💯 STORY CHALLENGE
Tokyo Blue Nights | Part 2
#25 of 💯
Chief Inspector Suwabe Junichi felt that this case would be a tough nut to crack. Furthermore it looked like the killer was after him or, perhaps, his mind. There were four bodies. Two men and two women.
There goes the primary serial killer signature. No serial killer he ever heard of, at least in Japan, killed both sexes. Suwabe and some other homicide big shots did a training course by the FBI a few moons back. The Americans told them that as a rule, with rare exceptions, serial killers were sex exclusive.
So perhaps this was not a serial killer? If that was a one time thing as a message to him, he doubted they could ever catch them. The head of the forensics team approached to report.
“Are we going to find the missing members Kaji-san? Can you remind me what is missing please?” “Hai sir. Two heads, two arms, two legs, two female nipples and two male genitals sir. They were all cut cleanly, while the victims were alive and drugged with ketamine. It is strange to say this, but no mechanical blade was used.”
“What do you mean Kaji-san? What did they use?” “The cuts were all cauterized. So the only thing they could have used is a laser. Of industrial strength. But those are bulky and heavy. How did they bring one up here?” “So that’s why their bleeding was limited. Are you sure they cut them here?”
“Positive sir.” “How did they split the cuts again?” “One head, one leg and one arm from each sex, and one nipple from each woman. As for cause of death we think the two victims who were beheaded died from that.
In the other two we think they used a lethal dose of potassium chloride. We will know for certain in a few hours. The lab is running this as a top priority, as you ordered.”
“Thank you Kaji-san, that will be all.” The four victims mirrored four distinct cases of Suwabe Junichi over a decade, with four different killers. They were all over the news. Nearly everything about them is public knowledge. Each subsequent killer was a fan and partly a copycat of the previous killer(s), which explained the commonalities. None of the killers used a laser though. A personal signature?
Two horror movies were based on the cases. Suwabe Junichi was in no mood to watch either, and declined to be interviewed. He assumed that the killer wanted to play a ‘Catch me if you can’ game with him. The location of the missing members -probably within Sunshine 60- and the particulars of the four cases should provide clues about how to catch them.
The killer somehow knew Suwabe was going to be in charge of this case. They wanted to make him feel responsible for their deaths; which worked, at least at first.
The way they positioned the bodies was almost identical to Suwabe’s four cases. That was also public knowledge. Most of what was not released to the press was later discovered by real crime writers, who made a good yen from these tragedies.
Suwabe never caught the leakers, but if he had he would have made sure they remained traffic wardens in Northern Hokkaido until they retired.
“So you want to play games fakkā? Let’s play then…” Suwabe Junichi ditched his senseless guilt and started feeling more alive, sober and focused than he felt in years.
A crime noir series by Nikolaos Skordilis, written as part of the 💯 Story Challenge. A piece I read that moved me was The Quiet Man in the Corner With Sad Eyes, by Amanda Payne
My 💯 Story Challenge shorts: