Robin Finman. This name is very precious to me. A name which was given by someone I truly believe or at least used to. Everything feels wrong in this city. The air, the people. Everything was just rotten. I have no intention nor any ambition to fix things in this city. Some things in this world aren't supposed to be fixed. Then why am I doing this? Why am I taking new cases? What is my purpose? Why am I chasing the ghost?
"Robin." As I was getting drowned in my own thoughts Mr Yamako called me out loud. I looked at him. White hair, his old glasses and as usual smoking. A man who knows what he's doing and how to get things done. "Get inside." I was standing right outside of the apartment door and Yuki was standing behind me. Yamako called us in but something felt strange. I simply nodded and made my way inside. Yuki walked past me.
The apartment was very small. Messed up closet, the furniture was old and rusty. The bed was messy and the mirror was broken. Glass was scattered around everywhere. As I entered an odd smell covered the whole area. There was another room inside and it was the crime scene. Two cops were standing in front and Yamako signaled them to go outside. The smell got stronger and more intense as I took each step closer. Yuki covered her nose. Now it's clear. It's a smell of rotten flesh.
"What happened here?" Yuki stepped back but I couldn't. I entered the room only to see something disgusting and horrible at the same time. The whole floor was covered in blood and small chunks of flesh. The whole room is rampaged. The interiors are broken the walls were painted with blood stains. Most importantly there was a heart laying on the floor. A perfectly cut out human heart. Yuki took a look and she quickly rushed outside. The smell and the horror was too much for her.
I was holding my breath and was covering my nose but it wasn't enough. The bloody smell is too much. The heart was in a perfect condition and the blood on the floor wasn't dry so it means whatever happened here wasn't too long ago. I quickly got out because I couldn't take it anymore. "God damn it." I took a deep breath. I have seen worse but I haven't smelled something so disgusting like this. "So what do you think?" Mr Yamako came closer and Yuki was still standing outside the apartment. "What do I think? You're telling me someone did that." I was breathing heavily and sweating. "There was a body too. Before you came it was taken. You really should've seen it."
A body? "So does it mean that heart was taken out from that body?" Yamako looked at me and says, "No this heart doesn't belong to that body. In fact there's been two murders." The atmosphere grew more and more intense as he kept talking. "So?"
The cleaners came again. White coats. People from the forensic department. They made their way inside and started their work again. Yamako walked towards the exit. Before leaving I took another look. The walls were painted in blood and the room was completely destroyed. The heart was taken by them. Before leaving I looked around a few times. The apartment was a living example of brutality and a slaughter house.
As I stepped outside Yuki was coughing. "This is the reason why I don't bring you." She's like a coconut. Hard and tough outside, soft inside. She stepped closer and gave me a look. "I don't care. I am going around for questioning, see you outside." Without any word she left with her own investigation but my job is not done yet. Yamako looked at me. He must tell me everything now.
Mr Yamako and I were alone in the elevator. For both of us cases are just routine work but something like this has happened after a long time. Whoever did this is a total freak of nature. "So where's the other body?" Yamako said that there's been two murders so what happened to the other body. He took a puff of the cigarette and looked at me. "Not sure but I guess it was consumed." I looked at him. Is he serious or he's been high all this time. "What?" The elevator keeps going down and the conversation goes deep. "The heart doesn't belong to the body we have. One body is missing and the one we retrieved was missing its brain, kidneys and chunks of flesh." After hearing it I was sure about it. A cannibal. "Black market?" I asked him.
"Probably not.I have some people there so I guess not." Yamako, as sneaky as ever. He has his eyes and ears everywhere. "I guess I understand now." I know even he knows about it but he won't tell me. Yamako thinks I won't show interest because it's grubs we are dealing with but he missed the part where a pig is involved here. Why would a pig show interest in a grub case?
Ground floor. The elevator opened and Yuki was already standing there. "Took you long enough." She looks excited. Did she find something? I avoided her question for now and kept walking with Yamako. "So what do you think? Care to work on this one?" Yamako, you old sneaky bastard. You want me in this but still want me to join in on my own. Let's play then. "How about we do this?" As soon as I said it Yamako tilted his head and looked at me. Yuki came closer and stood there. "What?" His tone, whispered. "How about you let me work on this one completely alone. No reports no tail." I have worked with him before but this time I might ditch him. "Fine then. As long as it gets solved I don't care." He walked away without another word.
The cops were preparing to leave the site.The forensic team was still up there. I looked up and saw a few people standing. They started coming out. Grubs are like rabbits. Just by hearing a small echo they would crawl in their hole. Not to avoid but to survive.
"So what then?" Yuki came closer to me. She was holding a piece of paper and pen. She might've written something. "Found anything?" She smiles and says, "maybe." I started walking and she started following me. We walked outside and see Yamako leaving with the crew. "Let's go." We made our way out. Before leaving I turned back and took one last look. Interesting.
After that both me and Yuki came back. It was almost sunset. As the sun goes down the night becomes darker in this city. Night time is the most beautiful thing for those who are hungry for crime. Either robbery or conflict. It's just routine. Meanwhile the pigs are heavily protected from all these. Night is nothing like this in the south district. As we came back to my apartment I made some coffee for both of us. Yuki was sitting in my chair. I don't know why but I guess she wants to sit in my comfort zone for some reason. "Here." I gave her the mug and she didn't even look. That piece of paper, some files related to our previous case and as usual her laptop. When it comes to tech she's the skilled one.
"What's it then?" I sat on the table. The aroma of the coffee hits different after a long day. She was typing something and some pictures popped up. "I am running some background checks." I took a sip and asked her, "on who?"
Click!"On apex complex. I was questioning a few of them earlier and some of them said that a bunch of new group of people are recently staying there." The screen gets filled with detailed information and pictures of each apartment owner. "It's no use." She put her coffee aside and looked at me.
"Whoever did that is staying there for a long time." She tilted her head and asked me, "I know but still we can at least find who are the new ones." I took a sip and stood up. "Finding new faces won't help us. Whoever did all those knows the complex very well."
She looked confused."Why?" I walked towards the window. The breeze feels nice for some reason. "Because there was a hidden compartment in that apartment." The laptop stopped running details. The cold sensation was felt by both of us. She looked stunned. "What do you mean? The cops have..." Even before she finished her sentence I had to talk.
"There a small hatch under the kitchen.So it means that the seventeenth and the sixteenth floor are connected. As soon as I entered I took a good look and saw a tile on the kitchen floor looked very odd. As if it was taken out." Yuki stood up. She looked at me and closed the laptop. "Then why didn't you do anything."
I turned back. She was looking confused because she never understood what kind of situation it was. That missing body and the person who did all that was right under our feet but if I had done something things would've gotten worse.
"Pig eyes Yuki. Pig eyes." She looked more and more confused but curious. "What pig eyes? Those cops were with Yamako right." She took the bait but I didn't. "Do you really think the pigs will ever leave Yamako out of their sight. If we had done something back there both the cops and the murderers would've killed us instantly."
Yuki sits down and takes a deep breath. I stood there and watched her brain getting overloaded with info. "You mean all this time we were..."
"You're right. We were getting watched. Me you and Yamako. One mistake and we would've died." The silence between us was too loud. Yuki was looking at me. I don't know what she was thinking. After a long time I have seen this look. Whatever happens next will depend on our choices.