Of Cinder and Bone

by Kyoko M

  He squatted in front of the pile, snapping on a pair of gloves and poking through it as Officer West hovered behind him. “Anything salvageable?”

  “Doubtful,” Jack said. “Guy knew what he was doing.”

  West grimaced. “Tell me you had it all backed up.”

  “Of course I did. Everything I worked on is automatically updated to my Cloud and Dropbox.”

  “Smart.”

  Jack gave him a thin smile over his shoulder. “That’s why they stole the laptop.”

  West’s face fell. “Jesus Christ, man. I’m sorry. Did you save the stuff on a flash drive? A backup external?”

  “Kamala’s laptop and tablet have the same data that I have. They weren’t trying to destroy all the evidence. If they wanted that, they’d have tossed her place when she was out helping me investigate. This is something else. This is a message.”

  “Yeah,” West said, exhaling. “I was afraid of that. I’ve seen my share of smash-and-grabs in my day. This looks more like one of those ‘I know where you live’ things. Especially this number.”

  He tapped his knuckles against Jack’s bedroom door. An issue of the campus magazine with Jack on the cover hung there, stuck to it with a large knife through his face.

  Jack stood and peeled off his gloves. “Yeah, well. They didn’t get my baseball bat. Means I have something to look forward to.”

  West scowled up at him. “Slow down there. The kind of person who brazenly busts into an apartment with nearby neighbors isn’t going to be all that scared of a baseball bat. I know you’re angry, but lashing out isn’t going to help anyone. I need you to focus on what’s missing so you can write it down and we can find some leads. You done taking stock?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good. I’ll have forensics get started and take you down to the station. There’s a detective already waiting for you.”

  A hollow laugh shook through the weary scientist. “That’s fine. I was headed there anyway.”

  West arched a dark gold eyebrow and Jack filled him in. “Let me ask you this: that neighbor who caught a quick glimpse of the robber. Was he tall and muscular, maybe around six-foot-three?”

  West flipped through his notes. “Yeah.”

  “Mm-hmm. Like I said. I was heading to the station anyhow. I might have an idea of who did this. Name’s Kazuma Okegawa.”

  “What reason do you have to believe he’s involved?”

  “He’s Sketchy McSketchersville, for one, but my mother identified him at the event where my dragons were assassinated.”

  West stared at him. Jack offered him a sheepish grin. “Long story.”

  The policeman shook his head. “Scientists. You’re gonna destroy the world someday. Come on. I’ll buy you a cup of coffee on the way.”

  Jack followed him out of the apartment and down the sidewalk to his patrol car. “Any chance you were able to wrangle someone to watch Kamala’s place?”

  “Yeah, they arrived about ten minutes ago. If anything turns up, we’ll be the first ones to know. Did you get her out of there?”

  Jack nodded. “She and her roommate are going to stay at a hotel. I sent her back to the lab to check on our dragon in the meantime. Should be calling any second.”

  Officer West barked a couple of orders into his radio and then pulled onto the street, heading towards the station. Jack texted his mother to meet him there as soon as possible.

  Not a moment after he was done, his phone buzzed and then lit up with the upbeat drum intro to “Jaan Pehechan Ho.” Kamala’s face appeared on his screen, squinting and sticking her tongue out in the selfie she’d taken.

  “Hey,” he answered. “For God’s sake, tell me you have good news.”

  “Jack… she’s gone. Pete is gone.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  OF COURSE, YOU KNOW… THIS MEANS WAR

  “So,” Jeffrey Reed, attorney at law, said, steepling his fingers in front of his face. “Let me see if I’ve got this all straight. The two of you finally completed your fellowship project, the focus of which was to resurrect a living, breathing dragon. A couple of days before you achieved your goal you bumped into a suspicious character associated with Dr. Yagami Sugimoto, the heir of the Sugimoto Pharmaceutical empire. Said suspicious character, who has no criminal background or any background that the police can tell, was spotted by an eyewitness only moments after the birth of the dragon, codename Pete. Sometime, while you were out investigating this matter, an unidentified man broke into your home and stole your laptop and iPad, and destroyed all of the data related to the project. He then either perpetrated or helped perpetrate a fire at the veterinary hospital, and while the building was being evacuated, he stole the dragon and killed the Komodo dragon that gave birth to it. As I understand, there were no witnesses to this crime because of the confusion caused during the fire. There is also no forensic evidence so far to substantiate the identity of the suspect, Kazuma Okegawa. You have also been unable to reach Dr. Sugimoto for commentary on any of these occurrences, as he has not been seen since before the hatching of the dragons. Am I correct?”

  “Yes,” Jack and Kamala said.

  “And you’d like to know from a legal standpoint what can be done?”

  “Yes,” they said again.

  He pressed the sides of his fingertips to his lips, staring at the papers in front of him on the desk. He flicked his grey eyes up at the gaunt faces of the pair of scientists and then over to the short, dark-haired detective, Colin Stubbs, who stood in the corner with his pen and pad raised.

  Jeffrey removed his thick-rimmed glasses and scrubbed his face with both hands, then tucked a stray flaming-red lock of hair back into place above his ear. “I’m not entirely sure how to say this.”

  “Keep it simple, Jeff,” Jack said quietly. “We can handle it.”

  “You’re fucked.”

  Jack exhaled. “Figured as much.”

  Jeff offered them both a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry, but this is a classic case of ‘no evidence, no conviction.’ The biggest advantage you have is that you have an eyewitness who is reliable, but the simple fact of the matter is that there is no hard evidence. Yes, we have crimes committed here and proof that someone is in fact bending you over the table to take you up the rear, but this…” He gestured at the report they’d filed. “With nothing but a name and a theory, we can’t possibly prosecute.” Jeff glanced at the detective. “Sir, if I may… when do you think they would finish the sweep of Dr. Jackson’s home and the lab where the dragons were poisoned?”

  “The lab’s backed up pretty far,” Stubbs said. “Most times, it takes a week or more. I can’t promise any sooner than that, not without some serious pull.”

  The lawyer spread his hands. “You see? That’s the problem. We have nothing to go on here. It would be different if this Okegawa was a figurehead of some kind and we could interrogate him. But he’s in the wind. The best I can recommend is to request the university to seek assistance from the FBI.”

  “In your professional opinion,” Kamala said, “what is the likelihood that they’d be willing to help us pursue this case?”

  Jeff sighed. “Hard to say. On the one hand, this story has been all over the news, and so I’m sure the FBI has heard of it anyway, and might be monitoring its progression for security reasons. On the other hand, if you’re going to implicate Yagami Sugimoto as a suspect, he has significant pull being from a wealthy family who has a great relationship with the pharmaceutical companies in the United States. There might be pushback from those who are benefitting from that relationship. You could run into all kinds of roadblocks, or end up turning over a stone that has a giant freaking scorpion underneath it. If you can find Okegawa, then you might have a chance at salvaging a case, because positive identification is the key. If we find out who he is, then we might have a better understanding of how he’s connected to Sugimoto, and get some leverage to make
him confess to the crimes. For instance, if Sugimoto did put him up to this, then we can cut Okegawa a deal to roll on him. If he’s just hired muscle, chances are, his loyalty is based on how fat his wallet is. Then you’ll have room to put Sugimoto on trial, regardless of his influence.”

  Jeff glanced at Stubbs again. “In your experience, how many hours before a missing person—and animal, I guess in this case—becomes a lost cause?”

  “For a person, it varies, but often, the solved cases find crucial evidence within forty-eight hours. The dragon was taken between nine o’clock and ten o’clock last night. The attending veterinarian checked on it before leaving for her shift, and the fire was reported shortly afterward.”

  “Is there any chance that this case will be taken seriously?”

  Stubbs frowned. “We take all our cases seriously.” Then, he cleared his throat. “But when it’s something this bizarre, a lot of the guys out there won’t look too hard if they know the case is standing on quicksand. You don’t have much to go on, by the sound of it.”

  “And what does your gut say about the suspect’s behavior?”

  He licked his lips and checked his pad. “My guess would be that he snatched it and ran back where he came from. Home-field advantage, especially if he returned to Japan. If he’s got Sugimoto bankrolling him, then there’s no way we could touch them without causing an international incident. In my experience, once you involve the feds, you might not like what solution they come up with. It’s easier to make deals than it is to get justice sometimes. And they have to look at the big picture.”

  Stubbs rolled his gaze over the two scientists. “Sorry, but that’s the way it is. This smells like a ‘big picture’ solution where they tell you to shake hands, go your separate ways, and accept the loss.”

  “Agreed,” Jeff said. “After all, you still have the method to create the dragons and the data that brought it about. I know it’s unsightly, but you don’t have to start over completely from scratch. Your project was successful in spite of the ugly events that followed. You’ll have endless funding and support for the rest of your careers, even with this blemish on it. I will respect your decision if you want to pursue it, but I’m afraid the odds are against you.”

  “Thank you, Jeff,” Kamala said, scooping up the manila folder. “We’ll be in touch.”

  “Good luck, guys.”

  Jack, Kamala, and Det. Stubbs exited the lawyer’s office to stand in the hallway. It was the wee hours of the morning, not long after six am. The practice had a few of its occupants inside, most sipping coffee and shuffling through their cases before the clients came in.

  “Alright,” Stubbs sighed. “I’ve reached out to the patrolmen to be on the lookout for Okegawa. If he’s carrying a live animal, it does rule out certain forms of transportation. He’ll want to lie low and avoid all public places so he can sneak out of the city, if that’s what he’s up to. If we find forensic evidence either at your home or the lab, it will give you the grounds to issue an official warrant for his arrest. If you think of anything else, you’ve got my card. If I’m not around, my partner Julio is.”

  “Thank you, detective.”

  He shook both their hands and headed out at a brisk pace. Jack and Kamala watched him go.

  “How long?” Jack asked.

  Kamala checked her watch. “Nine hours.”

  “Thirty-nine left. Let’s get to work.”

  The two of them walked towards the exit. Kamala leafed through the folder as Jack held the door open for her, spilling them onto the sidewalk of the parking lot.

  “None of the staff members at the veterinary hospital reported seeing Okegawa or someone fitting his description in the area prior to the fire. Matt had been able to get Pete moved to one of the more secure cells so that she wouldn’t be disturbed, but it wasn’t one of the areas that needed a card entry. The police are still conducting interviews, and that takes time. So, we need to find out if anyone else remembers seeing him, even if it’s not someone who worked in that wing of the hospital.”

  “Right,” Jack said as he climbed into the driver’s seat and moved it back to fit his lanky frame. “The cops will probably check the financials of the people working yesterday, to rule out an inside job. Maybe we’ll get lucky on that front. I’ll drop you off. I’m going to go see if my friend found more information on Okegawa’s background. After I pick you up, we have to go see Faye. She said she was working on something that might help.”

  Kamala buckled her seatbelt and regarded him. “Be careful, Jack. They tossed your place. That’s a threat. Someone could be following you to make sure you’re not going to become a liability.”

  “Liability.” Jack bared his teeth in a smile. “Not even close to what I’m about to become.” He nodded towards her. “What about you? It’s been a while since I’ve seen you practice any self-defense. Will you be alright on your—”

  Kamala calmly removed a small Taser from an inner pocket of her purse.

  “…well. Ask a stupid question.”

  ~*~

  Two hours later, Kamala climbed into the passenger’s side of her Volkswagen. Jack handed her a tall caramel cappuccino, and a paper bag containing a parfait and banana.

  “You want the good news or the bad news first?” he asked.

  She slurped the coffee greedily before answering. “It’s too early for bad news. Start with the good.”

  “The perpetrator logged into my Cloud and Dropbox while in the vicinity of a Starbucks downtown. That gives us a window. The account was accessed last night around seven o’clock, while I was having drinks with my mother. We’re going to canvass the Starbucks to see if any of them saw someone with my laptop. All he’d need to do is start it up, do the deed, and then toss it. If he got cocky, maybe he ditched it nearby and we can recover it.”

  Kamala arched an eyebrow. “So, now we’re basically private investigators?”

  “I do look damn fine in an overcoat and fedora.”

  She shook her head. “What’s the bad news?”

  “No hits on the financials of the people working the shift last night at the vet hospital. Detective Stubbs called me on my way here. Looks like he figured out a way around it. Stubbs had a theory that he might have used the old janitor gag again, or at least something similar. So he’s checking into anyone reporting a missing uniform or out-of-place scrubs. What did you find out on your end?”

  “The day before yesterday, one of the vet assistants reported that the bucket of dead crickets they ration out to Pete went missing. She also said Pete’s chart wasn’t on the front of her cage like usual, that it was sitting on the counter. I asked her if there was a copy machine nearby and she took me to it. We checked through the jobs it had recorded over the last couple of days. Whoever it was copied her medical information so he would know how to transport and care for her.”

  “Not as dumb as he looks,” Jack grunted, sipping his own coffee. “What about her blood and scale samples?”

  “Gone. Luckily, though, the ones I kept in the freezer at our lab are still there.”

  “Good. We have to stop by on the way and pick them up.”

  “Have you heard from Matt?”

  “Yeah, he’s dealing with the media shit-storm of trying to keep this mess quiet. The taping for Pete’s official debut was supposed to be tomorrow, and he’s attempting to make it sound like we’re concerned about her health, and that’s why we canceled. Won’t stay quiet long, though. Sooner or later, someone’s going to blab.”

  “Let them talk. We will get her back. I promise you that.”

  “Atta girl. Buckle up so we can go find this son of a bitch.”

  They parked a block away from Starbucks and went inside, patiently waiting to speak to the manager and then to the staff members who were on shift the previous night. No one could recall someone using an Apple MacBook with a Star Trek decal on the back within the time fra
me the IP address had been used, meaning that Okegawa had probably done it from nearby in his car.

  Once the interviews were done, Jack and Kamala changed into coveralls and headed into the alley behind the building to look for the discarded laptop.

  “Yep, this is exactly where I thought I’d be at this point in my life,” Jack sighed, pulling on yet another pair of latex gloves as he stared forlornly at the reeking dumpster. “Ass-deep in garbage.”

  “We lead a charming life,” Kamala agreed. “At least the manager was kind enough to let us do this without a fight. Technically, we’re supposed to wait for the police.”