodded unhappily, then followed him down the stairs silently. She could see the strain on both of her partners from hiding the fact that they knew the child was dead. Thank God Duo got over his whole “no lying” thing. She shook her head a little.

“What…?”

“Nothing… just thinking.” She managed to dredge up a small smile, since no one was watching them for the moment. “You holding up okay? So far you’ve had it the worst out of all of us.”

“I’ll live,” He said, then winced as he thought of Treize.

“Good…” She felt the smile become a little more real. “Cause neither of us can talk to dead people if you didn’t.”

He managed a wan smile in return.

It took a bit of searching before they finally found Duo, standing in the hall outside of the living room. He was lost in thought, his hands shoved deeply into the pockets of his jacket and rocking back and forth on his heels.

“Hey.” Zechs moved up behind him. “Where is everyone?”

“I think Une is trying to get everyone cleared out,” Duo didn’t look up, still frowning thoughtfully. “The police are staying here tonight, and so are the squad of night shift Preventers that just showed up to relieve us.”

“I thought they were bringing that squad in to search the grounds outside.”

“Decided to wait for daylight.” Duo finally looked up. “Don’t want to risk missing something or stepping on it in the dark and destroying evidence. Even with lights.”

“Hm. So Une is kicking us out…?”

“They figure not much is gonna happen tonight.” Duo shrugged. “The kidnappers gave them until noon, so no one expects to hear much of anything from them tonight. She figures if we sleep now, we’ll have a better chance of catching them tomorrow at the drop.” He glanced up at Zechs and raised one brow questioningly. Zechs shook his head, understanding by the fact that Duo didn't ask the question out loud that Une was near.

“Alright. Let me tell her we’re leaving.”

None of them spoke again until they were halfway back to headquarters. Zechs filled them in on his conversation with Solo as he drove. Duo bit his lip, then glanced at them nervously.

“I got the surveillance disk from Gary. Figured it might be better to watch it at HQ rather than in the Senator’s house.”

“Good,” Zechs nodded. “There has to be something here we’re missing.”

“Um…” Duo fidgeted, then looked up at them guiltily. “And I did a little… snooping while I waited for you guys.”

“Snooping…?” Zechs narrowed his eyes at the younger man. “Why are you acting like we’re going to be mad at you? That’s our job.”

“Yeah… but…” Duo shrugged. “I still feel weird about…you know.”

“You touched something in the house,” Dorothy said grimly. “Duo, why the hell didn’t you wait for one of us? What if someone had seen you have a hallucination?”

“I was careful, no one was around… and it was the first time the room had been completely empty… so I took a chance,” Duo said defensively. “You didn’t get mad at Zechs for talking to ghosts.”

“He has a point there… what’s the good of having these abilities if we don’t use them?” Zechs smiled at his partners as he pulled the car into the parking garage at headquarters. “So… what did you touch?”

“That table. The one her ghost was hiding under. I figured… there had to be a reason she was hiding there, right?”

“Right. I should have thought of that…” Zechs groaned.

“You had other things on your mind,” Dorothy reminded him. “And? What happened.”

“Nothing much. I got a lot of impressions of her hiding under there… it’s decked out like a little cave with a pillow, and a few toys. It… it felt really warm, and kind of comforting, and very secret. Except… there was one impression of her hiding under there when she was scared. She… was thinking that no one would find her, no one knows that she hides there, not even her parents. Especially not… the scary man.”

“Scary Man?”

“I don’t know, she didn’t look at his face, and that’s what she called him. Scary man. He was in the living room talking to Senator Jameson.” Duo sighed and ran a hand wearily over his eyes. “Unfortunately, or fortunately, the visions I see are fairly short. And I have no idea how long ago that visit happened. It may be completely unrelated to this mess.”

“Hm. It’s at least something else to check out. We can see who all has visited the Senator in the last few days.”

“Was that the only thing you touched?” Dorothy asked quietly.

“No.” Duo threw them a sheepish look. “I touched some of the glass from that broken window, and most of the doors.”

“Did you pick up anything?”

Duo shook his head. “Whoever broke the glass was upset, but they didn’t leave enough of an emotional fingerprint that I could get anything useful from it.”

“Dammit…” Dorothy scowled out the window at the dark garage.

“Wait… Duo,” Zechs suddenly turned to stare at him. “You said there were toys under the table…”

“Yeah… a couple of dolls and stuff.”

“Was there a teddy bear?”

“Teddy bear?” Duo blinked. “No. I didn’t see one when I actually looked, though now that you mention it, she was holding it in the vision or whatever.”

“What’s so important about a teddy bear?” Dorothy asked grimly.

“I… don’t know. Except her ghost was holding it… and now that I think about it, it wasn’t in her room and if it wasn’t under the table….”

“Then maybe she had it with her when she was taken?” Dorothy nodded. “If we could find that….”

“Yeah, and I can just see Une’s face when I ID the kidnappers by holding a teddy bear.” Duo frowned.