Masked Meetings

After some time, all the filled pages of the Grimoire of the Miraculous (some pages were blank to add any information about them that had not yet been discovered) were now copied and now Alya had the copies in a binder, all the info was translated from the guardian's code into language the police would understand. She also stapled her own notes, which were printed so there could be no handwriting analysis, to some of the pages to add assistance to understanding the information. Alya would not be able to store the stuff into the space within the yo-yo. Fortunately Marinette had prepared a backpack for her to take with her.

Alya transformed into Scarabella and placed the bag on her back and tightened the straps. She used the yo-yo to go from the top of Marinette's balcony to the street. She hid in the shadows as she made her way to the police station.

It was evening. Gabriel had headed off to his work office and Adrien was told that he could go to bed now or stay up as tomorrow was Sunday, thanks to the Alliance rings, Adrien's schedule the next day was completely clean and the next time anyone would check his room would be the next day when breakfast is ready. He's had his fill of food and he'd already cleaned up. He transformed into Cat Noir and headed to the same police station that Scarabella was heading. 

Scarabella entered the police station, there weren't many officers inside, only a few recognized her because a lot of people lost consciousness during Robustus' second akumatisation. The ones who did recognize her didn't answer the call that was sent out, they must have not cared that Markov was calling them or they must have witnessed other officers coming under Robustus' control and connected the dots. Captain Lefevre, however, was of the ideal that if the number wasn't his higher ups, or someone related to him, then he won't pick it up and the call goes to his secretary, so his secretary was influenced, and Lefevre was lucky to not be the thing she cherished most in the world, and so he was aware of Scarabella by keeping his eyes keen.

"Nice Ladybug cosplay." One officer noted.

"The station is closing, child, why don't you head home?" Asked the front desk clerk.

"Head home? I'm Scarabella!" Scarabella announced.

"Wait? You're the girl substituting for Ladybug?" Asked Pierre's secretary. "Pierre never described you, he said he was spying on you in the museum when you came up with your name."

"He was? Nobody like him was there." Scarabella noted.

"He said he kept hidden from sight. He didn't want Robustus to know that others other than you and Cat Noir weren't under his powers." The secretary explained.

Suddenly, they could hear Cat Noir's pole slam down. He came in and was not happy, he was straight-faced. "Oh, so it's happened, Ladybug's passed on the earrings."

"Wait!" Another late night officer interjected. "How can we be sure that you are a miraculous wielder?"

Scarabella grabbed the mask over her eyes and pulled and tugged it and it deformed. She stopped and her skin and mask snapped back to how it looked before. "See, if you guys paid attention when Lady WiFi was first akumatised, she tried to take off Ladybug's mask, and it wouldn't budge. My mask won't budge either, if that doesn't change your mind, I can always summon my lucky charm."

The officers nodded.

Pierre Lefevre arrived. "Oh, you are both here. Do you have more things to add to my record?"

"I do." Cat added. "I found someone rather suspicious in my investigations."

"I just come here to give you a copy of the Grimoire and I printed some details on some note paper to assist in understanding what is written within. This book was first written in code and the guardian of the miraculous translated the words within it before he handed it off to Ladybug." Scarabella explained.

"You are putting a lot on the line by making this public knowledge." Pierre noted. "I'll skim it and see what I can add to my record."

"What is this about uncovering Ladybug's identity? If she hadn't told me, I would never have figured it out, and if I couldn't, what makes you think that you will?" Scarabella asked.

"Ah, so you know her identity, did you know her when you were first given those earrings, or did she tell you just so you could return them to her?" Pierre asked.

"I knew it beforehand, but I can't tell you which day, you would be able to narrow down my identity if you did. She wasn't transformed when she handed over her miraculous to me that first time." Scarabella answered.

"Anyway, you asked about that identity thing, you know, I have been watching the footage of Kung Food over and over, and something doesn't seem right. I've requested the surveillance footage from that day. I have a feeling that this villain may in one way or another reveal the truth of Ladybug's identity, and then we'll hunt her down." Pierre explained.

Cat Noir's eyes were growing. "You mean it is possible to use the events surrounding the villain known as Kung Food to find out the girl behind the mask?"

"It's just a hunch right now, so we can only hope, right? After all, you can only be so lucky for so long, and Master Cheng was akumatised early into her career, so some mistakes were to be expected around then as she was not exactly an expert at using her miraculous at that time. Also, there is the temple in Tibet, a close friend visited and learned some mira-kung fu. Whatever that is, apparently its something that guardians and wielders alike should know, neither of you would know how to use it, would you?" Pierre asked.

"I don't, I hardly know the person who taught master fu." Scarabella added.

"Yeah, Su Han showed up soon after Ladybug became the box's new guardian." Cat added.

"Cat!" Scarabella shouted.

"It's okay, he told me about it last night." Pierre added.

"You should have consulted me!" Scarabella yelled.

"Why? You're not the new guardian." Cat countered.

"Please, no hostility, a police station is the last place I want one of those big black butterflies." Pierre relayed.

"Meet me at the Eiffel tower when you are done here, and we can discuss things there." Scarabella interjected and she used her yo-yo to swing into the distance once she left the police station.

"Come, Mr Noir, I'll show you the questioning rooms." Pierre relayed and then he began to walk off.

"Will there be warm cream?" Cat asked jokingly as he followed.

"Sure, I can get you that, but we will get you out of there as soon as your lactose intolerance acts up." Pierre replied dryly.

"Oh please, I'm actually part of the 10% of cat's who aren't lactose intolerant." Cat added.

"Oh? I'm sure the other cats in that club will be so happy to throw a welcoming committee for you." Pierre continued.

"Well, they better hurry it up, they're months overdue." Cat added with a small chuckle.

"We're here." Pierre relayed and he opened a door and led cat through to a metal table and three chairs next to it.

Pierre switched on the microphone. "Talk to me, Mr Noir, tell me all about this mysterious suspicious person you discovered."

"It was the person hired to write that letter." Cat relayed.

"Vance, huh? You know, I wanted someone French to cover the letter, make it more authentic." Pierre relayed.

"Wait, if you were against it, then how did he get the job?" Cat asked.

Pierre slammed his fist on the table. "It was that damnable Gabriel Agreste, he's got his fingers in all the pies belonging to those in upper echelons of all industries, including law and order as it turns out. He made the recommendation to the police commissioner, who is always invited to Gabriel's private parties, to get Vance to be the one to author that letter."

"Do I sense a note of jealousy?" Cat asked.

"Maybe, yes, I would have liked to be invited once, just so I can toss the invite, as adventure is for me, not hoity toity tea parties with meals you can only buy by putting two mortgages on your house. I'm more pissed than anything that the commissioner made that decision without communicating with me or his other men and women. It really riles me up."

"I didn't know you cared so much about communication."

"Huh? You picked that up, either those ears are good at their job, or you're actually becoming an amateur sleuth. Yeah, I didn't always care about it, as it wasn't necessary back then, but now it is important and thus its important to me. When the tide changes, you either change with it, or you risk drowning. That's been my motto since I was just a cadet, and its led me straight through some of the most difficult investigations I've been a part of. I wouldn't be who I am today without it, that motto is me and I am my motto." Pierre slammed his chest with his fist to show his dedication.

Cat Noir metaphorically had stars in his eyes. He'd never been more impressed by any individual than he was impressed by Pierre. "I wish I could even live up to 1% of who you are."

"Hey, keep at it and you will get there. If you ain't trying, then you ain't doing. As for Vance, what exactly made you suspicious of him?"

"Well, he knows my civilian identity for one—"

"Don't tell me you told him!"

"I didn't tell him... I just said 'no comment' to the allegation."

"That wasn't smart, Mr Noir, now he's going to think that he is right. What else was off about him?"

"He knows more than he is letting on, and he is quite the secretive person, also, nothing he said has jumped out to me as a lie, it also feels like he's manipulating things and last but not least, he wrote a story where the bad guy wins in the end."

"Yeah, it's weird, but I felt the same... about his truthfulness that is, its human to lie, to keep secrets by deception and that deception comes about in what we say, but for him, if he is deceiving us, it would be from what he is not saying, it's like he is thinking ahead, reading our minds, and carefully selecting which words come out of his mouth."

"Manipulating the narrative that's what his character does in the book he wrote."

"You mean his villain?"

Cat nodded. "I don't know how, and I don't know why, but I feel like he is important, that he even may be the key to find out the truth, because, as I've said be before, if there is one thing that is true, that would be that Ladybug wouldn't kill anyone."

"Well, in six days time, that will be determined by three judges and a jury."

"Any news on that?"

"Sorry, Mr Noir, but the rules in play say that if I did know, I couldn't share it to a supporter, only the defense can know it."

"Maybe I can help Ladybug?"

"Oh, and I suppose you'll just pull out a French law degree from where the sun don't shine?"

"That's quite rude, but you're right, I can't uphold law in a court of law, I can only uphold it on the streets."

"I can tell you that a representative has been chosen, if Ladybug will have her, Scarabella knows her civilian identity, so tell Scarabella to tell Ladybug that the person that will represent her for the upcoming trial is Sophie Durand."

Cat nodded. "Alright, can you keep your eye on this Vance character? I met him myself and his opinion about bad guys winning is nagging at me and it's still sending shivers down my spine, and I thought this costume wouldn't allow that."

Pierre pointed at a glass of milk by the door. "You going to have that on the way out? We got it just for you."

Cat slurped the milk down. "Thanks for the warm cream, I'll be off now."

Cat left the police station. Pierre wondered more about this Vance character, could he really have something to do with this? He thought to look into him as well and add anything he could find to the ever growing record that he was compiling. He went back to his office and played an edited version of the scene under the Eiffel Tower and to the left of him was the autopsy results from Lila Rossi piled on the crime scene notes.

Some important things were highlighted. 'Cause of death: sharp blade, no match has been found, likely caused by the lucky charm in news footage, print lab is at work making a replica using footage frames as reference.' 'Blood and prints match. Deceased confirmed identity: Lila Rossi.' and lastly: 'Murder weapon still undiscovered, nobody was seen leaving with it, and people noticed it vanish in an odd way. See news footage for further details.'

In the news footage, the lucky charm vanishes by turning into bubbles followed by a light. The same way that was described by the people Pierre interviewed.

The more Pierre watched, the harder it became for him to believe that another possible answer for the unfolding of these events must exist. But what was it? It has already been proven not to be an illusion, so what exactly happened? Did Ladybug really kill Lila Rossi under the Eiffel Tower? Every note Pierre took, and every lead he chased yelled 'yes.' But he wouldn't stop yet, the tide was turning, but it hadn't finished yet, there was still a beam of hope in his heart and as long as that hope was there, he wouldn't turn with it. But if he didn't change his mind, he may drown in the up coming days and lose who he was. But he knew that this was a risk he had to take.