Tokyo Noir: The Complete First Season

by J. Scott Matthews

  She kept scanning the room. Aside from some scuffling amidst the cubicles, she couldn’t make anything out. Then suddenly, a flash of movement. Another man was sprinting for the windows along the wall closest to her. She only had a second in between the time he appeared in her line of sight and the time he would reach the window. She fired three times in quick succession.

  The first two shots missed, but she honed in with each one until her third shot caught him. It spun him around but wasn’t a solid enough shot to knock him back. His momentum carried him onward, and soon he too was gone out the window.

  Kameko ran to the window, but the man was already out of sight. She considered pursuing him but decided against it. There were too many alleys and side streets he could have disappeared down, and the risk of twisting an ankle from the fall was too great.

  “Entering!” she shouted, so Jun wouldn’t shoot her by accident. Then she headed into the rows at a crouch, with her gun held up.

  She was hoping to surprise the other gunman. The last thing she wanted was to provoke an all-out gunfight here. Not in these close quarters. And not with Jun and the Toymaker somewhere in the cubicles. She moved quickly down the aisles, checking her corners as she went. It was then, as she turned the corner into a middle aisle, that she saw their assailant, swinging his rifle up into one of the cubicles. He was smiling.

  “No!” she shouted as she aimed her own gun.

  His head tilted towards her, almost imperceptibly. But his arms kept raising his gun. Time seemed to slow and stand still in that moment. Then two things happened simultaneously. The muzzle of his gun flashed, and his head exploded.

  Kameko wasn’t sure if she had seen that right. She blinked and looked again. Sure enough, the man’s headless body was still standing and aiming his gun forward. Then it toppled over and hit the floor. The ringing in her ears from Jun’s handheld cannon was almost unbearable.

  She saw Jun come up from the other side, his gun still drawn.

  “Behind you!” she announced, then stepped forward as well.

  She peered into the cubicle to see the Toymaker cowering inside it.

  “Are you hit?” she shouted.

  The Toymaker patted himself down to be sure, then shook his head.

  That was a relief. They had almost fucked up big-time.

  Kameko looked down at the assailant. Blood was spurting out of the hole where his head had been. Jun was already rifling through his pockets.

  “Anything?” she shouted over the ringing.

  He shook his head. “No wallet. No ID. Nothing.”

  “Yeah, and no chance of a facial recognition without his face. Shit. Hopefully Jeremy caught the one he went after.”

  They walked outside to find Jeremy limping towards the entrance.

  “Twisted an ankle when I landed. He got away. You get the others?”

  “One.”

  “Professor, you okay?” Jeremy said.

  The Toymaker just nodded. He looked too shaken to speak right now. Kameko bet he didn’t find himself staring down the barrels of many guns. Aside from the ones he made for them, of course.

  “Well, then, just how the fuck did they know where to find us?” Jeremy said.

  “Hmm, that’s a puzzler,” Kameko said, stroking her chin. “Wait! I’ve got an idea! Maybe they …”

  She trailed off there as she spun around quickly, sweeping Jeremy’s legs out from underneath him. He went down hard, Kameko flipping over to land on top of him. As she did, a gun suddenly found its way into her hand, subsequently finding its way as far into Jeremy’s mouth as she could jam it.

  “Have you been unfaithful, Jeremy?” she shouted in his face as he struggled. “Huh? You playing two sides in this game?”

  “Stop! It wasn’t him!” the Toymaker shouted. Jun restrained him, but he kept pushing forward.

  Kameko looked up, her expression a look of ice-cold resolve. “How much do you trust him, Professor?” She cocked her gun as she eyed the Toymaker.

  “Completely! Totally! It wasn’t him!”

  Kameko tilted her head to the side but relented after a moment and removed the gun from halfway down Jeremy’s throat. She stood up, holstered her weapon, and offered him a hand. He smacked it away and crawled away from her until he was against the side of the building. He stared at her, wild-eyed from fear and adrenaline.

  “Now, your natural inclination is to even the score somehow,” Kameko said calmly. “Whether that’s by pulling your gun on me, or taking a swing or something, I don’t know. But I’m going to need you not to do that. It would go very badly for you.”

  “The van, then,” Jun said with a nod in that direction.

  “That was my thought too,” Kameko said as she began walking that way.

  “Crazy bitch,” Jeremy muttered softly as he struggled to his feet.

  “I’m just eccentric!” Kameko shouted back over her shoulder.

  It took Jun and Kameko less than a minute to find the GPS beacon stuck to the underside of the van. Kameko walked back to the Toymaker and Jeremy.

  “Never doubted you for a second,” she said with a smile as she tossed Jeremy the beacon.

  “Still doesn’t explain how they got in,” Jeremy said.

  Jun walked to the building and disappeared inside. The three of them stood there, staring at each other awkwardly.

  “So … how are things with you guys?” Kameko asked nonchalantly. “Good progress with the printing and all?”

  Jeremy and the Toymaker both stared at her mutely, still in shock.

  “Because I’ve been good—not that you asked. Just, busy, you know? But I guess that comes with the territory.”

  Still no response.

  “So … seen any good movies la—”

  “There’s a hole in one of the walls in the subbasement,” Jun called out as he emerged from the building. “They must have come through that when they knew you were here. How often do you use this site?”

  “Last time was over three weeks ago,” Jeremy said.

  “If that’s for real what happened,” the Toymaker said, thinking it through, “then they’ve been watching us for weeks. Waiting for us to come back here so they could take their shot at me.”

  Kameko shook her head. “These fuckers are careful. Methodical.”

  “You sure this is the serial killer?” Jeremy asked. “Not just a rival gang moving in on the big man?”

  “Anymore, I’m starting to think it’s both,” Kameko said.

  She started walking away from the group.

  “Where are you going?” Jun asked Kameko as she headed to a payphone on the corner.

  “We’ve done all we can here. Now I feel the need to do my civic duty and report this to the police.”

  “Why would you do that?” Jun asked.

  Kameko shrugged. “I want to see if they can turn up any information we missed.” Kameko turned slightly and spoke into the phone. “Hello, Mei? Yeah, it’s Kameko. I’d like to leave an anonymous tip about your case …”

  Chapter Three

  “What the fuck is going on here?”

  Mei strode into the room and the three men looked up, two of them with bloody knuckles, one with a bloody face.

  “Well?”

  “Just interrogating a suspect,” Kato said.

  “Yeah, one that we found. Through our own police work!” Ina said.

  The suspect sitting on the floor with his hands chained to the table started to laugh at that. It was a harsh laugh that turned into a cough that ended with him hawking up blood.

  “This is insubordination,” Mei said. “We’ve had this talk before. Now you’re back to pulling this same shit.”

  “Who gives a fuck?” Ina shouted. “The man’s a criminal! So what if we rough him up a little?”

  “Let me explain the problem with it to you,” Mei said quietly. “When you beat on a man who’s chained down, you take advantage of him when he’s at a weak point. And as police, it’s essentially our job t
o protect the weak and innocent. Now this man’s not innocent, I’ll wager. But when you reduce everything to dog-eat-dog, then the strong prey on the weak. And guys like him win. And you see why we can’t have that, right?”

  “No, I don’t see the problem with it.”

  As Kato said this, he was getting in Mei’s face, clearly trying to intimidate her. Mei nodded, then backed away. She walked over towards the door, where she shrugged out of her overcoat and tied her hair back. Then she closed the door.

  “Let me try to explain this to you another way. Think about a situation where you’re locked in a room with a predator. Now, you think you’re the baddest motherfucker, so you go up to them and start picking on them. Only, they start eating you instead. You see the problem?”

  “Simple solution for that,” Kato said, drawing closer. “Just be the top predator in that scenario.”

  “Well, you say that …,” Mei said, ending that sentence by grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him towards her as she drove her forehead down towards his nose. It landed with a crunch, sending him to the ground.

  “Hey!” Ina yelled

  , vaulting over the table towards her.

  Having studied jujitsu, Mei wasn’t much for striking. She was more of a ground-fighting and grappling kind of girl. Normally this would make it difficult to quickly subdue two opponents at the same time, but fortunately for her, the cramped quarters favored her in this.

  As Ina came at her, she caught him by his wrist and shirt and swung him around into the wall behind her. Kato was scrambling to his feet now, so she rolled over him while keeping a hold on his clothes. Then she launched him into the opposite wall. He slammed into it hard and bounced off it from the momentum. This brought him back into her outstretched elbow. She caught him in the forehead right where she aimed. His forehead split open, and blood poured into his eye. He stayed down after that.

  Ina was coming at her with fury in his eyes. He would have likely gotten the best of her too, if their suspect hadn’t intervened. When she turned around, she saw that the suspect had slid under the table far enough to give himself some leeway. With his long legs, he was able to sweep Ina’s legs out from under him. Ina went down hard, then was dragged backwards as the suspect locked his legs around him.

  Mei straightened her uniform briefly as she strode over to the exit. Kato was staggering towards her just as she opened the door and called for the guards outside.

  “Gentlemen? Would you come here please?”

  Kato stopped in his tracks as the guards entered.

  “Is there a problem?” the first one asked, quickly surveying the scene.

  “It’s the perp! He’s got the detective!” the second shouted as he rushed over.

  “Stop!” Mei shouted. “Guards, would you please escort my underlings here out? They got into a tussle with one another. The suspect was helping to break them up.”

  “What?” Kato roared. “That’s not what happened!”

  “Then what did happen, Detective Kato? Did you and Detective Ina attack your commanding officer? Did the two of you gang up on a superior officer with the intent of inflicting bodily harm? Did the two of you get your asses handed to you by a woman half your size? Is that what happened?”

  “No,” Kato growled.

  “I didn’t think so.” Mei turned to the guards. “If you could show them the door, I’d appreciate it. I think maybe they just need a little time out to cool down.” She fixed Kato and Ina with a glare. “Really think about what they’ve done. And what they were about to do.”

  When Kato and Ina were gone, Mei regarded the suspect. He had one eye swollen shut, but the other stared at her from behind his bruised and bloodied face with an expression she found oddly calm. Considering.

  Mei unlocked his handcuffs and asked one of the guards in the hall to fetch him a damp towel. Then she sat down in front of him.

  “Thanks,” he said.

  “I didn’t do it for you.”

  “Oh?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow.

  “Why are you here?” Mei asked.

  “I was set up for something I didn’t do.”

  “Yeah, and you must be the hundredth person today to use that line here. So let’s dig a little deeper.”

  Satoshi told her the basics leading up to his arrest.

  “Who do you think tried to set you up?” Mei asked when he had finished.

  Satoshi regarded her for a long while. The look in his good eye told Mei that he was trying to calculate the angles.

  “I just want to clarify something first,” he said. “And don’t take this the wrong way. But I get the feeling that we’re on the same side. Am I wrong in that?”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Oh, my mistake, then. Must be someone else … well, doesn’t matter.”

  Mei glared at him. “I’ve been in contact with your boss, and some of his people. They’re … assisting with the investigation, in a limited capacity.”

  Satoshi nodded. “Okay, figured it was you. I didn’t think you’d just happen to be working at midnight and come to my aid by coincidence.”

  “Look, why don’t you tell me why you’re here?”

  “Am I speaking to you in your capacity as a detective or as an emissary for the big man?”

  “This is off the record, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  Satoshi nodded. He told the story again, this time with a few more details. He left out the more blatantly illegal parts.

  “So you think Masa set you up for this?”

  “Probably. He’s the only one with a motive.”

  “Because Vasili has you pursuing him.”

  Satoshi nodded.

  “Why?”

  “That’s his business.”

  “You’re just the hired gun?”

  “Who does what he’s told.”

  “A noble criminal. How fucking cliché.”

  “Sorry to disappoint. Any chance you can get me out of here?”

  “I can. But it’s going to be a lot of work for me. So I gotta ask, how are you going to make this worth my while?”

  Satoshi shook his head. “Here it is. Always the same with you guys. Don’t worry, Detective, you’ll get your payoff for this. I’ll deliver the cash myself if that’s what you—”

  “No, shitheel, I mean how are you going to help me with my case?”

  “You’re not angling for a bribe, then? You know, I’ve always heard of honest cops, but I didn’t think they actually existed. Sort of like unicorns or clean air.”

  “What can you give me for my investigation?”

  “Everything I’ve found out I’ve fed straight to Kameko, who’s fed it straight to you. I’m guessing.”

  “So you’ve got nothing else for me?”

  “Well, a rumor. I haven’t checked it out or anything.”

  “I’m all ears.”

  “That first guy, the one that fell on the governor—”

  “Hiroshi Sato.”

  “Yeah, he was an independent operator working with a crew of friends. Started stepping on toes around Shinjuku.”

  “And that’s what got him killed?”

  “Maybe. I dunno. The guys that go into business without the backing of a syndicate behind them never last long. You’d have to be stupid or crazy to do that.”

  “This is some slim pickings here.”

  “Best I’ve got, that you haven’t heard yet. The big man didn’t ask me to find the serial killer.”

  “Only your buddy.”

  Satoshi nodded. “So … can I go now?”

  “Ha. No. I’ll meet with a prosecutor in forty-eight hours. At that point it will be my call whether to extend your detention or let you go.”

  “Fuck, so at least forty-eight hours? You can’t speed that up?”

  “I’m going to let you go then, but even at that it’s going to look suspicious on my part. Detention can be extended up to twenty-three days. Longer, with official permission. So when I let you go aft
er just two days, there are going to be questions.”

  “Okay. I’ve done the lockup thing before. I can do it again.”

  “Anything you can give me proving you were somewhere else when the murders took place would help me. I’m going to play it off as a beef between scumbags, like your buddy dimed you out over something unrelated. But having solid proof of your innocence is going to make that lie go down smoother.”

  Satoshi shook his head. “I didn’t commit these murders. But any alibi I could give would be for other activities that were … let’s say …”

  “Less than legal. Alright, we’ll have to work out a story for you. Maybe Vasili or one of his people can produce some doctored evidence showing you somewhere else.”

  Satoshi nodded. “Sounds reasonable.”

  Mei rubbed her face with her hands and leaned forward on the table. “Jesus. I became a cop so I could put trash like you away. Now I’m trying to get you out.”

  “Trash, am I? You think I like this shit any more than you do? I’m tired of this fucking … game that we all have to play.”

  “Then stop playing.”

  “I’d love to. But not all of us get that choice.”

  “Yes, we do. It’s just that not everyone takes it.”

  “The gods hold our lives by a string. It’s not our place to challenge them. Or disobey.”

  “Oh, you’re religious, are you?”

  Satoshi didn’t reply, so Mei pressed on.

  “So these gods of yours, you’ll obey their commandments, but figure you’re not a true believer?”

  “That’s all the choice I’ve ever had.”

  Mei bared her teeth at him in a vicious laugh. Then her face grew serious. “You don’t like the game? Too fucking bad. Because you, and every worthless thug like you, help keep it going. You do it every day; with every choice you make. Every time you shake someone down, take a life, lie, cheat, steal, rape, rob, murder or turn a blind eye when someone else does, it’s just another blood offering to your gods. The gods you’ve chosen to pray to.

  “So don’t tell me you don’t worship at their temple of violence, because every burnt and bloody offering you lay at your gods’ feet puts the lie to your words. If you don’t like your bloodthirsty gods, then stop sacrificing people to them.”