Warning Tags: Chapter 4
Rating: PG-13
Features: Arashi, Ikuta Toma, Tegoshi and Kato from NEWS, Kuroki Meisa.
Words: 3892 (approx)
Disclaimer: Borrowing people to carry out plot powered by idea from zedin. Not really how the police conduct themselves, of course (since I'm not a police officer). Not beta'd so spelling and grammar errors will probably abound.
Boring summary: Jun hits another snag (or two) in his investigation.
Master Post
Jun could only stare as he approached Ohno and the woman called Kuroki Meisa with trepidation. Typical of the self-absorbed lifestyle of the city, the people in the immediate vicinity had stopped their conversation to watch the scene unfold, only to lose interest almost immediately when they realised that there was no further entertainment value with Ohno merely reaching in an inner suit pocket for a handkerchief to dry his face.
Paranoid that he would only be giving Kuroki more ammunition, Jun slowed his approach, tightening his hold on the two cups of drinks in his hands. He decided it was safer to be on the Inspector’s side anyway. “Sir?”
Ohno’s face was unreadable, blinking once when an excess drop of coffee dripped off his hair and into his eye. The Inspector gave him a brief glance, acknowledging him, “Jun, I see you have met my ex-wife.”
“Your ex-wife?” Jun echoed, studying Kuroki again - was that why he’d thought she was familiar? Had he seen her in a photograph on the Inspector’s desk? No, that’s not it… the answer hit him. A crowd. The crowd from yesterday that had pushed at him to get answers. “You’re a reporter.”
“A reporter who reports on homicide cases,” Ohno elaborated.
Kuroki looked bored, “so? We’re no longer married. I believe I have the right to talk to anyone I want.”
She seemed to glare back at Ohno and then at Jun, as if daring either man to dispute her claim. This was getting awkward. “I’ve got something-” Jun offered, trying to come up with some - any - excuse to leave.
“You’re free to talk to anyone you want, of course,” Ohno agreed, “but as his immediate supervisor, I need to make sure that my newest detective is aware that you are a reporter who will do whatever it takes to get the scoop.”
Like bumping into me to get a conversation started, Jun thought. In retrospect, it now all seemed a little too convenient.
“As if you don’t do the same, Inspector,” Kuroki retorted, picking up the bundle of folders to leave, stopping next to Jun, “you’re in luck, Detective Matsumoto - you’ll learn so much from the Inspector here.” She turned to look at Ohno, “especially on how to be utterly ruthless to get ahead.” Ohno’s jaw tightened visibly, but said nothing as Kuroki brushed pass Jun and stepped out the café, melting into the crowds.
It was only when Kuroki was clearly out of sight that Ohno turned back to Jun, “I’m sorry you had to see that, Detective. But perhaps it is for the best that you found out about my ex-wife sooner than later. The lengths she will go to get details would probably put the staff at News of the World to shame. I guess sometimes,” Ohno paused, looking incredibly sad, “we are just unlucky and the person we’ve believed in the most turns out to be a complete stranger after all.”
* * *
It was a bit difficult to hold a conversation, given how vocal the patrons in the private room were. “Hell of a party going on in there,” Tegoshi remarked, turning his attention away and back to his unwilling “date” for the evening. He knocked back the rest of the glass in his wine before refilling it. “When the 1% act all Marie Antoinette-like, I find myself seeing eye to eye with those Occupiers.”
Shige, being typical Shige, couldn’t have looked more bored. “You never answered my question - why couldn’t you have asked any of the others to watch you get drunk again?”
Tegoshi offered his best smile, “you earn the most - therefore you can afford to pay for dinner?”
Shige rolled his eyes. “Fine, I’ll pay for dinner - can I have my briefcase back? I have paperwork due tomorrow afternoon.”
“I also want to know more about the Eguchi incident,” Tegoshi added.
Shige raised an eyebrow questioningly. “Read the newspapers.”
“I want your opinion.”
“I’m a prosecutor - my job says that my opinion is guilty.”
“I mean your opinion as someone who’s had access to all the details of the case,” Tegoshi explained. “There’s something about my patient that doesn’t add up.” Things like Sakurai’s habit of answering questions with questions. The man had not only been deliberately evasive, but he had also been manipulative, leading Tegoshi to fast track his plans for dealing with the Inspector. Tegoshi would not have noticed had he not possessed a competitive nature that hated knowing that all the efforts he’d put into developing a detailed plan for counselling Sakurai had gone down the tubes.
It was during the self-evaluation he’d conducted afterwards when he’d reached the awful realisation that he hadn’t been in control of the counselling session at all. Rather, he’d been led by Sakurai’s suggestions. There was simply no way for the outcome to have been a mere coincidence - the man had to have been playing reverse mind games with him. Had he also been manipulating Sawamura? Or had he been the only one, being inexperienced? Regardless, the notion was both uncomfortable and infuriating at the same time. He had to find out more about Sakurai Sho before he met the man a second time. The Eguchi incident would serve as a decent starting point.
“And you based this on a single session?” Shige queried, “are you even aware of how insanely paranoid you sound right now? Sawamura’s been counselling Sakurai for a lot longer so of course his assessment is going to be different from yours.”
“I can’t give you the specifics,” Tegoshi really hated the whole doctor-patient confidentiality clause right then, “Shige, you need to trust me-”
He might as well have been asking Shige to believe in the Tooth Fairy. The deputy prosecutor only stared back, clearly unconvinced in the face of a lack of solid evidence. “Why should you care anyway? You’re only the temporary counsellor for anyone who might get shot at or shoots someone else for the next three weeks-”
“Two weeks. It’s only two weeks,” Tegoshi hated that the reality was even worse than what Shige perceived, given that Shige was one hell of a pessimistic bastard.
“Fine, two weeks,” Shige corrected himself. “The point is, give it up, Tegoshi. After two weeks, you’re going to be deployed at another station in a more permanent position anyway - rather start from scratch there instead. The last thing you need right now is to ruffle the wrong feathers by pointing fingers at the incumbent psychologist, accusing him of not being able to do his work properly. You’re the filler-in, the window dressing. Even if I am willing to believe you and you’re actually right about all this, you’re not supposed to know better, especially not with your lack of experience.”
“Now you’re just being cruel.”
“What I am being is truthful.” Shige looked at his watch for the umpteenth time that evening. “I need to go home and get to those documents.” Standing up, he fixed Tegoshi a firm look, “I mean it, Tegoshi - leave things the hell alone.” He grabbed his briefcase and jacket, leaving Tegoshi to sit in silence, mulling over his words.
Shige had to be kidding. Surely they’d been friends long enough to realise that being told to give up in Tegoshi speak equated to an outright challenge? So he had only counselled Sakurai for a single session whereas Sawamura had worked with him mo- wait. Tegoshi paused, what had Shige said again?
“Sawamura’s been counselling Sakurai for a lot longer.”
Tegoshi’s eyes widened. He hadn’t mentioned Sakurai’s name to Shige. He’d been quite certain of that. So how had Shige known that his patient was Sakurai? Was… “Damn it.” Tegoshi grabbed his coat and was on his feet at once, determined to catch up to Shige to demand answers. Was Shige covering up for Sakurai? The idea sounded absurd. Did Shige even know Sakurai? But then again, Shige probably worked with a lot of inspectors in his line of work. At that moment, a number of noisy revellers spilled out from the private room, the leader of the group crashing into him drunkenly. Tegoshi uttered a quick apology, determined to catch up with Shige when the same man grabbed him by his collar.
“Tegoshi!” The man’s words slurred a little, “thought it was you.” Tegoshi froze, as the man who’d made his years at university hell threw an arm around Tegoshi’s neck in a near-choke hold. “It’s me! Ishitani Ryuichiro!” He threw an arm around Tegoshi’s neck, leaning on him to prop himself up, the added weight enough to make Tegoshi buckle.
Tegoshi grit his teeth, trying to pry the man’s arm off in vain, “I have to go-”
Ishitani was hearing none of it. “Come on, join our private party.” He gestured towards the private room. It figured that Ishitani had the money to burn on renting private rooms. Being the heir of a wealthy family always did hold undeniable benefits. Benefits that included letting the man get away with murder. Tegoshi had lost count of the number of times the police had disregarded his complaints, writing Ishitani’s actions off as “mere pranks”, despite Tegoshi being hospitalised. Having experienced cover ups first hand, Tegoshi was determined to expose any lies the so-called good guys tried to hide away, prompting him to join the police. His parents had been surprised, but believed that he was merely following the rest of his friends who had entered into civil services.
“I said no,” Tegoshi growled, throwing all his weight into shoving against the wall that was Ishitani. In his inebriated state, Ishitani crashed backwards, hitting his head against a table. Tegoshi had one single word for that.
Shit.
* * *
Jun yawned, stepping into Homicide Division and heading straight for the coffee. He had to wonder if he had developed an immunity to the caffeine by now.
“Jun!” Toma ran up to him, causing him to spill his coffee over his shirt.
Great. “Morning, Toma. What is it?” Jun forced out cheerfully while trying to clean his shirt before it stained got worse.
Toma’s only response was to shove the newspaper into his hands. “Ohno’s going to crap you out in the next sixty seconds. You should get a head start,” Toma explained as Jun looked down to scan the headline.
#@$%#. How had she-?
“Detective Matsumoto,” Ohno called out. “My office. Right now.”
“Yes sir,” Jun sighed, giving the newspaper back to Toma. “Thanks anyway.” Toma looked at him apologetically as he made his way through the desks, closing the door to Inspector Ohno’s office before turning to face the man.
The Inspector looked tired. “Did you talk to her?”
“No!” Jun’s immediate reaction was anger directed at Ohno for even asking such a question.
“Then how did she get all the details?” Ohno demanded, slamming his fist on the newspaper with the sensational headline: “A Talent for Murder”. Written by none other than Kuroki Meisa. It revealed how a rookie detective had managed to uncover the identity of the serial killer who had been targeting young women with aspirations to become actresses, going so far as to mention Jameson by name.
“I-I don’t know,” Jun admitted, trying to go through her entire meeting with the woman. They’d barely exchanged enough words, never mind discuss his case with her. How had she-? He quickly reached into his pockets, fishing out his notebook. Flipping it to the last page, he discovered the answer - a missing page that had been torn out. “How?”
Ohno rubbed his eyes, “I should have asked you to check your pockets yesterday. She’s an excellent sleight of hand.”
“You married a pickpocket?” Yes, Jun. Open Mouth. Insert Foot. Brilliant! “Noneofmybusinessofcourse.”
Thankfully, Ohno’s phone rang, prompting the Inspector to instruct Jun to leave his office. Jun caught the gist of the conversation - Ohno was apologising to the Superintendent for HIS mess.
* * *
“-who, according to reliable sources within the police force, is believed to be the Talent Killer who has so far, claimed the lives of three young-”
“Reliable sources within the police force my ass,” Shige muttered as he turned his television set. “I’m leaving,” he announced out loud for the benefit of his late-night visitor. “Drop my key in my mailbox when you leave.”
Without waiting for a response, Shige stepped out of his apartment, making his way to the lobby to call the elevator. He used the waiting time to pull out his mobile phone, the person he called answering on the second ring. Shige kept it short. “Ishitani Ryuichiro. His details are in the e-mail.” The elevator doors opened as he hung up.
* * *
“Please tell me you didn’t actually ask the Inspector if he married a pickpocket.” Nino looked like he could hardly contain himself, his eyes sparkling with that look that suggested that he would be bursting out in laughter any second.
Jun glared back at both Toma and Nino from his desk, “don’t you two have murderers to chase after?”
“Caught mine, thanks,” Nino smirked.
“Right, so only three others to go,” Jun crossed his arms, “for your information, the Inspector was the one who brought up that she’s an excellent sleight of hand. Who else is supposed to have that skill?” He demanded defensively - there was no way he was going to allow Toma and Nino to embarrass him.
“A magician, maybe?” A voice asked, joining the conversation.
“Sho!” He spun around to see the Inspector who had turned to greet everyone in the room. Jun didn’t have a chance to get another word in as the detectives in the room had gathered around Sho, eager to hear about his evaluation the day before. The fact that both Nino and Toma were busy chatting with Sho gave Jun the opportunity to go through the messages that had accumulated in his inbox since yesterday. To his surprise, it was brimming with messages. Unfortunately, it was largely “thanks” to Kuroki, as the messages were reports of sightings of Jameson being spotted all across the country. Unless Jameson had developed the ability to be in totally different regions of the country at the same time, Jun was certain that the sightings were either prank sightings or from overly paranoid citizens.
Even so, Jun wrote down each unique location and plotted them on a map, trying to identify sightings that were potentially leads. From across the office, he barely caught the bits and ends of the conversation underway, gathering that Sho was heaping compliments on the new psychologist Tegoshi. He crossed out another unlikely sighting. At least the public is aware of what Jameson looks like and should be more careful in the meantime. Of course, it was hardly a consolation for the families of Jameson’s three victims.
“How goes the investigation?” Jun looked up to see Sho standing at his desk. He’d somehow managed to disperse the group.
“Nothing that you haven’t read in the newspaper already, I’m sure,” Jun responded. “And most of it was thanks to you anyway.”
Sho shook his head in disagreement, “You would have figured it out on your own if I hadn’t been so eager to look good in front of the new detective. Got a reputation to uphold, you know.” Sho grinned. “But you? You really need to be more assertive - I’ve read your file and I know that you will make an excellent detective for homicide, especially if you can hone your eidetic memory. You may think that you were picked because Homicide is understaffed but Ohno would never have picked you if he didn’t think for a second that you were good enough for his unit.”
Jun sighed, “I find it hard to be assertive when I keep screwing up. Letting the Inspector’s ex-wife of all people steal my investigation notes from me on top of everything else is probably going to go down in the annals of shame for this unit.”
“Kuroki has always been…” Sho paused, searching for the correct word, “determined at her job. You need to be careful when she bumps or walks past you being all touchy-feely. Besides, you’re not the only one who’s been a victim of her crusade for the truth.” He scanned the room, lowering his voice so that only Jun could hear his next words, “Me too.”
“Really?” Jun couldn’t help but feel a sudden kinship with Sho - if a super cop like Sakurai Sho could be fooled by Kuroki, being duped suddenly didn’t feel so bad. “Oh right, I saw her speaking to you at the café yesterday. I’d bought you a coffee to thank you for your help the other day but you were gone by the time I’d gotten back to the table.”
“Let me make it up to you then - dinner tonight. You’ve already gone drinking but you haven’t been to the place where we generally meet for food, right?”
Jun, ever the connoisseur of food, nodded excitedly, “I look forward to-”
Ohno stepped out, stopping everyone’s actions in their tracks. He scanned the room, eyes resting on the whiteboard tabling the work schedule. “Jun? Take Nino with you down to the docks.”
“Second case already - the Inspector’s sure not babying you,” Nino remarked. “Let’s go.”
* * *
Tegoshi stared at the ceiling, his vision impaired by the fact that his one eye was swollen shut. I’m only delaying the inevitable, he decided. Might as well get up to face the world.
After Ishitani had gotten up after hitting his head against the table, he and his friends had dragged Tegoshi to an alleyway, proceeding to beat the stuffing out of him in retaliation. When the one friend had gotten tired of holding him, Tegoshi had managed to break free, landing a punch on Ishitani. Although he knew he would regret it, Tegoshi couldn’t help but feel satisfied that he’d at least managed to hit the man. He braced himself for another round of pain when someone called out to them. “Hardly looks fair from where I’m standing.”
“Mind your own damn business!” Ishitani growled menacingly.
Tegoshi couldn’t let someone else get hurt on his behalf. There was no telling what Ishitani would do so Tegoshi had begged the man to leave. The newcomer had however stood his ground, speaking to Ishitani instead. Tegoshi groaned, forcing himself to stand on his feet when Ishitani’s friends released him, walking off. “How?” Tegoshi could hardly believe his luck.
The person who’d come to his rescue hurried to help him stand up. “I have a way with words, I guess,” he studied Tegoshi concernedly, “we need to get you to a doctor.”
“Just saw one right now,” Tegoshi muttered, letting the stranger support him. “Want to go home.” The stranger nodded, helping Tegoshi back onto the main street to hail a taxi. It wasn’t until the taxi had gone three blocks that Tegoshi realised that he didn’t have his wallet or keys on him.
Thankfully, Shige hadn’t asked questions when he’d been summoned downstairs to pay the taxi driver and drag Tegoshi’s sorry ass back up to his apartment. Instead, Shige had simply fetched a spare pillow, blanket, the first aid kit and a set of pyjamas for him before returning back to his work on his computer.
Left alone in Shige’s apartment, Tegoshi went through the list of things he had to do for the day mentally - like report the loss of his cards, borrow the spare set of keys from the landlady, go… That was when he’d noticed the laptop charging by the wall socket in the corner.
What if Shige was covering up for Sakurai Sho? He recalled his theory from the previous evening. If he looked on Shige’s laptop, there was the possibility it would disprove his stupid idea. I’m doing this to prove that Shige has nothing to hide, he decided, opening the laptop up and figuring that the first and most obvious place to start was with Shige’s e-mails.
* * *
To Jun’s annoyance, a crowd had already formed by the docks and Kuroki Meisa was amongst the curious onlookers eager to get a look (or to snag a headline). She beamed, waving at him as if he were an old friend. “Detective!”
“Stay out of my way,” Jun responded gruffly, determined to ignore her. Even so, he unconsciously reached into his pockets to check that his notebook was still in place.
Kuroki only smiled predatorily, “come on, there is no need to be like that.”
Jun couldn’t believe the woman. “You stole from me yesterday! I should have you-”
Nino pulled him back, “let it go, Detective Matsumoto,” he ordered, “we have a case to attend to.” Leading the way, he threw back a “no comment” to every question hurled at them until they cleared the police line and walked over to where a larger crowd of staff were gathered.
Jun groaned softly when he realised that it was the same medical examiner as the Satou case. “Does this guy ever take a break?”
Nino slipped on his gloves, indicating that Jun should be doing the same. “Play nice, he’s the best ME we have.”
By now, the medical examiner had seen him too, “Oi!” He growled, pointing at Jun, “am you going to piss me off today?”
“You forgot to mention he’s also the most unforgiving,” Jun muttered. “It’s not like I threw up on the body or something.”
“All geniuses have their little quirks,” Nino pointed out, walking closer and raising his voice to address the medical examiner, “Jun won’t be a problem today,” he turned to Jun, as if to give him a look that said Jun had better live up to his words. “He’s also the primary detective on this case so you’re going to have to let him examine the scene.”
The medical examiner’s expression grew even darker (if that was possible). He gave Jun one last glare before turning back to the body, Jun barely catching his muttering. “-certainly don’t see what the Inspector sees in you.”
He stopped in his tracks, remembering Sho’s advice to be more assertive. “Top of my class,” he supplied.
The medical examiner turned around, “excuse me?” The man looked as if Jun had been speaking in a foreign language.
“I was top of my class at the academy,” Jun repeated. “I might have screwed up the other day but I still managed to figure out who the killer was.” With help, but the medical examiner didn’t need to know that, of course. “Whom, it turned out, was linked to two other murders that had been unsolved,” Jun added. “So now all we have to do is find Jameson.”
The medical examiner sneered, “seems like you’ve been a good boy this year then.”
“Huh?” Did the man even make sense? Was the medical examiner smoking something?
Even Nino was confused. “I’m not follow-”
The medical examiner knelt down to reach the corners of the blanket covering the body, “Santa? I assume he’s been fulfilling “top of my class” here’s Christmas wish list,” he elaborated, pulling back the cover to reveal the corpse.
Both Nino and Jun leaned forward to get a better look of the body. Despite the body’s advanced state of decomposition, the face was still recognisable.
Nino frowned, unsure as he had not been paying attention to the case. “Is it-?”
Jun merely nodded, having committed the man’s face to memory. “Eric Jameson.”
Someone had killed his serial killer.
Next Chapter
Thanks to everyone for reading this. It took a bit longer to finish than expected. The next chapter will probably take even longer since I'm off for one final mini vacation before lectures start again.
Features: Arashi, Ikuta Toma, Tegoshi and Kato from NEWS, Kuroki Meisa.
Words: 3892 (approx)
Disclaimer: Borrowing people to carry out plot powered by idea from zedin. Not really how the police conduct themselves, of course (since I'm not a police officer). Not beta'd so spelling and grammar errors will probably abound.
Boring summary: Jun hits another snag (or two) in his investigation.
Master Post
Jun could only stare as he approached Ohno and the woman called Kuroki Meisa with trepidation. Typical of the self-absorbed lifestyle of the city, the people in the immediate vicinity had stopped their conversation to watch the scene unfold, only to lose interest almost immediately when they realised that there was no further entertainment value with Ohno merely reaching in an inner suit pocket for a handkerchief to dry his face.
Paranoid that he would only be giving Kuroki more ammunition, Jun slowed his approach, tightening his hold on the two cups of drinks in his hands. He decided it was safer to be on the Inspector’s side anyway. “Sir?”
Ohno’s face was unreadable, blinking once when an excess drop of coffee dripped off his hair and into his eye. The Inspector gave him a brief glance, acknowledging him, “Jun, I see you have met my ex-wife.”
“Your ex-wife?” Jun echoed, studying Kuroki again - was that why he’d thought she was familiar? Had he seen her in a photograph on the Inspector’s desk? No, that’s not it… the answer hit him. A crowd. The crowd from yesterday that had pushed at him to get answers. “You’re a reporter.”
“A reporter who reports on homicide cases,” Ohno elaborated.
Kuroki looked bored, “so? We’re no longer married. I believe I have the right to talk to anyone I want.”
She seemed to glare back at Ohno and then at Jun, as if daring either man to dispute her claim. This was getting awkward. “I’ve got something-” Jun offered, trying to come up with some - any - excuse to leave.
“You’re free to talk to anyone you want, of course,” Ohno agreed, “but as his immediate supervisor, I need to make sure that my newest detective is aware that you are a reporter who will do whatever it takes to get the scoop.”
Like bumping into me to get a conversation started, Jun thought. In retrospect, it now all seemed a little too convenient.
“As if you don’t do the same, Inspector,” Kuroki retorted, picking up the bundle of folders to leave, stopping next to Jun, “you’re in luck, Detective Matsumoto - you’ll learn so much from the Inspector here.” She turned to look at Ohno, “especially on how to be utterly ruthless to get ahead.” Ohno’s jaw tightened visibly, but said nothing as Kuroki brushed pass Jun and stepped out the café, melting into the crowds.
It was only when Kuroki was clearly out of sight that Ohno turned back to Jun, “I’m sorry you had to see that, Detective. But perhaps it is for the best that you found out about my ex-wife sooner than later. The lengths she will go to get details would probably put the staff at News of the World to shame. I guess sometimes,” Ohno paused, looking incredibly sad, “we are just unlucky and the person we’ve believed in the most turns out to be a complete stranger after all.”
* * *
It was a bit difficult to hold a conversation, given how vocal the patrons in the private room were. “Hell of a party going on in there,” Tegoshi remarked, turning his attention away and back to his unwilling “date” for the evening. He knocked back the rest of the glass in his wine before refilling it. “When the 1% act all Marie Antoinette-like, I find myself seeing eye to eye with those Occupiers.”
Shige, being typical Shige, couldn’t have looked more bored. “You never answered my question - why couldn’t you have asked any of the others to watch you get drunk again?”
Tegoshi offered his best smile, “you earn the most - therefore you can afford to pay for dinner?”
Shige rolled his eyes. “Fine, I’ll pay for dinner - can I have my briefcase back? I have paperwork due tomorrow afternoon.”
“I also want to know more about the Eguchi incident,” Tegoshi added.
Shige raised an eyebrow questioningly. “Read the newspapers.”
“I want your opinion.”
“I’m a prosecutor - my job says that my opinion is guilty.”
“I mean your opinion as someone who’s had access to all the details of the case,” Tegoshi explained. “There’s something about my patient that doesn’t add up.” Things like Sakurai’s habit of answering questions with questions. The man had not only been deliberately evasive, but he had also been manipulative, leading Tegoshi to fast track his plans for dealing with the Inspector. Tegoshi would not have noticed had he not possessed a competitive nature that hated knowing that all the efforts he’d put into developing a detailed plan for counselling Sakurai had gone down the tubes.
It was during the self-evaluation he’d conducted afterwards when he’d reached the awful realisation that he hadn’t been in control of the counselling session at all. Rather, he’d been led by Sakurai’s suggestions. There was simply no way for the outcome to have been a mere coincidence - the man had to have been playing reverse mind games with him. Had he also been manipulating Sawamura? Or had he been the only one, being inexperienced? Regardless, the notion was both uncomfortable and infuriating at the same time. He had to find out more about Sakurai Sho before he met the man a second time. The Eguchi incident would serve as a decent starting point.
“And you based this on a single session?” Shige queried, “are you even aware of how insanely paranoid you sound right now? Sawamura’s been counselling Sakurai for a lot longer so of course his assessment is going to be different from yours.”
“I can’t give you the specifics,” Tegoshi really hated the whole doctor-patient confidentiality clause right then, “Shige, you need to trust me-”
He might as well have been asking Shige to believe in the Tooth Fairy. The deputy prosecutor only stared back, clearly unconvinced in the face of a lack of solid evidence. “Why should you care anyway? You’re only the temporary counsellor for anyone who might get shot at or shoots someone else for the next three weeks-”
“Two weeks. It’s only two weeks,” Tegoshi hated that the reality was even worse than what Shige perceived, given that Shige was one hell of a pessimistic bastard.
“Fine, two weeks,” Shige corrected himself. “The point is, give it up, Tegoshi. After two weeks, you’re going to be deployed at another station in a more permanent position anyway - rather start from scratch there instead. The last thing you need right now is to ruffle the wrong feathers by pointing fingers at the incumbent psychologist, accusing him of not being able to do his work properly. You’re the filler-in, the window dressing. Even if I am willing to believe you and you’re actually right about all this, you’re not supposed to know better, especially not with your lack of experience.”
“Now you’re just being cruel.”
“What I am being is truthful.” Shige looked at his watch for the umpteenth time that evening. “I need to go home and get to those documents.” Standing up, he fixed Tegoshi a firm look, “I mean it, Tegoshi - leave things the hell alone.” He grabbed his briefcase and jacket, leaving Tegoshi to sit in silence, mulling over his words.
Shige had to be kidding. Surely they’d been friends long enough to realise that being told to give up in Tegoshi speak equated to an outright challenge? So he had only counselled Sakurai for a single session whereas Sawamura had worked with him mo- wait. Tegoshi paused, what had Shige said again?
“Sawamura’s been counselling Sakurai for a lot longer.”
Tegoshi’s eyes widened. He hadn’t mentioned Sakurai’s name to Shige. He’d been quite certain of that. So how had Shige known that his patient was Sakurai? Was… “Damn it.” Tegoshi grabbed his coat and was on his feet at once, determined to catch up to Shige to demand answers. Was Shige covering up for Sakurai? The idea sounded absurd. Did Shige even know Sakurai? But then again, Shige probably worked with a lot of inspectors in his line of work. At that moment, a number of noisy revellers spilled out from the private room, the leader of the group crashing into him drunkenly. Tegoshi uttered a quick apology, determined to catch up with Shige when the same man grabbed him by his collar.
“Tegoshi!” The man’s words slurred a little, “thought it was you.” Tegoshi froze, as the man who’d made his years at university hell threw an arm around Tegoshi’s neck in a near-choke hold. “It’s me! Ishitani Ryuichiro!” He threw an arm around Tegoshi’s neck, leaning on him to prop himself up, the added weight enough to make Tegoshi buckle.
Tegoshi grit his teeth, trying to pry the man’s arm off in vain, “I have to go-”
Ishitani was hearing none of it. “Come on, join our private party.” He gestured towards the private room. It figured that Ishitani had the money to burn on renting private rooms. Being the heir of a wealthy family always did hold undeniable benefits. Benefits that included letting the man get away with murder. Tegoshi had lost count of the number of times the police had disregarded his complaints, writing Ishitani’s actions off as “mere pranks”, despite Tegoshi being hospitalised. Having experienced cover ups first hand, Tegoshi was determined to expose any lies the so-called good guys tried to hide away, prompting him to join the police. His parents had been surprised, but believed that he was merely following the rest of his friends who had entered into civil services.
“I said no,” Tegoshi growled, throwing all his weight into shoving against the wall that was Ishitani. In his inebriated state, Ishitani crashed backwards, hitting his head against a table. Tegoshi had one single word for that.
Shit.
* * *
Jun yawned, stepping into Homicide Division and heading straight for the coffee. He had to wonder if he had developed an immunity to the caffeine by now.
“Jun!” Toma ran up to him, causing him to spill his coffee over his shirt.
Great. “Morning, Toma. What is it?” Jun forced out cheerfully while trying to clean his shirt before it stained got worse.
Toma’s only response was to shove the newspaper into his hands. “Ohno’s going to crap you out in the next sixty seconds. You should get a head start,” Toma explained as Jun looked down to scan the headline.
#@$%#. How had she-?
“Detective Matsumoto,” Ohno called out. “My office. Right now.”
“Yes sir,” Jun sighed, giving the newspaper back to Toma. “Thanks anyway.” Toma looked at him apologetically as he made his way through the desks, closing the door to Inspector Ohno’s office before turning to face the man.
The Inspector looked tired. “Did you talk to her?”
“No!” Jun’s immediate reaction was anger directed at Ohno for even asking such a question.
“Then how did she get all the details?” Ohno demanded, slamming his fist on the newspaper with the sensational headline: “A Talent for Murder”. Written by none other than Kuroki Meisa. It revealed how a rookie detective had managed to uncover the identity of the serial killer who had been targeting young women with aspirations to become actresses, going so far as to mention Jameson by name.
“I-I don’t know,” Jun admitted, trying to go through her entire meeting with the woman. They’d barely exchanged enough words, never mind discuss his case with her. How had she-? He quickly reached into his pockets, fishing out his notebook. Flipping it to the last page, he discovered the answer - a missing page that had been torn out. “How?”
Ohno rubbed his eyes, “I should have asked you to check your pockets yesterday. She’s an excellent sleight of hand.”
“You married a pickpocket?” Yes, Jun. Open Mouth. Insert Foot. Brilliant! “Noneofmybusinessofcourse.”
Thankfully, Ohno’s phone rang, prompting the Inspector to instruct Jun to leave his office. Jun caught the gist of the conversation - Ohno was apologising to the Superintendent for HIS mess.
* * *
“-who, according to reliable sources within the police force, is believed to be the Talent Killer who has so far, claimed the lives of three young-”
“Reliable sources within the police force my ass,” Shige muttered as he turned his television set. “I’m leaving,” he announced out loud for the benefit of his late-night visitor. “Drop my key in my mailbox when you leave.”
Without waiting for a response, Shige stepped out of his apartment, making his way to the lobby to call the elevator. He used the waiting time to pull out his mobile phone, the person he called answering on the second ring. Shige kept it short. “Ishitani Ryuichiro. His details are in the e-mail.” The elevator doors opened as he hung up.
* * *
“Please tell me you didn’t actually ask the Inspector if he married a pickpocket.” Nino looked like he could hardly contain himself, his eyes sparkling with that look that suggested that he would be bursting out in laughter any second.
Jun glared back at both Toma and Nino from his desk, “don’t you two have murderers to chase after?”
“Caught mine, thanks,” Nino smirked.
“Right, so only three others to go,” Jun crossed his arms, “for your information, the Inspector was the one who brought up that she’s an excellent sleight of hand. Who else is supposed to have that skill?” He demanded defensively - there was no way he was going to allow Toma and Nino to embarrass him.
“A magician, maybe?” A voice asked, joining the conversation.
“Sho!” He spun around to see the Inspector who had turned to greet everyone in the room. Jun didn’t have a chance to get another word in as the detectives in the room had gathered around Sho, eager to hear about his evaluation the day before. The fact that both Nino and Toma were busy chatting with Sho gave Jun the opportunity to go through the messages that had accumulated in his inbox since yesterday. To his surprise, it was brimming with messages. Unfortunately, it was largely “thanks” to Kuroki, as the messages were reports of sightings of Jameson being spotted all across the country. Unless Jameson had developed the ability to be in totally different regions of the country at the same time, Jun was certain that the sightings were either prank sightings or from overly paranoid citizens.
Even so, Jun wrote down each unique location and plotted them on a map, trying to identify sightings that were potentially leads. From across the office, he barely caught the bits and ends of the conversation underway, gathering that Sho was heaping compliments on the new psychologist Tegoshi. He crossed out another unlikely sighting. At least the public is aware of what Jameson looks like and should be more careful in the meantime. Of course, it was hardly a consolation for the families of Jameson’s three victims.
“How goes the investigation?” Jun looked up to see Sho standing at his desk. He’d somehow managed to disperse the group.
“Nothing that you haven’t read in the newspaper already, I’m sure,” Jun responded. “And most of it was thanks to you anyway.”
Sho shook his head in disagreement, “You would have figured it out on your own if I hadn’t been so eager to look good in front of the new detective. Got a reputation to uphold, you know.” Sho grinned. “But you? You really need to be more assertive - I’ve read your file and I know that you will make an excellent detective for homicide, especially if you can hone your eidetic memory. You may think that you were picked because Homicide is understaffed but Ohno would never have picked you if he didn’t think for a second that you were good enough for his unit.”
Jun sighed, “I find it hard to be assertive when I keep screwing up. Letting the Inspector’s ex-wife of all people steal my investigation notes from me on top of everything else is probably going to go down in the annals of shame for this unit.”
“Kuroki has always been…” Sho paused, searching for the correct word, “determined at her job. You need to be careful when she bumps or walks past you being all touchy-feely. Besides, you’re not the only one who’s been a victim of her crusade for the truth.” He scanned the room, lowering his voice so that only Jun could hear his next words, “Me too.”
“Really?” Jun couldn’t help but feel a sudden kinship with Sho - if a super cop like Sakurai Sho could be fooled by Kuroki, being duped suddenly didn’t feel so bad. “Oh right, I saw her speaking to you at the café yesterday. I’d bought you a coffee to thank you for your help the other day but you were gone by the time I’d gotten back to the table.”
“Let me make it up to you then - dinner tonight. You’ve already gone drinking but you haven’t been to the place where we generally meet for food, right?”
Jun, ever the connoisseur of food, nodded excitedly, “I look forward to-”
Ohno stepped out, stopping everyone’s actions in their tracks. He scanned the room, eyes resting on the whiteboard tabling the work schedule. “Jun? Take Nino with you down to the docks.”
“Second case already - the Inspector’s sure not babying you,” Nino remarked. “Let’s go.”
* * *
Tegoshi stared at the ceiling, his vision impaired by the fact that his one eye was swollen shut. I’m only delaying the inevitable, he decided. Might as well get up to face the world.
After Ishitani had gotten up after hitting his head against the table, he and his friends had dragged Tegoshi to an alleyway, proceeding to beat the stuffing out of him in retaliation. When the one friend had gotten tired of holding him, Tegoshi had managed to break free, landing a punch on Ishitani. Although he knew he would regret it, Tegoshi couldn’t help but feel satisfied that he’d at least managed to hit the man. He braced himself for another round of pain when someone called out to them. “Hardly looks fair from where I’m standing.”
“Mind your own damn business!” Ishitani growled menacingly.
Tegoshi couldn’t let someone else get hurt on his behalf. There was no telling what Ishitani would do so Tegoshi had begged the man to leave. The newcomer had however stood his ground, speaking to Ishitani instead. Tegoshi groaned, forcing himself to stand on his feet when Ishitani’s friends released him, walking off. “How?” Tegoshi could hardly believe his luck.
The person who’d come to his rescue hurried to help him stand up. “I have a way with words, I guess,” he studied Tegoshi concernedly, “we need to get you to a doctor.”
“Just saw one right now,” Tegoshi muttered, letting the stranger support him. “Want to go home.” The stranger nodded, helping Tegoshi back onto the main street to hail a taxi. It wasn’t until the taxi had gone three blocks that Tegoshi realised that he didn’t have his wallet or keys on him.
Thankfully, Shige hadn’t asked questions when he’d been summoned downstairs to pay the taxi driver and drag Tegoshi’s sorry ass back up to his apartment. Instead, Shige had simply fetched a spare pillow, blanket, the first aid kit and a set of pyjamas for him before returning back to his work on his computer.
Left alone in Shige’s apartment, Tegoshi went through the list of things he had to do for the day mentally - like report the loss of his cards, borrow the spare set of keys from the landlady, go… That was when he’d noticed the laptop charging by the wall socket in the corner.
What if Shige was covering up for Sakurai Sho? He recalled his theory from the previous evening. If he looked on Shige’s laptop, there was the possibility it would disprove his stupid idea. I’m doing this to prove that Shige has nothing to hide, he decided, opening the laptop up and figuring that the first and most obvious place to start was with Shige’s e-mails.
* * *
To Jun’s annoyance, a crowd had already formed by the docks and Kuroki Meisa was amongst the curious onlookers eager to get a look (or to snag a headline). She beamed, waving at him as if he were an old friend. “Detective!”
“Stay out of my way,” Jun responded gruffly, determined to ignore her. Even so, he unconsciously reached into his pockets to check that his notebook was still in place.
Kuroki only smiled predatorily, “come on, there is no need to be like that.”
Jun couldn’t believe the woman. “You stole from me yesterday! I should have you-”
Nino pulled him back, “let it go, Detective Matsumoto,” he ordered, “we have a case to attend to.” Leading the way, he threw back a “no comment” to every question hurled at them until they cleared the police line and walked over to where a larger crowd of staff were gathered.
Jun groaned softly when he realised that it was the same medical examiner as the Satou case. “Does this guy ever take a break?”
Nino slipped on his gloves, indicating that Jun should be doing the same. “Play nice, he’s the best ME we have.”
By now, the medical examiner had seen him too, “Oi!” He growled, pointing at Jun, “am you going to piss me off today?”
“You forgot to mention he’s also the most unforgiving,” Jun muttered. “It’s not like I threw up on the body or something.”
“All geniuses have their little quirks,” Nino pointed out, walking closer and raising his voice to address the medical examiner, “Jun won’t be a problem today,” he turned to Jun, as if to give him a look that said Jun had better live up to his words. “He’s also the primary detective on this case so you’re going to have to let him examine the scene.”
The medical examiner’s expression grew even darker (if that was possible). He gave Jun one last glare before turning back to the body, Jun barely catching his muttering. “-certainly don’t see what the Inspector sees in you.”
He stopped in his tracks, remembering Sho’s advice to be more assertive. “Top of my class,” he supplied.
The medical examiner turned around, “excuse me?” The man looked as if Jun had been speaking in a foreign language.
“I was top of my class at the academy,” Jun repeated. “I might have screwed up the other day but I still managed to figure out who the killer was.” With help, but the medical examiner didn’t need to know that, of course. “Whom, it turned out, was linked to two other murders that had been unsolved,” Jun added. “So now all we have to do is find Jameson.”
The medical examiner sneered, “seems like you’ve been a good boy this year then.”
“Huh?” Did the man even make sense? Was the medical examiner smoking something?
Even Nino was confused. “I’m not follow-”
The medical examiner knelt down to reach the corners of the blanket covering the body, “Santa? I assume he’s been fulfilling “top of my class” here’s Christmas wish list,” he elaborated, pulling back the cover to reveal the corpse.
Both Nino and Jun leaned forward to get a better look of the body. Despite the body’s advanced state of decomposition, the face was still recognisable.
Nino frowned, unsure as he had not been paying attention to the case. “Is it-?”
Jun merely nodded, having committed the man’s face to memory. “Eric Jameson.”
Someone had killed his serial killer.
Next Chapter
Thanks to everyone for reading this. It took a bit longer to finish than expected. The next chapter will probably take even longer since I'm off for one final mini vacation before lectures start again.