Ken drove the car up the parking deck ramp; making this fourth trip to the record company office this week. He hated having to report that he had no real information to tell the people who hired him but he wasn't about to tell them what he thought. Pulling the car around the column he slammed on the brakes as another car did the same.
"Asshole!" Yelled Ken out his open window as he pulled around the car and continued down the deck to the parking space by the lift. Putting the car in park and turning off the ignition he watched the car that almost hit him go down the ramp. He sighed as he took the keys out of the ignition and opened the car door.
"I can't tell them about Tai, I don't even want to think it but I can't shake the feeling." He thought to himself as he grabbed his briefcase out of the passenger seat and shut the driver door.
He walked to the lift and pressed the button, "I have to give it merit as a possibility though, it's my job," he thought as the stainless steel doors opened before him. He stepped into the small steel box that is how all lifts felt to him, steel coffin if you will, he pressed a button on the panel.
His train of thought was interrupted by a loud shout, "Hey! Hold the door!" His palm reached and held the door open as a young man ran past him into the elevator.
"Thanks." Said the young man; he looked to be in his early twenties, dressed in a golf tee style shirt, khakis and carried soft black leather briefcase.
"Don't mention it." Said Ken placing his hand back down to his side allowing the doors to close. He looked at the man out of the corner of his eye as the elevator began to ascend.
"Hey, ain't you that Ichijouji character investigating the missing singer case?" asked the young man.
"Yes, my name is Ken Ichijouji. Why do you ask?"
"No real reason," said the man followed by a few moments of awkward silence, "Any leads or anything?"
"Sorry but it's confidential information but what I can say is progress is being made." Said Ken, knowing full well he was lying through his teeth.
"Oh…well…hope you find him."
The elevator slowed to a stop on the twelfth floor and the doors opened, both Ken and the young man stepping off. Ken walked towards the reception desk as the young man went to a security door and slid a card through the reader, walking inside.
"Good afternoon, how may I help you?" asked the fairly vibrant receptionist looking up at him from behind her desk.
"Good afternoon, my name is Ken Ichijouji and I have an appointment with the president of the company." Said Ken placing his briefcase on the floor beside where he stood.
"Oh yes, if you will have a seat over there I will tell her you are here." Said the receptionist pointing to a row of chairs by the windows.
"Thank you." Said Ken picking up his briefcase and walking to the windows, he looked over the cityscape. It was bright and sunny for once this week, he thought as he watched the busy streets of Tokyo.
The city was always bustling with activity no matter the time of day or night, cars, peoples, subways and trains. It was like the city never needed a rest, it was always full of energy and it's inhabitants were the conduits.
"Mr. Ichijouji, Ms. Nakao will see you now." Said the receptionist pointing to a set of big double oak doors. He sighed slightly as he began to walk towards the door, pausing when a highly attractive woman in a business suit opened the left door.
"Mr. Ichijouji, please come in," said the woman as Ken walked passed her into the large office. She closed the door and followed him to the desk by the huge plate glass windows.
"Please have a seat." She said as she walked around the desk and sat in the big chair behind it.
"Thank you," said Ken placing his briefcase on the floor beside the chair as he sat down, "I assume you're Ms. Nakao?"
"The one and only, now I know we're probably taking time from your investigation by having you come in and give us a report but the company board is very troubled over losing Yamato."
"I understand, after all I had to work the case for Industrial Illusions as you remember." Said Ken as he thought back to that case; it had been one that made him one of the best private investigators in the world.
"Yes I remember that one well, it was what inclined us to hire you for this one as well as the fact you are associated with him." Said Ms. Nakao tenting her hands below her chin and leaning back in the chair.
"I have been working hard at trying to locate leads for this case and I'm going to have to say, it's one of the hardest cases I've ever had to work on. I'm saying this from a professional point of view of course without regards to the personal affairs and feelings I have for Matt." Said Ken picking his briefcase up and placing it on his lap.
"I understand, now have you any leads at all as of this moment in your investigation?"
"I have a few I need to probe further before I would call them leads but as of this moment, I have as much as the police do," said Ken opening the briefcase and pulling out a file, "So far from all the interviews, all I can determine is that this is not something that he would do on his own. According to the profile I have of him, he wouldn't just up and leave town telling no one where he was going, it would be against his ethics. I have had the chance to interview his family, friends and coworkers and all have said roughly the same about him."
"Which is?"
Ken opened the file and placed it on top of the briefcase, "According to his younger brother, Takeru Takaishi, he was always there for him and wouldn't abandon or leave him ever. From my experience with Matt personally, his bond with his brother was very strong and he always watched out for him and kept him safe. His bonds with his friends were also very strong in the fact that he would always look out for everyone else before he would himself."
"We all know how Yamato is, trust me. What I want to know is what is your opinion, what's your theory?" asked Ms. Nakao leaning forward.
"My opinion, there was foul play somewhere along the way and I believe he's still alive being held against his will. I don't believe anyone would want to kill him, he's worth more alive if it's a ransom kidnapping but as of now, I believe he's kidnapped for other reasons." Said Ken swallowing hard, thoughts of murder in his mind.
"What of Taichi Yagami? Have you interviewed him yet?"
Ken's mind raced, he couldn't tell her, at least not till he had something to his theory, "I have interviewed his younger sister Hikari but as to Taichi I have yet to contact him." His eye slightly twitched, he hoped that she didn't notice.
"Well what I want you to do is I want you to interview him as soon as possible, I don't care if it's forced interrogation or not."
"Y-yes ma'am."
"Okay that's all for now, I expect you will contact me if you find anything out?"
"Of course, as always." Said Ken closing the file and placing it in his briefcase.
"You can go now." Said Ms. Nakao, her eyes piercing him slightly as though she was accusing him of not doing his best.
"Thank you." Said Ken closing his briefcase and standing up, "What a bitch." He thought to himself as he walked to the door.
"So you want him…" a raspy voice off camera said as the shot showed a field and a well with a lid, "then find him."
The scene was black and white and obviously it was dusk wherever the shoot was taking place. The camera panned to the right, an old graveyard came into view, human skulls on top of the monuments.
"The moon is full tonight, the light shines great beauty upon the bare bones of the dead, giving them life." Said the raspy voice, the camera zooming in on a skull with a snake slithering through the mouth and right eye socket.
The camera soon panned to a tree with a hangman's rope on it as a horrid crack sound was heard, a man hanging from it. The man twitched, his limbs flailed and finally it stopped.
"Not him…" said the voice, as the camera zoomed onto the face of the hung man, "Not yet."
The camera turned completely around to face the gravestones again, this time a young boy was on one of them. The boy was no more than twelve; his clothing was all black as if he was attending a funeral but his shirt white with red stains. The facial expression was that of sheer terror, forever frozen in time, his neck had been sliced with a sharpened femur. The bone still buried within the flesh of the boy, blood trickling down the grave.
Tai threw up again in the wastebasket, tears and stomach contents intermixing as the next scene played out…
The camera began to move towards a carriage, a black carriage used for transporting the dead in the past. The door opened on it's own revealing a casket, a hand behind the camera opened the casket.
"Do you like it? I know he'll like it…" said the voice; "When you're dead you'll like anything…"
The coffin was empty all except for a single CD; it was Matt's first album that lay on the silk lining. The lid closed, "I sure hate to think that the CD will rest alone, if you don't find him within two weeks, it will be beside its creator." Said the voice as the camera swept past the carriage to a hill with a huge stone temple, a single symbol on the top of a sextant and coffin.
The tape went to static from that point on, he didn't even bother to turn it off all he could do was cry, harder and harder. Tai cried for hours and hours, the sun set and it rose, still he cried before passing out, tears still on his cheeks.