Reminder of the Heart: A Detective's Case - Chapter 5

Jun went back to the police station to talk to Chief Abe about the case.

“This case is harder than I thought, sir. I found a location and wanted to know if I could go investigate it even though I left Mao by herself.” He took out the paper he wrote the address on.

Chief Abe looked it over, “Interesting. That’s in the hotel district. Good work on tracking the suspect.”

Jun smiled, “Can I ask two people to accompany me as I such there?”

“Who do you have in mind?” Chief asked.

“Nino and Ohno since we’ve worked together before.” Jun smiled.

“Okay then. I will put them on this case as of today.” Chief closed the file and handed it back to Jun.

He bowed, “Thank you, sir!” After he talked to the Chief, he went over to Shun and Shota who were on lunch to talk.

“So, how’s Mao doing?” Shun asked and bit into his sandwich.

“She’s scared. I feel bad and hopefully, I will catch this person.” Jun explained, leaning against the door and sighing.

“What happened?” Shota looked up from his lunch.

“Well, Mao received a phone call from her the person threatening her. I couldn’t tell if it was a girl or guy at all because the voice was disguised. This scheme is planned out in detail. From what I’ve found so far, this person called from the hotel district and we’re going to investigate it. I have been permitted to check out the premises.” Jun looked at the file in his hand. “I will get this person to protect Mao.” The images in his mind repeated as he thought of Mao’s expressions through the call. He never was this furious, not even when Yukie was alive.

“You know we have your back if you find anything,” Shun reassured.

Jun smiled at him and nodded, “I better get going. I will be meeting Nino and Ohno over there.”

“Good luck. Be careful because this guy may have something in store for you, Jun…” Shota was worried.

“I know…” It wasn’t a surprise to Jun if there were traps. Since he was the top detective, a lot of people wanted him dead. Sometimes, he wondered if his ability was a curse to him. All he knew was he wanted to protect Mao even if that meant getting hurt. Jun took out his cell phone and debated to call Mao. 

*******

Mao decided to research more about Jun. She was curious. This was the only time she could see a profile of Jun without him being there. Since her parents were prosecutors, she had access to many databases and sites. They normally helped her for schoolwork and if her parents’ needed something done without going their other means. She pulled up his profile from the police department’s database. The profile explained his basic information. ~ My question is why he was afraid of me at the start…. Maybe if I go into this further, I’ll see something… ~ She scrolled down to find more information and read it out loud to herself.

“Jun’s a person to not talk about certain situations about. When there’s a job on hand, he’s get it done efficiently. He’s not willing to compromise everything but he will if needed….” Mao still didn’t find her answer. “There has to be more to him than this. I wonder he had a partner or something.” She decided to go into further, typing in his name and the word, ‘partner’. Her search results were endless. Everything with his name and partner were saying, ‘Jun rejects partnership’, ‘Doesn’t need a partner..’… the results were not to her liking. “Why would be the way he is now? He seems to have a genuine smile in his picture…” She couldn’t figure it out. As her mind explored for more possibilities, she jumped as her cell phone vibrated on her desk.

“Jun is calling…” She noticed as she flipped it up and answered it quickly. A smile formed on her lips, “Hello?”

“Hey, Mao.”

“Are you checking up on me?”

“Yes.” He didn’t know what to say.

“Well, you’re quick to call since it’s only been an hour.” Mao chuckled.

“I just wanted to make sure you’re all right…” Jun’s serious tone didn’t change.

“I’m fine. I’m doing the usual… homework and such…”

“Anything from that…bas-…” Jun was upset about the person, but didn’t want to sound pissed. He rephrased his question, “I mean… has the perpetrator called or e-mailed you?”

“No, I checked my e-mails and nothing on my answering machine. I think I’m sticking to my cell phone for now after the call…” Mao figured how upset he was. It made her happy for some reason.

“Ok. Well, I will start the actual investigation with 2 teammates of mine… so, I may be there late…”

“All right. I want you to be careful though. Who knows about this guy…” Mao’s tone made Jun’s heart skip a beat for some reason.

“I will. Take care. Good bye.” Jun replied and hung up.

Mao smiled, never realizing he was really a kind person at heart. ~ Well, I hope to figure out my own mystery about him. Wait… ~ An idea sprang to mind. She typed in girlfriend and his name. The results were an exact match. She pulled up a couple of links to read different articles. She gasped. When she scrolled down for a picture, it resembled her face. ~ No wonder Jun was kind of scared of me at first. I hope he’s not doing this just because I resembled- ~ She cut her thoughts out and cleared her throat.

“Yukie Nakama… older than Jun… strangled and killed in her apartment. They never found who murdered her. She was studying to be a private investigator.” Mao continued reading and felt bad for him. ~ She’s beautiful. They had a great life and this happens… how cruel can they be? It’s one case he never solved… ~ Just as she reflected at the information she found, her doorbell rang. Mao jumped up and wondered who would come without calling. She picked up the pistol Jun left her and walked slowly to the door. The person rang the doorbell two more times. She was scared but told herself not to be afraid. She sighed in relief when she saw Shun through the door hold.

“I’m not the scary person…” Shun smiled. Mao opened the door for him and lowered the pistol. “Jun told me what happened and decided to come on my own to protect you.”

“Oh… does Jun know?” She asked.

“No, it’s a surprise. There was no work in my department and Chief let me out early.” Shun explained.

“Ah. That makes sense.” She stood still at the doorway.

“Well, I can leave if you don’t want company…”

“Oh, I’m sorry! Come in, please! I apologize.” She put the pistol down on the kitchen table and sat on the couch. “I’ve just been all nervous ever since that call…”

Shun took off his shoes and joined her on the couch, “You want to talk about it?”

“Well, yes but you have to do something for me..” Mao looked at him.

“What’s the favor?”

“Tell me everything about Jun. I researched him further and didn’t know how much he’s been through. I want to know everything about him.”

“Is there a point to this?” He was surprised.

“Yes and well, what’s wrong with being curious?”

“You’re right. Well, just ask the questions and I will tell you the answers…” He responded.

******* 

Waiting outside for his companions, he smoked a cigarette. His mind was running wild even though he displayed a calm composure. ~ How can I concentrate when I have to investigate AND protect Mao at the same time? She’s been slipping in my mind lately which bothers me a bit. No one’s ever affected me like this… only Yukie did. Mao is nothing like her, though. Geez.. I need to just start working now… ~ He finished his cigarette and threw it away in a nearby cigarette can. After, he looked around for anything peculiar about the building. ~ Well, this building is abandoned. I’m wondering how he managed to get the phone to work. ~ First he checked the doors and took out a pair of latex gloves, a bag and tweezers from his pocket. After putting on the gloves, he removed a piece of small wire from the door and placed it carefully in the bag. Examining it, he noticed the wire looked exactly the same as Mao had on her doorway. ~ I’m dealing with a professional. However, this case seems a bit familiar. I will research further later. ~ He continued to look more at the door frame and imagined how the ex-convict left. ~ He never entered the building this way but exited out of it. I wonder why he wouldn’t use the other entrance. ~ It was strange to him. Was it to confuse him? He needed to find out. His direction changed to the side of the building for any windows. He found a window with a spider web shatter. He tapped it with his finger, and it didn’t shatter further. ~ This glass is strong because it didn’t break all the way. Was this person trying to get in this way? ~ He looked around and didn’t see anything around. ~ I hope they come soon because I need a camera for this. Oi. ~ There was a mark on the window which was small. ~ He took out a brush and lightly swept it. ~ What is this? It’s not a fingerprint… this looks like something from an object. Hmmmm… ~ As he was inspecting it further, his cell phone vibrated in his pocket.

He answered without looking at the screen, “Hello?”

“Hey. Sorry we’re not there yet. Ohno was having some issues which are no of concern right now…” Nino sighed.

“It’s all right. I want you guys to get here because I need some of the equipment you both have.”

“Roger. We’ll be there in 10 minutes!”

A little bit about the two:

Satoshi Ohno & Kazunari Ninomiya are friends of Jun from high school. They all enrolled together when training to be in the police department. Ohno is known for his art and draws the layouts of buildings and details given to him. If he wasn’t serving in the force, he would have just been an artist. His life is quiet and normally is around Nino a lot. Then, there’s Nino. He’s the photographer and won prizes in photography. He catches the details perfectly when taking the shots. He’s also private about his life. He opens up to people he trusts. Jun always worked with them because he didn’t want amateurs to work with him. They weren’t his partners, but he knew they would help him out when he needed it. 

“Okay. I will see you here.” Jun hung up the phone and continued looking around for more clues. ~ I wonder if I should go inside to check further without them. No, I will wait… ~ He circled the building and found items on the floor – an empty spray bottle of bug spray, a piece of duct tape, and scissors. ~ Well, big clues that were forgotten or was this planned to be out here too? He has something in store for me if he or she figured it was me that was tracking the call. ~ What did these all have in common? He came up with possibilities for bug spray liquid. There were no fingerprints on any items, though. The perpetrator was wearing gloves since all he saw on the items were smudges. He bent down to pick them up.

10 minutes passed by quickly.

“Where the heck is that stubborn guy?” Nino looked.

Ohno spotted him picking up items and ran towards him. Jun looked forward and stood up, “Finally!”

“I’m sorry, sir!” Ohno bowed.

“It’s okay. Don’t call me, sir. You’re older than me.”

Ohno nodded, “So, fill us in on the details.”

Nino took out his camera and focused it a bit, “I’m listening…” Jun explained his findings and showed them where to take pictures and what to draw out.