Chapter 28
Warning: Not NxM chapter but I hope you still like it
Hotaru tried to remember what Ruka told her about Northern Woods. A wide bend on the Cumberland River in the middle of Kyoto, rural, picturesque, rolling fields and hills. She pictured the photographs he'd shown her. A Narumi Anju campaign ad.
Nothing helped.
She was lost.
She turned up a country-western radio station and tapped the steering wheel to the beat of a tune she'd never heard before. She was in some godforsaken back road. The river, wide, and slow, snaked below her, intermittently visible through thick woods and fields. She finally pulled over in front of an abandoned brick house with an overgrown yard and, incongruously, white lace curtains in the windows. She needed to get her bearings. Her entire body was on fire with pain. She half wished someone had stopped her from heading south. But no one had. She'd answered every damn question Kokoro Yome snapped her. She'd visited Ruka and told him what she was doing. He was recovering from a severe injury – he couldn't be expected to knock some sense into her.
She'd stopped at the apartment to feed her fish and put on some decent clothes and get her gun, all without anyone hog-tying her to keep her from going off half-cocked.
Well, maybe not half-cocked. Maybe only a quarter-cocked. She wanted to talk to Natsume. He was an experienced senior deputy who not only could advise her but would want to know what was on her mind.
Something was off. The shooting, the guy Mikan Sakura had seen in the park, the anonymous letter, the parents missing their flight in Paris, those assholes snatching her at the crack of dawn.
Kuonji.
The tone and direction of Kokoro Yome's questions.
"Yeah," she said aloud. "Something's definitely off."
She switched off the engine of her rented car, a cheap compact – she was down here on her own nickel.
The damn road look like a dead end.
How fitting, she thought, pushing open her door and climbing out.
The air was moist, warmer than Tokyo. Fresher. She groaned in pain, leaning on the door add she gazed down at the river and tried to figure out where she'd gone wrong. God, she hurt. She had her ass kicked that morning in the city, and here she was in Kyoto. Her own doing. The truth was, she'd made sure no one dissuaded her. She'd all but lied to Yome, letting him assume she was going home to rest after her ordeal. She'd told him if he had any more questions he could reach her on her cell phone.
She assumed that next she'd get her ass kicked by the chief deputy. Or Natsume. She'd be seeing him sooner.
She could just turn around and head back to Tokyo.
Nah. In for a penny, in for a pound. It'd always been her way.
She walked into a gravel driveway and stood in the shade of a talk oak tree. The ground was damp, the sky clearing with golden sunlight sparkling on a huge, scraggly azalea.
"Can I help you, ma'am?" the southern male voice asked behind her.
Hotaru turned too fast, a bone-deep stab of pain shooting through her ribs. She almost doubled over, but the man didn't make a move to help her. He had on muddy overalls over a T-shirt, his dark hair messy, his midnight blue eyes sweeping over her in a frank, assessing glance. Despite his simple attire and deferential manner, she could see that he was thinking five steps ahead while remaining focused on the moment.
She wore a pantsuit, her weapon, a Glock semi-automatic, concealed under her jacket. But she had a feeling he knew it was there. "I'm looking for the Sakura place."
He gave her a dubious look. "Lost, huh? Right. What are you, another reporter? Have fun."
He turned to leave.
So much for deference. "I'm a deputy Alice agent."
He glanced back at her, the midnight blue eyes almost amused. "What, you want a quarter to call Tokyo, or do you have a phone in your shoe?"
She probably wasn't looking very agent-like.
"You couldn't be more obnoxious, could you? I've had a hell of a rotten day."
She started to reach for her badge, but he grabbed her elbow before she'd even realized he'd moved. Normally she was more on the ball. She blamed the pain pill she'd let the doctor give her that morning in the E.R., the fuzzy head she still had from the flight down and her wanderings through middle of Kyoto.
She noticed the man's muscular upper arm tensed. "Relax, okay? I'm just going for my badge."
"Save it." He released her. "You can explain yourself to your buddy Deputy Hyuuga. He's pretty much in a rotten mood."
"That sounds like Natsume. And you would be?"
"Tsubasa Ando. I'm the Sakura gardener."
Gardener? She snorted in disbelief. "Trust me, it's more believable that I'm a federal agent. You always manhandle Sakura visitors?"
"Only lately."
"Where is their house?"
"You drove right past it."
"The log house? I guess I was expecting something fancier. Well, I can find my way back. A pleasure, Mr. Ando."
She didn't bother making it sound like she meant it. She started for her car, but winced, her road rash killing her. She had no reserves. She might have even moaned.
"You going to pass out?" Ando asked. "Because if you are, give me your car keys. I'll drive you and your car down to the house. Easier than having to haul you on my shoulder. Looks like you carry some muscle."
Had he just called her fat? "I've never passed out in my life."
"Who hit you?"
She automatically touched her swollen lip – she'd given up too soon on icing it. "Long story. Let's just say it wasn't a guy wearing overalls." She pulled on a low branch of the oak. "Nice beech tree. Beautiful area to work.
"Yes, ma'am, it's a real pretty place to work."
He'd amped up the down-home accent and manner, but he was no damn gardener. Then he leaned toward her. "Don't get excited, Deputy. It's an oak tree. You'll have to do better than that to trip me up."
She ignored him. "Is this the house where Prime Minister Anju was raised?"
"It is."
"I guess you don't keep up this place, do you?"
"No, ma'am"
She rolled her eyes and climbed back into her car, giving a shudder of pain when the wheel brushed against her bruised rib. Tsubasa frowned at her through her open window, a spark of concern in his midnight blue eyes. "You look like shit, Deputy. Want me to drive you to the Sakuras'?"
"That good ol' boy act comes and goes, doesn't it?"
He grinned at her. "Two minutes, you'll be talking to Deputy Hyuuga."
"He's not going to tell me a posse's out looking for you, is he?"
"No ma'am."
She thought he winked. She started the engine and pulled farther into the driveway to turn around. Tsubasa walked alongside her, toward the river. He was a fit gardener, that was for damn sure. A danger-courting type, never mind the overalls.
He got close to her car and tapped the roof. "Hold on, Deputy." His voice was quiet, serious. "We've got a problem."
She'd seen it at the same moment he had. Two bodies were sprawled on the edge of the bluff above the river.
Hotaru stopped the car and drew her weapon. "Keep your hands where I can see them."
Tsubasa didn't argue.
Ignoring her pain, she got out of the car and had him lead the way through the tall grass to the bodies.
Both were men. Obviously dead. White.
One blood, one dark haired.
Christ.
They were the two men who'd snatched her on the upper west side of Tokyo that morning. The blond one was face down in the grass, one foot hanging over the edge of the bluff, at least forty feet above the river. The dark-haired man – the one who'd stuck the gun in Hotaru's gut and hit her when she didn't answer his questions right – was on his back, his chest covered in blood.
They must have dumped their car at Haneda, caught a flight just ahead of hers and arrived in Kyoto in time to get shot dead.
"You hear any shots fired?" she asked Tsubasa.
"No."
Neither had Natsume and Ruka in Central Park. "These two guys attacked me this morning in Tokyo." Damn. "I'm going to pat you down."
"I have a thirty-eight in an ankle holster. Right ankle."
"How convenient." She confiscated the weapon and finished patting him down. Hard body, lots of muscles. He must have worked hit butt off as a gardener. "We're going to the Sakura house. We'll call the police on the way. I'd better not find any more dead people there". Natsume. Mikan.
"I didn't kill these men."
She heard something stir in the brush behind her and started to swing around. The cool barrel of a gun touched her right ear. She could see it out of the corner of her eye and went still. "Drop your weapon now."
It was another southern male voice. A country sheriff who'd answered a local's call about the bodies?
"Look, I'm the good guy – "
"You're Deputy Alice agent Hotaru Imai. I knew you'd come."
She got it now. He wasn't local sheriff.
"One more time," he said. "Drop your weapon away from our Mr. Ando, if you please."
She tossed it lightly to her right.
"Ando's weapon," the man with the gun said.
She pulled out the thirty-eight and tossed it, too. She felt adrenaline surge through her, obliterating the pain from her injuries.
Tsubasa stood very still, again with that steely look that said he was thinking five steps ahead of what was going on. Hotaru didn't know what to make of him.
"Don't be a hero, Deputy," the man behind her said. "You're in no condition to take me on and risk Ando's life, not after what those idiots did to you this morning. Ando, I'll kill her if you flinch."
Tsubasa hadn't so much as let an eye flicker. "Did you kill my wife?"
"No. The men I just killed did."
"Masachika's men?" he asked stonily.
"Indeed. They killed your wife on his orders." The man behind Hotaru seemed almost charming, as if they were gossiping about a couple of locals. "He sent them down here to kill all of us. Cleaning things up."
"Your real name isn't Reo Mouri," Tsubasa said.
"It's Anju. Narumi Anju." He spoke proudly, the gun moving a few millimeters just below Hotaru's ear. His tone suggested he was just waiting for anyone to contradict him. "My mother gave me the same name as the women who stole my older brother gave him."
Prime Minister Anju? This son of a bitch had just killed two men in the backyard of the house where the prime minister was raised, and now he was saying they were related?
Ah, hell.
Hotaru felt wave of dizziness. She couldn't breathe. She started to topple forward, tried to stop herself, then thought – why not? She went all the way, pretending to faint from injuries, and fell against Tsubasa's knees. Reo. Narumi Anju. Whoever he was, he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her off Tsubasa, throwing her aside. She launched hard on the gravel driveway, right on her road rash, and screamed out in pain, tried to yell to Tsubasa to duck.
But he'd gone over the edge of the bluff.
Who the hell is this guy?
Her mind was all over the place. Her body was reeling from the fresh waves of pain. Her ribs, her head. The damn road rash.
Mouri jerked her to her feet. He looked awful. Her stomach lurched and she threw up on him, noticing that he had on green camouflage pants and jacket as she heaved. She was dizzy, reeling from pain.
He sneered in disgust. "I can kill you with my bare hands." There was no lilt to the accent now, no charm, however incongruous, to his tone. "Do you understand? I don't need a fucking gun."
Hotaru nodded, then felt another wave of nausea and knew she really was passing out.
What do you think of this chapter? Lousy, good enough, love it or hate it? Please leave any comments, opinions, suggestions or violent reaction. Write it in the review section below, and let me know.
If don't like it please leave a constructive criticism so I could improve my next chapters.
Also, on the next chapter I promise to give shoutouts to new followers, favorites and people who gave their review on chapters 26, 27 and 28.
As a treat, here's a Sneak Peek:
"Don't jump ahead. We have no idea what your mother knew or didn't know about Masachika, why he approached her at the museum."
"Do you think he had anything to do with the murder of Tsubasa's wife?"
"I'm not doing the thinking on this one, Mikan."
To all my beloved readers, followers, to those people who added both of my stories to their favorites list. I would like to say a massive thank you to all of you. Till the next chapter.
Lots Of Love XOXO,
Claire-chan143