by Beth Yarnall
“Jun? Jun!” I clicked my phone off. “We have to go help Jun,” I told Alex. “I think he’s in trouble.”
“Why do we have to go? That’s what the police are for.”
“He’s with the police.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
When we got to the police station, Alex used his charm and badge to get us access into where they were holding Jun, which was a room down the hall from where I’d been taken the day before. Kennedy stood in the hallway waiting for us, arms crossed, attitude blasters up.
He made a show of checking his watch. “It’s been thirteen hours and twelve minutes since you’ve meddled in this case. I wonder who won the pool. It sure wasn’t me. I had four hours. Platt had nine. I guess he had more faith in you than I did.”
“You’re as funny as ever, Kennedy. You really should try stand-up.” I made a show of looking at my watch, too. “It’s been three days and two deaths and you still haven’t solved the case.” I made a tsking sound. “Maybe you should spend more time investigating and less time betting on me.”
“Azalea,” Alex warned. “Antagonizing him isn’t going to help anybody.”
“But she’s so very good at it,” Kennedy said. “It’s my favorite thing about her.”
I could tell Alex was putting a great deal of effort into ignoring Kennedy’s barb. “Azalea got a call from a friend of hers named Jun. He said he was here and it sounded like he was in trouble. Azalea insisted we come down and check on him.”
“He’s here all right, and nuttier than squirrel sh…excrement,” Kennedy amended. “We had to restrain him. I came out to see about getting him signed up for a fifty-one fifty.”
“What’s a fifty-one fifty?” I asked.
“Psych hold,” Alex answered.
I gave Kennedy an accusatory glare. “Psych hold? He’s that upset? What did you guys do to him?”
“Nothing. We hadn’t even talked to him yet. All of a sudden he went crazy, started knocking things over. We restrained him for his own protection. And ours.” Kennedy folded his arms over his chest. “What’s this guy’s story anyway? Why’s he dress like that? Is it some kind of costume or cult?”
“It’s anime,” I answered. “You know, Japanese cartoons. He’s as harmless as a child. He probably just got scared.” I couldn’t help but feel guilty. If I’d answered Jun’s texts, he might not have freaked out. “Can I see him? I might be able to calm him down.”
Kennedy looked at me, like he was thinking of putting me on a psych hold. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“She’s got a way with him,” Alex said. “He’s got the emotional capacity of a five-year-old, but he responds to her.”
Kennedy’s face was an impassable mask. “I don’t like this.”
“He’s one of the few people who knew both Dhane and Trinity very well. You want to know what he knows? Then let me talk to him.” I mentally crossed my fingers.
“All right. But you can’t stay. You calm him down, then step out. Got it?”
I nodded. “Got it.” Kennedy opened the door and followed me in, while Alex stayed in the hall.
I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. Jun’s hands were cuffed in front of him and tethered to his shackled feet. He sat in a chair in the center of the room, a stern, square-faced officer standing behind him. Jun’s eyes were blank, his mouth slack.
I rounded on Kennedy. “Did you drug him?”
“Had to Tase him. He should have come out of it already. His vitals are steady. We can’t figure out why he’s pretending to be comatose.”
I turned back to Jun and inched closer. “Jun? It’s me, Azalea. Are you okay? I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner. If I’d known you were in trouble, I would have answered your texts right away. Jun? Come on, answer me.” I turned to Kennedy. “Can I touch him?”
“Be careful.”
I placed a hand on Jun’s shoulder. “Jun? Are you all right? Talk to me.” I gave him a gentle nudge. “Jun?” Kneeling down, I shook him harder. “Jun! Come on, buddy.”
Jun turned his head so fast, I jerked back.
“Azalea?” he whispered, searching my face.
“Yes, it’s me. I’m here.”
“Azalea.” He tried the word out, bunching his face up. “What happened?” He looked down at himself, then around the room, spotting Kennedy by the door and the uniformed officer’s reflection in the mirror. “Where am I? Why am I tied up?”
“You’re at the police station. You got upset, so the officers had to restrain you. But you’re okay.” I ran a hand up and down his arm. “They just wanted to talk to you about Trinity and Dhane. They need your help. Remember how I asked you for help?”
He nodded, his gaze wandering the room again, not focusing on anything in particular.
“The police need your help, too. Will you help them as a favor to me?”
“Yes. I guess.”
“Good. That’s good, Jun. And will you stay calm, not get upset again?”
He looked at me and blinked. I could see him gradually return to himself, his focus fixed on me. “I’m not upset.”
“No, you’re not. You’re doing really well.”
Jun lifted his hands. The metallic chime of the chains rubbing together seemed to puzzle him. “I can’t move my hands.”
“Can you take the chains off?” I appealed to Kennedy.
He shook his head. “Not a good idea. He’s stronger than he looks. It took five of us to secure him and he put one of my guys out of commission with an ice pack on his, ah…private area.”
I could hardly believe what Kennedy was telling me. Jun must’ve been so frightened to have acted out like that. Again I wished I’d answered his texts. I might’ve been able to calm him down and prevent him from hurting anyone.
“What if he promises to behave himself?” I turned back to Jun. “If they take the chains off, will you be good and not hurt anyone?”
“I hurt somebody?” He blinked at me, tears filling his eyes.
“You did, but you won’t do it again, will you?”
Jun shook his head, emphatic. “No. I don’t want to hurt anybody.”
“You see?” I said to Kennedy. “He’s calm now.”
Kennedy moved forward. “I’ll take the chains off, but the handcuffs and ankle restraints stay on. You so much as twitch wrong and they go back on, got it?” he said to Jun.
“Yes, sir.”
“Step out, Azalea,” Kennedy said.
“No! Please don’t go, Azalea. Please don’t make her go. I’ll be good. I’ll be real good,” Jun begged.
“If you don’t behave yourself, I’m leaving,” I said to Jun before Kennedy could protest.
Kennedy gave me a warning glare to stay put. Officer Burly in the corner took out a weird looking device and stood, braced to use it, while Kennedy removed Jun’s chains.
“Better?” I asked Jun.
“I guess so.”
I gestured to Kennedy. “This is Detective Kennedy. He’s going to ask you some questions about Dhane and Trinity. Answer him as best you can, okay?”
Jun swallowed and bobbed his head.
Kennedy leaned against the wall, the mirror over his right shoulder. “What is your full name?”
“Jun. It means obedient.” He smiled, looking like he expecting Kennedy to be impressed.
“Is that your real name? No last name?”
Jun tilted his head and squinted. “Doesn’t it sound real?”
Kennedy gave me a look like it was my fault Jun had answered a question with a question. If he wasn’t happy with Jun’s answers now, I couldn’t wait to see how he felt after another five or ten minutes of this.
“Moving on,” Kennedy said. “How did you come to know Dhane and Trinity?”
“Playing Mah-jong with Willow at Tenchi’s party. Trinity loves Mah-jong.” Jun moved his gaze from Kennedy to me and sighed, his mouth bent down. “Loved. I keep forgetting.”
Kennedy cleared his throat, getting Jun�
�s attention back. “When was this?”
“Well, it would have been right after FanimeCon because that’s when Tenchi told me about the party.”
“How long ago?”
“Oh. Two…no, three years ago last March.” He gave an affirmed nod. “Yes, March. FanimeCon is almost always in March.”
“How well did you know Dhane?”
“I knew he liked spinach, but not lettuce. He had a mole on his neck shaped like a coin, and his hair wasn’t real.”
I stared, gape-mouthed, at Jun. Dhane’s hair wasn’t real? I could have sworn… Wow, that was a really good weave. I pictured all of the times I’d seen Dhane, and not once had I noticed his hair wasn’t real. I itched to call Golda, his hairstylist, to find out how she did his hair.
Without missing a beat, Kennedy pressed on. “Did you know anything about his business? How it was run? Maybe you overheard him say something about it?”
“One time when I was playing Mah-jong with Trinity, he yelled at somebody on the phone.”
“What did he yell?”
Jun concentrated real hard, his face squinching up with the effort. “He said, ‘You effed it up for the last time. You’re fired!’ Only he didn’t say effed, he said, you know, the F word.”
“Yes, I know. Do you know who he was talking to?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Okay. What about Dhane’s marriage to Sora?”
Jun bobbed his head, eager now. “Dhane was married to Sora.”
“That’s right. Did Dhane and Sora ever fight? Would you say their marriage was a good one?”
“Mostly. But this one time Sora got real mad. She didn’t like that Dhane left his socks on the bathroom floor. She yelled and yelled. Dhane yelled back, saying if he could put up with her playing leapfrog all the time, then she could put up with his socks on the floor.”
Leapfrog. I rolled my lips in and looked at the ceiling to keep from giggling.
“Who did Dhane say Sora played leapfrog with?”
“He didn’t.”
“Who do you think Sora was playing leapfrog with?”
“I don’t know. I was never invited to play.”
A laugh caught in my throat. I smothered it, spraying the side of Kennedy’s neck with a fine mist of snot.
Kennedy wiped his neck, keeping his focus on Jun. “If you had to guess, who do you think she played with?”
Jun’s gaze veered off toward nothing. “Well, Trinity once told me she saw Sora playing hide the bone with Ace, so maybe she played leapfrog with him, too.”
Clamping both hands over my mouth, I spun toward the wall, my body shaking with the effort to not burst out laughing.
Kennedy coughed. Then coughed again. “Did Sora know that Trinity saw her playing…games with Ace?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Sora and Trinity get along?”
“All the time.”
“What about Ace?” Kennedy asked. “Was Ace nice to Trinity?”
“Of course. Everyone was nice to Trinity. Curio, too.”
“Curio the stuffed skunk, right?”
Jun bounced in his chair a little. “Yes! Have you met him?”
“No. I never met him.” Kennedy’s patience with Jun was impressive. I should have been taking notes.
“What about Dhane?” Kennedy continued. “How did Dhane and Ace get along?”
“I don’t know. I never saw them together.”
“How long have you known Tenchi?”
“A long time.”
“How did Dhane get along with Tenchi? Did they like each other?”
“For a while.”
Kennedy pulled away from the wall and took a step closer. “Did something happen to change that?”
My super suspicious alarm dinged. Kennedy had asked a question I hadn’t even thought of.
“I don’t know.”
“How do you know they didn’t like each other anymore?”
“Dhane told Tenchi he had to leave.”
Whoa.
“When was this?”
Jun’s gaze wandered off again. A long time passed without him answering. I made a move to go to him, but Kennedy put an arm out, stopping me.
“Jun!” Kennedy said sharply, earning Jun’s attention, interrupting whatever random thoughts were tumbling through his mind. “When did Dhane tell Tenchi he had to leave?”
“The day he died.” Jun’s voice was hollow, as if Dhane’s death had carved a chunk out of him.
Double whoa.
“How did Tenchi handle that?”
Jun blinked up at Kennedy, his eyes wet. “He left.”
“But he came back after Dhane’s death, right?”
“Yes.”
“What was Tenchi’s role in Trinity’s life? Were they friends or something more?”
“More?”
“More as in a romantic relationship.”
Jun tilted his head from one side to the other, but I didn’t think he was weighing his answer. He seemed confused.
“Detective Kennedy wants to know if Trinity and Tenchi were boyfriend and girlfriend. If they ever kissed and held hands, or if they were just friends like you and Trinity,” I explained, earning a scowl from Kennedy that should have dropped me where I stood. “Sorry. He didn’t understand.”
“You’re quiet, or you’re out,” Kennedy warned.
I made a key-turning motion over my mouth and threw the invisible key over my shoulder.
Kennedy returned his attention to Jun. “Were Trinity and Tenchi boyfriend and girlfriend or not?”
Jun shook his head so hard and fast he nearly unseated himself. The guard came up behind him and gripped his shoulders, pressing him down. Jun stopped shaking his head; his eyes went wide and fearful, his breaths short and shallow.
“Stop! Stop touching him.” I moved forward and bent down, trying to draw Jun’s attention. “You’re okay, Jun. Calm down.”
“Where’s Tenchi? Where’d he go?”
I looked to Kennedy for an answer. I hadn’t seen Tenchi since the police had dragged him away after he’d tried to throw himself off Trinity’s balcony. He motioned me over.
“Hospital. He tried to kill himself again,” Kennedy whispered so Jun couldn’t hear.
I put a hand over my mouth. “Oh, no. Is he okay?”
Kennedy gave a curt nod and jerked his head toward Jun. “I think he should join him.”
I looked back at Jun. He watched us with an intensity I hadn’t seen in him before. I debated whether or not to tell him the truth about Tenchi. He’d lost two of his friends already. I wasn’t sure he could handle the possibility of losing another one so soon.
“Let me answer. Follow my lead,” I told Kennedy.
I knew he didn’t like following anyone’s lead, but he agreed with another nod.
“Tenchi’s okay,” I told Jun. “He was very upset about losing Trinity. He just needs to be alone for a while. Okay?”
“But he’s coming back, right?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer. I didn’t want to make promises that were out of my ability to keep. So I went with generic and pat, two characteristics I ordinarily despised. “He’s your friend and he’s going to need his friends to help him cope with losing Trinity.”
Jun bobbed his head slowly. His grief etched lines in a face too young to have known such pain. I wanted so much to hug him and tell him it would all be okay, but I knew it wouldn’t. His life, like so many others, had been irrevocably altered by the deaths of Dhane and Trinity.
Kennedy continued to gently prod answers from Jun. Watching him work was like having a front-row seat to the greatest show of patience on earth. Did this case have Kennedy’s head spinning as wildly as mine? If so, he didn’t show it. But then he had a lot more experience at this sort of thing than I did.
Like a dog chasing its tail, it seemed the more answers there were, the more questions there were to ask. I had the strongest sensation of a clock counting down, the hands moving
closer and closer to the time when questions weren’t enough and the answers painted a picture no one wanted to look at.
Chapter Twenty-Four
When Kennedy had gotten all the answers he was likely to get from Jun for the time being, I followed him out into the hall.
“You were good with him in there,” I told Kennedy.
He leaned in. “I don’t like how close to this you are.”
“I didn’t set out to be.”
“I suppose you didn’t, but here you are.” He inched closer, his gaze roaming my face. I could smell him—a combination of woodsy cologne and bad-ass cop—could see the shadow of his auburn beard and the light dusting of freckles on his cheeks. His gaze snapped to mine. “Be careful,” he whispered, brushing my arm with his to open the door behind me. He swept past, close enough that I could feel the hard ridges of his body as it came into contact with mine.
That man confused me more than anyone I’d ever met. Just when I thought I had him nailed down, he’d throw me a curve ball that sent my thoughts spinning. Half the time I wasn’t sure if he liked me or not, and the other half I was positive he didn’t. And then there were times like now, when everything between us felt warped and out of balance. Whatever Kennedy’s motives were I knew one thing for sure, it was all about the endgame with him. I’d be smart to remember that.
I let out a breath, slapped on an all-purpose smile, and followed him into the room. Alex and a couple of other cops I didn’t recognize were there, watching Jun through the mirror. They were examining and discussing him as though he were a specimen in a jar.
I looked through the mirror, trying to see what they saw. Jun sat perfectly still, his head tilted to one side, eyes closed. I saw a boy, hurt and afraid. Sure, he dressed strange and acted funny, but really he was just so very sad and all alone. Didn’t we all put on a façade we hoped the world would accept?
Platt came in with a sheaf of papers, grinning ear to ear. “Got him.” He saw me and pulled up short. “Oh, hi, Azalea. I didn’t know you were here.” His cheeks flushed at the catcalls and whistles from his fellow officers about his new look.
“Don’t tease him.” I pointed at one of the officers. “You’re not fooling anyone with that comb-over. And you—” I turned my finger on the other cop. “There’s this really great new product…it’s called shampoo. Check into it.” I switched my attention to the third officer, the one who had interrogated me after Dhane’s death, Detective Weller. “As for you”—I gave him the once-over—“nice hair. You should give the number for your stylist to Roy and these other two.”
