Part 3
PJ sat at the table in the interview room, his gaze shifting between Takeru Yagami sitting before him and Amy pacing along the wall behind him, obviously trying to carefully phrase her words. He knew how impossible this interview was going to be. They knew virtually nothing about what kind of fraud and embezzling Takeru had been involved in, in fact, they only had Kari's word that it had even taken place. But he didn't trust the man sitting across from him and he knew that Amy didn't either.
"So, Mr. Yagami," Amy began, stopping suddenly and spinning on her heel to face the Japanese man sitting at the table, looking rather calm and composed for someone who had just been arrested. "We've had a report that you've been involved in fraud and embezzlement. What do you want to say about that?"
Takeru looked up to Amy with his narrowed and dark eyes, leaving her quite stunned at how very different they seemed from Kari's. While Kari's eyes were friendly and kind, Takeru's were cold and devoid of emotion. "Hikari Izumi told you, didn't she?"
"It's irrelevant who our informant is," PJ explained as Amy clutched her clipboard tightly to her chest. "All that's relevant to this interview is your activities involving fraud and embezzlement."
Takeru just shook his head, a half-smile creeping across his face. "She did tell you, then," he responded, almost laughing at the thought. PJ and Amy's expressions visibly fell at Takeru's words, knowing instantly that this man had worked it out. Whoever Takeru Yagami was, he knew Kari well from what they could tell. "Well, well, well," Takeru continued as his smile broadened. "I should have known. I think you'll find that Hikari-san has her facts wrong. You know the story, a woman scorned…"
Amy shot Takeru a roll of her eyes and stormed out of the interview room, slamming the door loudly behind her. PJ and Takeru watched the door close, before the Japanese man leant across the table. "You've got nothing, you know," he pointed out in a heavy accent. PJ regarded him with contempt and frustration as he continued. "You can try, but you've got nothing. You know you've got nothing."
PJ frowned, his brow furrowing, before he rose to his feet and followed Amy out of the interview room, where he found her pacing the corridor and slowly but surely wearing a track in the floor.
"That bastard's got us," she mumbled to herself as she bit her thumbnail thoughtfully. "He's got us and he knows he's got us. Little self-righteous bastard…" Amy trailed off, suddenly spinning to face PJ with frustration and determined rife in her face. "And what's his connection to Kari, anyway?"
He just shrugged, glancing back over his shoulder and into the interview room. Takeru was sitting at the table, leaning back in his chair and grinning like some ridiculous Cheshire cat.
"What the hell does that smug bastard want?" Amy mused, drawing level with PJ as the pair continued to stare into the interview room, their minds whirring with thoughts and suspicions.
"No idea, Amy," PJ admitted, "absolutely no idea."
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Kari peered out beyond the mess room door, her eyes widened at the sight of Amy and PJ leading Takeru Yagami away towards the door. She hurried down the corridor, shaking her head at the thought of Takeru going free.
"Hey!" she called, causing the group about a metre ahead of her to stop and turn towards her, regarding her with curiosity. Amy and PJ shared an uncertain glance, while Takeru's smug and over-confident smile simply broadened. "You're letting him go?"
Amy shrugged sadly, shooting Takeru a cold glare. "We have nothing to hold him on," she explained regretfully. "We have no evidence…we can't hold him."
Kari shook her head in disbelief. "So you're just going to let him go?"
Amy left PJ to Takeru and headed over to where Kari stood. Just as Amy placed a soothing hand on Kari's shoulder, Takeru piped up from where PJ was just about to steer him around the corner and out of sight.
"Nice little stunt there, Hikari-san," he told her in his usual over-confident tones, "I'm sure your father will be delighted hear about this."
"My father can go screw a tree for all I care," Kari snapped, the only thing stopping her from fully lashing out at Takeru being Amy's hand on her shoulder.
Takeru laughed at this, almost as if he found it amusing. "Next time you want to go pulling a little stunt like this, perhaps you should think about your Okaasan."
Kari's eyes widened as the memory of her mother sprang into her mind. PJ looked to Amy with a confused expression on his face, silently asking her just what Takeru was referring to. Amy just shrugged in reply.
"What about my Okaasan?" Kari demanded, her voice little more than a hoarse whisper.
His smile broadened into a grin at the worry present in Kari's face. "She's dying," he explained, his voice devoid of sympathy or emotion. "Cancer. She was diagnosed with it not long after you packed your bags and disappeared. The docs don't think she has much more than a month left, at the most."
She stared at him in horror as PJ grabbed Takeru roughly and pushed him away out of sight. Amy gave Kari's shoulder a reassuring squeeze, but Kari was uninterested. She pulled away, storming off towards the back entrance of the station and grabbing the keys to her car on the way out.
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Kari sat in her place looking out over the National Park, eyes closed and her knees brought up close to her chest as she tried to suppress the overwhelming emotions swirling around inside of her. Her desperate attempts to hold back choking sobs rang out over the park, disturbing the otherwise blissful quiet. The warm sunlight bathed over her, warming her body and tickling her skin. The irony of how beautiful the weather was in comparison to how awful she felt didn't escape her.
Her Okaasan had been the person who had given her the key to taking her life back, who had supported her when no one else would. She had risked everything just to make sure that Kari could have her life and, in turn, she had been the only thing stopping Kari from taking her father and Takeru down long ago. Any attempts to bring them down was likely to bring her Okaasan crashing down with them.
"Okaasan," she whispered quietly, letting her soft voice ring out weakly over the National Park, "what am I meant to do now?"
Kari looked herself over in the mirror, her Okaasan making gentle adjustments to the beautiful and delicate kimono hugging her body tightly and flowing to the floor. She had to choke down a wave of doubt to speak. "I'm only nineteen," she explained in a tiny voice that was almost unheard. "I'm still a kid. I'm not ready to get married."
Her Okaasan climbed up from where she was kneeling on the floor and crossed the room, being careful to find a place to distract herself where her daughter couldn't see her face. "I was only nineteen when I married your father," she told her rather curtly, "you'll be fine."
"I don't want to marry him," Kari snapped, storming across the room and grabbing her Okaasan's wrist, forcing her to make eye contact. "I'm not marrying him, Okaasan."
Her Okaasan nodded sadly, brushing aside a strand of dark hair nervously, her hand shaking ever so slightly. "Your father won't be pleased. He has put so much on this wedding."
Kari began to quickly untie the kimono, suddenly unable to remain anywhere near it. Her hands fumbled over the knots slightly in her haste to remove it. "I'm his daughter," she pointed out, "that's all that should matter to him."
"But we both know that it's not," her Okaasan explained, lowering her voice considerably. Kari regarded her, her brow furrowing at each word.
"I…I don't…understand…"
"Your father…" her Okaasan began, her accent becoming stronger the quieter her voice became. "He has a lot riding on this wedding."
Kari just shook her head, unable to make any sense of what she was being told. It all just rolled around in her head, becoming a horrible blur of thoughts and fears. "Okaasan?"
Her Okaasan sighed, finally looking away with guilt and shame evident in her eyes. She pulled away from Kari, crossing the room and pulling a bundle of notes from her dresser drawer, held together by a rubber band. She offered it out to Kari, who took it tentatively, turning it over in her hands.
"What is this?" she asked quietly, pulling back corners of paper to survey the contents as best she could. Inside was scrawled pen, which she could vaguely decipher to random names, places, numbers and dates. "What's going on?"
Her Okaasan returned to her side, unable to meet her daughter's gaze as she regarded the notes in Kari's hands. "Records of every time your father has ever engaged in fraud," she replied, reaching out to take the notes from Kari, but the younger woman refused to let them go. "The moment you marry Takeru Yagami, your father makes a mint."
Kari was disturbed from the memory by the sound of tires grinding to a halt on gravel, following by a door slamming and heavy, boot clad feet crossing the area between her and the car. She turned to see what was going on, but before she had gotten the chance, she could feel a cold knife pressing against her throat, tiny droplets of blood sliding down her neck. It was nothing major, but the situation was hardly minor.
Her attacker grabbed her hair, yanking it back while somehow managing to restrain her arms in one swift movement. She stared up in terror at the face bearing down on her and a wave of cold realisation washed through her body.
"Takeru," she gasped as his proud, almost manic grin broadened.
