Pearl

Chapter Twenty-Four: Bait

"Hey, Takeda. The perp from the ambulance case is asking to see you. Says he's got something to say that only you can hear," the young police officer said, leaning into the small office space that O'Lane had usurped and left for Takeda to use when he was on the case in the agent's absence.

Takeda looked up from the desk with a deep sigh. In addition to the unfriendliness that O'Lane's actions had caused between Takeda and his superiors in the department, he was also still knee-deep in paperwork after the bloody incident with the witness a few days ago. 

For the first time since he started on the force nearly thirty years ago, Takeda had been sanctioned by the department and had had his gun taken away from him. No one knew what had happened in that room except for himself and his remaining witness, who had refused to talk since that day. With no one and nothing to corroborate his story, Takeda was left hanging for discharging his weapon without clear cause and against a witness, no less.

Takeda heaved himself up from his chair, not enjoying the aches and pains that accompanied the movement. He patted his belt reflexively, acutely aware of the missing weight of his weapon, and sighed again.

Despite his reservations he made his way steadily to the cell block, not really expecting much from his witness but lured in by the taunting promise of secrets nevertheless.

The eternal optimist, he thought with a sour smile.

The witness, Gary, had been isolated in a solitary cell deep in the holding block. This had been decided just a day after his incarceration, when his original cellmate had died an inexplicable, horrible death that had resulted corpse that looked much too much like the man named Larry's to be a coincidence. 

The story told by the cell's security cameras was as confounding as the damages to the corpse. Without any previous animosity between the two cellmates, Gary had suddenly spat in the other man's face. Although no altercation had come of it, within hours the other man had fallen ill, and hours later had begun to vomit up blood. He died shortly thereafter, leaving behind no evidence to connect Gary to the rampaging internal injuries that had killed him.

Although there was no clear evidence connecting Gary to either death, and although Takeda firmly believed that Gary hadn't expected the bloody fate of his original companion, his presence in the room with two gruesome and mysterious deaths was more than enough evidence to persuade the prison warden to move Gary to isolation. 

Was it some kind of virus? The question still plagued the minds of those who knew of the condition of the two bodies. While both corpses and Gary had tested clean of any known antigen, the entire precinct was jittery with the imagined, looming threat of an epidemic. 

Takeda reached the cell holding the man in question and allowed himself to be checked over by the officer on guard. After a quick ID verification and a pat-down he was cleared to enter, but he hesitated. 

Maybe he should go get gloves and a surgical face mask just to be safe. 

"You're here," a deep voice called from inside the room, the first time that the witness had spoken to anyone in days. 

Takeda heard that voice and frowned. He steeled himself, and with a quick nod to the guard, entered the cell.

It was a spartan room, barren of anything except the narrow platform chained to the wall that served as both bench and bed, a sink, and a toilet. Gary sat on the bench, hunched over his hands as he watched Takeda enter the small space.

"I heard that you called for me. Just what did you have to say?" Takeda asked, standing squarely with his back just a few inches from the reinforced steel door.