Red Noon by nani
01
15:46
Sesshomaru strolled into the office, hair pushed back and out of his face. It had just so happened to be one of the quieter Wednesdays at the office; not that he was comfortable, no, but there hadn’t been any calls, and Kagome was busy putting together the pieces to the newest serial killer to hit Tokyo together.
In a city with a population of just over 14 million people, narrowing it down to just one person wasn’t the easiest task in the book. They’d spent weeks, going on 8 weeks, trying to piece together just who had decided that murder was their favorite pass time, and brutal murders they were. With bodies being laid out and slashed in what appeared to be broad daylight, the pressure on the Special Crimes Unit was more immense than ever; and it was even worse on Sesshomaru and Kagome. They were the only ones who wanted to touch the case with a ten-foot pole and to give the grieving families some answers. Except, those answers were becoming harder and harder to find; five victims in, and they didn’t even have so much as a motive at the moment. To say they were exhausted was an understatement; multiple late nights, cups and cups of coffee, and red string were the only images that were burned into their skulls – along with the bodies of the deceased.
Sesshomaru knocked on the door to Kagome’s temporary office, waiting until he heard her jubilant voice call from the other side, “Come in!”
When he pushed the door open, Kagome stood with her back towards the door looking up at the map that she’d created, with pictures and news articles pinned to the wall by different color pushpins. A ball of red string sat atop the file cabinet to her right, but none so far had been wrapped around the pins; none so far had even touched potential suspects. Which – they didn’t even have any. How this individual managed to elude them the entire time? They literally could not explain to anyone how; and the big boss was pissed about it. More than pissed about it, to be fair; with shops closing early, schools getting out earlier, students bustling home in groups and the streets becoming less and less dense, the city was scared. Petrified, if you will. See, this killer had no particular thing about his targets, not just women, not just men.
There was no rhyme or reason about who, specifically, met a gruesome end; so far, 2 men, 3 women. There was, however, a pattern; a woman died, a man died, a woman died, a man died, and a woman died. That was the only other pattern they could establish, besides their age; all five victims were between twenty-one and twenty-five. Other than that, they were staring at a board full of victims.
“Don’t you think they’re all in about the same area?” Kagome asked as she stood with her hands on her hips, her weapon belt laying on her desk. Sesshomaru looked at the map when she asked, making his way in, and standing next to her with his hands inside of his pockets; he hummed lowly with a nod, looking over the map and the pins of where the bodies had been found. “Officer Higurashi, do you remember the state of the male victims?”
Kagome nodded her head, grabbing her notepad and a pen, scribbling on it as he continued; “Both of the male victims seemed to have been moved. There was little blood available from both bodies on the gravel.”
“You’re right,” Kagome followed, her eyes widening a little bit as she scribbled on the notepad and grabbed a push pin, sticking it to the side of the map. “And a lot of those wounds were exit wounds, from the weapon.”
“Correct,” he followed-up, watching her pin another note to the map, “So there should have been blood at the scene. I just received that information from the Crime Scene Unit, who held the notes from the two of us.”
“They held the notes?” she asked, stopping, and looking over at her shoulder at him. To the regular eye, his face would read nothing; but after working closely with him for the last 8 weeks, his face read pure frustration and irritation. Part of the reason they hadn’t gotten anywhere was the lack of information given from the Crime Scene Unit that had all the details of each crime. Which, speaking of…
“I told boss I think someone is tampering with the scene before we can get there.”
“And what was his response?”
“He thinks that we’re picking at nothing,” she answered and finished pinning the note before she stepped back and leaned against the desk, crossing her legs. “He thinks that there’s no way that someone could be messing with the scene before we get there and that we’re just bad at our jobs. He threatened that he was going to give the case to Kouga and Sango, but I told him that neither one of them even wanted to help us out on the case,” she paused to peer up at him, quirking an eyebrow, “And Naraku, for some reason, also wouldn’t touch it. No one wants to touch this damn case.”
“Well, Detective Naraku does not wish to do anything. He is slow.” Sesshomaru spoke in almost a matter-of-fact tone, soon bringing his hands out of his pocket. Kagome hid a laugh behind a cough, grabbing her coffee cup to take a sip. Just as he was prepared to say something else, his phone buzzed; he and Kagome shared a knowing look and he brought the phone to his ear, already knowing what the outcome would be. A few agreeing hums and a deep sigh later, he motioned for her to grab her belt, “Another body was located.”
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Kagome exited the car with Sesshomaru, adjusting her shirt in her waistband as they made their way to the crime scene; Sesshomaru pushed the police tape up to allow her to climb under. “Male victim,” she immediately spoke once she was close enough, reaching around her weapon belt and passing Sesshomaru a pair of gloves, sliding some on for herself. Sesshomaru moved in closer, looking over the body as the rest of the staff moved around to block off the area from pedestrian eyes, taking his time to look over the body so they missed nothing. He did not want to miss another clue -- whether someone was tampering with the crime scene or not, he did not want to miss a single thing. “Officer Higurashi,” he spoke, motioning for her to grab a baggie from the top of the police car near him, “Grab me a bag, please.”
She immediately turned on her heels and grabbed a baggie, making her way over to him. He reached down carefully, grabbing a zipper from the man’s hair, and sliding it into a bag. Identifying information aside, they knew this was from their killer; the ‘Slash Killer’, as the media dubbed them. Each body had been found with multiple stab wounds and surface, skin wounds from some kind of large weapon, possible a sword of some kind. That wasn’t what he was focused on right now; the lack of blood, and the bloody zipper in his hair, were what had his attention. He held up the baggie and set it to the side, before walking around the body. The touchy one of the two, Kagome lightly touched on the victim’s hands, turning over the left before she spoke, “This one has defense wounds. Did the other victims have these?” She asked as she carefully held up the hand, Sesshomaru’s eyebrow jumping in thought. “No,” he started, motioning one of the unit members over to take a picture. “None that I can remember. This victim must have been…”
“Alive,” Kagome finished, setting the hand down and standing up, exhaling afterwards, and making her way around to the feet. “This victim was alive when they were murdered. Did we have autopsy files on the other victims?”
“Only one, but we will get the one for this one. Can you order the other four?”
“I can,” she answered quickly and began pulling her gloves off, until she noticed a flap of paper tucked into the waist band of the victim’s underwear, near the back. “What’s that?” she asked, Sesshomaru’s eyes finding the note and his eyebrows raising, finally showing some other kind of expression across his face. Though the unreadable expression dotted his features, he carefully pulled the piece of paper, making a mental note that no blood had pooled to the back of the victim’s body, he stood next to Kagome and read the note out loud, “’You all must be tired of cleaning up my dirty work. I’m sorry, I’ll remember to dump them somewhere cleaner next time, yes? Ha-ha.’”
Kagome blinked and grabbed another baggie so he could slip the note inside. While Sesshomaru went to speak to the head of the unit, she grabbed her notepad from the car after taking off her gloves to write down a few notes. Something about this scene felt…sloppy. It felt like it was done in haste. The other scenes looked like they had been planned out, thought about before the body was dumped or the crime was committed. They’d never left a note before; they’d never left an article of clothing before. Yes, a zipper was small, but if memory served her correctly, she could not, at all, remember if a piece of clothing had been left behind. The slash wounds on the body appeared to be more surface than the others had been she didn’t understand it. What was it about this scene that was rubbing her the wrong way?
“Make sure you get everything down, Higurahsi,” a voice echoed from a few feet away, making Kagome jump and rest a hand over her chest. She had nearly jumped out of her skin, the adrenaline running through her body like electricity through a wire. “Detective Naraku,” she huffed and laughed lightly, pushing a few stray hairs out of her face as she immediately closed the notepad. “What are you doing here?”
“It got called in on the radio, so I wanted to see what Tokyo’s finest were up to trying to figure out who the Slasher was.”
“Tokyo’s finest, huh?” She asked, the question coming out a little more sarcastically than she thought it would. Naraku was one person that she tended to steer clear from, when it came to all the detectives. Sango was great; she was sweeter than honey, smart as a whip. Sesshomaru was obviously her partner, and while he was always in his thoughts about something, he could solve just about anything. Jakotsu was loud; very loud, to be honest, but he’d been Kagome’s first partner. Naraku was…Naraku. He was always up to something, but no one ever knew what. He kept his hands clean of certain cases and walked around more like a nightmare than a detective. There was always something about him that freaked Kagome out, both business and personally. And right now? There was no difference.
“Tokyo’s finest,” he repeated, his sharp eyes making their way across the pavement to the body and up to Sesshomaru as he spoke to the unit leader.
“Taisho cut his hair?” He asked, tilting his head. Kagome nodded once, opening her notepad back up to make another note, “He kept complaining about the ponytail, so I told him to get rid of it. Next thing I knew, he came back with a haircut and…somewhat, of a new personality. But we’re about to head out,” she immediately followed, flipping the notepad down once she noted Sesshomaru’s shifty eyes towards her and Naraku. “If you want to take a look at the scene, go ahead,” she chirped, tucking the notepad in between her belt and jeans.
“I told you, I wouldn’t dare touch this case. I’m sure you and Taisho can figure this one out.” His voice had a tinge of uneasiness to it, but Kagome would rather bring that up to Sesshomaru on the car ride back to base. “I’m sure we will. See you later,” she answered, twiddling her fingers as she grouped back up with Sesshomaru. He pulled the police tape up so she could exit the scene, and shot an annoyed look at Naraku, who employed an easy-going, simplistic smile. While he was his coworker, Sesshomaru had grown a certain disdain for the other; when working on a case together, Naraku had made the case so difficult to work on, Sesshomaru dropped it.
“What did he say to you?” Sesshomaru asked – or, more, demanded – as the two of them made their way to the car, getting inside and Kagome exhaled slowly, now that she could breathe. “Nothing that would lead to solving who it is. He just made me uncomfortable.”
“What did he say to you?” He repeated, the tone in his voice just as stern as ever and making Kagome stiffen in her seat. She knew it was going to get back either way, so, while she looked over the notes in her notepad, she rolled her eyes and answered, “He called us ‘Tokyo’s finest’ then he asked me if you cut your hair which…” She faded off and motioned to him, the stern look on Sesshomaru’s face unwavering. “What an idiotic question,” he muttered, stopping when he got to a red light and moving to unbutton the cuffs of his button-up. “For someone who doesn’t want to touch the case, he was being…nosy.”
“Because he is. When I see him, I will speak to him.”
“Don’t you think that’ll cause more issues?”
“When I see him, I will speak to him, Higurashi,” he reiterated, making Kagome roll her eyes. She knew he was going to do what he wanted, regardless; his stubbornness was undefeated, and while she challenged it on the regular, she knew it would do little to change it.
“Let’s just get back to base so I can clock out and eat.”