3 - STALKED!

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"Ahem. That aside. Tell me your thoughts."  Sasaki said looking dead straight into Mei's eyes.

"My thoughts?"

"On this case."

"You mean describe the crime scene...?"

"Mhmmn" Sasaki shook his head "Your thoughts on the criminal."

"I'm just a responding officer."

"Responding officer are the first to arrive at the scene, and see many more things. Don't waste my time."

Mei gave up. 'There's no way I can win against him - then or now.' She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and calmed her nerves. Racing her memories through each scene she responded to, she opened her eyes. Sasaki was nowhere. 'Again", she thought as she looked around but there was no crime scene - no cops, no body none of the mess that was there few seconds ago. The place was all neat as if nothing had ever happened. She couldn't understand what was going on.

*Faintly in distance* "Officer Takamura...."

Mei turned around hearing her name. But she couldn't make out where the caller was. “.... Miss Takamura..." Suddenly she felt someone grab her arms and shake her violently. That snapped her awake with a startle.

"Officer are you ok? Did you hit your head? Should I call for an ambulance?" asked a worried looking officer in

forensics suit. Sasaki was behind him watching her closely. Mei realised that she had gone unconscious. She stood up immediately. The officer steadied her. "You shouldn't stand up right now."  "I'm fine" Mei assured him and dismissed him.

"I'll take that this wasn't the first time something like that happened to you" Sasaki said seeing how calm and composed she was. Mei nodded.

"It's happened in all the 3 scenes I responded to. But no one else seem to have experienced the same. Not even the responding officers of the other scenes."

"Tell me about it."

"It's the exact same location minus the crime. It's completely clean..."

"And you fainted like that at all the scenes?" Sasaki asked with a hint of worry in his tone.

"No. I found myself sleepwalking. This is the first time I fainted."

"We'll talk more on this later." Sasaki said as his driver came up to them. Mei headed to her car and leaned on the hood. She closed her eyes trying to remember the scene for clues. Suddenly she felt a coat on her shoulder. She turned around to see Sasaki in a smart cobalt suit. "I suggest you shouldn't be driving in your condition. My driver will drop your car off at the station."

"I'm-" "I also would like to get your opinion. We didn't quite get there, last time we talked." Sasaki casually grabbed her keys and handed it to his driver.

Mei sighed as they walked towards his car. ‘Yep, can never win.’ As they drove out Mei laid out her thoughts. “The killer left the victims in a dumpster. As if they have no regard for the victims, like taking trash out. They have some serious grudge against the victims. The damaged body says it too. The claw mark though… It necessarily need not be of the killer. Maybe they could be trying to frame someone else…”

“Good observation. It’s good to keep your options wide open.”

“No ID on any of the victims. They have been damaged so badly that no ID can be done on them either. Meaning that the killer can be traced if their identity is known.” Mei continued.

“Or they might have been homeless.” Sasaki pointed out.

“The only clue left to identify the victims or at least the jobs they did were their clothes. But none of them belonged to any company. It was like a cosplay costume put on them…”

They pulled up a driveway of a huge mansion. Mei was speechless. She had heard of how rich Sasaki was, but she expected him to be in a penthouse or a huge villa, not a whole castle.

“Let’s go in. Dinner is ready.”

“Dinner? I shall pass-” Mei was about to reject his offer but her stomach had other plans. “I mean thank you very much” she said with a smile to cover her embarrassment of her growling stomach.

The interior of the mansion was as posh as one could imagine. The lounge had huge chandeliers hanging of from the roof. A huge stairway led the way to the upper floors. After what seemed walking for a mile, they arrived at the dinning room. Surprisingly there was no huge oak table to seat an entire family. Instead, there was a small cozy wooden table for four at one corner. The rest of the room had several white boards and pin boards full of images and papers on them. Mei’s jaw dropped.

“I hope you don’t mind having some Sake-poached chicken with soba noodles.”

“Yeah. Sounds great” Mei said still gazing at all the boards in awe.

They sat down at the table. The food smelled amazing. The chicken was lightly poached in sake, soy and sugar and the noodles was chewy. Mei was surprised that a dish could taste so good. It had been a long time she had a decent meal as her job needed her to be on standby at all times.

Once Mei seemed to have settled, Sasaki passed her a photo. Mei looked at it confused. The picture felt familiar to her, but she didn’t know what the photo was.

“Do you recognize them? Or have you ever seen them anywhere?” Sasaki asked.

Mei shook her head. Suddenly she zoomed on the background of the photo. She saw a very familiar plant. A lavender plant. Her neighbors across the street had one just like that. Shocked she looked up at Sasaki.

She was being stalked!

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To be continued😁

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