The Daydreamer Detective Braves the Winter

by S. J. Pajonas

  “Goro…”

  “Don’t, Mei-chan. Don’t try to make me feel better.” He pushed away from the cabinet. “Everything about Chikata has been falling to pieces ever since the grocery store came to town. Yet, everyone’s grateful for the extra jobs and foot traffic.”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “Yin and yang. I can’t imagine it was a challenging job being a police officer in a peaceful town like Chikata before Midori Sankaku.”

  “No, but at least it was honest.”

  My face flushed with heat. “This is honest, Goro-chan. Don’t tell yourself anything different. We look out for our own. I’m not going to take this money and bet it at the track. The invoices are here to prove she did business. For all we know, she could have buried money all over Tokyo. At least this way, Hisashi-san can have some cash to move on with. I’ll bury the box under the clothes in my closet at home. When he’s released, tell him to come to me.”

  Goro glanced around the office again and nodded his head. Good. Because my next step was to put back the box and walk out, and I would rather have kept the money in play until we knew what was going on.

  “We have one more stop before we return to Chikata, the safe deposit box.”

  Goro opened the door and ushered me out as he turned off the lights and locked up behind him.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  I left the cashbox in Goro’s police car, sliding it under the passenger seat and out of sight. Not that I thought anyone would break into a police car, but better to be safe. I shouldn’t tempt someone. According to papers left at Etsuko’s office, she had used a local bank located right under the Tokyo Skytree. The high tower loomed overhead as Goro and I entered the bank’s lobby. A gust of hot air hit me, and I sighed with gratitude. I was so sick of being cold. How many more days till summer? Too many.

  I sat down in a cushioned armchair while Goro asked to speak to the bank manager, a tiny man in a crisp suit with a full head of silver hair. They conversed for a moment, then Goro was directed back to an office.

  What I wouldn’t have given for a cup of coffee right then. My head was pounding which meant my blood sugar was low, and I was short on caffeine. Ramen for breakfast wasn’t my best idea ever. I should have had more protein. I dug through my bag, looking for something to eat when I noticed my phone. I sat back into the comfortable armchair and swiped the screen on.

  It was already 11:00, and I’d had a text from both Kumi and Chiyo.

  Kumi wrote, “Hope you’re feeling better today! It was good to hang out last night and have dinner together. I’ve been working on a logo for you. Just a little something to put on fliers or business cards. I hope you like it. I’ve sent it in an email.” Smiley face.

  Oh, that was so sweet. She didn’t have to do that for me, and once again I was bowled over by the kindness of my new old friends. I couldn’t help but smile down at my phone.

  Chiyo wrote, “I spoke to your mom and I’ll bring her by around 17:00. She wants to take a nap before coming over.”

  Yay! An evening with Mom. I couldn’t wait to see her. I texted Chiyo to thank her and tell her how grateful I was for her help. I was lucky to have these wonderful ladies in my life.

  Instead of going straight to my email to check out the new logo Kumi made for me, I decided to take out my book and start reading. The last two times I had tried to read, I was interrupted by Jun. I wondered what was going on with him. Was he safe? Or was he in trouble? I didn’t have a lot of love for him, what with the mugging and everything, but I didn’t want to see him hurt or even dead. My mind wandered, and I stared out the window, imagining Jun with Takahara and Etsuko. Were they in some kind of love triangle? I was unsure. She wasn’t in the photos with them. How did Etsuko, the Ne Kitsune boys, and Takahara end up in a mess together? There must have been some explanation I was missing. I’d gone from thinking that Etsuko had had an affair to thinking Jun killed Etsuko to money laundering and back to a love triangle. It felt like the lies would never end.

  My phone rang, and I dug through my bag again to find it. It was Murata. She had never called me before, and my heart beat a panicked pace as I answered.

  “Hi, Murata-san. Is everything okay?”

  “Everything’s fine, Mei-chan. I saw my physical therapist this morning, and I’m tired, so I’m going to sleep this afternoon. You don’t need to come by.” Her voice croaked with weariness.

  “That’s fine! I’m relieved you’re okay. Let me know if you need anything.”

  “I’m glad you’re not angry,” she said, sighing into the phone.

  “No. Absolutely not. I’m here to help you, to make your life easier. Don’t worry about me. My mom is coming over later, so I’ll be fine.”

  “You’re a good girl, Mei-chan. I’m glad we met.” I blushed at her praise and glanced up to see Goro coming towards me.

  “Get some rest, and I’ll see you tomorrow.” We said goodbye, and I hung up. I lost money for the day, but I kept a client, and that’s what mattered.

  “All right. We’re set to go.” Past Goro, near the door to the rear of the bank, the bank manager waited for us.

  “What did you tell him?” I whispered, trying not to draw attention to ourselves.

  “The truth. I have Etsuko’s death certificate and a warrant to search anything she owned. The safe deposit box falls in that jurisdiction.”

  I followed Goro and the bank manager through a hallway to the safe deposit boxes and safe. They both used their keys to open the box, and the manager bowed and left us alone. Goro took the box into a private room, and I closed the door behind us.

  “Okay,” he said, opening the flap on the long metal box. I held my breath, believing there would be some dramatic evidence inside. We’d come so far, from no clues to finally being within reach of the killer. I wanted to end this as soon as possible so we could put Etsuko’s memory to rest and move on.

  The giant box had nothing but a few slips of paper and an envelope. That was it.

  Goro grabbed the papers, and I grabbed the envelope. Inside the envelope, four numbers were written on a note in Etsuko’s handwriting. “The pin number to an application of locked images on my phone: 8-3-2-8.”

  “Did you ever find an application that needed a pin number on her phone? What if she was hiding more images of Takahara, for blackmail use?”

  Goro shook his head. “Not on her personal phone, and we still don’t have the other phone you saw. I was hoping it would be in this box.”

  “It couldn’t be here,” I said, shaking my head. “I saw her use the phone the night before she was murdered, and she spent the whole day with Hisashi. She didn’t have time to come into the city and drop the phone in the safe deposit box. It must be in her apartment somewhere.”

  “We tore that place apart. There’s no way it’s there.”

  “Then the murderer must have it.”

  “Yeah…” Goro relaxed against his chair as his eyes skimmed the paper he was holding. He swore. “Well, here we have a confession.”

  My scalp tingled as I took the paper from his shaky fingers. Before I started reading, I peeled off my heavy winter coat.

  “If someone besides me finds this letter then I know I’ve been found out. I wish I could turn back the clock and never have gotten involved in this business, but it’s too late. The only thing I can do now is come out and confess to everything I’ve done.

  “It was about three years ago I decided I should take a second job. My parents were good to me, always giving me shifts at the restaurant if I needed them, but it wasn’t enough to put money in the bank and save up for a future. I had this little hobby that I love, buying bento boxes. I would pick up a new one every now and then, make lunch, and post photos of the boxes online. It was something fun to do and I loved it. Eventually, I had a lot of online followers who complimented me on my collection and clamored for more boxes, more photos. They wanted bento boxes like mine too, and they wanted to know how to find them. That was when I got my idea! I
would start up a little online business selling bento boxes to the people who followed me. At first I wasn’t making any money, then word-of-mouth grew, and I had hundreds of orders per month. Hisashi thought I was a little crazy. He didn’t want me to tell anybody about it, so I didn’t. I figured it would be my little secret only he would know about. I rented a little office space in Sumida and worked on my orders from there and at home.

  “Then two years ago my apartment building was sold to Fujita Takahara. I had heard of him because of the work he did with Midori Sankaku, and I knew he was a popular ladies’ man, but that was about it. He took delivery of one of my boxes while he was living in the apartment below mine, and that’s how we met. He would often stay in that apartment when he had a lot of meetings in town and didn’t want to commute back to Tokyo. We got to talking, I told him about my business, and he said he wanted to invest. I was excited! I thought I had lucked out. He told me that because most of his money came from his father, he would have to invest under the table. I don’t know why I didn’t question that. I should have.

  “We set up a system where we would exchange money and invoices, and in the end, I would have money to invest. It wasn’t until six months later when he started shifting more money my way that I realized what had happened. He was using me to launder money, and I stupidly stepped right into his trap. But once I was sure I knew what was happening, I couldn’t get out of it. He was insistent that we keep things the same, and since he lived underneath me, there was nothing I could do to hide from him.

  “Then I did something even stupider. I was lonely and I wanted someone to hang out with, to spend the night. Hisashi traveled all the time, and I hadn’t seen him in three months. So I emailed this Ne Kitsune service, a no-sex escort service for lonely women, met a young man named Jun, and he came over twice a week. I had cash from Takahara, so I spent it on this. I had no feelings for Jun, but he fell in love with me. Takahara caught Jun leaving my apartment one day, and I knew that was the end for me.

  “Takahara blackmailed me into doing even more money laundering for him. I should’ve come clean to Hisashi. I should’ve told him, and we would’ve worked things out but instead I made things worse. Takahara followed Jun to his apartment and blackmailed him, too. Since Jun was in love with me, he didn’t want to see me get hurt either. It was awful. Takahara is very good at blackmailing, and I’ve since learned this is his favorite tactic, to find lonely women and prompt them to start businesses, take his money, launder it, and blackmail them into staying silent. I am one of maybe a dozen women he’s conned into doing this. I’m sorry I don’t know their names.

  “Eventually, I found out he met another young man through Jun and the Ne Kitsune service. I could hear them in the apartment below mine! Takahara was sleeping with this young man and right under me most nights. I figured I would turn the tables on him. I had Jun plant a small camera in Takahara’s apartment, and I took videos and photos. They are all in a locked folder on my work mobile phone. I change the pin often, so I’ll leave the number in an envelope next to this letter.

  “I’m going to take the photos and video to Takahara and tell him that if he doesn’t let me go, I’m going to show the photos to his father. Takahara gets most of his money from his father, and I suspect the money I was laundering was from bribes, though I can’t be too sure. He never told me. Hopefully this will be over soon.

  “Please tell Hisashi I’m sorry. All I wanted was for a little business to myself, and I was stupid. I screwed it up. I was hoping to save the money so we could have a family, and if I’m lucky, I’ll come here when this is over and burn this letter. If someone else is reading this, it means I’m in jail. I regret my decisions, and I hope my family can forgive me. Signed, Etsuko Hiyasa.”

  “Oh,” I breathed out, shutting my eyes against the pounding headache. It was worse now. “I don’t think she ever believed her life was in danger. She thought she would be arrested.” Instead, she was killed. In my head, I could see Takahara wrapping his hands around her neck and squeezing until she was lifeless, limp. I reflexively touched my neck and swallowed.

  “Threatening to go to Takahara’s father was, most likely, going too far. His father was extremely wealthy, and now Takahara is extremely wealthy since his death. He’s untouchable, Mei-chan. I’ve heard his family comes from the samurai class, and they guard their relatives with everything they have. This will be tough.”

  “It’s her word against his unless we find some accomplices. Jun, this other young man, and the other women he conned into doing this. We’ll need all of them to come forward. But what do we do now?”

  Goro put the papers back into the box and closed it. “We put this back, and I call it in. The office and the safe deposit box both will be searched today.”

  Relief washed over me. With the whole department on the case, we were sure to have more evidence soon. We put the box away and locked it closed.

  “Wait for me in the lobby. I’m going to go talk to the manager, and then we’ll head back to Chikata after picking up doughnuts.”

  Goro walked to the bank manager’s office, his shoulders stiff and face creased with worry.

  This case had just become ten times more complicated.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “I brought food!” Mom said, climbing the stairs to Yasahiro’s apartment. “We had leftover chicken at Midori Sankaku today, so I purchased it at a discount.”

  Mom, ever the lover of a good sale, smiled at me as I ushered her into the apartment. I was glad her shoes were free of slush or snow which meant the sidewalks outside were clear. I came home earlier, and the snow had been shoveled thanks to the young officers of the Chikata police department. Goro brought them two dozen doughnuts from a place called Mister Donut on the other side of the Skytree. The place was ridiculously filled with plastic lion statues and lion chairs. It was super kawaii.

  I grabbed the bags of groceries from Mom’s arms and waited while she took off her shoes and placed her purse on the kitchen table.

  “This place never ceases to amaze me,” she said, glancing around at the apartment. I had the Christmas tree lights on, the blinds down, and the overhead lamps dimmed. I even turned on Christmas music, and the place was warm and dry. “He has such great taste. When will he be back?”

  “Tomorrow afternoon.” I placed the groceries on the counter and began to unpack vegetables and chicken meat. “What are you going to make? Can I help?”

  Mom’s eyes widened. “Mei-chan, since when do you work in the kitchen?”

  I opened my mouth a few times before responding. “I’m trying. I really am. I made eggs the other day. I broke into a sweat while they cooked, but I did it and didn’t kill myself or set fire to anything.” I gripped the edge of the counter and took a deep breath. “Murata-san has been teaching me how to make bread.”

  “Really? You do remember the time you set fire to a wooden spoon, and I found you passed out on the floor of the kitchen while the spoon set a dish towel on fire?”

  I swallowed past the lump in my throat, remembering the incident that led me to avoiding the kitchen for the next twelve years. All I remembered was fire and then blackness.

  “I’m feeling brave. I want to overcome this fear. I’m in my mid-twenties and I can’t cook anything but rice.” I separated out the vegetables like I’d always seen Mom do, and I placed the chicken in the fridge until she was ready to use it.

  Mom joined me at the kitchen island, squeezing me around the waist and smiling. “I’m proud of you. You’ve been working so hard, and I know you don’t have much to show for it, but everyone’s noticed how strong and helpful you are.”

  “Oh, stop,” I said, squeezing her back. “I’m barely making a few hundred yen per week at this rate, enough to pay for a bus pass, and that’s it. I would be starving and freezing if it weren’t for Yasa-kun. I wouldn’t call that brave.” I glanced over at my bag near the door, containing the cashbox I took from Etsuko’s office today. Some would call wh
at I did stupid, considering the police could arrest me for tampering with evidence, but I liked to think of myself as strong for protecting what Etsuko would have wanted for Hisashi.

  I teetered on the edge of good luck and bad luck at all times. Even on days I was lucky, everything could turn around in the blink of an eye. I was either falling prey to a string of bad karma or my head was stuck in the clouds daydreaming how different things could be.

  “You’ve been brave lately. Surviving the fire, a new relationship with Yasahiro-san, and starting a new business? All of these things show how tenacious you are. Whatever happens, you need to pick yourself up and keep going. That’s what I did during even my worst years as a farmer, and I had some rough years.” Mom reached into the cabinet to the right of the stove and pulled out two cutting boards. She then opened a drawer, took out vegetable peelers, and pulled a knife from a knife block next to the stove. She knew Yasahiro’s kitchen better than I did. I’m sure she had come here to teach him too. She’d known him a lot longer than I had.

  “Now, we’re going to make a chicken and dumpling soup. You can begin by peeling and cutting the vegetables, and I’ll start the soup stock. We’ll work together, and you’ll learn knife skills first. Even if you never cook at the stove, the knife skills will come in handy. You could always prep vegetables for Yasahiro-san.” She winked at me and laughed like she could see into my happy future to where I would be in five years. I hoped she was right.

  We cooked together for an hour, enjoying the easy chatter about her interim job and some of Yasahiro’s wine. Mom taught me how to hold the knife correctly and angle my fingers so I didn’t chop them off. She handled the chicken but left the dumplings to me. It was good to be cooking with somebody else here. The apartment had been empty with Yasahiro gone, and I’d missed my mom.