Matsuda
What Yoko said to me really bothered me for a long time after that, and even when I went to bed I couldn't stop thinking. My mind alternated between her words and the image of Misa's dead body. I couldn't sleep, so I got up and sat on my couch with the TV on, even though I didn't really watch it.
First of all, I couldn't believe Misa was dead; the media would probably announce it in the morning. Just another tragedy to them. Just another loss of someone I had cared for. It felt like my whole life was falling apart.
And now, Yoko's words were bothering me. Would Misa have really killed herself? It was hard to picture the Misa I knew doing something like that. Even though she had loved Light had she loved him more than life itself? Had his death been too much for her to bear? Still, if she'd been planning to commit suicide wouldn't she have done it immediately instead of waiting six weeks? Who would want to kill her? Had anyone else considered all this or would I have to be the one to bring it up with Aizawa?
Then there was the thing Yoko had said about Light. Did she really suspect he was Kira? I probably shouldn't have exploded at her, but I didn't know how else to react. I couldn't tell her 'yes, Light really was Kira' because we had all agreed that that was something we didn't want leaked. We wanted Light to go down as a man who was viewed with respect and honor. But was it obvious Light was Kira? And what was the point of defending his murderous reputation anyway? Anyway, the reaction I'd given her had been my own, and it had surprised even me. I didn't know for sure what it had been about her statement that had made me so angry, but it had really pushed all my anger buttons. Maybe that was what Aizawa meant when he said I hadn't been myself lately.
I just don't like to think about it, that's all. I don't like to think about Light being Kira. I wish it wasn't true.
As long as Yoko didn't keep asking questions it seemed like everything should be fine, but if she came back with more I didn't know how long I could hide the truth from her, and once the truth about Kira started getting out the whole world would know.
Including Sayu.
Sayu Yagami…she's pretty cute…
I guess she is.
I'd noticed before, but something about having her hang off me tonight, having to comfort her as she cried, really made me feel a connection with her. I felt like she needed me, and no one had ever needed me before.
But Sayu did. Her father and her older brother were both dead, and now all she had left was her poor mother. She had needed a shoulder to cry on, and I'd been there. I guess that meant I fit the bill.
God forbid she should ever find out about Light being Kira.
God forbid she should ever find out that I…
No. I shook the thought away. I had not killed Light. I'd shot him, but Ryuuk had been the one to kill him. So what was it about his death that was haunting me so much? I had thought about it and thought about it, but no obvious answer came to mind. I didn't want to think about it anymore. I wanted to pretend it hadn't happened in the first place. But I knew that when I closed my eyes to go to sleep I'd see it again anyway.
I felt the blood on my hands still. It seemed to be getting thicker. After a while I got up, washed my hands, and went back to bed. Then I tossed and turned for several hours before finally falling asleep.
In the morning I actually woke up on time, only to discover that I had a different problem now. Last night I'd left while my work uniform was still in the washing machine, and the episode with Misa's death had made me forget all about it. It was still in the washing machine, still soaked. So I loaded it into the dryer and went to find something else. It was getting harder and harder to find clothes I could actually wear to work, and now most of my white shirts and slacks were wet anyway. Maybe I should just give up the police career and become something else. A janitor or something. They didn't have to worry about their uniform being clean and pressed and everything.
I took a shower next and put on the cleanest clothes I could find. The nearly sleepless night hadn't helped the circles under my eyes at all, but I ate some breakfast and combed my hair and hoped that would make up for it.
I thought I did everything right. I took my own car to work so I wouldn't have to bum a ride. I ate so I wouldn't have to steal a donut from the lounge. Aside from the somewhat dirty shirt I was wearing, everything was going smoothly. I'd even be on time today. Aizawa should have nothing to say to me other than 'good morning' and 'here are the papers I want you to file today'.
The thought was meant to be funny, but as soon as I'd imagined him saying that I felt sour and resentful.
He's just trying to help me, that's all. I'm really kind of a mess right now.
That didn't make me feel much better.
It didn't matter anyway, because when I got to work and found Aizawa all he said is "What the heck are you doing here, Matsu?"
I stared at him, not understanding, "Um…I work here still, don't I?" He couldn't have decided to fire me for interfering with the Misa case could he? No. He's not the chief yet. He can't fire me.
"Yeah, but, didn't you get my message?"
"Message? I didn't really have time to check them this morning. I was trying to get here on time."
I could have swore Aizawa rolled his eyes at me, but his voice stayed kind, "I called to tell you to stay home. It's a slow day, and we won't…" he stopped before saying 'need you' I was sure, and replaced it with, "there won't be anything for you to do here."
He was trying really hard to be nice, I could tell that much, but I still felt a little insulted. "Oh. Well, I'm here anyway I guess…can't you just find something for me to do?"
Aizawa gave me a little bit of a disapproving look, "That's the reason I told you not to come in—there isn't anything."
"But the Misa case…it was pretty big wasn't it? There has to be something I can help with."
"Everything is already being taken care of." He said simply, and looked back at whatever was on his desk.
I didn't say anything—I already knew what this was about. It wasn't that there was nothing to do, it was that he thought I needed the time off after seeing Misa…
It was possible that he was right. Maybe I really should have just gone home and gotten some more sleep. I remembered the dark circles under my eyes and wondered if he noticed them.
Of course he did…
"Well who's going out on the investigation today?" I asked.
"Investigation?"
"Yeah…I mean, you're not done investigating all this stuff with Misa, are you?"
"Why wouldn't we be? It was obviously a suicide."
"It could have been a suicide," I agreed, toying with his paperweight, "but what if it wasn't?"
"There were no grounds for it to be anything but a suicide."
"You think it's impossible that someone killed her?"
"I think it's unlikely. Misa Amane was a popular person. I don't know who would want to kill her. And even if they did, forensics and ballistics didn't find any evidence of anyone else being in the room last night. If someone killed her they got away clean."
"Still, what about the message, Aizawa? Why would Misa write 'Kira lives' on the wall?"
"I have no idea. Maybe she was just upset. All it really proves is that she didn't know about Light being Kira." He looked up at me again, "Where's all this coming from anyway, Matsu?"
"Nowhere. I just think we should consider all the possibilities, and Misa-Misa being murdered is one of them."
"Maybe so. But there's no grounds for it. I wouldn't even know where to start looking for evidence for that."
"What about her manager? Did you talk to her yet? Someone might have been following Misa."
"No. I didn't feel like that was necessary. Matsuda," he sighed, "go home all right? There's nothing for you to do here. Get some sleep. You look like hell."
My face flushed, but I stood my ground, "If I go home I won't get paid for coming in today, right?"
"No, no, don't worry about that. You're still getting paid. Just go."
I almost turned around to go, but stopped myself, remembering there was one other thing I wanted to ask him about, "Aizawa…we're friends, right?"
Aizawa hesitated. He probably just didn't know why I was asking, "Yeah. Why?"
"Then just between us, what would happen if," I lowered my voice, "what would happen if the rest of the world found out about Light?"
He looked at me for a long moment, then he said with equal softness, "I don't want to think about what would happen, Matsuda. It wouldn't be good for Sachiko and Sayu, that's for sure."
"Yeah, that's what I thought." I stared down at my feet. Maybe Yoko had just been making conversation last night, so maybe she hadn't meant anything by suggesting Light had been Kira, but it hadn't felt that way. Something about it had seemed very calculated, like when L or Near asked a question. I'd gotten the feeling she was asking for a specific reason. The question was, what could she accomplish with that information?
After a moment, Aizawa sighed, "Seriously, Matsuda," he got up and came over, put a heavy hand on my shoulder. For some reason I felt like I couldn't support it. "As your friend, I'm asking you to go home and get some rest. All that Kira stuff is over with, I promise, so just don't worry about it anymore."
"I guess you're right." Reluctant to leave, I began to walk, "Just call me if you need me, okay?"
"Of course. Take it easy, Matsuda."
I went home like he asked me to. I even tried to get some rest like he said. I didn't really feel like going back to bed though, so I just flopped down on my couch and wound up dozing off for a while.
My cell phone going off was what woke me up. I'd left it in my jacket pocket, so I had to get up and stumble across the room to get it. The clock read two fifteen. Had I really slept that long?
The number was one I didn't know, but I answered it, still not quite awake, "Moshi-moshi?"
"Matsuda, are you watching the news?"
"Sayu? What's going on?"
"Turn on the news-any channel-just hurry."
It took me a second to find my remote, but it was easy to find what she wanted me to see. I assumed the same story was on every channel.
The anchor was already in the middle of saying, "We now bring you a live report from the scene."
Then the screen flashed to a shot of one of the more popular, female reporters standing outside admist a crowd. It looked like Shinjuku to me.
"I'm here, outside the Shinjuku Prince Hotel where just a few short hours ago, civilians reported gunshots and screaming. Now, the local police have not yet authorized that we can go inside to take a look at the scene of the crime, but they have confirmed a total of five deaths, and all five men killed were members of the NPA."
My heart slowed to a sluggish churn when I heard that. "The NPA?"
"Furthermore, there has been a message left by the apparent murderer, that even the viewers at home should be able to see." The camera angle changed quickly, pointing almost straight up so that there was a clear shot of the side of the building. Someone had painted in huge, red English letters, "KIRA LIVES".
"Just like…Misa…"
"We cannot fully understand the message of course, but from where I'm standing, it appears that Kira is indeed still alive, and his justice is going to prevail. Although we cannot guess the meaning behind his punishment of the NPA, it can only be assumed that the police have angered Kira, and that he intends to retaliate. This may or may not have to do with the police's recent announcement that Kira has been killed, but if it does, I fear the worst for the NPA."
"Sa-Sayu?"
"I'm still here. Matsuda…what do you think this is all about?"
"I don't know…"
"You said Kira's dead. Right?"
"Yeah. He is. I know he is."
"Are
you at work?"
"No. Aizawa sent me home."
"All right. I just…I called, because when they said it was NPA members I thought… I wanted to make sure that you're okay."
She wasn't there to see it, but I was pretty sure I turned a bright hue of red, "Thanks, Sayu."
"I guess I'd better let you go. You'll probably want to check in with your friends, right?"
"Right. Thanks for calling."
"Take care."
"Bye."
She hung up and I speed-dialed the station. The phone rang and rang, but no one answered, so I tried calling Aizawa, but he didn't answer either. Next I tried Mogi.
"Matsuda? What's going on?"
"The news. Did you see?"
"Yeah. I'm on my way to the station right now."
"You were out?"
"I was at home. They gave me the day off—for Misa, I guess."
"Right. I'll see you there."
"Bye."
I tried Aizawa again, but when he still didn't answer I gave up and ran out to my car. I drove a lot faster than I should have, but it was an emergency. I didn't know which NPA members were gone; if they had been people I knew, people I was close with, I didn't know if I could handle it.
When I reached the station, I parked outside illegally and rushed into the building. There was more commotion than I'd seen there in months. People were running and shouting. Some of them were screaming, "It's Kira! Kira is alive! He's going to kill us all!" Others were telling them to shut up. I couldn't tell who was going where or if there was any purpose to the movement at all, but I elbowed my way through the crowd, heard someone shout, "Hey, it's Matsuda! Matsuda's alive everyone!"
After that people started grabbing at my clothes, trying to slow me down, trying to congratulate me for surviving. Others just wanted to proclaim doom, saying that we were all going to die too.
The next thing I knew, Ide was right in front of me. I almost ran into him.
"Matsuda? I thought you were at home."
"I was—I came back when I saw the news. Do you know…?"
"No. I haven't heard yet. But I know that Mogi and Yoko are alive."
"Aizawa?"
"He
went out a few hours ago, he said to talk to Misa's manager.
I…haven't heard from him.
No.
that's not possible…not Aizawa.
"He didn't answer his phone when I tried to call."
Ide nodded. He looked upset—he and Aizawa had always been close.
Just then, his phone rang, and I had to wait for him to finish his call.
"This is Ide." A long pause. "No…I'm sorry. He's not here. Yes. Of course. Yes. All right then. Good bye." He shut the phone. "That was Aizawa's wife—she wanted to know if he was here. Obviously she can't get through to him either."
"What are we going to do if he's…?"
Ide shook his head, like he didn't want me to complete the thought.
"Who's in charge right now?"
"No one. Everyone heard about the broadcast, and they've all been out of control ever since."
Someone running by suddenly grabbed my arm and started to drag me away, screaming, "We've got to get out of here! Everyone, follow me!"
I stumbled and fell down, but Ide had me back on my feet in less than a moment. Everyone was really panicking.
Then I saw Mogi coming toward us with Yoko right behind him.
"This place is a madhouse." Mogi commented, looking around at all the frantic people. "Where's Aizawa?"
"We haven't heard from him yet, and he's not answering his cell phone."
Mogi had nothing to say to that.
"Do you guys think he's dead?" Yoko asked, her eyes bright with worry. "He wasn't going anywhere near Shinkjuku, was he?"
Ide shrugged, "I don't know where he was going—to talk to Misa Amane's manage, I guess, but he didn't say where that would be. He asked if I would like to tag along but… ah, damn. Maybe I should have gone with him."
"No," Mogi said, "it's good that you didn't. If Aizawa's dead we'll need you."
If Aizawa's dead… I didn't like those words. I didn't like to hear them all together like that, it incited some kind of panic inside me. "He can't be dead, right? There's just no way." I whipped out my cell phone again to try calling him one more time.
Before it could even ring once, I heard his voice somewhere over my shoulder, "God this place is insane."
The others looked up and I spun around. He was walking toward us, looking perfectly calm and unharmed.
"Aizawa!"
"Where the hell have you been?" Ide snapped.
"Why didn't you answer your phone?"
Aizawa turned to the side, letting another officer walk past him, then said, "I started thinking about what you said, so I went to talk to Amane's manager. She didn't have much information for me, other than that Misa just sort of wandered away from the set one day and never came back. Everything had seemed normal up until then."
"Who cares about that?" Ide growled, "Didn't you hear? Five members of the NPA are dead."
He nodded, "I heard. Fortunately, I wasn't anywhere near Shinjuku." A second passed and he looked at me, "Hey. I'm glad you're here."
"What? Me? Really? Why?"
"You live pretty close to Shinjuku. When I heard that some NPA officers had been killed I thought maybe you were one of them. You've been doing some pretty stupid stuff lately."
Was he serious? Right then I wasn't sure if I should feel grateful that he'd been concerned about me, insulted that he'd called me stupid-yet again-or laugh. I didn't feel like laughing, but it sort of came out anyway and I pushed my hand back through my hair nervously, "Right."
"Anyway, I guess we need to talk about this; let's go somewhere quiet until the commissioner comes and calms everything down."
"The commissioner already left." Yoko said. "I have no idea who's in charge, but right now it looks like no one's in charge."
"He left." Aizawa stared in disbelief. "But why would he do that?"
She shrugged, "He's afraid of Kira."
Aizawa sounded frustrated, "But this isn't Kira's doing! How can he even think that when we already filed an official report saying that Kira's dead?"
"Maybe he doesn't believe Kira's dead. A lot of people don't."
"But we know that he's dead!"
"We were all there," Mogi pointed out, "so we know."
"Yeah, but," I looked at Yoko, "you weren't there and you're sticking around. Doesn't that mean that other people might too?"
"I'm not afraid of Kira. Even if he is alive."
"We can discuss who is and isn't afraid of Kira later, right now I can't hear myself think." Aizawa growled. "Let's go." With that, he started off at a brisk walk, pushing his way through the crowd, shoving some people aside, shouting arbitrarily for everyone to calm down. We all followed him quietly; I didn't know what else we could do.
It started as just the five of us, but as we went, Aizawa breaking up the riot with his annoyance and cold determination to simply get somewhere peaceful, people started to follow us. It seemed like his confidence gave them hope.
Wow. Aizawa's really charismatic—no wonder they're thinking of making him the next chief.
Not long after, we finally made our way to the lounge, which was pretty much empty, and the only sound I heard was the sizzling of coffee and peoples' footsteps. By that time, there were about fifteen of us.
"Ide, would you mind shutting the door." Aizawa said, "We're going to wait here until this thing blows over. Hopefully by that time the commissioner will show up again."
"What if he doesn't?" I pulled myself up onto a counter
"Then we'll have to put someone in charge temporarily until we can figure out what's going on."
An
officer younger than me spoke up from the back of the room, "This
can't really be Kira, can it?"
"No. It's impossible."
"How can you be so sure?" someone else demanded.
"We were there when Kira died." Ide explained.
"Can you prove that?" A few voices echoed, demanding proof.
"How can we prove something like that? The body was buried a whole month ago."
"Dig it up!" Someone cried.
"Dig up a body?" Mogi wrinkled his nose. "You can't be serious."
"I am serious! How else are we supposed to believe he's actually dead?"
A lot of people started yelling all at once, most of them agreeing, saying that the only way to resolve this was to produce Kira's body. A few of them moved in closer. They looked pretty violent. Could they make us dig up Light's body?
This isn't good. If they insist enough they might actually force us to dig up Kira's body…and then everyone would know about Light. "The news report said that there were gunshots," I said suddenly, "Kira has never killed like that before, so it can't be him."
That seemed to silence them, and I saw a few people looking at me with surprise.
"All right, all right," Aizawa said; he'd made his way to the front of the room and was now commanding everyone's attention. "We don't know what's going on, but from the look of things we've lost a lot of manpower in this riot. Now, I'll admit it, I was there when Kira died, so I'm inclined to believe that he's dead; however, there have been multiple Kiras in the past, so I won't fully rule out the possibility of this being Kira. But, that being said, I really, really don't think it is. Chances are, this is just a fanatic who's going crazy because Kira hasn't made a move in a while. Someone who doesn't want to believe that Kira's dead."
"But why would they target NPA officers?" demanded a man named Okosha Inari. "In the past Kira has only killed criminals." He also got everyone's attention right away; he was pretty seasoned, so I wasn't surprised people were listening to him, "The fact that this killing consisted only of NPA officers suggests to me that Aizawa must be right—this can't be Kira, because Kira only kills people he sees as evil."
"Actually," Yoko spoke clearly, beginning to pace, "in my mind, that would only prove that this is Kira."
"What do you mean?" I looked at her, startled.
"Well, if the story you four are telling us all about confronting Kira on the 28th of January is true, and if you're telling the truth about Kira being dead, then that can only mean that one of you four killed Kira. Or at least wounded him badly enough to think that he was dead. In that case, he might start targeting NPA officers in hopes of getting revenge on the four men he saw that day. In fact, I think that even if that Kira is dead, and there is a possibility of there being another one, assuming that the two Kiras were in league with one another, the second Kira might start killing NPA officers to avenge the first Kira. For all we know, they were lovers or something."
I barely kept myself from gasping out loud. How had she guessed that? If Misa had truly been the second Kira then Yoko could be right. But Misa was dead now…so that didn't make sense.
Still, there were hushed whispers all around me; people believed what she said. And why shouldn't they? It all made perfect sense. It was calculated and intelligent. A concise conclusion to arrive at.
Thank God Aizawa spoke up again, "All right, all right, we could go around and around with different theories all day long, but I don't think it would get us anywhere. What we need to do right now is form an investigative team."
"Is that really okay to do without the commissioner's okay?" the young officer near the back asked.
"The commissioner may or may not come back," Ide said, "we need to assume he's not coming back and select a leader for this investigation ourselves."
"First things first," Aizawa interrupted, "we're going to need all the men we can get, but I understand if there are some people who don't want anything to do with this case. Before we do anything else, if there's anyone in the room who doesn't want to help with the case, get out now. Everyone else is welcome to join us."
For a moment, there was some mumbling and some shuffling of feet, and then, one by one, people began to leave the room.
Mogi
As it turned out, only three people of the ten who'd followed us into the lounge stayed. They were Okoshi Inari, a man who'd worked with Soichiro Yagami himself, back when they were younger, Izanagi Chiba, who was just a little older than myself and already beginning to go bald and Kei Komagata, a young woman who had just joined the NPA a few weeks ago. She was rumored to be half American. Her hair was long and blonde, and she was snapping some gum in her mouth.
"That's it?" Matsuda sounded disappointed. "Geez, what a bunch of cowards."
Ide shook his head, "Hundreds of brave officers in the NPA and only three are willing to stick by their comrades."
Aizawa didn't seem bothered, "It's fine. In fact, it's good that there aren't very many—we don't need a lot."
"But Aizawa, what are we going to get accomplished by ourselves?" Matsuda asked, "When we brought down Kira it took all of us, plus Ne-"
Maybe he didn't want Matsuda to say Near's name, but he suddenly cut him off, "This isn't the Kira investigation. I have no idea who's behind this, but it isn't Kira—it can't be. So it doesn't matter that there aren't very many of us. But I do appreciate all the help we're getting. Moving on," he slid his hands into his pockets, and I was amazed by just how cool he was being about all this. Aizawa had always been a pretty logical guy, but I'd never seen this side of him. "We need to select a leader for our investigation. I think Okoshi is the logical option since he has the most police experience."
Okoshi shook his head, "I'm flattered by that, Aizawa, but it seems to me that you're the logical option. You already seem to have this under control. I'd be more than happy to follow your orders, especially since you worked on the Kira case with L and Soichiro."
They still didn't know about L's death. How strange. It seemed like it had been so long ago that he'd been killed, and still the world didn't know that the original L was dead.
"I second that." Ide said, almost immediately. "Aizawa, you're the only one who can get this done right. You're a potential candidate for being the next chief at this station, and you have a good grasp of what's happening."
Matsuda smiled, but I noticed it wasn't as cheerful as it usually was, "How could we pick anyone other than you, Aizawa?"
Everyone else voted for Aizawa as well, but I kept thinking for a while. Was Aizawa really the best choice for this? He was a pretty logical, composed man, but he did have a tendency to fly off the handle and lose his temper whenever something annoyed him. Plus he had troubled seeing the big picture sometimes. In other words, he wasn't L or Near by any means. But I reminded myself that we didn't need L or Near for this, that it was probably going to be a standard investigation, since Kira was dead. For the moment, all we really needed was organization and a direction to go in. Aizawa could provide that easily enough. So I voted for him too.
He nodded, "All right, then, if you guys have really picked me to be your superior on this case, you realize that means you're going to have to listen to what I say, when I say it, and don't try challenging it. We're doing this investigation my way. Be aware of that, and if anyone doesn't like it, you'd better leave too."
It was an important thing to say, but I felt like it was almost a foolish way to handle it. What he was really saying was 'it's my way or no way at all, and if you don't like it then we don't need you.'
But apparently I was the only one who saw it that way, because everyone else smiled, nodded and generally voiced their agreement.
"Good, if that's understood then, we need to get started right away, so Mogi, you Okoshi and Yoko will come with me over to the Shinjuku Prince Hotel and we'll start investigating right away. Chiba, you stay here and try to get a hold of the commissioners-either one-see if they've left the force or not. If they haven't ask them to contact me on my cell phone immediately. Kei, compile a list of the remaining NPA members. Find out if anyone's resigning and who's still part of the force. That's going to be really important, so I'd appreciate it if you'd get on it right away."
Kei bobbed her head, "Yes sir, immediately."
"What about me, chief?" Matsuda called out.
"Ide, you need to try to get in touch with L." I thought it was sort of unfair of him to ignore Matsuda like that, but it couldn't be helped.
"L?"
I stared at Aizawa. Was it wise to bring up Near with Okoshi and the others in the room.
"I want his take on the situation, and I want to know if he's interested in helping."
"But…Aizawa…L
is-"
"I said it already, Ide, we're doing this my way."
Ide stared at him for a second as well, and then he nodded, "Of course. I'll get started right away."
"Chief!" Matsuda spoke even louder than before, "What do you want me to do?"
"Remember that file I had you archive yesterday?"
"Yeah?"
"Bring it back to my desk, along with the file on Misa's disappearance and death. We can't ignore the fact that the same exact message was written in the same style at both scenes, so we'll have to check between all three cases-the Kira investigation, Misa's suicide, and this new investigation-to see what similarities there are."
Matsu sighed, "Right…okay, chief."
"And quit calling me that—I'm not your chief, I'm just taking over until the commissioners show up."
"You mean if they show up." Yoko said.
Aizawa ignored that and started to leave, "Okay, you two, we're going right away."
I exchanged glances with Yoko, who nodded at me, and then at Matsuda, who was still sitting up on the counter, looking disappointed.
Then we followed Aizawa out.
It was normally a thirty-minute drive to Shinjuku, but since it was midday there wasn't much traffic and we got there in about twenty. The site was cordoned off, of course, and all the guests of the hotel had been evacuated. A few standard, patrol officers were standing there talking, but they stopped when they saw us.
Aizawa flashed his badge at them, "I'm detective Aizawa of the NPA; we're here to investigate the scene."
One of the officers, who looked even younger than Matsuda, sneered slightly, "Detective. What took you so long?"
"There was sort of a mess at Headquarters. We came as fast as we could."
The older officer nodded, "In that case, we're glad you're here. Will you be starting immediately?"
"Yes."
"The scene is up on the tenth floor in room 1020—the bodies have already been removed and forensics is at work as we speak. They should give you any information you need."
"What about witnesses?"
"There weren't any. A few civilians who were staying on that floor heard gunshots, and there was one maid, but none of them saw anything. Of course, we detained them anyway. I'll arrange for you to speak with them as soon as possible."
"I'd like to speak with the hotel manager and the desk clerk who checked the victims in as well."
"Of course. That can be arranged."
Aizawa nodded, then he ducked under the tape and we went into the hotel.
As soon as we were on the elevator, Yoko spoke up, "Why would the NPA officers be here in the first place? If they were all gathered together in a single room it seems like they were having some kind of meeting."
"That's exactly why I'm having Kei check out all the NPA members and their recent activities. If they really were having some kind of meeting then chances are, whoever shot them was someone they all trusted--someone they were supposed to be meeting here."
"Another NPA officer?" I asked.
"Maybe." Aizawa rubbed his chin and looked distant.
The elevator arrived on the tenth floor and we all made our way down the hall toward 1020. All around the hall were more officers, forensics officials, civilians who looked like they were witnesses being detained. There were flashes of cameras and the air was tainted by the smell of chemicals and blood. Aizawa led us through the gauntlet of people like a military commander leading his troops onto the battlefield, and we stepped into the room.
Blood was splattered absolutely everywhere. I couldn't even believe how much there was. It was splashed on the walls like pain, dripping down the otherwise white wallpaper, there were huge puddles and stains of it all over the floor, spots of it on the curtains and furniture. Here and there were drawings of where the bodies had been found. By all accounts, it was a very messy scene. Much messier than anything Light had ever done. I could smell gunpowder, so it had definitely been a gunman that had done this. From the look of things, the gun had been something with a lot of power. It also looked like hollow point bullets had been used.
Immediately a police officer came over to us. He looked young, but his eyes were intelligent, "Are you detective Aizawa?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"We
got a call that you were coming. I guess you'll want to have a look
around."
"Are you the officer in charge here?"
"That's right. I'm Dende Fasuka; I'm the officer who arrived first, along with my partner."
"So did you see anything? A suspect or something?" Yoko asked.
"No. By the time I got here it was already over and done with—the message had been written and everything."
"I see." Aizawa glanced around. "Yoko, you look around and talk to some of the forensics people. I need to know what kind of weapons were used here, what kinds of wounds the victims retained and absolutely anything else you think might be helpful. I'm counting on your observational skills."
Yoko nodded and got to work right away.
"Shall I talk to the witnesses then, Aizawa?"
"That'd be great Mogi. And the hotel manager and desk clerk if you can." He added softly, turning toward me, "people are relaxed around you—I'm not going to talk to any civilians right now, so I need you to gather every possible bit of information you can find."
I was impressed. He'd brought the right people to do the right jobs. "What are you going to be doing?"
"I'll be talking with this gentleman right here," he said, pulling out a notebook and turning back to Fusuka, "All right, let's get started. Please relate all the details you already know. If I have any questions I'll stop you."
Aizawa was getting right down to business, and I saw Yoko talking to some of the forensics officers, so I decided I should be prompt with my work as well, so I went around to every witness I could find and talked to each one for a good period of time. They all had similar stories—there had been gunshots around one thirty, coming from this room, they'd heard some screaming, and most of them had called the police, in spite of the fact that they were sure it was already being reported by their neighbors. A few of them had actually dared to poke their heads out of their doors to see if they could catch a glimpse of any assailants, but there hadn't been any. The maid had the same story from a different perspective. She'd been in room 1018 at the time-the room right next to 1020-delivering fresh towels to a couple. She said that a bullet had actually gone through the wall and broken a lamp in 1018. So I went there next.
Of course the bullet had already been recovered, and the couple was gone, but I set out to find them. Not that their stories wound up being very helpful.
After I'd finished with the witnesses, I found the hotel manager and the clerk who had checked in the five dead NPA officers. Neither of them had much to tell—the officers were all standard check-ins there on supposed business, and neither of them had seen anyone suspicious. The manager's biggest concern seemed to be that he didn't want the NPA to sue the hotel. It was a ridiculous thing to worry about at a time like this. Other than that, he seemed happy about all the publicity his hotel was getting.
Most frustrating of all, to me anyway, was that no one had seen how the message outside had been put in place. It had been painted on, with a very large brush from the looks of it, but it had to have taken some time. Still, no one could tell me anything about it.
Aizawa hadn't misjudged my people skills-I'd found over the course of my career that people were pretty at ease in talking to me-although Matsuda was generally better for that-but I couldn't learn anything at all that might be helpful. Still, I recorded it all in perfect detail and went back to 1020 after speaking with some other guests who had been outside during the shooting, even though I hadn't been told to do that.
Actually, as it turned out, that was the best thing I could have done. The manager of the hotel casually mentioned that just before the shooting had started-at around 1:25-a mother had approached him saying she was worried about her two sons since they'd disappeared. He'd been able to direct me to that mother, even though he obviously hadn't understood why. I'd thought that maybe if she was worried she might have been walking all over the hotel and seen something. As it turned out, it was the two boys who were helpful.
The looked eight and ten, with wide, curious eyes and excited faces, and when I knelt to talk to them the excitement only grew; they told me in very self-important voices how they'd just arrived at the hotel last night and how they'd been exploring after lunch. They had happened to be outside at 1:30 and heard the gunshots. According to the oldest boy, he'd seen a man crawl out of a window at about the tenth floor and then climb the fire escape. He'd been wearing all black.
"What about the message on the building?" I asked as I wrote down the details.
"That was already there." The younger one explained.
"It's been there all morning."
In that case, the message had been preconceived. For all we knew it had nothing to do with the investigation. The goddamn hotel manager himself could have put it there. Was it a coincidence?
Whether it was a coincidence or not, five NPA officers were dead.
Finally feeling like I'd gotten somewhere, I went back to join Aizawa and Yoko, who were also finishing up their investigations.
In another ten minutes, we were leaving the hotel.
On the way back to the car, Aizawa pulled me aside. "I need to talk to you privately, Mogi."
"All right, what is it?"
"It's about the officers who were killed. Fusuka gave me a list of their names, but I don't know any of them. I was hoping that maybe you did."
I took the list and read the names out loud, "Takumi Fuka, Eiji Joshuyo, Yoshiyuki Royama, Gorou Odaka and," before I read the last name, I stared at him, "Taro Matsui?"
He returned my stare gravely. "Know them?"
"No." I reviewed the list. "I don't. Could they be from a different region?"
"Possibly. But…I don't know."
"What about this last name, Aizawa? Coincidence?"
"I hope. Did you get my text?"
"Text? No." I got out my phone, surprised to see that I had indeed missed a message. I must have been so busy with my investigation that I hadn't noticed my phone vibrating. I opened it and read, Calling a private meeting for 8 tonight. Light's old apartment. See you then.
A private meeting? I wondered why. But there was no chance to ask. Aizawa started walking again, and I looked down at the list I was still holding.
Taro Matsui…Hello to everyone following this.
Sorry for the delay with the updates—I've been working on this pretty consistently for a while now, and it's almost finished, so I'll be updating regularly, just FYI.
Also, a quick warning. It's really long.
Enjoy!
- Suta 17
