Fate or Fortune
Magician: The Missing Piece
The picture's potential lays unbidden,
The disciplined eye spots what is hidden.
Tuesday, March 21st 2017
San Diego; USA
The elevator rose smoothly to the eleventh floor of the corporate building. A rapid deceleration followed, announced by a ping as the doors slid open admitting two detectives of great disparity in height. They strode side by side as they headed for the room set at the end of the hallway.
As the detectives stepped through the propped open door, they found themselves in an empty waiting room. It had not a single window upon its sterile white walls, a colour probably chosen to salvage as much brightness from the artificial light source as possible. Several chairs were rimmed around the edge of the room. Its plush cushions showed they were barely used. A desk was set against the wall parallel to the thoroughfare between the door the detectives entered through and the door that presumably leading to the office, which was shut tight before them. Nobody sat behind that desk to greet them.
Naoto looked around, unimpressed by the apparent miscommunication. The company she was visiting was a branch of a major Japanese one, yet it appeared that organisation did not translate well into American.
The company just happened to be the very same one that was sponsoring Souji's academics, 'Trans-Western'. That the disappearance occurred here was more than just coincidence.
The detective prodigy strode over to the office door and rapt her knuckles upon the smooth chestnut hardwood. Without waiting for an answer, Nathan pushed past and let himself in.
The lighting in the room changed as the door swung open.
A natural light filtered in from the wall-plated tinted windows within the office, drastically changing the light dynamics of the smaller room. Despite the window size, only a small amount of light shone through from the outside. This wasn't due to any fault of the panes, but because the sky was blackened by the thick overcast that was in the midst of pelting the glass with raindrops the size of golf balls. This ominous lighting, coupled by the extraordinarily unbalanced space to occupied space ratio, gave the room a cavernous feeling. The only piece of area-covering furniture in that room was the large oaken desk set in front of the window-wall. The black leather chair nestled behind the desk seemed to stand forlornly empty within the spacious facility.
Naoto stepped inside, confused as to why there was no one to receive them. She had been directed to this office by the receptionist at the lobby. She glanced quickly at the name plate pinned on the door to make sure she had the right one. 'Taketo Saito.' That was also the name of the man who had first discovered the missing employee according to the report made to the police, and by the look of Mr. Saito's office he was unlikely the actual person to have called it in.
Rather than stand flummoxed by the door, the young detective stepped inside, immediately drawn to the sight of a ridiculously large television set into the wall by the desk, far enough away from the window so the glare does not affect the quality of the picture. Nathan whistled in appreciation as Naoto approached for a better look. The television was a wide-screen, a good two meters wide and hung so low that the base hung waist-height to Nathan and shoulder-height for Naoto. This struck her as odd as she was not used to wall-hung items being set within her reach, immediately provoking her suspicion.
Her sharp eyes scanned down the television, noting there was not a single print on its pristine surface. As her eyes moved down the screen to the border, she suddenly noticed scratch marks upon the frame. Scratch marks that seem to furrow upon the inner edges of the plastic disappearing upon the transition to the crystal screen.
"Excuse me." A voice called from the door, causing Naoto to look up from the etch marks. A Japanese man of a fair few years beyond middle age stood at the door way. His dark grey-flecked hair was gelled back neatly, matching his impeccably immaculate suit fitting elegantly his tall frame. The faintest lines of age could be seen upon his face, outlining the sharp dark eyes set shallow upon his high cheeks.
"I am Nathan Evans- Detective." The older detective quickly introduced himself, taking out and displaying his credentials as he walked back towards the door. "We are here...admiring your television- I mean- about the reported disappearance of a Michael Teav. Are you Mr Saito?"
The well-groomed man regarded Nathan silently, and then noticed Naoto standing silently off to the side. He scrutinised them both with his sharp eyes giving Naoto a strange sense of Déjà vu, before finally speaking with a clipped tone. "Mr Saito is the Chief Executive Officer of Trans-Western. As such he is a busy man. I will be handling your queries today and I ask that we conduct our business in the waiting room."
Nathan scratched his head with a nervous laugh, realising this could be considered as a breach of privacy if the man were to report it. "We were directed up here by the lady downstairs. We thought since nobody was waiting for us in the waiting room... Uh..."
The man nodded coolly, his expression not betraying his thoughts. "Indeed. Well I apologise for not receiving you. The receptionist is new and did not realise that the protocol dictated she alert me to meet you in the lobby." The man paused again as his sharp eyes traced out Naoto in a way that made her feel like she was the one being interrogated.
She introduced herself, studying the man in turn. "I am Detective Naoto Shirogane." She watched as his eyes widened in recognition.
"Shirogane? Hmm..." He mused, before giving a wan smile. "Detective Shirogane, I welcome you to America. My name is Masaru Seta. I will do everything I can to assist."
The drive back to the station was oppressively silent. Naoto's expression was that of such intense contemplation such that even Nathan hesitated to disturb her. He didn't seem to have yet realised that the man who they had just spoken to was the suspect's father.
Mr. Seta had given them the second hand account of the situation. Michael Teav was the secretary to the CEO himself, thus he handled much of the volatile information that, if leaked, could be greatly damaging to the company. As he had stressed it, leaked information wasn't potentially harmful because of issues involving illegalities, but simply due to lucrative prospects. As the chief secretary, Teav was stationed in the waiting room where they were standing.
His absence had been noticed by Mr. Saito soon after he came in, who in turn alerted Seta to deal with it. Mr. Seta quickly established that this was a case for police after attempting multiple times to call Teav's home phone and mobile to no avail.
Nobody had seen him come in this morning, or leave the night before. However his car was still in the company parking lot suggesting he did not leave, at least not willingly.
Soon afterwards Seta had taken it upon himself to obtain the security footage of the waiting room for the police to screen.
Naoto had attempted to question him further, asking about the secretary's bio, at which point Mr Seta sent for a copy of the man's original resume as well as the employee records from the human resource manager.
After realising she was not going to get a personal account of the character, Naoto requested to be allowed to search Teav's desk. It was an unreasonable request, she realised immediately, as most corporations value secrecy highly, and as the secretary of the CEO Teav would be handling some of the company's most volatile assets.
However, Mr. Seta's agreement caught Naoto completely by surprise.
"Hey, why do you think the old guy let us poke around?" Nathan ventured, eyes darting from the road briefly.
"Hmm...?" Naoto responded, drawing out of her reverie. "He wants the employee found."
"But does he have the authorisation to let us just go through the secretary's desk? I mean the executive seemed quite a little miffed when he came in."
That was an understatement. Ten minutes into the search the CEO Mr. Saito graced the room with his appearance. He was a Japanese man well past his middle age, yet hair strikingly jet black, contrast making it painfully obvious it was dyed. His dark eyes scowled down his slightly hooked nose as he caught the two detectives rummaging through the drawers.
Souji's father attempted to placate his boss, explaining the situation to him in rapid Japanese. Nathan couldn't follow the dialogue but it was apparent even to him that things were not panning out well, especially when Seta walked over and politely requested that if they wish to investigate further they must procure a warrant.
"He looked as if he got in deep with that stunt." Nathan muttered sympathetically "You understand Japanese. The guy gonna be okay?"
"I cannot say." Naoto truthfully answered. She had been watching the exchange with a certain level of anxiety. She had not wished to cause trouble for the father of...a friend. She had studied the executive's facial expression, trying to get a grasp of where his mood was at, and watched as his thick dark eyebrows pulled together, casting a shadow across his deep set eyes. His lips pulled thin across his smooth angular face, the twitching of the cheek muscle suggested his teeth were grinding hard against each other.
"Well I think he looked right on pissed." Nathan chattered on, stating the glaringly obvious. "You think he's hiding something?"
"He's a CEO of a trading company." Naoto said with a sigh. "...Of course he's hiding something."
"You think he's the murderer?!" Nathan buzzed excitedly, completely missing the undertones of Naoto's statement.
"...That is not what I meant."
"Well I've got a good head start on him! I know he's a big spender! In the secretary's desk was a collection of receipts from everything!" Nathan stated proudly. "I found stacks of them in an envelope in the secretary's drawer."
"That's for tax claims." Naoto gave it some thought before asking, "Did you see anything among those receipts that stood out?"
Nathan pondered this question over. "Hmm... Well, there is this one stack, all from this diner."
"...Why did that stand out?"
"Because there were HEAPS of them. He must be a regular of that place. Think we should pay it a visit?"
"... For what?"
Nathan paused to turn it over in his head. "You know... Ask a few questions... Ask if they saw anything suspicious...?"
Naoto rubbed her temples and heaved a sigh. "If you only have a vague idea of what you're looking for then hold your intrusions until you have enough to establish a line of questioning. That way you will not give a person, with information they wish not to divulge, any time to prepare for a decent cover up."
"So what you're saying is we go stake out the diner for a while?"
"I'm saying if you don't know what you're doing, don't do it."
Nathan winced, her reprimand stinging slightly. He gave a sheepish grin, and mumbled in an attempt to save face. "I wasn't being serious..." He gave a feeble laugh as Naoto proceeded to glare him down. "But," Nathan's tone suddenly became tart, as his expression changing completely, "I think the disappearance occurred in his office."
Naoto's attention snapped to him. She too believed that, for reasons un-submittable to the court of law. "Why do you think that?"
"Well." Nathan gave a hesitant grimace. "I saw what looked to be scratch marks on that sweet TV... On the plastic under the screen. The only way I see such marks could be made is by the fingernails of a person, being dragged into it against his will."
Naoto gave a meek smile, realising just how little credit she had given the man. "That was my thought also. But I must admit I'm a little surprised by how easily you are buying into the supernatural murder proposition."
"Oh man, I've watched Japanese horror!" The tall detective exclaimed with a dead serious expression. "I'm not going to make the mistake of underestimating the supernatural!" His eyes strayed off the road, glancing poignantly to the security footage disk grasped in the younger's lap. "You ought to be careful about watching that DVD. For all you know that could be the digitally remastered cursed tape!"
Naoto grinned, unsure if her companion was being serious but amused all the same. "That is a risk I will have to take."
Nathan beamed happily. "I shall watch it first to make sure it is safe! Don't you worry!"
"You have an interesting sense of humour, Detective Evans."
He took his hands off the steering wheel briefly to strike a pose. "I shall boldly face Sadako herself! Come, Watson! The game is afoot!"
Naoto had to raise her eyebrows at that. "I am not Watson. If anything I'm Holmes."
"What?!" Nathan burst out laughing, taken completely by surprise. "You are so not flamboyant enough to be Holmes! If anything you're Detective Conan!"
The young detective gave a bemused grimace; just two years ago she might have taken that as an insult. "I'm surprised you know Conan."
Nathan snorted, "Please! I'm from Generation Y. I live anime!"
"Generation Y?"
"You know. The teens of the first decade of the new millennia."
"That makes you...?"
"Twenty eight."
Naoto's eyebrows shot up in surprise. She had assumed he was well over thirty.
The man in question glanced over, catching her expression just as she attempted to hide it. "How old did you think I was?"
She gave a guilty grimace, which was probably more telling than was intended.
"Oh man! Come on!" Nathan groaned. "Look at my hairstyle! What sort of old-fart wears my youthful look?!"
That was a style?! Naoto had just assumed he had simply not bothered to brush his hair. She could not help letting that thought seep out onto her face as well. One glance sent Nathan into mortified silence. He spent the rest of the drive nursing his injured pride.
A great ruckus greeted Naoto as she stepped through the doors of the precinct.
"This is bullshit!" A voice carried down the hallway from the reception room, in the direction of the detective's office. The two detectives exchanged glances, recognising the voice to belong to Detective Bentley, who was less than subtle about his thoughts about their recently hired help in their last meeting.
"Umm... Do you want to go to the AV room first? I can take the evidence in." Nathan offered. Naoto recognised the attempt at sparing her the earful of insults and accepted it gratefully.
They walked down the hallway partway together before Naoto forked off into the Audio Visual room, leaving Nathan to march the rest of the way to the Criminal Investigation Department lugging the binder of employee records, along with the DVD. He had to have it documented before he brought it back down for viewing.
Once inside, Naoto sat upon a roller chair that was adjusted far too high for her, high enough to leave her legs just dangling centimetres from the floor. She sat facing the computers humming in sleep mode, enjoying the peace of the vacant room, listening to the bustle of thoroughfare in the hallway.
It was a rare moment of rest the freelance detective enjoyed; one that she'd not had since meeting Nathan at his car outside her hotel this morning. She leant back in her chair, closing her eyes and relishing the peace of solitude. She was finally left alone with her thoughts.
But she didn't have long to herself.
A piercing beep shattered the silence.
Naoto scrambled up in a start, glancing to her watch before swivelling in her chair to sweep her eyes across the room. It was empty save for her, yet, the watch claimed its counterpart was but mere meters away. Her eyes darted across the vacant space, jumping from one corner to another. There was not a hint of movement, yet this time, the young detective could not shake the feeling she was being watched.
...It felt as if...there was a presence right beside her...
The monitors!
Naoto turned so quickly she practically leapt from her seat, eyes setting on the blank motionless screens as her breath came in tight puffs. She saw no motion in them, no tell tale ripple of a form disappearing through them. She glanced at her watch again.
Less than a meter.
Naoto turned her eyes back to the screen. She took a step forward, reaching a hand out, watching the screen ripple as her finger brushed against the surface.
If she looked through...would she find him?
And if she did...what then?
"Whoa! I didn't realise it was touch screen!" A loud voice rang out behind Naoto, causing her to jump. She glared at the owner, who sauntered over, oblivious to the indignation he had just dealt. Nathan sat himself down in the seat and pulled up next to his slightly startled counterpart, swivelling to the screen and pressed his palm against it. "Aw~ man! How'd you get it to do that?!"
Naoto ignored him as she glanced at her watch again. The distance stayed the same. She stared hard at the screen, divining nothing from its still surface.
"Seriously! That looked like the fishpond App! I love that App! Me and my cat both! But granted it didn't have any fishes, and it just-"
"It was a trick of the light." Naoto muttered, causing Nathan to pause and regard her with a look of quizzical curiosity. She glared back. "Please put the security footage on Detective."
"Oh- Right!" The older man jumped to do her bidding, quickly booting the unit up from sleep.
The portal screen loaded with agonising sluggishness, causing Nathan to fidget with restless anticipation. Naoto used his distraction to sneak another glance at her watch, greatly disturbed that the distance had not moved one bit.
"Oh right, Naoto." Nathan began, glancing at her, a grin plastered on his face just as she slid back onto her chair, tucking her watch back under her sleeve. "You were right about the suspect!"
Naoto's heart leapt to her mouth. Did he figure it out?
"He really was with his girlfriend on the night of the murder!"
Her expression immediately melted into something that could only be described as 'Bwah?'
"See, Owen was spazzing out in there 'cause the girlfriend retracted her statement. Now they're making him re-question all the people in her boyfriend's PhD research group." Nathan grinned viciously. "Apparently they had all originally made statements that placed him with his girlfriend that day, and Owen had proclaimed they sounded rehearsed." The thought made him give a scathing laugh. "I suppose the bond of post-graduates is akin to ethnicity to him."
Naoto frowned. "And a girlfriend...isn't?"
"Hey, I don't pretend to get his logic." The tall detective shrugged, and then proceeded to type in the password as the option finally came up. He leant back as he waited for the desktop to load, at which point the two sunk back into a silence. It was strange since silence and Nathan do not usually co-exist.
He chewed his lip in contemplation, throwing furtive glances in the petite detective's general direction.
"Hey, Naoto." He began, a little hesitantly. "Are you sure you don't want to come take a look at the night-life? We don't even have to be out for long. We could just hit a bar close to your hotel." He gave a nervous grin. "There's a real nice one - Day's End. No loud music, no flashing lights. Just good drinks and pleasant conversation. You'll love it. I promise."
Nathan held his breath as Naoto sat silently, her expression a blank facade. "...While I appreciate your efforts Detective Evans," she replied with a shaking head, "I simply am not interested."
Nathan flopped back in his seat with a sigh. Naoto couldn't help but think his expression seemed a little doleful.
The DVD was inserted as the system finished booting, whereby the detectives went down to business, reviewing the security footage at times eight speed. Naoto began from when Michael Teav, a Caucasian man with extraordinarily fair hair, first walked through the doors of the waiting room at eight AM the morning before, and watched his day play out at an accelerated pace.
Much of it composed of sitting around typing on the computer, with the occasional phone call. Twice he organised letters to be sent, propping out the edges of the envelope and blowing in a puff of air to prop up the centre to more easily slide in the bulky letter.
The executive exited more than once, papers were exchanged and more often than not the executive would then simply return to his office. The one time he didn't, and instead walking out altogether was at noon. That was most likely him breaking for lunch. Sure enough, an hour later he walked back in, handing the receipt to his secretary.
While Naoto dissected the footage, Nathan appeared to slowly lapse into a coma as his boredom got the best of him. Despite being played at times eight speed, it still took half an hour to simply get to lunch break, the rest of which involved watching a boring man do boring things. By the time something did happen, Nathan was fast asleep.
Naoto leant in curiously as she watched the Secretary prepared for the day's end. Mr. Saito had left long prior. At eight PM, as the secretary stood to leave, he did something rather peculiar. Instead of leaving by the door, he entered the office.
Then...nothing.
Naoto noted the time this took place and waited for an hour to elapse in the footage before increasing the speed once more.
As the footage time transitioned from night to day, it became apparent not only that the secretary was not coming back out, but that he was no longer in the office.
When the CEO finally arrived there was no hesitation or surprise. Instead he simply walked straight into his office and shut the door. It was almost an hour before he reappeared, presumably to raise the alarm.
From then on nobody else entered the room until the footage ended.
Naoto leant back in her seat as she sank into her thoughts. The disappearance occurred after eight PM and before the CEO came in at nine in the morning. The event occurred most likely during the approximate initial time, with a logarithmic decreasing in order of likelihood as time progressed. During the first hour was their best estimation, assuming the culprit was not brazen enough to engage the victim in chitchat within the office.
Naoto turned to Nathan with the theory upon her lips and froze at the sight of him passed out comfortably in his seat. She sighed in disapproval of his lax attitude. If he would just pull himself together she could see him becoming a fine detective. With a little bit more experience of course. He already displayed his surprisingly keen insight and an open-mindedness rare among patrons of the law.
Naoto glanced nonchalantly back to her watch, and as she expected, it had reset once again to 'Out of Range.' It was too late to test her previous theory now, yet somehow that thought caused her considerable relief. It wasn't that she didn't want to find Souji... Rather, it was...
It was just that the opportunity had slipped away.
Naoto slouched in her chair with a huff, kicking her dangling feet against the table leg.
There was little point in moping by herself in this dark room. She might as well wake her escort and get him to compile the written report for submission.
Before she could finish that thought, the AV room door was flung open causing Naoto to give a start and accidentally kick Nathan out of his stupor.
The man squinting into the darkness, was a uniformed officer that had attended Naoto's briefing this morning; a police officer on this case, but she couldn't quite match name to face.
"Shirogane?" He called as he caught sight of her, voice tinged with a hint of uncertainty, as if he still did not quite mastered all the syllables in the name.
"Yes?" Naoto responded, sliding off her chair to stand respectably. There was no way to carry a proper conversation with her legs dangling ridiculously.
Nathan glanced around drowsily, lost as to what was going on.
"Peterman sent me to fetch you two. Michael Teav has been found."
A/N: Some readers may be wondering "Who is Sadako?" or "I've watched the Ring before, the girl's name is Samara." The fact is 'The Ring' originated in Japan, and in the original version the name of that killer ghost girl who crawled out of the TV was Sadako, named just like the 'The thousand paper crane's' Sadako. Being from Gen Y Nathan would have been the perfect age to catch the huge wave of Japan-craze that caught on in the western world. Such as the case he would have watched the original 'Ring' as well as a slew of anime... Not to mention the actual reason behind his rudimentary cultural understanding of the Japanese.
Kharta has created a very artsy title page for this fanfic. Check it out. Link is on the top of my profile page.
A thank you to my Beta reader and video game reviewer Jahan. If anyone is into video games take a look at his reviews on the PALGN site. Needless to say he did the Persona 4 review. Find the link to the Persona 4 review on my profile page.
Another thank you to my second Beta reader Bukala who not only has edited my fanfic for a smoother read but has graciously agreed to use his time to tutor me on how to fine-tune my writing skills. Not every fanfic writer gets such an opportunity to learn.
Disclaimer: I do not own Persona. If I did I'd have held the line...
Next update on the 14th of October:
Fortune: The Ill-fated Promise
As strings of fate entwine the heart,
The path before you falls apart.