They cross the living room and cautiously exit through the front door, trying to appear as casual as possible in case anyone is in the hallway, though it's fortunately still empty. Devin closes the door behind them, though it's not secure due to the knob and deadbolt being broken. Content with their search, they finally head back to the elevator, which has gone back to down to the lobby. Atreus presses a button on the wall to call it, and they eagerly await it arrival to finally exit the complex.
It soon arrives with the usual, expected ding that rings through the vacant hallway. The opaque glass doors slide apart, though not to just welcome two more users inside, but to let out two who had just arrived to the building: Detectives Terrence Colter and Mason Howard.
For an instant, the two yakuza are struck stupid. It takes every ounce of self-control to not let it show on their face by letting their mouths hang open or eyes widen in sheer shock. Why are these two law enforcers here, at this very moment, right when the clan members were about to take their leave? Is this a terrible coincidence or a purposeful orchestration? Was this truly a trap for Atreus, specifically? Or was he caught in the crossfire of something else? For the mere few seconds of the two pairs staring at each other dumbfoundedly, a plethora of questions float through his head.
“What on earth are you two doing here?” Colter's low, booming voice asks as he and his partner step out of the elevator. His eyes narrow and brow furrows, as if he's calculating the likelihood of having to make an arrest, right here and now.
“We're looking for someone who's been missing the last few days,” Atreus answers with enough honesty to nearly make Devin do a double take.
“And I don't suppose that person is Edward Takiyama?” Mason interjects snidely.
“It is,” the gangster replies immediately. “Bessho hasn't seen him at all lately, and asked us to check on him.”
“And why would Bessho ask you to do that for him?”
“Because he's paranoid that cops are breathing down his neck and is too afraid to leave the Hoshino building. Is he wrong?”
“So is he here? Takiyama?” Colter, with little reason to doubt them at the moment, humors them.
Atreus shakes his head. “No. In fact, we think someone broke in recently.” He gives another response so transparent, that Devin continues to struggle holding back amazement, unsure of whether he's brave or stupid.
“What makes you say that?”
“The doorknob and deadbolt were both busted when we got here.”
“Seriously?” Colter utters, sharing a confused glance with his partner.
“How do we know you guys aren't the ones who broke it?” Mason begins his expected grilling.
“Why would we have any reason to break in just to see if he's there?” Atreus replies with a shrug, as if the answer is obvious. “We were here a few days ago too for the same reason. He didn't seem to be here then, and he doesn't seem to be here now.”
“So you went inside?” Colter asks, now interested in what the gangster has to say.
“Kinda. We just poked our head in and looked around. We've never been in his apartment before, but it doesn't look like anything strange happened. Just looks like the type of disorganized, fast food-laden bachelor pad you'd expect an unmarried twenty-something to have. We didn't touch anything.”
“I don't know if I buy this,” Mason utters under his breath towards his partner. “Should we just take them in?”
“We can't go arresting people for just paying a visit to someone's home,” Terrence rebuts.
“They just said they went inside.”
“To see if Takiyama was there after the fact it had already been broken into by someone else, yes. Anyone else would have done the same thing.”
Mason sighs. “You're too easy on these guys. I don't think their being here is a coincidence.”
“I never suggested it was,” Colter gives a firm glare, growing irate at his partners eagerness to put the two yakuza in cuffs. “I don't arrest first and ask questions later. That's how people grow to distrust law enforcement.”
Detective Howard doesn't respond, but clearly still disagrees with his colleague's approach. He opts to simply cross his arms and begrudgingly stay quiet.
“So, you guys are here for Takiyama too, then?” Atreus asks, taking advantage of the uneasy silence.
“We are. Got an anonymous call a bit ago about some suspicious behavior from him recently, was told he came home with what looked like blood on his shirt.”
“'Anonymous call'?” Atreus repeats, glancing at Devin in shared confusion. “Well, I don't know what to tell you, but he isn't here. And, as far as we know, he hasn't been here in the last four or five days. Why would they send two detectives from the homicide unit to look into a call about one suspicious guy? Why not beat cops like usual?”
“We were just in the neighborhood,” Colter bluntly stonewalls the gangster from further prying. “Either way, we're going to his apartment to take a look at things for ourselves.”
“Well, don't let us stop you,” Atreus steps to the side and beckons the detectives to continue down the hall. “We didn't stick around the place long enough to find anything that would tell us where he is now, but maybe you can.”
Detective Colter is a bit hesitant to simply continue walking. He pushes himself to take a few steps forward while exchanging suspicious glances with Atreus, Mason following close behind. Once they're past one another, Atreus and Devin finally make their way into the elevator, hitting the lobby floor button as soon as they step in.
“I hope I don't find a reason to talk to you about your visit here again!” Colter's thunderous voice echoes as he continues walking, turning his head only slightly to speak his last word of warning to the two yakuza.
“I'm sure you'll come up with something!” Atreus yells back before the elevator doors slide shut.
As they begin their descent, Devin finally unleashes the breath he had been holding in for the past minute. “Holy fuck, what was that?” he asks, exasperated at the sudden – and highly unwelcome – run-in with the detectives. “Why were they here? And why did you tell them that we've been around here before?”
“You heard what he said: they got an anonymous call,” Atreus answers as the elevator arrives at the ground floor and the doors slide open again. They step out into the lobby and proceed to make their way back to the sidewalk.
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“Yeah, but who from? And why? Was this intended to be a trap for us?”
“No, I don't think so. If it were meant for us, the call would've been about us loitering around and looking threatening or some similar bullshit; not about Takiyama himself, covered in blood.”
“So it was definitely an attempt to frame Takiyama for the murder, yeah? The killer plants the gun there, and calls the police about him as a – quote – 'anonymous tip', which prompts them to come and search the apartment, eventually finding the murder weapon,” Devin recites the alleged sequence of events intended to make up the frame job. “But why now, specifically? Couldn't the killer have done this earlier?”
“Marvin Choi,” Atreus answers while summoning an Automa as they cross the stone path back to the street. “The killer must've timed his call so that the cops can easier link Choi's death to Takiyama too, not just Camlin's. Lee must've barely called the police less than an hour ago, too. That's why those two were sent instead of some beat cops, I'd imagine.”
“Would the police really fall for that? Wouldn't someone think it's too convenient?”
“I think you overestimate their ability – and desire – to look beyond what's right in front of their face. More often than not, the first thing that seems obvious is what they stick to. It usually takes public blowback to make them reconsider, and I don't imagine there'd be any blowback about this.”
“Even beyond all this shit, there's also the question of 'why Takiyama'? What's he got to do with all of this? Why's he missing? Who's answering calls from his phone? Why's the killer trying to frame him, specifically?” Devin airs his thoughts, growing overwhelmed by the increasing amount of mysteries.
“I really wish I knew, but I think we're finally getting closer to finding out. We have to eventually reach a point where we finally get more answers than new questions. We have to.”
With expected promptness, a silver, self-driving sedan pulls up to the sidewalk. Devin walks around to enter from the other side, and Atreus opens the passenger door facing the sidewalk. Before he climbs in, he turns around to give one final glance up at the third floor windows of the building, still curious about the sudden arrival of the two detectives – the call that led them to the apartment, and what conclusions they might draw on their own. As he motions to sit down, he gives one last pat against the small of his back to confirm the gun is still there. After both men are in the vehicle, it pulls away from curb and continues towards the Asano family building.
The entire duration of the ride is silent and anxious. Both men's minds are preoccupied with many thoughts on the day's events and the discovery what is likely the murder weapon, which is causing a burning sensation against Atreus's back, giving constant reminder of its existence every time his shifts his body in his seat. He's afraid to even remove it for comfort's sake out of worry of the wrong pair of eyes bearing witness to it.
Once they return to the Asano office, they quietly make their way through the lobby, maintaining as casual a demeanor as possible in front of the handful of junior family members, who greet them with courteous bows. Atreus makes every effort possible to not draw any attention to the gun within his waistband, hoping the shape of the weapon isn't noticeable beneath the cover of his shirt and vest. Despite knowing that its secure in its current position, he can't help but feel like its ready to fall out of his pants at any second.
They finally reach the elevator and take it to the top floor, where they can finally afford to relax themselves slightly, now that they're away from the eyes of civilians and impressionable young colleagues. Upon entering Ryuji's office, they see their family head sitting at his desk, like usual, but he perks up at his subordinates' return.
“Well?” Ryuji asks, sitting straight, expecting a positive – relatively speaking – reply. “Was it there?”
Atreus approaches the desk, and instead of giving a verbal answer, he reaches around his torso and lets the pistol's mere presence do the talking. He holds it out, carrying it flat on its side in his palm.
“You brought it here?” Ryuji exclaims, standing up in surprise.
“Where was I supposed to take it?” Atreus, immediately agitated, argues back. “My own apartment? Was I supposed to go to the cops and say 'hey, a Sanada-gumi member had a gun that probably killed two people in the last week' and basically frame Takiyama on the killer's behalf?”
“We don't actually know that he isn't the killer, though. There's still room for doubt.”
The augmented man quickly holds up his finger, stopping Ryuji's train of thought. “Actually, I think we might be able to remove that doubt now, because on the way out, we had a run-in with some familiar faces: Detective Colter and his sidekick.”
“What? Seriously?” Ryuji is clearly bewildered. “You actually bumped into them at the apartment building? When? After you got the gun or before?”
“Right after. If we stuck around Takiyama's place for a single minute longer, they probably would've caught us staring at the gun; they might've thought we were the ones planting it there.”
“Did they not think it was suspicious that you were?”
“Of course they did,” Atreus nods, emphasizing the obviousness of the answer. “But I just told them the truth: that we were there to find Takiyama at Bessho's request because he hadn't seen him lately.”
“That would've been the truth four days ago,” the patriarch remarks, partially surprised that such an excuse worked. “They seriously didn't try to pry further than that?”
“No, because I tried to not give them any reason to. I basically invited them to grill me and go into the apartment themselves, which they did. And get this: the reason they showed up was because they apparently got an anonymous call about Takiyama 'acting suspicious' recently, and being spotted with blood on his shirt.”
Ryuji twists his face his confusion. “But we've established that he hadn't been seen by anyone in days, which means that whoever made that call didn't actually see him recently at all.”
“Exactly. Takiyama would've been successfully framed by now if we hadn't found this gun first. It wasn't a trap to lure out and frame me. And if this gun killed Choi too, then the timing would suggest that the killer wants to frame Takiyama for that, too.”
“Jesus. It's a good thing you found it, then. If Colter saw that gun first, this would've been open and shut from the police's perspective, especially if Takiyama had been hiding in a way that no one could corroborate any sort of alibi to help him. But now we have to find out where he is and why the hell the killer's coming after him now too.”
“He could be the last person who could actually give us real, concrete answers instead of just more questions, but all I have to go on right now is his phone and the so-called 'witness' I spoke to, who still hasn't called me about meeting up yet. I might have to expect it during my shift at Crown.” Atreus heaves a sigh, not feeling particularly eager about adding a work day on top of the heightening troubles given by the investigation. “Anyways, do you have a place where I can put this?” he asks, gesturing to the gun.
“Here, in the bottom drawer of my desk.” Ryuji sits back down in his office chair and uses his phone to unlock the wide and tall drawer near the bottom of his desk. He pulls it out, revealing a folder of papers, a wad of five thousand dollars' worth of 'emergency cash', and an external hard drive of countless copies of important documents, e-mails, and more.
Atreus bends over and places the unloaded gun on top of the folder. He retrieves the suppressor and magazine from his pockets and places them next to it.
“Those bullets,” the family head speaks up while staring at the half-full magazine, “are those the VF+ cartridges you've been talking about?”
“They are. There's a total of six rounds in that magazine, which holds twelve. Three bullets were put into both Choi and Camlin.”
“The bastard's really got an eye for detail,” Ryuji gives facetious admiration in a tone of disdain before shutting and locking the drawer again.
With the tense, stressful morning now behind him, Atreus approaches the recliner in the room and practically throws his body down on it, making a loud, cushioned thump as his weight hits the seat and back rest.
“You know,” Ryuji speaks up again, “I don't think Terrence will leave the fact you guys were there alone just yet. I doubt he thinks it was a mere coincidence.”
“You think he'll visit the office again?” Devin asks.
“I'm not sure. You might've prevented a catastrophe by finding the gun, but if he didn't have us in his sights before, he might now. You've probably run into him enough times to set off an alarm in his head.”
“Yeah, I know,” Atreus lethargically responds while gazing at the ceiling.
He doesn't discount the likelihood of another unannounced visit from his acquaintance in law enforcement, and certainly isn't keen on the thought. For now, however, he finally has a chance to breathe and think on the events of the two hours and how to proceed from this moment on as he continues playing the waiting game in anticipation of the expected call from the self-proclaimed witness. Today had been especially nerve-wracking and exhausting so far, and it had just barely turned noon.