The Silent Dead (36 page)

Katsumata pictured Ioka biting his nails with theatrical anxiety.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. And what exactly are you doing with yourself in this crazy state of yours?”

“You'll think I was behaving like a lovesick teenager, but I went to find Reiko in Ikebukuro. And I found her. I'm ashamed to say I've been tailing them all afternoon.”

Katsumata swallowed. He couldn't believe his luck.

“Senior Officer Ioka.” He was stuttering with excitement. “Can you confirm that you have a lock on Kitami and Himekawa's location?”

“I can. They're inside an uncompleted building on the edge of central Ikebukuro. If Kitami has made his carnal passions known and moved on Reiko, then my life's as good as over.”

Good job, Ioka! You're the man!

Keeping his excitement in check, Katsumata asked Ioka to give him the address and directions from the station.

Ioka launched into an explanation. “Take the second turn along, then go straight. At the third left you need—”

Suddenly Ioka broke off.

“Hey! I take the third left, and then?”

“… I'm not sure, but I think I heard a bang…”

“What!”

It had to be a gunshot. Katsumata didn't know for a fact that Kitami was responsible for Otsuka's murder, but the idea of someone finishing Himekawa off in another empty building was too easy to believe.

This is so fucked up!

Katsumata ordered Ioka to keep watching and not to move from his current position under any circumstances, then hung up.

*   *   *

Katsumata dashed into one of the electronics megastores nearby. He charged up the escalator, pushing people aside. He knew that these sorts of places had recently started selling toys on the higher floors.

Please, God!

He was panting by the time he got to the seventh floor. Sure enough, the toy selection was as extensive as any department store.

Katsumata beckoned over a passing clerk and asked for the replica firearms. The man eyed him a little suspiciously, but Katsumata stayed calm. Right now he didn't have the time for explain his reasons or to yell at the guy either.

“Where? Show me.”

“This way, sir.”

The clerk led him a couple of aisles down and gestured at the shelves. Katsumata carefully examined the guns on display. His first instinct was to look for a New Nambu M60, the standard issue revolver of the Japanese police, but he almost immediately realized that it was too minor a make to be popular—besides, revolvers were regarded as old-fashioned anyway. The shelf was full of automatics.

Walther P88. Smith and Wesson M3906. Beretta M92F. SIG Sauer P228. A selection to bring joy to a man's heart!

This looks like a safe choice. The thing's just a prop anyway.

“I'll take this one.”

Katsumata pointed at the SIG Sauer P228.

“Does it make the right noise when you fire it?”

“Yes. And it takes thirteen rounds in the magazine plus one in the chamber, just like the real thing.”

“The rounds come with it?”

“Yes, a full magazine with fourteen rounds.”

“Sure it won't misfire on me?”

“I don't think so, sir. If you're worried, I recommend these.”

The clerk held out another box of bullets.

“Quite the salesman, aren't you! Okay, I'll take 'em. Load it up.”

Katsumata paid cash, then dashed down the stairs out of the store.

*   *   *

He didn't stop running when he got out to the street.

All this exercise is wearing me out
.

Katsumata felt bushed, but now wasn't the time to start feeling sorry for himself. Should he contact the local precinct for backup? No. It would too hard to explain himself. He was following a lead he'd picked up from an illegal investigation.

He was still debating the issue when he reached the apartment building.

“Over here, Lieutenant,” Ioka hissed. He was standing at the corner ahead, waving him forward. “This way.”

“What've we got?” Katsumata panted.

Ioka bit his lip and looked up at the building.

“No one's come out, but some weird skinny kid went inside.”

A weird skinny kid!

Katsumata grabbed Ioka by the collar. “Was he wearing a black leather body suit?” he asked under his breath.

“He was, he was. A chum of yours, Lieutenant?”

By way of an answer, Katsumata drove his fist into Ioka's face.

“It's our perp. The person in black is Yukari Fukazawa. She's the killer. The person behind the whole thing is Kitami.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” sneered Ioka.

Katsumata paid no attention and rummaged in his paper bag.

“I didn't have time to call for backup. We're gonna have to go in alone.”

Ioka sneered again when he saw the P228 in Katsumata's hand. “That thing's a toy.”

“So what, provided it sounds right? Kitami is definitely armed. It'll be dark in there, and this thing will look the part.”

All the investigators on the case were supposed to have been issued a sidearm that morning in response to Otsuka's murder. Due to an unfortunate administrative mix-up, there were only enough for the precinct officers. The rest of the weapons were supposed to be ready that afternoon.

In the end, here he was, armed only with a toy. What with playing hide-and-seek with Ioka, the whole sidearm business had slipped his mind.

“You carrying, Ioka?”

“Carrying what?”

“A sidearm. We're under orders to.”

“Uhm … no. After the morning meeting, I suddenly noticed you weren't at the station, Lieutenant. I thought, ‘Heck, he's gone and left me' and dashed out after you. So, no, I didn't stick around to get one.”

You damn clown!

Basically, the man was no use at all.

“Enough time wasting. Let's go in.”

Katsumata moved toward the building. Ioka followed. They slipped through the fence, taking care to make no noise. Straining their ears, they could hear voices coming from an upper floor, though they couldn't make out what was being said.

A passage led from the entrance to an empty elevator shaft. Next to the shaft was a bare concrete staircase. They padded up as quietly as they could. There was no one on the second floor, but they heard movement one floor up.

Suddenly there was the sound of angry voices.

“Hurry!”

Now wasn't the time to worry about stealth. Wringing the last ounce of strength from his body, Katsumata charged up, two steps at a time. The moment they reached the third floor, there were more gunshots. Himekawa came careening toward them—and then seemed to vanish into the wall.

Isn't that the elevator shaft? Has she fallen in?

Kitami stood in front of them. He had a gun.

Katsumata was about to give Kitami the “freeze or I fire” order, until he realized the futility of it. His gun was only a replica. If he shot first and Kitami returned fire, he'd be in real trouble.

Katsumata was desperately reviewing his options when Yukari, with a shriek, flung herself on Kitami from behind. Katsumata noticed that she had something in her hand.

“What the fu—!” Kitami spun around and pumped two shots into the girl.

“Kitami, stop!”

“Freeze or I fire.”

Katsumata fired multiple rounds from his replica gun.

Kitami turned and took aim at him.

Yukari pulled herself back to her feet and swept her hand across Kitami's throat.

Did she get him? Yes, direct hit.

Kitami pressed a hand to his throat and made a gurgling sound. He pointed the gun at Yukari again.

“Kitamiiiii,” the girl screamed.

A burst of gunfire.

As he fired, Kitami sank to the ground. Katsumata was firing his toy at Kitami. Yukari was knocked sideways by the impact of Kitami's shots, but even as she fell to the floor, she was trying to reach Reiko in the elevator shaft.

“Kitami,” bellowed Katsumata.

“Reiko,” Ioka yelled.

Katsumata sprang over Yukari to Kitami, kicked the gun out of his hand, and dropped a knee into his solar plexus. He stuck the P228 under Kitami's jaw to prevent him from seeing that it was a replica.

“Your little game's over, boy wonder.”

Katsumata snapped the cuffs on the wrist of the hand Kitami was pressing to the wound in his throat. He turned out not to be bleeding badly after all. Despite having killed more than ten times, Yukari's knack for locating the carotid artery apparently left her when her victim wasn't strapped down and she was under pressure.

“Let go of her. Let go, creep.”

Ioka had pulled Himekawa out of the shaft and now held her in his arms. Yukari still had her hands clasped around Reiko's wrists. Ioka tried to wrench her fingers off, but the girl was strong and wouldn't let go. Ioka was shocked to see that beneath the girl's fingers, Himekawa was handcuffed.

“I'm okay, Ioka.”

Himekawa sounded calmer than she had any right to be. Yukari was lying facedown on the floor. Himekawa turned her over and lay her across her lap. She stroked the thin fingers that still clutched at her wrists.

Yukari appeared to have taken shots in the stomach and the legs. One bullet had also grazed her cheek, which was bleeding. Her breathing was rasping and uneven. She probably wasn't going to make it.

“Thank you, Yukari. You saved me. You've had a tough life, but you're going to be all right now.”

Himekawa began to cry. Ioka, who was standing next to her, got out his phone and called for an ambulance. Himekawa was now wailing so loudly that Ioka had trouble making himself heard.

“Don't die on me, Yukari. You can't die. You mustn't.”

Katsumata looked at her with something verging on disgust.

Birds of a feather …

Katsumata hastily consulted his watch, as if he'd just remembered something. “Oh, I forgot—Noboru Kitami, you are under arrest. What's the date? Oh yes, August twenty-sixth … at … uh … seven ten p.m. The charges—for now, at least—are attempted murder and unlawful possession of a firearm. Got it?”

Katsumata heaved a sigh and looked out through the dust-grimed windows. The clouds looked like spilled ink on a sheet of paper. The world was a dreary gray place.

Far off in the west, Katsumata spotted a tiny glimmer of red sun.

 

PART V

 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 26
SOMETIME AFTER 7:00 P.M.

The series of incidents that began with the Mizumoto Park Dumped Bodies Case were brought to a conclusion with the arrest of Noboru Kitami, Yukari Fukazawa, and a third person.

Noboru Kitami's injuries proved non-life-threatening. He was taken to the Tokyo Metropolitan Hospital and is cooperating with the inquiry. His accomplice, Yukari Fukazawa, is currently being held in a different hospital. She is in critical condition, having sustained two bullet wounds in the chest, one in the face, one in the stomach, and another in the left thigh. The doctors managed to save her life, but she's not able to answer questions. Much about her history remains unclear. Her past will likely be one focus of the investigation.

The third member of the group, Harunobu Ogawa, was also arrested today. After receiving a phone call from Kitami, Ogawa drove to the crime scene in his own vehicle. Patrol cars from the Ikebukuro Station and an ambulance arrived immediately afterward. More by accident than anything, Ogawa found himself surrounded. One officer, who was suspicious about Ogawa's car being parked directly in front of the crime scene, went to ask him some routine questions. Ogawa responded by ramming his way through the paramedics and police with his vehicle, but he soon crashed into a nearby electricity pole. The Ikebukuro police arrested him on the spot and charged him with interfering with government officials in the performance of their duties and with bodily harm.

Ogawa, a fourth-year science major at Tokyo University, is believed to have handled the information technology aspects of the gang's work. His interrogation is ongoing.

Inquiries have shown that the sidearm that Ogawa had in his possession was the revolver checked out by Senior Officer Otsuka on the morning of his death. Noboru Kitami and Harunobu Ogawa have been charged with multiple offenses, including murder, attempted murder, instigation of murder, accessory to murder, unlawful disposal of bodies, and violations of the sword and firearms law. Their chances of avoiding the death penalty are low. A joint task force is about to be established to investigate both the case of the bodies found in the Toda Rowing Course (currently being handled by the Saitama Prefectural Police) and the shooting of Senior Officer Otsuka (currently being handled by the Ikebukuro precinct).
◆

 

 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27

Reiko was convalescing in one of Tokyo's university-affiliated hospitals. She'd been convinced that Kitami had shot her right ear clean off. In fact, his bullet had only grazed her. Although there was tearing of the tympanic membrane, the prognosis was that she would eventually recover her hearing in that ear.

“Bullets revolve at extremely high speed. That alone was enough to make you feel that your whole ear had been ripped off when the bullet had only grazed it. Add in the hearing loss on that side, and it's no surprise you thought the whole ear was gone.”

Reiko was relieved at the news that her ear was still intact. She also felt embarrassed to have kicked up such a fuss about nothing.

That was her only gunshot wound. For the rest, she had bruises and abrasions, including an all-too-noticeable graze on her forehead. The doctor assured her that she would be left with no visible scarring.

If no one shot me, why did I crash to the floor like that?

Reiko probed her memories of the moments before she tumbled down into the elevator shaft.