CHAPTER 8
Teruo
On Thursday morning, Teruo went to the break room to make coffee. The machine hissed softly as it filled two cups, and Teruo slid one across the counter to Megumi, the liquid sloshing gently as it came to a stop near her hand.
“Thanks.” She smiled and took a few big gulps, sighing in satisfaction.
They exited the kitchenette and Teruo fell into step beside her as she headed toward the robberies unit for the morning briefing.
The weariness that had clung to Megumi a few months ago had slowly vanished after Keiko stopped visiting her.
It pained Teruo to know that Keiko couldn’t spend time with her friend, but he couldn’t deny the difference.
Megumi’s skin glowed with health again and the dark circles under her eyes disappeared.
A part of him still wanted to tell Megumi about Keiko, but Shinji forbade it and he’d never go behind Shinji’s back, and couldn’t put Megumi’s health in danger either. From what Shinji told him, Keiko’s guilt over her death and her attachment to Megumi caused for her aura to be dangerous.
Megumi tilted her head sideways, scrutinizing his features because now he was the one with bags under his eyes. “Didn’t sleep too well? Shinji kept you busy?” She gave him a playful nudge.
Teruo chuckled. “No. I tossed and turned all night. I got maybe three hours of rest. I’ll feel better when the caffeine kicks in.”
“The case getting to you?”
“Yeah.” Teruo nodded, the half-lie pressing down on him like lead weights. The crime didn’t rattle him as much as last night’s discussion with Nakajima Kazuya. He massaged between his brows with his thumb in a feeble attempt to relieve the pain.
“How’s Shinji coping with not being in homicide permanently?”
A grunt of frustration escaped Teruo. “Pretends he’s fine when he isn’t.”
You’re a hypocrite, he scolded himself. You do the same.
Megumi winced in sympathy. “I’m sorry. Has anyone given him trouble? Furuya or Assistant Commissioner Ogata?”
“Not that I know of. He probably wouldn’t tell me, even if it happened. For what is worth, Furuya has been keeping to himself and Ogata is too busy being offended by Commissioner Horiuchi’s presence.”
Megumi’s red lips curved in a wicked grin. “I saw them strolling the corridors the other day, Horiuchi giving instructions and Ogata looking constipated with anger.”
The coffee in Teruo’s cup nearly spilled over as he burst into laughter. “He looks like that, doesn’t he? But why was he angry?”
“She’s been leaning hard into the organized crime and sex crimes units, implementing some new rules regarding the undercurrent of little discriminations that Ogata likes to call ‘keeping the harmony.’ The unit chiefs are pissed and so is Ogata.
I’m curious if she’ll dip her toes into our units too. ”
Teruo shrugged. “She can dip an entire leg if she wants to. I don’t discriminate. I’m a jerk to everybody equally. As long as she doesn’t mess with my investigations, it’s fine.”
“Horiuchi demoted some detectives, so…” Megumi gave him a meaningful look.
Teruo pondered over that information. He’d been threatened with demotion before and it didn’t happen thanks to Shinji defending him in front of Superintendent Yoshida.
But Shinji wouldn’t be able to do anything if Horiuchi decided Teruo needed to go, especially now that she had started a classified file about him at the Onmyōryō.
But would she demote him, kick him out, or blackmail him? The uncertainty was worrisome.
As they approached the briefing room of Megumi’s unit, Shinji’s voice reached Teruo. “Respectfully, there is nothing missing from my report. I suggest you read it thoroughly and compare it—”
“Shut it,” said a voice Teruo didn’t recognize. “Rewrite it and send it back to me today by 6 p.m. And watch your tone. I’m not your boyfriend,” he spat the last word. “Speak like that again and there will be consequences.”
Both Teruo and Megumi rushed inside the briefing room, but Megumi got inside first.
“Consequences,” she repeated, glaring at the officer. His face turned white as a sheet when he saw her. Then he took a step back when he saw Teruo too.
Shinji stood opposite the officer, a set of files in his hands. His face was a mask of perfect calm, though the way his fist held the papers tight betrayed his anger.
“Chief Koga… ma’am…” the officer straightened. “Just a misunderstanding with the reports for the latest case.”
“I already went through everything myself.” Megumi stepped closer to him. “So, what misunderstanding? Enlighten me.”
The officer stared from Megumi to Teruo then to Shinji, his face turning from white to red. “I… uh…”
Megumi took the files from Shinji. “Are you implying I overlooked a mistake in the reports?” she asked the officer.
“No, ma’am!”
She gestured to Shinji. “Sergeant Miyazaki was dismissed from this unit upon case completion and is working with the homicide unit now.” She fixed the officer with a deadly glare.
“Perhaps you have a comprehension issue. We shall use this morning’s briefing to discuss it in detail.
” She gave Shinji a nod, and he bowed, then rushed out.
Teruo offered Megumi a look of gratitude for intervening, then went after Shinji. “Hey,” Teruo said gently. “What was that about?”
“I guess it’s his weird way of asserting dominance,” Shinji said in his usual serene voice. “Gorillas drum their chests. He asks for useless revisions of finished reports. To each his own, right?”
In any other circumstances, Teruo would’ve laughed at the gorilla comparison, but he wasn’t amused right now. “It’s not the first time this happened, is it? For how long has it been going on?”
Shinji raised his shoulders. “It never stopped.”
“Why did you not tell me?”
“Because there’s nothing to say. Besides, I knew Megumi would handle it.” Shinji smiled like nothing happened.
The way Shinji built a peaceful wall of dismissiveness that Teruo couldn’t climb was disquieting. He wanted to help, but didn’t know how without stepping over Shinji and potentially making things worse.
Before Teruo even had time to come up with a gentle way of finding out more, they reached his office, and Nakagawa was already inside.
She was tapping away at the laptop, and glanced up, her eyes switching from Shinji to Teruo, probably sensing something was wrong.
But she said nothing, only bowed her head in greeting before resuming her work.
Since Teruo couldn’t get back into the discussion with Nakagawa present, he grudgingly abandoned it for now.
A soft, chilly breeze passed by Teruo and he noticed Shinji’s gaze was focused sideways toward the wall. Keiko was here, but neither of them could speak to her freely, although she seemed to tell Shinji something judging from the intense attention he gave to the wall.
Teruo hovered for a moment in the middle of the room, feeling a familiar itch crawling up his throat.
He’d been a stress smoker for the good part of his adult life, and the building pressure of his dangerous healing abilities coupled with Horiuchi’s meddling and Shinji’s unspoken problems with fellow officers gave Teruo a nauseating need to grab a cigarette, take a long, deep drag and calm the restless stir in his body.
But he wouldn’t give in to it, not out of care for himself, but because he was stubborn and didn’t like to lose a battle, not even one with his own self.
He sat on his chair with a noisy rattle and opened his desk drawer.
His fingers twitched at the sight of an old pack of Mevius cigarettes that invited him to pick one and feel its thin shape between his fingers.
Instead, he grabbed the nicotine patches, shucked off his suit jacket, rolled up the sleeve and slapped one on his upper arm with a vengeance.
Fuck you, he said to himself, just for good measure. Still, the low hum of craving remained for a while, tempting him, so he quickly switched his attention to the case.
Shinji seemed to have finished his brief discussion with Keiko and he sat down on Teruo’s right side, flicking through a folder.
“Nakagawa,” Teruo said, and she raised her head. “Did you get to speak with Wada Toshio’s parents?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Tell me everything.”
Nakagawa rotated her chair to face Teruo. “They had a peculiar reaction upon receiving the news of their son’s death. They asked three times whether we’re from the Metropolitan Police as if they expected someone else to deliver the news.”
Teruo figured that perhaps the parents were expecting Nakagawa to say she was from the Onmyōryō and when she didn’t, they became confused. He didn’t know Wada and the rest were killed by a supernatural when he’d sent Nakagawa to speak with the parents.
“After confirming we were from the police,” Nakagawa continued, “getting information from them was difficult.”
“They’re hiding something?” Shinji put a question inflection, but it was definitely a statement made toward Teruo.
“Could be,” Nakagawa agreed. “They were shifty the entire conversation. They knew no friends of their son, no lover or ex-lover, no places he frequented or any people who would have anything against him. I asked about any possible undeclared employment. They were adamant that their son wasn’t involved in anything nefarious. ”
“Then how did they justify their son’s expensive assets?” Teruo asked.
“Parents said they subsidized his lifestyle, but here’s the thing: neither parent is employed.
They don’t even appear in the National Pension system, nor do they receive any governmental aid.
I haven’t had a chance to dig further into their financials yet.
I’ve been focusing on their son.” She stood and took a set of files from the printer.
“I was working on these when you arrived, sir. Bank records.”
She held the files out for Teruo and he took them. Shinji shifted closer to see and a cold draft of air blew just above Teruo’s head, signaling Keiko’s presence.