A/N: Please consider finding some film noir music to listen to while reading. I recommend the Bohren & Der Club of Gore – Sunset Mission (Full Album) posted by MrDeeway78 on Youtube.
Summary: The moment that dame walked into 'his' office Yusuke knew he was in trouble. The gal said she had a case for him. She looked like a case herself but Yusuke had other problems to worry about. For starters, where was he? Why was everything in black and white? And what was Keiko wearing!
Someone Dropped a Watch
Her presence blew into the office like a breath of Christmas air. She was beautiful and she knew it. Her hair was freshly styled and so was the rest of her appearance. Big blue eyes that could really get to a man if he stared long enough and long brown hair that probably acted like a noose if the man got close enough. She was the sort of gal who got men killed. She was Keiko, his secretary. She kept him on time and in line.
He, meanwhile, looked like he had just walked out of the school of hard knocks. The fedora on his head hid his face from view and a dark khaki trench coat covered the rest of him except for his feet. He was leaning back in his chair, feet up on the desk in front of him, quietly smoking away. An empty bottle of rye whisky lay on the desk with an open bottle standing beside. He was a private eye, a detective for hire. He looked young but a gun didn't care how old its handler was as long as they could pull the trigger. He could and did for a price.
They moved in opposite circles, her and him. Sometimes intersecting for a moment or two to get a job done and a case closed and then she was gone back to that world. She had a husband and he had the bottle. Her husband didn't know and she was going to keep it that way. Their relationship was strictly platonic or better yet pathetic since she was keeping him floating for nothing. Not that her husband would see it that way. Still, she couldn't say her heart didn't race a little each time she stepped through the doorway into her boss' office. Unlike a good many gals who walked through that doorway, she wasn't ice but she could be as cool as an ice maiden if she had to.
She stepped through the doorway, aware of her beating heart. Perhaps if her husband wasn't so cold or was home more often, she wouldn't feel like this but then she was smarter than those other dames who came through the door hoping to lower the price of a detective with their charm. She knew unless it was made a bill made out of paper or a coin made of metal, the detective was as unfeeling as his liquor. Too bad she hadn't realized that back in junior high.
Behind her, a woman whimpered, waiting to be called in. The woman had rushed into the office just minutes ago babbling about a missing watch. Not the normal sort of gals her boss serviced but then you could never be sure. Some of those low-class girls ended up marrying pretty high up only to get into trouble. When trouble came knocking, the gals remembered old friends. It was an old song and she supposed her boss was located somewhere on verse six when the murder had been committed and pinned on some unsuspecting sap and the sap's girl remembered a detective.
It was the same old song that had become their song and now it was time to perform. She waltzed up to the desk, hips swaying as she moved the empty bottle of rye to the waste basket. The detective didn't so much as wince as the glass broke into hundreds of little shards. He was silent as the dead. It was somehow fitting since most of his clients ended up that way.
He was still silent as she noisily emptied the broken bottle he used as an ashtray. It was now she started to worry. Normally, no one could touch that broken bottle without her employer raising a fuss like chickens with a weasel in the henhouse. He always claimed it was his lucky charm and anyone else touching it would sour his luck. She always ignored him but now, as she gently shook him, she realized how luck could sour.
The head fell from the shoulders of the body as she screamed. It would not be until the cops arrived that she would notice the face under the fedora was not that of her boss but rather a man she had never seen before. At that point, she would faint away and awake to realize no one else had seen the crying client.
The case was solved in the minds of the cops not long after. The crying woman was never identified and although Keiko found herself becoming the prime suspect, there was no arrest. The case was at a standstill until the man could be identified. Months pass with no clue and the police moved onto other things but if a motive appeared, they had her. She had worked with the detective too long not to know when all the facts were against her. So while the case was cold with the cops, her social life was another matter. Her normally understanding husband turned from her after learning of her moonlighting and her friends had already found her guilty. The only one who could help her had been missing since the start of the case. She was caught like a rat in a trap, verse five of their song and then she moved to verse six.
Unlike the other dames who had walked through that same doorway looking and waiting for salvation, she would being searching for the truth herself and she knew just where to turn.
~ SDW ~
The streets were dark and dirty as she made her way towards Kuwa Meats. Trash covered the sidewalks but the pouring rain was slowly cleaning the streets by forcing it all into the gutters. Cats meowed in the alleys she passed. Only in this part of town did the cats seem to have enough to eat and Keiko had a feeling it had to do with Kuwa Meats employees having a soft spot for the animals. However, cats aside, it was a rough part of town after dark. Police cars were constantly on patrol, and Keiko pulled the brown fedora lower on her head to shield her face as she walked. A rough part of town for a rough type of guy.
The owner of Kuwa Meats was a friend of her boss and probably her best bet to finding the deadbeat. Although his hands were only covered in animal blood, the man had been framed for adding human blood to his collection. Her boss had been able to find the real crook and a man like Kazuma Kuwabara wasn't one to forget. He often passed on information to her boss when he had something but this time he was as useless as a pair of high heels in the mud of the Incan jungle.
"I'm telling you, Keiko. The last time I saw him, he said he was heading to Jimmy's for a drink," the large copper-haired man with a face that had seen better times said as they stood outside his butcher shop. He wiped his hands off on his apron although they were already clean. "I haven't seen him since."
Keiko nodded, acknowledging the truth of Kuwabara's words. The guy might have a questionable history with the wrong side of the law but he was as truthful as they came. Besides, his story tallied with the irritable, short matchbox dealer on fifth and the florist on twelfth. Still no leads on her boss but maybe Kuwabara had some other information. She removed a crime scene photo from her pocket and handed it to the man.
"I need help, Kuwabara. This is the man they think I killed under Yusuke's orders," she said.
The man accepted the photo and took once glance at it before shaking his head. "Never seen him before but I'll ask around."
She nodded before turning on her heel and walking down the streets rain covered streets. Her final source and still no leads on her boss or the stiff.
There was nothing more to do except wait. Thankfully, Keiko was far more patient than her boss. That man was like a starving dog waiting for a steak when it came to sitting quietly and letting the facts come to him. More than once he had turned to her and said, "There are two things I hate: waiting and being rushed."
Two weeks passed without a clue for her or the police but then a break in the case— the nameless stiff was identified. His name was Reggie "The Frog" Kurosawa. He was a known con-man who pretended to be a private eye operating out of the Tokyo-town part of the city, the same part of town as her boss. Actually, her boss and The Frog had met once before when the con-man was using her boss' good name in an attempt to get him killed by the thug underbelly of the city. The papers had already started to speculate that it was a vengeance killing— the hopelessly-in-love secretary avenging her lover and righting a past wrong. Keiko would have laughed if her mouth hadn't been full of toast when she was reading the paper. By the time she had swallowed, she didn't feel like laughing or eating anymore.
She placed her toast back on the plate and glanced around her small but clean hotel room. For a one-person operation the place was clean and most importantly, it was secure since not even the stupidest of thugs would walk within two blocks of the place. Not many people knew the hotel existed but the lower levels of the city knew; they always knew a safe place to hole up or where their targets would hole up. Keiko was one of the few upper levels who knew of this place. Like her boss, she had done a few favours during her employment. She wasn't a street walker but sometimes, you have to go where the information is. She never had let a man get close enough to receive the product he was paying for though, a fact she was proud of. There was only one man in her bed and he had just walked out of her life leaving her to sit in the room with a bed, dresser, curtain-covered window, a table and two chairs and not much else.
It was funny how life worked. Three years ago she had walked into this very room with heavy make-up, a skirt above her knees, figure holding tube top, small jacket, fish-net stockings, and a revolver in her purse ready to get some information. She had left with the owner behind her and her pointing a gun at the man who had moments before attacked the owner of the hotel. They were just about to call the police when the match-stick dealer on fourth appeared. He told them not to call anyone. He walked into the room. Closed the door. And then the screaming started. In the end, Keiko received free room and board whenever she needed it and the information needed to locate her boss who was about to sleep with the fishes when she found him.
Today the revolver was still in her purse and her boss was missing but she had no leads and no information but more clothing. Time was running like a scared rabbit through a field and was racing from her grasp. She needed more time or she needed a lead. Both were too much to hope for. She placed the newspaper on the table as she crossed to the window. Leaning against the wall, she peeked out behind the curtain. The dawning sun coloured the smog and clouds that hovered over the city a pink like a fresh picked rose. Tokyo-town would be starting to wind down; the street walkers and the thugs returning to their lairs like vampires until the next night. As the slowly rising sun created shadows, the street lights turned off one by one until only the one across from Keiko's window remained lit. Standing beneath it, bathed in the circle of light, was a man. His face in shadow but his intentions clear. He was watching her.
For Keiko, it was the security of the hotel that was most important. Two days ago someone followed her from the office to the bus stop. Then yesterday the same man followed her through the alleys until she lost him. Now he had found her and was watching.
Keiko carefully allowed the curtain to slip back into place before making her way to the table again. Her purse lay in the other chair, its contents free for the world to see. A box of bullets, a roll of greenbacks, the revolver, a lighter, and a package of cigarettes. She reached for the package of cigarettes. Cupid Super Heavy— her boss' favourite. She had just returned from buying him a new pack when the crying gal arrived at the office. Keiko hadn't even been able to give them to him but then, since it wasn't him in the chair, it wouldn't have mattered anyways. Still, looking at that stupid box made her angry like no other thing could.
The deadbeat could buy his own cigs and each time he sent her to buy. She always promised the next time she would either buy him Lucky Stripes or tell him to go puff on his finger. When she found him, she was going to throw the cigs in his face— that is, if she didn't smoke them first.
Keiko reached for the cig box and her lighter. Sitting on the table, she placed the cigarette in her mouth before fumbling with her chrome lighter. She lit the tube of paper and inhaled before quickly removing the cigarette from her mouth coughing like an old car.
"How can Yusuke stand these?" she said as she snuffed the cigarette out with the ashtray provided and located on the table. Still, the scent of his favourite cigarette smoke raised her spirits a little. It was almost as though he was closer now but if he was closer, so was the danger. A lead or more time but never both, that's all she could hope for now.
~ SDW ~
The police were looking for her now according to the press. It was probably a good thing she and her husband had visited splits-ville, otherwise he would be telling her to turn herself in. Keiko was made of stronger stuff than her husband. She wasn't like the rest of those upper class powder-puffs. She could handle the lower levels of the city and the men who dealt with them. However, it would be like a chick wandering into a pack of weasels to walk the streets now— straight up suicide. At least, as Keiko Yukimura it would be. Sweet Susi was another matter but she would need her make-up and clothing first. Thankfully, both were easily obtainable. Like she had mentioned before, Keiko had done a few favours herself in the past. One was to the lady owner of the hotel she was currently staying in; the other was to a street walker by the name of Juri although her professional name was not as judicial related.
Minutes after she saw her face appear on the front page under the headline of 'Wanted' she had placed a call to Juri's apartment requesting the girl's presence as a birthday gift to a dear friend. It was Juri's idea that if Keiko needed help that she should have a cover for calling so that if anyone (cops or thugs) checked the machine, nothing would be obvious. It had been at least a year since Sweet Susi had last walked the streets and it seemed she was due for a return.
An hour later Juri had called and they finalized the events of the 'party' happening the next day. Juri complained about the short notice and if Keiko didn't know better, she would have thought the girl was serious. All the better if the cops were listening in. Finally, they reached a price and Keiko promised to pay her plus a sizeable tip if she could sneak 'a friend' into the building inside a large cake. Keiko wasn't worried about sneaking out of the building with her stalker watching but she didn't want him wondering why one street walker entered the building and two came out later. The cake would be a perfect cover. The events finalized, Keiko hung up and went to tell the owner of the hotel about the plan.
She found the woman in the kitchen on the main floor cooking what smelt like heaven. Keiko always loved the kitchen of the hotel. It was a small but homey room that always smelt good and warm- a bit ironic since the owner of the hotel was sweet and yet cold. A better word to describe the owner would be distant. Keiko always thought she knew the owner well but she was constantly reminded by how little she knew about the little woman. Keiko could list all the information she knew about the girl in a small paragraph.
Her name was Yukina. She came to this country searching for her brother. She was told often her brother was not a man to be easily found and he would find her when he wanted. When it became clear he was in the city, she bought and maintained this hotel in hopes he would come to her as she had been advised. From what Keiko understood, he hadn't. The end.
Yukina smiled as Keiko entered but began to frown as Keiko informed her of the plan.
"Are you sure?" the woman asked, her eyes growing wide. "What if the police find out you are Susi?"
Keiko waved aside the concern. "Right now, the important thing is to find Yusuke. Without him, the case is stuck anyways."
The little woman nodded as she opened a cardboard above the stove. She removed a china jar that was covered in cherry blossoms. Some were blue as ice and others as red as fire. "My mother gave this to me when I left to find my brother," Yukina said as she placed it on the counter. "She said it would protect me." Yukina gently raised the lid of the jar and reached inside with her other hand. Keiko gasped as Yukina removed her hand from the jar. Hanging from a string necklace was a single, perfect sphere the colour of a tear although Keiko could not say for certain what colour a tear was. "She also said this would help me find what I was searching for." Yukina smiled as she placed the necklace in Keiko's hand. "I hope it will help you."
'I hope so too,' Keiko thought as she placed the necklace around her throat and thanked the ice maiden. 'I hope so too.'
A/N: This was originally what I wanted when I wrote Operation Code. Unfortunately, the plot did not lend itself to this sort of writing and by the time I realized that, it was too late. So now, two years later we have this story. Originally, this was going to feel the same as 'Fighting Evil by Moonlight' and 'Winning Love by Daylight' but as you can see, it took a different turn with Keiko as the lead. Personally, I love it but I'm curious to know what people think of her characterization. Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading.
-D101
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.