The Tiger who Knew too Much
I had been buried so deep in my paperwork that I scarcely noticed the knock at my office door. I'd been working on some files the police wanted for the last case I'd had, and it had taken me weeks.
The knocking sounded again, more insistent this time, starling me out of my work-trance.
"Come in." I called, not looking up from perusing a witness testimony, "The door's unlocked."
I heard the door creak open on hinges badly in need of a little grease and tore my gaze away from the various required signatures to blink through gritty eyes at my visitor (I needed sleep). I was a little alarmed by what I saw.
Being a female private investigator in New York City meant I usually didn't get anything other than female clients. And these women were usually housewives seeking protection from abusive husbands, or looking for someone to make sure those same husbands weren't fooling around with someone younger, prettier and a little more, ahem, curvaceous. Trust me, it gets monotonous after a while.
So imagine my surprise to find a young man, no more than twenty, standing before me ringing his hands anxiously. His appearance told me he hadn't been getting much more sleep than I had. His intense blue eyes were sleep filled and blood-shot, with dark bags beneath them. His clothes were rumpled and had been slept in, probably for a few days, judging by the food stains. His shoulder length black hair was tangled and terribly mussed, and there was a faint trace of stubble on his chin.
"Can I help you?" I asked mildly, cocking my head to the side.
"Are you Detective Mia Koji?" He asked in a tired voice.
I shrugged. "Actually, it's Private Investigator, but very few people actually acknowledge that title." I smiled and gestured towards the chair opposite my desk. He sank into it and caught my gaze. There was something haunting and desperate about those eyes, almost pleading really.
"What can I do for you Mr.-?" I asked, straightening up and setting the pen I'd been using aside.
"Sanada." He said. "Ryo Sanada."
"Very well then, Mr. Sanada, what exactly brings you here?"
"Well, you see, I sort of, uh, need your help." He said sheepishly, as if embarrassed that he couldn't handle his problems on his own.
Why is it that men simply can not admit that they have troubles just as often as we women? I swallowed a sigh of annoyance and forced a pleasant smile.
"Go on." I prompted. The young man's face seemed to fall and he turned to look at his hands, clenched as they were in his lap.
"Well, you see, it's just that…my best friend, he disappeared." His voice had grown so faint I had to strain to hear him.
Ah hah! That would explain why he looked so haggard. And if I was reading him right, he more-than-likely didn't have much in the way of family and was very close to this 'friend' of his.
"You know, Mr. Sanada." I pointed out. "Missing Persons are more the Police's area, don't you think?"
"That's just the problem!" He clenched his hands into fists and bit his lip in rage. "I went to the Police with this, and they didn't believe me! They wouldn't send out anyone to look for him."
I frowned. "Well, that's strange, and I honestly don't know why they'd do that. Is your friend in trouble with the law?"
He shook his head. "No nothing like that." He seemed reluctant to tell me anything more.
"Why don't you give me a description and I'll see what I can do." I suggested, pulling a missing person form out from under an immense pile of papers. One of my many skills is the uncanny ability to know where anything is at any given time. I retrieved my pen from its resting place.
"Well, he's about three and a half feet tall." He began. I felt my eyebrows raise as I filled that in under the 'Height' category. Was his friend a midget?
"Weight?"
"About two hundred and fifty pounds."
I stared at him for a moment. It was a good thing his gaze was still locked on his hands. "Oookkaaayy." I drawled, turning back to the form.
"Eye color?"
"Brown."
"Hair color?"
"White with black streaks."
Interesting. This 'friend' was an overweight little person with peculiar taste in hair dyes.
"Any, uh, identifying features?" I felt rather stupid asking that question. There couldn't be many people out there who looked like this man's friend.
"He's a, uh, a…"
"Yes?"
"A White Siberian tiger." He choked out, blushing furiously.
"A IWHAT!!!/I" I demanded, staring at him incredulously.
"White Siberian tiger." He repeated, a little louder this time.
"Look Mr. Sanada." I said angrily, slamming my pen down on my desk. "I don't know what you're trying to pull, but if this is some kind of practical joke, it isn't very funny."
"This Iisn't/I a joke miss." He said hotly. "White Blaze is my best friend, and he is missing!"
I sighed and sank back down into my seat, regretting my outburst immediately. No wonder the police wouldn't handle his case; it wasn't a Ireal/I Missing Person. "Isn't this the sort of thing the handlers at the zoo or the pound are better equipped to take care of?"
"You don't understand." He stood and began to pace my small, 15x15 office. "I have reason to believe that White Blaze was kidnapped."
"Oh really?" I bit back a bark of laughter. "And who would do something like that?"
"I think it may have been the mob." He said quietly.
This time I was unable to keep the skepticism out of my voice. "And what, pray tell, would the mob want with a Siberian tiger, aside from a rug of course."
I suppose I deserved the dirty look he shot me for that one. "It's uh, sort of a long story."
A sigh escaped my lips. I had so much work to catch up on, but I had to admit that he had caught my curiosity. "Sit down and explain things, but make it quick, I have all this paperwork to do from my last case."
"Well," He began, lowering himself back down into the chair. "It'll be difficult to make it short without cutting out the important stuff, but I'll try."
I felt a grin tugging at the corner of my mouth at his informal language. This boy had no problems around strangers.
"You see, I inherited 'Blaze from a friend of mine." His face went a little dark, I realized that he must have been close to this man as well, possibly as close as he was to this tiger. "We always got along really well, Blaze and me, so he left him to me in his will. This friend of mine, h-he knew he was dying and, well, he told me that there was more to my inheritance, but that only White Blaze knew where it was."
"So, the mob kidnapped your tiger because they want your inheritance?" My eyebrows were creeping ever closer to my hairline. "What could it possibly be to attract their attention? I mean, no offense, but you don't seem very, er, prosperous to me."
Mr. Sanada flushed a furious red. "Well, I'm not, not really, but I get along fine." This last was spoken defiantly. A small smile stretched my lips. The kid had spunk, there was no doubt about that. We were a lot alike in that regard, each of us trying to make it in a world unsuited to our particular personalities. I was a woman detective, and he was a young, obviously rebellious, man with a disregard for authority and a pet tiger. This was going to be interesting.
"Have you ever heard of the Shakujo jewels?" He now leaned forward, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.
I felt my eyes go wide. Of course I'd heard of those jewels, who hadn't? The story behind them was that they were the largest ruby, diamond, emerald, sapphire and opal in the world, beautifully carved and faceted into perfection. I'd seen an article on them once, a few years back, and even in plain old black-and-white I'd been stunned. They'd gone missing a few months ago, after the craftsman, one Mr. Shakujo, had passed away by mysterious means. There'd been a large ruckus over it, but they'd never been found. Each jewel had been worth millions apiece.
"What about them?" I asked in a strained voice.
"The man who willed White Blaze to me was Kaosu Shakujo." He confessed.
Suddenly my office felt far too small and constricted. It became hard to breath. "Are you trying to tell me that you are the heir to the Shakujo fortune?" I managed to choke out.
He grinned ruefully. "Yeah, that's me."
"And this, this, tiger of yours may know the whereabouts of those jewels?"
"Precisely."
"But how could this tiger know where the jewels are? And even if he did know, cat's don't have much of a memory."
He suddenly appeared very angry. "White Blaze is as smart as you or me, and I'm sure he knows where those jewels are." The anger dissipated and the sadness returned. "But I just want my friend back, I could care less about the jewels."
I toyed absently with a lock of my hair. This was, without a doubt, one of the more interesting cases I'd heard about in a long time.
"Why me?" I asked simply, staring into his eyes. "If you've heard of me, you know that my specialty is women in trouble, very few men ever enter this office, with the exception of the janitor."
He flushed a deep crimson. "Well, um, you see…you're sort of my last hope here. The Police wouldn't take the case, and all the other PI's in town either laughed me out of their office or were already taken up with something else."
"Well, that's flattering." I said blandly, smothering a smile at his awkward blush. "You do realize that I've never delt with the mob before. In fact, I make it a point to avoid them."
"Why's that?" He asked curiously.
I swallowed a lump in my throat. "A very dear friend of mine was killed because he was becoming too much of a threat to them. He was a Detective as well." I didn't mention the fact that I had his picture in my desk.
"I'm sorry." Was all Mr. Sanada could think to say.
"Don't worry about it, that was three years back." She waved him off. "If you came here, you obviously know my fee as well."
He nodded in response. "I can afford it." For a moment we locked eyes and I felt lightheaded as I stared at that electric blue color. ICome on Mia./I I told myself. ISnap out of it./I
"Fine kiddo." I leaned back. "I'll take your case."
"In that case, call me Ryo. 'Mr. Sanada' takes too long to say."
"All right Ryo." I smiled. "Start from the beginning, if you've got any leads, spill 'em now."
Unfortunately, he didn't. He had precious little information on the Mob. He told me he'd been getting warning notes for a week before the disappearance. He didn't know much else, but explained that he'd last seen White Blaze about two weeks ago, and that had been in Central Park. He'd taken the tiger out that afternoon, and hadn't been too alarmed when he'd disappeared for a while. Apparently the tiger did that often. When he hadn't turned up, Ryo had become a little nervous, and remembered those notes.
"That's all the information I've got for you, I'm afraid."
"I've started with less." I assured him. "And that should be more than enough to get some decent leads with anyway."
He stood to go and cast a look at the mound of papers on my desk.
"Um, what exactly Iwas/I your last case anyway?"
I chuckled a little and leaned my cheek against my fist. "A young lady came to me seeking protection from her abusive husband. He'd beaten her pretty badly. After she filed for divorce and sicked the police on him, he left the state. Part of my job was to go after him and drag him back kicking and screaming."
Ryo looked at me with something like respect. "I never would have thought you were capable of dragging anyone."
I couldn't help but chuckle. I was constantly underestimated because of my slightly frail appearance. However, I could snap most men in half without breaking a sweat.
"You're not the first to make that assumption." I reassured him. Then I sobered up. "You should go home and get some rest." I suggested. "You look like hell kid."
"I'm not Ithat/I much younger than you." He laughingly told me. "But I will admit that I haven't been sleeping much."
"Then give me your number, go home and get some rest, I'll call you if anything comes up."
He nodded and scribbled a few numbers down on an unused scrap of paper.
" By the way," He frowned. "What was the name of that guy you just told me about?"
"It was a mister Saranbo." I replied.
"I'll talk to you tomorrow." He promised, then left, closing the door softly behind him.
"How do I get myself into these things?" I wondered aloud, pushing the paper into my back pocket. I sighed and set my chin in my hands. "I thought I swore never to get involved in any cases dealing with the Mob." I never was very good at lying to myself.
The office door swung open as if on its own. I glanced up, knowing who would be there.
"Now what have you gone and obligated yourself to?" The figure in the doorway asked crossly. "And who was that cutie who just left?"
"Just another case." I said nonchalantly. "And that 'cutie' is my newest client."
A sigh came from the person. She stepped into the shadowy office, and I saw a coffee cup in each hand.
"Kay, you're a lifesaver." I said, reaching out to clasp the steaming mug in both hands.
Kayla sighed, perching herself in the chair Ryo had just vacated, sipping her own coffee. She glared up at me out of huge green eyes, obviously ticked.
"Mia, you're working yourself into the ground." She chided me. "Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? You look like death warmed over."
All I could do was chuckle. Kayla and I had been friends for as long as I could remember (which isn't saying much, since I'm terminally absent-minded. I'm just lucky to be able to find the things I lose easily). She'd worked for me ever since we'd gotten out of college, and I could never figure out why. It certainly wasn't because the pay was good, we were barely scraping by. I think she actually enjoyed being my secretary, though she could have gotten the same job for triple the money at a large corporation. Her average typing speed was about 120gwam, and she knew the name, date and location of every file for every case I'd ever handled (Not to mention the fact that her coffee kept me on my feet for all those late nights). Kayla basically kept this business running.
"I don't have much of a choice Kay." I reminded her, taking a swig of java. "We've got to make ends meet somehow."
"Hah!" Kayla swung her collarbone length chestnut hair over her shoulder, eyes flashing. "You know very well that killing yourself isn't going to keep things going!"
"I'm not dying." I said, a slight smile tugging at my mouth. "And I'm in perfectly good shape."
"You've been drinking so much coffee lately that your blood's 80% caffeine!" She stood up and leaned over the desk. Like most vertically challenged people (She's only about 5 foot 3 1/2), what she lacked in height, she made up for in attitude.
"Now you're exaggerating." I said mildly.
"I swear that if you don't go home and get some sleep, I'll…I'll…"
"You'll what?"
"I'll think of something!" Kayla threw her hands into the air in total exasperation. It was all I could do to keep from snorting the coffee up my nose.
"Look," She calmed down a little. "Just promise me that after this case, you'll take a vacation."
"We can't afford that Kay." I shook my head.
"Yes we can, and we have to." She smiled at me. "I've got so much filing to catch up on, it'll take me your entire vacation just to get it done. My motives are purely selfish."
"All right." I agreed, setting my mug down with a soft Iclink/I. "I promise that after I get through this one, I'll stick to finding lost pets for a week, okay?"
"We've got a deal." She smiled smugly.
"Good, now I have to get going."
"Where are you off to now?" She cocked her head to one side.
"Anubis'." I replied, shrugging into my jacket. Anubis' was a popular nightspot hereabout, and I happened to be on very good terms with the owner/manager of the place.
Kayla's grin widened. "Anubis' huh?" There was a knowing gleam in her eye. "Well maybe he can talk some sense into you, Lord knows you don't listen to me."
I didn't like that look on her face. It was true that Anubis and I had been an item for a while; a very Ilong/I time ago. We'd gone our separate ways since then, but we'd always been good friends. I hadn't seen him for a few months now. He probably thought I'd dropped off the face of the planet.
"Anyway, I'd better get going." I said, fastening the jacket around me. "Do you think you can get this finished paperwork processed?" I asked.
Kayla made a face at the stack of paper on my desk. A doubtful look crossed her features. "Well, I'll see what I can do, but if I come in here with paper cuts all over my hands tomorrow, you'll know why."
I chuckled. "There's a box of Band-Aids in the top left hand drawer if things get too bad." Kayla was absolutely terrible with paper edges, her one flaw as a secretary. The corners and borders of my documents were frequently smeared with bloody fingerprints. It was a good thing I didn't deal with anyone shady, or the police would have a field day with that type of evidence.
"See ya Kay!" I waved and left the room, leaving my friend muttering over the horrendous stack of work I'd accumulated.
~