Author's Note:
I really love this chapter. As much as I hate Ginza, she's a hell of a lot of fun to write.
. . .
Ginza busted into her office at two in the afternoon, rousing herself enough from her drunken stupor to at least check in to headquarters to pick up her paycheck. Her office was devoid of its temporary staff, Shiina.
The captain's face twisted into a scowl. "I can't get even a fucking rookie to stay up here?"
The door swung gently open behind her. "Oh!" Shiina exclaimed. "Good afternoon, Captain. I just came back from lunch."
She grunted in acknowledgement. "What's all this shit on your desk? You're working on a case?"
"Yeah," he shifted his feet nervously. "The chief's got me working on an anonymous tip we picked up about one of our wanteds at the airport."
"Airport?" She was mildly interested. "Who?"
"Someone told us that someone fitting Tatsumi Saiga's description was at the—"
"What?" Ginza grabbed his shirt. "I'm working on Saiga's case, you piece of shit! Why wasn't I told about this?"
"It just came in yesterday morning," he stammered. "You haven't been here, so…"
"You have my number." She shoved him away. "You could have called!"
She whirled on her heel and stormed off. Shiina didn't want to be responsible for whatever destruction she was about to cause, so he crept to his desk to continue his work. Ginza barged into the chief's office, glaring at the extra occupants until they scuttled out of the room. She glowered down at the chief.
"Eh… Nice to see you, Captain." He laced his fingers together anxiously. "How can I help you?"
"Why the fuck didn't you tell me we got a tip about Saiga? I told you I was working on that case, Chief!"
"Y-yes, well. I didn't really see the point of bothering you. It was only a vague description, and we don't have any reports of his passport being cleared. It wasn't necessary for you to be alerted."
"I'll decide what is and isn't necessary for me to know." She jabbed her finger in the air. "And anything regarding Saiga is necessary."
Shiina rushed into the room. "Chief—a-and Captain Ginza, I think I found something."
"Well?" Ginza prompted.
"I took records of every passenger boarding planes from the day we received the tip and the day after." He spilled files onto the chief's desk. "Obviously Saiga's name wasn't on any of the flight rosters, so I cross-referenced every name with other records: social security numbers, addresses, anything with their identity. I finally found two names that didn't have any other information." He handed a file to Ginza. "Watanabe Noboru and Yamamoto Ari."
She opened the folder to find a scanned copy of their passports. Their pictures matched exactly.
"God damn it." She swore. "Where did they get these?"
"I also found this," Shiina continued. "There's a doctor named Ryogoku that was on the same flight with a seat next to Noboru's and Ari's. I did some digging on him. Apparently he and Saiga crossed paths in the war, and Saiga even did a small segment on him for the papers."
Ginza flipped to the newspaper clippings at the back of the folder. "So he's helping them sneak out. Where are they going?"
"They were on a flight to Los Angeles."
Chief Ekoda gaped. "America? Why would they go there?"
"Well, rookie." Ginza threw the file back to him. "I guess we'll go over there and ask them ourselves."
"C-Captain?"
"Pack your bags. We'll leave in the morning."