Chapter 11
Ryu, Jinpei, and Nambu all came running into the kitchen.
"What's going on?" Ryu asked as all three of the newcomers shifted their focus to the floor.
"Galactor!" Jinpei exclaimed when he saw the red pin.
"Galactor here? How? Why?"
Nambu bent down to examine the body. "No scratches or other skin penetration. I see a few marks here. Could be signs of a struggle... I'd say we're either looking at blunt trauma or poisoning."
"Poisoning? Isn't that rather sedate for Galactor?" Joe asked.
"Poisoning? In a restaurant? With all of this food around? I'll be put our of business!" Jun cried.
"Calm down Jun. We can't be sure what happened until there's been a full examination. There's always the possibility that Galactor has another new device, the likes we've never seen before" Nambu tried to reassure her.
Nambu took a final look at the body, and put his hand over a pocket on the chef's uniform. A slim black cassette fell out.
Ken walked over to Nambu, eyes wide. Jun couldn't tell if Ken was still pretending to be Vin or if he was now in Commander mode.
His eyes fixed on the cassette in Nambu's hand, Ken announced, "Looks like we have a real mystery to solve, except we know the who. Now we just need to figure out the how and the why."
Nambu, Ken, Ryu, and Jinpei walked out of the kitchen and back into the restaurant to find a cassette deck that could play the tape. Jun lagged behind, and taking her lead, so did Joe.
"Jun..." he began, "we'll figure this out."
"I know we will. But it still creeps me out that Galactor was here, in my restaurant and in my kitchen." Jun could feel a lump forming in her throat. Joe could see that Jun was upset.
"Come here." he said compassionately, and put his arms around the Swan. "I'll protect you." he whispered.
Neither the Swan nor the Condor saw that Ken had come back to the kitchen and was standing in the doorway.
Hy...Vin...Ken...Commander...Now a real murder in the kitchen. The emotional conflict of the past 2 days was getting too much for Ken to take. He quickly realized that, once again, he had to put his personal emotions on the side to deal with this and his professional duty. But seeing the Swan in the Condor's arms... Knowing that Joe was the one comforting her when all Ken wanted was to be that person... He closed the door to the kitchen and went back out to the restaurant.