The Gate of Sorrows by Miyuki Miyabe Read Free Book Online

gentle-looking, usually smiling. Kaname said he looked like her neighborhood tofu maker.
    “Here’s another body.”
    “Very good,” said Shinya and waved a hand toward the desks along the window. “That row’s open.”
    Kenji Morinaga, another part-timer, was already there. He was a junior majoring in civil engineering. They knew each other well. Shinya and Kotaro had joined Kumar together, and they’d trained together for the first few days.
    “Hey,” said Kenji.
    Kotaro took the seat next to him. “Looks like we’re buddies.”
    “Welcome.”
    This was a stroke of luck. Kenji was a member of School Island—in fact, his job was to monitor unofficial school sites on the deep web. Kotaro had been waiting for a chance to talk to Seigo about Mika’s problem, but if he was going to be working with Kenji today, he could talk to him directly.
    Kenji was into eyewear in a big way. He had a whole collection of gaming glasses just for working on his PC. Today’s pick had emerald-green frames.
    “How’s Kaname?”
    Kenji had a thing for Kaname. As soon as she joined Kumar he couldn’t stop raving about how cute she was. He was a naïve boy from a well-to-do family; a girl like Kaname was perfect for him. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to be perfect for her. She’d never shown any interest in him at all.
    “I was late for the handoff today. I had to promise to buy her lunch.”
    “I can handle that for you if you want.”
    “All right, listen up!” Shinya clapped his hands. “We’ve got help now. Row Two and guests, I want you all over this thing. Check your search terms.”
    A list of terms popped up in a window on their work monitors. Tomakomai. Akita. Mishima. Shiro Nakanome. Profiling. Corpse mutilation. Dismemberment. Psycho killer. . . . Terms kept being added. There were titles from movies and novels.
    “Rows One and Three, business as usual. If you come across anything, pass it on immediately. We’ll be dredging this till the end of shift three tomorrow. Good luck.”
    Kumar operated around the clock on three shifts, starting at 8 a.m.: eight to three, three to eleven, and eleven to eight. Part-timers coordinated their shifts, but in emergencies like this, all bets were off.
    “When were you supposed to get off today?” asked Kenji.
    “I was on eleven to two, but I’m fine. I can blow off class.” Kotaro had two classes today, the first starting at three, but he could always copy someone’s notes later.
    “You still have class? I’m on winter vacation. I was going to stay late anyway.”
    As a third-year student, Kenji would normally have been busy setting up job interviews for after graduation, but he was planning to go on to graduate school, so his schedule was flexible.
    “I’m off the twentieth,” said Kotaro. “But I don’t have anything major till then. I could start winter break right now.”
    “I don’t know. Don’t make a habit of cutting class. Wait a minute—coming from me that’s not very convincing, is it?”
    “No. It’s not. Well, when it comes time to knuckle down, I’ll do what I have to.”
    Seigo and Shinya stood in front of the whiteboard talking. They turned to the room.
    “I think we’re going to be working on this case for a while. We’ll need a name, so here you go: The Toe-Fetish Killer.”
    A quiet laugh rippled around the room. Seigo smiled wryly. “It’s not a great case name, but maybe that’s better. We don’t want it to sound cool.”
    “I don’t need to remind you,” Shinya added, “that other people will be naming it too. As soon as you run across a name for the case, add it to the term list. If you run across someone with an unusual interest in naming the case, better look into it.”
    “Kumar is counting on you,” said Seigo as he left the floor. Shinya went back to his desk. Kenji pulled up his chair and prepared to get down to work.
    “Listen, Kenji,” Kotaro whispered. “This has nothing to do with work, but in case I forget, I