Percival Constantine - [Nakamura Detective Agency 01] - Fallen Idol

by Constantine

  “The music scene suffers without you.”

  The waiter returned with a tray holding their drinks. He set each respective glass in front of the women, then excused himself a second time. Kyoko picked up her scotch and took a few sips of it.

  “Very kind of you to say. But I just tired of long nights and being on the road,” said Mai. “Now, I work out of my home. It’s far more convenient.”

  “I can imagine.”

  “Speaking of students…” Mai took a sip of her martini. “On the phone, you said this was about Ayano Kuroki?”

  “That’s correct.” She took out her phone and set it on the table. “Would you mind if I record this conversation?”

  “Not at all.”

  Kyoko opened up the recording app and pushed the red button. She slid the phone to the center of the table so it would pick up both voices as clear as possible. “I’m sure you’ve read the papers lately? About the death of Akane Suzuki?”

  Mai gave a solemn nod. “Yes, quite unfortunate. I saw that they arrested someone for the crime? But I thought she killed herself?”

  “That was the prevailing theory, but new evidence came to light.”

  “You said you were a private investigator?”

  Kyoko nodded after sipping the scotch. “That’s correct. I was hired by Akane’s parents to look into her death, discover if it really was a suicide.”

  “And your evidence prompted the police to reconsider?”

  “Not quite. They apparently received an anonymous tip naming the boyfriend as the culprit.” Kyoko set the glass down on the napkin. “But I don’t think he did it. The image just doesn’t add up for my tastes.”

  Mai swirled her drink with the speared olive, staring into the eddies that formed. “I’m sorry, Ms. Nakamura. But I don’t see what this has to do with me.”

  “Like I said, it’s about Ayano Kuroki. Or more specifically, her bodyguard.”

  “Oh?”

  “Ayano gave me your information, said she was at a lesson with you the night of Akane’s death.”

  “Yes, that’s true.” Mai sipped the drink. “From eight to ten we had a lesson.”

  “Could you describe the average lesson to me?”

  “Well, the bodyguard—”

  “And that would be Haruo Terada?”

  Mai nodded. “Yes, I think that’s his name. He would drop her off at my place around quarter to eight. The lesson finishes at ten and he’s already waiting outside my building in his car.”

  “Is that what happened on the night in question?”

  “Actually, no,” said Mai. “Ayano said that Terada was going to be late that night. She asked if I wanted to have a drink with her. So I brought her to this very bar.”

  “About how late were you out with her?”

  “She didn’t receive a phone call until well after midnight…possibly around one?” Mai took another drink from her glass. “We paid our bill and I walked her back to my place where Terada was waiting in the car.”

  “Was there anything strange about that night?” asked Kyoko. “Anything you felt was unusual about Terada?”

  Mai paused, drumming her fingers on the table as she sipped her drink and stared off into the distance. After a few seconds, she looked at Kyoko and shook her head. “Other than being late, nothing I can recall. I didn’t really interact with him. Never really have.”

  “Thank you, I think that’s everything I need.” Kyoko hit the stop button and put the phone back in her pocket.

  “Ms. Nakamura, is it hard? Doing what you do?”

  Kyoko raised her glass to her lips, the ice cubes clinking against the side as she sipped the scotch. “Sometimes.”

  “But you still do it.”

  Kyoko set the glass down. “Even when things are difficult, at the end of the day, this job lets me get to the truth. Sometimes those truths aren’t pretty. But sometimes, they can mean justice for someone like Akane Suzuki.”

  “Then I hope you find who did it.”

  With her drink finished, Kyoko set the glass on the table. “Thank you again for your time.” She reached for her wallet, but Mai held out her hand.

  “Please, it’s my treat.”

  “No, that’s all right, I—”

  “Please.” Mai’s eyes looked like they were almost pleading. “It’s the least I can do. Just find out who killed that girl, Ms. Nakamura.”

  Kyoko relaxed and offered a half-smile. “I will, you have my word. Thank you, Ms. Hoshide.”

  She stood from the table and was about to excuse herself, when she remembered something else. “Oh, one more thing.” Kyoko reached into her jacket and took out a card, setting it on the table. “I know you don’t perform anymore. But if you ever feel that itch, my friend runs a jazz bar in Namba. I think you’d fit right in down there.”

  Mai picked up the card with the kanji for Shotaro Morita stamped across the front. She looked up at Kyoko with a smile. “I’ll think about it.”

  “He would kill me if I didn’t at least mention it,” said Kyoko. “But he’s a good guy. I’m at that bar all the time.” She paused, realizing what she just said made her sound like an alcoholic. “I mean…not all the time. But…you know.”

  Mai snickered. “I think I get the picture. Maybe I’ll stop in at some point. It’s been awhile since I’ve heard some live music.”

  “Thanks again for your help.” Kyoko gave a parting bow and went for the exit. She climbed down the steps to the street level and made her way to Nishi-Umeda Station and boarded a train on the Yotsubashi line bound for Suminokoen.

  Three stops went by as Kyoko stood on the train, staring out the window and watching as the train chugged through the subway tunnels. The fourth stop was Namba and Kyoko filed out the door to the station.

  It was a short walk from the station to the office. When Kyoko finally walked through the door, she could smell pizza. She entered the reception area to find Nobu and Saori sitting on the couch and a Pizza Hut box open between them.

  “You meet with her?” asked Nobu between chewing his pizza.

  “Yeah.” Kyoko helped herself to a slice of the shrimp and mayo pizza and leaned against Saori’s desk as she bit into it. “Terada’s whereabouts are unaccounted for. He dropped Ayano off at Mai’s around eight, didn’t come back until almost one.”

  Saori swallowed the pizza she’d been chewing and washed it down with a can of lime chu-hi. “So we think he did it?”

  “There’s still a question of motive,” said Kyoko. “What reason would Terada have for killing Akane?”

  “Maybe he was seein’ her on the side when she was still working at Star Rise?” asked Nobu. “Then after what happened with Yuki that day, she decided to end things with Terada. He got pissed, took her out.”

  “Could be,” said Saori. “I looked up his employment records. He started working there shortly before she was fired.”

  Kyoko finished the slice of pizza and went to the kitchen, helping herself to a can of Asahi beer in the refrigerator. She pulled the tab and sipped it as she returned to the reception area. “Does Terada’s hiring date coincide with the leaks about Akane and Yuki’s relationship?”

  “Good question.” Saori stood from the couch and walked over to her desk. She placed the can off to the side while she searched through the documents. Finally, she found a print-out from a website of the first article mentioning the relationship complete with a photograph of Akane and Yuki. Saori looked at the date and nodded. “Yup. Not long after Terada started working security.”

  “Terada joins Star Rise, falls for Akane, learns she has a boyfriend,” said Nobu. “He gets pissed, so he decides to put an end to their relationship.”

  “Right,” said Kyoko. “He takes the photographs, sends them to Star Rise using the name Iso, believing that Miyashita will force Akane to break off the relationship. That doesn’t work, so he tries again and this time, Miyashita fires her.”

  “But why would he wait a year before trying to go a
fter her?” asked Saori.

  “That’s a good question,” said Kyoko.

  “Maybe he was laying low? Afraid that if he moved on her too soon, she or Miyashita might suspect something,” said Nobu.

  “True, but a whole year? And he doesn’t even start small. You’d think he would do the same thing Fukui did—visit her at the club, work up to taking her out, and then move onto the sex.” Kyoko sipped the beer. “I don’t know, it doesn’t seem right.”

  “He’s the only one who makes any sense,” said Nobu.

  “Hold on, Akane died around three, right?” asked Saori. “But you said that Mai told you Terada picked up Ayano around one. So does that mean Terada left Akane to take Ayano home around one, then he went back to Akane’s to push her off the balcony?”

  Kyoko shook her head. “No, but I never said anyone pushed Akane over the edge.”

  Saori’s eyebrows scrunched together. “What do you mean?”

  “The amphetamines,” said Nobu. “They were in her system.”

  “Exactly.” Kyoko crossed from the desk and helped herself to another slice of pizza. “Think about it. Yuki said Akane wasn’t using drugs, but the police find that she was pretty high on amphetamines. A dosage that probably would have killed her if she hadn’t fallen over the edge of the balcony. And she was drinking. A lot.”

  “The bottle,” said Nobu. “Terada must have dropped enough amphetamines in there to cause her to overdose. Hell, if he crushed it into powder, he could have been feeding them to her all night, even at the club.”

  “He would have seen how upset she was the drunker she got, maybe he was even keeping tabs on her. Would have been easy to assume she’d keep drinking. And in a stroke of luck, Akane ends up going over the balcony in a drug-induced stupor,” said Kyoko. “He leaks the story to the tabloids about her history of drug use and they run with it. Everything falls into place, the police believe it’s a clear case of suicide.”

  “So what do we do now?” asked Saori.

  “Now we go home,” said Kyoko. “I’ve uploaded the audio file of my interview with Mai to our cloud server. Saori, first thing in the morning, you compile everything we’ve figured out so far and you bring it to Hashimoto. At the very least, it should cast enough doubt on Yuki’s guilt to prevent the prosecution from asking a judge for an extended detention.”

  “What about us?” asked Nobu.

  “We’re going to keep an eye on Terada, make sure we know where he is,” said Kyoko. “I’m not letting him slip away.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Haruo Terada lived in a high-rise building in the Tenjinbashi neighborhood, not too far from the Umeda headquarters of Star Rise Entertainment. Even a one-room apartment in this neighborhood would run a person around sixty or seventy thousand yen.

  He must have a good salary to afford a place in this area, and as Kyoko kept watch on the building’s front door from a nearby bus stop, she wondered why he would risk that. Put it all on the line, just to go after the girl that got away?

  Something still didn’t feel quite right to her. The evidence was there, sure. But Kyoko’s instincts told her that though she was on the right track, there was one piece missing. She was certain Terada was responsible for exposing Akane’s relationship and staging her suicide, for implicating Yuki and attempting to have the drugs planted at his apartment.

  But motive still eluded her.

  The theory that he was obsessed with Akane made the most sense, but they had nothing to back that up.

  Smart thing to do was to just let Hashimoto and the police handle it from here. But Saori already told her she dropped off the report that morning. Since then, total silence, and dusk was near. Hashimoto was no doubt trying to convince his superiors to let Yuki go and bring in Terada. And Arima was probably giving him shit about it.

  There was still a chance the police wouldn’t act on her information. After all, she was a disgraced cop who fell from grace, now working as a private detective. And that profession had an image of being populated by morons, creeps, con artists—even yakuza.

  She had Hashimoto on her side, but Arima clearly had a lot of pull within the department and he always despised Kyoko. So in the event the police chose to sit on what Saori had brought them, Kyoko wanted to make sure she had eyes on Terada.

  And if they don’t lift a finger, then what will you do, genius?

  It was a question she’d asked herself repeatedly throughout the day. Nobu had posed it a few times, too. At the moment, he was watching the building’s rear entrance. They both had Bluetooth devices clipped to their ears and remained on the phone with each other to stay in touch.

  To be honest, she had no idea what she would do once she saw Terada. If she killed him herself, then she’d be guilty of a crime, too. If she did nothing, she’d let him get away with murder.

  Neither option sat well with her.

  “Detective Nakamura.”

  Kyoko cursed herself. She’d gotten so lost in her thoughts, she didn’t even realize Terada had snuck up behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, she confirmed it was him. Sunglasses, suit beneath an open trench coat, bald head with a goatee.

  “Haruo Terada,” she said.

  “You’ve been looking for me.”

  “Nope.” Kyoko pointed to the bus schedule. “Just waiting for the bus.”

  Terada smirked. The first crack in his face Kyoko had seen. “Of course.”

  He stepped closer to her, hands stuffed into his coat pockets. Then, Kyoko felt something press up against her body. Looking down, she saw a bulge in his pocket. And she was pretty sure it didn’t mean he was happy to see her.

  Kyoko looked up and he tapped his ear, indicating the Bluetooth. She could hear Nobu’s voice asking what she just said about Terada but without answering, Kyoko took off the device and turned it off. Terada held out his hand and she passed it to him. He dropped it on the ground and stepped on it.

  “Now, we’re going to go around the corner to my car,” he said. “Quietly.”

  “Are you going to shoot me right in the middle of the street?”

  “Is that a risk you’re willing to take?”

  He had a point. If he was getting desperate enough to approach her like this, he could easily go further. She’d follow along with him for now.

  “Loop your arm through mine, as if we’re walking down the aisle.” He poked her with the gun to make sure she got the message.

  Kyoko wrapped her arm around his bent elbow. Terada led the way and Kyoko moved up to keep pace with him. They went down another block before turning the corner and coming to a coin parking lot. He removed a pay card for the machine and handed it to her.

  “Number one,” he said. “Pay it.”

  Kyoko took the card and approached the machine. She hit the appropriate button and used the card to pay the parking fair. The small gate in front of a black Nissan dropped down and Terada held out his arm again. She took it and they approached the car. Terada gestured to the steering wheel on the right-hand side of the car.

  “You’re driving.”

  He circled around to the passenger side and opened the door, climbing into the seat and removing the gun as he did. But he kept it low so no one could see it through the windshield.

  Kyoko stared at the handgun. Smith & Wesson M37. A common service weapon for Japanese police officers. It was definitely real, she knew that. No choice but to follow his orders, so she got behind the wheel.

  “Your mobile.”

  She removed the phone and handed it to him and he tossed it out the open door. Kyoko stepped on the brake and hit the car’s starter button. The engine roared to life and she pulled out of the spot, turning towards the small lot’s exit.

  “Turn left, then at the main road, take another left.”

  She followed his directions. The only thing to do now was to get some more information. Hopefully make him sweat.

  “You know, the police have my report.”

  He didn’t say anything
. His hand holding the M37 remained remarkably steady. Kyoko took a left onto the main road. Terada continued providing directions. Reading the signs, Kyoko realized in short order where he was directing her.

  “We’re going to the expressway, aren’t we?”

  No answer, just further directions.

  “Why are you doing this? Were you really that obsessed with Akane?” she asked.

  “I couldn’t give less of a shit about Akane Suzuki if I tried.”

  “Seems like you went to an awful lot of trouble for someone you don’t care about.”

  “Just do as I tell you.”

  “Or what?” asked Kyoko. “You’re going to kill me?”

  “Yes.”

  “But you’re having me drive you somewhere you can kill me, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “So where’s my carrot? Why shouldn’t I just crash this car right now?”

  “Because best-case scenario, you get away from the wreck and I come find you. Then I make your death as slow as possible.”

  “And if I do everything you say?”

  “Then it’s quick. Painless. I promise.”

  More silence followed. Kyoko merged onto the highway. The minutes ticked by. Fifteen then twenty then thirty. Crossing the border into Nara Prefecture—not even in Osaka anymore. Eventually, Terada had her merge onto the Skyline. Seeing Mount Ikoma looming on the horizon, Kyoko realized the final destination.

  That was smart. Terada takes her out to Ikoma, kills her there and drops her body off one of the mountain roads. By the time she was found, he’d have gotten away completely, maybe gone off somewhere else.

  “Killing me won’t do any good,” she said. “The police, my associates, they’ve got everything they need to come after you. Think about how it looks if I turn up dead after disappearing from right outside your apartment building.”

  “By the time they find you, it’ll be too late.”

  The Skyline took them into Mount Ikoma. The buildings, lights, and cars that surrounded them before were now replaced by trees. Barely any lights on and with night now having fallen, that made it even darker out here.

  Terada commanded her to pull off the Skyline onto a narrow road cutting through the forest. As they moved around the bend, Terada finally told her to stop and park. Kyoko stepped on the brake, easing the car to a stop, and shifted into park.