It was afternoon by the time Kyoko finally made an appearance at the office. She walked through the door and found both Saori and Nobu behind their desks. When Nobu looked up at her, Kyoko gasped at the bruises lining his face—a scar on his cheek, one black eye, puffy lips. Without hesitation, Kyoko rushed to his side.
“What the hell happened to you?”
“Go on, tell her,” said Saori.
“Found the club Akane worked at, tried to ask some questions about her. Got the crap kicked out of me for the effort,” said Nobu.
“Holy shit…” Kyoko shook her head. “Nobu, I’m so sorry. You shouldn’t have gone that far.”
“Don’t sweat it, not the first beating I took.”
“Well, I hate to be the one to ask, but did you at least learn anything useful from your trip?” Kyoko went to the kitchen to get some ice coffee. She could hear Nobu’s voice following her.
“Akane worked under the name Rina. Once she disappeared, they just replaced her and moved on. But all the questions made them think I was a stalker, hence the treatment.”
After filling the tall glass with coffee, Kyoko placed the container back in the refrigerator and closed it. She picked up the glass and leaned against the doorframe, focused on Nobu.
“Anything else?”
“I made a new friend.”
Kyoko cocked her head to the side.
“The girl who replaced Akane, her name’s Ai. She helped me out,” said Nobu. “Seems hostesses quitting suddenly? Not so shocking. But the lack of gossip? That’s odd. Which is what happened here. If she finds out anything else, she said she’ll let me know.”
“Good, we’ll need something more to go on. Because as it stands, I don’t think Yuki Ichikawa had anything to do with Akane’s death,” said Kyoko.
“What?” asked Saori. “But everything seemed to point to him.”
“I dropped in on his mother in Minato and he tried to run from me. Long story short, I managed a conversation with him. He confirmed that he had sex with her the afternoon before her death. But he claims he avoided us because of a deep depression he fell into after he heard the news.”
“You really buy that?” asked Nobu.
“It’s not unheard of,” said Kyoko. “I’ve seen it happen before.”
“And the drugs?” asked Nobu.
“He said he didn’t know anything about that. Seemed shocked when I told him about the guy who was at his apartment with amphetamines.” Kyoko took a drink from her glass. “Everything about him seemed sincere.”
“And you’re sure about that? No one’s ever successfully lied to you in the past?” asked Saori.
“Not this convincingly.”
“And the phone call the guy got?” asked Nobu. “You said he called Ichikawa by name.”
“Said it wasn’t him,” said Kyoko. “It’s possible Yuki was being set up.”
Saori groaned and threw her head back. “Great, so we’re back at square one.”
“Not quite. The other reason I was in Minato was to speak to the Suzukis, update them on the case, and to check a few things.” Kyoko took Akane’s broken phone from her pocket and set it on Saori’s desk. “That’s her phone, it was on her when she died.”
Saori picked it up by the corner and examined the broken screen with a scowl on her face. “How is this gonna be any help? It’s completely trashed.”
“I bet Teppei could help with that…”
The glare Saori threw in Nobu’s direction was sharp enough to impale a man.
“Saori, we need to know what’s on this phone,” said Kyoko. “Ichikawa confirmed that Akane was fuzoku. And most arrangements are made by phone these days.”
The word fuzoku was a shorthand term that described the sex industry in Japan.
“So that means client names and numbers, text messages, voicemails…they’ll all be on this thing.” Saori looked up from the phone at her boss and pointed. “Fine, but you’re coming with, okay?”
“Deal.”
“What about Jun, boss?” asked Nobu. “You still want him asking around if anyone’s seen Ichikawa?”
“I think Yuki was telling the truth, but can’t be sure. Whether or not he’s mixed up in drugs, Akane got those amphetamines from someone.”
Kyoko walked across the room. Pushed up against the wall between the door to her office and the corner was a blank whiteboard. She pulled it out so both Saori and Nobu could see it. Quickly, Kyoko took a black marker and wrote down Akane’s name in the center of the board. All around, she wrote the names of other players they’d encountered or heard of so far—Yuki Ichikawa, Kosei and Tomiko Suzuki, Jo Miyashita, Fukui, and Ayano Kuroki.
“I learned from my contact that none of the semen samples in the condoms matched, which means Akane slept with three different men the day she died. One of those men was Ichikawa and he also said that he saw one other condom in the garbage.”
“So we’ve got two other gentlemen callers, one before and one after Ichikawa,” said Nobu.
“He said Akane was upset about something when she called him. Maybe she met with a client earlier in the day and something happened with him,” said Kyoko. “Possibly he got rough with her, or just the reality of the situation was becoming too much for her to bear.”
“You said Fukui looked suspicious,” said Saori.
“He did. And the Suzukis had been estranged from Akane, hadn’t spoken to her in months,” said Kyoko.
“Miyashita also came off as a creep. I think we should look into him more.”
Kyoko wrote down the word ‘DRUGS?’ off to the side and circled it. She also drew a line connecting Akane’s name to Miyashita’s and then Ayano’s and back to Akane.
“Ayano Kuroki was Akane’s closest friend,” said Kyoko. “She also works for Miyashita. If anyone would know more about what Akane was going through and what sort of person Miyashita is, it would be her.”
“He was pretty adamant about not letting me talk to her,” said Saori. “But with that phone, maybe we won’t have to go through any middlemen.”
“Right,” said Kyoko. “Come on, let’s go meet your boyfriend.”
Saori stood from her desk and grabbed her purse and jacket, being sure to bring the phone with her. Nobu leaned back in his chair.
“What do you want me to do, boss?”
“Get in touch with Jun, find out what he knows about amphetamine dealers in Shinsekai. I also want a background check on Goro Fukui. Anything you can find.”
“Got it,” said Nobu. “Anything else?”
Kyoko flashed him a grin. “No, just be a good secretary and answer the phones.”
Saori giggled and Nobu scoffed, shaking his head. “If you’re not good to me, I’ll take my skills somewhere else!”
“Just get to work.” Kyoko held open the door for Saori and then walked through it herself. The two of them took the elevator down to the first floor and stepped out onto the streets of Namba.
“Teppei works at a Softbank shop on Namba Walk,” said Saori.
“Good, that’s close by,” said Kyoko. “You’re positive he’s working there now?”
Saori nodded. “Oh yeah, he made sure to let me know his schedule.”
Kyoko smiled. “You and him?”
“Don’t you start.” Saori pointed at her boss. “Bad enough I got Tsuji bugging me about it every chance he gets.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were thinking it.”
Kyoko chuckled. They continued their walk down a side street until they reached one of the staircases leading down to Namba Walk. Shoppers and commuters already moved freely throughout the underground strip mall.
Saori led Kyoko through the brightly lit arcade. From the way she moved, it was clear to Kyoko that she knew the layout quite well and had no doubt been down here several times before. That didn’t surprise Kyoko—her young associate clearly knew how to dress with style. Always coming to work in the most fashionable casual clothes on the market.
It wasn’t long before they finally reached the Softbank shop. Saori paused outside the entrance and turned to look at Kyoko. She gestured with her head inside. Kyoko peered through the window and saw a young, thin man with glasses, his hair short and spiked.
“He’s cute,” said Kyoko.
“Yeah, I guess…” Saori stuck out her bottom lip.
“I sense a ‘but’ coming. Is he an asshole or something?”
Saori shook her head. “No, not even close. He’s a real sweetheart.”
“So?”
No response for a few moments. And then finally, Saori said, “Don’t you wanna get the data on this phone?”
Kyoko nodded. “You’re right. We shouldn’t waste any more time.”
The two women entered the cell phone store. The counter stretched across half the length of the store and employees sat behind it, with partitions separating each of them. Two chairs were in front of each employee. They didn’t even have to get Teppei’s attention—once he looked up, a wide smile spread over his face. He quickly looked down to try and hide it. Kyoko glanced at Saori and saw the hints of a smile tugging at her lips.
Teppei stood and stared at Saori. “Hi.”
“Hi,” was Saori’s barely audible reply.
“Hi.” Kyoko stuck her head into Teppei’s line of sight.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” Teppei gave a deep, apologetic bow to Kyoko.
“It’s okay,” she said. “Do you mind if we sit?”
“Yes, of course.” Teppei gestured to the chairs and took his own seat. Both Kyoko and Saori settled into their seats in front of him and Teppei leaned forward, placing his hands on the counter. “What can I do for you?”
“My name is Kyoko Nakamura, Saori works for me.” She handed Teppei a business card and he accepted it. A moment later, Teppei handed her his own card and bowed.
“Teppei Ono, yoroshiku onegaishimasu.”
“We have something we’d like you to take a look at.” Kyoko looked at Saori and she removed the broken phone from her purse, setting it down on the counter.
Teppei’s eyes widened behind his glasses. He picked up the phone gently, examining it from every angle. “What did you do, run over it with a car?”
“Close.” Kyoko leaned in closer and whispered. “It fell off a building.”
“Damn.” Teppei shook his head while still looking at it.
“Can you get the data off it?” asked Saori.
Teppei looked up at the two of them, narrowing his eyes. “Whose phone is this?”
“It’s for a case,” said Kyoko.
He started shaking his head and set the phone down in front of them. “No way! Not happening!”
“Teppei, please,” said Saori. “We need to know what’s on this thing. It’s a big favor, I know. I’ll owe you big time.”
“I like you a lot, Saori. Bad enough I already gave you that guy’s address. But breaking into someone’s phone is really pushing things. I won’t do it.”
“Teppei, listen to me,” said Kyoko, sliding the phone towards him. She stared intently at him, so much so that he flinched under her gaze. But she never broke it for a second. “This phone belonged to a girl who may have been murdered. If I’m going to have any chance of discovering who did this, I need to know what secrets she kept on this thing.”
The young employee stared at the phone. After a moment, he looked back up at Kyoko. With a sigh, he finally said, “There’s a way to download the data off the phone. But you should know that with a device this badly damaged, the data itself may not have survived.”
“But is it possible that it might have?” asked Saori.
“Possible, sure. I could try to download and recover the data. I just want you to know there’s a pretty good chance nothing will be useable.”
“Just do whatever you can,” said Kyoko.
“Might take some time.”
“That’s fine. Call Saori or myself when you have something.”
Kyoko stood from the chair and turned towards the exit. She heard Saori and Teppei exchanging a few words. Looking at her associate, Kyoko saw Saori smiling quite a bit as she spoke to the young man. After a few moments, Saori joined her.
“Seems you two have a pretty good rapport,” said Kyoko.
“Shut up.”