Case File #1: Skeletons in the Closet
Part 10
Mai sipped on her cold bottled water, sunk in Katagiri's chair back at base and feeling thoroughly exhausted. She'd been cleared by Ayako after the priestess had examined the girl's head, declaring that it was only a bump on the head and nothing too serious (although even after taking a couple of Takigawa's confiscated painkillers, Mai still could feel the pounding in her skull). The poor brunette had then been placed almost gently aside and then Ayako moved to Naru, who merely shook the woman off and indicated in a rather lofty tone of voice that there was another person who'd needed her attentions more so than he. Remembering Katsu, who was currently laying on the couch and being practically pinned by Takigawa gripping her shoulders in an attempt to keep her down, Ayako gave a start, belittling herself loudly before she began her ministrations.
Their return to base had been almost to the point of embarrassing, Mai couldn't help but feel as she watched Katsu struggle weakly against the combined might of the monk and the miko as she was examined. The rest of the SPR team had dashed into the basement in a dead rush, and a couple of them (namely Monk and Yasu) had stumbled before properly stopping. Lin and Takigawa had rushed immediately towards her and Naru, while Yasu and John made a dash for Katsu. Naru had managed to pick himself up just fine, though he coughed quite a bit after being on the filthy concrete floor. Mai had been scooped up into Takigawa's arms before she could protest, and then set on her feet. She'd wavered a bit upon standing, but a firm set of hands on her shoulders quickly put her to right. Then Ayako yelled, revealing that Katsu couldn't stand at all. Mai's warm and firm support gripped her shoulders tightly in reaction as they both saw John and Yasu trying to support the semi-conscious rag doll that was Katsumi Shinomori.
Noticing Katsu's arm and deeming it best to rule out helping her walk, Yasu wound up carrying interloper out on his back, voicing his shock at how light the girl was. Katsu must not have been well at all, as she hadn't said anything beyond a feeble, "Put me down, Four-Eyes". Her attempt to smack the bespectacled student upside the head was half-hearted and easily stopped by John. The priest kept a hand on the girl's back to prevent her from slipping, as her grip was just as weakened.
And now here they were, Naru being… well, Naru, and Katsu being fussed over, which clearly didn't sit well with the argumentative tomboy. Even if she was pretty banged up, the girl was still a fighter. Now roughly thirty-five to forty minutes after being rescued and relaying everything they'd experienced (including Mai's strange dreams and nobody coming up with anything conclusive), she was very near to being herself again.
"It isn't that bad!" Katsu protested, attempting to yank her right arm away again. "I'll just slap some aloe vera gel on it and it'll be fine!"
"Aloe vera is only good for soothing the pain of a mild burn or skin irritation," Ayako snapped, one hand holding onto Katsu's injured wrist and the other fishing about in her kit. "This is a second-degree burn that'll take two or three weeks to heal! It needs an antibiotic ointment, creams, and clean dressings. Luckily for you, I just happen to have some of this stuff with me. But it won't be enough – you'll still need to have a physician look at it. That and that cut on your hand."
Katsu frowned, but didn't respond. Instead, she settled back down against the pillow-laden armrest and closed her eyes. She tried to hide it, but there was a look of pain etched onto her features; she looked like she was still having a bit of time breathing, and her face was still on the pallid side.
Mai frowned to herself in thought, her mind once again returning to the questions she'd had up to this point. They all dealt with either the case or Katsu; at the moment, all of them were mashed up together.
She sighed and closed her eyes; she pressed the now closed water bottle against her forehead, the cool and wet plastic soothing against her skin. All she wanted right now was to fall asleep in the air conditioning. No ghosts, no heat, no creepy and winding unfinished building…
"Hey, Narcissus?" Naru looked up from his usual black folder to find a set of dark green eyes looking in his direction.
"Shinomori," he acknowledged.
"I was just thinking about something," she said. She winced visibly as Ayako continued to clean the burn, but chose to keep her gaze focused on the SPR leader. "In the basement, where that… thing tried to grab me? There was something weird about that section."
"That would be an unnecessary point to make, seeing how you fared," he pointed out, uninterested.
She glared daggers in his direction. "Watch it, Narcissus."
"Now, now, Katsu," Monk said soothingly, using one hand to pat her on the head gently. "Don't get all mad at Naru."
She looked up at him wryly, and then sighed dejectedly. "Never mind. Just forget I ever said anything."
Naru looked up from his notebook briefly, eyes flitting over her prone form before closing the notebook.
"I think it would be best if we all retired for the night – or rather morning, seeing as it's two hours past midnight. We'll regroup tomorrow at nine."
The others nodded in agreement.
"Will you be able to make it home alright, Katsu?" Takigawa inquired as he helped the dark-haired girl to sit upright. "If you want, I can always give you a lift."
"Shinomori will be going back to the hotel with us," Naru answered swiftly. "Miss Hara's bed is vacant; she will use that for the time being. That way Miss Matsuzaki can keep an eye on her injuries."
"Hey, I can make my own way just fine!" the interloper stood abruptly to challenge the prodigy, only to sway and fall backwards into Takigawa's outstretched arms.
"And just for that little stunt, missy, you're definitely coming with us," the monk reprimanded, earning a twisted scowl from the girl he'd caught.
"Just give me a minute, would you?"
"You're getting a night," Ayako said firmly, standing with her arms folded before her latest patient. "All three of you are." Her eyes flashed momentarily at Naru and Mai before settling back on Katsu. "And no arguments."
Two set of jaws clenched at that command. Mai wasn't very surprised: Naru didn't like being bossed around, and it was clear that Katsu was very similar to him in this respect. But for Naru to have suggested turning in so readily and demanding that Katsu stay with them…
"Let's shut down things for now and head back the hotel," said the narcissist, and it was with one final glance in his "volunteer's" direction that the conversation had ended.
…
Mai sank back gratefully into the firm western mattress she'd procured for herself in the hotel room, breathing in the scent of crisp, fresh, and cool linens. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the air conditioning.
"Are you sure it's okay for me to take Miss TV Psychic's bed?" One brown eye cracked open to the bed on her right, finding Katsu sitting rigidly on the edge of the mattress.
Mai sighed inwardly. Was Katsu in that big of a hurry to get away from them? "It's fine, Katsu. Don't worry about it; Masako's still in the hospital, so the bed is open. Besides, I don't think Ayako is going to let either of us out of her sight after that runaround in the complex, so it's probably best that you just settle in for the night." She sat upright and grinned. "Hey, I know! Just think of it as a sleepover!"
Katsu frowned. "A sleepover?"
Mai nodded. "Yeah. Only I forgot to bring the snacks and movies."
The interloper snorted and Mai laughed as well, soon filling the room with a set of giggles.
"Well, I'm to hear that the two of you are doing alright," Ayako said, coming from the bathroom with a towel over her head. "Mai, you can go ahead and take a shower. I want to give Katsu another quick checkup and then I have to see to that idiot monk in the next room over."
"Okay, Ayako." Mai jumped up and grabbed her things. "I'll be out in a few minutes, Katsu."
"Take your time," Katsu said dismissively, leaning up against the headboard as Ayako began undoing the wraps on her arm.
Mai closed the door, barely hearing the conversation taking place. Not too long after, she heard Ayako leave the room.
After finishing her shower, Mai walked back into the room and automatically flopped back onto her comfortable mattress, closing her eyes in contentment.
"Hey, Mai?" The brunette looked up at her strange companion curiously, finding the curious dark green eyes looking at her a bit hesitantly.
"What's up?"
Katsu bit her lip. "It's about what I was going to tell Narcissus back at the site…"
Mai sat up. "What is it?"
"Well… you know how I said there was something weird about that section of the basement?" Mai nodded. "What I meant was that where that thing showed up, it wasn't just that it felt really weird. Before everyone came crashing in, I saw something off about the floor."
"Like what?"
"Er… how do I explain this?" Katsu shifted her position, sitting cross-legged and now facing her newly acquired roommate. "I've been in the old building before, right? Only I've never been in the basement level because it was always blocked off. I could never get in. Now, I'm not sure if I'm right about this, but I think that the construction workers might have preserved the old basement and just expanded on it for the new buildings they're making."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because the area where I was standing looked old and worn compared to where you and Narcissus had been knocked out at. It was pretty dark, but it looked like the newer portions of the current basement were surrounding the old basement."
Mai frowned as she churned the information in her head.
"That would make sense," she said at last. "If there was still something left over from the old building, it could indicate a site-bound spirit. If that's the case…"
"You guys can exorcise it?" Katsu said hopefully.
Mai yawned. "I don't know. But it isn't something that we should overlook. I'm actually surprised you were able to come up with that after being attacked, though. I would've been too frightened to have noticed anything."
"It's just something I do," Katsu said with a shrug. "I have a bad habit of noticing things out of the ordinary." She looked over at the clock hanging on the opposite wall. "Yeesh, it's late. Do you think Narcissus would want to hear about this now?"
"No, I think we should just let him and the others rest. Knowing Naru, he'd skip sleep and go right after whatever leads he can get his hands on." Mai yawned again, laying down and snuggling up against her pillows. "Go ahead and take a shower, Katsu. We can tell Naru about this all tomorrow."
And with that, she fell asleep.
…
…
…
"I can't believe this! I can't believe you! Do you have any idea how hard it is to cover your tracks? This isn't some kind of pastime or stress relief, Dad – it's an illegal activity!"
"Don't worry about it, kiddo! It's called protection – I'm protecting my property! Those kids are all trespassers and think they can get away with defiling that lovely old building of mine. And they're learning a valuable lesson."
"Dead people don't learn, Dad!"
"Nonsense, son! Who said they never learned their lesson? They just should have realized it before they thought about breaking onto my property. I didn't make the mistake – they did. And now they suffer the consequences."
…
…
…
Mai blinked blearily in the dimly lit room. Her eyes barely adjusted to find Ayako sleeping soundlessly.
'What a strange dream…' she thought before succumbing to a now dreamless slumber.
…
July
Day 3
The morning at long last dawned, finding the crew of Shibuya Psychic Research to be… strained, for lack of a better word.
The site had been trashed once again. A quick inspection of the ground revealed several busted cameras and cords strewn about almost violently. It looked like whatever-it-was that was in there didn't like the idea of being recorded. It was almost lunch by the time they got things cleaned up, thankfully with no incidents. Masako was doing fine according to John (who'd called the hospital after getting up that morning), but it was made clear by Naru that no such thing was to happen again. He'd looked directly at Mai when that. She'd stuck her tongue at him in return before quickly fetching him his demanded cup of tea.
Katsu's theory of the construction company having expanded outward from the original basement proved to be correct. Naru had been a bit surprised when Mai told him of their volunteer's thoughts from before they went to sleep, but had it checked out. The pass codes Katagiri had silently handed over to Lin proved useful, and it wasn't much later that the omnyouji presented the development layout and a copy of the basement level's blueprints, revealing that such was the case.
Katsu herself had disappeared. Ayako bemoaned the fact that the girl was currently sporting a second-degree burn that needed tending to and cut that need looked at and spent much of her time taking out her frustration on poor Takigawa during her ministrations of the injuries he'd received the night they'd first met their almost Houdini-esque interloper. Yasuhara was plainly upset, seeing as he'd deemed the volunteer to be his new information gathering buddy. Finding out that Katsu had left without a trace put the usually cheerful and flippant college student in an uncharacteristically quiet and contemplative mood, which prompted Naru to send him to city hall in search of records on the old building. Yasu had no choice but to moodily comply.
Mai was concerned as well. She didn't know how much sleep Katsu had gotten, and wondered vaguely if the girl had slept at all. After last night's misadventure, she wasn't so sure that Katsu ought to have left the construction site without someone with her. And Naru, while not necessarily worried as such, was evidently frustrated as his uncooperative and enigmatic potential information source had absconded with her bag before either he or Lin could catch her for further interrogation.
And all the while, Mai was preoccupied not only with thoughts of the case, but the strangeness of her dreams from the previous evening. The first scene – the one with all people blocking her from someone called "Doc" – had felt oddly different in comparison to "RPG" dream she'd experienced later.
And that girl… that girl she'd seen with Dream Naru… Again, Mai wondered who the ash blonde had been, and what her connection to the case was. She couldn't have been a spirit; a spirit would have to be powerful in order to do something as bizarre as ripping a person from their role in a memory, of that Mai was fairly certain.
And the girl hadn't wanted Mai to inform Naru – real or dream – about her. That request, though desperate, struck a chord somewhere in Mai's subconscious, in particular the request of not telling Dream Naru. Why was it so imperative that it be kept a secret? And why was she not allowed to mention girl to Dream Naru specifically?
Her dreams were starting to get even weirder on her. That probably wasn't a good thing…
"Well, yeah, we expanded on the old basement," Sendo admitted, taking his hardhat off and ruffling his hair nervously. He'd arrived only fifteen minutes after Lin had gone over the blueprints, and was currently being interrogated. "A bit odd, sure, but it was surprisingly workable. It wasn't all that hard to do, to tell you the truth. The old building itself was bad, and we had to tear down most of the original foundation. But the flooring was still good, so we just decided to reinforce it, and built up the current foundation around it. The old basement flooring itself is actually at the exact center of the whole thing." He put his finger on the location on the basement level blueprints. "We built up additional support when we installed the wall running between the business section and the residential section. It's really one giant basement used by two buildings; there's an entry a person can use to get to the other side if necessary. Right now, it's just rectangular cutout. We won't be installing any of the security measures until the whole building's actually completed."
"I see." Naru looked over to Lin, who was rapidly typing on his laptop. He then looked back over to the foreman. "Who was in charge of clearing out the building prior to the demolition?"
"Surprisingly enough, the guy who owns this building did it all himself," Sendo replied, frowning a bit at his own response. "During the negotiations, I know Kazehiro offered him our standard clean-out procedure at no extra cost – it's all part of the contract, y'know – but the guy told him that he was personally taking care of it, and that was all there was to it."
"And the name of the owner?"
"Uh… Ikezawa, I think." Sendo laughed nervously. "Sorry, I wasn't there for the negotiations. Kazehiro and Old Hawkeye would know that information; I'm just the guy that stands around barking orders. Hehehe." He looked down at his watch. "Speaking of which, I'd better get back to doing just that. Sorry, but I've got to get moving. I have to fill out a bunch of reports and have Hawkeye look over them and get them turned in before the main office closes this afternoon."
"I understand. Thank you for your time."
The foreman gave a slight bow before walking out of trailer, and nearly colliding into Katsu on his way out. He excused himself with a muttered apology, ushering the girl in before closing it just behind her. Katsu blinked at the closed door before turning to find several sets of eyes looking at her.
"Uh… hi?"
"Katsumi Shinomori, just where have you been?" Everyone cringed in varying degrees at the sound of Ayako's shriek. The redheaded priestess stormed right up to where the interloper stood, and grabbed the girl's left arm, dragging her to the couch where John and Takigawa currently sat and shoving her down to sit between the two startled men. "You up and disappear before I can treat your injuries, and didn't even bother to tell anybody!"
"Whoa, calm down!" Katsu protested, eyes wide in shock. "I just woke up before everyone else and decided to get some work done, that's all! You know, information collecting and all that? No need to get all freaked out about it!"
"No need? Ha!" Ayako whipped the bandages off the interloper's right arm, revealing the burns beneath it. Takigawa frowned and John winced visibly. Even Mai cringed. Katsu's arm was bright red and blistered all over. It looked like someone had attempted to peel her skin back layer by layer and had stopped midway. Horrible, in Mai's mind.
"Does it… hurt much?" John asked tentatively, laying a hand gently on her shoulder.
Surprisingly, Katsu shrugged. "I've got relatively high pain tolerance, so it isn't so bad. But I think I'll have it checked out at some point."
"Damn right you will," Ayako said through clenched teeth, unimpressed with the girl's attitude towards the injury.
"So what information did you collect?" Naru inquired, fixing his piercing gaze on Ayako's patient.
"Well, for starters I managed to catch up with Old Man Taka."
An eyebrow rose. "And?"
"Well, it took me a while to get him to talk, but eventually I got him to tell me about the old building." Katsu grimaced as Ayako began to re-wrap her arm. "It was actually kind of disturbing."
"Explain."
"I'm getting there. Sheesh, let's see you try to talk and have yourself being wrapped up like a mummy at the same time." Naru frowned as the others (sans Lin and a frustrated Ayako) snickered. Katsu sighed. "Like I said, I talked to Taka earlier. He was pretty surprised that someone my age wanted to actually talk to him – the local teens tend to harass him more than anything from the sound of it. After chatting a bit, I decided to ask him about the old building here." She paused as Ayako finished off the wrapping.
"And?" Naru prompted, indicating his impatience.
"He clammed up. Started asking why I wanted to know about the old building. It got pretty tense," she said, flexing her newly bandaged arm. "I wasn't really sure how to pursue the topic, so I just started by saying I'd heard the rumors a couple years back and decided to investigate, only to end up a bit disappointed that nothing had happened. When I said that, he got all upset."
"Upset?" Mai frowned. Katsu nodded emphatically.
"Really upset. Like someone had broken some unwritten commandment or something. He told me that I was lucky that disappointment was all I'd experienced. Said I should be thanking the gods for my good fortune."
"That must've been awkward," Takigawa remarked.
"Yeah, it was. I mean, I'm used to getting reprimanded and everything, but Taka wasn't angry, he was downright scared. I really didn't want the conversation to end right there, though, so I countered him by saying that I'd gotten my curiosity satiated the other night when a few friends and I decided to check out the so-called haunted construction site where the old building used to be."
"What was his reaction to that one?" asked the monk.
"Shock. Anger. I really couldn't choose. The next thing I knew, Taka was in my face and pleading for me not to go anywhere near the site and to tell my friends to do the same. He totally panicked." Katsu sighed and shook her head. "To be honest, I felt really bad, freaking him out like that. He's a nice older widower living out on the streets – he didn't deserve the shock I gave him. I managed to calm him down after a while, and broached the subject of why he didn't want anyone to go near the old building's site. He froze up for a moment; started muttering something under his breath. After a moment, he told me what all he knew." She reached in her bag with her uninjured hand and pulled out a small notepad.
"You're left-handed?" Mai asked, surprised at the amount of writing crammed onto the paper.
"Sort of," Katsu answered vaguely. "Anyway, back to Taka.
"As we already know, the old building that used to be here changed hands frequently, always under new management and never had the same people in it. The ownership of the property, however, only changed about five or six times."
"According to the information you'd acquired previously, it was to be assumed that ownership of the property had changed hands considerably more than that," Naru observed coolly, indicating the aforementioned information he held in his notebook.
"That's what I thought, too. But, hey, everyone makes mistakes."
"Other people make mistakes. That's why I sent Yasuhara to city hall this morning; I wanted him to check out the records of ownership of the old building."
Katsu scowled. "Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Narcissus. You should be grateful I even bothered going out early for this."
"The information…" he prompted. Katsu looked ready to throw another witty remark in his direction, but luckily caught sight of Mai mouthing 'Don't do it!' before she made a sound.
Instead, the tomboy sighed. "According to Mr. Taka, there's always been a significant amount of stigma attached to the property. He doesn't know much about the old building prior to the 1980s, but he knew that it wasn't always necessarily considered a bad place – just outdated and in need of repairs. Actually, it wasn't until the owner died in 1985 and someone else bought the property that things began to really pick up.
"At first, it was a few silly rumors. Things like the new owner coming out at odd hours and shooing local kids off the property. Once or twice they though they saw him wave a rifle around, but according to the owner's son, he made sure the firearm was never loaded and had the safety on for extra precaution."
'Rifle?' the image of the unseen man beyond the gun barrel flashed in Mai's mind.
"But afterwards, things appeared to settle down. Apparently the new owner was just overly precautious – he didn't exactly trust the sudden prosperity Japan was experiencing at the time and firmly believed that things would go bust before long. He was really adamant about keeping up with current affairs as far the stock market and real estate. As it turns out, he wasn't too far off in his predictions: in 1991, the asset price bubble collapsed and, well, we all know that story."
"Talk about watching the stock market," Takigawa mumbled. Raising his voice only a little, he asked, "So what about some of the organizations that used be here? Did he just keep the building to himself or did he lease it?"
"He actually leased rights to use the building to a few places, I think. A small bookstore for a few years, and later the church group running the soup kitchen. Taka didn't say much else on that. He did say, however, that there were many problems after the kitchens closed.
"The owner had a nervous breakdown, according to rumors." Katsu flipped the page on her notepad. "After that, he just kept the building and refused to sell it. According to Taka, that's when the disappearances began."
Naru's eyes narrowed. "Disappearances?"
Katsu nodded. "Yeah. I was pretty surprised to hear that myself. Nobody I questioned ever said anything about people going missing. When I told Taka that, he said he didn't find it to be all that unusual. Nobody wants to talk about it, especially as the local police department inevitably had to sweep it under the proverbial carpet."
"What? People disappeared and they just went and acted like it never happened?" Mai exploded. "How can they do that? Don't they care about all the families and –"
"Calm down, Mai," Naru interrupted with his voice raised.
"But, Naru –!"
"They didn't give up on them, Mai." The brunette looked over incredulously at the girl on the couch. Katsu shook her head and sighed. "Look, the disappearances here weren't discounted; they were suppressed from the media. In a small residential district like this, people suddenly vanishing into thin air would cause a panic and then things would get out of control. The police have apparently been working on what happened, but without any bodies or remaining witnesses or anything that could give them a clue they had to label it as a cold case. It's unsolved, not given up on."
"Oh…" she looked down, feeling somewhat embarrassed.
Takigawa reached over and ruffled her hair affectionately. "Hey, it's okay, Mai. At least the disappearances haven't reoccurred recently, right?"
"No, they haven't. Later on, the owner died and the rights to property reportedly went to his only son. After that, the building was demolished and then the construction project began."
"And Taka continued to discourage people from going anywhere near the property?" inquired the narcissist.
Katsu nodded. "Yeah, he has been. When I asked why it was so important to him that people stay away even though the building's no longer there, he confessed that he didn't want anyone to suffer like he did." She sighed heavily and sank back into the couch. "Ichiro Taka had a son named Renji. He was really proud of the boy: Renji graduated as one of the valedictorians of his high school class and was three years into his bachelor's degree in the Science and Engineering program at Tokyo Metropolitan University. He and a bunch of his friends came back one summer in 1999 to hang out. At the time, the old man was working in a nearby grocery store as a stocker. He'd had a small apartment at the time; his wife passed away a few years before when their son was in his second year of high school. Renji brought back his long-time girlfriend Chiharu to Nakameguro. Nice girl, he said. But one night they decided to do something for a thrill before having to go back to the university, and sneaked out to the old building."
Mai's eyes widened, memories of the strange dream she'd had in closet the night before replaying vividly in her mind. "D-did they…?"
"They never came back," Katsu said sullenly. "Nobody knows what happened that night. Renji was apparently the only one to have come out at some point, but two days later he was killed in a hit-and-run accident a block away. When Taka found out, he rushed over to the hospital. The autopsy indicated that the car hitting him handed been totally responsible for the boy's death. Taka said Renji's hands were burned horribly, and his skin was like it'd been exposed to the winter. It was like he'd been locked up in a freezer in the time he'd gone missing. The burn marks on his hands were never fully explained."
An uneasy silence befell the trailer. Lin's typing ceased.
"So, after that… Taka kept warning people to stay away from the property." Takigawa frowned, eyes downcast.
Katsu nodded solemnly. "After that, he said he lost his will to live. He quit fighting and gave in. The economy eventually caught up to him. He lost his job and his home, and became permanently homeless as a result. He won't go anywhere near the complex, but he listens for stories. After Renji, several others went missing. Before long, the only people going in there were idiots like me and drunken vagabonds who simply didn't pay attention. And that's all there is to it.
"We talked for a little while longer, and then I left. End of story."
"And that brings us to now."
All went silent at John's statement.
…
It was to a disturbingly silent and contemplative base that Yasuhara returned to not even fifteen minutes later, arms laden with papers and copies. Poking in his head and observing the gloomy setting, he frowned.
"You know, I'd ask 'Who died?'" he said, pulling himself into the relieving air conditioning and pulling the door shut behind him. "But given the kind of work we do, I don't that that would be an appropriate thing to say."
Several pairs of eyes narrowed in his direction.
"Cute, Four-Eyes," Katsu said caustically. "Real cute."
"Ah, Katsu!" He bowed lowly, careful not to spill his papers. "I can see you've begun to succumb to my charms! Careful, now; I'm taken."
"Aren't we all," she commented dryly. "And if you're referring to Takigawa…"
"I am his for eternity."
"You just had to do that, didn't you?" Monk grumbled under his breath, giving Katsu a dark and exhausted look. Katsu merely grinned back.
"Yup."
"Yasuhara," Naru's voice cut in, forcing the momentary reprieve to wither just as quickly as it had sprung up, "did you find what I asked you for?"
The college student straightened back up, sparing a wink at the monk and the interloper before facing his superior. "Actually, I did. All records pertaining to real estate purchases are public knowledge, so finding out the necessary information wasn't all that difficult. After that, I just did a little extra research. To make things short, I'll just go over the important facts."
He set the papers in front of Naru, splaying them on Otonashi's desk as the narcissist quietly observed. "Since asset price bubble collapse in the 90s, the property we're currently on has changed hands only two times. The owner up until 2001 was Akito Ikezawa, a former stock broker and investment advisor. He hastily retired in the mid-1990s due to a nervous breakdown after accidentally making a bad investment decision on behalf a client and became reclusive as a result."
Takigawa winced. "I can see why he'd done that. Ouch."
"The client never pursued him for the mistake, but the damage had been done. After that, he just disappeared, dealing only with the old building that used to be here." Yasu pulled one of the files and handed it to Naru. "Luckily for him, he was wealthy and had plenty to fall back on. Because of his usually sharp observations of the Nikkei average and the stock market, Ikezawa was able to survive the backlash of the collapse. He took up hunting for sport, apparently as a form of stress release in his retirement."
The voice, the owner of the gun, turned and grinned at her in the darkness.
"Oh, I know just what to do with you, young lady…"
She froze as he drew nearer, gun barrel pointed directly at her chest. A rifle. A rifle with a flashlight taped atop of the barrel.
Mai felt herself go cold at the memory of the dream.
"If I had to take a guess, I'd say he used a lever-action rifle, which are pretty common for sports hunters."
And that day in the office…
"Seems like an odd project," Lin commented from behind his computer screen.
"The gentleman who came to us with the project was odd," Mr. Otanashi admitted with a bit of a laugh. "Mr. Ikezawa, I think it was. Shimizu Ikezawa. Ah, but I digress."
Mai's eyes widened. 'Ikezawa… Does that mean…?'
She failed to notice a set of story sapphire eyes and a pair of equally dark but green orbs staring at her intently, their owners noticing her rapidly changing facial expressions as they continued to listen.
"He was really eccentric. He purchased the property during the economic boom in 1980s and leased out the building several times. After the breakdown, though, he threw everyone out and just left the building empty. And then he just died one day. Rumor has it that the stress did him in, but I wasn't able to hack into his medical records to confirm anything.
"Soon after, the bank reclaimed the property until Akito Ikezawa's affairs could be cleared properly – for a man who'd spent most of his life dealing with these kinds of things, he really left things in a mess. In 2007, his son Shimizu inherited the property. He didn't do anything with this place until he got into negotiations with Tomei Construction Company."
"So the man who wanted the old building torn down…" Ayako began.
"Was the son of the guy who had the breakdown," Takigawa concluded. His face darkened in thought. "What are the odds…?"
"That Akito Ikezawa killed a bunch of people and contributed to the disappearances Mr. Taka was talking about?" Katsu finished for him. Her dark eyes narrowed. "Sounds pretty likely to me."
"It's disturbing to think on…" John said quietly.
Mai though back on the dream she'd had the other night after talking to Katsu. A man arguing with his father. She hadn't told the others about the dream, but somehow… she didn't feel she'd need to. The pieces seemed to be coming together…
The sound of notebook, black and sleek, snapping shut fairly made them all jump out of their respective seats. All eyes turned towards their leader, who looked to be rather pleased with himself.
"Lin." The man at the monitors turned upon hearing his name. "Find Katagiri and have him contact Shimizu Ikezawa. I want him here before dark." Dark blue eyes narrowed as a smirk graced his features. "I'd like to wrap this case up quickly."
A/N: Yup, you heard the idiot scientist (Gene: Hey, that's my line!) – we're wrapping it up in the next chapter, so stay tuned!
Quick review feedback:
melodyann75: You hit the nail on the head! The only problem is that dealing with SPR in particular just makes everything worse for her. XD I'm really glad you think I'm handling the canon characters well – that's something I tend to strive for when it comes to fan fiction.
GhostHunt13: "Narcissus" is just a nickname she's using for him. She's not all that comfortable with calling him "Naru", as those close to him do. He makes her really nervous, but she's not opposed to starting an argument with him (although I think she'd like to get really far away from both him and Lin, though. LOL).
Special thanks goes out to Foxgrl18, melodyann75, and GhostHunt13 for their reviews and observations, and to everyone adding this story to their lists of favorites and/or alerts, and everyone who is reading this! Until the grand conclusion!
(Don't worry – there's another case after this one!) ^_^