"Hello, Mick." Ryo lit a cigarette and looked up his friend's tanned face. Pale purple smoke slowly rose from his cigarette and disappeared into air.
Mick Angel, one-time partner of Ryo during his time in America. If there were anyone who could be equal in shooting skills, sex drive, and alcohol intake, it was Mick. It was true that once he was a self-claimed prince of pervert, a top rank hired gun, and a bottomless heavy drinker. But, after fighting off the hellish side effects of PCP, "Angel Dust", the resulting physical disability forced him to early retirement from the underworld. Apparently, the guy also had really bad case of Nightingale syndrome. He had been a happily item with Kazue, a beautiful research scientist who nursed him from recovering from PCP. Currently, he worked as a freelance journalist, chasing a story around world, instead of women.
"Well, long time no see, Ryo." Ignoring ex-partner's odd quiet manner, Mick cheerfully replied, took off his shade, and sat on the seat across Ryo. Looking back, he rose his hand a little to sign the waiter for his drink.
"Yeah, same to you." Little forced smile appeared at the corner of Ryo's mouth. After taking an order from Mick, the waiter quickly came back and put a cold longneck Budweiser in front of Mick. Mumbling to the waiter something like "keep the changes," Mick sent away the waiter with a couple of crumple green bills. Then, he took a quick swig from the cold beer bottle.
Sensing palpable tension in Ryo, Mick wearily put down his bottle, and his easy-going attitude disappeared instantly like someone flipped a switch. There was no more Mick the international journalist, only the face of Mick the hired gun. Retirement just couldn't change the man's essence at all.
"Something happened." Ryo nodded to Mick's question. Then, he took the brown paper envelope from his coat pocket and pushed it toward Mick. "I want you to see this."
"What is this brown envelope business? You gotta nude pics you can't show me in public? Ryo...don't be juvenile." Contrary to own witty remarks, Mick reached to the given brown envelope slowly like touching a poisonous snake. As he opened the envelope and took its contents out, his eyes widened with shocks. "My God!" Quickly, he went through all pictures. Ryo took a deep drag from his cigarette and turned his face back toward passing travelers again.
After initial excitement wore off, Mick gathered all pictures in his hand and took another big gulp from his forgotten bottle on side, "Who is she? Is she really Kaori?" His sharp eyes never left the pictures.
"I want you authenticate the pictures. Whether it is digitally manipulated or not. And, find out the identity of the woman in pictures." Ryo said as he continued to gaze outside. His right hand with burning cigarette hung in mid-air.
"Do you think she is Kaori? That she is still alive... What...it has been three years since her funeral." The deep concern for his friend etched on Mick's face. He knew that these pictures had opened Ryo's unhealed wound by Kaori's tragic death. He could see that his ex-partner was still suffering quietly together with the past. There were only two ways to finish this road: bad one and dead one. Either way, it was lose-lose situation for Ryo. The pictures might be fake, and she was just Kaori's doppelganger, a twin among strangers. If it wasn't fake, and the woman in pictures were truly Kaori. How could she be alive? Either ways, the mystery surrounding these pictures indicated a sinister plot and danger for Ryo.
After Kaori's death, Mick never saw Ryo grieve openly for her passing. As if a stubborn child kicked the broken toy with incomprehensive anger why it broken and couldn't be fixed, Ryo refused to express anything but insane rage against the world, that unjustly snatched away his Kaori from him.
Secretly, Mick had kept some tabs on Ryo's movement for last three years, but reports from various sources just worried and paled him more. Everywhere, blindly Ryo was taking impossible cases with unbelievable risks. Definitely, the man gotta a death wish. Contrary to Ryo's such crazy actions, he never got his wish. Ironically, it seemed like the death itself was frightened by his intense mad rages and avoided him intentionally. How much he thrust himself into hell, the fate continued to leave him unscathed time after time.
"Doesn't matter. It can't be coincident. If..." Mick thought he saw dark flame of hope flickered for a second in Ryo's eyes, but they were gone in a flash and replaced with shadowy hard looks. "If she is alive...I won't give up her without good fights."
"Then what? Hypothetically, if this woman in pictures is Kaori. What are you going to do? You just can't waltz in front of her from nowhere and say 'Honey, I am glad to see you alive. By the way, why have you been dead for last 3 years?' " Mick really hated himself to say such cruel things to the desperate man frantically clinging to the phantom hope, but he must. He won't let his friend to throw himself into the dangerous illusion like this.
Everybody has skeletons in the closet. Men like him and Ryo were not exception despite their indifferent attitude toward their actions. They carried too much baggage from the past. Nevertheless the deads keep their mouth shut permanently after being thrown into 6 feet deep in the cold ground, their ghosts feed on living's guilts and memories to continue to cry and rattle their chains. In shadow, they await patiently to whisper their vengeful words into your ears when you are most vulnerable and unexpected. There is no tomorrow for them; they have all the time to party in the world. The problem is no bullet or no weapon can stop them, and they are the worst enemy of all.
Silence was all Mick got back from Ryo. Putting down pictures on the table carefully between him and Ryo, avoiding saturated moisture from sweating cold beer bottle, Mick sighed deeply, feeling the mixture of wariness and sadness which he tried not to feel every day. Like Ryo, he had his own demons to deal with. So, he completely understood how his formal partner was feeling, but it didn't make thing easy.
"If the woman in pictures is really Kaori as you suspect. Is it wise to jump into her life? Does she want you back in her life?" Mick saw the dangerous glint in Ryo's blue black eyes. It was not good sign, and he was walking on thin ice here.
"I still have the promise with Makimura." Ryo broke the still air stretched between two men.
"Yeah, dying brother's words. How long do you think you can hang on to that old excuse?" Be tough and tell the truth, Mick told himself silently.
Mick's words must be felt like falling acid for Ryo, he became grimmer. "If you want to say something, just say it. There is no point for beating around the bush."
"I just want you to stop and think. Ryo, you aren't stupid enough to jump into this shit. It stinks big time." Leaning back, Mick patted down his jacket for cigarettes. Well, Kazue always nagged about his nasty smoking habit. According to her it was the most unproductive and self-destructive behavior, but seriously right now he needed something to distract himself from the volatile, tense situation with Ryo.
"For last 3 years, I have done enough thinking to last my goddamn whole life. What more I can think?" Ryo pressed down his cigarette in the ashtray with frustration.
Mick took a silver lighter from pants pocket and lit a cigarette. "Then, do you think you can kill her? If you have to. There is always possibility for worst case." Exhaling smoke slowly toward the ceiling, toying the lighter in his hand, Mick asked Ryo bluntly. His tone was nonchalant as if he was talking about nontrivial everyday subject like weather. Contrary to his calm demure and carefree attitude, Mick's eyes was dead serious about his question.
Ryo's mouth formed a hard line. Despite Ryo's cool composed exterior, Mick saw that underneath his ex-partner struggled with inner turmoil. "Just ID the woman in pictures, Mick. I'm not asking any advice from you." Ryo's voice was cold and distance.
"You know, Ryo. I loved Kaori once. She was such strong willed and beautiful woman. I had really really bad for her." Far away look in eyes, Mick said to none particular and took another drag from the cigarette. "For her sake, I will do this for you, but you have to make up your mind. Either way, my friend, the truth won't be pretty. I hope you know what you are getting into."
"Thank you Mick. I owe you one." Ryo looked down and stared at the picture of the woman looking out from the window.
"Don't bother. I need other picture of Kaori for comparison. Do you have it with you?"
"Yeah." Taking out the leather wallet from the pocket, carefully Ryo pulled out one small dog-eared picture from its bill folders. "This is only picture of her I have."
Mick took the picture from Ryo's hand. Kaori was cheerfully smiling back to Mick in the picture. Blue sky in background, she was full of hope and energy with dash of mischief here and there. Tiny but bright lights in darkness for the men like him and Mick. Such honest smile...Yeah Kazue has the same look too, he thought.
Ryo's voice brought Mick back from a trip to the memory lane. "Not a word about this for anyone, Mick. Call me when you get a result. This is a number you can reach me." Dropping a piece of paper with cellular phone number on the desk, Ryo sat up from his seat. Without hearing Mick's acknowledgment, quickly he walked out the bar with his bag, disappearing into the crowded air terminal, never looking back.
"Hey Ryo..." Mick thought about running after Ryo, but let the idea go. He knew that his ex-partner was not ready to talk about Kaori's death with others. The man was still in pain from the fateful incident happened three years ago. From easily giving up only picture of Kaori, he suspected that Ryo didn't need it to remember her face, and perhaps she was forever immortalized in his memory. Mick knew very well that sometimes people wouldn't let go the past because that was all they got to live for. Without Kaori, Ryo had only her ghost to go on, and now unexpectedly receiving mysterious pictures, he didn't have any intention to let her rest... Mick looked at the pictures again. "Are you truly alive, Kaori?" Woman in the picture didn't answer to his question. Frozen in time, forever trapped in the small photograph, she only continued to smile back to him brightly.