Endless Thirst: Above 2

OCTOBER 9, 2022 ~ CTRLDEVIL

It was a peaceful night. The thunderstorms that had turned the city upside down and the noise of the incident a week earlier seemed like a dream. As he prepared his report, he was grateful for the quiet. The young people were enjoying video games on the TV. The direct-dial phone rang, and his gaze turned upward. The convenience store appeared in his field of vision. The boy leaning against a shelf, his throat gushing blood like water from a faucet.
“…That’s right. Please put your card through and then enter your PIN, yep.”
After answering according to the manual, he grabbed the controller of the game console again. One of the young employees replied listlessly, “I guess one of the workers at one of the stores made a mistake in locking the door.”

“It wouldn’t be strange if he had a thing or two to say about…”
The words of the investigation head came back to him. There was nothing to hide. How many times had he replayed that night? The perpetrator disappeared just before he reached the Five Market. He looked for anything in his memory, the fleeing figure, the car. Nothing appeared on the other side of the strong raindrops. Another direct call. He was not nervous, his palpitations had subsided. The body in front of his eyes had also disappeared.
“Fujishima-san!” A young employee was waving the telephone handset. “Um, it’s from your wife.” His eyes seemed to shine with curiosity.
For a brief moment, his blood boiled. Perhaps the effects of the drugs had begun to wear off. He was well aware of his own bloodlust. But in the event that it was meant to be a bad joke, he would kill the fellow. While picturing the plan to beat him to death, he picked up the phone.

“Hello?” No response.
“Is anyone there?” He felt the blood drain from his face. The moment he clenched his fist, he heard a retreating voice.
“It’s me.”
Fujishima took a small breath. He couldn’t help but feel bewildered, having not heard from her for several months. The mediation was over, and he had lost any excuse to see her. He was resigned to the fact that they wouldn’t ever contact each other again.
“Oh…thank goodness. I’m sorry to be so abrupt, but…” He tried to keep his composure. “What’s going on?”
“I have to talk to you.”
“Talk?” Fujishima replied. “What is there to talk about?”
He felt his self-control being torn down. The divorce papers were sent to him as soon as he decided to retire from the police force. The resignation was due to an incident he had caused. She left home the day after the incident. She took her daughter, Kanako, with her to her parents’ home. How many times he called and visited her, demanding to speak with her, that was lost on him now. But they never met until he signed the papers that he had received from her.
“Just listen, please. I’m begging you.”

His ex-wife Kiriko’s voice was unusually urgent. The unexpected situation triggered an alarm in his stagnant brain. Kiriko’s voice was wet with tears. It was a common occurrence for that passionate woman.
“…So what?”
“It’s about Kanako.”
“Gimme a sec.”

Fujishima put down the phone. He left his desk and headed for the locker room. Ignoring curious stares at his back, he crossed the dark corridor and reached for the jacket he had stored in his locker. He took out his cell phone, which was in his breast pocket, and turned it on. He opened the aluminum packet of pills in his back pocket and released three pills into his mouth. This is the kind of behavior that should never be seen in a workplace as rich in ideas of machismo as that of the police. He cursed himself for not being able to control his emotions and be more patient talking to a certain someone he hadn’t had in a long time. He even felt sorry for himself, all giddy like a teenager.
Before making the call, he prepared himself for surprise and shock. He thought of his daughter. Seventeen years old, if his memory was right, and attending an all-girls’ high school in Urawa. Excellent grades, applying to a national university in Tokyo. And…

No matter how much he tried to twist it, he came up with a blank for the rest. He worked all his life as a detective; he was surprisingly willing to risk his own life for information. But when it came to his family, he was the exact opposite.
He called the apartment where Kiriko lived. It was the house that Fujishima had purchased for them and then vacated after the divorce.

Calm down.
He told himself to calm down and pressed the call button. With just a couple rings, he was connected.
“What’s this about Kanako?”
“I thought maybe she was with you.”
“What?”
“Please, don’t try to hide it…”
“Don’t fuck with me!” Fujishima barked reflexively. His efforts had gone awaste. Kiriko’s voice lost its power of speech and collapsed into a sob. He could envision Kiriko with the phone clasped to her ear, her elbows on the table and her head in her hands. It was an image he had seen countless times before.
“What’s going on? What reason would there be for her to be with me?”
“She’s not… she hasn’t come home.” Her voice was anguished, and in it, he could hear a hint of calculation.
“So what, you think I kidnapped her? Don’t kid yourself.”

“That’s not what I…”
“You liar. You really thought Kanako would come over to my place? She was never on my side. Why don’t you cut the crap and just ask me straight-out if I snatched her?’” Fujishima vented into his cell phone.

Kiriko sniffed, in a state of exasperation for a while. The time on the LCD screen added up to another five seconds, then another ten. He thought of Kanako – her small face and slender body, and her large, light-brown eyes. She had a small mouth and a thin nose like her mother. Her face always gave people the impression that she was noble and strong-minded. Even in her callous father’s eyes, she was a beautiful girl. If only they had been able to communicate, he would have been so proud to call her his daughter. He dug up the few memories he had of her.
When she was about twelve or so, a number of relatives recommended that she go to a private junior high school, but Akihiro was the only one who was against it. This was right after he had purchased an apartment. The school fees were not covered by a detective’s salary. Nor could he afford the lavish support from his father-in-law, an executive at a local bank. What was more was Kanako herself said she did not want to leave her friends who were going to the city junior high school.
That event marked a turning point for him and his family. His wife, who had been a dedicated mother up until then, began to work. Using her father’s connections, she became a clerk at a real estate company. Perhaps because she found the work so fulfilling, she became absorbed in it, not coming home until late in the evening, or even after midnight, until Fujishima finally gave up on their family. He abandoned their marriage and left his daughter alone. There were no arguments. The heat that had consumed them had passed, and they had moved into a cold war. She was probably taking advantage of her husband and daughter’s refusal to attend the private school. That daughter of hers; though she treated her like a pet, was just a child after all.

Their daughter had disappeared. When did Kiriko first notice that?
“I have nothing to do with this. That’s all.”
A wail escaped from the phone speaker in response. It seemed that a little bit of his spite had gotten through, and he was seized by a thrill of joy.
“How long has she been gone?” The pause was unnaturally long. “Oi, you there?”
“Yesterday. Ever since I left for work yesterday morning.”
Fujishima switched hands with his cell phone and wiped his sweaty palms on his slacks. It didn’t seem unusual for a teenage girl to spend one, or even a few nights away from home during summer vacation without her parents’ knowledge. He was more concerned as to why Kiriko was this distraught.

“I think she’s been taking classes at a prep school all summer. Yesterday, she was there. I called them to ask. She was there until yesterday afternoon.”
“What about her friends? How could they not know where she is?”

“I did contact them. But they all… said the last they saw her was yesterday evening.”

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“You didn’t really fall for that, did you?”
“How am I supposed to know what’s a lie and what’s not?!” After a few sobs, Kiriko said, “You want to tell me that I’m crazy, don’t you?”
“Yeah. Yeah, that’s it. You’re hysterical like an idiot. If people hear you they might even laugh.”
A sharp sound mingled with her sobbing over the line, like something being put on the table. It was probably a glass of scotch.

“Come over to my place. There’s something I need you to look at.”
“Really? Won’t your lawyer be upset about that?”
“I’m begging!”
“Wait a minute. Why haven’t you called the cops?”
If her daughter was really missing, she would have reported it to the station. It would have been more natural for her to turn to the police than Akihiro.
And if that were the case, investigators would have questioned him as a material witness by now. Many children are abducted or kidnapped by parents who have lost custody of their children. There would be a good reason to suspect him.

“Come over. That’s the only way you’ll understand.”
“Last night, what were you doing?”
“Me?”
“Answer honestly, will you? That’ll decide my answer. When did you notice Kanako’s disappearance?”
“…This evening.”
“You didn’t notice it yesterday? Didn’t you say she wasn’t home all night?”
“I’m talking about her now.”
“Where were you? A hotel, or maybe some guy’s apartment?”
“That’s not…” she said matter-of-factly. And then a moment later, “…Yes.”
“Yeah?”

“I was at someone’s apartment.”
“And what kind of business did you have there?” Fujishima’s breathing became increasingly ragged.

“Are you even listening to me? This isn’t the time for that.”
“What kind of business?” A heavy silence followed. Occasionally, a watery sniffling sound could be heard. “What’s so important about that bastard?”
“Please, don’t just jump to conclusions.”
“Oh, you’ve suddenly decided to act like a mother?”
“That guy… I quit seeing him.”
“You ought to know a little shame.”
“It’s not like that. Please, just listen!”
“Oi──”
“Listen! What reason is there for me to hide it? Whose fault was it in the first place? Even now, he’s still scared to death of you. We talked all night, and in the end he couldn’t even look at my face.” The thin wailing dragged out until it had more than made its point.
“Call the cops right now. Or I’ll do it myself. I’m serious.”
“I told you I just can’t? Please, understand. When you get here, you’ll know!” The stubbornness of Kiriko’s absurdity confounded him. But-
I can go back to my home again.
At that sudden thought, a puzzling wave of joy hit him, like he were a dog wagging its tail.
“I’ll be there as soon as my shift ends.”
“Really?”

He hung up without another word. Turning off his cell, he tucked it back into his jacket and went to his desk. A sticky sweat, different from that of the warm day, trickled down his back. He didn’t feel anything; as if he were a stranger. His thoughts turned to his daughter. Was Kanako the kind of girl who would hide from her mother without a word? Was she the kind of girl who went from one friend’s house to another, eating only snacks for dinner? Or was she the kind of girl who led a regular school life and did household chores in place of her work-weary mother?
Fujishima mentally mocked himself. Some father he was, only being able to identify her by such crude stereotypes. In an attempt to look nonchalant, he yawned. The other employees were still playing video games. Unwilling to return to his paperwork, he grabbed a sports paper that was close at hand and unfolded it. Following the words, he was only further absorbed in his thoughts.
Where did she go? Was his little girl really the type that’d run away from home? Finding that out now would be impossible. How dare that whore make a phone call now of all times? How could their daughter disappear while her mother was busy having an affair? This sort of story is just like her. “When you get here, you’ll know.” Was the person he spoke with on the phone truly Kiriko?
“Dumb whore.”

An inarticulate murmur escaped from between his teeth.

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