Chapter Thirty-Three: Ride Along:

Honda looked behind him at the young man sitting in the backseat. He still looked out the window, frowning.

“Do you believe him the looking for his friend’s house?” Honda whispered.

“I don’t know,” Alex said. “He won’t tell us anything, remember?” Their passenger glanced over at them, sneering. The younger detective looked up at him.

“You say you were looking for your friend’s house?” he asked.

“Yeah,” the young man said.

“Does this friend have a name?”

“Ken.”

“Last name?”

“I don’t know!”

Honda whipped his head around. “How do you not know what your friend’s last name is? I think you’re lying.”

“Honda,” Alex said.

“I’m not!” the young man said. He snorted in addition. Alex kept his eyes on the road.

“You know what I think?” he asked. “You wanted us to find you.” The young man gave him a strange look.

“No, I didn’t,” he said.

“I’m not done,” the detective said. “I also think you have something you want to tell us but you’re scared.” The young man frowned.

“It’s about the deaths, isn’t it?” Alex asked. Honda and the young man looked up at him. His partner nudged him in the side.

“What are you doing?” he whispered.

“Just thinking out loud,” the younger detective said. “Kara’s house should be up here somewhere. We’re just going to drive by and show her that she’s safe if you don’t mind.”

“Whatever,” the young man muttered. Honda narrowed his eyes at him. Alex kind of smirked to himself as he drove through the intersection. They drove past Kara’s house. Alex pulled the car to a stop.

“What are you doing?” the unwilling passenger asked.

“We’re just going to sit here and make sure that the resident of this house sees us before we drive off,” Alex explained like a teacher to his kindergarten class. “You didn’t have any plans to cause this woman any harm when we found you, did you?” The passenger wrinkled his nose.

“I don’t even know who lives here,” he said. Alex turned around.

“You’re from the city, aren’t you?” he asked. The young man raised his eyebrow.

“Why do you ask?” he asked. The driver kind of shrugged.

“Your accent gave it away,” he said. “You have this hit of Osaka in your voice.” The detective narrowed his eyes. “I am curious about something. What’s a guy from Osaka doing all the way up here in Tsurui? I mean, there’s nothing to see around here. We’re just some small backwards village in the middle of nowhere.”

“I told you, I am just looking for a friend’s house but I don’t know the address,” the passenger said.

“Cut the bull shit,” Honda said. “We know you’re lying.”

“Easy man,” Alex said. “This guy’s clearly not that smart but he’s not our guy.”

“Hey!” the passenger shouted. Suddenly, the radio buzzed on.

“Squad car eight, do you read me?” the operation said on the other line. “Come in! Do you copy?” Alex reached for the speaker.

“This is squad car eight,” he said. “What seems to be the problem, over?”

“There’s been another murder and a domestic dispute in the downtown area. Requesting back-up, over,” the operator said. Honda sat up straight in his seat. The passenger had a curious look on his face.

“We’re on it,” Alex said. “Over and out.” He turned off the speaker and turned to the young man in the back seat.

“Okay, listen up,” the detective said. “We’re going down to a crime scene. We will deal with you later. Do yourself a favor behavior yourself and don’t do anything stupid, okay?” Honda stared at Alex.

“Are you out of your mind?” he hissed. His partner shrugged.

“What choice do we have?” he asked. “We can’t let him go yet and we have work to do. You have any better ideas?” Honda didn’t say a word.

“Exactly,” Alex said. He backed up and pulled out of the street. Things were about to get messy.