Sign of the Dragon (Tatsu Yamada Book 1), Niall Teasdale [books for 20 year olds .txt] 📗

particularly nasty crime scene instead of meeting Sachiko at The Hole, which did nothing for her mood.

This time, the victim had been cut to ribbons before being beheaded. Twin slashes across the abdomen had spilled most of his intestines out onto his apartment’s carpet and the stench had been horrific. Nakano had turned up, taken one breath of air, and turned back around to be violently sick outside. Tatsu had the advantage of being able to deactivate her sense of smell at will, and she had used it without a qualm soon after walking in. The killer was, again, escalating the violence of their attacks.

On Sunday, a Shiratori-rengō member had been beaten to death not far from his apartment in Fujiwara. On Monday, another had been killed, this time by shooting, and two members of the Shiroi gang, the other mafia organisation in Chiba, were murdered. Yesterday had claimed two more yakuza and five mafia, two of those from the Funabashi gang in retaliation. And today the count was up to six dead and it was only ten fifteen in the evening.

And that was when Tatsu’s door buzzer sounded. When Tatsu checked, it was Sachiko standing outside; she was preparing herself to make excuses when she noticed that her friend looked worried.

‘What’s up?’ Tatsu asked as soon as the door opened.

Sachiko stepped inside and let the door close before she spoke. ‘Could I ask you a favour?’

‘Depends on the favour.’

‘Okay, I guess that makes sense, but I think this is kind of a police matter, so…’

Tatsu frowned. ‘Ask, Sachiko.’

‘It’s Rosy. Uh, Rosalía Campo. She’s one of the other dancers at The Hole. She’s a friend.’

‘Close friend?’

Sachiko managed a grin. ‘Jealous?’

‘Of course not. I’m simply establishing the circumstances of the case.’

‘Well, it’s not a case yet, and I haven’t been that close to Rosy in a couple of years. She started using rapture…’

‘And you keep yourself clean. Right. So, what’s up with Rosy?’

Sachiko perched on the edge of Tatsu’s bed. ‘Okay, so the management don’t like people using rapture, or anything else, but so long as it doesn’t interfere with your work… Yesterday, Rosy was in but looking depressed, edgy, sickly. Today she was a no-show. And that’s not like her. She used, but she always had it under control.’

Tatsu considered for a second or two. ‘Rapture’s only addictive in the psychological sense. It makes you feel good, takes you out of reality for a while, and you want more of that feeling. But it’s usually controllable so long as you can get a hit every day. Most users can function, though a lot of them end up destitute and broken.’

‘Rosy’s always managed. She’s never missed a day at work. If she does, she knows she probably won’t be able to afford her next hit.’

Tatsu sighed. ‘You want me to check on her?’

‘Yes. She’s not answering my calls.’

‘Well, I need to crash. I’ve been up for thirty-eight hours already. If I haven’t got another call to go see a body, I’ll go around to her apartment in the morning. That okay with you?’

‘That’s fine. Thanks, Tatsu.’ Sachiko got to her feet and, instead of heading for the door, pulled the cropped T-shirt she was wearing over her head.

‘Well, if a habitual user is having problems, it could be a new variety of rapture. Or she could have got ill, which would be a public health issue. Someone should check. And what are you doing?’

‘Undressing. I’d have thought that was obvious.’

‘Yes, but–’

‘We’ll fuck, we’ll sleep like babies, and then I’ll go with you to Rosy’s place in the morning. No arguments.’

Tatsu rolled her eyes. ‘Yes, ma’am.’

12th August.

Rosalía Campo lived in an apartment block more or less identical to the ones Tatsu and Sachiko lived in. It was two blocks from The Hole, closer than Sachiko’s place, but otherwise it might have been either of their two buildings magically repositioned.

Tatsu used her police ID to get them into the building, and then they walked up to the fifth floor to find the apartment. A panel beside the door showed Campo’s name in both Latin script and katakana. There was a button to call the occupant and a button to leave a message. Both had a ‘do not disturb’ indicator showing. Tatsu waved Sachiko forward. Sachiko did the only thing left: she yelled through the door.

‘Rosy? It’s Sachiko. You okay? We were all worried when you didn’t show yesterday. Come on, Rosy, let me in.’

Silence.

‘Rosy?’

More silence. Tatsu gave a sigh and transmitted a police unlock code to the door. At first it seemed that Campo was not home, but Tatsu’s eyes saw in more frequencies than the typical human. There was a heat source in the shower cubicle.

Rosalía Campo was huddled up on the floor, her knees tucked up under her chin and her arms wrapped around her shins. She had long, rich black hair which was wet and obscuring much of her face, tanned skin, and dark eyes. Of course, she was attractive. Normally. Now she looked like she had barely slept in two days and there was pain written on her face. Her first words indicated why.

‘Do you have any? I need it. I need… Do you have any?’ She was speaking English to two Japanese women – not a good sign. She was clearly from a Hispanic family, so maybe it was a blessing that she was not speaking Spanish.

Sachiko crouched down in front of her friend. ‘What happened to you, Rosy? You’re not normally this bad.’

Tatsu tapped Campo’s ID and got back the usual data with added police record. She had been written up for illegal prostitution twice before turning eighteen. There was a drunk and disorderly incident. No drugs convictions, but that was not entirely surprising. MedStat was showing yellow and