Lolita:

Simone’s Notes:

Lolita is a slang term for a seductive, sexually attractive, or sexually precocious young girl. In the marketing of pornography, "lolita" is used to refer to any attractive woman who has only recently reached the age of consent, or sometimes to refer to women who appear to be younger than the age of consent. The term originated in the 1955 novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov where it was the nickname given to the young girl, Dolores, with whom the narrator, Humbert Humbert, has sexual relations. In the book itself, "Lolita" is specifically Humbert's nickname for Dolores, and "nymphet" is the general term for the type of young girl to whom Humbert is attracted, Dolores being one of them. In the novel, Humbert defines nymphets as being between the ages of nine and fourteen. However, commerce has preferred to use the girl's name, and to make "lolitas" attractive (in film adaptations and pornography) to a much wider audience than the small number of nymphets which Humbert believes to exist.

This latest mission started with a call from an apartment across the city about an apartment fire. The fire was on the seventh in the apartment facing the city. The call came around two to four in the morning. A mother working late noticed the fire on her way home quickly called the fire department. The firemen and rescue squad were out to the Golden Sun Apartments in under five minutes. The fire was contained and put out in under three minutes. The only resident inside the burnt apartment was dead and nearly burnt to death. He was a soldier so the military got to work on the investigation on what started the fire. Mustang and his boys suspected foul play. They didn’t know how right they were!

Brandon slowly knelt down to the dead body. “His rank was a major,” he announced. Then he carefully turned the body over. Mustang, Hughes, and Price watched and waited for something that would suggest that the major didn’t die of fire. And there it was in black and blue. Two huge stab wounds were on the major’s chest. The men weren’t surprised at all. They suspected foul play from the beginning. Brandon inspected the wounds.

“Definitely a long blade of some sort,” he said. “It’ll take a while to figure out what type.”

“I see,” Mustang replied.

“Detected traces of gasoline at the front door!” Don announced. “My guess is that the major was stabbed and the killer set the fire before he or she left.”

“But what is the motive?” Hughes asked.

“We don’t have one yet,” Jim said.

“Got an id?” Mustang asked. Brandon looked up at him.

“The apartment is registered to a Major Ryan White,” he replied. “His name sounds familiar, but I don’t really remember much about him.”

“Must be new then,” Mustang replied.

“I guess so,” Brandon. So far, it just looked like a simple case of murder and arson. But there were no suspects so far. There wasn’t much about the victim either. Major White kept to himself most of the time. He lived alone. He didn’t have any known relatives anywhere. The only person in relation to him was a woman Debbie who lived out in the West. However, there was no way to contact her at all. Not many people in the apartment knew much about the major. He was always out during the day. White’s meals were always delivered to him. Plus, he never really left his apartment at night. The military files didn’t yield much either. The only thing known about him was that he was a private investigator for the army. The boys decided to look into White’s cases for a start.

“You think maybe one of his suspects caught onto what he was doing and decided to kill him?” Jim asked Mustang as they looked through all of White’s files in the case files at Central HQ.

“Possibly,” the major general replied. So far, they were coming up with nothing. Most of the cases were solved and very old. Roy paused to think for a moment.

“You know what,” he said. “Maybe we’re not looking in the right place.” Wright paused and looked up at him slightly confused.

“What do you mean, sir?” he asked.

“These cases here are old,” he replied. “We need his more recent ones.” The major general put down the files he had in his hands and walked over to the office doorway. He peeked out into the hallway. Sheska just happened to be walking by to Hughes’ office.

“Hey, Sheska!” Mustang called out to her. The private first class paused and stared at him.

“Sir?” she asked. Roy stepped into the hall.

“Do you know where Major White kept his current case files?” he asked. Sheska thought about that for a moment. Mustang was hoping for some sort of a clue. Sheska finally gave him a little smile.

“Yes, in fact I do, sir!” she replied. Mustang looked at him brightly.

“Where?” he asked. “I really need this for a murder investigation!” Sheska’s face dropped at those words. The glow from Mustang’s face was slowly fading. Bad news was coming, he just knew it.

“He had them in his office in his apartment,” Sheska answered. Roy had some disappointment to him. Most of the apartment was burnt to a crisp. They military would have to wait until the crime scene was cleared for more investigation. That would take weeks. But still, it was worth a shot. Roy sighed.

“Fine,” he said. “We’ll take anything by this point. Dismissed.” Sheska saluted and walked off. Roy sighed again. Something was not right with this case. The boys were determined to get to the bottom of this.

When the scene was cleared for investigation, Jim and Mustang began looking around White’s apartment. Wright looked uncertain of this hunt.

“I’m not sure about this,” he said aloud. Roy turned to him looking confused.

“What do you mean?” he asked. Jim kind of shrugged.

“I mean,” he answered. “How are we going to find *anything* in this place? Almost everything is burnt to a crisp here!” Mustang smiled at him at those words.

“Almost,” he replied. “We have to check for the one room the fire didn’t burn.” Wright felt a little better after that. Lucky for them, the only room not burnt was White’s office. The two men proceeded with care. The office was surprising still in tact. Only the door frame was slightly damaged. The office looked very normal. This was definitely where the major lived most of his time. The futon-bed wasn’t made and put away. A TV tray was off to one side still covered with rubbish from the local Chinese restaurant. His clothes were folded up on neatly polished coffee table. Files were all over the desk next to a computer in stand by mode. Books and newspapers were all over the floor. Jim and Roy tried their best not to step on a single thing. This whole room was evidence.

“Damn!” Jim muttered. “Has this guy ever heard of a maid?” Mustang didn’t answer. The computer caught his attention right away. The Mac was turned on with a screensaver. Mustang lightly moved the mouse and screen saver returned to normal. To his dismay, the computer was empty. In fact it looked like a newly bought computer just turned on. The killer must have re-formatted the whole hard drive to get rid of whatever Ryan was investigating. Wright walked over next to him.

“Find anything?” he asked. Mustang didn’t answer in frustration. Jim saw for himself.

“Oh,” he said flatly. Mustang hit the desk in bitter defeat. But when he did, a certain file straight to the floor. Both men noticed it. Curiosity rose up quickly within them. Mustang bent down and picked up the fallen file. He opened it carefully. Six photographs fell out onto the floor. Jim bent down to pick them up. Mustang looked on with him. What they saw disturbed them deeply. The photos were all of a young girl. This was a pretty looking girl. She looked about thirteen years old. Her hair was long and dark brown to her small shoulders. Her sweet amber-brown eyes were filled with fear and sorrow. These photos were of a sexual nature. One of the them she only had on a skimpy swimsuit. Another one was where her body was against the wall with her lovely back facing the camera, but she was looking at whoever was taking the picture. A sickening hate filled both Roy and Jim. The lt. sighed out loud.

“Now I remember why I hate this job at times!” he said out loud. Mustang didn’t comment, but he agreed. This case had gotten deeper now. The military now had arson, murder, and child molester on their hands. But there were so many questions they needed to fill in. Who was this girl? Where was she now? Was she still alive? Where were these taken? And who’s photos were these? Was she alone? If not, how many other child victims were there? All they knew was time was against them now. They had to hurry or the girl would be sold into prostitution or killed.

Edward sat at the bar in a tea house pretty annoyed in the Red Light District. He thought that he had covered his tracks well with the apartment fire. The fire was only a back-up plan. The alchemist originally just wanted to steal the files and destroy them. He had caught wind that someone was looking for his latest captive because she had gone missing for weeks. The incubus couldn’t have this at all. He decided to make the case disappear. In order to do that, he had to learn about who was investigating the case. Ed studied Wolfe for days to memorize his schedule. He had the major’s life down to the finest detail in his head. All he needed now was a window of opportunity. That window came two weeks ago. Edward waited all morning for Wolfe to leave for the day. The alchemist transmutated his right hand into a key and broke into the apartment. The alchemist knew his way around the place too easily. It didn’t take him long to find the office. When he did, Edward used his key hand again and unlocked the door. He them booted up the computer, hacked into it, and re-formatted the hard drive. Ed was about to go through the files on the desk when a sound interrupted him. The incubus alchemist jerked up quickly. Wolfe was standing right in the office doorway staring at him.

“Who are you?!?” the major asked aloud. “What do you want?!?” Edward just smirked at him as he turned to his soon-to-be victim.

“Doesn’t matter who I am,” he replied. “You won’t remember away. What I want is for you mind your own damn business about my girl!” Wolfe quickly became defensive.

“Get out!” he yelled. The alchemist stepped forward.

“And what will you do if I don’t?” he asked. Wolfe looked to his right and saw the cordless phone lying near the coffee table.

“I will make you leave!” the major said confidently. Edward took another bold step forward.

“How?” he asked. White stood his ground.

“I will call the police to have you removed!” the major said aloud. The lt. col. just smirked at coldly. He knew how to take good care of this already. “A pity, really,” he thought. “I didn’t want to have to come down to this. I really didn’t.” The alchemist then transmutated his right hand into a blade. White tried to reach for the cordless phone, but Edward proved to be too fast for him. The incubus stabbed him right in the chest. Ryan paused for a short moment in fast-approaching death. Edward smiled at him wickedly and quickly drew out his blade. Wolfe fell flat on his back. Elric watched him do so.

“Such a shame!” he said aloud. “Really.” Then, Edward stabbed the major three times in the chest to ensure his death. The alchemist looked down at his work. What a mess he made. It wasn’t supposed to come down to this. The incubus just wanted to steal the case file and destroy it. Now, there was a change of plans. Edward looked around the apartment quickly. There had to be some way to kill two birds with one stone. Then an idea came over Edward in a rush. He dragged the body into the living room. Edward then began looking around the apartment for something flammable. His lucky was high this evening. He found some gasoline in the hall closet. There was only one can half full. It wasn’t much, but it was all at the time. Edward quickly got to work and poured gasoline all over the living room floor. He found a lighter on the coffee table and lit the carpet. Edward left thinking that his problem was solved. However, the military jumped on the case and have now caught on the case.

Damn it!” he thought. “I was sure that I was careful that time!” Then, Edward became aware that someone was standing over him. He looked up to see one of the girls from the tea house waiting for him. She had a tray of hot sake with her. The girl was a rare Asian beauty with long black hair and long slender legs. She was dressed in a long teal and pink cheongsam with a pink flower in her hair. Her face was painted like an expensive china doll’s with red lips and light pink blush. Edward had picked her out for the night, but at the moment he didn’t feel much like celebrating. He rolled his eyes when he saw her.

“What?!?” he hissed.

“Your drink, sir,” the woman said in a small voice. Edward just glared at her.

“Just leave it and go away,” he ordered.

“But sir…” the woman began to say.

“Just leave the damn drink and go the f**k away!” Edward barked. The woman just sighed.

“Fine,” she said. Then she set down the tray and walked away. Edward took the bottle of sake and drank from it. A chilling calm came over him after that little drink. “On the other hand,” he thought with cruel malice. “This could be the start of an interesting game! Yeah! I just have to stay three steps ahead of Mustang and his gang of trained dogs! This should be interesting!” Suddenly, Edward was in a good mood again. He waved his hand for his one-night wife to come over. The woman came over nervously.

“Yes sir?” she asked in a small voice. Edward smiled at her devilishly.

“You know, darling,” he said aloud. “I was in a bad mood a few minutes ago. I feel better now. So, you can do to me as you like tonight.” The girl became very happy.

“You really mean it?” she asked. Edward nodded at her kindly. His one-night wife was overjoyed.

“Thank you sir!” she called.

“In fact,” her master added on. “Just go back to our room and wait for me.” The woman rushed down the hall in deep bliss. Edward smirked to himself wickedly. “Well what do you know?” he thought. “This wasn’t such a crappy day after all!” Then he got up and followed after her.