Chapter 4: Pounding the Pavement

[Author's Note: For those of you who may remember "Shenmue" and the amazing game guide that it had, you'll remember that the NPC character Lidia Bennett had a backstory where she was in Yokosuka looking for her sister who went missing a year earlier. Obviously, in this story, I'm taking a few creative liberties by naming Lidia's sister and changing things up a bit by saying that Allison went missing a few weeks earlier as opposed to a whole year ago. Sorry if that confuses some of you.]

About 40 minutes after their meeting at Yamaji Soba Noodles, Detective Inspector Osamu Murakawa had initiated a new search for missing American warehouse clerk Allison Bennett in Dobuita. He had called in two pairs of uniformed officers from the regional police, who were currently in the process of circulating Allison's missing persons flyer throughout the busy neighborhood. The flyer was written in English with a Japanese translation at the bottom.

Hirata Tobacco Shop
Dobuita
12:19 PM

Meanwhile, Agent Kondo was using the small pink rotary payphone to talk to the on-base MP supervisor at New Yokosuka Harbor.

"Are you sure?" Kondo said into the phone before sighing deeply, ostensibly unhappy with what he had just been told. "Okay," he continued, "No, no, it's okay, Lieutenant. I was kind of hoping that my hunch was off. Thanks for your help. I'll let you guys know if we need anything else. Bye."

He hung up the receiver just as Cathy Wilkens and Regional Police Officer Junko Akiyama came up to him. Officer Akiyama was a short, dark-haired young woman in her mid-20's who was dressed in a black police uniform with black boots.

"What's up?" Cathy inquired as she saw the lessened look on her partner's face.

"I just talked to Lieutenant Bellis at the base," Kondo explained, "He told me that Allison was assigned to the warehouse where those antiques were housed."

"Oh," Cathy replied in a sympathetic tone, "So it's looks like her disappearance at the thefts are connected after all."

Kondo nodded regretfully before clearing his throat. "Were you guys able to get any new leads with your walk through the neighborhood?"

"Possibly, sir" Officer Akiyama replied, "I'm assuming that Murakawa-san told you that Allison Bennett went missing after leaving Nana's Karaoke bar, right?"

"He did," Kondo replied, "Yes."

"Well," Akiyama began explaining, "Two of our officers just spoke to Shiro Kurita at the Kurita Military Surplus shop."

"Yeah," Cathy interjected, "Kurita-san. I know him," "He's my downstairs neighbor at Okayama Heights."

"Okay," Akiyama said, "Anyway, Kurita-san told them that he saw Allison exit the karaoke bar as he was returning back to his apartment at around ten-thirty on the night she was last seen."

"Alone?" Kondo asked.

"Yes," Akiyama replied, "She was by herself. He said that she appeared to be very drunk, to the point where she was staggering and having trouble staying on her feet."

"Okay," Cathy said, "So, it stands to reason that someone who's that intoxicated wouldn't be able to get far on foot, especially that late at night. The problem is, though, that there are about a hundred or so other people coming out of bars around here at that hour. Allison could've fallen prey to any rowdy shmuck that saw her as an easy target."

"I agree with you there," Kondo said, "But I still can't shake that idea that her disappearance and our thefts are connected."

"One thing at a time," Akiyama added, "What we now know for sure is that Miss Bennett exited the karaoke bar and staggered down the street. If I were her, I'd want to call someone to see if I could be picked up."

Cathy nodded in agreement. "Mm-hmm," she replied, "The issue there, however, is that the only public phone in the entire neighborhood is right here at the tobacco shop." She pointed to the pink rotary public phone that Kondo had just used.

Akiyama then smiled as she was struck with an idea. "Excuse me," she said to Kondo before politely moving past him and greeting the tobacco shop's owner, Haru Hirata, who stood behind her counter quietly.

Haru Hirata, known by many of Dobuita's older residents and business owners as "The Dobuita Queen", was a short 73-year-old woman with glasses and gray hair that was tied back into a neat bun. She was dressed in a brown sweater and matching skirt.

Officer Akiyama and Hirata-san then engaged in a long and affable conversation that was spoken entirely in Japanese. Cathy and Agent Kondo, meanwhile, just stood aside letting the conversation go on.

Their conversation came to an end a few minutes later, punctuated by polite nods and smiles from the two women. "Alright then," Akiyama said to Cathy and Kondo as she returned to them, "Hirata-san says that Allison came to use the phone as she was in the middle of closing the shop that night. From what she could hear, it looks like she called Directory Information to try and get a taxi to pick her up."

"What's the Directory Information number here again?" Kondo inquired, "One-Oh-Four, right?"

"Correct," Akiyama replied, "The problem here being that, as everyone around here knows, there's only a single taxi driver that services this area. His name's Mitsugu Nomura...Nomura-san...and he's only available to take fares during the daytime and early evening hours until about eight p.m. or so. This would've been sometime after ten-thirty when Allison attempted to call."

Cathy took in that information before offering up her amended theory. "Okay," she said a minute or so later, "So our girl's unable to find herself a ride home, so that begs the question, what alternatives was she left with?"

"Well," Akiyama replied, "Hirata-san also said she walked off in the direction of the arcade over there." The officer then pointed over in the direction of the nearby You Arcade.

Kondo glanced over at the arcade before glancing over at the public parking lot just beside the tobacco shop. "I wonder," he said, "Did Hirata-san notice any unusual cars or people in or around the parking lot around the time that she saw Allison walk away?"

Akiyama nodded. "One second," she said before going back over to Hirata-san and once again speaking to her in Japanese. She returned to them a minute or two later. "She said that there was what she called a 'large white rectangle truck' in the lot over here that pulled in at about nine-forty-five or so and wasn't there by the time she left the shop an hour later."

Cathy shot Kondo a puzzled look. "Hey Johnny," she said, "When's the last time you saw a delivery truck making deliveries after five on a weeknight?"

Kondo grinned in retort as he came around to his new partner's way of thinking before turning to Officer Akiyama. "Okay Officer," he said to her, "Let's get back to your station and start running down reports of any stolen box trucks. I know it's a long shot, but it's possible that, if Allison was forcefully taken off the street here, her abductors used a truck to transport her from one location to another."

"Yes sir," Akiyama replied, "I'll let the other officers know what we're doing."

The three of them headed back toward Dobuita's restaurant and shop district.