“Erika strikes me as a bit suspicious,” Shinji said. “But the discussion she had with Ozawa sounds like a good motive for a murder. If someone despised Ozawa that much in high school, it’s reason enough to want her dead.”
“Agreed.” Teruo nodded. “Once we get our hands on more pictures we can check whether our jogger attended that reunion too. He and Ozawa look about the same age. Our killer could be someone from that circle of former high school classmates.”
“And the motive could be linked to Ozawa’s mysterious past.”
“Not that mysterious,” Teruo said. “We’ll ask her parents. They should have some idea what their kid did in high school and what Ozawa meant when she said she was cruel.”
Shinji bit the inside of his cheek as he turned the information around in his head.
“I’m worried about another thing,” Teruo added as he blew smoke out. “A wire wrapped with strange precision and with a pet tag at the end to resemble a collar.” He made a circling motion around his throat. “It’s ritualistic for our killer. Possibly made the criminal feel avenged, feel that proper punishment was delivered to Ozawa and the jogger…” he trailed off, pressing his lips together.
“Yes? And?” Shinji asked, curious to find out what Teruo was thinking.
“If Ozawa and the jogger were classmates, I’m wondering: how many other kids in their class were ‘cruel’ as Ozawa put it? Is the killer done with these two or will there be more? I hope I’m wrong but… we could be dealing with a serial killer.”
CHAPTER 12
Teruo
Teruo let Shinji drive the car to his house after working hours were over. It would’ve been easier to drive it himself since he knew the road by heart, but he was too distracted.
He mused over bringing Shinji to his house for… well, for the one thing he had always said he wouldn’t do with his coworkers. If it had been someone from another department, maybe, but he and Shinji worked together. And no matter what Shinji said, if their little sexual encounter went wrong, it was going to be awkward.
I’m over-thinking. What the hell can go wrong? We’ll just fuck whenever we feel like it. Simple.
Then why couldn’t his damn brain accept it was simple? Teruo peeked at Shinji. He liked him in ways he hadn’t expected. Shinji was fun and charming. Devastatingly gorgeous. He wasn’t supposed to be this way. He was supposed to be just tolerable enough for Teruo not to nit-pick every single thing he did and exasperate him into resignation.
After three years of celibacy the loneliness made Teruo crave any kind of connection which he’d refused to acknowledge. Until now. Perhaps Shinji would help get him out of his shell. Perhaps in the future, their casual fling could evolve to something more serious.
Well, now I’m back to outrageous fantasies.
He needed to slow down. This was more complicated than their fling. Teruo has seen thatthingagain in the afternoon...
“Sir?” Shinji said, jolting Teruo out of his thoughts.
“Just use my name,” Teruo grumbled.
Shinji chuckled. “Sorry. Force of habit. Teruo… you seem annoyed. Do you want to cancel tonight?”
“I’m not annoyed.” Teruo straightened in his seat, realizing he was slumping with his arms folded, looking like a pouting child. “I was lost in thought, that’s all.”
Mouth curving in a warm smile, Shinji glanced at him before turning back to the road.
Behind this charming persona, Shinji was a mystery. As they’d walked to the apartment of Ozawa’s friends, Teruo had noticed that white wind again. Wind didn’t quite fit, but he couldn’t be sure what else to call it either.
Semi-transparent and with a little glow to it, the tendrils of whatever it was engulfed Shinji in a cocoon of white energy. Beautiful had been the first word Teruo thought of. Scary had been the second. It made Shinji look eerie, like one of those movie characters with powers. But such things didn’t exist in real life, so the idea of something…unnaturalrattled him.
Had Shinji conjured that white wind? Or was it some symptom of an illness Teruo had and didn’t know about?
He placed a hand on the shoulder he’d injured while working on the double homicide case with Ishida, his former partner. It didn’t hurt anymore. And he’d stopped taking the pain meds on Monday, so he couldn’t be having late side effects. And pain meds wouldn’t cause such ridiculous hallucinations… would they?
Now he vacillated between checking in with a doctor or asking Shinji about it. How did one ask about it, though?Hey, do you happen to have superpowers? No? Alrighty. Just checking.
“Ugh.” Teruo groaned.
“You okay?” Shinji asked, taking a hand off the steering wheel and placing it on Teruo’s leg.
“Yeah. It’s the case. It’s stressing me out,” Teruo said, only half-lying.