Loups-Garous (35 page)

A swooshing sound in the grass.

Shizue grabbed the security line receiver by her window.

Regardless of whether Nakamura was the culprit or the victim, whether that was him in the grass in the first place, she would need to notify someone. There was definitely someone out there.

“Who's out there?”

Her voice was hoarse.

The person in the shadows wasn't Yuji Nakamura.

“Hello?”

“Oh thank God it's you. I thought I was done for.”

The man brushed away the leaf in front of his face.

“Officer…Kunugi? You…”

“Actually, I uh…”

Kunugi looked at the security receiver in Shizue's hand.

“Are you going to call them?”

“If that's what I should do.”

“It isn't,” Kunugi said. “They'll dismiss me from the force if you do that. They might even add immediate punishment.”

“Punishment?”

“Yeah, punishment. On top of committing an offense while in uniform, I've trespassed in an area of prohibited entry.”

“Offense while in uniform? But aren't you investigating this area?”

“Investigating, sure. The investigation here ended yesterday at ten am. Right before they announced withdrawal from the center I lied to the guard at the entrance and came into this courtyard.”

“Lied? Lied how?”

Kunugi's clothing was well soiled. He was covered in dirt and leaves.

If Shizue were to believe what Kunugi had just said, he'd have been camping out in this forest for over a day. Of course he was dirty.

“I told you I was on disciplinary leave, didn't I?” Kunugi said. “I have no authority to do anything right now. My police privileges have all been revoked. During my disciplinary probation they monitor the usage of my ID card. It's like I have a criminal record, so I'm treated worse than the average citizen. I had no choice but to lie. So I just came in here and said I was on the investigation without showing them my ID.”

“Why would you do that?”

“It's a long story and if I tell you, you'll be involved,” Kunugi said. “Given your position, it would be prudent to activate that security line.”

It would be prudent.

Shizue remembered the way she looked in the mirror before she left. The face she envisioned transformed into Ishida's.
Prudent action
. What a nasty phrase. If there was any time to act stupidly, unnaturally, it was when someone had just died. It would probably be okay.

No, definitely.

Shizue replaced the receiver into the wall unit.

“Why didn't you call them?” Kunugi asked.

“I'm reconceptualizing the truth.”

“That's a nice way of putting it.”

“Are you really on disciplinary leave?”

“Why would I lie about something like that?”

“Maybe you're pretending to be informal so you can trap me into giving information off the record.”

“Ishida…” Kunugi said. He puffed his cheeks. “Ishida's questioning you, so now you're doubting me.”

Shizue didn't respond but examined Kunugi's expression. He'd furrowed his brow.
So listen
, Kunugi said. He took a deep breath and spoke again.

“This is what I meant when I said our talking to each other would cause you problems. I wasn't following you for them. They were following me. It's because I came to you that those guys started following you.”

“What do you mean they were following you?”

“That's a good question. I don't know myself. I just knew I was being tailed. I was positive after we left that restaurant. My pursuer let up as soon as I noticed him, but now they have a tight GPS track on me. I know that much. Even after I turn off the screen on my monitor there is a slight noise, and when I receive my news bulletins the color is slightly off.”

“You're totally marked, then?”

“That's right. With my movements monitored I was unable to go anywhere, but after a week of lying low I couldn't resist anymore.”

“Resist what?”

“No, it's just that being watched made me feel imprisoned,” Kunugi said. He laughed. “I could have stayed home and played old role-playing games, but knowing everything I did was being tracked made me antsy. I had no choice, so I left my portable monitor at home and came out.”

“Your monitor?”

“They're going to know something's wrong when I don't move for this long. That's why I came here early yesterday morning, but then I got stuck when the investigators left. What a joke, right? Surveillance cameras everywhere, I couldn't move. Even if the police didn't find me, eventually that skinhead woman guarding the grounds would realize I hadn't come back out. I had just about given up.”

Kunugi shrugged and laughed anew.

Shizue was confused. Why was he laughing?

“You've been here for over thirty hours.”

Shizue wouldn't have lasted ten minutes. All she saw when she looked out at the forest were breeding grounds for microbes and insects.

“I'm pathologically filthy, remember?” Kunugi said. “It's relatively safe out here. Despite my looks, I'm actually not that great in the outdoors. You're not going to believe this, but when I was a kid they said I was a clean freak. Toward the end of the twentieth century, kids still played in the mud and stuff. But not me. They used to have these personal game units. They were like toys. I played with that thing all the time. I didn't realize till I got to this age that it's important to play in the mud too.”

Kunugi showed off his mud-caked hands to Shizue.

Shizue withdrew and pointed her left hand to indoors. Kunugi made an incredulous face.

“What are you thinking?”

“There are no children here today. In fact no one's here.”

“Still. I can't go in there!”

“The security system is turned off and the surveillance cameras in counselor offices are shut off to protect the privacy of children. As long as no children come into the room the cameras won't move. Once we leave this room together I suppose the cameras will go back on.”

Kunugi was astonished. He laughed uncomfortably and reached out a hand for assistance. This man was just as capable of reconceptualizing the truth as Shizue.

“I'm…dirty,” he warned.

“I can tell.”

A visible mess was always better than an invisible one. Kunugi carefully made his way to the window, removed his mudcaked shoes, and stepped into the room. He made a thudding sound. He smelled like mud. Shizue immediately closed the window and returned to her desk, turning on her air filter.

“There's no need for that,” Kunugi said. “Why are you saving me if you have to hold your breath?”

“Because I don't know why you are running around. I'm having a hard enough time figuring out why you were put on leave. Moreover, why is a police unit tracking one of its own officers with GPS surveillance? I find this all very hard to believe. It'd be another thing if you were suspected of the murders.”

“If that were the case…” Kunugi had been facing the window looking out and turned to face Shizue. “You would be in serious danger.”

Kunugi put out both his hands toward her.

“If I were a murderer, it's possible this mud on my fingers would get all over your neck.”

“Strangulation is it? If it's at all up to me, I'd like to be stabbed to death like all the other victims. Anything but strangulation.”

I don't like it
, Shizue added softly.

Kunugi lowered his hands.

“I'm sorry, but I'm actually not strong enough to kill you with my bare hands anyway. It's an optical illusion, all this. I may be large, but I have no physical strength. I ranked a C at my physical. So not only did I get bad grades I'm not even strong enough to be a jock. I'm able to eat because I'm a public servant, but I'll never amount to more than a local beat cop. I'm so stupid I once Tasered myself by accident.

“Can I sit here?” Kunugi asked. He plopped down into the counseling chair without waiting for an answer. “So Ishida called you?”

“Yes, he did.”

Shizue leaned against her desk.

“Yuko Yabe was killed, huh?” Kunugi said. “This morning,” replied Shizue.

“She'd been on the run for a good week. If the police had somehow gotten to her sooner her life could have been spared. If only…”

“Nothing we say now will bring her back. If you want to talk about what could have happened, I'm the one who delayed reporting her disappearance. Even if I'm to blame for negligence, repeating what's happened would just be backwards.”

“You're cold,” Kunugi said. “I feel real remorse. I feel bad.”

“I feel exactly the same way in that regard. But, Kunugi, what were you thinking this time?”

Kunugi's eyes widened. They were unusually large eyes.

“What do you mean what was I thinking this time?”

“That's about as direct a way as I could think of to ask why the police would be following you around.”

Shizue stood up, dispensed some flavonoid beverage from a push-button machine, and handed it to Kunugi. Kunugi savored the drink.

“Thank you. For bringing me this, I mean. Ah, I'm sorry if this will seem indelicate. I wasn't going to collect morning dew or anything, so my throat was totally parched. I never thought in this day and age that I'd find myself in this kind of situation. And I'll have you know I haven't done anything or thought of doing anything. Since I spoke to you last week, I've just been thinking about that theory I have.”

“That one of the murders in this serial killing spree is unrelated?”

“Yeah. Going back to last year's murders, the murders that took place on the butsumetsu and the ones in which the one organ was never discovered are unrelated, I still believe. And then this newest case…”

“Another deformée character–related incident?” Shizue asked.

“Actually, Asumi Aikawa didn't seem to indicate any interest in DC.”

She'd confirmed with Shima. Kunugi agreed.

“But that just isn't going to fly.”

“What does that mean?”

“Asumi Aikawa was also
missing a piece
.”

“Missing…”

“Missing a part. So if she were into DC, it would actually not fit with my theory. This is one of the other thread of murders.”

“You mean one of the murders in which an internal organ was removed.”

“Her liver was missing.”

Shizue was stunned.

The broken replica of a human had in fact not been complete.

“I did a little search on Sunday on a colleague's monitor. He's a good cop. Unfortunately he thinks I am too. He'll never move up. So what did Ishida tell you?” Kunugi asked.

“Aikawa wasn't one of my kids, and the notice we got at the center said nothing about missing livers. Just that the body was found severely damaged.”

“I suppose there's no reason to point out something like that. The cops don't think the criminal made off with the liver or anything. I doubt if there's such a thing as an organ-takeout murderer.”

“Made off with…”

Kunugi took a wet wipe and wiped his face and neck. “Making off with doesn't mean anything. Maybe forty or fifty years ago, but there's no way someone in this age would need a live organ transplant. Cloned organs are cheaper and guaranteed. One can't know the quality of some random girl's internal organs, and no doctor would perform a surgery that low-tech. A live organ transplant is actually quite difficult. I don't think anyone would do something that arcane. So then what would they do with the organ? That's the question.

“There are those people who fetishize certain body parts. There are cases from long ago of murderers who saved a certain part of the body, even those who collected those parts.”

“Even internal organs? Unfortunately I don't know of anyone who collects internal organs.”

“Well it wouldn't be strange if you did,” Kunugi said, and brought the blackened wet wipe to his nose before throwing it into the trash chute. “There are so many kinds of perverts out there. There's no rhyme or reason to them. Depending on how you looked at things, we could be considered perverts too.”

“I agree,” Shizue said.

“But we don't have this weirdo's—I mean, I'm not being prejudiced here, but…we're talking about someone who's committing criminal acts in order to satisfy his idiosyncrasy. I don't think this is the kind of thing that an individual does.”

“You have a basis for this theory?”

“Sort of. Think about it. If you believe what I'm saying, it's been a two-year streak of serial murders if you combine the butsumetsu killings from last year and the deformée character killings of this year. I haven't looked into serial murders from before that, but if you did—
if
—the pattern could go back forever. And if
that's
the case, we can't keep saying these murders are just a pervert fulfilling his whims.”

Kunugi was probably right.

It was too calculated. Actually it wasn't even a matter of it being calculated. This kind of crime wasn't necessarily an emotional one. Emotional inclinations had nothing to do with the intellectual quality of crime. Motives, ones fueled by sexual inclinations, minutely trained, painstakingly conceived sex crimes…There were too many of them.

“You mean the scale is too big?” Shizue asked. Kunugi nodded.

“I think this goes beyond one person's criminal file.”

“If your theory proves correct, I believe you're right that we're dealing with more than just one perpetrator.”

“An organization,” Kunugi answered hesitantly.

“What kind of organization would be doing this though, right?” Shizue said. “Lieutenant Ishida indicated the possibility that it was the undocumented residents of Section C.”