The Last Train by Michael Pronko

Author:Michael Pronko
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Michael Pronko
Published: 2017-06-28T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 27

Hiroshi saw Sakaguchi from the end of the hospital hallway, his round, human girth a sharp contrast with the pushcarts, supply trays, and medical equipment along the white walls. Ueno, the other sumo wrestler from the outing to Shibuya, sat in a chair at the far end of the hall.

Hiroshi walked down the long hall wondering which room he was in. The intensive care ward was quiet. Waiting families slumped in chairs inside the rooms, nurses walking briskly back and forth. Small shaded windows opened into each of the rooms.

“You’re back in homicide?” he asked Sakaguchi.

Sakaguchi nodded, yes. “Enough of those chikan perverts.”

“So?” Hiroshi nodded toward the hospital room.

“He’s in pretty bad shape,” said Sakaguchi, his bass voice a whisper. “He was stable enough for me to talk with him for a minute, but he needs surgery for swelling or fluid or something on his brain.”

“Where did they find him?” Hiroshi asked.

“Right below the bridge near Ebisu station. Hit the electric wires on the way down. Burned him, but bounced him to the side of the tracks. Ueno got there just after the ambulance. Thought we had another one.”

“He was luckier than the others.”

“Drugged with the same thing they found in that foreigner…”

“Steve?”

“Foreigner’s names all sound alike.”

“What time did it happen?”

“First train, about four-thirty this morning.”

A nurse came out to the supply cart. Hiroshi asked her, “Can we talk to him?”

“We need to get him prepped,” she said, looking through the cart and making notes on a clipboard chart.

“He may have valuable information,” Hiroshi said.

“He’s sleeping, so you will have to wait until he comes out of surgery.”

“It’s urgent.”

“This is a hospital, not an interrogation room,” she snapped, looking up from the supply cart.

Sakaguchi looked around her into the room.

“It might save someone’s life,” Hiroshi said.

“I’ll ask the doctor.” She folded the chart closed and walked off shaking her head.

“You made more headway than I did,” Sakaguchi whispered.

Hiroshi and Sakaguchi walked down to where Ueno was sitting in a chair at the end of the hall. There wasn’t much to say.

At the other end of the hallway, a tall woman with long hair, wearing a white mask over the lower half of her face, got off the elevator and peered into the first room on the floor. Hiroshi pulled Sakaguchi into an open door. Ueno let his head droop to appear to be asleep in the chair.

“Do you think that’s her?” Hiroshi whispered.

Sakaguchi nodded his head, maybe.

“Coming to finish her work?”

“Let’s wait and see what she does. Peek out.”

Hiroshi peeked out for a second to see her looking into the rooms one by one. She carried a big, heavy bag. “If she heard he was still alive…”

“…we might catch her in the act.”

When she found Shibuya’s room, she slipped inside without a sound.

Sakaguchi and Hiroshi took off toward the room she went in, scrambling around the supply carts. Ueno followed them at a trot.

Sakaguchi got into the room first and pinned her against the wall with both arms behind her back.

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