DELUSION [ CHAPTER 8 ]
MEMOIRES
“Do you know why you’re here?”
“No...”
“I’m surprised you followed us without much effort, I was expecting a bit of drama since that’s what you are good at. No words in defence either...why?”
“Because I didn’t do anything...”
Tomo sat back in his chair. Yamada stared. Rei stood in the shadows of the Investigation Room. She did not utter a word but her silence wasn’t much help either.
“You seem to think I’m a criminal?”
Tomo laughed. “I don’t seem to kid, I know it...”
Yamada stared down at his trembling hands. “It’s my first time at the police headquarters...”
“Did you know Matsunaga Yumi?”
“Who?”
“Her...” Tomo slammed a picture on the table. The photograph was of a girl with shoulder length hair. Yamada picked it up and stared into the girl’s face.
“Her smile looks fake...”
“Did you know her Yamada Ryosuke?”
“Is she sad?”
“She’s dead........”
“How do you know?”
Tomo stared. Yamada’s abrupt question silenced him. A small laugh came from the corner of the room. “ I told you not to act so fast Tomo san...”
Yamada looked up at Rei who approached the table. “Yamada san..... We found your finger prints ... nearby a place where she was last seen...a certain bus stop in your neighbourhood?”
“I haven’t been to that bus stop in ages...but I know of it ...and many people go there...How come you found my prints there?”
“It’s because my young juvenile, besides dry blood on the rear side of the bench, which we believe belongs to our victim, we found this ...”
Tomo pulled out a transparent plastic bag ** (usually used to preserve evidence from a crime scene) containing a keychain. Yamada’s eyes widened at the keychain which Yuto had given him months ago. It was stained in blood, which had turned black.
“That’s...”
“Yours?” Rei asked. Her tone was stern, but a little less accusing than Tomo san’s.
“Yes...but it was attached to something of mine...I... I can’t remember...”
Yamada’s hand moved to his head, as it started throbbing.
Rei’s expression shifted slightly. Tomo chuckled. “We’re waiting for the results of the DNA test, once we confirm that the blood on the bench is Yumi’s, you’ve got a lot on your plate boy. Why? Was it a lover’s quarrel? Did you push her?”
“What? I didn’t know her! Please stop it, I’m getting a migraine”
“Excuse me...Migraine? You spoiled brat, do you expect me to trea...”
“Perhaps...may I see your head?”
Yamada stared at Rei’s odd question but let her. Tomo glared at Rei for disrupting him.
Rei moved to the back and started examining Yamada’s head. As awkward as it seemed, Yamada dared not react, he didn’t want to make her angry since she was the one who seemed to be rational with him so far. As she pressed his head, to his surprise, Yamada felt a jolt of pain.
“Itai....” he cried.
“Been having headaches?”
“Yes...for a while...Mostly when I think too much...... I guess...”
“I see....Tomo... do me a favour? The blood they found on the edge of that bench? Go get the results now...The keychain as well, ignore the prints...Check the blood stain...”
“What? What are you saying Rei...”
“Go...please...don’t question me ...”
Tomo moved out muttering to himself. He didn’t seem too happy, but Rei was in deep thoughts. Yamada stared at those eyes, which were closed. There were fast motions beneath her eyelids. She was doing some immense thinking. He waited patiently, trying his best to curtain the avalanche of emotions within, until she turned to him and sighed.
“Your company... has a weird way of dealing with problems...”
“I’m sorry I don’t understand...what does this have to do with my company...”
“That is not for you ...but first...........on Friday night Matsunaga Yumi left work and supposedly stopped at the bus stop, where you must’ve been. It was late at night, the owner of the place where she worked, had dinner with his employees that night. She stayed till past nine at night, than she made her way to the bus stop, we believe you two must have met....”
Yamada stared at Rei silently. She rested her head against the chair and sighed.
“After that we do not know what happened. But whatever incident took place, resulted in Yumi’s disappearance and you not recalling the incident...”
Noting Yamada’s puzzled and horrified expression she continued... “Your blood... I believe that the blood on the bench is yours...not Yumi’s...someone pushed you...and you hit your head hard...I think that’s why you don’t remember...”
“Your insane....how could I forget?”
“Traumatised...Until we reconfirm with a medical personnel whether that wound is a bleeding type or a bruise...Which I doubt...”
“And if my head did bleed how come I don’t have stitches there or something? Why did the bleeding suddenly stop?”
“IF that’s the case, than our criminal fixed up your wound before letting you go home...that’s strange indeed...”
Yamada stood up. This was madness.
“How can criminals know how to stitch up a wound like that? And what exactly do you mean by not recalling? None if this ever happened... I’ve never seen that girl in real life...”
“Then where have you seen her?”
“Nowhere”
“You sure?”
“YES!”
“Then why were you there that night!?”
“I WASNT!! I WAS HOME, SLEEPING!”
“YOUR PRINTS SAY OTHERWISE YAMADA SAN!”
“I DONT KNOW HER! I DONT!”
“LOOK AGAIN!”
Yamada glanced away from Rei’s furious face and at the photograph again. Rei moved towards the wall and placed her hands on it with her head down. Breathing heavily from the argument, he stared hard at the girls face, and realised something. Had the smile been absent, he might have recognised her. A foggy and painful face was forming in his mind. A scabby hand crawling up to him. A bloody form walking into his room. The eyes in the glass. His eyes widened and he pulled the picture closer. “Ano...”
“What?” Rei turned angrily but stopped, Yamada was trembling again, and this time a bit more vigorously.
“That face, she...she.... was covered... in blood... and....”
“And what Ryosuke?”
She moved closer to him, her face a mixture of anxiety and maddening suspense.
“So was I...But it was just...Just a vision...”
“A dream?”
“...A nightmare....” Yamada looked up and met Rei’s sharp eyes burning into his teary ones.
“Or is it...A memory you are trying to forget?”