“Uh huh. Keep ‘em fresh until the superintendent kicks your ass.”
Hayashi clicked his tongue. “You got new hires, too.”
She turned to the woman and man on her left. “This is Kojima.” The woman bowed smiling. “And Taniguchi.” The man made a weird grimace which was probably intended as a smile too. “I hired them because my other assistants were promoted. They didn’t run away from me.”
Hayashi snickered. “Ouch. Touché.”
A snort nearly escaped Shinji, but he bit his lip to keep a straight face. Suzuki returned her attention to the victim’s body and lifted his head up to press against the back of his skull. Her assistant, Kojima, checked it with a flashlight.
“No apparent wound to the head,” Suzuki said. “Did you look at this? The weird wire?”
“Yeah.” Hayashi nodded. “Fucked up way to kill.”
“And complex,” she added. Suzuki pulled her own flashlight and leaned down to the jogger’s neck. “It’s wrapped tight, broke through skin. And the work is very…” she trailed off with a sigh.
“Meticulous?” Hayashi completed her sentence.
“Yeah.”
“With no blunt trauma to the head, Miyazaki and I were thinking the criminal used a sedative, perhaps injected it with a syringe. Can you check for that?”
“Well, if he was injected in the neck,” Suzuki said, “there’s no possible way to see the injection site. The presence of the chemical agent will come up after my autopsy. But if the needle was jabbed—” She pulled the jogger’s jacket lower. “—into his arm…” She paused. “Kojima, hold the flashlight.” She hooked her finger onto the jogger’s T-shirt and dragged it revealing the bicep with a purple-ish round wound. “It was jammed in fast. Look at the bruising.”
The jogger’s ghost walked next to Shinji, bringing the chilly mist with him.
“Is that what killed me?” the ghost asked. “Or the wire?”
Shinji cleared his throat. “Dr. Suzuki, would you say the wire is the cause of death or is there a chance the victim was injected with something lethal and not a sedative?”
All turned to Shinji and Suzuki shrugged. “Again, the autopsy will tell. Just based on what I have in front of me, I’d say the wire. It cut the skin deep enough to reach the larynx and choke him.”
“Can you give an estimated time of death?” Hayashi asked.
“No more than ten hours. I’ll give you a more precise time after the autopsy.”
The hairs on the nape of Shinji’s neck rose and he glanced at the ghost. The jogger was gaping at his own dead body, visibly shaken. Shinji wanted to tell the victim more, explain the situation in detail, and reassure him it would all be okay, even if it wasn’t going to be okay.
“A thread,” the ghost suddenly said.
Shinji’s brows furrowed.Thread?Is he referring to the wire?Not being able to speak to ghosts freely was the only thing Shinji would miss about Hiroshima and his late superior officer from the Regional Police. Haruna saw spirits too, so he’d had no reason to hide around her.
“I think there’s a thread in my hand,” the ghost continued, looking confused about his own words.
So, not the wire then.
“Stop daydreaming, Miyazaki,” Hayashi warned through gritted teeth. “We’re in the middle of an investigation.” He tilted his head, staring beyond Shinji where the jogger’s ghost stood, invisible to him. “What are you looking at?”
“I’m sorry, sir, I wasn’t daydreaming,” Shinji immediately countered and Hayashi glared back. “I was just thinking whether Dr. Suzuki checked the victim’s hands yet,” Shinji added.
“The fingers are curled,” Suzuki said. “I’ll take a look at the medical center.”
“Can you try to unclasp them now?” Shinji insisted, keeping a pleasant tone, hoping he didn’t sound rude.
Hayashi clicked his tongue. “She just told you—”
“I can try,” Suzuki cut in.
“It’s in my right hand,” the ghost said.