Funeral

Stony faced and silent Renaldo stood at the docks staring out at the water it was a rough day and any normal person would be inside in the warm right now. He was not looking forward to seeing his next appointment or the other friends he had in this town. He had been due to arrive weeks ago but had been unable to make it because of a work problem, now he wished he had just come to Japan when he was supposed to. That way he could have seen his friends happy, he would have seen Hilary with her constantly happy and welcoming smile. Two weeks, she had been dead for over two weeks now, maybe if he had been here he could have done something..

Pressing the heel of his hand against his forehead Kai groaned, hangover's were the worst! Looking up he saw the man he was looking for, he could only see his back as the man stared out at the water but who else would be hanging around here at this time and on such a cold gloomy morning.

"Travis?"

"Hiwatari" recognising the voice Renaldo turned, seeing his friend he was shocked by the state Kai was in. When he had last seen him Kai was only just recovering from a life threatening illness but still he would have described him as having been in peak physical condition. Now the Russian's pale skin was sallow as though he spent all his time in doors, his hair was a mess, not that Kai ever spent a lot of time on his hair but somehow even his two toned mane was looking depressed. It was extremely windy and cold but Kai wore no coat preferring to allow his skin go almost blue. There were bruises around the grey eyes his left arm had a long and painful looking scar with stitches. "You look like hell"

"Well that's where I've been spending my time lately" Kai gave his friend a half hearted smile and received an equally weak smile from Renaldo.

"Kai I'm so…."

"Don't" Kai shook his head "if you want to help you know what I want"

"Kai I don't want to be responsible for your death" Renaldo told him sadly "is there no other way of…."

"You want her killers to get away with what they've done?"

"No but Kai…."

"Don't" Kai commanded again, he went forward walking to stand at Renaldo's side "instead look down, look into the water"

Doing as his friend asked Renaldo stared down, it was a rough day today and the dock was drenched with water, as he looked down onto the waves below him he wondered what point Kai was trying to make.

"See what that's like?"

"Yeah" Renaldo nodded

"The cliff top where Hilary fell the waves below it were just like this, there were rocks but she didn't get knocked out on her fall, they say she was awake struggling against the currents and fighting against the waves before she drowned. It says that from her bruises it looks like someone held her down, the police think she and Lando fought in the water, that he held her under until she stopped moving. She was awake and she was being attacked when she drowned, she would have felt that last bit of control go, you know the bit? Where you've been holding your breath for a long time and you know that if you don't breathe soon that's it, your lungs feel pressured and painful. She'd have felt that and she'd have died desperately struggling to get to the surface to breathe."

There was a long silence, Renaldo realised that what he was thinking now was probably what Kai thought about all day. He also realised that until his friend got some sort of vengeance he would never move on at all.

Kai watched Renaldo closely before simply stating "Now tell me that I should let this go."

For a few minutes the two of them stood there staring down at the water, finally Renaldo nodded "I can got you the gun for free but the rest of it….it's expensive and I lost of money helping you guys out…." before he could sat anymore a wad of cash appeared in his line of vision.

"When you want more I'll get it to you, I'll give you cash nothing else and none of this will get traced to you. I promise"

"I trust you" Renaldo took the money and shoved it into his pocket

"I'll need the gun Friday"

"Kai that's quick, if we want a gun that can't be traced to either of us…"

"Just you…I don't care if it can be traced to me. As long as I do what I need to before it can be traced to me."

"Yeah well about that….Voltaire's still missing, we got no lead on him."

"You're coming to the funeral right?"

"Right" Renaldo nodded, he hadn't been sure before, the last thing he wanted was to see Horatio but that didn't matter now. Not really.

"Horatio Tatibana will be there, he will lead you to Voltaire"

"I'll do what I can. Kai…. I am so sorry she's gone"

"Not as sorry as they're going to be." and with that Kai turned and walked away.

Renaldo didn't move for a few moments, he was waiting for Kai to get away before he turned around. Once he was sure his friend was a safe distance away he turned and regarded him with a critical eye, Kai was thinner than he had ever remembered seeing him before and he had never been a bulky type. The muscles on Kai's arms weren't as tight as they once were and he was walking with a slightly stooped posture. It didn't look good.

Right now the only thing keeping Kai going was determination and vengeance. Once his need for revenge was satiated Renaldo wondered how long the determination would last, Kai was on a path that eventually would lead to his destruction and Renaldo was helping him along the way.

Abigail Tatibana stood with Theodora Davis in the upstairs hallway of her house, in front of them was the doorway to Hilary's bedroom.

"I can't do this Tia" Hilary's mother whispered "I keep trying to go in there but I just can't"

Against all her better judgment Tia gave the woman's arm a squeeze and whispered "Do you want me to do it?"

"Could you?" eyes filling with tears Abi moved away from the door "I just can't"

Tia watched as the mother of her oldest and best friend fled down the stairs, reaching out Tia tried to place her hand on the door handle but just couldn't bring herself to do it. She stood there one arm outstretched, she inched forward forcing her hand closer and closer until it rested on the handle.

Alright! One hand now resting lightly on the handle all she had to do was get up the courage to open the door.

"Now you turn it" a helpful voice behind her recommended

"Millie!" Grateful to have someone else there Tia turned and hugged her cousin "What are you doing here?"

"Mariah told me about what you had to do, Hilary's mum let me in" Millie took her cousins hand on the handle again "you can do this. It's just a room."

"I know, but it was hers." Having her cousin beside her Tia finally felt strong enough to slowly open the door and walk in.

It was the smell that hit her first, that smell a person has, it's not always a specific scent but a mix of odours that somehow becomes associated with the person. Inside Hilary's room it still smelt of her, that mix of spray on deodorants, moisturisers, the lavender pouch's she kept in her clothes drawers. Tia could feel the tears come to her eyes, she looked around at the room, it was exactly as she remembered it, the floor was tidy, the bed was made but on the desk was an unusually untidy clutter of stuff. As she looked at the mess on the desk she remembered the night Hilary had gone to Tyson's they hadn't been able to find her keys. Tia had made the point that Hilary could just knock when she got back but Hilary had been insistent that she ought to find her keys as Tia might decide to have an early night.

The keys had predictably been at the bottom of Hilary's bag all along and after emptying out the bus tickets, small change, tampons, make up. hair accessories, and for some reason a pair of striped socks Hilary had grinned sheepishly and leaving the mess on her desk to be sorted out later ran out the house yelling goodbye to her friend. For Tia it was such a trivial but important memory, the last time she had seen Hilary.

"Lets find that outfit" Millie interrupted her cousins reverie and guided her to the closet, they opened it and Tia grinned. Coats and jumpers were at one end followed by trousers, then skirts, then shirts and finally dresses. "Well that makes things easier" Millie remarked thinking of her own messy wardrobe where most of the stuff hung half off the hangers.

"She always was too tidy for her own good."

"Have you any idea what she'd want to wear?"

"Yeah actually" Tia reached in and pulled out a blue and white halter neck dress, "she was going to wear this for when Kai came back. He had promised to take her somewhere special and she went and brought this. She only wore it once and that was to show it to me. She looked beautiful."

"Nothing else, no coat or…?"

"No" Tia shook her head "she'll wear this. Mariah agreed that it would look good"

"How is Mariah? She was a little distracted today I know that with the funeral approaching she's going to be upset but… I don't know. She was acting odd."

"She's ok, she said something weird the other day though…. honestly bit beasts are more trouble than their worth" Tia scrunched up her face as she packed the dress into a protective covering

"What did she say?" Millie asked curiously, whatever Mariah had said was obviously bothering both of the girls.

"She said that she didn't feel Hilary was really dead, she said…" Tia shrugged it off "it doesn't matter. I even saw the body in the chapel of rest, that was Hilary no question…, it's not a big deal, once the funeral is over she'll realise everything's real. And lets face it there's no way Kai or I or anyone else for that matter could have mistaken that body. It just doesn't seem real to Mariah yet."

"What else did she say though?" Millie felt bad as she pushed her cousin for answers but obviously Tia was bothered by what had been said and Millie had had an odd feeling about everything for some time. "What did you mean about bit beasts?"

Frowning the taller blonde turned to the smaller girl and whispered "she said that Galux showed her something weird while meditating, she showed her that Hilary was alive, I don't know cause I've never had a bit beast but… just for a second I hoped she was right even though I know she can't be"

Nodding Millie watched as her cousin picked up the covered dress and left the room, she then turned to survey the room carefully. Pulling out her Beyblade she looked down at the bit chip, 'well Tara got anything to say?', there was no reply so Millie shoved her blade back into her pocket. She missed, the Beyblade fell to the floor and rolled under the bed.

Groaning Millie dropped to her knees and felt around for the missing blade, as she was doing so she pulled out a large black book, she recognised it instantly as Brady's journal, opening it up she found the letter Ianto had written shoved into the front. She scanned it carefully stopping as she read a certain paragraph

You see my wife didn't have an accident or kill herself, Grandfather arranged it,

he knew what it would do to a junkie like me. He is a cruel and heartless man,

you do well to escape from his net, never go back to him no matter how bad

things get.

I am sending you all this because Brady told me something that caused me to

believe that you're in danger.

Ianto had believed Hilary to be in danger…. But what from?

And he said in danger but he didn't specify what type of danger. Why didn't he just say Grandfather wants you dead?

And if Horatio Tatibana could arrange for someone to die and make it look like an accident or suicide how come he messed up this time?

As she pondered this she heard Tia calling her from downstairs, yelling back a response she shoved the heavy journal into her bag and ran down to join her cousin.

It's odd that you can live in a town all you life and remain oblivious to the location of a large amount of places. Tyson had never once been to the crematorium, but he knew there was one, he drove through the streets carefully. Just over an hour ago he had received an agonised phone call from Tia begging him to get to the crematorium quickly. He was driving dangerously half staring at the map on the seat next to him as he tried to negotiate traffic. It was a good thing the streets around here were always so quiet.

Finally looking up Tyson discovered a sign and following the directions posted by the road he arrived at a small building with a large car park. He got out of the car and walked hesitatingly up to the front door, he was just a few yards away when the door opened and Tia came bursting out, tears were cascading down her cheeks and her face was red from crying

"Oh my god" Tyson ran forward and opened his arms allowing her to run into them "what's happened?" for a little while he got no response from the girl but eventually calming down a little Tia pulled away sniffing.

"It already happened" the blonde whispered tragically

"What? What already happened?" Tyson was confused, he stared at her, it had to be something bad for her to lose it like this.

"The cremation, they say there was a mix up! She's gone" Tia wailed "she's gone, they already cremated her."

Tyson was shocked as he heard this, he gently stroked the girls hair hoping to calm her down. He looked at the doorway to see Millie stood there, he raised an eyebrow questioningly and Millie nodded. In his mind Tyson swore violently but he quickly turned his attention back onto the girl in his arms and he fumbled in his pocket for a packet of tissues. Just recently Tyson had been making sure that he always had a packet of tissues on him.

Watching her cousin cry Millie began to feel angry, how could anyone be so foolish as to make a mistake like that? Sure the Tatibana's were talking about suing but that didn't seem enough somehow. Millie wanted answers. There were a lot of things that didn't make sense about everything that had happened recently. She walked back inside to allow her cousin time to cry and found herself alone in front hall. Obviously Hilary's parents had been taken to one side in order to discuss this all rationally.

Pulling out her blackberry Millie opened up her e-mail and began writing.

"Hey you!" Millie turned, behind her stood a tall man with greying hair and ruby eyes, he was dressed in a black suit and looked very like an old version of Hilary's father.

"I beg your pardon?" Mille asked cocking her head to one side and studying the man

"Look I don't have time for this, are the Tatibana's here?"

"Yes…"

"And…?"

"And what sir?"

"Look you don't have to bullshit me, did you manage to get the body cremated before they got here?"

Millie felt speechless, she had never seen Hilary's grandfather and he had never seen her, was this him? She looked down at herself for a moment and realised that her smart black heels, black skirt and crisp white shirt had led this man to assume that she worked here. The fact that she had been using her blackberry had probably been the clincher "Yes sir, the body has been cremated"

"And no one saw it?"

"No" she shook her head "you'll be Horatio Tatibana?"

"That's me"

Making a wild guess Millie smiled saying "I assume you're dropping off what was agreed?"

"Of course" the man handed over an envelope and then looked around "where are the Tatibana's?"

"They have been taken away to have everything explained, if you would just wait here?" she indicated a seat suddenly aware of the dangerous game she was playing, this man could kill her if he wanted to. "I'll go get them"

"No you idiot they can't know I was here" he turned snarling insultingly as he rushed off making his way out of the balancing and away.

After watching him go Millie stood and after deeming her situation safe enough she looked into the envelope, inside was a form of some sort and a large cheque made out to the crematorium from an I. Batat. She was just resealing the envelope when she found herself face to face with the actual receptionist, like her the receptionist was blonde with very long hair, she even wore a similar outfit.

"Hi" Millie gave her a smile "great shoes"

"Oh thank you" the receptionist gave a giggle

'Oh yeah' Millie thought to herself 'Dumb blonde' maybe she could get away with this "Look Mr Horatio Tatibana arrived"

"Oh no! I wasn't there to meet him, I'm so fired!"

"No, I totally covered for you, he wants this to go to your boss and he wants to see the Tatibana's"

"Oh thank you so much" she smiled thankfully making Millie feel momentarily guilty, then Millie reminded herself why she was doing this. She needed answers!

"Our little secret" Millie gave her a grin, she left quickly after that running from the building to talk to her cousin.

Tyson and Tia still stood there but Tia looked a little calmer now, obviously they hadn't noticed Horatio Tatibana sweeping in and out of the building, Tyson was talking about going in and having a go at the crematorium people as well but Tia was shaking her head hopelessly.

Arriving with the grief-stricken couple Millie got their attention, she opened her mouth to tell them what had just happened when she realised that right now the last thing Hilary's friends needed was more mystery. She closed her mouth again deciding that she couldn't tell them what had just happened, not yet anyway.

"Are you ok?" Tyson asked

"Actually I'm not feeling too well" Millie told them, "it's all this crematorium stuff it's kinda creeping me out. Can we go home? I know you might want to stick around Tia"

"No" Tia shook her head "I'd prefer to get going I'll tell them we're heading home"

"Yeah thanks" Millie gave a slight smile but she was very uncomfortable. She waited with Tyson but didn't say anything about what had happened, she wasn't sure if she had done the right thing and she was even less sure as to her reasons for doing it. The only thing she was sure of was that something odd was going on and she was going to find out what it was.

"Your son Martin is here to see you"

The voice crackled a little over the intercom and Horatio leant forward pressing a button saying curtly "Send him in" Horatio sat back in his chair carefully schooling his features into a believable look of sympathy and grief.

Waiting patiently in his office Horatio wondered how his son would have reacted to the 'accidental' early cremation, he had been annoyed to discover that the Tatibana's weren't the only ones here. Outside he had recognised Tia and Tyson immediately but he wasn't sure how much they knew about him and what Hilary had been up to. Luckily enough they had been too busy talking to even notice him, still he did wonder how much they actually knew. He knew that Tia had been hurt in the chase but he didn't know how much she knew about why the chase had happened.

Finally his son came bursting through the doors looking pale but his eyes flashed with anger.

"Martin, what's happened?" he asked feigning surprise

"There was some sort of mix up and she was cremated just a few hours ago" Martin flung himself into a chair, his eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot, he was paler than ever before and the dark circles under his arms honestly proclaimed that he hadn't slept properly since all this started.

"Oh my god" Horatio looked suitably shocked "well what have you said to them? Do you want me to do anything, is there anything I can do?"

"No" he shook his head sorrowfully "there's nothing that can be done, we're still having the funeral there tomorrow but the cremation has already happened. Abi was very upset but we'll both be alright."

"Of course" Horatio nodded trying to look understanding, "You don't look like you've been sleeping well, are you?"

"I'm not" Martin shook his head angrily "It's so stupid, when she was alive I never really knew what she was up to, she got kidnapped more times than a Bond girl, she was involved with so many near death experiences I was beginning to wonder if she had nine lives and somehow… for some reason I never really worried. It's only now that I've lost her that I'm losing any sleep over her. I should have been there for her more, I should have insisted that either Abi or myself took time off or stayed in the country" as Martin said this last bit he buried his head in his hands and sighed.

"You can't blame yourself"

"Who else is there?"

"Well…." there was a long pause as both men thought about everything that had happened.

"Mr Tatibana?" the intercom interrupted them and both men instinctively jumped up and pressed the button and answered.

"Yes?" they smiled at each other, this wasn't the first time they had done this.

"Mr Horatio Tatibana." the amused secretary put extra emphasis on the first name "There is a Mr Voltaire Hiwatari, on the line for you"

"Thank you" Horatio picked up the phone and said pleasantly "Just a moment Voltaire" he then turned back to his son "I'm sorry do you mind if I take this? Or was there more you wanted to say?"

"Father I thought you had cut off all communication with that man"

Martin was disapproving in the extreme but Horatio smiled a little pathetically replying "My dear son, he is my oldest friend and when he heard of our loss he got in touch."

"I see" Martin's tone was still very stern and it was obvious that he didn't support the friendship.

"Hilary is gone now, it's not like he can hurt her anymore is it?"

"But you forgive him for what he did to Brady?" he didn't bother to keep the hatred from his eyes now "And how do you know he had nothing to do with Hilary's death?"

"If you remember correctly he needed her alive, he would never have put her in a position where she would get hurt."

Horatio was calm as he answered his son… too calm by Martins standards. "Father…..?"

"Yes?" Horatio seemingly un-phased by the dirty looks he had gotten merely smiled at his son

For a split second Martin wondered how he could ask his father the questions running through his mind. He knew that his father was not the good and benevolent man he was often thought to be, he had found that out long ago but….

"It's nothing dad" Martin shrugged.

What had he been going to ask anyway? 'Hey dad did you and your friend do any more of your crazy experiments recently?' yeah that would go down well, how about 'Dad did you hurt Hilary before she died?'

No, as much as it pained him to do so Martin knew that for his own and his remaining family's safety he would have to let the subject drop. Asides from anything else he needed his family around him, supporting him and after all what could his father or his fathers distinctly devious friend do to Hilary now?

"I better get back to Abi"

Martin left the room still oozing disapproval and as soon as he was gone Horatio lifted the phone to his ear "Voltaire I told you not to call me at work" he tried to sound casual but inside he was seething, right now while he was still in Japan one wrong move could result in all his plans failing.

"We had a problem with my little houseguest."

Horatio sat up straight, that interested him "What kind of problem?" he asked suspiciously

"She managed to blow the electricity, everything went down she would have gotten away if not for the dogs."

Dogs? That didn't sound good. "Injuries?" Horatio questioned cautiously.

"A few minor scratches nothing major, she managed to climb up out of the way of the dogs but it meant she was trapped. We'll have to keep her restrained fully now"

Horatio sighed before nodding assent, then realising he couldn't be seen he hissed "Alright but try to do your job properly this time. Do not let her escape." He hung up the phone slamming it down angrily. He was keeping his end of the deal damn it! Why couldn't his friend keep his?

Sitting in the dark that night Millie was at her computer looking up the name Ian Batat, she found nothing about him in connection to any anything in the Tatibana Inc files. She was frustrated, it was three in the morning and she had to get to a funeral in seven hours, just recently she had become used to getting a full eight hours of sleep a night and her body was no longer used to staying up this late. Rubbing her eyes she wondered if she should give up and then it happened, she was studying the personnel files and found something. She had wondered who I. Batat could be and all sorts of names had occurred to her but there he was Ian Batat, curious she opened the file, Ian was on a wage of £35,000 a year, he was a diabetic-type 2, he had taken a three week holiday every year of his employment and had been employed there for twelve years. There was unfortunately no mention on anything else really, it was a standard employee file.

Wondering if she was just clutching at straws Millie tapped her fingers on he desk, she browsed the file again but annoyed when she got no further help she printed off the information. And carefully exited the page making sure to close the door behind her so no one would ever know she had been there.

Studying the paper Millie began to doodle, she drew pound and dollar signs by the annual salary information, she drew a beach scene where it talked about holidays and holiday pay flowers next to the information about sick days, she was just wondering what to draw near the personal information when she paused.

Going back to the sick days she read it carefully, this man was an employee with all the history, he took his holiday, he even had a medical problem that the company was helping him pay for if he needed insurance but…. He had never taken a sick day. Twelve years of employment and this person had never taken a sick day. Of course he could be the perfect employee….?

This led her to whisper the very simple but important question "Did Ian even exist?"

"Who's Ian?" Millie jumped as the arms went around her neck and the question was asked

"Max!" she exhaled sharply "you frightened me"

"Sorry, I woke up and you weren't there" he kissed her cheek "so… who's Ian and why doesn't he exist?"

"That was a private conversation between me and me! And it's nothing just a bit of research for something."

"Something's wrong" Max studied his girlfriends face "why are you up so late?"

"I just… needed a distraction, I hate funerals and what with all this stuff at the crematorium today" Millie hated lying to her boyfriend but she wasn't sure what she hated most, the fact that she was lying to him or the fact that he believed her so easily.

Max nodded "Tia says you're worried about meeting Hilary's grandfather after all you heard about him, are going to be ok with that? Are you still ok to come?"

"Of course I'm still OK to come! I'm fine." Millie reassured him "Besides I'm not there for him, I'm there for you."

"Thank you, I love you so much" his bright blue eyes sparkled as he told her this and Millie couldn't help but smile

"I love you too, go back to bed I'll be there in a moment. I'll put Ian Batat to bed and then I'll come" Millie shrugged deciding that she was just trying to find an explanation where there wasn't one.

"Ian Batat, unusual name, spelt b-a-t-a-t right?" he asked Millie nodded "Huh" Max shrugged "his name's an anagram of Tatibana" he dropped another kiss on her head and headed off to bed. "don't stay up too late"

Millie stared down at the letters on the page and was shocked, Max was right. The name Ian Batat could be rearranged to Tatibana. How had she not noticed that?

Because you weren't looking for it, her mind told her, Max is a word search and scrabble freak, he see's patterns in letters you don't. Happy that the problem was a little bit closer to being solved and that there definitely something to be looked at as far as Ian was concerned Millie placed the papers into her laptop bag and put away her computer.

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