Usually when people try to get out of the country, they go sightseeing.
Maybe it's some rich asshole who wants to go to the Bahamas on some giant, over-the-top cruise ship. Maybe they want to go to the Himalayas to climb Mount Everest. Or maybe they just want to go to the beaches in Okinawa. Whatever floats their overly-inflated bank account.
Not me, though. Not Adachi Tohru. I don't get to do any of that when I travel outside of Japan.
My first time out of the country, and I'm in some dingy alley in the middle of Manhattan, New York looking down at a corpse.
It'll be removed from the scene soon enough, probably going to be brought to a medical examiner's office to find a cause of death. They won't, though. I wouldn't be here if they did.
The woman was named Kimberly Chambers. Twenty-three years old, working on a doctorate at Empire State University, already interning at the Rockefeller Institute Hospital. Her good looks and charming personality made her popular in high school and college. She had a bright future ahead of her.
Well, tough shit.
I scratch the back of my head and look around. There isn't much for me here to do. My partner is talking to the police in charge of the crime scene, so it's not like I need to talk to anybody.
I crouch down and start lifting up the tarp covering the young woman when I hear the officer shout at me. "Hey! Don't go touchin' nothing! This is still an active crime scene!"
My partner tries his best to calm him down. "I can assure you, Officer Mahoney, he knows what he's doing."
Without looking, I throw a one-fingered salute in their direction.
While Officer Dipshit is fuming about the not-so-subtle disrespect, I resume my investigation. The body had already begun to undergo autolysis, with rigor mortis having firmly set in. Soon, it would start to bloat and smell absolutely repugnant, but that was a little while off.
There was once upon a time when the sight of dead bodies used to make me vomit. I got used to them pretty quick.
I let the tarp fall back and check my surroundings. No signs of a struggle, no signs of disturbance, not even an indication of how the body got here.
It's like she just appeared out of thin air.
That strikes a very familiar chord in the back of my head.
A presence that's been there for a decade stirs.
It's interrupted by my partner stepping next to me and letting out a long-suffering sigh. "Can't you be polite for once in your life, Adachi-san?"
I've known Narukami Yu for a long time. Okay, technically not a long time. I knew him for a year about a decade back, then he put me in prison. But I knew him when he was only a second-year in high school.
His hair's a little shorter, but it's still that same, weird gray color. It's probably the most striking thing about him, seeing as he's rather nondescript at first glance otherwise. He's a good six-feet tall, compared to my five-foot-eight, which is horseshit, since I had a few inches on him when we first met.
I mean, I ain't a midget or anything, but c'mon. It ain't right that someone ten years my junior is looking down on me.
I stand up and dust off my pants. "Maybe if he wasn't such a fucking dumbass, then I'd be all smiles and shit. What'd the asshole know?"
Narukami levels a disapproving glare at me, which I promptly shrug off. He rolls his eyes and says, "Not much more than us, really. She went missing a week ago, then showed up here. No obvious means of death, and no leads. She was last seen leaving a get-together with some friends."
"A real group of detectives, aren't they?" I ask with every ounce of sarcasm I can muster. "Were any of them brought in for questioning?"
"They'll be doing that as soon as the crime scene has been taken care of." I notice Narukami's face sort of scrunch up.
My shoulders sag and I let out an annoyed sigh. "Don't suppose they'll let us do any questioning?"
"The NYPD aren't too happy that a couple of foreign special operatives are here interfering with an ongoing case," Narukami explains. He shoots me a pointed look. "You of all people know how annoyed the police get when an outsider comes in."
He's talking about that annoying little runt, Shirogane Naoto. Well, there's a bit of a difference between two special agents coming in to assist with a crime scene and a fifteen year old kid thinking she knows better.
I scoff. "Whatever. When's our contact supposed to get-?"
I'm cut off by a woman's voice. It's harsh and direct and all too annoying because of that.
"Agent Narukami? Agent Adachi?"
We turn to greet-or scowl, in my case-a short, dark skinned woman dressed in a buttoned up beige trench coat and a folder held in her hand. Her tightly curled brown hair is cut short, and she has this no nonsense look that reminds me all too much of my old partner. She has a presence that belongs to a seven-foot professional wrestler, not a five-foot little girl.
Narukami decides to introduce himself first. "I'm Agent Narukami. This is my partner, Agent Adachi." His English is pretty good, barely any accent. He pulls out the badge we were given to flash to police officers. "You must be Lieutenant Harris."
"Lieutenant Tiffany Harris," she introduces herself, pulling out her own badge. "I hope Officer Mahoney hasn't given you too much trouble?"
Narukami waves her concerns off with a smile. "No, not at all. He's been nothing but helpful."
And here I thought lying was wrong?
Harris seems to understand if her look of doubt is anything to go by. She doesn't press the issue though. "So, what's your opinion?"
This time I'm the one to speak. "No means of death, no signs of struggle. If I didn't know better, the girl just appeared out of thin air."
My English is fine, but years of rust have put a rather heavy accent on it.
Harris raises a brow. "So you know something?"
Narukami places himself between me and Harris. "What my partner here is trying to get at is that we've seen cases similar to this before. We won't know any more until we've been able to fully review this case so far, along with the medical examiner's findings."
She hums for a second before handing over the folder. "That's the list of the other victims, with where they were discovered, past histories and connections, the works. We haven't been able to find anything, but hopefully you boys with S.O. might be able to."
"Yeah, 'cause that's what we're here for," I say as Narukami takes the folder. "Cleaning up messes that you idiots can't."
"Are you always an asshole or am I special?" Harris asks, catching me by surprise.
Who the fuck does this bitch think she is?
I open my mouth to her exactly where she can shove that folder when Narukami places his hand on my shoulder and pushes me back slightly.
"Let me apologize for my partner, he's still pretty jetlagged. It's his first time out of Japan."
Harris just gave me a look before turning around and walking away without another word.
I shove my hands in my pockets and shake my head. "God, what a bitch."
Narukami shoves the folder into my chest.
"Let's go," he says. "I think you've made enough enemies today."
He moves past me as I grab hold of the folder. I take one more look at the body lying on the ground before following Narukami away from the crime scene.
I didn't sign up for this shit.
