She pointed at the bulge in his pocket.
✦ ✦ ✦
"............!" The man went pale.
✦ ✦ ✦
“But judging from the size of that gun, it won’t be very accurate. And the tension I’m sensing from you does not suggest you’ve used it a lot. At this distance you’ll never hit me.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi had been carefully maintaining the distance between them.
✦ ✦ ✦
The man groaned, but tried again, “S-so what are you saying? What ‘case’ are you talking about?!”
✦ ✦ ✦
“The dead crows,” Nagi said, bluntly.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Wh-what do those have to do..."
✦ ✦ ✦
“The crows that died attacking each other.”
✦ ✦ ✦
The air shifted. The awkwardness vanished, replaced with a murderous tension.
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
The man was no longer putting on his act. His hand went into his pocket, and he pulled out the gun and pointed it at Nagi.
✦ ✦ ✦
But he did not pull the trigger...he only held it steady. He asked, “How much do you know?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I’m absolutely sure you’ve been planting drugs disguised as garbage for the crows to eat. Everything beyond that is only supposition.”
✦ ✦ ✦
The gun did not waver, his eyebrows did not
✦ ✦ ✦
flicker.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Tell me,” the man hissed.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I first thought something was strange when I noticed beak marks on the crows’ bodies. The only explanation I could come up with is that they were attacking each other. Groups of crows have some unusual habits, one of which is to execute one of their members that has grown ill and begun exhibiting unusual behavior. But they would never do that where other animals would come to feed. They normally carry out such behavior somewhere safer, in seclu-sion from observers. But the dead crows had beak and claw marks on their bodies, and bits of what appeared to be crow flesh inside their own beaks. Which means, I surmised, they went unexpectedly berserk and attacked the other crows, which subsequently fought back. Why did that happen? You know better than I do.”
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
“In my autopsy, I found traces of a food additive that had an element that can only be described as a stimulant. But it was only a small amount, so something must have strengthened it...”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Exactly!” the man yelled. “I am not scattering poison! The poison was already in the garbage!”
✦ ✦ ✦
“And you drove the crows and rats in town to crazed violence to let people know that?” Nagi asked quietly.
✦ ✦ ✦
The man glared at her.
✦ ✦ ✦
Yes...that’s what this case boiled down to. This oddly calculated plan had been lurking behind what appeared to be simply a dead crow in a garbage area.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I did! How many crows and rats are there in the city? Millions! If they all turn Violent at once, attacking people, everyone will assume it must be something in the food!”
✦ ✦ ✦
The man shook, his voice tight with emotion.
✦ ✦ ✦
“And when it turns out people are eating the same thing...”
✦ ✦ ✦
There was grief in his eyes. Nagi knew what that grief meant. Those were the eyes of someone who had suffered a great loss.
✦ ✦ ✦
"...childhood allergies?”
✦ ✦ ✦
This man had most likely lost a child.
✦ ✦ ✦
"...and nobody knows! That’s why I had to make them understand! That’s why...”
✦ ✦ ✦
“In that case, you’re finished,” Nagi inter-
✦ ✦ ✦
rupted.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Mm?” The man blinked at her. “What do you
✦ ✦ ✦
mean?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I noticed. You were doing this because nobody knew. But now that I’ve noticed the truth behind your actions, there’s no need for you to continue.”
✦ ✦ ✦
She looked him right in the eye.
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
The man was stunned.
✦ ✦ ✦
She walked slowly toward him.
✦ ✦ ✦
He watched her, dazed. He only recovered and tried to shake her off when she put her hand on the gun. A moment later his body was airborne, and he landed hard on his back.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi’s hand had twisted ever so slightly, but with enough force to send a grown man flying. It wasn’t karate...this was an Aikido move.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Hmm,” she looked down at the gun, swiftly
✦ ✦ ✦
ejected the bullets, and then dropped it on the ground next to the man.
✦ ✦ ✦
He’d hit his spine and could not stand up.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Unh...!” he groaned, tears flowing down his cheeks.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi addressed him coldly, “Think about it. If all the crows go berserk, they will attack the weak.
✦ ✦ ✦
Those in the greatest danger will be babies. Is that what you want?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Aauuuughh!” the man wailed, sobbing in ear-
✦ ✦ ✦
nest. All the tension had left him. “I just. . .I just...”
✦ ✦ ✦
Ignoring him, she went over to the garbage bag and cut it open with a knife. It was filled with thinly sliced meat, with bits of paper and something white scattered over it. The “feed.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi gathered that up and stuffed it in her bag, then closed the garbage bag again and put it back on the pile.
✦ ✦ ✦
“So,” she said, turning to leave.
✦ ✦ ✦
“W-wait!” the man called out. He was on his
✦ ✦ ✦
feet...unsteady, but upright. “Why don’t you arrest me?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“You have not committed any crimes. No point in taking you to the police. The feed itself is probably not poisonous. Throwing it out in the garbage is not a crime unless I can prove cause and effect.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“B-but...!"
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yeah. You’re right. There is one person who thinks this is a crime. You. Even though you must have been the first to realize that crimes required proof.”
✦ ✦ ✦
".........!"
✦ ✦ ✦
“If you still have the resolve to tell the world, then do so. You are the only one who can.” She turned her back on him again.
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
The man hung his head, but a moment later looked up, and asked, “What is your name?”
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi did not turn around. “Unlike some people, I do not like giving out my name,” she said, and walked away.
✦ ✦ ✦
4.
✦ ✦ ✦
"So what was it all about?” Kentaro asked when Nagi came back to the bike where she’d left him.
✦ ✦ ✦
waiting. “I basically get that this was all revenge for a baby that died when that guy fed it something with that additive in it, but why didn’t he just take it to court in the first place?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“He was probably too sad.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Huh?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“He most likely didn’t think about anything
✦ ✦ ✦
for a year. Only afterward did he start to suspect that the additive might have been the cause of the tragedy. But after that much time had passed, it would be pretty hard to get anyone to listen to him.
✦ ✦ ✦
He was too late. And the manufacturer has really good lawyers.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I see. So that’s why he tried this...but should we really just let him go? Won’t he go public with what he did?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“He might.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“And he might tell everyone about you.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I’m not so sure. I’ve decided I’m just going to take that risk,” Nagi said, not sounding the least bit worried.
✦ ✦ ✦
Kentaro stared at her for a moment, but eventually he sighed. “But if he goes public there will be all kinds of panic. Like all the fuss over Teratsuki Kyoichiro, or. . .or those serial killings five years ago, where that Sasaki Masanori guy almost killed Suema-san.”
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi grimaced. When he saw that, Kentaro sighed again.
✦ ✦ ✦
The Sasaki Masanori incident had involved an ordinary food manufacturing company salaryman named Sasaki Masanori, who turned out to be a serial killer who had brutally murdered several young girls.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi’s friend Suema Kazuko, who Kentaro had met several times now, had been on the killer’s list and narrowly avoided becoming a victim.
✦ ✦ ✦
According to the police reports, Sasaki Masanori had been found hanging from a rope; a suicide.
✦ ✦ ✦
But from what Suema had told him, the case had actually been solved in secret by Nagi herself, when she was only fourteen.
✦ ✦ ✦
But whenever the subject came up, Nagi became obviously annoyed and refused to talk about it.
✦ ✦ ✦
Kentaro felt hurt by this, frustrated that Nagi wouldn’t open up to him, wouldn’t trust him.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Maybe you’d be better off if he did tell everyone. I mean, Nagi, you don’t get any thanks for what you do.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi grinned at him. “And who was it who snuck out the back door after wrapping up the Teratsuki Kyoichiro affair?”
✦ ✦ ✦
She put her helmet on, threw her leg over her motorcycle, and started the engine.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yeah, well,” Kentaro said, shrugging. “That’s your style, isn’t it?”
✦ ✦ ✦
He was here on an ordinary bicycle. He put his helmet on, too.
✦ ✦ ✦
I might just stick to Nagi because I like moments like this... Kentaro grinned, riding alongside Nagi.
✦ ✦ ✦
Suddenly, Nagi hit the brakes, stopping her
✦ ✦ ✦
motorcycle.
✦ ✦ ✦
Kentaro pulled up as well, almost toppling over, but catching his balance at the last second.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Wh-what?! Something wrong?!” Kentaro asked, but Nagi did not answer.
✦ ✦ ✦
Her neck was bent, staring up at a building across the road. It was a strangely shaped...an octagonal prism. Pretty big, too.
✦ ✦ ✦
“That’s...”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yeah, one of the infamous Teratsuki-shi’s eccentric buildings. It was a general hospital. Can’t recall if it was prefectural or city, though,” Kentaro said, pushing his bike back in her direction.
✦ ✦ ✦
“It’s. . .still there?” Nagi murmured.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yeah. It closed some time ago, but. . .all the properties he was involved with have proved really hard to dispose of. It must be slated for demolition soon. The creditors must own it by now.”