CHAPTER 21
Shinji
On Monday morning, Shinji went to digital forensics only to find out that the tech hadn’t yet broken the encryption on Morimoto’s laptop.
There must’ve been sensitive information likely pertaining to the missions, which Shinji desperately wanted to see.
He was resigned that they would have to make do with the flash drive Horiuchi gave them as well as the crime scene reports, and hopefully make a connection between Takeda Fuyumi and the victims.
Keiko floated beside him while Tamura was further behind, oddly quiet.
He’d made up his mind to cross over to the other side tonight and speak with Shinji before that.
Shinji preferred to do it right now, but Tamura was adamant that it had to be tonight.
To avoid Tamura potentially lashing out, Shinji left it at that.
“I heard they couldn’t find Takeda Fuyumi at her apartment,” Shinji whispered.
Keiko nodded. “But there was proof she’d been home. A few plates in the sink. A fresh laundry basket. It’s like she doesn’t care.”
“Or she could be innocent and we’re after the wrong person,” Shinji muttered.
“But the footage and the witness who identified her?”
“Yeah, I know. It’s just that there are too many unknown variables.”
Shinji turned a corner and found Teruo waiting outside the office.
After Shinji’s outburst yesterday at the Onmyōryō, Teruo looked worse: cheeks sunken and pale, dark bags under his eyes, and Shinji had the impression that he was in pain even though Teruo denied it when he asked him about it earlier.
Shinji decided not to pester him about it anymore, but kept a safe distance and his reiryoku contained within his body.
“Guess how I spent these past fifteen minutes of my life?” Teruo asked, then proceeded to answer. “Arguing with Ogata, Yoshida, and Horiuchi about Takeda Fuyumi.”
“Why?”
“Ogata wants to make Takeda’s face public; start a tip line. Yoshida, Horiuchi and I disagree.”
Shinji lowered his voice. “That’s because the three of you know she’s a supernatural.”
“Honestly, if it weren’t for Horiuchi, he’d have probably pressured me into doing a whole press conference.”
“Is it that big of a problem?” Keiko asked.
“If anyone approaches her on the street trying to be a hero, who knows what she might do?” Shinji said. “Once we put her photo out, we have no control over what types of people approach her and potentially try to capture her.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Teruo said.
From the corner of his eye, Shinji saw Tamura looking alarmed at their discussion. When he noticed Shinji, he averted his eyes.
“Tell me something,” Teruo interrupted Shinji’s thoughts. “Can other supernaturals easily tell she’s an extractor based on her spiritual energy? Like you did at the autopsy?”
“Not necessarily,” Shinji said. “What I did was analyze traces of an actively used spiritual energy. The extractors are the jack-of-all-trades type of supernaturals meaning they can do a little bit of everything—which is what makes them qualified to learn how to extract reiryoku. But it also means that when their powers are passive, it might be difficult for a supernatural who doesn’t know what they’re looking for to figure out that Takeda is an extractor.
There are lots of such supernaturals who are not extractors.
It’s like a skill within another skill.”
“Which makes the idea of putting her photograph out even more dangerous.” Teruo sighed. “How do you wanna handle the files Horiuchi gave us?”
“There’s plenty of redacted but still very helpful details about the victims’ missions,” Shinji said.
“Nakagawa can look over them. I’ll focus on the personnel that handles the extractors’ seals to find out who helped Takeda undo her seals and you’ll handle everything else.
” Shinji glanced at Teruo. “Did you have a chance to speak with Nakagawa about her application?”
“Not yet. I will. At some point. When I get the courage. I’m just not sure I want to hear her answer.”
Keiko turned to Shinji. “What does he mean by that?”
Before Shinji had the time to reply to either of them, Teruo opened the office door and entered. Nakagawa was already at her desk, and greeted them with a bow.
“Will we make Takeda’s photo public, sir?” Nakagawa inquired.
“Ah, gossip always travels fast at the TMPD.” Teruo smiled.
Nakagawa’s cheeks flushed. “Some detectives said they heard the argument.”
“Well, aren’t they resourceful?” Teruo joked.
“We decided not to make it public for now. Or rather we formed an unlikely alliance and told Ogata we won’t be doing that.
There’s not enough evidence yet for such a decision.
But we’re not stopping our search, so tell me if you found out anything about her family. ”
“Nothing, yet,” Nakagawa said. “I sent officers to her parents’ last known address, but they no longer live there. However, a neighbor told us that a man used to visit Takeda Fuyumi’s apartment quite often, sometimes staying over the weekend.”
“Boyfriend?” Shinji asked, throwing a glance at Keiko.
“There were no man’s belongings in that apartment,” Keiko said. “No extra toothbrush, slippers, clothes. But she could’ve packed them before we started our investigation.”
“Possibly,” Nakagawa replied to Shinji’s question. “But according to this neighbor, the man stopped visiting about two weeks ago.”
Shinji figured that explained why Keiko didn’t see any of the man’s belongings.
Teruo finished placing a nicotine patch on his arm, then sat at his desk. “Does this boyfriend have a name?”
“The neighbor didn’t know,” Nakagawa said. “Told us Takeda was very private. Seems both the victims and the suspect were tight-lipped. Guess it makes sense since they’re… agents of some kind. Unmarked police cars remained at the apartment in case she returns.”
“Did Suzuki send us the autopsy reports?” Teruo asked.
“Yes.” Nakagawa picked up the files and gave them to Teruo.
Shinji walked to him and stopped by his side to see what Suzuki had written.
She was still calling it death by an unknown poison since she didn’t know about the extraction process, although in Ms. Amano’s case—the kitsune—Suzuki had written blood loss as the cause of death.
It likely wasn’t that because kitsune were incredibly resilient and able to heal their own wounds as they fought.
“The timeline’s different than our crime scenes discoveries,” Shinji said.
“Yeah…” Teruo pointed to the whiteboard. “Let’s revise it.”
Nakagawa grabbed a marker and wrote as Teruo continued, “Ms. Ikeda was killed first—the victim whose crime scene Superintendent Yoshida went to—approximately eight days ago. Then Ms. Amano right after her. And then a few days later, Morimoto, the Nishida couple, and Wada all at the same time.”
“She’s been killing all these people and no one knew…” Shinji muttered.
“There’s a four-day difference between the first killing and the next ones,” Nakagawa said. “It seems she changed strategies mid-way through her killing spree.”
“She gathered them in one place,” Teruo said. “She isolated them and killed them faster. I wonder how she managed it though.”
“If we had access to their work phones, we might have found out.” Shinji threw Teruo a knowing glance.
The victims only had personal phones on them, but field agents didn’t use personal phones for missions.
Perhaps Takeda had somehow contacted them, maybe tricked them.
They likely hadn’t even suspected. Since she’d been inside the other two victims’ apartments, she could’ve used their phones.
“Okay,” Teruo said. “I’ll send Furuya a message to focus on finding the boyfriend—or whoever that man is. Perhaps he knows about Takeda’s whereabouts. Meanwhile, let’s start going through the files.”
Shinji settled at Teruo’s desk and opened up the database that contained the personnel who handled the extractors’ seals. He compared the time of the murder with the schedule of the personnel. There were three who worked that day. One was an Onmyōji with an alibi. The other two were shamans.
As Shinji wrote down their names, he paused for a moment. He had the odd impression he’d seen one of the names before: Kawasaki Mariko.
“There’s a lot of redacted information,” Nakagawa suddenly said. “I’m guessing it’s due to their jobs, but it’s going to make things rather difficult.”
“Yeah.” Teruo sighed. “Sorry about that.”
Nakagawa straightened, her cheeks flushing. “Oh, no! I’m sorry, chief. I shouldn’t be complaining.”
“No, you’re right,” Teruo continued. “We should have access to every bit of information.”
“It’s really okay.” Nakagawa waved her palms. “I can handle it without a problem.”
Shinji stared from Teruo to Nakagawa. She was probably still unaware that Teruo knew about her transfer application and was taken aback by Teruo suddenly being apologetic when he rarely was.
“Why are these two so awkward?” Keiko asked. “Did something happen?”
Shinji gave her a discreet nod, unable to elaborate.
“Ah, damn. I missed office gossip.” Keiko folded her arms, pouting.
Shinji nearly snorted, but held back. The air had become pretty thick with a heavy silence and Shinji was tempted to go get some coffee just so Teruo could have a chance to ask Nakagawa about her application and find out the truth.
But the case had priority, so he returned to the files, trying to find out from where he knew Kawasaki Mariko.
Since she was a shaman, she wouldn’t be on the list of extractors. She didn’t seem to be part of the victims’ team either. Perhaps she was the mission commander? Or one of the techs in charge of coordination and communication?
But it couldn’t have been because he was seeing these lists now for the first time. He leaned back in the chair, thinking. Teruo glanced at him.
“Something wrong?”
“Not sure. Where are those financial documents? The ones about the shell companies?”