Warning Tags: Chapter 1
Rating: PG-13?
Features: Jun, Ohno, Ikuta Toma, a bit of Nino, even less of Sho (because he's supposed to be a mystery)
Words: 1988 (give or take)
Disclaimer: Nobody is mine. I'm writing this for fun as part of a prompt from zedin
I managed to get Chapter 1 out but I will need to work on the plot some more before I can proceed with future chapters.
Master Post
Inspector Ohno Satoshi surveyed his office, watching the staff trickle in. At 05h48, it was still early. Mentally, he went through the list of to-do items that had to be completed for the day - review current case dockets, a meeting with the assistant DA, meet and introduce the latest addition to Homicide at the morning debriefing, the-ugh-budget meeting with the Chief Superintendent, he scowled at the prospect of yet another year experiencing budget cuts, a “quick” round of golf with the higher-ups (why can’t we go fishing instead?), a-
His thoughts were interrupted by a series of cat calls and wolf whistles from his detectives, prompting him to look up at the sight of one of his detectives …
He cleared his throat, trying to retain a serious mask of composure. Better keep this strictly professional. “Yes, Detective Ninomiya?”
Lieutenant Detective Ninomiya Kazunari (or Nino, as everyone in the division called him, too lazy to use his full surname) glared back at him. “Inspector Ohno,” Nino’s smile looked about as friendly as Jaws right now. “Next time you want me to investigate serial sexual murders, don’t,” he seethed.
Someone knocked at his door, “morning, Ins-oh, sor-”
Nino turned around and glared at the newcomer, “wait your turn, pretty boy.” He turned back to Ohno, “I’m going home and taking twenty showers.”
Ohno could only nod his assent before Nino stomped off, taking the rest of the day off. With the departure of one of his senior detectives last month, the Homicide division had been understaffed and overwhelmed with the case load over the holiday period. December may mean vacation time for the rest of the world but it also seemed to be the period when the crazies crawled out of the woodwork. Needless to say, Nino had been highly unhappy to have been assigned the press-dubbed S&M Serial Murders case. Ohno couldn’t be 100% certain, but being forced to dress (although the term was probably being used quite liberally, given how much skin Nino was actually showing) in a skimpy S&M costume to lure the murderer out had probably not helped.
That was why he was only too happy to accept the request from Sergeant Matsumoto Jun, an up-and-coming young man to transfer to Homicide Division.
The same Matsumoto Jun who was currently dumbstruck, wincing as Nino slammed the door on the way out, inciting further appreciative reactions originating from the halls of the police station. “Sergeant Matsumoto,” Ohno waved the young man in.
“Jun, please,” the sergeant insisted. “Thank you so much for allowing me to transfer to your division, Inspector. I’ve been following your cases since my academy days. I can’t wait to-”
“-get married and adopt enough kids to make our own little football team before Brad and Angelina,” a voice finished off with kissing noises.
“Toma-” Ohno began warningly. Jun looked like he was ready to throw himself out his window in embarrassment.
“Morning, Inspector! Did you like Nino’s costume? I helped him pick it.” Toma grinned, turning to Jun, offering his hand, “Ikuta Toma - the number one detective here in Homicide.”
“Number one at getting the department sued, you mean,” Ohno grumbled. “In case you have forgotten, the Noguchi brutality lawsuit is still up.” Yet another headache he’d forgotten to add to his to-do list for the day.
“Hey, he wouldn’t talk and the detaining period was expiring - you’d rather that scumbag walk?”
“No, but I’d rather he didn’t run into your fist repeatedly!”
“Maybe I should come back la-“ Jun suggested, attempting to escape. That attempt was shot down very quickly as the Inspector’s phone went off.
“Ohno.” The Inspector’s face was unreadable as he listened to the person on the other end. After what seemed like ages, Ohno finally responded. “We’ll be there in ten minutes.” Hanging up, he stood up. “Let’s go.”
“M-me?” Jun could hardly believe how quickly everyone was advancing.
Toma slapped him on his back good-naturedly, “wow, a case within minutes of arriving at Homicide. You’re one lucky guy,” he laughed.
Jun decided that Toma was too morbid for his liking.
* * *
Once they’d arrived at the site, both the Inspector and Toma were all business, pretty much discarding him once they’d cleared the police cordon tape to go about performing their duties. Jun attempted to follow the Inspector closely, eager to learn, yanking out a notebook to take notes. Toma had meanwhile, wandered off, liaising with the officer who’d found the body.
“Victim is a female - twenty. Name of Satou Chieko.” The medical examiner handed the Inspector a bloodied wallet in an evidence bag.
“So it wasn’t a robbery?” Which was a big mistake, because the sight of the body made him throw up immediately.
“Hey!” The medical examiner sounded furious and if he wasn’t busy retching, Jun was certain that the Inspector wasn’t too pleased with him either.
* * *
“You handled yourself well,” Toma remarked, handing him a bottle of water.
Jun scowled, angry with himself and pissed off with Toma for picking on him again. Once was fine. But twice in a day? “Yeah, I handled it like a pro,” Jun responded sarcastically. “You’d think I was a rookie officer.”
“Hey, I’m serious!” Toma squatted down next to Jun, smiling ruefully. “It’s not the same thing when you’re a homicide detective. When you are a regular officer patrolling about, you get to remove yourself and observe from afar - but as a homicide detective, you need to be right at the forefront of things to make sure that you don’t miss the details. Otherwise, you end up screwing up and the criminal gets away.”
The conversation had taken an interesting turn. “Was that what happened with you?”
Toma looked offended, “hey, I’m trying to console you and you throw it back in my face. What kind of a newbie are you?”
“Sorry,” Jun offered, standing up. “Thanks. For both the water and the pep talk.”
“You’re welcome,” Toma waved Jun away, clearly eager to be alone. Jun headed back to where everybody else was, careful to avoid the wrath of the glaring medical examiner. Somewhere out there, Toma thought bitterly, that preying bastard was still somewhere out there.
* * *
“Any luck on finding the murder weapon yet?” Ohno queried, as Jun re-joined the group.
“Not yet, Inspector,” the officer reported regretfully.
“Keep looking please,” Ohno turned back to the medical examiner who resumed his preliminary assessment, all the while giving Jun a look that said he wanted his balls on a platter.
“As I was saying, Inspector, this was a messy kill. Her killer struggled to kill her because she put up a hell of a fight. He didn’t know what he was doing but he got lucky with his single thrust.” At that point, Jun wanted to point out that such an observation could hardly be regarded as lucky, but knew better to keep his mouth shut. “Given the injury, she would have died painfully so I suppose she was lucky to have broken her neck when she fell.”
Again, with the luck? Compared to this man, Toma was a veritable trauma counsellor.
“Even so, she put up a hell of a fight. I’m expecting that your killer should have wounds as well.”
Jun froze at those words. He turned to the medical examiner, “wounds? Like cuts on hands?”
The medical examiner looked at him as if he was the biggest dunce in the world. “Given that she was stabbed, I would venture to say yes? Are you even paying attention?”
Hands, he’d seen a pair of hands scarred with cuts in the crowd somewhere as he followed Toma and the Inspector into the crime area. He stalked off in the direction of the crowd, scanning the crowd, wishing he’d paid more attention to his surroundings. What had he been wearing? A parka? Yes, that had been it. A non-descript grey parka.
“What’s going on, Detective Matsumoto?” Ohno asked, attempting to follow him.
“Hands. I saw someone in the crowd with scarred hands, Inspector. As we arrived. He was wearing a grey parka.”
Ohno signalled Toma and a few officers while Jun hurried off, reaching the wave of curious onlookers, a large number of which were members of the press, eager to “acquire his opinion of the murder”.
“Excuse me,” Jun attempted to sidestep the reporters politely, a feat that was made near impossible with their persistent questioning. “Ex-” There! He spotted the grey parka-wearing man, just as he rounded the corner. The bastard was not getting away. Another microphone shoved in his face, prompting Jun to shove. He heard gasps. Irate voices. Threats of lawsuits and police brutality. Ignoring them, he ran, determined to catch the grey parka man.
Thankfully, the bastard was taking what seemed to be a leisurely stroll as Jun rounded the corner. “Stop!”
Which produced the opposite desired effect because the grey parka man simply bolted off in a dash - Jun cursed internally as he gave chase. What had he been thinking? He should have just tackled the man and slapped handcuffs on him BEFORE telling him that he was arrested.
“Hey! I said stop!” Jun yelled. Grey parka man was giving him a run for his money. And Jun prided on himself being fit.
Rounding another corner, Jun crashed into his suspect, who’d taken a hostage. Thankfully, his class A dumbass move had been so unexpected (lesson 37 at the academy: NEVER go charging in without first properly assessing the area) that the hostage managed to break free. “Go!” Jun ordered, throwing himself bodily at grey parka man to keep him away from innocent bystanders. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a knife on the floor. The murder weapon.
The hostage didn’t need to be told twice. He scrambled to his feet and ran.
“What the hell?” The departure of his hostage seemed to renew the fight in the grey parka man. “Let me go, you idiot!” He hissed as he kneed him in the stomach. Jun winced in pain, but held on, reaching for his handcuffs. He was arresting this man, no matter-
Grey parka man managed to free his hand, landing a solid right cross on Jun, managing to throw Jun off. He was getting away.
Running out of choices, Jun lunged for his feet, tackling him to the ground before grey parka man could get further. Throwing himself on top of the suspect, Jun managed to slip a handcuff on one wrist, attaching the other to his own wrist.
“Jun!” From behind, he could hear Toma and a number of officers catching up.
Grey parka man’s shoulders slumped, visibly defeated. “Yes!” Jun was proud of himself. Hauling the man to his feet, Jun turned to face his colleagues. “Not bad, eh? Cracking the murder case open first day of-”
Wait…Toma didn’t look happy. Actually, he looked furi- Jun’s suspicions were more than confirmed when Toma punched him hard.
“Idiot!” Toma shouted.
Jun nursed his jaw. What was this? Matsumoto Punching Bag Day? “What the hell?”
But everyone had shifted their attention to his suspect by now. Were they impressed with his catch? Was grey parka man an insane criminal on the most wanted list? Was Toma angry at him for taking a dangerous risk?
All such positive thoughts were shattered when Toma fished out handcuff keys to free the man. “I’m sorry.” He apologised profusely.
WHAT?!?
Toma grabbed him by his neck and shoved him down in a bow. “He’s new. I’ll be sure to have the Inspector chew him out properly.” Toma went on.
“Hey!” Jun smacked Toma’s hand away, “since when do we apologise to suspects?”
That seemed to infuriate Toma even more. “Shut up, you idiot! He’s not a suspect.” He smacked Jun on the head again. “This,” Toma began, putting a hand on grey parka man’s shoulder, “is Inspector Sakurai Sho.”
Next chapter