The Black Reaper's Shadow

10. Confession

Kono:

Chapter 10

     My drive to work was stressful. I had even left my uniform for work behind. I was back to wearing a t-shirt and jeans with my brown leather jacket and sneakers. I hadn't worn anything like this to work in three years.

     The combination of Tai not coming home last night and Marie not checking in to tell me that she made it safely to the Black Reaper's apartment had left my nerves a little frayed. Marie hadn't come into the station for work either. I couldn't even focus on the paperwork Misaki had left me with because my mind was on the two of them.

     It had been nearly an hour since my chief had left to investigate a disturbance in the east part of the city and I was ordered to stand ready as back-up if the need arose. Apparently, an elderly woman called to say that three teenagers were fighting in the alley. She was concerned for the youngest of the males and wanted someone to come out and break up the argument before things turned for the worse. My radio scanned as Saito's voice spoke, sounding short of breath, "Kono, come in. Stand down. We got one."

     I snatched my radio from the table beside me and compressed the talk button, "What do you mean you got one? You were breaking up a fight, weren't you?"

     He answered after clearing his throat, "Yeah, we did. But this fight happened to be between three contractors. When we showed up, the two older men turned out to be adults and they attacked us. The youngest of the three got in their way and actually protected us. Chief Kirihara is really interested in the boy's contract, but he won't tell us anything. If you could, ready one of the questioning cells. We'll be there in five minutes."

     I smirked at the sound of his final breathless sentence, "What happened, Saito? You tired?"

     He chuckled, "When the big guys took off, the kid ran after them. Chief made the boy our priority target of capture and let me just say that the kid was fast. He gave us a difficult work-out before we trapped him. Instead of continuing to fight after we had him in cuffs, he seemed to give up and started panicking about how somebody at the station was going to kill him if he was seen."

     I stood from my seat and headed for one of the few white interrogation rooms, "I'll have things ready. Am I stuck with inquisition duty again?"

     My chief answered this time, "If you don't mind. You just seem to be distracted today."

     I smiled with amusement at her perseption skills, "No problem, Chief. I'm fine."

     I finished checking the room and stepped back into the hall. The front door of the station opened and I heard Saito make a threat, "Cooperate and don't do anything rash or you'll have a bullet in your heart before you can blink."

     Every drop of blood left my body when I saw my little brother Tai freeze in the doorway. If he was here after fighting a couple of contractors, something must have happened to Marie. He spoke nervously without moving a muscle, "Mr. Saito, I think I'll take that bullet now."

     Saito smirked, "That's your interrogator, kid. You're not taking the easy way out just yet."

     I approached him calmly with a scowl, still debating whether to treat him like my brother or to maintain my act for everyone else. Settling with a little bit of both, I looked my brother over for any injuries before studying his eyes for a lie, "You didn't get hurt, did you?"

     My chief and Saito tensed with surprise, but Tai shook his head with an expression of shame as he held out his wrists. My partner had placed leather gardening gloves over Tai's hands as a sort of barrier between his skin and the metal handcuffs. As if that could hold him prisoner. I turned my gaze to Misaki, "He didn't hurt anyone while you were chasing him?"