Black Bullet - Volume 5 - Chapter 1.06

6

Rentaro slammed his fist on the steel desk as hard as he could.

“God damn it, I’m telling you I didn’t do it!”

“Quit lying to us! Who else would there be?”

“Someone framed me!”

“The victim was killed with your gun. The rifle in our database was a perfect match with yours. We got all the evidence we need. Trying to deny it all’s just gonna give you a longer sentence.”

This was getting nowhere. Rentaro crossed his legs and plopped himself back down on his stool. The cramped interrogation room he was brought into dripped with tension. The dull, dark-gray walls were complemented by a set of tiny stools. It was the size of a shoebox, but it was certainly tidy—there was no other furniture or decoration.

After two hours of pointless prodding and coercing, Rentaro was starting to get sick of it all. Enju must have noticed he wasn’t coming home by now. Hopefully, she wasn’t worrying herself sick.

Why did this have to happen to me? I need to get home ASAP. The frustration of being accused of a crime he didn’t commit brought him to the point where he wanted to beat some sense into the officers.

The door opened, and the detective interrogating him stretched up to see who it was. A thick, wrinkled face peered through the doorway. To Rentaro, it was like a helping hand pulling him up from hell.

“Inspector Tadashima!”

It was Shigetoku Tadashima, an inspector in the violent-crimes department. They had conferred with each other during any number of Gastrea attacks. Finally, a kindred soul! Rentaro was sure he’d testify that he’d never commit a crime like this.

But, at the next moment, he realized exactly how over-optimistic he was.

“So, you’re Rentaro Satomi?”

“What?”

His eyes looked like they were chiseled into his square-jawed face. A glare from him was enough to make even nonoffenders involuntarily shiver. That’s when Rentaro realized it. Tadashima wasn’t here to talk with Rentaro Satomi, his acquaintance in the civsec industry. He was here to question Rentaro Satomi, murder suspect. Expecting a warm welcome from him now would be as useless as crying and pleading for clemency on the guillotine stand.

Tadashima traded places with the younger detective in the room, sitting face-to-face with Rentaro. The detective questioning him before now stood behind him, pacing back and forth along the wall—a classic intimidation tactic.

Then Tadashima leaned over the steel desk. It creaked under him.

“How about we start by you telling me what you were doing the night of the murder? From the start.”

“I’ve already told you guys a thousand times.”

“You didn’t tell me.”

Rentaro stopped himself from lashing out at his arrogance. This was another conventional police tactic—have the suspect give his story time and time again, searching for any contradictions that appear along the way. He kept himself cool as a cucumber as he gave Tadashima the basic outline.

“So I understand the pistol belongs to you?”

“I told you, someone stole it from me. I reached for it, and it was gone.”

“If it was gone when you reached for it, why are you so sure it was stolen? You didn’t think that you dropped it somewhere?”

He broke into a greasy sweat. This wasn’t good.

“That… I said it was stolen because it wound up getting used to commit a crime. I didn’t think it was stolen at the time.”

“Misplacing a gun is a pretty serious issue. Why didn’t you immediately inform the police about it?”

“Well, like I said, I didn’t think it was stolen. I figured it’d turn up if I searched the office or my home.”

“When did you notice it was missing?”

“Um…a little bit before I was gonna meet Suibara.”

“Hmm. Just before meeting the victim, huh? Kind of a convenient time to remember that.”

The doubt and suspicion was clear in Tadashima’s eyes. Ah, shit. If Rentaro had a time machine, he would’ve used it right now to warn his past self to report it to the police first.

“Listen, Inspector Tadashima, when Suibara called upon the Tendo Civil Security Agency, he was already fearing for his life. Why would I be the one killing him?”

“Who would know about that?”

“What do you mean?”

Tadashima opened his notebook, licked his thumb, and flipped through a few pages.

“Before I came here, I asked a few basic questions to the people in the Tendo Agency.”

Rentaro thought his heart was going to stop. So Kisara, Tina, and Enju all knew he’d been arrested.

“Your boss testified that the victim, Kihachi Suibara, visited you to discuss a job. Thing is, though, she didn’t hear what the job was about.”

“He only wanted to discuss it with me. It was a trust issue.”

“All right, so who would know about that?”

“We were the only two people in the office. Suibara told me to get everyone else out of there—”

“—So nobody besides you knows what the job was about?”

“…What are you getting at?”

Tadashima’s eyes settled on his notebook. He began flipping through pages again.

“Well, I have some testimony here from your Initiator. She said you were clearly acting strange when she got back from her shopping. She offered to eat dinner together with you, but you declined and disappeared somewhere, apparently.”

“That…!” Rentaro raised his voice at first, but fell silent for a moment, unable to figure out what to say.

“What is it? Go ahead.”

“That’s a different thing…”

“You’re using your right to remain silent about it?”

“No! My boss got an offer for an arranged marriage, so…you know, it was hurting me, sharing the same space as her.”

Tadashima’s face indicated this wasn’t the reply he expected.

“So you’re in love with your boss?”

Rentaro blushed and stared at the floor. He could hear snickering from behind.

“Stop trying to dodge the question.”

“What do you mean by that?” Rentaro turned around and glared at the detective behind him. “Keep your eyes on me,” a low voice rumbled from in front. He followed the order, as Tadashima placed his elbows on the desk and clasped his fingers together.

“All right, so this is what we’re saying here. Basically, we don’t think Kihachi Suibara had any job for you at all.”

“What?”

“The victim was demanding money from you. Blackmail. I don’t know what he had on you, but you knew each other since childhood, so I’m sure he could dig up something. You saved Tokyo Area’s hide in the Third Kanto Battle and the Kagetane Hiruko terror attacks, so Suibara figured he’d try extorting whatever money he could from you. He threatened you, and that freaked you out so much that you didn’t feel like eating dinner together with your coworkers. Am I right?

“Then, once you decided to kill him, you lured Suibara to the site of your choice, you pulled the trigger, the police got a report of gunshots, and there you were. Kind of a silly thing to commit murder for, isn’t it?”

“That’s bullshit, man!”

Where did all that come from? There wasn’t a shred of truth to it… But there was, too. He was the only person to hear the nature of Suibara’s request. And he really did leave afterward, because he couldn’t bear to face Kisara. He never dreamed the events of that evening would lead to this kind of misunderstanding. The sweat continued to run down his cheeks.

“…Look, Inspector. I fought in the Third Kanto Battle. I fended off Kagetane Hiruko. Do you really think I’d kill someone over something like that?”

Rentaro was ready to turn to prayer at this point. If he lost Tadashima, the only person he could turn to now, his fate was all but sealed.

But the inspector just gave him an indifferent head shake. “I don’t know that. That’s why I’m here questioning you right now. Evil people do evil things. They get arrested for it. I’ve seen dozens of so-called ‘nice guys’ in here after something possessed them to go bad.”

Rentaro weakly shook his head.

“I didn’t do it.”

“So you’re denying the charge?”

“Of course I am! I’m not gonna own up to something I didn’t do. Get me a lawyer. You gotta have a lawyer on duty, right?”

Tadashima gave Rentaro a tiny sigh, staring straight through his suspect with cold eyes.

“Rentaro Satomi, I’m officially placing you in police custody. I’m gonna request an extension from the judge tomorrow, too, so I hope you’re ready to spend a little while in jail.”