Chapter 8
Body of Evidence
Jun Hei took a long sip of her coffee, her gaze never leaving Zuko. It was unnerving, but Zuko figured that was not a bad trait for the warden of a prison to have. He pulled out a few files from the case and passed them to Jun.
"These are coroners reports from some victims on a case I'm working on," he told Jun. She picked up the first folder and flipped through it while Zuko explained the case.
"Gruesome stuff," she said. "What's this got to do with us?" Zuko cleared his throat and shifted in his seat.
"There is evidence that Koh is using succinylcholine," he replied. "There are only three places with relatively easy access to it. Two hospitals in the city and...um…"
"The prison where death penalties are carried out," Jun finished for him. Zuko nodded, still nervous, but meeting Jun's gaze levelly. Jun leaned back in her chair and quirked an eyebrow. "That's quite a theory. How certain are you that the killer is one of my guys?"
"Well, until my investigation is over, I can't be completely certain about anything," Zuko said. Jun's lips quirked up into a sardonic smile.
"Good answer, Detective." She set the folder down and leaned forward on the desk. Her hands were clasped together under her chin. "I assume the hospitals are being given the same treatment."
"I have someone looking into those leads, yes." Zuko took a deep breath and settled back into his seat. He crossed his ankle over his leg. "I'm a big believer in covering all my bases."
"I see," Jun said. She sighed and flipped through another folder. "You know, I am pretty well acquainted with someone else from your precinct. Tell me, Detective Kaji, are you by any chance related to Chief Iroh Kaji?" Zuko blinked in surprise.
"He's my uncle," he said. "That has nothing to do with this. The Chief doesn't play favorites. He wouldn't have put me in charge of this case if he didn't think I was ready." Jun made a placating gesture at him.
"Calm down, Junior," she said. "I didn't mean anything by that. I know Chief Kaji well enough to know he wouldn't play the nepotism game. Not in such an egregious way. I've met your sister, too, you know. I'm just curious why I haven't seen you around here before." Zuko's jaw tightened.
"I haven't had a reason to visit before today," he said firmly. Jun's eyebrows shot up behind her dark bangs.
"Touchy subject," she commented. "Duly noted. As to the actual reason you're here, of course you can investigate. You'll have access to all of our files. I'll make sure Meng- my secretary- gets you all the files on a zip drive."
"Thank you." Zuko started to rise.
"One more thing," Jun said. Zuko froze midway to his feet. "Off the record, how likely do you think that one of my guys is Koh?" Zuko considered his answer before he replied.
"If it comes down to the prison verses the hospitals," he said at last, "my money is here. The drug is monitored pretty closely at the hospitals. They would have noticed if someone was stealing succinylcholine almost immediately." Jun nodded gravely. She reached over to her phone and buzzed her secretary.
"Meng," she said in a clipped tone. "Detective Kaji needs access to some files. Please see to it that he has everything he need."
"Yes, ma'am," Meng said. Zuko went out to find Meng waiting for him by her desk. She was a short, plump matronly woman with a no-nonsense gleam in her eyes. She was every bit as intimidating as Jun, but in a very different way.
"What do you need first?" Meng asked.
"I need to know where the prison stores succinylcholine and who has access to it,"Zuko said. He shifted uncomfortably on his feet and added, "...ma'am."
The corner of Meng's mouth quirked up into a slight, quick smile.
"That's easy," she said. "It's stored in our medical center. I'll take you there. As to who has access to it... unfortunately I believe that's everyone on staff. Our security in certain areas of the prison isn't where it should be."
"Have you had issues with drugs being stolen?" Zuko asked. Meng sighed and nodded.
"Occasionally," she admitted. "This place doesn't tend to bring out the best in people. Substance abuse problems aren't uncommon, and sometimes guards will steal drugs. Nothing so intense as succinylcholine- you can't really get high off of it. The warden is fighting to get the funding to overhaul the security for our medical supplies." Zuko nodded. He knew how hard it could be to convince bureaucrats that your organization needed the extremely limited public funds.
Meng turned and lead the way deeper into the prison. They didn't pass through the area were the inmates were kept, but they got close enough that Zuko could hear them. His eyes lingered on the door leading to the cell blocks. He turned back to find Meng staring at him. He cleared his throat and walked faster.
"You know, I've met your uncle a few times," she said. Zuko just grunted in response uncertain where he was going. Meng cast him a sidelong glance. "He's very charming. You'll tell him hello for me?" Zuko flushed bright red. He had not been expecting that.
"Um...s-sure," he stammered. Then he turned his head so Meng wouldn't see him rolle his eyes. Trust Iroh to find someone to flirt with in a prison. They stopped outside of a heavy metal door with bars in the window. Meng pulled out an ID badge swiped it through the scanner.
"Here we are," she said. She held the door open to let Zuko pass and followed behind him. She waved to a small elderly man in a doctor's jacket sitting behind a desk. He had wispy grey hair, on top of which rested a pair of thick glasses. Zuko guessed he must be pressing eighty, and he wondered why he hadn't retired to someplace warm a long time ago. He smiled when he saw Meng enter.
"Meng,' he greeted her affably. "I see you have a gentleman caller. Should I be jealous?" He nodded towards Zuko.
"You should, Dr. Morimoto." Meng winked at him. "But not of him. This is Detective Kaji from Republic City PD. He wants to ask you a few questions about our drugs."
"Well." Dr. Morimoto dropped his glasses onto the bridge of his nose and studied Zuko closer. "This sounds serious."
"It is," Meng assured him. "I'll leave you to it. Dr. Morimoto can call me if you need me." Meng gave the men one last nod and left. Dr. Morimoto turned his solemn gaze to Zuko.
"How can I help you, Detective Kaji?"
"I need to know who has access to your supply of succinylcholine, and who may have accessed it recently." Zuko explained the case, and told him how he had narrowed the places the drug could have been accessed to the two hospitals in the city and to the prison. Dr. Morimoto sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I wish I could be optimistic that it wasn't from our supply," he said. "But I know how tight security is at those hospitals."
"We don't know anything for certain," Zuko warned him. Dr. Morimoto raised an eyebrow at him.
"But you have an educated guess," he stated more than said. He didn't wait for a reply. He stood up and went to a filing cabinet. "While you look through these, I'll check to see if we're missing any vials." He pulled a few folders all dated for the past three months and laid them out on his desk for Zuko.
"Is there anyone who came in who stood out to you most?" he asked. He picked up the file dated closest to the discovery of the latest body and flipped through it. Dr. Morimoto scratched his head and turned his eyes towards the ceiling.
"Nothing springs immediately to mind…" he said. Then he froze. He turned back at Zuko. "Actually, there is one thing." Zuko looked up from the file.
"What?" He asked. Dr. Morimoto went back to the filing cabinet and grabbed another folder.
"It's probably nothing," he murmured. "But a few weeks ago, a guard came in a few times for things that made no sense. Qtips; gauze; ace bandages. Once he walked out with a box of tongue depressors. Naturally, I thought he was trying to get to the heavy narcotics, but I checked the morphine and oxycodone, and I had the right amount. I didn't think to check the succinylcholine."
"Do you know which guard it was?" The doctor flipped the folder open.
"I made a note of it," he said. "Let's see… here it is. It was Yon Rha, the guard from cell block B." Zuko thought back to the guard who had taken him to see Jun. The idea of him being a serial killer was almost laughable, but by this point Zuko knew better than to dismiss anything without examining the proof.
"Before we start speculating, let's see of you're actually missing the drug."
"Ah...yes." Dr. Morimoto opened something on his computer. A moment later the printer booted up and spat out aper. He explained, "My invented list. The warden and I are the only ones with access."
Dr. Morimoto led Zuko further into the back office. The medical supplies were held sheet of paper. "My inventory list. The warden and I are the only ones with access." He led Zuko through his office into the supply closet. There were shelves full of basic supplies lining two walls leading to another door, this one with a heavy padlock. That, Dr. Morimoto informed him, was where they kept the drugs.
"This actually looks pretty secure," Zuko commented. "It's not high tech, but a good lock is sometimes as good as the best security system." He went up and inspected the padlock.
"Well, then," Dr. Morimoto said, pulling out his keys. "Maybe we're in for a pleasant surprise." He flipped the light switch in the drug storage room and made his way to a shelf in the back, checking some of the more potent against his list. He led Zuko to the refrigerator in the farthest corner. The succinylcholine was on the middle shelf, and it looked full, but then Dr. Morimoto frowned and looked at his list. Then he counted the vials and looked at his list again.
"There are two vials missing," he said at last. "I don't know how, but someone got in." Zuko scanned the room.
"Are you sure that you and Warden Hei are the only ones with keys to the lock?" he asked. "Where do you keep the keys?"
"As far as I know we both keep them on our key rings," Dr. Morimoto replied. Zuko's eyes landed on something on the floor in the corner.
"Was there ever a point where your keys weren't on you?" He walked over to the object. It looked like a piece of shiny scrap paper. "Maybe someone copied the key?" Dr. Morimoto shook his head and shut the refrigerator.
"Not mine," he said. "I used to lose my keys all the time and my wife got sick of rushing home to let me in, so she got me one of those extendable key holders." He pushed his lab coat back and pulled his keys out of his pants pocket. They were attached to his belt by what looked like a miniature leash. He let them go and they snapped back to his side with a cheerful jingle. "I've had this for about five years. Haven't lost my keys since. Left them at home a few times, but…" He shrugged his shoulders.
Zuko grunted in response. He crouched down in the corner by the door and peered at the scrap. It wasn't paper after all. It was a piece of metal. Zuko grabbed a pair of latex gloves from the supply shelf and picked it up. It was a piece of an aluminum can, judging by the bit of design on the other side. It had been cut with one edge in a wavy shape, and bent as if it had been caught in something.
"What have you got there?" Dr. Morimoto camed to look over Zuko's shoulder. He adjusted his glasses for a closer look. "What is that?" Zuko held it in two fingers and studied it closely.
"It looks like a shim," he said.
"A what?" Dr. Morimoto blinked in confusion. Zuko went to the outside of the door and closed the padlock. Then he wrapped the bit of metal around the locking part of the padlock and slid it down into the mechanism. Then he pulled the padlock open. Dr. Morimoto's mouth fell open.
"I guess we know how the perp got in," he said grimly. "You said Yon Rha was acting strangely a few weeks ago? Was there anyone else?"
"No one obvious," he said. "But I have a list of people who have been in the supply room in the last few weeks. I'll get it to you."
"Thanks." Zuko wrapped the shim in gauze and tucked it into another glove. "I'd like to speak to Yon Rah while I'm here." Dr. Morimoto nodded and ran to his phone. Zuko heard him speaking with Jun as he looked around the room for more clues. The doctor came back a few moments later with an apologetic look on his face.
"Yon Rah left for the day," he told Zuko. "Something about his kid getting sick at school. Bad luck, I guess." Zuko's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"I guess," he repeated. He tucked the glove into his pocket and left the room, so Dr. Morimoto could lock up.
"I'll be in touch with the list in the next day or," Dr. Morimoto promised. Zuko bowed slightly and left the doctor's office. He stopped by Jun's office on the way out, but the warden had left for the day already, so he left.
Zuko had left his phone on silent during his visit. When he saw the missed messages from Jin and Katara, he was glad for it. He checked Katara's text first.
My driver's here, she informed him. Will call when I'm checked in.
The time stamp was from almost half an hour earlier. Zuko frowned at that. It shouldn't have taken that long to get to the hotel. But he told himself that she was probably just getting settled in. If she hadn't called by the time he hit the highway, he promised himself he'd call to check on her, and then he moved on to Jin's message. This time it was a voicemail.
"Hey, it's Jin. I called both hospitals, and they assured me that there's no way anyone stole drugs without getting caught. I gotta say, I think I believe them. They both went over their security protocol, and Katara's right. It's super tight. They're faxing over their records on who accessed the drug supply, when, and what they took. I'll look it over, but I think this is a dead lead. I hope you're having better luck. Talk to you later."
Zuko hung up and sighed. He had expected as much, but it didn't make the idea that Koh was probably in law enforcement any easier. He pulled out of the parking lot and put the prison behind him for the moment. At least he seemed to be closing in on Koh. And with Katara's brother coming home the next day, Zuko would have some breathing room to investigate.
The phone rang just as Zuko merged onto the highway. He smirked as he pressed the call accept button on the steering wheel.
"You've got amazing timing," he greeted who could only be Katara.
'Detective Kaji," replied a frantic voice that was definitely not Katara. "It's Haru. Ms. Imiq is gone!"
"What?" Zuko nearly slammed his brakes on. He managed to control hself long enough to pull over on the shoulder. He took a breath to calm himself. "Haru, where are you? What's going on?"
"I'm at Ms. Imiq's house. The door is unlocked and I-I-I knocked and I called her name, but…I opened it and she's not here. Detective, there's blood on the floor."
The first thing Katara was aware of was the pain in her head. It radiated from her left temple and ran down the side of her neck. She moved to press her hand to her head, only to find she couldn't move her arms. That's when she became aware of the chair she was sitting on, and the duct tape binding her by her arms and legs to it. There was more duct tape across her mouth, trapping a scream in her throat.
Don't panic! Katara thought frantically. Her breath was coming out of her nose in short shallow bursts, and the edges of her vision were beginning to blur.
Don't panic!
Katara shut her eyes and focused on steadying her breath. After a few minutes, it had more or less steadied. When she opened her eyes again, she could take in her surroundings. It was a dark, windowless room. It looked industrial, like a warehouse. That combined with the subtle but pungent smell of seawater led Katara to believe that she was being held near the docks.
There was a dim bare bulb hanging in the middle of the room. It dangled over nothing in particular, and left the rest of the room in shadow, but Katara could make out what looked like a hospital cot in one corner of the room. Behind it was a tall thin object with a wide head, which Katara could only assume was a lamp to light the table when Koh…
The panic, still simmering below her skin, almost swallowed her up again when she realized where she was.
The lock on the door clicked, and the heavy iron door swung open. A tall slender man stood in the doorway, but Katara couldn't see his face. Then he flicked a switch by the door, and fluorescent lights illuminated the room. Katara recognized him immediately. The officer who had come to drive her to the hotel. Koh. He wasn't in uniform anymore, instead he wore loose dark pants and a long sleeve grey t-shirt.
Katara's eyes narrowed at him and she tried to yell at him, forgetting momentarily about the tape over her mouth. Koh chuckled crossing the room towards her. There was a condescending and almost paternal look on his face.
"None of that now," he said. Katara realized he was carrying a bucket full of soapy water. Koh glanced down at it with a smile. "I don't like using duct tape on people's faces. It tends to irritate the skin. I'm going to take this off of you now. I hope you'll forgive me, but I couldn't have you screaming while you were in the trunk." He reached into the bucket and pulled out a rag. He squeezed the excess water out and brought it up to Katara's face. She reeled back and almost knocked the chair over, but Koh reached out and steadied her. Katara shuddered at the feeling of his damp hand over hers, but Koh paid no mind.
"This isn't going to hurt," he assured her gently. "This is just to loosen the tape." Koh pressed the cloth to Katara's mouth and held it there. Katara struggled against his touch, but he was deceptively strong beneath the loose fitting shirt.
"Don't fight me," Koh ordered. His tone was still light and conversational, but there was a threatening edge. "I don't want to bruise you anymore than you already are." Koh clicked his tongue sadly and brushed his fingers against the lump forming on her head. "I wanted you perfect, but I'm not sure I'll have time to let this heal."
The tape was loosening. Katara could feel the glue releasing her skin. She pulled her head away from Koh and tried to blow the tape off of her mouth. Koh reached up and grasped the end of the tape.
"I won't tell you not to scream," he told her, pulling the tape off her face gently in case all the glue wasn't melted. "No one ever listens to me when I say it anyway. You can scream as loud as you want. It won't bother me. No one will hear you, anyway. Brick walls, you know. Ah! There we are."
Koh pulled the tape completely off of Katara's mouth. He watched her expectantly for a moment, waiting for either screaming or pleading. Katara didn't do either. Instead she glared at him intensely. Then she reared back and spat in his face. Koh stumbled backwards and wiped at it. Katara watched him, her body tensed and trembling in expectation of retaliation. To her surprise, he laughed.
"No one's done that before," he said. He took the damp rag and wiped the spit from his face. "I'll say this, you're the most spirited member of my collection."
"Untie me and I'll show you spirit," Katara threatened him. Koh laughed again.
"Soon enough," he promised. He pressed his lips together and regarded Katara sympathetically. "I know you think I'm a monster, but I'm not. I'm an artist. I see things that others don't see. There's so much beauty in the world around us, in the faces of people who we pass everyday on the street, but almost no one sees it." Koh stood up and walked over to a shelf across the room from Katara. She hadn't noticed it before, but now she could see it was full of jars. Koh grabbed one and ran his fingers over it gently before he turned back to Katara, cradling the jar close to his chest.
"I followed the investigation the first time around, you know,' he said. "I know it's not generally a good idea for an artist to pay too close attention to their critics, but- what can I say?- it's irresistible sometimes." He let out a self deprecating laugh. "You know what they said about my work all those years ago?"
"I don't know," Katara snorted. "Something along the lines of 'this guy is completely wacked and needs a bullet in the head'?" Koh looked up at her and shook his head.
"No," he said. "Actually, they accused my of choosing my victims at random. Because those detectives are too blind to see. I didn't choose randomly. I chose what caught my eye. A young man with skin pock marked in the most interesting pattern. A middle aged woman with crows feet around her eyes and smile lines framing her pouting lips." Koh smiled fondly at Katara. "A beautiful waitress with skin like the smoothest melted chocolate."
Katara shuddered and forced down the bile that had risen in her throat. Koh didn't seem to notice, or he didn't care. He turned his soft gaze down to the jar in his hands.
"I find beauty in so many diverse places," he murmured. "In youth and age. In beauty and in the flaws." Koh turned the jar around in his hands and held it up for Katara to see.
In the jar, suspended in a yellowish green liquid, was the face of an old man with a grey mustache and bushy grey brows. His empty eyes gazed back at Katara. This time she did scream.
"Why are you doing this?" she shouted. "Let me go! Let me go!" Katara fought against her binds so hard, the chair rocked wildy. Finally, it tilted too far to the left and Katara crashed to the floor. Her head bounced against the floor painfully, aggravating her earlier wound and adding new ones. Her chin scraped the concrete floor. She cried out in pain and began to sob. Koh hurriedly replaced the jar on the shelf and rushed to Katara's side.
"Now look what you've done," he chided her. "I don't think I'm going to have enough time to let these heal completely." Koh sighed and tilted Katara's chin towards him. Tears mixed with blood and ran over his fingers. "Don't cry, Katara. It'll be fine. The bruises will add some character to your face. Every piece of art tells a story. This one will show that you're a fighter." He stood up, but didn't right Katara's chair. "Don't you see? I'm going to make you immortal."
He shut off the light and closed the door behind him, leaving Katara still lying on her side in the dark room.