Author's Notes:  Hey all, I can't believe it's 3 months already.  I really need to stop making promises I can't keep.  I know this chapter is short, but the climax of the story is coming right up so the next few chapters should be chock full of plot and happenings.

Disclaimer:  CCS is not mine and neither is the merchandising goldmine.

And a lot of arigatous to Ophelia Winters, Final Fantasy Princess, KanbiAme, Sheryl V, les (Ueda's guilt or innocence is answered here, that is if you believe him *smirk*), LiL LiLy, jbg, Pochacco, meinien, Jcherry, LiLDraGoNGuRL28 (sure, sure flatter me…just wait till my explodes), Silly*Niecy (I'll remind myself not to eat suspicious cookies), Kirika (sorry, I just had the urge to put in a few irrelevant subplots like the drug business), Crazygurl (*sweatdrop* maybe you need some downers…but thanks for the wishes of inspiration), Aisukii, Kitty Neko, japanfan (just a year of elementary Japanese…and the answer to you question is…in this chapter actually), Ongaku, BGR, Son Sunami, s jus me,  reveileb maerdyad (prelims and finals apparently…can't believe it was 3 months…),  Megami No Hikari, Cherry Sweetheart (you may have no idea cause I'm winging it…), Tempest in a Teacup, KayJuli (I suspect she's still in her dark room…), Sora Kyae, Enchantress Azure (I know about the site overload things…nuisances the lot of them), zxoaswtxiaolangoxz (oi, you have a very complicated pen name), Star Lite, shazaoblossom, cherryblossomsakura2111 (well the interrogation aspect comes into play here…with a new twist), Rosie, Ying Fa (sorry, you'll have to find out if you're right in the coming chapters), lozza-pilgrim (well, a month an a half is like 6 days, just multiplied a few times…*looks sheepish*), nightshadow, SaKuRa Kinomoto-Li (well, a little Clue), Magic Knight Nancy (well, the kidnapper was playing Clue with the police for a few chapters if that helps), Abbess (intriguing hypothesis), Neko90 (sorry, sorry, don't kill innocent things) 

The Hunt For A Cherry Blossom

Chapter 17:  Interrogation

September 10

The hours slip by quickly when you know time is your enemy.  The sun disappeared beyond the skyline hours ago, and the whitish yellow of the lights overhead in the precinct are starting to sting my eyes.  It's a little after midnight and the prospect of another sunrise with the bitter taste of coffee and defeat isn't an appetizing thought.  The steady stream of officers has slowed considerably, only a few night shift and overtime workers here besides me.  The station is all but dead in the middle of the night.

Hours lay ahead of me, and I hastily push away the files that have piled up before me.  No matter how hard I've scrutinized the statements and records, there's nothing to suggest Sakura's whereabouts.  In fact the only way to find her would be to get it out of Ueda's mouth and with that sly lawyer on the loose, that's as likely to happen as the moon dropping out of the sky into the ocean.  And yet I'm convinced that a few unguarded minutes are all it would take.

The urge is strong and battles against the ethics that we take an oath to uphold.  But beyond them, there is a person whose life is at stake and a family that is lost and floundering.  In the end the decision is not such a hard one to make.  I carefully slip out of my chair, taking a roundabout route towards the cells.  A few nods of acknowledgement to other officers, a stop to get some water from the fountain, and then a quick twist of the knob and I'm in a dimmer room, facing the officer on guard duty.  In fact, staring up at the grim professional face of Yanagisawa.  Somehow I'm not surprised.  "Hey."

She nods curtly and takes a quick look down the hall as if she knows exactly where my train of thought leads.  "Not planning on some illegal interrogation are we?"

It would almost be a joke if she wasn't looking solemn and forbidding.  I almost try to look offended but the thing with Naoko is she sees through bullshit easy.  "You have to let me do this." 

She quirks an eyebrow that tells me obviously no one tells her to she 'has to' do anything.  "The lawyer will be out for your badge.  Mizuki will probably be forced to take it away."

I stare levelly at her to tell her how serious I am.  "Right now, it doesn't matter.  You know me Naoko.  I won't hurt him or do anything crazy like that, but I need answers."  She still looks on the fence and I try bargaining with her sense of conscience.  "Look, this bastard has the Kinomoto girl, and the longer we can't get anything out of him the less time she's got.  And you know with those lawyers making deals and crap we're never going to get close enough to force it out of him.  All I need is fifteen minutes."

She gives me a long careful appraising stare before reaching behind her and picking up a coffee mug.  She makes an exaggerated yawn.  "Hmm, I'm suddenly very tired.  I guess a coffee break's in order.  I hope no one sneaks in here while I'm gone because I can't be responsible for what happens."  And with a quick nod she opens the door and leaves me alone in the cells.  Sometimes, in a blue moon, you can actually tell she has a heart.  Barely.

My footsteps are loud in the darkness.  The holding cells are mostly empty, having been a somewhat slow day.  No doubt with the rising sun, they'll be packed again.  It's almost a given.  The walk down the aisle is slow and deliberate as I head towards the last cell. 

The lights are at their lowest setting in here, the barest illumination so guards can make sure the detainees are accounted.  Ueda's lying on the regulation metal slab of a bed, still and unmoving.  I stand and watch a few minutes the man who had so terrorized the city, sleeping and curled up in a loose fetal position.  It seems somehow impossible that such a person could cause such fear among thousands.  But you aren't an officer if you don't learn that people have a habit of surprising you.

And as he takes another breath in, I abruptly I bang hard against the bars, eliciting a low clanging sound.  The body stirs a little and then straightens out as he resurfaces.  I can barely make out his face from the dimness but I can tell he's awake, and on edge, with his body tense and rigid.  "Did I wake you?"

He slowly sits up and watches me warily, the whites of his eyes shining.  "What do you want?"

I stay silent for a bit and start to pace a little in front of the bars, slowly.  "Answers."

His voice is low and clogged, and I wonder if the psychologist had been more right than I gave him credit for.  "You're not allowed to be talking to me…not without my lawyer."

I laugh, a short end of my tether laugh.  "Well he's not here now is he?  And now if you'll answer a few questions…"

He stays silent for a moment, as if rallying his confidence.  "No, I'm not saying a word."

"How unfortunate.  I may have to persuade you then"

"Y-you can't harm me, you wouldn't dare."  His voice is unsteady like before and I can tell he's beginning to fear me.  It seems the doctor was very right indeed.

"Why?  No one knows I'm here.  I have free reign to do what I please."  And I stop pacing and step very close to the bars, staring him down and watching him fold.  I've been told I have a fairly menacing glare.  "Of course, you could spare yourself if you answered a few questions."

"No, you can't…"  I squeeze the bars hard and glare at him with all the force I can muster, and his words die in his throat.

"It would save you some…unpleasantness."

Doubtless he remembers how I had him by the throat a few hours ago and his entire demeanor changes.  His hands twist themselves nervously and his back is hunched over.  Finally, with a voice that's nearly too quiet to be heard he says, "Al-alright, what do you want to know?"

I close my eyes and hide my relief at his surrender, not wishing him to know how close I had feared losing the case altogether.   "I only need one answer:  where is Sakura?"

And this time he startles me by laughing, a disbelieving sort of hysterical laugh that brings his hands to his face.  His voice is hoarse now, and dark with bitterness.  "Still won't believe I was telling the truth?  Still think I have her stashed away somewhere?  Well, I hate to burst your bubble but I don't have her.  Never did."

Somehow under his distress I can feel a sick ring of truth.  "So who has her?" I persist, rattling the bar a little for emphasis.

He shrugs half-heartedly, bowed low over his own lap.  The yellow lights trace his outline in a feeble discouraging way.  "How the hell would I know?  Some copycat or another.  I wasn't lying when I said he was damn smart."  And he looks up and gives me a scared, vindictive defeated sneer.  "Got you chasing after the wild goose for months, didn't he?"

I think if I had had the key, I might have really hurt him.  Instead I end up walking away, each step pouring out the last of my patience.  Despite his guilt, his words rang true and only confirms my worst fears.  The good old doctor was right on another count.  We were dealing with two minds and we didn't realize it. 

I don't even meet Yanagisawa's face as I pass through the door and head back to my desk.  There's only one question left to think about.  What's next?  If I take Ueda's words as truth, which reluctantly I'm leaning towards believing, all our evidence must be reevaluated.  Staring at my scattered notes form Sakura's phone calls, there is her description of her rooms, of the sailboat picture beyond the door.  No such picture was hanging on Ueda's walls.  The possibility of a secreted hideaway is ridiculous at best.   And if the case needs to be rethought out?  How much of Hanaka's psychological profile now extends to Ueda and how much to Sakura's kidnapper? 

And where does it leave the case?  We've eliminated her friends, coworkers, family, and boyfriends.  It only leaves strangers, and yet what would be the motive for a stranger to abduct her?  To hold her nearly six months without demands of ransom or any other payment.  To play a twisted parody of Clue with the police and never do anything more than taunt?  What was the angle?  She said it wasn't sex; we've ruled out money, jealousy, hatred.  Was it a random act of someone mentally unstable?  To do it because he could?

And what evidence did we have on her case besides what we assumed from Ueda's files?  That a man kidnapped her after work, that she is being kept in a windowless room and fed daily by her captor.  The key pieces are still missing.  The basic elements of a criminal action.  The motive is not discernable.  Opportunity lends itself to anyone in the city. 

All trails lead back to the beginning:  who kidnapped her and why?  Dissecting the case, there's always the one shadowed man that no one has seen and who has effectively disappeared into the faceless thousands of Tomoeda.  The kidnapping itself then is a dead end, and therefore any relevant clues lie in the investigation itself, but divorcing the now useless evidence based on Ueda's crimes leaves everything in loose ends.

There is first and foremost the importance of the letters, as it is now the only real first appearance of the kidnapper in the case.  It is elusive, mimicking the pattern of Ueda's notes, letters that at once led the investigation astray.  And what of the game of Clue, and the twisted psychology that lay behind it?  And yet he did not follow through with his own rules.  It was definitely different than Ueda; this kidnapper was willing to go through the trouble to craft an elaborate game of cat and mouse but had no intention of playing the game.  Why would someone do that?  Was it to play a part?  To seem like the obsessive criminal while obscuring a very sane and rational mind? 

And if it was the case, it had certainly worked.  But unwittingly Hanaka had caught on to the pretender, the inconsistency between violence and Ueda's central meekness.  But what good did that do?  Now it was a larger suspect pool.  Gone are the lists and lists of disgruntled government employees.  Gone are also the hours of scouring through those lists for search of a suspect. 

And all the relevant evidence that remains are letters without fingerprints, Sakura's phone calls and a confused sloppy psychological profile.  And yet, something within me is arousing my instincts, telling me that the answer, as obscure and impossible as it may seem, is staring me in the face.  That there is crucial aspect of the evidence that I have yet to consider and could open an unexplored avenue of investigation.

But my wristwatch tells me its after two in the morning and my eyes are heavy from staring at the mess of files and folders, a tangle of evidence of two now apparently unrelated cases.  The now relevant evidence is very slim, but I can't get rid of feeling that despite the lack of physical clues there is one logical rationale that runs through the case regardless of fingerprints or paper clippings or eyewitnesses.  And all I need to do is to grasp it and pull. 

But the haziness of exhaustion is too powerful to leave my faculties clear and I am forced to close my eyes, vowing to redouble my efforts after a few seconds of rest.  However, the furtive cloak of sleep slips over me subtly and before I know it, the sun is streaming through the glass doors of the precinct and I am again very much disturbed by how the close the answer to Sakura's disappearance feels.

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Author's Notes:  Just to catch everyone up, the next chapter takes off right at the diner we're in from all the way back to Chapter 1.  That's right, this chapter was 'yesterday' and it's now finally the present!