Oroshi heard a timid knock on his door. One of his guards opened it, revealing a young man wearing glasses and a police uniform—an awkward fit on his slim frame.

  “Come in,” Oroshi said, looking the man over. There wasn’t much to him, but he recognized him all the same.

  “You are Tanaka-san’s kohai, right?”

  “Yes, sir. My name is Shimizu Souta, from the financial investigations division.” He bowed deeply.

  Oroshi encouraged the wimp with a nod and a smile. If that was the best his men could provide in the police, it was no wonder Kaori was still at large.

  “We have found something strange, sir. You know how we are all assuming that Kaori was in a van going up north? Well, I discovered something that contradicts this theory.” Souta said.

  This piqued Oroshi’s interest. Souta had said “I discovered,” and not “we discovered.” The polite thing to say would have been “We have discovered,” or even give the credit to his superior, but he hadn’t done that.

  Is it pride or ambition? Oroshi wondered.

  “There was a withdrawal on one of Mashiro Kaori’s credit cards that night. It was done from a street ATM in Setagaya City. But the strange thing is, it happened before the white van left the hotel, she was not in—”

  Oroshi leaned in, suddenly interested: “Do you have the video from the ATM camera?”

  “Yes, sir,” Souta said, fumbling in his pocket. He pulled out a thumb drive and handed it to Oroshi, who plugged it directly into the nearest computer. The file system popped up and he looked at a sea of files.

  Where was the… Souta looked over his shoulder and pointed to a video clip.

  “This one, sir.”

  He clicked on it, and the video appeared on the screen. The picture was dark and fuzzy, but he could recognize Kaori; there was no doubt in his mind.

  “Where did you say this was?” Oroshi asked.

  “Setagaya City, south of Shibuya.”

  “Why is the picture so darn dark?”

  “The light above the ATM was not working. I think it looks like her though, and it’s definitely one of her credit cards with the right pin code.” Souta said. He continued, barely containing his excitement: “But what’s really important is the time. See here?” he said, pointing to the time stamp “1:43 a.m. And the earliest footage we have of the white van leaving Chinzanso was 2:15 a.m.! The kidnapper did NOT steal the white van; it’s a false trail! I looked at the traffic cameras, and I found footage of her personal car driving like crazy through an intersection near Yoyogi Park.”

  “Do you have a picture of the driver?” Oroshi asked with bated breath.

  Souta hesitated: “No, sir. I think her windshield has a privacy protection coating. It’s not strictly legal, but celebrities like Mrs. Mashiro have to protect their privacy from the paparazzi, so it would make sense for her to have some protection against photos.”

  Oroshi could see the young man was uncomfortable with the idea of breaking the law. “I see. Anything else you can tell me about what you found so far?”

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  “No sir, Tanaka Sensei is looking through the traffic camera footage to track down her Lexus. He told me to let you know he’s made some progress, but he didn’t give any details.”

  “Very well. You’ve done a good job. Please wait here, I have to—” Oroshi paused. “Hold on a second.”

  What was Kaori wearing at the ATM? She was in her underwear when she jumped out of the window. Dark as it was, it was obvious on the ATM video that she wasn’t naked. He brought the video back up on screen and played it again. A Yukata? No. It looked like… Yes, that was it! She was wrapped in a judogi!

  A Westerner carrying a backpack containing a judogi… This was almost as good as an ID card! Excitedly, he pulled out his phone.

  “She is wearing a judogi! How didn’t I notice that? This changes everything!” Souta exclaimed in amazement.

  Oroshi turned around to face the exuberant youngling with a broad smile. “Well done, Souta-san! You may just have saved Kaori! I’ll get you in touch directly with Fujiki-san. Who have you told so far of your discoveries?”

  Souta tried to suppress the grin. This was his big break:

  “Only Tanaka-san and yourself, Sir! No one else knows!”

  “Excellent. Fujiki-san is in Niigata right now. I will call him to let him know that you will be there in an hour; there is no time to waste!” Oroshi said.

  “But sir, Niigata is 4 hours away by road! Can’t we just tell him on the phone?” Souta asked, worried. He didn’t want to upset such an important man, but the laws of physics cared not for one’s station in life!

  “Who said anything about the road?” Oroshi replied jovially. “There is no time to waste. You are taking my private helicopter. Ojitani-san here is supposed to meet with Fujiki-san, he will take you with him. This is important news, it could get you promoted. You don’t want to have that discussion over the phone, otherwise, you’d just be another faceless voice that he will forget almost immediately.”

  “Thank you so much, sir! I’ll never forget your kindness,” Souta said. He bowed repeatedly. One year in the force only and he was headed to the top! Ojitani looked at Oroshi. Oroshi nodded. Ojitani nodded back and followed Souta.

  Once he was sure they were gone, Oroshi pulled out his phone.

  “Tomo-kun?”

  “Yes?”

  “Ojitani is on his way, he’ll be there in about two hours. One of your officers will be found dead on Sado Island. Get ready to head out as soon as Ojitani-san arrives, you want to be able to recover the body in time for the evening news.” Oroshi explained.

  It was a shame to dispose of the kid like that, but it couldn’t be helped. The idiot would have eventually realized that if Kaori and the “kidnapper” were at an ATM at 1:43 a.m., they couldn’t possibly be in Chinzanso hotel at 2:13 a.m.—the time he had reported to the police!

  Didn’t matter much anyway, Tanaka had a lot of juniors, he wouldn’t care if one of them got “reassigned.” In fact, he probably knew what would happen when he sent the kid over to brief him.

  Oroshi pulled out his phone again.

  “Tanaka-kun?”

  “Yes, Sir?”

  “I’ve seen the footage you sent over. Good stuff. I need you to go through the arrival logs of the airport and check if by any chance one of the foreigners arriving mentioned “Judo” as a reason for travel. Also check with Customs if they’ve seen anyone traveling with a judogi in a backpack. If you can’t find him at the airport, contact the judo dojos around the area. I’m sure one of them is missing a foreigner.”

  “Nice! I’ll do that. I also have some good news on my side. I managed to find more footage of the Lexus with the traffic cams. No ID on the driver, but they circled back around Tokyo center and headed south. The trail stopped near Enoshima. It’s hard to follow them because they are staying off the main roads. You were right, they knew they would be tracked by the traffic cams, they probably won’t contact the police.”

  “Excellent,” Oroshi answered with a grin. It took longer than expected but things were all coming together now.

  “Sir, about the kid…”

  “Don’t worry about it, it’s already been taken care of, Tanaka.”

  “Thank you, sir! He was a right pain in the ass!”

  “I noticed. No manners. Let me know as soon as you get a positive ID on the foreigner.”