A/N
Hello again, so like I said at the beginning of this story, it is my first story so I'm having a bit of a hard time putting it together the way I want to do it. So far, I have managed to portray it but I hope you guys can bear with me and my slowness in completing it. Thanks again for reading, and here is the next chapter.
As soon as Sakai had hung up the phone, he had contacted one of his team members and instructed him to go and take over guard duty for Imai. He had then contacted Imai, who had already made it back to the apartment, and told him the information he had just received from the station in Arakawa. He informed him that his replacement was on his way already so he didn't have to wait long, and while on the phone they planned on making their way to Arakawa right after they questioned the latest victims' coworker. Luckily she had arrived about five minutes before Imai got to the station, so they had the opportunity to question her together.
Sakai had already escorted her into the interrogation room when Imai walked into the station and they walked into the room together, where she was waiting and sat across from her. Imai handed her a cup of coffee, which she took and thanked him before taking a small sip.
"lets begin" said Sakai. He had opened up his laptop and they began asking her the usual questions.
Her name, Arai Tomi, and contact information. Where she lived and with whom, and then they began with the last day she saw her coworker.
"What were you and miss Ohno doing together the last time you saw her?" Imai asked her, still unsure whether he should rule her out as a suspect.
"Well we made plans to spend the day at Kyu-Iwasaki-tei Gardens since its close to where we both live, and work. I met her there around 3 in the afternoon, and we planned on getting an early dinner together but we were hungry so we stopped at a convenience store right before we went in. We walked around for a bit before sitting at a bench to eat our food, and then she said she was going to go to the restroom…" she paused, and it seemed to Imai that she was thinking back on the day in question and trying not cry at the same time.
"She was gone for a while, so I tried calling her but she didn't answer." She continued " Then I went looking for her in the nearest restroom but she wasn't there, so I sent her a message. I got a response right away, and she told me that she had left because she wasn't feeling well and that she would see me another time." Tomi wiped her eyes, and sniffled then continued " I expected to see her early the next day since we both worked the same shift but I didn't see her. I thought it was strange because even if she isn't feeling well, she will let the supervisor know or she will at least call me to let me know but I didn't hear anything from her after that last text. It also looked like she had not been home because I got no response when I went to her place to see her the next day"
"Is that why you reported her missing?" asked Imai
"yes, I became worried because she isn't one to just not show up for work"
"So the last day you were with her, you sent her a message, and she responded… how long did it take for her to respond?" asked Sakai
"not long" she said "actually I don't even think a minute had passed"
"I see, can you tell me what your message said?" asked Imai
"it was just asking her where she had gone, and if she was ok" she said "but I remember I was surprised that she answered right away. It wasn't a long message but she never really liked using that feature on her phone so she was a bit slow to type when she occasionally used it"
"can I see the message?" asked Sakai. She nodded and reached into her purse for her phone. She unlocked it and searched thru her messages until she came across the one she needed. She then handed the phone to him.
He took the phone, and read the message
[Me: "hey, where did you go?"
"are you ok?"
Ohno Kawa: " sorry. not feeling well, will see you later"
Me: "o, do you need my help?" ]
He saw the time the messages were sent and noticed that Arai was telling the truth. The last message that was sent from Ohno's phone had been sent exactly 12 seconds after Arai had sent her message. There were a couple more messages after asking Ohno where she was, and whether she was going to make it to work but with no responses.
"How long did it usually take for Miss Ohno to type a message with this many characters?" asked Sakai, handing the phone back.
"uhm, it usually took her about a minute. Like I said, she didn't like using that feature; she preferred talking so she avoided it as much as she could." She answered
"Can you tell us what you did after you left the gardens?"
"I went to dinner with my family, it was my sisters' birthday and I was supposed to take Kawa with me. They even asked me where she was because I had told them what our plans had been for the day." She answered
"do you remember seeing anyone around you guys that might have looked suspicious?" asked Imai
"no, not really. There were a lot of people that day though" she answered
"ok, thank you for coming in. If we have anything else to ask you we will contact you but if there's anything you remember don't hesitate to call us" said Imai, getting up. Sakai, and Arai followed suit and all three walked out of the room. They made their way to the exit, and went their separate ways once outside.
Sakai and Imai decided to take one vehicle to Arakawa since it made no sense to take both. They were both going to come back to the station anyway, and they could talk about their new information.
"We didn't find her phone when we went thru the scene" Imai voiced out loud. They had not found any of the victims' phones so it had not come as a surprise but what surprised them was that this victim had sent a message in the first place because none of the others had.
"She didn't send it" said Sakai
"Agreed" answered Imai "Even when people are good at typing, there is a lag from the time the message gets to and from the phone. I think he sent the message right after Arai sent hers. I don't understand why he would do it though"
"That's what I was thinking as well. He didn't bother with any of the other ones, so why did he do it with this one?" Sakai thought out loud.
They sat in silence the rest of the way each thinking about the reasons why the culprit did what he did and before long they had arrived at the Ogu Police Station in Arakawa. Once there they gathered the case files, which didn't take long because it had mostly been compiled already and then made their way to Adachi City to gather their own statements from the ones who knew and had seen the victim last.
Imai read thru the statements that were in the files already and noticed that the victim lived with her sister in Adachi City. So they decided to go visit her first. She lived in a small apartment, and when they knocked on her door they were surprised that an older woman maybe her mother thought Imai, answered.
"can I help you?" she asked. She seemed to be in her late 60's, and it seemed that she had been sleeping.
"yes, we are looking for Aoki Hina. Is she here?" asked Sakai
"She is at work" she responded, and almost burst into tears "did something happen?" she looked at them with worry and she seemed afraid of what they might tell her.
"No ma'am, we are just following up on a case and we needed to talk to her about it" spoke Imai.
"You found something about my daughter?!" she asked, almost frantic.
"We are not sure yet, but if we do we will let you know." Answered Sakai "sorry we bothered you"
They reassured the victims' mother, and then made their way to Seiwa Nursing School, where Aoki Hina was taking classes and worked as an assistant. They went inside, and asked at the information desk where they could find her. They made their way to the classroom where she currently was, and waited outside for her. After about 5 minutes, the classroom door swung open and a few students walked out.
"excuse me" said Imai, stopping a short girl that was passing by " we are looking for Aoki Hina, do you know where she is?"
The girl, turned and pointed at a student that was walking towards them. She was putting some papers in her bag so she had not noticed that they were waiting for her.
"hey, Aoki san" the girl said
"yes?" Aoki Hisa answered, looking up.
"They are looking for you" she said to her before walking away.
"hello, I am detective Imai, and this is my partner detective Sakai. We are investigating a case and we needed to ask you some questions" he noticed that she had slight bags under her eyes, and she seemed a bit pale.
"ok, I have some time now before I have to start my shift." She led them back to the classroom she had just left and found seats. "is this about my sister?"
"yes" answered Sakai " we need you to tell us what you remember about the day you last saw her"
She sighed and then began in a somewhat tense voice " I came to class, but I had to leave early because I got a call from the hospital nearby telling me that my sister was there. She had apparently fainted and since we are each others emergency contacts they called me. I remember that they drew blood, ran some tests and they told her she needed to take it easy, which she agreed to. I told her to go home, and she agreed but she lied to me… but I only found that out after" she paused, and then continued "when I got home, I realized she wasn't there so I called her but she didn't answer. So I called around, and found out from her supervisor that she had gone to work but she had already left so she should have been back at home by the time I got there." She finished in a somewhat defeated voice.
"you don't recall seeing anyone suspicious around her when you were together?" asked Sakai
"no, but I didn't pay too much attention since I was preoccupied with her and her tests" she answered "I almost had a bit of a panic attack actually, so I was grateful to see an old acquaintance whom I had gone to school with. He helped me calm down"
"I did read that in the report" said Imai. The person had been cleared of suspicion by the previous detectives since he didn't live in Adachi or Arakawa and had a solid alibi. However both Imai and Sakai had agreed that they would need to talk to the possible witnesses again in case the previous investigation missed anything. Plus this was bigger than one possible murder so they needed to cover their bases.
"when did you see this acquaintance?" asked Imai
"uhh, I think while they were drawing her blood" she answered in an uncertain tone
"ok, so when did you eventually suspect that something might be wrong with your sister?" asked Sakai
"When she didn't come home after midnight. I waited a bit longer so I went to the police station around one in the morning, and they told me that it was too soon to panic" she said bitterly "They said that she might just be out with a friend having fun… I got a call from them a couple of days after that…" she said with tears in her eyes "telling me that they had found her body" her voice broke and she began to cry.
"I'm sorry" said Imai, handing her some tissues. She took them, and composed herself as much as she could, and then continued.
"I keep asking and I haven't gotten any answers. The detectives in charge of her case keep telling me that they haven't found anything, and that they will tell me when they have something. Its been two months already" she said in a frustrated manner.
"Well, we can't tell you much, but we have taken over the case. We believe your sister wasn't the only victim, and we are working on it but its taking some time." Said Imai
"You said in your statement that your sister was at Nishiarai Hospital, correct?" asked Sakai
"Yes, its only a few minutes from here" she answered.
"Ok, thank you for taking some time to talk to us even if its difficult to discuss. We will try to give you some answers when we have them" said Imai " if you remember anything else though, please contact us" he said, handing her his card, which she took and put in her bag.
They parted ways once outside the classroom and the detectives made their way to the exit and headed to the hospital. They were able to talk to the doctor who had taken care of her, and had also been lucky and managed to get the security footage of that day since it wasn't in the case files they had gotten from the station. Then they made their way to Tokyo Marine Swimming, and talked to her coworkers there. They all said the same thing: she had come to work, done a couple of her tutoring sessions and left early because she had mentioned that her sister would be upset if she found out she had come to work. All of their statements were the same compared to the previous ones they had given, except for a couple of no consequential details, so they were able to rule them as non suspects just like the previous detectives had done.
As they were driving back to Taito, Imai had taken the opportunity to look thru the Aoki case once again since Sakai was driving. He had only previously read the most basic information since it was on such short notice that they decided to go and talk to the people involved but as he did, he noticed it.
"It might be nothing, but …" Imai began "I think we might have something" He wasn't someone who liked to accuse just for the heck of it, usually he had enough evidence to arrest someone, but this case was just so frustrating. It might be a coincidence but he couldn't overlook it especially when he saw the name and location of the hospital where this person worked.
Sakai, who was driving, chanced a look at his partner. He had been thinking about the next few things they needed to do. Looking thru surveillance footage was time consuming, but it yielded results most of the time, so it was worth it in the end. He noticed the look in his partners' eyes, and usually that look meant he had a hunch about something or someone, which usually turned out to be right. "You wanna let me know what you are thinking about. What did you find?"
"This acquaintance… he works at Fraternity Memorial Hospital, which just happens to be on the edge of the Sumida River"
It had been a surprise to Rukia that Satoshi had left about an hour after they had made it back to the apartment after their trip to the store. She had only found out because she had knocked on his door late in the afternoon to ask him if he wanted to have some lunch with her. She had not planned on bothering him but she felt a bit lonely since Asami had left for work and wouldn't be back until dinner time. She wondered if maybe he had found something to do with her case and made a mental note to ask him when he returned. It seemed that he was busy however because Asami made it back home before she saw Satoshi. They had dinner and were already in the process of going to bed when he sent Asami a message letting them know that he would be working thru the night but that they shouldn't worry because the person that was currently watching over them was trustworthy.
Rukia wanted to go see the place where Satoshi had found her in hopes that it would trigger her memory but when she voiced this to Asami she almost wished she hadn't. Asami had not taken Rukias determination all too well, in fact it seemed like a bad idea to her to go without someone trustworthy.
"We can go with the person who is over there" said Rukia, pointing towards the front door to signal across the hall.
"No, I would feel more at ease if you would just wait for Satoshi, or his partner" she told Rukia, which surprised Rukia because she wasn't aware that they had ever met. Asami for her part had met Sakai the previous night after Rukia had gone to sleep. She had happened to meet him as she was taking out her trash and he was taking a break and changing into clean clothes. Asami had asked how Rukias' case was progressing but he had been reluctant to give out any information, even if she knew his partner. She had found his demeanor unpleasant, but he didn't seem to care and cut their impromptu conversation short saying he had to get back to the station.
"so then what am I supposed to do?" asked Rukia, in a somewhat desperate tone. How was she supposed to get her memories back if she didn't try to trigger them in the first place?
"Wait until I can at least accompany you…" said Asami, glancing over at Rukia while getting ready to leave for work. "Look, the last time you had a trigger you passed out. Luckily it was in the hospital, but what happens if you go there without anyone that has medical experience and you pass out?"
Rukia hated to admit it, but she was right. "alright" she said defeated "so then, when can we go?" she asked her, hopefully she would be able to go within the next couple of days. They also needed to wait for Satoshi, and who knew when he would be free.
"let me ask detective Imai, and I will let you know when I get home from work tonight" she finished, then she gave Rukia a quick hug, said "see you later" and walked out the front door leaving Rukia standing there in a daze. Rukia wasn't expecting a hug, but it made her feel warm and it confused her. Why would she feel this way? The more she thought about, the more convinced she became that maybe she didn't have a family that cared for her. It had been a month already, and not one person had tried to at least find her? Plus the hug Asami had just given her and the affection she had shown had made Rukia uncomfortable at first which only indicated that she might not have gotten the same attention from her real family if she did have one. It made her feel sad, but on the upside she didn't remember them so she supposed that was a positive spin on the situation. Who knows, maybe she might not want to go back to her family, If they even exist, she thought, once her memories returned.