Pain
Megure had left the forensics to their work and had gone to Mori at the hospital with the latest information, to see if they could get some information from Kabawa. He promised that he would keep them informed about the patient's condition. Yet, everyone knew that there was more to it… because even if Kabawa was a murderer and a disgusting person, Megure still felt responsible for the fact that they hadn´t been able to protect him.
Meanwhile Sato had actually found the prison doctor in his apartment, who'd confirmed that he'd performed Kabawa's examination the previous evening, but hadn´t left his house today. The last thing the elderly, short-grown man remembered was the ringing of his doorbell… he was sure he'd opened the door, but his memory was fuzzy from this moment on. He'd only woken up in his bed when he heard them ringing at the front door and thought that he'd fallen asleep again, feeling a little week today since that was nothing unusual in his age.
While Sato had investigated the doctor's whereabouts, Megure had allowed them to investigate by themselves, after they'd told him their deductions, even though he'd ordered Takagi to accompany them. The detectives had decided to proceed carefully, so that the two police officers positioned themselves at the backdoor, while Shinichi waited at the main entrance, trying to make an innocent face while he pressed the bell with a dry throat.
The cracking of the door lock caused his adrenaline level to soar up, yet his mind was cool and calm, he had the cards in his hands now he only had to play them properly. Not only the case depended on the next minutes, but also a possible move against the organization. The doorknob moved and a friendly smile appeared on Bell's lips.
It was now or never.
"Professor Bell?"
The green eyes beneath the bushy brows blinked in wonder, but the smile remained on Shinichi's lips.
"Good morning, Doctor."
Matsudo frowned, but was now trying for a smile himself.
"I have to confess that I'm surprised to see you. How may I help you?"
"It's about the forth victim." Bell's gaze suddenly grew serious, so Matsudo could follow the meaning of his words.
"The Forth? Well, I guess it's better to discuss this inside. Come on in, Professor." While Bell followed the friendly gesture, he knew that Takagi and Heiji probaply grew even more anxious, while they followed the conversation through the little micro in Bell's pocket.
Matsudo didn´t invite the American to the uncomfortable-looking leather couch, but stopped in the middle of the living room, waiting for Bell to continue, who looked around in the somewhat too sterile apartment. Shinichi's steps led him to the small dresser and once again the detective's eyes fell to the lonely photograph of the wedding couple. He saw what he'd seen last time, but only now his mind registered what his eyes had been looking for.
The woman's enchanting smile, surrounded by individual strands of red hair, that had escaped from her bun.
"What was her name?"
The question went over his lips, although Shinichi already knew the answer. A few call's had been enough to reopen the case from twenty years ago. He knew the name of Matsudo's wife, knew how she died and by whom.
Yet, he was eagerly waiting for an answer.
"Minako…"
The doctor's voice was soft, while he looked at the picture.
"Her name was Minako."
The high schooler behind the silicon nodded and turned back to the doctor.
"You're in this branch yourself, you know that they had tried everything back in her case to find more evidence. The suspect was arrested for grievous bodily harm resulting in the death of your wife. The only thing the court wasn´t able to proof was that there was an actual intention to specifically murder her. That's while there wasn´t a death sentence for the culprit. You know that the court sentenced him, biased on the evidences and you know that we're not allowed to judge ourselves. We do our job, but we've no right to put our opinions or actions above the judgment of the court."
"You don´t know anything…"
The pathologist's gaze lingered on the floor, but Shinichi didn´t need eye contact to hear the anger in his voice.
"You can´t tell me that you don't despise these people, getting back on the streets again." He laughed hollowly, shaking his head in a derogative manner.
"But who I'm talking to… of course you don´t want to understand." Bell's eyebrows raised, stretching the wound on his cheek, but Matsudo didn´t look up and didn´t realize that his opponent didn´t understand what he was implying.
"You don´t know how it feels… when you lose everything, the most important thig to you in this world. You don´t know how far a person is willing to go, to prevent something like this… or to make things right." Shinichi could hear the whisper of a tiny voice in his ear, but didn´t dare to listen, instead focused his attention on the pathologist alone.
"The judgment might have been thought through and legally binding, and yet it was like a slap in the face. To endure losing her was one thing, but to know that someone like him, that this pig was allowed to live… that wasn´t justice.
That's sick."
The detective remained silent, while Matsudo's now narrowed pupils fixed him from his green eyes. Shinichi couldn´t shake the familiar feeling of this thoughts. There were possibly a lot of people thinking along these lines, about one or another case, yet the people were reasonable enough to trust the law, even if the price they paid was sometimes more than one sleepless night.
Matsudo however was different…
"Why didn´t you get rid of your wife's murderer the same way how she'd been killed?" The pathologist erupted in loud laughter, causing Shinichi to step back, the deep laughter of the old man echoed soundlessly in the cold apartment. It took some time before the doctor found his voice again.
"Simple, Professor, it wasn´t me." A delightful smile crept on to Matsudo's narrow lips when he saw the astonishment in Bell's face.
"Don´t you think I hadn´t the intention to kill this asshole. Fact is, that someone came before me. A simple traffic accident, the driver fled, leaving no evidence." There was almost something like regret in the doctor's voice.
"You can´t imagine the satisfaction I felt when I went to his funeral. However, even though it was nice to know that this guy had suffered numerous wounds, broken bones and a brain trauma, there was something missing…" The cold grin on the usual soft features became bitter again.
"Justice. The accident had nothing do to with my wife's death. What had such a death to do with the trauma of the ones who'd been left behind." He hissed; hands balled into fists.
"Nothing.
It wasn´t enough.
It would never be enough."
"That's why you copied the single murders, to kill each of them the way their former victim had died." Matsudo stiffed beneath Bell's words, falling back to the waiting position he'd held in the beginning, but the smile on his lips was new.
"Please, feel free to continue, Professor." Shinichi swallowed, the calm manner of his opponent made him worry, but he wasn´t surprised. He forced himself to take a deep breath, pushing Bell's glasses back on his nose, before he started to speak.
"The final problem."
He took a step towards the doctor, burying his hands in his pockets while he spoke.
"This last story was intended to end Conan Doyle's works of the detective, but was also supposed to end the "Holmes" murders - your murders, Doctor." Matsudo didn´t react, his green eyes, still rested on the detective, waiting.
"Because this time you made a mistake." Shinichi swallowed and noticed how Bell's voice grew cold.
"You've been lured into a trap."
The bushy eyebrows of the pathologist twitched briefly, Shinichi could see how his jaw tensed, like he was biting his tongue, yet it was Bell who continued the conversation.
"You've been giving a bottle that you were to exchange with the actual antidote, which Megure had deposed into the fridge after the court. Thanks to your disguise you still had acces to it, the message was already written on the bottle, you only had to exchange the labels in order to hide "Holmes" message." The finger of the doctor twitched briefly, Shinichi could see how he rubbed his index finger with his thumb until he noticed that the detective was watching him. Bell didn´t turn his gaze away, only cleared his throat.
"And you did, but that wasn´t so easy, because removing the label with gloved hands was impossible, you didn´t have time for any technical solutions, so you had to take your gloves off. The fingerprint the forensics will find won´t be pretty, but enough to prove your guilt." Shinichi swallowed and looked at the doctor for a long time.
"I don´t think that you chose how to deliver the message. Why would you suddenly switch form a card to a label only to provoke such a simple mistake? There is a simple explanation to it: The last message from "Holmes" wasn´t yours, so it is clear that the former messages hadn´t been yours either."
Matsudo hadn´t moved while he'd been talking, his face alone had gotten a waxy almost translucent tone. The green eyes no longer lingered on the American but went through the room restlessly before they got stuck on the wedding photo.
"I knew… that it was a mistake." The sigh of the pathologist shivered.
"I had hoped that this little trace wouldn´t lead you straight to me. I thought that you might believe it to be a mistake so I could find another solution."
"This isn´t the first mistake you made, Doctor, just the first one you didn´t cause." Bell's rude voice ripped the pathologist from his thoughts, for the first time there was something like surprise in his eyes.
"What?"
"I already told you that the forensics are still working on the fingerprint, but there is more than this that betrayed you." The pathologist's voice grew cold, Bell seemed to have found a sore spot in his lack of perfection.
"And what are those supposed to be?"
"As you know, we already suspected that the culprit had access to the files and data of the police, so it had to be someone in our own ranks." Shinichi made a pause, giving the pathologist some time to complain, but continued when he remained silent.
"You certainly can't argue when I say you fit into this line of suspects as well."
"You've mentioned mistakes." Matsudo's interruption betrayed his impatience and nervousness, which Shinichi answered with a calm smile.
"But of course, even though we weren´t sure about our suspicions there had been some things that made me wonder, to which I hadn´t paid much attention to until today." Shinichi explained, burying his hands in his pockets while he spoke.
"It was you who planned these murders perfectly and carried them out with some help, without major difficulties. However, as soon as you felt safe you let your guard down. On my first visit to the pathology, for example, when you examined the second victim, you mentioned the bullet that the forensics struggled to find. You said that it must have landed in the next subway."
"So what?"
A small smile went over Bell's bale lips.
"I only wondered, Doctor, how you knew by this time that a subway passed by, while the murder happened." The doctor just looked at him and rose a skeptical eyebrow.
"Of course, this slip of tongue could be nothing but a coincidence and yet it amazes me that the postman who found the victim was able to confirm your thoughts. Strange, right?" Matsudo's Adam's apple slid up and down, wile he waited for the detective to continue.
"Let's come to victim number three, Kikuja-san, the owner of the café. I assume that Takagi has missed the little detail in his report, that's why I want to point out that she was able to give a clue to who attacked her."
"Oh?"
"She told us that it smelled like hospital. Well, I am probably the last to explain the different components of this smell to you. After all, you have to deal with these very substances daily, right, Doctor? I don´t like to admit that the smell of the pathology isn´t much different from that of a hospital. You're working with similar instruments, disinfectants and detergents as your colleagues on the living. No wonder Kikuja-san couldn´t tell the difference." Shinichi swallowed, trying to push the hopeful face from the café owner out of his mind, while he spoke to the pathologist.
"Of course, the conditions to murder her were a little difficult after my intervention. This time you couldn´t just ambush your victim, but knowing who you're working with makes the trick rather easy… since you'd left a heavy evidence, Matsudo-kun." The pathologist didn´t ask, calmly waiting, almost too patiently for Shinichi's taste, but he continued to explain anyway.
"The clock on the wall of the hospital hallway, was thirty minutes fast." The corner of Matsudo's mouth twitched, nothing more.
"You relieved the guards yourself after the first shift." Shinichi reached for Bell's glasses, took them from his nose and started to polish them in small circular movements as he spoke.
"You knew that Megure order the surveillance. You knew their faxes so it was easy to produce some matching masks. You've appeared with your company half an hour to early to the official change of guards. Earlier you manipulated both your own wristwatch as well as the clock on the wall, so that they didn´t pay much attention to your early appearance. Even if one of your supposed "colleagues" would notice something they would probably pin it to them being tired. Nevertheless a risky plan, probably born out of necessity, to gain half an hour. Enough to commit the murder, before the real guards showed up and enough to change your disguise again, to the officers you just changed places with. Megure tends to take colleagues with… rather impressive statures, for these monitoring's. So you could keep the uniform and everything you wore underneath and only change your face, with the prepared masks and turn back your wristwatches again, to proceed the chance of guards again."
Matsudo laughed hollowly, looking at the detective with a sour smile.
"Of course, you know how that works." Shinichi swallowed, ignored "Holmes" comment, put his glasses back before he started to speak.
"However, you made two mistakes, first you forgot to turn the clock back to the right time and you also forgot to place your card near the victim. I don´t know if you'd been in a hurry or if your "partner" had made you nervous. Fact is that the killer's message had been missing when Megure arrived the next day, but suddenly appeared once you entered the crime scene. Once again your job helped to accomplish your goal." A bitter tine accompanied Bell's dry smile.
"After all the pathologist, along with the forensics is always the first one to examine the victim. Tissue, fingerprints and hairs found of him on the victim are nothing more than a act of negligence. Your "mistake" to forget your gloves when you examined the third victim was just an act to cover your own traces." The pathologist was petrified, he made no move while the detective destroyed his work form the last weeks.
"Now to Kabawa-kun. The last murder has caused you so much trouble, that I'm surprised that you even agreed to this plan. I assume that you've mixed something in his food yesterday to cause the nausea in order to get him an appointment with the doctor. You probably know doctor Korioshi well enough to know that he wants to make sure the inmate is well again before court. You took this opportunity to take his place in order to give Kabawa something against his nausea again. What he didn´t know was that his fate was sealed even before his acquittal, since the promised medicine was nothing else than the poison which takes a certain amount of time to show it's effect. Since you're a doctor yourself it was easy enough to take Korioshi-san's place, the placement of the wound on the first victim also made it clear that only someone with a medicinal knowledge could have inflicted. So, your fingerprint's are only the last, but decisive proof doctor."
Shinichi swallowed, his throat was dry from the long monologue, yet he grew more restless with each word.
"Why did you even agree to the last plan? Why did you step into their trap so willingly?" A bitter smile crept to the pathologist's lips.
"I knew that I couldn´t trust them…" The green eyes curried through the room aimlessly until they come to a rest on Bell himself.
"I knew I made a pact with the devil, but I didn´t care as long as I was able to put another murder to their rightful fate. If I hadn´t swapped the antidote this asshole would have get the chance to survive… I couldn´t allow this."
Matsudo laughed hollowly, shaking his head like he'd just told a good joke that no one but him understood. His eyes briefly became cloudy while he spoke, his voice was cold and accusation echoed it.
"I guess it's better that way… maybe that's the way it should be. After all… we can`t hide from who we are, you should know that Professor."
The pathologist's voice was sharp and cut beneath Shinichi's skin.
"The mask you're hiding behind doesn´t transform you into something else. There is no secret magic turning you into a better person." Shinichi however didn´t hear Matsudo's accusation, his words started to turn the wheels in his mind.
Masks, transforming, magic…
Magic.
A brief smile crept over the detective's features.
'So that's why…'
The final problem.
His story was about to end just like Conan Doyle's.
He swallowed, turned his attention back to the murder in front of him.
"I guess I know what they've told you Doctor… and I can´t even deny it. It's true… I am responsible for her death. However, I am not the one you should fear, the true murdered are the ones you've made your deal with." A tried smile went to Matsudo's lips.
"Well… I guess sometimes it's necessary to become what you fear the most in order to reach your goal, but that doesn´t matter now, not to me." The green eyes became glassy and the tired smile on the man's lips turned Shinichi's blood to ice.
"At least I can free this world form one more murderer."
'What?!'
The detective recognized the doctor's movement's with a curse, he knew that it was already too late.
"Fuck! Hattori!" Even before he'd screamed for his friend's name, he and Takagi had stormed through the back door. The two policeman threw themselves at "Holmes" and brought him to the ground. They had heard enough to know that their murderer was about to avoid his own verdict. While Takagi held the man on the ground, the Oskan officer worked on the man's cramped jaw.
"Oh no! Ya're not getting away that easily, before ya told us where ta find them! Come spit it out!" But the pathologist didn´t hear them any longer, only convulsed beneath their touch, while his body exuded the much too sweet scent of burnt almonds.
"Damn!"
With a groan the two men finally let go of Matsudo's corpse.
'We've been so close…' Heiji's teeth crunched under his jaw's pressure while he drove a hand through his hair.
"What now… Kudo?" But his question remained unanswered.
"Kudo?" Takagi looked around as well while Heiji could feel the color draining from his face.
"No…"
XXX
The ringing of his mobile surprised him, even though he'd been waiting for it, it ripped Megure from his thoughts.
"Hattori-kun what-" But the detective interrupted him.
"Kudo is gone."
"Gone? Where?" The Oskan snapped in a rushed voice.
"Damn if I'd know I wouldn´t have ta call ya!"
"Jeez, what's the boy doing again!" The hoarse curse of the officer wasn´t meant for Heiji's ears, but the next instructions were.
"I'll send you someone to take care of Matsudo, then you can-"
"No need to hurry… he's dead." Megure answered with silence. A mixture of relief and failure spread inside him, but at least it was over.
"See that you find him Heiji."
"of course." The Osakan's finger already hovered over the red button to end the conversation before a last question passed his lips.
"How is Kabawa?" The lump in the officers throat grew. The screams in the corridors of the emergency had stopped, but the silence was deeper than the policemen liked it. He sighed and buried his fingers deep beneath his hat.
"It doesn´t look good, Hattori…"
XXX
The world became unclear and blurred.
Big glassy eyes stared into nothing, focused on nothing but the sudden pain, that could not be compared to anything familiar in this world.
Questions about what, how and why floated in the dense fog of thoughts, without finding an answer.
But thinking didn´t help, but only brought more pain, that burned itself deep inside his victim's bones. Leaving them as soft and though as rubber, while a hot fire seemed to burn everything that was left.
The heat was unbearable, yet only seemed to get worse.
With each heartbeat, life became more distant while the endless torment grew.
Death?
Was that was dying felt like?
Mind and body slowly gave in, blurting into a hot lump of tar, which consumed everything but pain and darkness.
Even fear had no place in this living hell.
It hurt so much…
But the pain brought a dangerous friend along, a fried who seemed to accompany death along it's way and prepared everything for what might come.
Hope.
Because no matter how, it would be over soon.
A body could endure this only for a matter of time.
It would stop.
Soon.
That was all that mattered now.
It should stop.
Please!
But the burning lips hand something else in mind, not pleading for death, but whispering what mattered the most. The only thought that was able to relief the pain. A thought that could destroy everything else… which could end her suffer.
"Shinichi…"
XXX
"RAN!"
Muhahaha – ah I mean Hallo everyone!
I hope you enjoyed the chapter – and yeah I do hope that the evil cliffhanger is going to earn the one or other comment. I know there is a lot going on right now, but your comments are what keeps this story going so… yeah.
Anyway thanks to each an everyone who reviewed and now follows the story! And of course a big thanks to Tobina for her great Beta work!
I hope all of you are fine and safe!
Till next month
Yours Shelling