#Detective Jiro Shinizawa

[jasperygrace]

Let the Moon Bleed

My first written piece to be posted online; it’s a bit exhilarating to finally share my writing to the world. Thank you to Lily who was willing to beta this for me at last second. 

I hope you’ll enjoy.

Synopsis:

A series of murders have taken place within the city of Trin, all of which are seemingly random—except for one key detail. Whenever a victim died, the moon would bleed in response. Jiro Shinizawa and his colleagues are doing their best to solve the case, but how can one solve a murder mystery when there’s no evidence to go on and all their leads turn up dry?

Word Count: 1867 | Genre: Suspense; Supernatural

  Jiro Shinizawa had just arrived at the scene of the crime. An alleyway. It was barricaded by yellow tape and dully illuminated by the lights of sirens. By the scene, he saw a young woman wearing a Peace Corps uniform—his rookie assistant, Shiki Sanaki.

  “Ah detective,” Shiki greeted, “Glad you could make it.”

  “What happened to the guy?” he asked.

  “Lacerations across the torso and the face,” Shiki began. “There’s glass shards embedded along the victim’s skin. We found a broken wine bottle a couple meters from the scene and took it in for evidence.”

  Shinizawa looked up to the sky. There, amongst the black & starless sky, was the moon, bright red cuts were strewn across the surface and chunks could be seen protruding from the bloody gorges as a red liquid dripped from them.

  It mimicked the victim’s wounds.

  “It’s just like all the others.”

  This hadn’t been his first case regarding this phenomenon—there had been countless others before this. All of them shared one common feature: The Moon. Whenever a victim died, the moon would bleed in a similar manner—and this wasn’t just an occurrence in their city of Trin. It was happening worldwide. Folk would wind up dead in the middle of the night, their wounds lining up with those of the moon.

  It was the cause of mass panic—their only clue was displayed clearly above their heads.

  “Has anything else turned up on scene?” Shinizawa asked.

  “Not yet,” Shiki replied. “Knight’s already checking the rest of the vicinity, but if it is like the others, I don’t think he’ll find anything.”

  From the corner of his eye, he could see the freezer truck driving away—the body was on it’s way back to the precinct.

  “Then we’re done here,” Shinizawa stated flatly and turned back the way he came. “Get Knight back here before he causes a scene.”

  “Yessir!”

 ...

  Now begun the waiting game—the crime scene had barely a clue to go on, only the body and the presumable murder weapon.

  “Oi boss, take a look at this.” An officer by the name of Wyatt Knight had rolled his chair over to Shinizawa’s desk and dropped a newspaper on it.

  “I’m not in the mood to read your shitty tabloids, Knight,” the detective spat.

  “Boss, it ain’t a tabloid—it’s the front page.”

  That had piqued his interest, and Shinizawa decided to indulge his subordinate.

  …He really wished he hadn’t.

  The front page had been about the Moon last night, and like the nights before, Trin hadn’t been the only place that had gotten hit—major cities throughout the world had gotten it even worse: Esmerelda, Burgpoint, even the Nicaean capitol. The body counts had been staggering; Trin had been lucky to only have one murder.

  Shiki then appeared from the hallway, file in hand. Her lips were pressed together tightly; it certainly couldn’t have been good news...

  “The results came back from the lab,” she stated.

  Shinizawa leaned forward in his seat. “Yea, and?”

  “The victim died from the lacerations caused by the wine bottle,” then Shiki paused, as if uncertain of speaking more on it.

  “Out with it, Sanaki!”

  “…There were no fingerprints. It’s another dead end.”

  “Damnit!”

  It was just like the others…

  “Jezu, Sanaki, I think you broke the boss…” he heard Wyatt comment. Shinizawa had his head against his desk, ruminating. He wanted to be left alone.

  “Uhm, Detective?” Shiki tapped the top of his head to get his attention. “What do we do now?”

  Truthfully, he had no idea. No fingerprints meant no leads, and no leads meant no investigation. They were stuck. Again.

  “Y’know, they’re practically sending us on a wild goose chase at this point,” Wyatt complained. “One moment, we think we got something—the next, what we got is completely useless.”

  “Maybe we’re just missing something,” Shiki added. “Only problem is what are we missing…”

  Ring ring.

  The conversation halted when the phone on Shinizawa’s desk rang. When he made no movements towards it, Wyatt had picked it up instead.

  “Hellooo~ Boss’s desk.” Then Wyatt’s face went sour as he handed the phone to Shinizawa. “Yea... I think you better handle this one, boss.”

  So he took the phone from him. “This is Shinizawa.” His nose scrunched up in annoyance by the time he hung up.

  “Grab your shit; another body’s turned up.”

  Shiki eyes widened. “What? How can that be? It’s broad daylight out!”

  “Dontcha know, Sanaki?” Wyatt began as they followed the detective out into the hall. “Sometimes you can see the moon during the day.”

 ...

  By the time they got to the new scene, a crowd had already surrounded the police tape.

  “Sure did a shit job keeping bystanders at bay,” Shinizawa spat.

  “What’s so wrong with a crowd? It’s like being the star of a show,” Wyatt teased.

  “We’re not in some TV show,” Shiki scolded. “Can’t you be a little more serious for once?.”

  “Lighten up, Sanaki. You’re getting to be as bad as the boss—”

  “If you two are done with the banter,” their boss cut in as they pushed their way through the crowd, “we’ve got a job to do.”

   Their latest victim had surely passed that morning as the body was still fresh; just faded in the sky had been the moon, it’s bright red gorges only partially visible this time of day.

  It was just like the others.

  “Lacerations just like the previous victim,” said Shiki. “Only difference is there‘s no glass in his flesh.”

  “Found ourselves a pocket knife though,” came Wyatt from the distance. He was toting a plastic bag with a utility knife in it; it’d been covered in blood. “It’s gotta be our murder weapon.”

  “Only one way to find out,” Shinizawa stated. “We’re heading back.”

  He began walking away with Wyatt following him… only Shiki didn’t make any attempt to move. She had just stood there, her eyes transfixed to the sky.

  “Sanaki, we’re leaving,” Shinizawa reaffirmed, but she didn’t move. So he approached her, grabbing her by her shoulder. “Hey, Shiki. You alright?”

  She snapped out of whatever trance she had been in. “Uh—Y-yeah. Sorry, must have been lost in thought.”

  “Then take it easy on the way back, can’t have you drifting on me on the job.”

  “R…Right, sorry. Let’s head back.”

 ...

  The three of them headed back to the precinct, and sent the utility knife to labs to get tested. When the results came back, they once again turned up with nothing. No prints, no leads, therefore no investigation.

  “This is getting ridiculous!” Shinizawa exclaimed. “How can something that clearly had killed the victim not turn up with anything at all?! What did he do, fall on the knife?”

  “Maybe he did. Musta been pretty unlucky too,” Wyatt replied, but he got shot with Shinizawa’s glare. “Whoa, it was just a joke, Boss.”

  “What do we do now, detective?” Shiki asked.

  Frankly, he had no idea. They had nothing to go on, just a growing pile of bodies. He was much more content to lay his head down on his desk and contemplate his life existence.

  “Don’t you think this is all kind of strange?”

  “Huh? Whatcha mean, Sanaki?” Wyatt asked.

  “It just… it’s kind of like we’re chasing a phantom,” she explained. “It’s like you said earlier, Knight. We think we have something, but it turns out to be a dud. It all seems too clean… too coordinated, especially for a single killer to have done.”

  “Think a group’s behind it, then?”

  “Maybe…” but Shiki hadn’t sounded so sure.

  Ring ring.

  Then the phone rang again. When Shinizawa once again made no attempt at it, Shiki decided to answer the phone for him.

  “Hello? Detective Shinizawa’s desk.” Then her face contorted as she handed the phone to the detective. “They’re asking for you…”

  So he took the phone from her. “This is Shinizawa.” By the time he hung up the phone, a silent anger had been radiating off him.

  “Grab your shit.”

  “Jezu! Another one?!” Wyatt complained. “We better get paid overtime for this goose chase!”

 ...

  The sun had just barely set by the time they arrived. The victim had been shot in the head at gunpoint judging by the size of the hole; the moon was quick to scar as soon it bore the image a single, bloodied hole much like the victim’s… it was going to be another bloody night.

  “Strange,” said Shiki, “there’s no murder weapon nearby.”

  “Search the vicinity then,” Shinizawa commanded. “Meet back here in ten; if you find anything before that, use the radios."

  The two officers then went off on their searches, leaving the detective with the body. There’d been lack of any identification on the previous two victims, perhaps this third one might have something on him. He dug around the victim’s pocket, trying to look for a wallet of some kind.

  He found something he wished he hadn’t.

  In the man’s pocket had been a Peace Corps badge, inside held the striking image of their victim when they were alive.

  “Boss, I found something!” he heard Wyatt’s voice over the radio. “I’m heading back your way.”

  When Wyatt had arrived, the two of them shared the same look of distraught.

  “Bad news, boss.” Wyatt began. “I found the gun, but it looks exactly like the ones they issue to Peace Corps officers.”

  “Makes sense,” Shinizawa replied. He held up the victim’s badge. “The guy was an officer.”

  “Wait—you don’t think? Boss, did he shoot himself?”

  Shinizawa looked up at the sky then, a sense of foreboding came from the moon. “Something’s up, and I’m not liking the looks of it.” Then a thought came to mind. “Knight, change the channel.”

  “What—?”

  “On the radio, change the channel.”

  So Wyatt did. They wished he hadn’t.

  Frantic voices from other officers came over the intercom, confused but all saying the same thing.

   “I-I need back up! My partner is injured! He… he just shot himself in the chest…!”

  “We need help, there’s an officer here in critical. Our boss just… she just went berserk and shot at us…!”

  “Knight… Where’s Sanaki?”

  “I-I don’t know! She had gone the opposite direction I did—Whoa boss! Where are you going?!”

  Shinizawa had bolted in the direction Shiki had gone. Something was wrong.

  “Sanaki!!” he yelled, but no response came. “Shiki!! Where the hell are you?!”

  He almost missed the alleyway in his frenzy, almost missed seeing the young woman that stood at the very end of the alley.

  Shiki.

  She was just standing there, motionless.

  “Damnit, Shiki…!” Shinizawa gasped. “You nearly gave me a heart attack—I thought something bad happened to you.”

  But no response.

  “Shiki? Shiki, are you alright?”

  When he approached her was when she began moving. Rigidly. Like something was controlling her body, motioning her towards Shinizawa—he then noticed something in her hand: her handgun.

  “Shiki, put the gun down,” he said to her. “You’re unwell, put the gun down.”

  The moon had seemed to rise some in the sky as it loomed over the area. 

  Watching.

  Waiting.

  Then suddenly, Shiki’s body stopped in its tracks. She raised her handgun.

  But she didn’t point it at Shinizawa.

  She pointed it at her own head.