Only a Shadow (6 page)

Mariko rolled her eyes. She didn't know why she bothered asking questions anymore; when she was using, Saori would lie to anyone about anything. The only question now was, would she pat Saori down in front of the high schoolers and their phones, or could she find a quieter place?

The quieter place was on the opposite side of a tan steel service door, in a long yellow hallway whose fluorescent tube lights hummed and droned and flickered. As Mariko patted down Saori's ribs and back and belly, the question she really wanted to ask was, Why are you making me do this? Tomorrow's conversation with their mother was sure to be a hoot. Now that conversation would have to include Big Sister Miko picking on Poor Little Saori by searching her for contraband. No matter how bad things got, Saori always found a way to make them worse.

But this time, thankfully, she was clean. Mariko had to run her fingers over Saori's underwear to make sure, and she wanted to smack Saori for putting her in a position to have to grope her own sister, but Mariko had pulled the trigger just right. They had Bumps and, owing as much to sheer luck as good judgment, they didn't have anything on Saori.

“Do you have any idea how lucky you are?” Mariko said, pushing a brown service door open and ushering Saori through it. A vicious diatribe from Saori echoed throughout the long, narrow hallway, mostly in Japanese but with the choicest words in English. It had always been Saori's favorite language for cursing. Mariko didn't listen to a word of it. She was still thinking about fate. She'd had no way of knowing Saori was buying from Bumps, and yet she'd felt drawn to this case—and now, lo and behold, she was perfectly placed to save her family a lot of shame and grief. Mom would have said it was meant to be. Mariko still didn't buy it, but neither could she deny the compulsion she'd felt.

She walked to the end of the hall, pushing Saori along in front of her. When she reached the door at the far end, she opened it and took Saori into the mall's shipping and receiving room. It was a cavernous space, with undressed lightbulbs dangling from a ceiling high enough to admit a tractor-trailer. Two squads were parked in the loading dock just outside the huge open door. Bumps was already inside the nearest one. Mishima and Toyoda leaned against the driver's-side doors, smoking, the lightbulbs gleaming like a string of stars in the sunglasses atop Toyoda's head.

“Which one of you searched this suspect?” Mariko said.

Mishima and Toyoda looked at each other.

“Damn it, guys, you have to have a
reason
to put handcuffs on somebody.” She fished for her key, and with a few clicks Saori was rubbing her red, unshackled wrists together.

“Mishima,” Mariko said, pointing at Bumps in the backseat, “take him back to post and process him. Toyoda, go with him. By the time I get there, I want to see a report on my desk explaining why you weren't in position to take down our suspect and why you left me without backup in running him down.”

Toyoda scowled at her as if she'd called his mother a whore. “Come on, Oshiro, there were only three of us. I had to leave
somebody
without backup.”

“That's Detective Oshiro, and yes, you could have left Mishima without backup. Instead, you chose to help him cuff a woman who wasn't fleeing, a woman who ultimately can't even be charged with anything—”

“A woman who's your sister.”

“That's beside the point. You showed bad judgment tonight—all night long, as far as I'm concerned—and I'm giving you a chance to write down your side of it before I talk to Lieutenant Ko about your suspension. So give me a heartfelt ‘thank you' and get the hell out of here.”

Toyoda's scowl deepened. “What about her?” he said.

Mariko turned to look Saori in the eye. Quietly, somberly, she said, “I'm taking her to detox. Again. Unless she wants to face charges of conspiracy to traffic narcotics.”

The charge would never stick, but Saori didn't have to know that. She looked at Mariko, then at the floor. “Fine,” Saori said, “let's go.”

Tomorrow's conversation with their mother was looking better and better all the time.