chsdbacks Chapter 415 – 415
Chapter 415 – 415
Although the Jade Fang called it a medek clinic, it wasn’t quite what I expected. Dr. Fugen had taken over a morgue underneath an abandoned police precinct, and turned that into his clinic. The precinct above looked like it’d been turned into a joytoy den, which had a certain sad irony to it. Oh, and the security office for all of Kake Street.By the time we arrived on scene, the entire facility had devolved into a shouting match. All the important figures had already arrived. Shinobu sat on a medical examiners table that’d been pushed off to the side, and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. He nodded to me as we slipped into the room, though was otherwise focused on the argument.
”Of course he’s the killer! The gun was found here. He’s literally been caught red-handed!” Hiiro Nishin, the chief of security, shouted and moved a threatening step toward Dr. Fugen.
”Just because it was found here doesn’t mean anything.” Makoto moved in between them, and raised his hands to get teh enraged chief of security to back away. “Just calm down and let’s think this through, okay?”
”I calm! I’m perfectly calm!” The loudness of his voice completely betrayed the chief of security’s words. It looked like he was either about to pummel or detain the medek, and didn’t quite know which.
Unfortunately for Hiiro, several chromed-out Kage backed up Makoto and interfered with his attempts. Dr. Fugen sneered at the man from his position safely tucked away. “Hiiro, you’re pushing this quite hard. Was it you that planted it?”
The stocky man froze, and then turned toward the medek with even more rage. ”How could you try to turn this on me?! After killing the elder in cold blood?! As if ruining one life wasn’t already good enough for you, bastard!”
“It’s a sound theory. Especially since were the one who to find the gun.” Shinobu glanced back toward us. His eyes lingered on for a moment before he nodded to Bradton. “Detective, what do you think?”
”Geez, I don’t know.” Detective Bradton split off to the side and rubbed at the back of his neck. He casually approached a central table where a Shen Kang M35 was placed. Mira nailed that one. “It sounds plausible, I guess. Escaping blame by pushing it onto someone else is a common enough tactic. It his gun, after all.”
I eyed the detective with renewed attention. Although all the clues pointed toward Hiiro, he also didn’t seem to think it was the chief of security. While he did agree, the way he agreed practically screamed of his hesitation to finger Hiiro as the killer.
“It was .” The chief of security finally started to calm down, and pinched his nose like we were all idiots. “The medek swiped it, and then shot the elder with it.”
”Except, that doesn’t make much sense, does it?” A new voice called from the doorway. Mira leaned against the frame with Vox snuggled in her arms. “I was rechecking my bot’s logs, and imagine my surprise when I found the only person with gunshot residue on him to be you, Hiiro.”
Well, there went that card. I was hoping to hold onto that for a while longer before revealing it. Quite frankly, I wasn’t sure how it linked into the whole case. Of course I knew Hiiro was the shooter. It was pretty obvious. Someone stealing his gun was likely a lie, and a pretty poor one at that. I just couldn’t figure out .
”What’s so weird about that?” Hiiro frowned. “I go to the shooting range everyday to keep my skills polished. Of course there’d be residue left on me.”
”Right, right.” Mira dropped Vox onto the ground, and pushed off the doorframe. “It just happens to be gun, traces on body, and the one pushing the medek.”
”I don’t like what you’re insinuating. I had no reason to kill Elder Toro.” The man glowered at my mikata. “And it’s all too easy to wash away and hide gunshot residue. If you were an actual investigator instead of a knockoff Troubleshooter, you’d know that.”
Mira shrugged, and didn’t seem to care in the slightest about his insults. “If it looks like a duck, moves like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then its a fucking duck.”
Shinobu nodded to the Kage, and the three of them moved up around the chief of security. “Hiiro, I’m going to have to detain you. Just until we get this all sorted out.”
Hiiro looked back toward the man with bewildered eyes. “You can’t seriously be buying into this drivel, enforcer. I thought you were smarter than that.”
“I’m not saying you did it… but if you did, it wouldn’t be a good look to let the elder’s killer just walk around. Especially when all the evidence points toward you.” Shinobu moved over to the man just as one of the Kage pulled out a set of chunky, thick handcuffs and slapped them onto the security chief's wrists. “It’d be the same for any other person.”
”Fine, I’ll play along.” Despite his aggravation, Hiiro didn’t resist. “I’m not the killer, though. Mark my words, if you don’t find who actually did it quickly, it’s only a matter of time until they get away with this crime.”
”Yeah, yeah.” Dr. Fugen waved an uncaring hand. “Nice try, killer. You were literally caught red-handed planting evidence.”
Shinobu carefully grabbed the gun and slipped it into a baggie. “There’s holding cells upstairs. Take him there for now.”
I shuffled to the side to get out of the procession’s way. Mira moved up behind me, and leaned against the wall. Her halo pulsed with light, and she squinted at me. “Almost missed the fireworks… you knew about him?”
”Chek. I didn’t want to reveal quite yet.” There was zero doubt in my mind that the shooter was Hiiro. It lined up in every way except why he would do it… unless—no, that’d be stupid. Maybe, though? “We need to catch Mokoto. I’ve got some questions I need you to ask.”
”Fire away.” Mira pushed off the wall, and we tagged along behind everyone out into the street. We caught up with Makoto just as he was splitting off from the group escorting Hiiro. It wasn’t that hard. The man moved with a limp from where he’d been partially paralyzed.
”Ah, investigator. I figured it was only a matter of time until one of you came by.” Makoto, the chief of operations for Kake Street, smiled cordially. It was a step up from one of those empty corpo-smiles, but not by much.
“You think Hiiro did it?” Mira moved in step with him down the street. The lights shining through the fog reflected off her halo, and made her look particularly bright.
”Do you?” Makoto shrugged. “I didn’t think he had it in him, but the evidence says otherwise.”
”Except the elder wasn’t shot to death.” Mira raised a hand and brushed loose drops of rain off of her halo. They trailed off and dropped onto her poncho, where they caught stray strands of neon light. “He was poisoned.”
”Oh.” Makoto froze for a step, and then slowly nodded along. “Then Hiiro really isn’t the killer. Should we go tell the enforcer?”
”Detective Bradton’s probably already on it. Shinobu already got the tox report from Green Pharmaceuticals.” Mira nodded back toward the large group walking away from us. There were more reasons than one to temporarily detain a suspect. “I had some other questions for you.”
”And I’d be happy to give some answers.” Makoto moved off toward the diner, and swiped a card at a scanner. The door slid open. “Would you mind terribly if we got out of this rain, first?”
The three of us entered the empty diner. Lights overhead flickered on and off, with dim light cast into the room by the illuminated fog outside. It wasn’t an issue for me thanks to my night vision, but it did make the shadows reach ever so slightly longer.
”Would you be a dear and get us something to drink?” Makoto asked me.
I bit back that remark. At the moment, I was just a lowly Jade Fang goon, and he was my superior. I shuffled off toward the bar and popped open a fridge, revealing bottles of water and pop.
While I was busy with that, Mira jumped straight into the questions. “Did you know about the malfunctioning biomonitor?”
“You mean before it was announced to everyone, therefore giving plausible deniability?” Makoto crossed his arms and raised a brow. “Yes, yes I did. Aside from Dr. Fugen, I was the only one who was told by the elder.”
”Did he share that kind of information often with you?”
”Anything that could interfere with the operations of Kake Street.” The man waved a hand toward the window. “The Fang take this place’s operations very seriously. It’s a foot in the door of Portside, and one of our more important operations.”
“Here.” I set down two water bottles on the table, and backed away to sit at one of the counter’s stools. A flash of lightning sent long shadows stretching across the entire diner for a moment before the lights kicked back on.
“Thanks.” Mira lifted the bottle, and tilted it toward me in acknowledgment. “Did he seem stressed? Worried? Anxious about anything? In the days leading up to his death, that is.”
”No, nothing—“ Makoto’s head tilted to the side. “Actaully, there was one thing. Over the past couple weeks, he took a deeper dive into the money trails through Kake Street. He was a bit… grouchier than usual?”
“Money trail?” Mira tapped her finger on the table. ”Any idea what he found?”
“I wish. I’ve been digging through the files myself, but I haven’t turned anything up yet.” Makoto sighed and dragged a hand down his face. “If it really was something, the elder wouldn’t have kept that kind of information just anywhere.”
”The safe?” The halo over her head pulsed, and a moment later Mira came to the exact same conclusion as me. More accurately, the conclusion Makoto was leading us to.
“Exactly what I was thinking.” Makoto paused to take a drink of the water bottle. “It’s likely the elder approached whoever was doing something shady, and that got him killed. The killer then ransacked the safe to destroy the evidence.”
“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?” She asked.
The chief of operations shrugged. “I have no evidence. It’s all just a speculation based on small observations of the elder. I could be entirely wrong, and the killer instead wanted something valuable from the safe. In that case, there’d be no trail in the paperwork to begin with, and I’d have brought unnecessary confusion.”
It made sense. A little too much sense, actually. My suspicion turned onto him. I dropped my voice low enough for the Packheart link. “Ask him if he did it.”
”And what about you?” Mira instantly moved on what I said. “You could very well be the killer.”
”Please, I wouldn’t do something so risky like murdering an elder.” The man ran a hand over his legs. “I lived that kind of life once already, and paid for it. Now I want nothing more than to take home a big check to my wife and son. It’s why I volunteered for the job out here, away from everything else.”
Woah, that was oddly wholesome. I didn’t expect to find something like that in a gang… though I guess that was just being short-sighted. My family was deeply entwined with the Jade Fang, afterall… we didn’t have a good ending though. Here’s to hoping his goes better.
Mira shifted in her seat and side-eyed me. “Um… Mama Akane brought a bottle of wine to the elder. Was he a big drinker?”
”Definitely not.” Makoto smiled lightly, and looked off into the distance as if thinking of better times. “Elder Toro was… respectful. He clung to honor of the old ways. He didn’t like to drink, but he wouldn’t refuse a drink if a subordinate offered.”
Was that common knowledge? Anyone that knew Akane planned to bring wine would know he’d drink, then. It wasn’t necessarily her, though it still lined up with the woman. And with all that stuff about Hiiro… maybe I should’ve taken a deeper look into her back then.
“One last question.” Mira glanced back toward me. “Security Chief Hiiro—what was his relationship with the people around here?”
”Coworkers at best with everyone. I didn’t really pay attention to that kind of thing, though.” Makoto rubbed at his chin. “Ah, wait. He seemed pretty close with Akane. On more than one occasion, they’d ask for vacation at the same time. Might not mean anything, but…”
”Interesting.” Mira tapped the table a few more times, and then moved to slide out of the booth. She paused last moment. “Oh, right, have you seen Seth King?”
”No? Last I saw, he was headed to Otori in the arcade.” The man’s eyebrows curled lower. “Is something wrong?”
”I haven’t seen him in a while.” She shrugged. “Whatever, not my problem. Let’s go, Fang. Take me back to Akane.”
”You could ask nicely, ya’ know?” I slid off the stool, and pushed open the doors for the three of us. It seemed Mira was thinking the same thing I was.