– Do you have the money?
Mikami felt himself shiver. The kidnapper’s voice, alien-sounding from the helium, echoed crushingly through the hold.
– Yes . . . I’ve got it. It’s all ready. Please, let me hear my daughter’s voice. I’m begging you. Just for a moment . . .
– Leave now, bring the money and a phone. I want it at the Aoi Café in Aoi-machi, City D. Make sure you’re there by 11.50.
The Aoi Café. The kidnapper really was planning to trace the Six Four route.
– Okay . . . 11.50. The Aoi Café. I think I know it. Right . . . yes . . . I think I’ve seen a billboard advertising it. Next to the main road . . . and a bookstore. I’m leaving right now. I’m bringing the money. If you could just let me—
Beep beep beep beep.
The line went dead.
Nobody moved. They were waiting. Matsuoka’s eyes were locked shut. He looked like he was meditating.
‘Sir, what is it?’
The voice leaked from the phone in Mikami’s hand, hanging now by his side. It pulled him out of the reverie; he put the phone back to his ear.
‘Sir, what is it? Has something happened?’
It’s started.
Mikami came close to saying it. For a moment he thought it would be okay. Suwa just had to keep it to himself for twenty minutes . . .
But . . .
Get out. It would all be over if Matsuoka said the words.
Mikami made a note of the time: 11.16.
‘I’ll call back in exactly twenty minutes. Until then, try to get some sleep.’
74
‘Pick it up.’ Ogata issued the instruction through the panel leading to the front. The engine roared into life and the vehicle began to accelerate rapidly. They were on the verge of crossing into the city. Information was flying back and forth. Ogata was on the radio, Minegishi mostly on the mobiles. Both maintained constant communication with the Investigative HQ and the vehicles already mobilized.
‘Get Forensics on to the background noise. ASAP.’
‘Hold your position! Do not move in until we know the origin of the call. Repeat, standby.’
‘Mesaki sounds like he’s losing control. Tell him he needs to stop the car before he answers any more calls. We can’t have him causing an accident.’
They were impressive, living up to their reputation as the future leaders of the department. They seemed able to read Matsuoka’s thoughts, relaying his wishes with precise instructions, efficient and faultless as they dealt with the information coming in. More than anything, they were in tune with each other. They never repeated themselves, never got in the other’s way, made sure always to seek confirmation before acting. It was like watching a two-headed dragon weave a dance through the hemmed-in container.
It was a different story outside the vehicle.
Evident in the communications between the Investigative HQ, Station G and the front-line vehicles, confusion and panic were rife. The officers had been caught off guard. Was that why the kidnapper had decided to bring the deadline forward? Or had something gone wrong with the plan?
‘I want green lights, the whole way.’
It had been Matsuoka’s first detailed instruction: fix the lights to make sure Mesaki’s car makes it in time. They needed him to hurry. Mesaki had left his home at eleven fifteen, immediately after the kidnapper had ended the call. He’d had thirty-five minutes until the designated time. Getting to City D and Aoi-machi took forty minutes even without traffic; with traffic, the trip could last more than an hour. One of the screens inside the command vehicle was broadcasting information from Traffic Management. While there were no jams, the whole of the prefectural highway was flagged as having medium-to-heavy traffic. Matsuoka had given the order the moment Pencil-face had performed the calculation: Mesaki would be late by twelve or thirteen minutes. They already had people in place to manage the lights. Officers from Traffic were posted at every intersection en route, all in Tokyo Electric Power outfits. They would be notified by radio when Mesaki’s car was approaching; then, taking care not to stand out, they would flip open the control box and fix the lights to green, returning them to normal once Mesaki was through. Like a game of Chinese whispers, the green lights would transmit down the line, preventing any major disruption of normal traffic.
‘Mobile Command, this is Pursuit 1.’
‘This is Mobile Command, go ahead.’
‘We have a green at the Kuwabara intersection. Mesaki’s through.’
‘Copy.’
Kuwabara was three intersections behind the Mobile Command Centre. They’d passed it only two minutes earlier. The gap was closing. Around here, the road was a dual carriageway. Mesaki would be picking up speed. He would be on them in no time.
Mikami’s notebook was permanently open. Whenever new information came in, he would take a note and mark the time. He would then add twenty minutes to the number and write the time the embargo lifted next to it. At 11.51, he could tell the press that Mesaki had passed the Kuwabara intersection. By that time, he would have probably already arrived at the Aoi Café. Still, as far as the press were concerned Mesaki was still at home. There were five minutes until the embargo lifted on the kidnapper’s call. Mikami felt restless. He’d never thought twenty minutes could stretch out for so long.
They entered City D. The buildings were growing taller.
‘We’ve got the area of the call.’ Burly spoke up, after getting off the phone with DoCoMo. ‘Yuasa Radio Tower. Genbu. Districts: Yuasa-cho and Asahimachi.’
‘Genbu again,’ Mikami muttered, taking the details down. The kidnapper was still in Genbu. What was the plan, having already sent Mesaki to City D? There was no way they could get to the Aoi Café ahead of him, not with Mesaki racing through green lights all the way. Besides, using the prefectural highway would mean passing twice through the N-system of automatic numberplate recognition. Maybe the kidnapper had no intention of going to City D and was instead planning to aim directly for another destination, somewhere already decided as the final handover point. A second possibility was that there was an accomplice, watching from somewhere near the Aoi Café.
It didn’t feel right. It was sloppy, whether the kidnapper was working alone or as part of a group. They’d made two calls from Genbu City. Then, despite having a mobile that could be used anywhere, they’d made another call from inside the city limits. It didn’t make sense. The calls would be traced to the general area. The circle would narrow.
What if the kidnapper didn’t realize the danger? It was possible, if it was Kasumi. She hated her father and now she had him in a panic. She would be enjoying every minute of it. She would have no intention of taking the money – to her it wasn’t even a hoax . . . just some practical joke.