Chapter 016
THE TERRIBLE NEWS was delivered on a Wednesday morning.
At the emergency meeting held over the weekend, it had been decided that the communication sessions would temporarily be put on hold. But that did not mean the counselors had no work to do. Though they didn’t have direct access, the counselors had to monitor the surroundings of each child via messaging, and if there appeared to be a problem they would have to resolve it promptly.
Unlike administrators, counselor workloads increased in times of emergency.
What with her having to support Shima—who could not execute her duties due to her cooperation with the investigation—Shizue ended up working at the center three days straight.
She returned home Tuesday afternoon and finally got to bed at two in the morning after taking care of personal affairs that had piled up in the meantime.
However.
Sleep, which could hardly be called pleasant but was nonetheless welcome, was forced to end after a mere five hours.
Shizue received an emergency message. An emergency message replete with alarm.
Yuko Yabe had been discovered.
Not a recovery. A discovery.
Yuko had been killed.
This was terrible.
Shizue took a shower and went to her dresser. She looked horrible. It couldn’t have been the result of fatigue. She looked way worse than Shima did last week.
Why’d you go and die?
It was what Shima had said. There was not a whole lot different between the two now. Shizue didn’t need the words to come out of her mouth for the thought to be visible on her face.
She groomed herself because she had to.
It would have had more impact had she run out of the house without so much as a look in the mirror, but Shizue didn’t like to present herself in that way.
Besides, all the time in the world wouldn’t change the situation she had to confirm. If she were able to resurrect the dead, Shizue might run out barefoot, naked even, but desperate cries wouldn’t bring Yuko Yabe back.
Dead children don’t return.
She thought, though…
That just made her seem like a heartless woman.
Her countenance looked even more horrible than before.
She was a horrible person.
Her instructions were to be at the center as soon as possible, so she left.
Beginning with the area chief’s and continuing with all her associates’ were the faces of idiots, lined up and dazed.
They’d determined at the last convening the general stance the center would take toward the crime. Just because there were now more victims didn’t mean that stance should change. It stood to reason then that they had nothing to say to each other, but then Shizue also thought there had to be something they should be doing.
Eventually Shizue was called into a special meeting room.
There were a number of men who looked like investigators, and Ishida.
“Miss Fuwa,” Ishida voiced as soon as Shizue sat down. “I’m sure I don’t need to explain to you that the situation has gotten worse. I know you provided all the information you had, and we for our part did everything we could, but regardless, let me start by saying sorry.”
Ishida lowered his head.
The investigators lined up behind him also all bowed.
“I appreciate your apologies but I have no way to respond, since from the beginning stages of the investigation you made it clear my opinions as a counselor were totally impertinent. If you’re going to go on about placing responsibility, I should be declared the victim.”
“I’m apologizing knowing all of that full well. If the victim’s survivors find a problem with this case, it will initially be directed toward you. In that sense…I am expressing regret in the fact that it didn’t matter how much time we had; we were unable to prevent this tragedy from taking place.”
He was talking in circles.
“So is there something I can do? I’ve submitted all the data on the children, even more information on the victim since she was missing. If there’s anything else…”
“It’s as you say,” Ishida said. “But isn’t there something you’re neglecting to tell us?”
“What would that be?” Shizue answered unphased.
Ishida was expressionless. Shizue didn’t typically like exuberant people, but in this case it was Ishida’s metallic composure she found loathsome.
“Last week after our interrogation, you went to Hinako Sakura’s residence, did you not?”
“I did.”
They had been following her.
It could be Kunugi had told them about this.
Actually, his timing had seemed too good at the time. He’d made up some convenient excuse about having been on patrol or something, but he could have been following her.
“According to her family you were not there in your capacity as a counselor.”
“It was a private matter.”
“Meaning? If you don’t mind, could you please tell us what you talked about?”
“I asked her about divinations. Miss Sakura gave me a whole lecture.”
There was no point in hiding this information. It was half true.
Ishida’s thin lips curled, and he tapped at his monitor screen with a fingertip.
“A counselor listening to a lecture by a child.”
“Is that odd?”
“Not odd. I gather you’ve been lectured by other children in your charge before. However…”
Ishida stopped to look at the portable big-screen monitor.
“I can’t imagine you had a personal interest in divination. Nothing in our records indicates you had any interest in the occult before. What’s more, you don’t strike me personally as someone who would believe in such superstitions—that’s to say, you seem more like someone who’d reject those ideas.”
“People are known to change, officer.”
“You mean you suddenly took up an interest?”
Shizue asked is that not allowed? and Ishida said of course it is.
“Well, Hinako Sakura’s testimony corroborates your story. I’m sure there are no problems.”
“You interrogated Sakura?”
“We still are.”
“She has nothing to do with this.”
“We’ll be the judge of that,” Ishida said. “Actually, she is the very last person to have spoken directly to the victim. It was after the medical exam last month, but of course, you already knew that. There were several communication sessions afterward but she didn’t speak to anyone off-session.”
“It is not uncommon for children to refrain from any vocal communication with others. That’s precisely why we have them attend these communication labs.”
“Well, well.” Ishida sat up. “Our records indicate Yuko Yabe was precisely not one of those kinds of children. She didn’t meet with people privately, but you wrote in your notes yourself that she was very enthusiastic about talking to others during the labs.”
What an asshole.
“There’s nothing too out of the ordinary in the data we received for that month, but we looked a little deeper into it and discovered that for the month leading up to her disappearance she became uncharacteristically quiet. What do you have to say about that?” Ishida asked.
To be honest, she hadn’t even noticed.
As far as Shizue was concerned, Yuko Yabe hadn’t exhibited any noticeable behavior at all.
She replied honestly.
“Is that so?” Ishida smartly withdrew. “Well, I suppose there are things even a counselor wouldn’t notice. I guess there’s nothing we can say about this.”
Ishida looked directly at Shizue. “Oh, I didn’t mean for that to imply any deficit in your counseling abilities. You are an excellent counselor. It’s just that we hear about children who aren’t able to open up. I’m sure they’ve got to be a handful for you. We just discovered this bit of information after a careful reading of the data you provided us, but with that many children in your care I suppose it would be impossible to know everything.”
“It has nothing to do with the number of children I counsel. It’s not as if I were watching over more children than the law allows. If you’re wondering why I didn’t notice this change in the child’s behavior it’s because of my inattention to her.”
“No need to get defensive. I want to say this again, but we hold your services as a counselor in very high esteem. If you didn’t notice it, we think it’s safe to assume there was nothing to be noticed. We thought maybe she had a medical situation, but she received Triple-A health status on her medical exam. No diseases or ailments. Her late communication deficit might just be incidental.”
“Incidental?”
“An incidentally poorly placed bug as they say in divinations. That could happen to anyone.”
Something was wrong.
Shizue knew it.
“However…”
At last there was what came after. Shizue turned away from Ishida’s plastic-looking face.
“Well, I mean even a gifted counselor such as yourself can’t be expected to grasp every single thing a child is going through. Just as we as police officers can’t possibly grasp every single aspect of a criminal. There are some things only other children know. Isn’t that right?”
“Humans aren’t so pure that they can be easily grasped.”
“Exactly.” Ishida closed his monitor. “And that’s precisely why you went to see Hinako Sakura, isn’t it? That is how I understood it. That’s the kind of person you are. You weren’t going to be content to sit back and watch nothing be done about Yuko Yabe’s disappearance. You knew Sakura was the last person Miss Yabe spoke to, and you wanted the information Sakura had, that only Sakura could have. Am I wrong? You said it was a private matter, but it was an action you took based on your duties as a counselor.”
“That’s…your own interpretation,” Shizue said. “You can infer all you want, but I can’t tell you more than the honest truth. Besides, even if you’re right, haven’t you already interrogated Sakura?”
“Like I said we still are. It’s just…she won’t answer any of our questions.”
“Won’t answer? What do you mean?”
“Sakura definitely spoke with the victim, but she said she’s forgotten what about. She tells us it was probably nothing important. We just have a hard time believing that. According to the data we have on her, she has an incredible memory. We’re pretty sure she remembers what happened a little over a month ago. Besides, unlike the victim, Hinako Sakura actually did not have many interactions with other children. Her real contact with Yabe would have been exceptional. Unforgettable, even.”
Hinako was hiding something. The fact that Yuko had been worried about the illness she had.
“That may be, but…if that’s what she said, that must be what happened,” Shizue responded.
If she didn’t want to talk, Shizue wasn’t going to make her.
Least of all to Ishida.
Besides, she was sure Hinako Sakura had nothing to do with the murder.
“What about it then, did you hear anything?” Ishida sat up.
“As I said before, I went to Sakura to ask about divinations. I didn’t hear anything. Aren’t you guys supposed to be experts at getting information out of people?”
“If we’re experts at interrogation, then you’re the pro at figuring out children.” Ishida intensified his glare.
“Any clues at all?”
“None.”
“More importantly, could you tell me about how Yuko Yabe’s body was discovered? I just received word this morning and haven’t heard any specifics since then.”
“Ahh,” Ishida said. He pulled up his monitor again.
“Yuko Yabe’s body…was in Section C…on the east side. She was discovered there. It was this morning, no, closer to last night, that she was found. Four fifty am. She was discovered by a patrolman local to the area; he was there looking for another missing child, that Yuji Nakamura. The corpse was in a savaged state. You can think of it being in the same state we found Asumi Aikawa.”
She didn’t want to think of it at all.
“Estimated time of death is somewhere up to thirty hours before the discovery. We’re still performing the autopsy, so we won’t know any more till it’s completed. It’s possible she was murdered late Monday night.”
At the very least, she wasn’t killed immediately after her disappearance.
“You have no idea where she was while she was missing?”
“No. However, we think she was wearing the same clothes she was last seen in.”
“Based on what? You have eyewitnesses from the day of her disappearance?”
“No. We don’t have eyewitnesses from the day of her disappearance. That’s why I can’t say for certain, but we deduced that she hadn’t changed clothes from looking at the wardrobe her parents had at the house. According to them, there is only one outfit missing, and it’s the one she was found wearing.”
She’d been wearing the same clothes for over a week.
“It does seem, however, that her clothes were cleaned at some point,” Ishida said.
“The chemical composition on clothing is altered whenever it is cleaned. We determined from a test of a swatch of her clothing that she’d had her clothes cleaned approximately five days before she died. Meaning while she was missing.”
“She had her clothes cleaned while she was missing?”
“I don’t know if we should call it ‘missing’ anymore. It’s more like she was hiding,” Ishida said.
“You think she was in danger and hid herself?”
“Her parents were gone and all…”
“But wouldn’t she go to the police for protection in that situation? Or at least the center, where I…”
No.
Yuko wouldn’t have felt she could trust Shizue.
“Did you find her monitor?” Shizue asked.
“We didn’t find her personal mobile monitor. She had her ID card on her, but it wasn’t used once during her disappearance. You would need to use an ID card at some point just for the cleaning, but we don’t know anything more about that.”
“What about her personal communication log?”
Only counselors were privy to that information.
“With her parents’ approval we were able to look into that as well. There is absolutely no record of communication.”
“None? No communication sent or received?”
“Nothing personal.”
Was it possible for there not to be any communication whatsoever? Knowing Yuko, that seemed especially implausible.
“The suspect…”
Yuji Nakamura.
“Okay, then what about this Nakamura then?”
“We haven’t been able to trace him. There’s this thing with the Kawabata boy too. It’s a very dangerous situation. We’re putting all our energy into this investigation.”
“Are you saying you’ve changed your search status for him from likely culprit to possible victim?”
“I’ve said this several times now, but we never had any evidence confirming his guilt. He’s a person of great interest, but in keeping with what you said yourself, we are treating him as a potential victim in this investigation. Besides…”
Ishida peered back as if to confirm the presence of the investigators standing behind him.
“Just between us, there have been some sketchy types coming forward. Eyewitnesses.”
“Sketchy types.”
“You know, undocumented residents in Section C. They have no citizenship. There are quite a few of them in this country, but then we run into issues of human rights. We can’t just expose them all, and our department frankly doesn’t know how to handle them. It seems Nakamura, Kawabata, and Yabe have all three been among these people.”
“The undocumented residents?”
“About 20 percent of the area’s juvenile population resides in Section C, am I right?” Ishida asked.
“If that’s the figure the police came up with then I’m assuming it’s correct. The breakdown of children’s residential demography doesn’t mean anything, so I don’t bother to put it out there.”
“Aren’t you required to be concerned with the children’s living environment?”
“All that means is that the area you mentioned has characteristics that don’t meet the standard of residential environments. It’s been a predominantly commercial area, and so it has no history of having been developed as a residential area. That’s beyond me.”
“But it’s a nonstandard environment, then?”
“Yes. But, excluding the undocumented residents, for example, most of the people residing in Section C are what you’d call average citizens. Documented residents are using the residential area correctly, and so even if the environment is nonstandard, there is no reason to give it special attention. At the very least, we as counselors should be more concerned with individual homes.”
“So you don’t think that the nonstandard characteristics of a particular area might affect the quality of life in an individual household?”
“Unfortunately no,” Shizue answered. “Households are independent within their neighborhoods. The people inside the household are independent of their homes. What connects individuals to each other is information; physical proximity has no real bearing. This is why we built community centers. Ours is a society where so long as they aren’t coerced or systematized, people won’t care who’s in the next room.”
“I believe it,” Ishida said.
“Those who still believe in the primacy of geography are largely of the bygone century. They—well, if I had to pick a side I’d be one of them too—believe it imperative to maintain the framework of a nation-state. That’s why we create borders. And building the framework means maintaining it. But categorizations and labels don’t necessarily equate with control. It is irritating.”
“Irritating?”
“Yes. That much is obvious from the fact that two-thirds of the police infrastructure is concerned with information supervision. But…”
Ishida drew a cloth from his pocket and wiped the frame of his monitor. “Still, we don’t exist just on intake of information alone. We also live, eat, and sleep in this place. As long as real access happens, there will be crime.”
Shizue wasn’t going to disagree with him there. She was sure that was true.
But Shizue didn’t believe in it.
“That’s why we have epic mistakes such as investigation exhibit R,” Ishida said. “Those undocumented citizens who have centralized in Section C, in particular, have built a life ignoring the framework we as authorities have taken many pains to build. These people have now formed communities with blood ties and connections to the land and established a lifestyle by means of illegal methods.”
“So you’re suggesting they are all criminals.”
“In that someone who doesn’t abide by the law is a criminal, yes. Undocumented residents are all criminals. Regardless, the reality is that they refuse to live under our rules and social mores. In other words, it’d be more accurate to say they live in their own country. Meaning that Section C represents their country and our country living side by side. I think it’s impossible to say that living situation doesn’t have an effect on the average citizen.”
“You’re really talking in circles, aren’t you?” Shizue blurted. “To be sure, I have children in my care who interact with undocumented or foreign citizens, or else they used to interact with them. That goes without saying. I’ve given you all the data.”
Shizue said you already know this, and Ishida responded matter-of-factly that he did.
“Then what else could you possibly want to hear from me? The worst has already happened, and so there’s little need to hurry, but this is also no time for us to be sitting around at leisure. Stop beating around the bush and just tell me what you want.”
Ishida’s eyebrows, neatly matching in shape, lowered, and he smiled weakly.
Then he started tapping lightly at the screen of his monitor with an index finger and very purposefully said, I see then.
“Well, that makes it easier for me to talk as well. Actually, the undocumented citizen that came up in our investigation is a girl of about fourteen or fifteen years of age. Of course she doesn’t have a family seal or anything, so we can’t know her exact age or real name. But she is definitely very close in age to all the murder victims in our investigation. I suppose it could be said her proximity in age won’t have anything to do with this, but—”
“You’re saying she had interaction with the victim?”
“Not exactly, but we can’t say she didn’t at least run into one of the victims. We had this sketch made based on the eyewitness accounts of several people and ran it through the children’s database, and…”
Ishida turned his monitor toward Shizue.
On the screen was the face of an unfriendly-looking young girl.
“Mio Tsuzuki. She’s one of yours, right? Seems she’s a very intelligent little girl. Looking at her developmental profile on the public server. Frankly, I was shocked. She’s advancing at a stunning pace.”
“She’s probably the most advanced in her age group for the area.”
“It’s more than that. As far as I know, she is the most intelligent girl of her age group, bar none. It’d be safe to call her a world-class genius.
Really, an exceptional specimen here. However, she’s got emotional problems, doesn’t she?”
“Not at all.” Shizue responded arrogantly. “Mio Tsuzuki is clearly advanced. But beyond that, she’s a completely normal fourteen-year-old. That’s all. Sure, her intellectual maturity does not match her emotional quotient, but there are no real problems there to speak of. She has the same problems other children her age have, and she’s growing in the same way that the other children are. There’s no reason to see her advancement in education as a problem source.”
“I understand,” Ishida said. “She is a resident of Section C, yes?”
“Yes. She lives in the old red-light district at the center of that section. And?”
“We believe she has interfaced with what might be a suspect.”
“Mio?”
This was an unexpected development.
“Miss Fuwa,” Ishida said. “Mio Tsuzuki’s parents, er—at least what looks like someone a generation older, shall we say, grandfather? Her grandfather did much for the expansion of the area when it was still a specialty business district. As the red-light district collapsed and the people deserted it, he stirred up quite a bit of action with the police and residents. Since her elder died off, she’s been working in extremely specialized information production, and though not illegal, it’s not the kind of thing we can exactly encourage. She’s been involved with people with foreign citizenship or no citizenship.”
It was difficult to say what either of Mio’s parents did. She couldn’t immediately say whether they were a problem or not. They were what used to be called bankers, but she didn’t know exactly what kind of setup they worked in.
And as Ishida pointed out, Mio was in an area surrounded by a lot of people who’d never had interactions with average citizens. Mio herself was raised by a foreigner and could be said to be in a very special living environment.
However, it hadn’t once occurred to Shizue to connect Mio with recent events, and even now though told there was a connection, she couldn’t be forced to believe it.
“It seems you’ve had personal dealings with this Tsuzuki kid also?”
“She tutors me after the communication labs. As you said, she is a world-class genius. There’s a lot to be learned from her.”
“Have you heard of anyone referred to as ‘Cat’?”
Cat. That was…
“If I recall, Mio used to play with a cat when she was little.”
“So you remember this?”
“That there was a cat. I think it was a cat.”
“You mean like the animal?”
“Is there any other kind of cat?” Shizue asked. “There are still a lot of cats in that area.”
“It’s the name of a human,” Ishida said. “Seems she’s of Chinese descent—alias, Cat, the Chinese character for which is pronounced ‘Mao.’ We don’t have any details on her, but we believe she’s an undocumented resident who’s been involved in procuring illegal foodstuffs in what used to be a pharmacy.”
“That’s your suspect?”
“We have a report of someone having seen, last Sunday at the time we believe that Ryu Kawabata was killed, what looked like two males and one female minor fighting. Based on what they said about her attire, we’re pretty sure it was this Mao girl. Furthermore they’ve said there was one other girl there.”
“Another?”
“It’s possible it was Yuko Yabe.”
“You’re saying Yabe was at the scene of Kawabata’s murder?”
“Possibly. There’s a possibility she was at the scene. However, this Mao girl was also seen later near Yabe’s home. It seems she was near Sakura’s residence as well.”
“Sakura’s? Really.”
“This Mao was probably visiting the Yabe residence. Hinako Sakura was visiting the Yabe residence. It was shortly thereafter that you and our investigator were there, and after a short dispute Sakura was apprehended and went back home. We think maybe Mao saw this take place and followed Sakura to her home. It fits with the time our observations say Sakura returned home.”
This girl had been watching Shizue and Kunugi at the time.
They were being watched.
Shizue’s spine froze and sent a horrible chill through her entire body.
“We don’t know what Aikawa has to do with this, but Kawabata, Nakamura, and Yabe all had some kind of exchange with Mao, and their lives were in danger thereafter. Kawabata was killed, and the other two, fearing for their physical safety, went into hiding. However, Yabe was discovered, and…”
“Killed?”
Really?
Something was slightly off in this interpretation. Maybe not off, exactly, but it was too simple. It seemed too convenient the way it all made sense.
“But the circumstances have suggested the interpretation for us,” Ishida noted. “In that case, you can assume there’s a criminal organization amidst the undocumented resident community and that it is behind these murders. In fact, it’d be prudent to assume—”
“You’re saying it’s easy to understand. You really think an average city resident, a minor for that matter, is capable of organizing a criminal organization like that?”
Ishida laughed. “Do you recall a case from fifteen years ago in which a group of foreigners organized a huge sale of drugs? The targeted drug buyers were all between the ages of ten and thirteen. The reason that case blew open was because of a skirmish between the teenage buyers and the selling organization. Sixty percent of electronic crimes are committed by minors, and half of them are involved in some kind of criminal activity online. I don’t know what’s going on in this case, but it’s not impossible.”
“Really…”
Something somewhere was off. Shizue couldn’t shake the feeling.
“We discussed this at the first conference, but the rate of crimes among minors has decreased over the years. But that’s a number our Investigative Unit R produced. If you include the figure produced by Investigative Unit V, that number is hugely skewed. Moreover, even in the figures Unit R produces, it doesn’t figure in the attempted crimes, and we’ve determined that the number of people involved in crimes has gone up. So…”
“I understand,” Shizue said.
But this wasn’t one of those situations.
“The only official record we have of this possible suspect, Mao, is her interaction with Mio Tsuzuki. This Mio and the victim were in the same communication session. And you were the counselor for both of them. That’s why we—”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have any information I think will be useful to your investigation.”
“It seems that way,” Ishida said half seriously. “Well, seeing as how you didn’t even realize we were talking about a human, I guess it’s only fair.”
Ishida refreshed his monitor and read something on the screen. “This is our thinking. The cat print is similar to the old art of China. This description has been our lynchpin.”
“The cat print.”
“Yes. There are actual cats in Section C, and felines have…well, prints. So unless you are hunting for them, it’s no sort of description. However…”
“The art of China.”
“That’s right. We actually did a search on the keyword ‘cat’ in the kids’ files. As you can imagine, we got a lot of search results, but when you search Section C and Chinese people, Tsuzuki comes up. When we looked into it, we found out her residence was located near an area where there was a catlike person. Then we filtered our results. When we reviewed the information, we could only infer that the ‘cat’ that popped up so frequently in her data was not an animal but instead referred to a human. If you read her descriptions carefully, the word for the animal ‘cat’ was frequently spelled in katakana. And the cat pattern she referred to was a costume print, or rather, embroidery. Most of this is from descriptions from her early childhood. After she turns ten there is suddenly no more mention of cats.”
“Is that so? I mean, so it is.”
It had been five years since Shizue started seeing Mio.
It wasn’t just that Mio possessed an unusually high intellect. She also had an incredible centripetal force. Her perspective and interpretations were unique and always stood out in comparison to the other children. Still…
Shizue knew nothing about the cat.
What else didn’t she know about Mio’s earlier years?
As a counselor, this could be a huge missing piece.
What a child saw, heard, ate, underwent, undertook in his or her formative years…
The advice and counseling one provided a child could change drastically based on these curious details. That was why Shizue had taken special care to check the historical data when she took over Mio’s file from her predecessor.
But.
Her predecessor probably hadn’t noticed references to the “cat” either.
By the time Shizue had been handed Mio Tsuzuki’s file by the girl’s previous counselor, Cat had probably long since passed into memory.
But there was no changing the fact that Shizue had known nothing about this.
Nothing.
Shizue knew better than anyone that there was no knowing a child.
Ishida had been staring at Shizue but eventually turned an ear toward the investigator at his back and then said understood.
“What did you find out?”
“We know that for now, there’s no more information we can obtain from you. However, we’d like to be able to follow up with you. You’ll be working here along with Miss Shima. Is that all right?”
Shizue didn’t feel like responding.
She just nodded and left the room.
The spotless hallway seemed somehow smudged.
It was only a tentative straight line.
Shizue felt the wall against the palm of her hand.
She had not once in her life run a hand against a wall.
It was smooth.
And even though it was a different texture entirely…
It felt like when she had held the hand of her deceased mother.
Shizue took her hand away from the wall and wiped her palm with her wet wipes.
Repeatedly.
When she closed her eyes she could see Yuko Yabe’s imploring face.
But it wasn’t quite a face. It was more like a vague image, by no means clear, but definitely Yuko’s.
Yet no sooner had she tried to remember the details than it devolved into a different being altogether.
That being was her dead mother, or Mio Tsuzuki, or Ishida, or the horribly exhausted self in the mirror.
The Yuko inside Shizue was…
All made up of borrowed images.
Why’d you go and die?
Shizue turned the inorganically placed corner of the building into the unpopular entrance hall and walked through to the counseling booth. It was the private office they’d designated hers.
In a room like this she could do her work even if just on standby.
She swiped her ID card, and the door made an unpleasant sound before opening into the room.
Everything in the room was painted in a green theme to calm the nerves.
Her private office was a bright, well-lit space. It was conceptually relaxing. But there was no way Shizue could relax in that environment.
Whatever the structure or the color of the room, it was a workspace for Shizue. Tension, yes. Relaxation, no. Countless children entered that space to unravel their inner thoughts, to express their minds, cry, and get angry. Shizue received any and all of these nonuniform communications and had to process them like a bureaucrat while seeming to care.
She got to her desk and took a deep breath.
She turned on her monitor and called up Yuko Yabe’s face. There was no meaning in it. She’d wanted to see a real picture of her in order to clear away the vague one in her head.
Pink pupils, small frame.
“Color.”
There was no color in her visualization.
Adding the color pink quickly and permanently materialized the real Yuko Yabe for Shizue.
Now there was no confusing her image with anything else.
It still might have been a borrowed image, but at least the Yuko inside Shizue now had her own existence. In the middle of completing the image, Shizue felt suddenly like a hole had opened in her stomach.
This must be what they call being sad.
Just then.
Shizue noticed that the growth pattern in the field outside swayed unnaturally.
The counseling booth’s window faced the inner courtyard of the center.
The inner courtyard connected to the green area surrounding the center. Though they were connected physically, the yard and the green area were cordoned off by laser sensors designed to prevent outside intrusions.
The security at public institutions was unsurpassed. In other words, this wasn’t a place for ordinary civilians. Maintenance personnel came in throughout the day, but the days were different, and they usually had finished their work by very early in the morning.
That reminded her…
Shizue looked down at the windowsill.
A few days ago, four days maybe, they’d announced a search of the green area on the center’s periphery for Yuji Nakamura, who it was believed had been hiding in the area. At the time of the communication, Nakamura was a person of extreme interest, practically a suspect, so it made sense they used the word “hiding” to describe his disappearance.
It was different now.
The investigators must have deepened their search into the courtyard.
Or it could be Yuji Nakamura himself crossing into the courtyard.
Shizue placed her hand on the window.
She turned off the security.
She focused her eyes again.
The natural makeup of the greenery.
It was swaying.
Shizue put her hand on the window lever.
The glass window slid open with a low buzzing sound from the internal motor. The outdoors broke in. Temperature change. Temperature change. Then natural sounds. Smells. The smell of damp earth. The scent of grass and trees that had grown out of decayed nutrients. A pungent and dirty scent Shizue detested.
A swooshing sound in the grass.
Shizue grabbed the security line receiver by her window.
Regardless of whether Nakamura was the culprit or the victim, whether that was him in the grass in the first place, she would need to notify someone. There was definitely someone out there.
“Who’s out there?”
Her voice was hoarse.
The person in the shadows wasn’t Yuji Nakamura.
“Hello?”
“Oh thank God it’s you. I thought I was done for.”
The man brushed away the leaf in front of his face.
“Officer…Kunugi? You…”
“Actually, I uh…”
Kunugi looked at the security receiver in Shizue’s hand.
“Are you going to call them?”
“If that’s what I should do.”
“It isn’t,” Kunugi said. “They’ll dismiss me from the force if you do that. They might even add immediate punishment.”
“Punishment?”
“Yeah, punishment. On top of committing an offense while in uniform, I’ve trespassed in an area of prohibited entry.”
“Offense while in uniform? But aren’t you investigating this area?”
“Investigating, sure. The investigation here ended yesterday at ten am. Right before they announced withdrawal from the center I lied to the guard at the entrance and came into this courtyard.”
“Lied? Lied how?”
Kunugi’s clothing was well soiled. He was covered in dirt and leaves.
If Shizue were to believe what Kunugi had just said, he’d have been camping out in this forest for over a day. Of course he was dirty.
“I told you I was on disciplinary leave, didn’t I?” Kunugi said. “I have no authority to do anything right now. My police privileges have all been revoked. During my disciplinary probation they monitor the usage of my ID card. It’s like I have a criminal record, so I’m treated worse than the average citizen. I had no choice but to lie. So I just came in here and said I was on the investigation without showing them my ID.”
“Why would you do that?”
“It’s a long story and if I tell you, you’ll be involved,” Kunugi said. “Given your position, it would be prudent to activate that security line.”
It would be prudent.
Shizue remembered the way she looked in the mirror before she left. The face she envisioned transformed into Ishida’s. Prudent action. What a nasty phrase. If there was any time to act stupidly, unnaturally, it was when someone had just died. It would probably be okay.
No, definitely.
Shizue replaced the receiver into the wall unit.
“Why didn’t you call them?” Kunugi asked.
“I’m reconceptualizing the truth.”
“That’s a nice way of putting it.”
“Are you really on disciplinary leave?”
“Why would I lie about something like that?”
“Maybe you’re pretending to be informal so you can trap me into giving information off the record.”
“Ishida…” Kunugi said. He puffed his cheeks. “Ishida’s questioning you, so now you’re doubting me.”
Shizue didn’t respond but examined Kunugi’s expression. He’d furrowed his brow. So listen, Kunugi said. He took a deep breath and spoke again.
“This is what I meant when I said our talking to each other would cause you problems. I wasn’t following you for them. They were following me. It’s because I came to you that those guys started following you.”
“What do you mean they were following you?”
“That’s a good question. I don’t know myself. I just knew I was being tailed. I was positive after we left that restaurant. My pursuer let up as soon as I noticed him, but now they have a tight GPS track on me. I know that much. Even after I turn off the screen on my monitor there is a slight noise, and when I receive my news bulletins the color is slightly off.”
“You’re totally marked, then?”
“That’s right. With my movements monitored I was unable to go anywhere, but after a week of lying low I couldn’t resist anymore.”
“Resist what?”
“No, it’s just that being watched made me feel imprisoned,” Kunugi said. He laughed. “I could have stayed home and played old role-playing games, but knowing everything I did was being tracked made me antsy. I had no choice, so I left my portable monitor at home and came out.”
“Your monitor?”
“They’re going to know something’s wrong when I don’t move for this long. That’s why I came here early yesterday morning, but then I got stuck when the investigators left. What a joke, right? Surveillance cameras everywhere, I couldn’t move. Even if the police didn’t find me, eventually that skinhead woman guarding the grounds would realize I hadn’t come back out. I had just about given up.”
Kunugi shrugged and laughed anew.
Shizue was confused. Why was he laughing?
“You’ve been here for over thirty hours.”
Shizue wouldn’t have lasted ten minutes. All she saw when she looked out at the forest were breeding grounds for microbes and insects.
“I’m pathologically filthy, remember?” Kunugi said. “It’s relatively safe out here. Despite my looks, I’m actually not that great in the outdoors. You’re not going to believe this, but when I was a kid they said I was a clean freak. Toward the end of the twentieth century, kids still played in the mud and stuff. But not me. They used to have these personal game units. They were like toys. I played with that thing all the time. I didn’t realize till I got to this age that it’s important to play in the mud too.”
Kunugi showed off his mud-caked hands to Shizue.
Shizue withdrew and pointed her left hand to indoors. Kunugi made an incredulous face.
“What are you thinking?”
“There are no children here today. In fact no one’s here.”
“Still. I can’t go in there!”
“The security system is turned off and the surveillance cameras in counselor offices are shut off to protect the privacy of children. As long as no children come into the room the cameras won’t move. Once we leave this room together I suppose the cameras will go back on.”
Kunugi was astonished. He laughed uncomfortably and reached out a hand for assistance. This man was just as capable of reconceptualizing the truth as Shizue.
“I’m…dirty,” he warned.
“I can tell.”
A visible mess was always better than an invisible one. Kunugi carefully made his way to the window, removed his mudcaked shoes, and stepped into the room. He made a thudding sound. He smelled like mud. Shizue immediately closed the window and returned to her desk, turning on her air filter.
“There’s no need for that,” Kunugi said. “Why are you saving me if you have to hold your breath?”
“Because I don’t know why you are running around. I’m having a hard enough time figuring out why you were put on leave. Moreover, why is a police unit tracking one of its own officers with GPS surveillance? I find this all very hard to believe. It’d be another thing if you were suspected of the murders.”
“If that were the case…” Kunugi had been facing the window looking out and turned to face Shizue. “You would be in serious danger.”
Kunugi put out both his hands toward her.
“If I were a murderer, it’s possible this mud on my fingers would get all over your neck.”
“Strangulation is it? If it’s at all up to me, I’d like to be stabbed to death like all the other victims. Anything but strangulation.”
I don’t like it, Shizue added softly.
Kunugi lowered his hands.
“I’m sorry, but I’m actually not strong enough to kill you with my bare hands anyway. It’s an optical illusion, all this. I may be large, but I have no physical strength. I ranked a C at my physical. So not only did I get bad grades I’m not even strong enough to be a jock. I’m able to eat because I’m a public servant, but I’ll never amount to more than a local beat cop. I’m so stupid I once Tasered myself by accident.
“Can I sit here?” Kunugi asked. He plopped down into the counseling chair without waiting for an answer. “So Ishida called you?”
“Yes, he did.”
Shizue leaned against her desk.
“Yuko Yabe was killed, huh?” Kunugi said. “This morning,” replied Shizue.
“She’d been on the run for a good week. If the police had somehow gotten to her sooner her life could have been spared. If only…”
“Nothing we say now will bring her back. If you want to talk about what could have happened, I’m the one who delayed reporting her disappearance. Even if I’m to blame for negligence, repeating what’s happened would just be backwards.”
“You’re cold,” Kunugi said. “I feel real remorse. I feel bad.”
“I feel exactly the same way in that regard. But, Kunugi, what were you thinking this time?”
Kunugi’s eyes widened. They were unusually large eyes.
“What do you mean what was I thinking this time?”
“That’s about as direct a way as I could think of to ask why the police would be following you around.”
Shizue stood up, dispensed some flavonoid beverage from a push-button machine, and handed it to Kunugi. Kunugi savored the drink.
“Thank you. For bringing me this, I mean. Ah, I’m sorry if this will seem indelicate. I wasn’t going to collect morning dew or anything, so my throat was totally parched. I never thought in this day and age that I’d find myself in this kind of situation. And I’ll have you know I haven’t done anything or thought of doing anything. Since I spoke to you last week, I’ve just been thinking about that theory I have.”
“That one of the murders in this serial killing spree is unrelated?”
“Yeah. Going back to last year’s murders, the murders that took place on the butsumetsu and the ones in which the one organ was never discovered are unrelated, I still believe. And then this newest case…”
“Another deformée character–related incident?” Shizue asked.
“Actually, Asumi Aikawa didn’t seem to indicate any interest in DC.”
She’d confirmed with Shima. Kunugi agreed.
“But that just isn’t going to fly.”
“What does that mean?”
“Asumi Aikawa was also missing a piece.”
“Missing…”
“Missing a part. So if she were into DC, it would actually not fit with my theory. This is one of the other thread of murders.”
“You mean one of the murders in which an internal organ was removed.”
“Her liver was missing.”
Shizue was stunned.
The broken replica of a human had in fact not been complete.
“I did a little search on Sunday on a colleague’s monitor. He’s a good cop. Unfortunately he thinks I am too. He’ll never move up. So what did Ishida tell you?” Kunugi asked.
“Aikawa wasn’t one of my kids, and the notice we got at the center said nothing about missing livers. Just that the body was found severely damaged.”
“I suppose there’s no reason to point out something like that. The cops don’t think the criminal made off with the liver or anything. I doubt if there’s such a thing as an organ-takeout murderer.”
“Made off with…”
Kunugi took a wet wipe and wiped his face and neck. “Making off with doesn’t mean anything. Maybe forty or fifty years ago, but there’s no way someone in this age would need a live organ transplant. Cloned organs are cheaper and guaranteed. One can’t know the quality of some random girl’s internal organs, and no doctor would perform a surgery that low-tech. A live organ transplant is actually quite difficult. I don’t think anyone would do something that arcane. So then what would they do with the organ? That’s the question.
“There are those people who fetishize certain body parts. There are cases from long ago of murderers who saved a certain part of the body, even those who collected those parts.”
“Even internal organs? Unfortunately I don’t know of anyone who collects internal organs.”
“Well it wouldn’t be strange if you did,” Kunugi said, and brought the blackened wet wipe to his nose before throwing it into the trash chute. “There are so many kinds of perverts out there. There’s no rhyme or reason to them. Depending on how you looked at things, we could be considered perverts too.”
“I agree,” Shizue said.
“But we don’t have this weirdo’s—I mean, I’m not being prejudiced here, but…we’re talking about someone who’s committing criminal acts in order to satisfy his idiosyncrasy. I don’t think this is the kind of thing that an individual does.”
“You have a basis for this theory?”
“Sort of. Think about it. If you believe what I’m saying, it’s been a two-year streak of serial murders if you combine the butsumetsu killings from last year and the deformée character killings of this year. I haven’t looked into serial murders from before that, but if you did—if —the pattern could go back forever. And if that’s the case, we can’t keep saying these murders are just a pervert fulfilling his whims.”
Kunugi was probably right.
It was too calculated. Actually it wasn’t even a matter of it being calculated. This kind of crime wasn’t necessarily an emotional one. Emotional inclinations had nothing to do with the intellectual quality of crime. Motives, ones fueled by sexual inclinations, minutely trained, painstakingly conceived sex crimes…There were too many of them.
“You mean the scale is too big?” Shizue asked. Kunugi nodded.
“I think this goes beyond one person’s criminal file.”
“If your theory proves correct, I believe you’re right that we’re dealing with more than just one perpetrator.”
“An organization,” Kunugi answered hesitantly.
“What kind of organization would be doing this though, right?” Shizue said. “Lieutenant Ishida indicated the possibility that it was the undocumented residents of Section C.”
“Undocumented residents?”
“They aren’t really an organization, but they have certainly grouped together and created a life for themselves and their kind by unlawful means, so they would be capable of pulling off something of the scale you were talking about.”
“Yeah, but…where did that come from?” Kunugi asked.
He scratched behind his ear.
“You don’t know?”
Kunugi stopped his fingers and said, “I don’t. We weren’t considering undocumenteds when I was on the investigation.”
“There’s apparently witness testimony that the night Ryu Kawabata was killed, the victim along with Yuji Nakamura were both fighting a young woman. That young woman is an undocumented resident. Yuko Yabe was also apparently there.”
“I didn’t hear any of this. Ryu Kawabata and Yuji Nakamura were spotted within the vicinity of the scene of the crime. No one’s out on the streets there even in the middle of the day. It’s hard to believe there was an eyewitness. If there were, it has to have been Nakamura or Yabe.”
“But that’s what Ishida told me. That there’s some fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl called Cat who runs with some kind of medicine-seller or something.”
“You mean the organic food products people. They definitely have a wide network of connections. Still, it seems a little out of nowhere.” Kunugi made a severe face and resumed scratching behind his ear.
“This undocumented resident was apparently watching us when we went by the Yabe residence. After we apprehended Sakura, who was also there, the girl started following Sakura.”
“How did they get that evidence?” Kunugi crossed his arms. “Certainly after the request for questioning was made, the police investigated the goings on around the Yabe residence. But she hadn’t been killed yet at that point. It was a disappearance. Of course, it was possible she was tied up in the murder, so they could have been looking for suspicious types. Typically in the investigation of a disappearance they will look first into what the victim was doing at the time of the disappearance and what they were doing right before.”
“Obviously,” Shizue said.
“Right? We were there two days after she’d been declared missing. Given that, whatever they heard in the area had to have been incidental. I doubt that they went as far as patrolling Sakura’s home. When I was attached to the case, Sakura wasn’t believed connected to any of this.”
Shizue had heard the same. Hinako was under interrogation now, but that was only now, after Yuko Yabe had been discovered dead.
Kunugi shrugged his whole body.
“Overheard evidence is tricky. These days, nobody just sits outside and observes. No one walks through town. Everyone’s reading their monitors. When officials ask to make real contact most citizens deny them. You can’t force them. Everything you say to them is recorded. Not like back in the day. You can be charged for saying outrageous things now. They’re always saying your statements will remain anonymous, but if you say anything they think reveals accountability, they’ll shut you down.
“That’s why I doubt they were able to obtain such perfectly compact and convenient evidence. Even this bit about Kawabata accompanying Nakamura on his outing was evidence submitted by a cohabitant and local cop.”
“In that case, how should we interpret what Lieutenant Ishida has divulged? You don’t believe he actually obtained this information?”
“No, if the lieutenant divulged this information in a circumstantial interrogation, it’s got to be at least somewhat accurate. There were other investigators present when Ishida questioned you, yes?” Shizue asked. “No matter where the conversation took place, all statements made under questioning are a matter of public record. Besides I doubt if the lieutenant would start lying to you now. So this is what I think: they got to the girl they suspect of being the criminal first.”
“First?”
“Yeah. If you take into account that business about Mao being suspicious, the story changes.”
“You mean they’ve dug up information targeting the undocumented residents?”
“I’m sure they got some information. There are a lot of people out there who harbor negative feelings toward the undocumented residents. If you go to any anonymous tipline on your monitor and enter anything about potential criminals and input features of that young girl, I’m sure you’d get tons of information in less than an hour. Most of it will be useless junk data, and there’s no credibility to any of the information, but some of it will seem useful,” Kunugi said. “Even if it’s anonymous there’s a source for everything, and that means you can always trace it. If you know what you’re looking for, odds are good you’ll find it. It eliminates a lot of the labor.”
“In that case.”
“So…” Kunugi crossed his legs and balanced an elbow in his lap, then put his chin in his hand. “I’m wondering where this first bit of information came from. We have to figure out the connection. Before the police knew of Cat’s existence they couldn’t have started anything. Who’s the source? Until we know that, the evidence can’t be collected. Because you can’t wring it out of her. I’m positive someone was spilling information.”
“Spilling?”
“Secret information, I mean. Someone must have been leaking info on Cat to the police. Moreover, it’s very sensitive information. If it wasn’t, the police wouldn’t go that far. Regardless of whether they were bewildered or not, there was a suspected culprit—Nakamura, who after your little suggestion went from suspect to potential victim—so something happened to make the direction of the investigation change.”
Direction, meaning that even after what Shizue had said, the police were still suspicious of Yuji Nakamura. But then…
“I was under the impression from what Lieutenant Ishida said that Yuji Nakamura was no longer under any suspicion at all.”
“I’m sure he isn’t.” Kunugi sat up. “I think Yuji Nakamura is already in police custody.”
“What?”
“The search around the center’s premises ended Monday night. But it’s not like they found who they were looking for, so normally they’d keep a few people on. This was considered the most likely place he’d hide. But then suddenly everyone is taken off duty yesterday. It’s just a hunch, but I think Nakamura is the one who provided the information on Mao.”
“Nakamura?”
“Nakamura’s testimony would be rock solid. If Nakamura himself states that he and Kawabata were attacked by this girl, they’d stop at nothing to find her. So—”
“Why wouldn’t they announce that they’d apprehended him, then?”
“Because…” Kunugi was forced silent with his mouth open as the monitor on the desk lit up with a message.
Kunugi’s hunch was wrong.
The message on the monitor screen was a notice of the discovery of Yuji Nakamura’s body.