Reminder of the Heart: A Detective's Case - Chapter 6
Nino focused his camera carefully on the shattered window while Ohno made the layout of the building. “I’m surprised they didn’t use anything big to break this window.” Nino said.
“They could have planted it there, though.” Ohno explained.
“Eh… this case doesn’t seem to make sense to me at all from what I read. I mean, from everything I’ve noticed, is confusing,” Jun was perplexed. Normally he could figure it out like that; this one isn’t easy.
“Did we get everything out here? I already drew it..” Ohno showed his sketch. He was fast at drawing.
“I’ve got everything photographed too.”
“All right. Let’s go in and see what else there is.” Jun ordered.
They checked the front door, and it was unlocked. Jun opened the door slightly and check inside, “All clear…” He slowly walked inside and couldn’t see anything. “Flashlight…” He held his hand out. Nino went through his bag and took out a flashlight. He handed it to Ohno who handed it Jun. “This flashlight isn’t bright…” Jun complained as he tried to shine on the wall. Nino shrugged and checked his bag for batteries. He found ones that fit and quickly replaced the batteries, “Awww, much better…” satisfying Jun as he turned it on again.
“It seems that this has been abandoned for the last couple of years.” Ohno took out his mini flashlight and noticed some signs, quickly drawing them, “I can’t tell by these signs what this building is…”
“Hhhhm… it doesn’t seem like a hotel at all even though this is in the hotel district,” Jun lit a room. It was an office with cubicles in it.
“Well, I can take pictures in the darkness just not that well. I will try…” Nino held up his camera in front of him.
“Why did we have to come here at night?” Ohno sighed.
“Well, Chief said we can start on it and since it’s night, no one will really notice. They would think we’re just young kids, doing something stupid.” Jun explained.
“Do we really look THAT young?” Nino questioned.
“Yes. If we looked older, then our faces would have aged more.” Jun responded.
“He’s got a point…” Ohno agreed.
“We have gear though…” Nino argued.
“Nino, let’s argue later. We’re investigating and this is not a good way to find any clues in here. I have an idea. There’s about 8 floors. Let’s split up and keep your cell phones on walkie-talkie mode.” Jun planned out. “I will take the top 3 floors. Ohno, take the 2 bottom floors and Nino, takes the 3 middle floors.”
“How come I have to get 3 and he gets-“ Nino was cut off about Ohno hitting him with his sketchbook.
“Just do it already. We never argue about anything until now…” Ohno rolled his eyes and stayed where he’s at. He continued to go around his areas to see anything unusual and draw the layout. Jun and Nino took the stairs to their floors. On Nino’s floors, there was a lot of dust. It didn’t seem the person went through the middle at all. Ohno went up to the other floor he had and didn’t see anything except emptiness. It wasn’t as detailed as the bottom floor he drew pictures from. “This is really an abandoned building…” He said to himself. Jun didn’t see anything on the 6th or 7th floors. ~ Well, it seems he may have used the last level. ~ He slowly went up the stairs to the 8th floor. The door wasn’t closed. He slowly walked over and checked for fingerprints…. The person left no marks. He figured he had gloves on. A beep came from his walkie-talkie function of his cell phone.
“I see nothing here!” Nino looked further.
“That was loud, Nino!” Ohno bursted back.
“Besides listening to both of your outbursts, did you see anything unusual?” Jun sighed.
“Like I said, there’s nothing. There’s a lot of dust and cobwebs. No signs.” Nino checked with his flashlight one more time.
“He might have come in one way and decided to take another part..” Ohno suggested.
“It might seem that way. He used the upper level…” Jun examined the door for anything. He saw a cord stick out a bit… it looked familiar. ~ Where have I seen this before? ~ He focused the flashlight on it and realized it was the same wire that was used to tap into Mao’s phone line. Jun breathed and decided to do something irrational. He kicked the door open to see if anything would happen.
“We can hear that!” Ohno grumbled. Nino agreed.
Jun apologized, turned off his walkie-talkie function and went back to his work. Inside the room was an office desk with a cordless phone and a switchbox. He followed the wire to the ground. It was attached to something beneath the wood floor. He looked up and decided to check the rest of the room before taking the floor apart. On the desk itself, he noticed a cigarette tray full of ashes. He checked them to see if they were still warm. “I knew it. He left recently…” What came to mind was figuring out how the person dealt with things. He sat on the chair, and it was still warm. ~ How did he move out so quickly? ~ Jun imagined the situation in his mind.
*******
Nino and Ohno waited outside of the building since they were done.
“Anything?” Nino took out a cigarette, lit it and smoked.
“Just some signs and some cobwebs. He made it look like he went through the front door.” Ohno smoked as well.
“Well, I hope Jun finds something since my floors were empty and intact.” Nino puffed out.
“We’ve seen him at his best. He’ll figure it out. Besides, he would have warned us if there was a bomb..” Ohno explained.
“You’re right. Have you read much about this case?” Nino asked.
“No. I have it with me, though. Let’s take a look at it while we’re waiting.” Ohno smiled. Nino agreed.
*******
Jun looked up at the ceiling with the flashlight. There were some dents no one would notice at first. He imagined the suspect climbed up to the roof to get into this room. It didn’t make sense. He looked down at the wire from the door. He slid off the seat, bent down and felt it. The wood floor was loose. He managed to slide it to the side. In front of him was a device connected to the wire. There was a timer on it and his eyes widened. ~ He wasn’t going to leave his tracks! ~ The building was going to blow in 5 minutes. He took out his cell phone and took pictures of it. He paged Nino & Ohno.
“We copy!” Ohno answered.
“Get out of the building.” Jun said calmly.
“We’re outside already. Is there something wrong?” Nino suspected.
“We have less than 4 minutes to clear out of here.” Jun responded, not panicking.
“Oh crap! You get out of there.” Ohno bit his lip.
“Call the bomb squad and the rest of the department. I will disarm it.” Jun replied.
“You sure? I know you’ve only disarmed one bomb before. You may just set this one off!” Nino panicked.
“Just call them!” Jun turned off the walkie-talkie function and took out a pair of wire cutters from his pocket. ~ Why does this guy like to play tricks with me? Ok… you can do this, Jun. ~
He looked carefully at the device. He had less than 3 minutes left.
From his training, he realized if he cut the wrong wire, the bomb would
go off. There were 7 different ones: blue, black, orange, green, red,
yellow, and purple. Then, he looked over to one of its sides and saw a
note.
To whoever finds this:
Ever think the same wire from Mao’s apartment can connect to a bomb? You missed the very small details. I hope you have a nice life in hell.
There was no signature. He should have known that the door would activate the bomb. No wonder it was ajar and it probably started at about 10 minutes. He stood up for a bit to think as the timer went down to 2 minutes. From deduction, red is always the baited color. Black was known as other common wire color people used but this guy wasn’t going to make it easy. Green, blue, and orange were used in movies. So, the only two left that were out of common colors were yellow and purple. He needed to figure out which color the suspect used. He thought back at everything involving color from what the suspect left. He quickly looked at the note… it was black ink. He shined the flashlight at the dents on the ceiling. No clues. Then, he thought out of the box. He remembered the e-mails that were sent to Mao. If he used one of the colors, then it’s the other color to be opposite. From his memory, purple was used to make it noticeable. Then, he bent down quickly and cut the yellow wire. The timer stopped at 50 seconds. Jun sat back and sighed in relief. ~ God, this case is really not going to be easy on both me and Mao. ~ Sweat dripped from his forehead. He took out his handkerchief and wiped it. Then, he looked down at the bomb again and was amazed by the complexity. He noted in his mind he knew how to create bombs… the was enough C4 to even blow some of the buildings around it. Jun hit the floor with his fist and realized he was going to hurt innocent people as well.
*******
After 30 minutes, the police and bomb squad arrived. Nino & Ohno lead them to the last floor. Jun sat against the wall, smoking a cigarette.
“You okay?” Ohno bent down. Jun nodded. He was pissed but needed to figure out why the suspect wanted to hurt others when he wanted only Mao.
“Satoshi… let’s leave him a bit. He’s probably in shock…” Nino noticed from the look on his face. Ohno nodded and got up to draw pictures of the bomb and room. Nino started taking pictures.
Jun’s cell phone vibrated in his jacket pocket. He took it out. Mao was calling, “Hello?”
“Evening, Jun. I hope I’m not interrupting you on your work.” Mao spoke.
“Well, the investigation here is over. So it’s okay.” He smoked a bit more.
“Anything?” Mao asked.
“I will have to tell you the details later. It was… I’ll wait to tell you. I forgot to call you for updated. My apologies…” Jun responded.
“It’s okay. At least, you’re okay and that’s good. Shun just left cause he came to talk to me.” Mao smiled.
“I see. I told him the situation and he probably was worried.” Jun watched the bomb squad take out the bomb.
“Yes. I hope you can come back tonight so we can eat dinner. I’m still scared from earlier.” Mao hugged her teddy bear.
“I probably will after this. It’ll take about a couple more hours. I know it’ll be late… you don’t have to stay up…”
“No no. I feel safer if someone was here. That’s all. I’m a baby..” Mao felt embarrassed.
Jun understood and smiled a little, “Don’t worry. If I were you, I would be scared too.”
“Detective Matsumoto?” One of the bomb squad members looked down. Jun looked up. “I have to show you something.”
Jun nodded again and spoke to Mao, “I have to go.”
“All right. Be careful.” Mao smiled.
“I will.” He hung up his phone and went with him.
*******
Mao was going to wait even if she had a pistol and stun gun in her possession. She turned on her laptop to research more about Jun. From all the news, she was surprised Jun took the case. She felt bad for him and wished she could help. She couldn’t… she can’t replace Yukie. She can’t bring her back. Tears rolled down her cheeks. ~ I’ll be strong just like her, though. I hope he shows me the clues to help him. ~ She used the teddy bear to wipe her eyes a bit. She jumped as someone knocked on her door. She put the teddy bear aside and took the pistol with her. The knocking became more intense.
“Are you in there, Jun?” Someone yelled from outside.
“What the..” Mao checked the door hole and it wasn’t someone she recognized. He was in sunglasses, a black trenchcoat and hat. “Who are you?” Mao demanded loudly. The man shuffled around his pockets for something. He took out an ID. She saw and he was one of Jun’s friends he talked about. She opened the door.
Sho looked at her, “Are you Mao Inoue?” She wasn’t sure to trust him but nodded. “I’m Sho Sakurai, one of Jun’s friends. I checked his apartment but he wasn’t there.”
“Did you call his cellphone?” Mao asked.
“Oh.. I forgot…” Sho was a forget person when he was focused on a case. Mao wanted to test him more cause she didn’t want to let anyone in.
“Who’s Yukie Nakama?”
The question surprise Sho but he knew who she was, “Jun’s girlfriend who was killed 4 years ago.”
