To the End.

Chapter Sixteen

Kazuki had been right when he thought that maybe the police had already infiltrated his home. His sudden disappearance from Osaka and the phone call answered by Shioko made too much sense to the police. They knew he was guilty; they just had to prove it.

His home looked like any normal one. Everything was in order and clean, which made the police think that Kazuki was a bit of a neat freak. It was clear that everything had to be organized. Even his shoe rack was in order by color and type. The Japanese tended to be very clean and orderly, but Kazuki seemed to take it to an extreme. It wasn't just his shoes that were placed by type and color; it was everything. The home even smelled of cleaning products, which, in a normal home, wouldn't be alarming. Any typical homeowner would enjoy the clean scent and atmosphere, but the police felt like that meant Kazuki had something to hide. Little did they know, they weren't exactly correct. Kazuki never killed in the main level of his home.

Because Kazuki was suddenly missing and had a woman with him, the home was crawling with police while others were looking for his car or waiting for any word of a sighting. They couldn't be sure where he had gone. Without much information on the man, they couldn't try to get inside his head. It wasn't an easy task when the only information they had was a name, address, a phone number, and a license plate number. That would help track him down, yes, but it didn't help them figure him out psychologically. Their main hope was that his home would give them something to go after, whether it was proof of any signs of the two missing women or if there was something that would point them in which direction Kazuki would have gone in. Unfortunately for them, Kazuki wasn't the type of person to leave any kind of trace behind. After all, he wasn't stupid.

After the police had questioned him about Kaneko, Kazuki was quick to get rid of her and clean the attic. He spent hours in the room, scrubbing the floor and any surface that could have gotten even a speck of blood on it. He made sure there were no tiny details, such as hair (or so he hoped he rid the room of each follicle), and he even tried his best to set the room up as if it were just a simple work area. A table now sat in the middle of the room, and the chair where each girl ultimately died was placed as if he had been sitting there. Bits and pieces of an old watch laid scattered on the table with some tools, hoping that if anyone would have been able to gain access into his house, they would assume that he was simply working on repairing the watch.

The police, however, weren't going to fall for such a setup so easily.

It wasn't out of the ordinary for a suspect to try and fool them. In fact, it was typical. No one wanted to be caught. No one wanted to spend life in prison or be executed for murder, so there was no chance that a murder's home would be left a mess and full of evidence. Kazuki may not have been stupid, but neither were the police. They were going to check every little nook and cranny of Kazuki's house, and they weren't going to leave until they found something that pointed them in the right direction.

---

Somewhere, almost six hundred and ten kilometers away, Kazuki still sat behind the wheel of his car. He'd just made it to Niigata after a seven-hour drive. His plan was to go somewhere he'd never gone before or had even thought of. His plan didn't necessarily include what he was going to do or where he was going to stay. And how was he supposed to do anything with Shioko in the back of his car? For once, Kazuki was at a loss. Even with the distance between himself and Osaka, he still felt like he was cornered.

Thud. Thud.

There was that obnoxious sound again, coming from the back of the car. It was disturbing his thoughts and his singing.

"That's enough, Shioko."

Kazuki slammed on the brakes and the car came to a sudden halt. Behind him, he could hear a rough thud and the sound of the woman's screams but ignored it as he switched off the music he'd been listening to. He sat quietly. He was cornered and he knew it. One more sound, and that's all it was going to take. But no. He couldn't. He wasn't sure what he was going to do, but one way or another, he was going to make her shut up. Finally.

"This is your fault." His voice was harsh as he parked the car, turned it off and threw open the door. The road was desolate, and Kazuki took advantage of the fact. He stepped out of the car and rounded the back. The thuds continued as Shioko kicked at the trunk's door. The sound only further irritated Kazuki. There was enough for him to worry about now, and he didn't need her adding to it.

Inserting the key into the lock, Kazuki soon opened the trunk. Shioko stared up at him with large eyes. It was clear that she was afraid. There was no saying what was going to happen next, and the fact that Kazuki didn't know either only made the situation worse. He didn't know if he could kill her and rid himself of the body without her being found. Of course, if he did kill her, he could dump her body and leave Niigata for somewhere else, continuing on to his trip to Aomori. That would be far enough away, right?

"If you would have just left my phone alone, we wouldn't be in this mess." He reached forward, gripping the front of the woman's shirt as he roughly pulled her up and out of the trunk. She screamed, twisting her body in a sad attempt to break free, but Kazuki's grip was firm and she was unsuccessful. Her hands weren't bound; the man didn't have any ropes or forms of restraint in the back of his car, and since he had knocked her out in the passenger seat, he didn't think he'd have to get her out so soon.

Shioko wrapped her hand around Kazuki's wrist as she continued to twist and try to pry his hand away from her shirt but seemed almost too strong for her.

"Quit fighting."

Kazuki's voice kept that same harshness. There was no need to play his usual game. Shioko didn't know how that part of the game was played anyway, and he didn't feel like pretending to be nice anymore. He was angry, pissed off, actually, and he had to make her shut up. There were still six more hours worth of driving until he would reach Aomori, so maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to kill her.

But what he didn't take into account was the fact that he'd grown careless and gave Shioko the upper hand, and he wasn't even aware of it.

A/N - It's been awhile since this story has been in progress, so I hope you all noticed the tie in of the prologue. 😌