Disclaimer: I don't own Gravitation or the characters portrayed within it. They belong to the wonderful Maki Murakami and I'm only using her ideas and a bit of my own artistic license to write a story.
Chapter Four
Under the Microscope
Eiri-kun? What's that in your hand? Is that a gun? Where did you get it from?
Is that— is it Mike's revolver? Oh, that STUPID son of a bitch! I'm going to kill him!
Eiri-kun, gimme the gun. You wouldn't shoot me, right? You can't, it's not like you.
See? You are shaking all over. Lower the gun, Eiri-kun. Take your finger off the trigger.
Okay, okay, I won't come any closer. I'll just stand right over here, okay? See? I'm not moving.
So I am moving a little, but it's only a little. See? Tiny, little steps.
You wouldn't hurt me, right? Lower that thing, Eiri. It is not a toy. Give it to me.
"Aniki! Oi, Aniki!" Tatsuha's voice was a whisper in the dark. He scooted closer to his older brother's futon and shook him lightly the same way he'd done a moment ago. "Are you having a bad dream again?"
Eiri woke up with a start and his arms shot out to steady his bolting motion, hitting Tatsuha in the chest by accident.
"Ouch, that hurt! I was only trying to wake you up." Tatsuha pouted and rubbed his chest.
Eiri sat up on his futon. His breathing came hard, and his neck bobbed up and down when he swallowed. He was covered in sweat – his hair sticking clammily to his forehead and neck; his shirt stuck to his chest in places like a second skin. He looked around him in a light daze, as if trying to establish his surroundings.
"Were you having a bad dream? Do you want me to get in the futon with you? You used to let me get in your futon when I had bad dreams. I can return the favour now, if you want. I don't mind, it's not that hot."
The pillow gave way under the weight of Eiri's head when he lay down again. He turned around, with his back to his brother. "Don't be stupid, Tatsuha. I'm not nine years old like you, I'm a grown up. I don't need that sort of thing. Go back to your futon and sleep."
"I'm ten!"
"Whatever. Go to bed."
Tatsuha frowned and lingered around his brother's futon, looking forlorn.
"Come on! Before I tell Mikarin about school today, go!" Eiri hissed out. Tatsuha crawled in the dark towards his futon and got into it with some fuss. "You wouldn't tell her," he huffed, adjusting the covers around the lower part of his body only, one leg sticking out.
"Try me."
The air in the room was hot and humid. It had stopped raining late in the evening and the cicadas had come out in droves. Thousands of them of different species poised themselves upon the damp grass outside, performing a steady vibrato melody like they did every night during the summer months. Their shrill chirping filtered through the wooden walls of Eiri and Tatsuha's shared room in the house beside the temple, drilling into their ears.
"Aniki, are you awake?" Tatsuha stretched his hands towards the ceiling and looked at them with eyes adjusted to the dark. "I know you are awake, but you are being grumpy. You've been grumpy since you came back from America. Did something bad happen there?"
"Shut up and sleep, Tatsuha."
"What was your dream about?"
"I don't know, I don't remember."
"You are just saying that to keep me quiet."
"No, I'm not."
Tatsuha sighed and rolled over, looking towards the unmoving lump across from him. He bit his lower lip before he spoke. "Aniki… who's Yuki?"
Eiri's back twitched. "Where did you hear that name?" he asked apprehensively.
"You were calling that name in your dream."
"What else did I say?"
"Not much. You were asking 'why' over and over again, and telling that person not to move." Tatsuha shrugged.
"Did I say anything else?"
"Like what?"
"Like anything else, Tatsuha, anything at all."
Tatsuha seemed to think about it for a moment before he concluded, "No, that wass all."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure! At least I didn't hear anything else when I awoke." Tatsuha rested his elbow on the lining under him and leaned his head on the palm of his hand, sleep apparently not a priority for him at the moment.
"Anikiii—"
"Be quiet and go to sleep. You have school tomorrow."
"But—"
"Tatsuhaa…"
Tatsuha flopped down on the futon and threw the covers over his face in discontent. For a while he twisted and turned, his futon covers shuffling here and there. At last his fidgeting stopped and his breathing came out evenly. For Eiri, on the other hand, sleep didn't come.
A few hours later, the first vestiges of sunshine started seeping through the gaps in the wooden beams of the wall. Mika was already up and cooking. The smell of a hearty Japanese breakfast wafted around the temple house, inciting its inhabitants to break away from the persistent tendrils of sleep and rise from the depths of the world of dreams. Eiri got up silently and rolled up his futon. He then awoke Tatsuha, who sleepily opened his eyes, closed them again and begged to be left alone for another five minutes. Eiri threatened to pour a bucket of cold garden-pond water over his head, at which Tatsuha rolled off the futon and onto the floor, grumbling. Eiri got dressed and went to the kitchen to help his sister with breakfast.
"Sleep well?" Mika asked while switching on the stove where the i miso /i soup would be heated.
Eiri shrugged. "I guess," he lied.
At that point the telephone rang. Mika frowned and looked at the clock on the wall. It read 6:52 am. "Who could it be this early?" She dried her hands with a cloth and walked to the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Uesugi-san. It's me, Seguchi-san. I'm sorry to call this early. I tried calling last night but I couldn't get through to anyone."
"Hello, Tohma," Mika said, glancing at Eiri when he turned to look at her. "Last night we were at a relative's house until pretty late."
"The reason I couldn't wait until later to call is because my flight leaves in half an hour and I won't be able to talk to you again until I touch down in New York."
"I see." Mika covered the phone with a hand and hushed out, "Eiri, could you go make sure Tatsuha puts his tie on properly? Dad should also be up by now. Go and get them both." Whilst she said this she motioned him out with her other hand. Eiri looked suspicious for a moment and hesitated briefly before turning around and leaving the kitchen.
"New York? Why are you going there?" Mika hurried to ask as soon as she was alone.
"My boss called me yesterday afternoon and he didn't sound happy. The truth is I suspected something like this might happen. I can't just walk out of my job like that, without giving any notice. I'm breaking my contract."
"Of course." Mika walked to the edge of the kitchen and peered around the door. The corridor was empty.
"Riley is willing to let me go because he's a friend of the man who recommended me for the job, Makamoto-san. As you might remember Makamoto-san is also an old friend of my father's and I wouldn't like for the news to spread back to my home. They have enough against me as it is. Riley has asked me to go in person to sign some papers and close things off properly and I've accepted. It's just a formality, so it shouldn't take long. I'll try to tie some loose ends over there and come back as soon as possible, hopefully by the weekend."
"Is it okay for you to go back?" Mika asked, her tone worried.
Tohma sighed. "I considered trying to disappear, but our common connections make it practically impossible to do it without raising suspicions. It'd be very easy for my boss to ask around and track me down. It's better this way."
"And what about," Mika hesitated, "what about Kitazawa-san?"
"I have been checking the papers and nothing seems to have come of it. I think it's quite fair to assume we are in the clear."
"Tohma?"
"What is it?"
"I don't know. Something seems weird. Didn't you just say Riley called you yesterday afternoon?"
"That's right."
"But I thought you were to talk to him on Monday. Wouldn't he have told you all of this then?"
"I did call him on Monday, but apparently he had some trouble getting back from Philadelphia and he wasn't in the office all morning. I guess Andrew gave him my message and my contact number sometime between my phone call and Monday evening, when he called me."
"Didn't you just say he'd called you yesterday at midday? It's Wednesday today, it doesn't add up."
"Sorry to confuse you, Uesugi-san. I meant Monday evening, New York time. There's a 14-hour difference."
"Right."
Eiri came walking down the corridor, Tatsuha in tow. Mika observed Tatsuha's tie wasn't tied properly after all.
"Okay, give us a call when you get there. Do you want to talk to Eiri?"
Eiri and Tatsuha walked past Mika then. Eiri looked surprised and rushed to wave his hand in a negative motion. His eyes widened meaningfully and he shook his head 'no'.
"Oh, sorry. I thought he was coming around the corner but it was only Tatsuha. Eiri must still be in the bath. Yes, okay. Bye, then."
Mika hung up the phone. "Why don't you want to talk to Tohma? You haven't spoken to him once since we came down to Kyoto. Everything okay between you two?"
Eiri stirred the i miso /i soup and switched off the electric stove. "Yeah, everything's fine. I just don't want to talk to anybody right now."
"You are talking to me," Mika said smiling. She walked to the table and kissed Tatsuha's forehead. "Morning rascal," she greeted him, ruffling his hair after she'd finished fumbling with his tie. Tatsuha whined at Mika's affections and eloquently expressed his disgust towards any kind of emotional display, then demanded breakfast.
"Watch your mouth, young man," Mika warned Tatsuha, hitting him lightly in the head with a ladle. He blew a raspberry at her, but turned serious as soon as the Uesugi patriarch sauntered into the kitchen, trying to stifle a yawn. He greeted them while Mika and Eiri finished serving breakfast for the family.
"Good morning, son," he said to Eiri. His eyes were cold.
"Good morning, sir," Eiri said in return, not looking at the Uesugi patriarch directly.
The Uesugis moved into the other room with their zen-trays, sat down together and performed their first morning prayer.
The lobby of Cellulose Media Inc. was buzzing with activity at ten in the morning. The company building were Tohma used to work was an unrefined rectangular mixture of concrete, glass and steel, with its roots embedded deep underneath the Manhattan jungle, and rising twenty eight stories above street level. The shadow of the rotating doors Tohma left behind turned on the linoleum floor under his feet.
He walked through the metal detector and towards the signing-in desk, where he didn't recognize the woman sitting there. Behind her head, on the wall, the large chrome logo of the company hung on the wall.
"Hello," he greeted her, pulling the registry sheet and signing himself into the building. "I work here," he said, showing her his company card. "At least until I come back down I do. Are you new?"
The young woman glanced up from the note she was writing and took his card for inspection. Without looking, she swiped it in the verification system and the light went green. "I'm only doing temp work for the girl who's on vacation," she explained briefly, turning the registry around to read his name and handing the card back to him.
"Ginny?" Tohma enquired.
"I guess so," she said non-committaly, reading his name. For a moment, she looked surprised. Her eyes darted from the paper back to him, and then behind her shoulder.
"It's a foreign surname. I'm Japanese," Tohma said smiling politely, adjusting the jacket he had draped over his arm. He was used to people's incredulity when he told them he was Japanese. The information would usually be followed by a strand of questions on the unusual colour of his hair, his eyes, and possibly a mention of his almost flawless accent.
"I know," she said, looking between the paper and him again.
Tohma frowned. "You do? That's uncommon," he said smiling. Before Tohma could think anything else of the woman's strange turn in attitude, however, a voice sounded behind her. Tohma lifted his face to look.
"Tohma, my man! You are here." A young, lanky man with dark hair covered in gel appeared from behind a door, walking with long strides towards him.
"Hello, Jack," Tohma greeted him, extending his hand out to shake Jack's firmly. The woman went back to her note, but not without first wheeling her chair away from them slightly, towards a corner of the desk.
"I wasn't expecting you until midday at least." Jack looked at his wristwatch.
"You were expecting me?" Tohma asked confused.
Jack let out a quiet laugh and Tohma thought it sounded nervous. Jack smoothed his tie down, smiling. "Well, not me personally. The big guys upstairs." Jack's long finger pointed at the ceiling, and then he lowered his arm and his hand came to rest on his hip. He looked at the small suitcase in Tohma's left hand and then back to his face. "Come straight from the airport?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact I did," Tohma said unsurely, following Jack's gaze when the other glanced at the phone. "I wasn't aware my whereabouts where being discussed all over the building."
"Oh, it's nothing like that! I just heard you had to leave but that you were coming back today." This time Tohma was sure Jack's laughter was nervous. "Anyway," Jack reached out to pick up the phone, even though it hadn't rung. "Duty calls," he said smiling. "I guess I'll see you on your way back out. Take care."
Tohma's eyes narrowed, "Sure". He glanced at the girl and noticed that her pen was hovering over the paper, but she hadn't written anything down in the last few minutes. Jack was dialling an internal number. A sixth sense kicked in, telling Tohma something was wrong. For a moment, he was tempted to turn on his heels and walk back out of the building and into a vehicle that would take him back to the airport. Then, shaking his head to himself, he pushed his paranoia aside and made his way to the lift. The air-conditioning had never being very effective and Tohma took a moment to wipe his forehead down with his sleeve. Inside the elevator Tohma could see Jack waving at him from the desk.
When he reached the twenty-fifth floor and came out of the elevator all eyes turned to him. People's voices hushed and not a piece of paper could be heard shuffling. Tohma willed himself to move and his mouth to speak normally. If the rumours of his sudden departure had been circulating around the office he was expecting the usual reproaching stares and back-stabbing attitude to emerge. Tohma knew this was the time one found out who, if anybody, were one's true friends.
"Hello, everybody," he greeted them. All eyes evaded his, and people pretended to go back to what they had been doing before he'd appeared.
"Tohma," Nicky's familiar voice startled him. Tohma turned his face and she came into his field of view, looking her usual corporative self. He didn't like the woman much. She was the kind who would do anything to get to the top, including sharing more than her professional opinions with Riley on the weekends or whenever Riley's wife was away.
"Hello, how are you?" She came to a stop in front of him. Her smile was that which she might have given a perfect stranger on the street: cold, distant and weary.
"Doing the best I can. And yourself?"
"Running around like a headless chicken, as usual. We weren't expecting you yet. Riley is busy at the moment, come with me." She turned around and Tohma knew immediately that she was walking in the direction of the conference room. People's gazes lifted from their desks and photocopying machines followed them as they walked. Instead of looking at them or the floor Tohma kept his head held high and looked in the direction of Andrew's office, but the door was closed and the lights were off. For that matter, his own office was closed, and the blinds drawn. The golden plaque on the wall outside still bore his name.
They went inside an ample room with a large oval table in the middle, surrounded by leather swivel chairs. Apart from the table, the chairs and a wheeled cart with some high-tech equipment at the far end, the room was empty. Tohma noticed the carpet and table were perfectly clean, indicating the room hadn't been used that day. His eyes moved towards the left hand side corner of the ceiling, where the small, red light of a surveillance camera glowed.
"It feels like centuries have passed since I was here last time," Tohma said, putting his jacket on the back of a chair, his suitcase on the floor, and sitting himself down. "It was only last week, though."
"Can I get you anything? Would you like a coffee?" Nicky asked, hovering by the door.
"Coffee would be great, thank you," Tohma replied.
"I'll tell Lucy to prepare it. Just wait here a moment. Riley shouldn't be long." With that, Nicky turned around and left. Tohma rubbed his eyes and adjusted his shirt, wondering if he looked as tired as he felt. His plane had touched down on JFK airport at 07:42 am, New York time. On the way to Japan, Eiri and he had lost over a day due to the time difference. Now, however, it was as though he'd teleported himself from Japan to America in an instant, taking only ten minutes to do the whole trip. It was enough to disorient even an astronaut, he thought, looking forward to that coffee.
As if on cue, the door opened and a timid looking Lucy walked in, carrying a cup of black coffee. "Hi," she said simply, setting the saucer down on the table in front of him. Her hand jittered slightly and a little coffee spilled out of the cup and into the saucer, also wetting the packets of sugar.
"Sorry!" she rushed to apologize, but before he could tell her it was nothing, Riley came into the room.
"Lucy, please bring me a cup of coffee as well, will you?" He strode into the room, his step confident and strong. "Hello, Tohma." He stretched his hand out and they shook hands firmly. Lucy made herself scarce, seeming only too glad to leave. Riley sat himself down and looked at his wristwatch. "I didn't think you'll come here straight away. I had understood you'd stop at your house first, so the papers aren't ready yet." He was skipping the pleasantries and going straight to the point, something Tohma found strange. Even though they'd already discussed most of the reasons for his leaving over the phone, a personal re-cap was always the right decorum, especially considering the supposed nature of his departure. Tohma had made up some story about Eiri falling with ill health and having to take him back to Japan and look after him.
"Yes, sorry about that. I changed my mind and came here straight away instead."
Riley nodded. "As you are probably aware, breaking your contract with us is not something we can take lightly. I've already told you despite that, as a favour to your family, I'm prepared to let it slide this time. However, to oversee the procedure by which we declare you exempt of the legal obligations to which you are bound to the company, we need the presence of an attorney. I've called him already and he's on his way. His office is nearby so he shouldn't be long."
Tohma had thought as much, and he said so. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused you. It was never my intention."
"Apology accepted," Riley's words were sympathetic but his body language and attitude told a different tale. Tohma felt as though his soon to be ex-boss was trying to discern if there was something else beside the story Tohma had invented. He felt uncomfortable under his scrutiny but he tried not to let it show, making polite conversation about the meeting Tohma should have headed yesterday instead. Something was bugging Tohma, making the palms of his hand sweat and his concentration waver, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was exactly. In the end he attributed his high-strung state to jetlag.
"Where's Andrew? His office door was closed." Tohma drank some of his coffee. He didn't put any sugar on it because the packets had been spoiled and so it tasted bitter.
"I gave him a few days off," Riley answered. Tohma frowned and again felt that something important was evading his mental grasp, slipping between his fingers like an eel. Surely now that he wasn't going to be working anymore, Riley couldn't afford handing out holidays to the key members of the company. Tohma grew wearier and wondered if severing his ties with the company was going to be as easy as he'd hoped, or if there was something he couldn't see lurking beneath the amiable façade.
Lucy came back into the room, this time accompanied by a tall man. The man had receding grey hair and was wearing thick-rimmed glasses, a dark suit and tie, and carrying a briefcase, not too dissimilar to Tohma's own. He greeted Riley and introduced himself to Tohma as Mark Lancaster. Lucy was told to go and fetch a third cup of coffee for the newcomer and the three men were left alone in the conference room.
Riley looked at his wristwatch again. Tohma noticed people had been doing that ever since he had walked in the building, almost an hour ago. "Tohma," Riley said, "I'm sorry it has come to this, but I felt I had no other choice. You must understand, this kind of thing… it doesn't look good for the company." Riley gave a deep, resigned sigh, looking into Tohma's eyes. "We are under the constant inspection of rival companies, always under a microscope. You hold a high post within this company and a scandal like this would deal us a severe blow. Just imagine the headlines in the i Financial Times /i . No, I cannot allow that to happen. I want you to know that this is not a decision I took lightly. Tohma, I want you to believe me when I say that I have your, and especially your family's, best interests in my mind at all times. I've been racking my brains since Monday, but in the end I could see no other solution. I'm truly sorry."
Tohma felt his heart pulse accelerate, but said nothing, for Riley was already talking again. "Before you think badly of me, or Andrew, put yourself in our shoes for a moment. I'm sure that eventually you'll come to see I was left with no other choice. I want you and your family to know that I didn't want things to be this way."
At that moment the door to the conference room opened. Somewhere in the back of his mind Tohma already knew it wouldn't be Lucy shuffling past him and setting down another cup of coffee. When he turned to look, he saw two men walking into the room. The people outside, behind the two men, made no effort to mask their curious stares. Tohma knew who the men were straight away, and he felt his head spin, his heart pump against his throat and his breath speed up but he didn't let any of it show on his expression. Instead he looked at the men with mild interest.
"My name is Paul Yancey and this man here with me is agent Robert Whitter. We are with the NYPD. Mr. Tohma Seguchi, is that correct?" The door closed behind them again and the elder of the two men walked up to Tohma, towering over him, his police badge in hand. He shoved it so close to Tohma's face that the engraved numbers on it turned blurry.
Tohma's mouth went dry, and he wanted to swallow to clear it but he didn't. He was about to speak when the man sitting to his left got up and, offering his hand to the man who'd introduced himself as Paul Yancey, said, "Mark Lancaster, I'm Mr. Seguchi's lawyer. How do you do?" The officer looked taken aback, but not as much as Tohma did. With a sour face the officer shook the lawyer's hand and turned his neck to give Riley a look that could only be interpreted as reproachful. Riley held his stare.
"I wasn't aware this man needed a lawyer. I only said I had some questions for him – hardly a situation that calls for a lawyer unless you have reasons to worry. Do you have reasons to worry, Mr Seguchi?" The man was curt and straight to the point.
"No more reasons to worry than anyone who has been lied to about the reason his immediate presence is required, and who is forced to take time out from an important family matter."
Mark Lancaster stopped Tohma from saying anything more by putting out a raised hand. "If my information is correct, I understand you have some questions regarding the death of a man named Yuki Kitazawa. With all due respect, officer, if you don't have an arrest warrant, I suggest you go back the way you came. My client won't talk to you until he has spoken with me."
The officer arched his eyebrows and looked at Tohma. Tohma felt he had no say in the matter and so he nodded. Realization had given way to fear, then to anxiety, then to incredulity and finally, when the man who he had thought a social attorney had spoken as his lawyer, shock. Now he was just numb. He could hardly keep up with the events unfolding before his eyes. All of this turmoil was cleverly locked on the inside only, however; on the outside he was the perfect picture of composure. He felt a cold sweat break over his forehead and hoped the others didn't notice it. To help him with this he regarded the officers with a contemptuous stare, as though they were being a nuisance.
Despite the lawyer's words, Officer Yancey showed no intentions of leaving. He looked at his companion and a silent agreement seemed to pass between them. Tohma was almost expecting to hear the words he'd heard on TV so many times before – you have the right to remain silent… The words of the Miranda warning never came, though. Instead, a tense silence settled over the five people in the room, as if each was assessing the others and preparing his next move. Tohma didn't know what his was going to be.
"Okay, let's have it your way, but not here." The officer turned and faced Tohma, "Mr. Seguchi, if you would be so kind as to accompany us to the police station, we'd like to ask you some questions. Your lawyer may be present and advise you, but exercising the right to remain silent may also be used against you should you find yourself under arrest and consequently charged. Is that clear?" Tohma nodded and got up. Mark Lancaster followed and Riley opened the door for them, shooting Tohma a sorrowful look. Tohma rewarded him with a pat on the shoulder, which he hoped came across as a message to Riley and the officers that he had no reason to worry. He was playing the part of innocent as convincingly as he'd seen the actors on Broadway's stages do so many times before.
The walk out of the building was almost a mirror image of the way in except the two officers escorted Tohma walking in front of him and his lawyer trailed beside him. He was so immersed in his role he even indulged in waving Jack goodbye at the desk. Once outside, his lawyer leaned in close and whispered in his ear, "Don't worry Mr. Seguchi. They are taking us to the police station because they must think you involved somehow. Whether you are a suspect or not I can't tell at this point but since they haven't handcuffed you or issued you the Miranda warning I'd say they don't have much on you. Trust me, I know these things. From now on I would like you to speak only if I instruct you to do so, can you do that for me?"
Tohma nodded and his lawyer answered him with a lop-sided smile. He didn't look worried in the least, and that gave Tohma more confidence. It seemed to Tohma his lawyer suspected he was most definitely 'involved in it somehow'. In spite of that, the man would willingly defend his honour in exchange for heart-stopping fees. "It won't sit well with them, and it will most certainly irritate them, although it's perfectly legal." At this little piece of information, Mark Lancaster winked at him and Tohma smiled in return.
They rode in the back of the police car together, saying nothing more to each other Once in the police station they were taken into an austere room with security cameras, a desk and a few chairs. There were no mirrors on the wall, like Tohma had expected, and he figured they might be given some privacy now. Instead, someone brought a tape recorder into the room and the two officers who had come to question him at the building stayed with them.
"Please take a seat and make yourselves comfortable." Tohma thought he could detect a hint of sarcasm in the officer's voice. There was no way in the world what was about to take place next could be made in any way comfortable. Yancey remained standing up, and he walked over to stand next to the table, at a point where Tohma and his lawyer could see him and feel his taller presence, no doubt. The other officer stayed by the door, his arms tight and straight in front of him, his hands interlocked at the end.
"Is your full name Tohma Seguchi?" Officer Yancey asked.
Tohma looked at his lawyer, who nodded for him to answer the question.
"Speak aloud, please," Yancey said, tapping the tape recorder. Tohma did so, loud and clear. His soft, somewhat feminine, voice seemed to surprise the officer, but he continued the line of questions immediately, as if it hadn't. "And you are of Japanese nationality?"
Tohma answered that question and the few standard ones that followed it – age, career, time he had lived in the states, etc.
"Did you know Yuki Kitazawa?"
Tohma was taken by surprise by the sudden change in the line of questioning. He was thinking about how to answer when his lawyer came to the rescue. "Don't answer that question." And so he didn't.
"Already going down that route?" It was a rhetorical question. Officer Yancey gave an exasperated sigh and looked at a clock on the wall. It was just past midday. He paced up and down the room for a couple of minutes then came back to his spot of preference on the table. "Very well, I'll do the talking for a while. I'll tell you what I know so that you both understand what you are up against and think twice about wasting my time."
Mark Lancaster opened his briefcase and took out a block of notes and a pen. Tohma felt he was in competent hands, so he tried to relax.
Officer Yancey past midday.esquestion. "rtable.ll, like Tohma had expected and he figured they'
took a moment to think, drumming his fingers on the table and scrunching his mouth. He took out a small paper pad from the front pocket in his jacket and opened it. He passed a few pages and settled on one, giving it a quick once over. Finally he spoke, his tone loud and matter-of-fact,rummedaight him and his hands interlocked at the end "At 2300 hours last Friday the 22nd of June, the body of freelance Japanese tutor, Yuki Kitazawa, was found at his residence in my jurisdiction in the borough of Queens. Cause of death: a firearm wound to the chest that pierced through his heart. The murder weapon was absent from the scene."
Tohma was sure the reason the officer was telling them all this now was not so they were informed, but rather to study his reactions whilst Tohma was still under the influence of the surprise factor which, thanks to the ride in the police car and his lawyer's reassuring words, was almost as good as gone. Tohma tried not to show any emotion at the mention of Kitazawa's name, or the word 'murder', but inside his stomach was churning with nerves. In his mind's eye he could see Kitazawa's body lying down, bleeding beyond death.
"At the scene of the crime several other things were found – among them, several sets of fingerprints, blood traces that didn't belong to the victim, and certain illegal substances."
Tohma thought the reason his lawyer hadn't requested a private meeting before the officer's monologue was probably so that he, himself, knew exactly what kind of case he had in his hands. Tohma could give his version of events later.
"Now, I don't like it when people think of the police as idiots who can be fooled easily. We are not stupid. So, when my instincts started telling me there was something not quite right about the way this man had died, I started taking it personally. You see, Mr. Seguchi," with those word Tohma realized the officer was making sure that he understood that whatever had prompted him to think that way, Tohma was involved in it somehow, "Mr, Seguchi, it looked to me that the scene of the crime had been tampered with." The officer made a pause, scanning Tohma with the precision of a robotic eye. "After all, it's not often the case for a man to store cocaine at his house when he takes to smoking the much less strong substance known as cannabis, of which we found traces in the victim's blood."
Tohma couldn't help the little twitch in his left eye. He hadn't figured Kitazawa as the type to smoke pot. They were already talking about the cocaine he'd planted and implied the fact they knew it had been planted. What they couldn't possibly know for sure was that he'd planted it, could they?
The corner of Yancey's mouth curved upwards a little as if to say i strike one /i . Officer Yancey leaned forward on the wooden table, his pad resting in one hand over its scratched surface. He looked at Mark Lancaster, who was writing down all of what was being recited. The officer's confidence was obviously building up, his lawyer's never wavered, and so Tohma concluded both sides were breaking even in the initial showdown.
"The night Mr. Kitazawa's apartment was searched we found a list of contacts in his mobile phone and a telephone diary. Among them was your name, Mr Seguchi. Initially, this was just an added lead towards constructing a profile of the victim, except that over the weekend, at our request, the phone company produced a list of the last phone calls placed from Mr Kitazawa's apartment the evening of his death. Do you know where I'm going with this, Mr. Seguchi?"
Tohma kept his eyes expressionless, but he remembered Eiri's phone call to their apartment that evening as clearly as if he were hearing it right now. "Don't say anything," Mark Lancaster warned him, never stopping his pen.
"Also, according to the phone company, you have an apartment at 42nd River Place. Nice area, for the rich and privileged. What does this man have to do with an average American citizen living in Queens? That is what I was wondering when I went to your place on Monday morning."
Tohma didn't let his mask slip from his face, but he couldn't help the way his blood turned icy in his veins, making his face all the whiter. He didn't know Yuki Kitazawa had American citizenship. That certainly complicated matters greatly.
The officer went on with his litany, building intrigue upon intrigue that left no room for why his suspicions towards Tohma were so strong. After all, Tohma thought, that's all they were: suspicions, not hard evidence. He understood what his lawyer had wanted to tell him - if the police had the necessary evidence in a case of felony, Tohma would have been arrested without the need for a court order, and this wouldn't have happened. They had no evidence to prove he was anything more than an acquaintance of the victim. An acquaintance with a connection to the victim on the day of his murder, but an acquaintance nonetheless, Tohma re-assured himself.
Right now, Officer Yancey was talking about Monday morning again. "Nice neighbour, that Smith woman. Told me all about how she hadn't seen you at all for the past few days and where you worked. So, I went to Cellulose Media and I started to get an idea of who you are and what you do. Again more questions came to my head. Your boss, Mr. Jonathan Riley, was very helpful upon our visit on Monday morning. I'm sure he didn't like it when we caused a stir in front of the workers, but it's usually the best way to get people to co-operate a little bit quicker." At those words, the officer made a pause to allow his comment to fully sink in. Obviously, Yancey was trying to incite animosity between him and his boss, and to lead Tohma to think he had no allies and no one to trust.
Tohma remembered how he had been told Riley wasn't at the office on Monday and now he saw that had been a lie. The full implications of how he had been set up started to materialize clearly in his mind. People's reactions to his appearance today also made sense now – the apprehension of the unknown woman at the desk in the lobby, cheerful Jack's nervous laughter, people's eyes in the office, Nicky's cold smile and distant demeanour, Lucy's jittery hands when serving him coffee – they all came back to his memory in quick succession, and he felt he had trapped the eel between his fingers at last. It was useless now. There was no doubt in Tohma's mind everybody had been instructed to expect him to turn up that day, and to keep him in the building and deliver him to Riley so he could be handed over to the police. Everybody thought him a murderer! The idea made Tohma's heart sink lower than he thought it could sink after what he had been through in the last week.
"With a little, shall we say, 'reminder' of how withholding information from the police on a murder investigation turns you into a possible accomplice, and with a little comment from Mr. Riley on how not co-operating with the police puts one's job on jeopardy, your colleague," Yancey paused and looked at his pad, "Andrew Leighton, told us you had fled the country before the weekend."
Tohma was sure 'fled' was not the word Andrew had used, but it was indeed the way the officer had interpreted it. Now he could see why he hadn't been able to talk with Andrew since Monday morning and why Riley had apologized to him before the officers had made their appearance. Could it somehow be, that despite it all, he was still trusted and supported by the one person who had brought him back into the country? Riley's heartfelt apology in the conference room and the fact Tohma had a lawyer sitting by his side made him think perhaps he was. It was ironic, then, that aside from being scared of what might happen now, he was also sad because Riley trusted a man who was almost as guilty as charged.
Officer Yancey had been looking at him for the past few seconds. He looked like a cobra standing far away with its fangs bared, judging just the right timing to strike the lethal blow. "I thought you should know we are expecting to get a report of your credit card activities to come in any minute. We'll also receive more clues from the forensic unit today, but that won't be for a while. Right now, we'll give you sometime to talk to your lawyer, and afterwards we'll need to take your fingerprints and a blood sample for cross-reference with the DNA found at the scene." The officer looked at Tohma's hand and said, almost leering, "Those scratches on your hand don't look particularly healed. Look after them." He straightened up and watched amused as Tohma automatically lowered his hand to his lap, covering the back of it with his left hand, and immediately regretting his action.
The scratches didn't hurt, just like they hadn't hurt when he had broken through the glass panel of Kitazawa's building, his veins overflowing with adrenaline. Mark Lancaster capped his fountain pen and passed the pages in his notebook until he found a blank one. If he noticed the mention of scratches or what had followed afterwards, he didn't let it show.
"Also, if you don't voluntarily let us search your property we'll issue a search warrant to allow us to do so." The officer waited, as if waiting for Tohma to give him the go-ahead now rather than later.
"If that is all, officer, I would like to have some time to talk to my client now." Mark Lancaster got up, inviting the policemen to leave and thereby getting Tohma out of having to volunteer for his apartment to be searched.
"That is all for the moment. We'll wait outside and make a few phone calls. If I hear the right news it is quite possible Mr. Seguchi will be placed under arrest after all, and made to spend the night in a cell. Obviously, even if that weren't to happen, the idea of him leaving town, much less the country, until further notice is completely out of the question." Officer Yancey straightened up and turned to leave, the other officer in tow. "One more thing," he said turning to look over his shoulder. "You see, Mr. Seguchi, the thing that's been bugging me the most all this time is what does someone like you have to do with someone like Mr. Kitazawa. What I need most of all to solve this case is a motive. I'm sure your English skills are nothing short of excellent to work for your company. I somehow doubt your interest in Literature… and so the question that my mind keeps coming up with is this: what links these two unlikely people?"
Tohma was afraid of the man's stare when he asked him the question. His cold, blue eyes seemed to see right through him and stare straight into his soul, into his heart. For a moment he felt petrified. His brain immediately screamed a single word so loudly he was sure everyone in the room must be able to hear it. The word was none other than the answer to the officer's question, the reason he'd fight this unexpected turn of events no matter what, and the person he loved most of all in the world: Eiri!
Thanks for reading, to be continued