Title: Suspicions

Author: badly_knitted

Characters: Dee, Ryo, OCs.

Rating: PG

Setting: After the manga.

Summary: It's a bitterly cold, snow-covered winter's day and Dee is convinced the car's been tampered with.

Word Count: 500

Written For: Challenge 166: Sabotage at anythingdrabble.

Disclaimer: I don't own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.

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"Gotta be sabotage," Dee insisted. "Someone's out to get us."

Ryo snickered. "Why d'you have to jump to the worst possible conclusions? Everywhere's slippery; even with grit being spread along the main roads there's not much in the way of traction for standard tires, and brakes can only do so much."

"We almost crashed!"

Although they'd been doing barely twenty-five they'd still skidded taking a corner and only several long moments of wrestling the steering wheel had kept their unmarked police vehicle from slamming into a wall.

"We hit a patch of black ice, that's all. Weather like this, it happens."

"How can ya be sure it's not sabotage? Maybe someone tampered with the brakes while we were inside havin' a little chat with Lorenzo."

Lorenzo Marcone was a small-time player with connections to the Mob, suspected of having ordered a hit on the leader of a dugs gang trying to horn in on what he saw as his territory. The body had been left in one the 27th Precinct's most disgusting alleyways, which was how the case had wound up being dumped in Dee and Ryo's laps. On being told it was theirs Dee had not been pleased; Marcone was one of those guys everybody knew was guilty as sin, but nobody could prove anything against him. He was too slick, and the suspicion was that his Mob connections had big plans for him.

"We were in there less than fifteen minutes and the only footprints to and from our car were our own."

"They could'a walked in our footprints."

"You're just sore that we got stuck with this case."

"Damn right I am! Why should I care if Benny Mason got offed? Ain't no one gonna shed a tear; everyone hated the guy."

"Doesn't matter. He was murdered and that's against the law; whoever killed him needs to be brought to justice. Can't just have people going around killing anyone they want to."

"Not arguin' with that, I just don't see why we haveta investigate it. Whoever carried out the hit should'a just dumped the body in the East River."

"Right, 'cause that would've helped. Half the river's frozen over; a dead body on the ice wouldn't have escaped notice for long."

"Maybe not, but it wouldn't be in our jurisdiction, makin' it someone else's problem."

"I suppose. So, are we going to just sit here all day? I'll take over the driving if you want."

"Nah, I'm good." Dee put the car in gear, carefully pulling back onto the road. "Still think we should head back to the motor pool, have the guys check this hunk 'a junk for sabotage though, go over the brakes."

"Or maybe have them switch out the tires," Ryo murmured as the car fishtailed on the slippery surface.

"Whatever." Dee got the vehicle back under control. "I'll just be glad when we hit the main road. Sabotaged or not, gettin' back to the precinct in once piece is gonna take a miracle."

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The End