CHAPTER 16 #2
When Teruo hesitated, Shinji replied in his stead.
“They’re special agents,” he said while scribbling the extractors’ names underneath the photographs: Kitano and Takeda.
“Commissioner Horiuchi pulled some strings to get us more info.” Shinji’s voice had a hint of spite.
“We think that one of these two has been working with another unknown person from within the agency to target our victims.”
“Wait, so three suspects?” Nakagawa asked.
“We’re not sure,” Teruo replied. “We’ll have to find out whether this is a two-people or three-people team. Or whatever is going on here.”
Being unable to explain the differences between various supernaturals to Nakagawa annoyed Teruo because she was his detective and a valuable member of his team. But he resigned that there wasn’t anything he could do.
“Let’s focus on the video footage and see if either of these two appear,” Teruo said. “Afterwards, we’ll work a plan based on what we find.”
“Yes, sir.” Nakagawa sat back down at her desk, but then quickly stood back up. “Sergeant Miyazaki, would you like to sit here?”
Shinji smiled, but waved a hand in refusal. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine to share a desk with the chief.”
She bowed her head and sat back down while Shinji pulled up a chair and settled next to Teruo. Their eyes met, and Shinji gave him a flirty wink before opening his laptop. Teruo took another sip of coffee to hide the huge smile on his face at having Shinji next to him.
There was quite a bit of footage to go through, but fortunately, Suzuki’s early autopsy report with the time of death narrowed it down for both victims. Teruo assigned Nakagawa the parking lot footage near Ms. Amano’s apartment, then gave Shinji the bank footage for the same victim.
He went through the footage given by the superintendent, which belonged to the video camera of a supermarket.
Despite being filmed during the night, the camera had pretty good quality and the streetlights made the people passing by clear enough. There wasn’t so much traffic that the killer would get lost, so he carefully watched, keeping the footage moving at a mid-pace, so he wouldn’t miss anything.
The neighbor Nakagawa interviewed mentioned the woman had a coat on and Teruo counted on the fact that she might have kept it on if she had blood on her clothes.
Minutes passed with no woman who even remotely resembled the two suspects.
The problem with the footage the superintendent sent was the location of the supermarket: too far from the second victim’s apartment.
More than an hour passed and Teruo was starting to think the footage wouldn’t get them anywhere.
“Sir,” Nakagawa said. “I think this might be one of the suspects.” She stared from the monitor to the photographs on the whiteboard. “Takeda Fuyumi. The younger one with long hair.”
Both Teruo and Shinji gathered at Nakagawa’s desk. “Run it again,” Teruo said.
Nakagawa rolled the footage backward, then pressed play.
From the left corner of the screen, a woman dressed in a trenchcoat and jeans appeared.
She was rushing on the street, and kept looking behind her.
Nakagawa paused at the moment when the woman turned toward the camera, and zoomed in as much as she could without spoiling the video quality.
Teruo grabbed the photograph and put it against the screen. Same hair, parted in the middle, sharp chin and thin lips.
“This is very good,” Teruo said. “Call the neighbor over, have him look at the footage and the photograph to confirm.”
“Yes, sir.” Nakagawa grabbed the landline and dialed for a pair of uniformed officers to bring their witness.
“Takeda Fuyumi,” Teruo said as he stared at the photograph. “Shinji, do we have her personnel file?”
“Yes.” He pulled folder and passed it to Teruo.
“We’ll need to take a trip to her apartment and speak with her—if she’s even home. Check her family and friends too and verify her alibi—or lack of.”
“I think we should bring her acquaintances here,” Shinji said, “and I’ll interview them.”
“Agreed,” Teruo said. If this was their killer, Shinji couldn’t go to her apartment.
Teruo kneaded his fingers, repeating the woman’s name in his head.
“I haven’t seen her mentioned among any of our victims’ relatives, friends, nothing.
Do you think it’s because…” He trailed off, knowing Shinji understood.
There was a chance no one mentioned her because supernaturals were so guarded.
“It’s possible,” Shinji said. “I’ll ask the commissioner to send us all of Takeda Fuyumi’s cases.” He emphasized, meaning the extractions, then pulled his phone and started typing.
Teruo pondered over that and a thought came over him. “Tell Horiuchi to send us all the cases our victims worked on too.”
Shinji frowned while typing. “You think one of their cases is related to Takeda?”
“After you spoke with Morimoto’s kid,” Teruo said, “you told me that Morimoto and Nishino were arguing over the phone. What if whatever they were arguing about is related to what Takeda is doing? Perhaps one of their missions failed and Takeda was a victim of it? Or it was somehow tied to that failure? Takeda and our victims don’t really cross paths, do they? ”
“Not in the sense that they work together,” Shinji replied.
Teruo could guess that Takeda Fuyumi might have been related to the victims’ supernatural mission through her job as an extractor.
According to Shinji and Nakajima Kazuya, field agents often hunted down and caught rogue supernaturals, then brought them to the castle for the extraction of their powers.
One of those supernaturals could’ve been their missing link that tied everything together.
Nakagawa finished the phone call and turned to them.
“Chief, if this is related to the mission our victims had, is it possible to find out who else was involved in the mission? Depending on their tasks, there might be more people involved, perhaps a mission coordinator, intelligence and surveillance analysts. We need to speak to them, offer protection, or find out if one of them is compromised since you spoke about the possibility that someone’s helping Takeda Fuyumi. ”
Fuck, Teruo thought, then turned to Shinji. “She’s right. Tell the commissioner, so she’ll know what to do on her end.”
Shinji blew a sharp breath through his nose. “Yeah…” he muttered and continued typing on his phone.
“I could get together a team,” Nakagawa said, “and start searching for Takeda’s family or friends, then bring them in for questioning.”
“I’d appreciate that. Thank you,” Teruo said. “Shinji and I will go to Takeda’s apartment. Keep me posted, okay?”
“Yes, sir.” Nakagawa took a picture of Takeda Fuyumi’s personnel file, then left the office.
Teruo threw himself into his chair with a grunt. “I was just saying that as a cover. I’ll go on my own. I just need to rest for a few minutes.”
“I think you should go home,” Shinji said. “You barely slept last night and I’m draining you of energy. Keiko and I can go there with a team of forensic techs and check it.”
“What if Takeda is around? She can extract your powers. You can’t go on your own.”
“Then send Furuya with the forensic techs and I’ll ask Keiko to take a look too. You don’t have to do everything yourself, Teruo. Isn’t that why you have a team of detectives?”
Teruo scratched his head, knowing he was being rather stubborn. “Yeah, that’s true. I’ll send the address and instructions to Furuya.”
“Besides, tomorrow’s Sunday, so it’s gonna be a while until we get the full reports and everything else from the newest crime scenes.
” Shinji glanced out the window. “Keiko and Mr. Tamura are returning. I’m sensing them nearby.
” He laid a hand on Teruo’s cheek. “Go home and rest. I’ll stick around for a while longer because I want to speak with Keiko about sealing my powers. ”
“You’ll come home afterwards, yes?” Teruo asked.
“Yes. I’m not going to a hotel.”
“Okay.”
Their lips met in a short but sweet kiss and Teruo reluctantly let Shinji go. He resigned to the fact that he truly needed rest and quickly cleaned his desk, putting everything in neat piles. His eyes fell on a piece of paper that seemed to have been lost among all the other files.
It was a rejection letter with Nakagawa’s name on it. His gaze skimmed through it, his pulse picking up when he realized it was a rejected transfer request. She’d applied to move to the sex crimes unit, but hadn’t been accepted.
But why did she apply? Perhaps she despised working with him.
Wouldn’t be the first one. Teruo groaned, exasperated by his own failures.
Nakagawa seemed to do all right, but his perception was completely wrong.
She’d probably grown tired of the way Teruo kept her in the dark about the truth of their cases.
Yet, the date of the rejection letter was before she was assigned to work directly with Teruo.
He shoved the letter inside the desk drawer before heading out of his office.