Page 20 of The Red Collar
Shinji placed Hayashi’s phone in his pocket and ordered two egg-salad sandwiches from a food stand, then made his way back to the crime scene. He was disappointed not to find Ozawa’s spirit, but as long as she crossed over on her own, it was all good. He had her picture now and he could ask Yamato whether he knew her or not and whether they’d had an affair. If Yamato didn’t remember, perhaps the woman’s family knew the jogger.
Fishing out his own phone, Shinji checked his messages. Nothing. He hadn’t exactly expected to be a priority, but he also hadn’t taken into account he’d be thrown into two murder cases from the get-go. Though he disliked being insistent, he placed a call to the Onmyoryo, hoping he’d get his jurisdiction faster and the seal subduing his spiritual energy lifted.
As a Shinigami—a Grim Reaper—under a contract he couldn’t use hisreiryokuat its full potential, unless approved. It was a precautionary measure, to keep all the supernaturals in check and avoid any issues. Moving from Hiroshima to Tokyo meant hisreiryokuhad been sealed to the bare minimum and now was due to be unsealed. Sometimes he doubted his own decision to be a contracted Shinigami, but it had its benefits.
A woman answered and Shinji gave her his Shinigami registry number. “I’d like to makeanotherrequest,” Shinji emphasized, “to obtain my jurisdiction faster and to be unsealed.”
“Well, the paperwork for these things—”
“Takes time. Yes, I understand.” This felt like déjà vu of his conversation with Hayashi. “But I already have a ghost I need to take care of and another one missing—presumably already on the other side.”
“We can send a Shinigami to take care of the ghost—”
“No,” Shinji interrupted again. “I need his help with the investigation. And he’s my ghost. Please, schedule me for the unsealing as soon as possible.”
“We’ll do our best,” the woman said.
Ah, the irony, Shinji sighed. He thanked her and hurried back to the crime scene, sandwiches in hand. Meanwhile, most of the crowd around the restaurant had dispersed and a few more police cars arrived, but they were still going through witnesses inside the restaurant. Shinji walked back to the garbage containers, which had been moved away from the victim’s body and the officers were currently searching through the trash for evidence.
Suzuki had arrived along with her assistants. She crouched low by the body with Kojima on one side—actively aiding Suzuki—and Taniguchi, standing with his back against the wall, passing evidence bags to Kojima, looking pale and like he regretted his career choice.
Hayashi stood next to Suzuki, gesturing at Ozawa’s body and talking about the wire and whether Ozawa had been sedated as well.
The moment he saw Shinji approaching, he glowered. “There you are! Where did you go, Miyazaki? And with my damn phone.”
“I went to a quiet place to make the phone calls you assigned to me, sir,” Shinji explained and passed the phone back to Hayashi.
Suzuki raised her head. “Ah, so he gave you the task of pestering my colleagues.”
“Precisely.” Shinji nodded.
“You’re teaching him your bad manners, Hayashi,” Suzuki said. “If you keep annoying my colleagues, I’ll tell the superintendent.”
Hayashi clicked his tongue. “Snitch.”
“Asshole,” Suzuki retorted.
They were both grinning and Shinji guessed this is what Hayashi meant by “getting along well”: arguing like an old married couple.
“Your colleague,” Shinji told Suzuki, “said he’ll prioritize our jogger on your schedule, so the autopsy can be done by Friday.”
“Doubt he’ll do that,” Hayashi replied instead, “but maybe we’ll get lucky.” He pointed to the bag in Shinji’s hand. “What you got there? Food?”
“Yes, sir.” Shinji smiled knowingly. “Two sandwiches.” He looked at the five of them. “Maybe I should’ve gotten more…”
“No worries.” Suzuki waved, dismissively. “We’re almost done.”
Kojima sniggered. “Don’t give any to Taniguchi. He’ll barf on us all.”
Taniguchi threw her a nasty glare, but didn’t comment. In truth, he did seem dangerously close to throwing up. He was even sweating a little bit.
With the MO identical to the jogger, all that was left for Suzuki was to take Ozawa for autopsy. The forensic team placed the body into a black bag, zipped it and loaded the bag onto a gurney, carrying it back to an awaiting ambulance. Suzuki exchanged a few hushed words with Hayashi before following along with Taniguchi—who looked eager to leave the crime scene. Kojima picked up the last of the equipment, glanced at Shinji, bit her lower lip, then scurried away.
Shinji frowned, not sure what that was all about and turned to Hayashi who had a smirk on his face.
“Someone’s popular,” Hayashi said.
Though having no idea what the chief referred to, Shinji just randomly played along. “You, sir?”
