The first lead
Prologue: The first lead
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Murder
The murderer shall be punished with imprisonment for life. A murderer is whoever kills a human being out of murderous intent, to satisfy sexual desires, out of greed or otherwise base motives, insidiously or cruelly, or with means dangerous to the public, or in order to commit or cover up another crime.
— German criminal law, Strafgesetzbuch (StGB), § 211 StGB.
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"Wir haben soeben unsere Reiseflughöhe verlassen und beginnen mit dem Anflug auf unseren Zielflughafen. Bitte vergewissern Sie sich, dass Ihr Handgepäck wieder sicher verstaut ist. Schnallen Sie sich wieder an und bringen in Vorbereitung zur Landung Ihre Rückenlehne wieder in die Senkrechte und klappen Ihren Tisch hoch. Vielen Dank.
We have just left our cruising altitude and begin approaching our destination. Please make sure that your hand luggage is stowed away safely. Buckle up again and bring in preparation for landing your back again in the upright and fold up your table. Thank you.
Watashitachi wa chōdo watashitachi no junkō kōdo o sari, watashitachi no mokutekichi ni chikadzuite kaishi shimashita. Anata no te no nimotsu o anzen ni hanarete shūnō sa rete iru koto o kakuninshitekudasai. Futatabi bakkuru to chokuritsu de futatabi senaka o chakuriku junbi no tame ni jisan shi, anata no tēburu o tatamu. Arigato gozai masue "
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Well seems like I'm slowing reaching the Narita International Airport.
Finally!
Finally I got a lead on them. Never have I thought that their main operating area is in Japan. I guessed it to be in a countries like Russia, Italy, USA or even Mexico - yeah I have a very prejudice loaded mind. Well in cologne we have an international and very varying tourist and citizens populace. And we had our many small classical criminal organizations from these countries as well in the past: from drug over blackmail to even murder series. So nobody can judge me for thinking like that.
After years of unsuccessful search this lead is really a long-awaited one. Okay, call it luck or fate that I "found" the evidence that I need to know that I had it right those years ago. Yeah, I would never thought that she would send it around Germany in such an effective way - so effective that nobody should be able to find a way to track it down, but hey she was always a very unique individual.
Ah, you probably ask what is this all about. Well, to be honest this is a very sensible and hurtful memory to me. It happened in the summer 4 years ago: the murder of my best friend.
She was like a sister to me. We shared many things and always told each other all of our problems and secrets. Haha yeah well secrets... it seems more and more like "Two may keep a secret, if one of them is dead", a quote by the famous "First American" Benjamin Franklin - oh wow how right he was. Why you ask? Because there was a secret that I didn't know about in the past. A secret that my friend paid her life for. A secret that I will reveal to the world to stop this insanity.
To be honest I would never normally suspected the death of my friend as a murder if the official police statement never declared it as a suicide. Suicide? Everyone but her! She wasn't a depressive person or a person with a bad family background or anything like that. She was too lively too positive too religious to even think about a "suddenly" desired death by rope. But there was one evidence that forced the police to close the case: the suicide letter.
"Liebe Familie und Freunde,
Ich kann leider nicht mehr so weiter machen als ob es nie passiert wäre und werde dem Ganzen ein Ende setzen. Es tut mir leid, dass ich euch in Stich lassen werde. Aber was getan werden muss, muss getan werden.
Ich liebe euch und werde euch nie vergessen.
In Liebe
Nancy El Hakim
(Dear family and friends,
unfortunately I can't keep going on anymore as if it never happened and will put an end to the whole thing.
I'm sorry, that I will let you down.
But what needs to be done needs to be done.
I love you and will never forget you.
In love
Nancy El Hakim)"
Does that sound like a suicide note? No! But well after several checks by comparison her writings, the police decided that the letter is authentic, genuine, not forced. Of course that wasn't the only explanation that let the police deduced that it was a suicide. There wasn't any other clue of another person: not a hair, no finger prints, no sweat, no indications of struggle, no drug medication in the blood flow, a closed room, everyone in her family and friends had an alibi... There was simply nothing. Nothing that would give doubt to the suicide thesis. So the police decided to stamp it as a case closed. A perfect murder - in their eyes. Well as perfect as it seems to be because a human can never be perfect so his act can also never be perfect.
If I wouldn't know the personality of my friend I would also stamp it that way. But there were 2 anomalies that stopped me to do it so.
The first one is that about a week before the murder my friend displayed a strange behavior. She was suddenly very cautious and even a little bit paranoid, always looking over her shoulder, suddenly running as if somebody is after her life. Her parents told me afterwards that she wouldn't even leave the house alone anymore. It was a bit unsettling time for all with a final consequence.
On the day of her death she phoned me. At that time I was in another city visiting my relatives with my family.
/Flashback
"Hey Nancy! Schön auch von dir zu hören! Wie geht's dir? (Hey Nancy! Fancy hearing from you! How are you?)"
"Sis, du musst mir zuhören! (Sis, I need you to listen to me!)"
"Eh? Wa- warte 'nen Mo- (Eh? wh - wait a mo-)"
"Hör' zu! Die gesamte letzte Woche habe ich das Gefühl gehabt beobachtet zu werden. (Listen! The whole last week I've got the feeling of being watched.)"
"Bist du dir sicher? Hast du jemanden gesehen? (Are you serious? Did you see anyone?)"
"JA! ... eh nein... schon irgendwie...(YES! ...eh no... kinda...)"
"..."
"Ich habe jemanden gesehen. Aber das war nie die selbe Person. Alles was sie gemeinsam hatten war die schwarze Kleidung. (I did see someone. But they were never the same person. All that they had in common was their black clothes.)"
"Bist du dir sicher? Klingt für mich danach, dass du vielleicht zu viele Krimiserien angeguckt hast. Warum sollte jemand dir folgen? (Are you sure? Sounds to me that you have looked at perhaps too many cop shows. Why should anyone follow you? )
"..."
A moment of silence occurred. Neither of us did say something. At that time I had still a hard time to understand what exactly was told to me. The only sounds that reached my ears were that of something written down. Before I could ask what she was doing precisely, she told me:
"Es ist nicht das Einzige, was mich in dieser Woche beunruhigt. Ich wurde schon fast mehrmals umgebracht worden. (It is not the only thing that worried me this week. I was already almost been killed several times.) "
"WAS! Hast du das der Polizei gemeldet? Weißt du, wer es war? (WHAT! Did you tell that the police? Do you know who did it?)"
"Ich sagte dir doch, dass die Täter diese Personen in schwarz sind. Und melden kann ich das der Polizei nicht. Es waren ja keine direkten Angriffe, nur zufällige fast tödliche Unfälle. Bisher hat mich mein Schutzengel beschützt. Aber es reicht mir langsam. Ich werde was dagegen tun. Den ersten Schritt habe ich schon getan. (I already told you that the culprits were those persons in black. I can not report anything to the police because there was never a direct attack, only coincidental near-fatal accidents. So far my guardian angel has protected me. But I'm already fed up by this whole thing. I will do something about it. I've already done the first step.)
"Und der wäre? (What's that?)"
"Ich habe dir was gegeben, für den Fall, das mir was passiert: Informationen. ( Just in case something happens to me I have give you information)
"Welche Informationen? Du bist total vage geblieben! Was soll ich denn bitte mit der "Nicht-Info" machen? Was hast du vor? (What kind of information? You are left it totally vague! What am I supposed to do with the 'non-information', please? What are you doing?)
"Das wirst du schon noch früh genug erfahren, was ich vorhabe, kleine Schwester. Ich bin mir auch sicher, dass du mit der Information wahrscheinlich mehr anfangen kannst als jeder andere aus unserem Bekanntenkreis. Ich werde, diesen Anruf aus der Gesprächsliste löschen. Sollte jemand fragen, ich habe nie vorher mit dir über irgendwas in dieser Richtung geredet und dich heute nicht angerufen. Ich werde dich nie vergessen, Ariel. (You'll soon find out what I intend, little sister. I am also sure that you can probably work with the information better than any other of our circle. I will delete this call from the call list. If someone ask, I have never before spoken to you about something in this direction and not called you today. I'll never forget you, Ariel.)
"Aber-( But-)"
/Flashback End
And so my conversation with her has ended.
My last one.
Hours later upon arriving cologne I was called by the police to verify my alibi and to hear that my sister-like-friend committed suicide.
Until now I'm still wondering about how she wanted to find and expose them. She was at that time just 18 years old just like me, in the beginning of the last year of high school. Maybe she knew she would die and wanted to tell me before? Who knew? I guess that's one secret that I will never be able to reveal until the afterlife.
Well after everything happened I realized how dangerous these people were. They could pull off a 'perfect murder' without batting an eyelash. So I thought to stay low for a while. Not that I could do something else. I had no way or idea to start. I was still too much in shock.
With these thoughts I have spent my days in mourning the loss of a precious person. Direct then the college started. Through connections I got an idea to start my private investigations.
In order to get information you have to know how to get them and to be able to do it. In our today' s modern society the answer isn't so difficult: hacking. Parallel to my regular medical studies I have tried to improve and refine my skills as a hacker. Just after few years my skills were so good that I was able to leave no traces.
Last year, I began my search first in Cologne then in Germany and lastly in Europe - my search for organizations in the underground. Organizations because it appeared to me that the killers I was searching for like to wear black as a trademark. I still remember how Nancy tried to emphasis this point. It was the only clue that I had at that time - a small one but still.
The organizations that I have found have been resolved largely by the local police, because I gave them the information, while I remained in the background. A trace of the organization with the people in black was still not occurred to my regret.
The other anomaly is that after I improved my hacking skills I wanted to check on the file on Nancy's death to see what the police gathered from the crime scene. Maybe there was some inconsistency. Something that didn't match or doesn't seem to matter on second thought. Sometime just a little meaningless clue can be he key to solve the whole thing.
Well, I never heard of erasing entire files on some cases in particular if they were simply "suicides". Files are normally stored in the General Register Office where you can read all about the civil status on one person if you're a relative. Nancy's file declared her as dead but not the cause of it as common. It isn't like she died 60 or 70 years ago, when we were in a war or post-war time, so date can be lost. The data nowadays are stored electronically.
If that doesn't show that something is with the case wrong then I don't know any further.
The negative side of my hacking skill I can't just ask the police or General Register Office why I hacked their system and am interested in one special disappearing file. It would blow up my cover. They would know that the mysterious hacker has its roots in cologne, more accurate from the environment of Nancy. If I would know some other suspicious disappeared files then I would do it in a heartbeat. Then I could say there is a pattern. But on the other hand who would really suspect the nature of a death if it seems so 'obviously' clear.
Well what was I taking about before I explained everything? Ah! I almost forgot to mention the clue she leaved me: the last memory of my dear friend in the form of a time capsule.
How she did get that idea into her head so firmly, even if we talked about it, I don't think I'll ever know. It was just a random idea we had at that time. That if we would have important information it is safer to send it unobtrusive to somebody that we know is trustfully. Afterwards he/ she would send it to somebody that he/ she knows is trustfully in an unspecified time pattern. And so on and so on. You just have to say it is a time capsule that have to reach a specific address on a specific date and that the receiver knows how to track down packages but that it should stay as a 'surprise' until that specific date, so the capsule has to stay mobile. The content will have to be described as just a memory of a place or something like that, to not raise suspicions
With these rules, you have to be really paranoid to want to track down nondescript packets. Well the whole idea is paranoid. But I guess in the end it was the right decision. To think how easy they can cover up their tracks. It's chilling and frightening.
She used a company that is famous for optimal storage. Color microfilm used here has a shelf life of 500 to 1,000 years at optimal storage. Yes, it's a bit overkill, but hey, sure is safe. Through the stainless steel container, the film is protected from all environmental influences and the underground storage protects data from all possible disasters. To view the content, the Finder or receiver requires only sunlight and a simple magnifying glass in the future.
In the container she had photos, a letter on the microfilm and a memo, whose contents give me where the current operating area was or still is, but also showed how little information you have only need to have about them to be on the hit-list.
She has written in the letter that she wanted to stay low for a while and to disappear before the men in black did something to her. She recorded their conversation in a little café where she was by chance. Afterwards they realised that she understood them, even thought they spoke in Japanese. We were always interested in the japanese culture and wanted to spend out summer vacation after high school there, so we learned the language in our free time. But in the end we never went there.
"Wenn dieses Packet dich erreicht, kannst du sicher davon ausgehen, dass ich nicht mehr länger am Leben bin. Ich weiss, dass wir immer alles zusammen machen wollten und zusammen Gerechtigkeit bringen wollten. Aber der kleine aber feine Unterschied zwischen dir und mir ist, dass sie mein Gesicht gesehen haben. Ein Anfängerfehler. Ein Fehler, der mir mein Leben kostete. (If this packet reached you, you can safely assume, that I am no longer alive. I know that we wanted to do everything together and wanted to bring together justice. But the small but fine difference between you and me is that they have seen my face. A rookie mistake. An error that cost me my life.)"
Her true farewell letter begins with these words.
"Vielleicht hast du von meinen Tod gehört, vielleicht auch nicht. Ich habe diese Zeitkapsel im Falle meines Todes vorbereitet. Weißt du, das sind natürlich nur die Kopien von denen, die ich habe oder eher hatte. Wahrscheinlich haben sie alle Beweise über sich bereits mitgenommen und vernichtet. (Maybe you heard of my death before, maybe not. I prepared this time capsule in case of my death. You know, these are just the copies of course of the ones that I have or more likely had. Probably they have all the evidence that was about themselves already taken and destroyed.)
Du weißt, dass ich dir keine Ermittlungsergebnisse zu denen geben kann, aus dem einfachen Grund, weil ich diese Kapsel, sobald ich aus dem Café, wo diese Männer waren, rauslief, vorbereitet habe. Ich schicke diesen Brief und die Fotos direkt zum Zeit-Kapsel Unternehmen. Du weißt, den einen, über den wir über den anderen Tag gesprochen. Vielleicht wirst du dich daran erinnern, vielleicht auch nicht. Du kriegst diese Kapsel in ca. 3 ½ Jahren von jetzt. Ich denke, das wird der sicherste Weg zu kooperieren. (You know, I can't give yo any investigation results on them simply because I prepared this capsule as soon as I ran out of café where these men were. I send this letter and the photos direct to the time-capsule company. You know the one we talked about the other day. Maybe you'll remember it, maybe not. You'll get this capsule in approximately 3 and a half years from now. I think this will be the safest way to cooperate.)
Wahrscheinlich wirst du denken, dass mein Handeln überstürzt, unüberlegt und übertrieben paranoid war. Wenn du allerdings dir die Memo anhörst, die ich aus puren Zufall angemacht habe, weil ich es interessant fand Leute zu treffen, die der japanischen Sprache mächtig sind. Vor allen meine ich, dass einer von denen in einem sehr starken Dialekt gesprochen hat.( You will probably think that my actions were rash, imprudent and overly paranoid. If you listen to the memo, which I turned on by pure chance, because I found it interesting to meet people who speak Japanese as their native language. Above all I even think that one spoke in a strong dialect.)
Du glaubst nicht, wie verwundert ich war, als der eine Mann mit dem seltsamen Schnurrbart angefangen hat zu reden, dass er immer noch nicht 'das' gefunden hat, was 'Anokata' von ihm verlangt hatte. Was auch immer 'das' ist. Aber er sei froh, dass er immerhin das Hindernis vor 4 Jahren entfernt wurde. Auf die Nachfrage der anderen antwortete er: Kaito Kid. (You don't think how amazed I was as the one man with the strange mustache started talking, that he had yet 'that thing', which 'Anokata' had required of him. Whatever 'that thing' is. But he was glad that he at least has removed the obstacle 4 years ago. On the demand of the others he replied: Kaito Kid.)
Als ich dann in den Nachrichten auf dem Handy gesucht habe, habe ich nie einen bestätigten Bericht gefunden von seinen Tod. Nur die Tatsache, dass er seit 4 Jahren von der Bildfläche verschwunden ist. (When I was looking at the news on the phone then, I've never found a confirmed report of his death. Just the fact that he disappeared from the scene for 4 years.)
In dem Moment wurde mir klar, dass das nicht normale japanische Touristen oder Kleinkriminelle waren. Sondern etwas viel größeres. (At that moment, I realized that were not normal Japanese tourists or petty criminals. But something much bigger.)
Deswegen habe ich diesen ziemlich paranoiden Plan durchgezogen. Vielleicht bist du eher in der Lage sie ausfindig zu machen als ich. Wahrscheinlich hättest du nicht den Fehler gemacht, den ich gemacht habe. In dem Moment als die bemerkt haben, dass ich sie verstanden habe und im Internet nach Kid gesucht habe, bin ich etwas panisch aus dem café rausgelaufen. Nicht sehr professionell, ne Sis? (That's why I pulled through this pretty paranoid plan. Maybe you're more capable of locating them than I. You probably would not make the same mistake I made. As they have noticed, that I understood them and was looking for Kid on the Internet, I kinda run out in a panic from the café. Not very professional, ne Sis?)
Weißt, wie wir davon geträumt haben zusammen, um Gerechtigkeit in die Welt bringen. Du wolltest als Arzt deswegen arbeiten und helfen, während ich ein Teil der Internationalen Kriminalpolizeilichen Organisation - Interpol werde. (You know how we have dreamed together to bring justice to the world. You wanted to work and help as a doctor while I was a part of the International Criminal Police Organization - Interpol will.)
Wir wollten helfen, Frieden in die Welt zu bringen. (We wanted to help to bring peace in the world.)
Wir wollten helfen, die Erde zu einem besseren, gesünderen und sicheren Ort machen. (We wanted to help to make the earth a better, healthier and more secure place.)
Weißt du, ich hoffe, dass dieser Brief nie in deine Hände fällt, weil es dann bedeutet, dass wir zusammen unsere Träume verwirklichen können. (You know, I hope that this letter never falls into your hands, because it means then that we can together realize our dreams.)
Ich zwinge dich zu nichts meine kleine Schwester. Du kannst einfach diesen gesamten Inhalt ignorieren. In 3 Jahren kann vieles passieren. Vielleicht haben sich auch deine Ziele geändert. (I won't force you to anything my little Sister. You can just ignore this whole content. In 3 years a lot can happen. Perhaps even your goals have changed)
Vergiss nur nicht, dass egal, ob wir vom Tod oder Leben getrennt worden sind, dass wir immer Schwestern bleiben. (Just remember that no matter whether we have been separated by death or life that we always remain sisters.)
Ich liebe dich, Sis. (I love you, Sis)
Leb wohl (Sayonara)"
The photos that was on the microfilm show the profiles of three men.
The first one, I call him A for now, is a very intimidating person. He is quite large in size which helps with that. apparently he has neckshort black hear and a big mustache. He wears a dark overcoat and fedora with a dark green ribbon.
The next one, B, wears nearly the same clothes, just the ribbon on his fedora is dark grey. But from the three he is the easy to identifiable because of his large dirty blond horseshoe mustache. A horseshoe moustache is a full moustache with vertical extensions grown on the corners of the lips and down the sides of the mouth to the jaw line, resembling an upside-down U or a horseshoe. The moustache is often seen and used as a symbol of masculinity. Well no comment on that any further.
The last one, C, wears the same black clothes as the other two, just some dark blue clothes. He has brown short a bit curly hear. The man has very prominent block eye brows. Aside he has very striking facial structures. He looks very narrow in the face with a high chin but he is still strongly built.
Well at least I have three suspects of this organisations - all origins in Japan. Even if I can't really say who is who.
After hearing the memo and comparing the different dialect with it, I realised that one of them speaks in the Kansai Dialect - the Kansai-ben. The other one is known to have lived in Osaka at one point. So if I wanna find out something about them. I think I should start in the Osaka Prefecture. The last one claims to still work in Tokyo and to search to 'that thing'. After numberless repeating I discovered that two persons have kinda 'code names'. Even if I still didn't find a system there: Snake and Tequila. An animal and an alcohol?
Well the time capsule arrived a half year ago. In that time I did everything in my power to apply for a medical scholarship for a university in Tokyo to start my own investigations and not to have a need to stop my studies.
Why Tokyo? Easy, because less than a year ago Kaito Kid simply resurfaced in Tokyo - as if he never disappeared at all. Since then he is mostly there active - not international as before which gives me the idea that he isn't the Original Kid. So I send my applications to all universities in Tokyo to increase my chance of meeting him and to find his connection with the organisation.
When the invitation to the University of Tokyo came, I was a bit shocked. Because the Tokyo daigaku, common known as Todai, is one of the renominated universities in the whole country. I was also lucky to find a cheap student apartment near the Train Station in Beika Town (part of Beika City) in Shinjuku - the "center" of Tokyo, the nearby special ward of Bunkyo where the Todai is localised.
Of course the apartment is not included into the scholarship but I found a part-time job in the 20-minutes far Beika Library. Well that part of my plan has been successful. This week I still have to enroll myself and to attend the 'Welcome to Japan - Event' for all foreign students.
After the first stress pass I will make first a sight-seeing in Tokyo and Osaka to get a feeling where the important landmarks are.
Plans, plans, plans - all with one aim!
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Herzlich Willkommen auf dem Flughafen Narita International, meine Damen und Herren. Bitte bleiben Sie jetzt noch so lange angeschnallt sitzen, bis wir unsere endgültige Parkposition erreicht haben und die Anschnallzeichen über Ihnen ausgeschaltet wurden. Bitte lassen Sie zudem Ihre Mobiltelefone noch so lange ausgeschaltet, bis Sie das Flugzeug verlassen haben. Vielen Dank...
Welcome to Narita International Airport, Ladies and Gentlemen. Please do remain seated with your seat-belts fastened, until we have reached our final parking position, and the fasten seat-belt signs above you have been switched off. Please leave your cell phones switched off until you have left the aircraft. Thank you...
Naritakokusaikūkō, go resseki no minasama e yōkoso. Anata no shītoberuto o shimete, wareware no saishū-tekina chūsha ichi ni tasshite iru, soshite anata jōki no shītoberuto chakuyō sain gaofu ni sa reru made, suwatta mama itte kudasai. Anata wa kōkūki o nokoshite iru made anata no geitaidenwa gaofu no mama ni shite kudasai. Arigatō..."
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Well Japan, let's see and clear your dark side!
Ikuwayo! (Let's go!)
