‘Yes?’ she asked cautiously, looking at the man, who was standing in the night time shadows. Rain drops bounced off him.

‘Sorry to bother you this late, madam, but my car broke down, just down the road, and I was wondering if you could have a look at it for me?’

‘Uh, I don’t really know much about cars. I’m sorry sir, I can’t help you.’

‘No please, just have at least a quick look, and then you can go back inside. Just a second, I promise.’

The woman sighed and reluctantly agreed. When she got to his car, he opened the bonnet and allowed her to have a peer inside, and the next thing she was aware of, a gun was being pressed against the side of her head.

‘Get inside,’ growled the man.

_____________________________________________________________________________

It was a week later. The rudely loud ringing of the telephone inside Aizutakada’s Chief Medical Examiner’s office disturbed the Chief herself, who was immersed in paper work. Autopsy reports were knocked to the floor as Yukiko Kobayashi started. She picked up the phone.

‘Hello?’

‘Hey, Dr Kobayashi. Got some news you might want to know.’ It was a detective from the local police force, Tamon Kai.

‘Go on.’

‘The body of Alison Granger has been found. You might want to come down to her house, if you wanna ask a few questions.’

‘I’ll be there in a minute.’

Yukiko hung up the phone and jumped out of her seat, pausing momentarily to pick up the scattered autopsy records. She snatched her suit jacket and slipped it on before grabbing a hold of her crime scene case. Her office door slammed shut behind her.

Yukiko arrived a few minutes later, and the first thing she saw was the crush of police officers crowding around the front of the victim’s house, the other woman she lived with crying hysterically and staring out from the front doorway. The back of a familiar head turned round and the face grinned when he saw Yukiko. The good looking and well tanned face was of Tamon Kai.

‘As you can see, the body turning up has caused…lots of, uh, excitement.’

‘Yes, I certainly noticed that.’

The crowd parted when they realised that Yukiko Kobayashi had arrived, and she got her first glimpse of the body.

The eyes were a baby blue. Her hair was ginger. Alison Granger was naked. Her arms were stretched out to each side and hammered into the bricks. Her ankles were also hammered into the wall. Her position looked like the last two cases, all of them had been strung up against the front wall of their own houses, and all in the same position Jesus Christ was on the cross. The heavy head hung forwards, and there was an incision from where her left breast had been removed. The doctor took out her camera and started taking snapshots of the body, without disturbing its position in the slightest. She wondered how long it would take for the media to arrive.

’How long do you think it will be before this place is swarmed with reporters?’ Yukiko voice her thoughts.

’Don’t worry about that, I made sure that they won’t be pointing their cameras where they’re not wanted.’

‘That’s even more ominous.’

Yukiko and Kai made their way over to the scared and crying woman and stepped through the doorway, keeping the front door open, mainly so Yukiko could keep an eye on the paramedics when they arrived to take the body down to the morgue.

‘Can you tell us when you last saw Alison alive, please?’ asked Yukiko in a mild voice.

‘Uh, uh, this time last week, during the evening, about ten o’clock, some bloke knocked on the door and Alison went to answer it. I could hear their conversation, and I think his car had broken down or something, and he wanted her to look at it, and she did. That was the last time I saw her. After she stepped foot out of the door, I didn’t see her again until just now, like that,’ replied the shaken woman, indicating to the body with a shake of her head.

‘What did this man look like?’ asked Tamon Kai. ‘Did you get a good look at him?’

‘No. No, I didn’t see him at all. I could barely even hear his voice over the rain. He was speaking quietly.’

Yukiko’s attention was taken by the arrival of the paramedics. She asked the shaking woman is she could have a sheet from off Alison’s bed, which they could use to wrap up the body.

‘Don’t you have body bags to take her to the morgue in?’ she asked as she came back down with the sheet.

‘Yes, but we prefer to wrap the bodies up in something else inside the body bag. In case of trace evidence.’

Alison’s friend numbly followed Yukiko and Tamon back outside, snapping on gloves and watched as the paramedics carefully pulled the hammers out. Yukiko took the body from them and her and Tamon wrapped it up and carefully shuffled it into a body bag and zipped it up. The paramedics took it from them and placed it inside the back of the ambulance and screeched off, sirens wailing.

‘Now, before we go,’ started Tamon. ‘Is there anything else of importance to tell us?’

‘Oh, yeah, there is something,’ came the reply after a pause. ‘Two days ago, I got a parcel through the mail. When I picked it up, it was all squashy like it contained something soft and I started to open it, when this, this…goddamn tit fell out.’

‘A tit?’ repeated Tamon, eyes widened in curiosity.

‘Yeah, a boob fell out. Her damn boob. He cut it off and sent it to me through the damn mail! The freak that did this! I know it was from him!’

‘Was there anything else in the parcel? A letter or anything?’ asked Yukiko.

‘No. Just the boob.’

‘Can I see it? I’m going to need to take it in for DNA testing, to confirm whether it is Alison’s or not.’

‘I threw it in the bin. I wasn’t going to keep that in my house!’

‘We don’t blame ya,’ said Tamon. ‘But take it out the bin. We really need to take it with us.’

The woman walked off, mumbling something under her breath. Yukiko peeled off her gloves and dropped them in a biohazard bag she had with her and opened her crime scene case, taking out a fresh pair of gloves. She prayed that she had the foresight when she grabbed her case to make sure that she brought the large tub of formalin with her. She did. She pulled the large jar out and carefully opened it and placed the breast inside it, quickly sealing the container again. Tamon covered his nose and backed away,

‘Damn, I hate those fumes. Don’t understand how you can work around that stuff.’

‘Simple,’ retorted Yukiko. ‘Very carefully.’

Formalin is a substance which can be used to permanently preserve human tissue, but also can be extremely nasty when contact is made with skin. It burns, and if it finds its way into somebody’s eyes, it can cause blindness.

‘Please, doc, before you go, just tell me one thing. These other murders I’ve been hearing about. Is this one like that?’

Yukiko Kobayashi looked at the woman sympathetically before nodding.

‘At the moment, it certainly looks like it. The MO is exactly the same as in the other cases.’

‘MO?’

‘Modus operandi.’

_____________________________________________________________________________

Dr Kobayashi helped the paramedics transport the body into the portable gurney into the morgue and then lifted it awkwardly onto one of the steel tables. Her morgue assistant watched her heave the body without offering any help.

She unzipped the body bag and slipped the dead woman from out of the sheets and started her autopsy. Yukiko made the Y shaped incision from the clavicles down to the stomach, and then in a straight line down to the body’s groin. She struggled open the chest cavity to get a clear view of the internal organs.

Yukiko took oral, anal and vaginal swabs as well as DNA from the body and from the sliced off breast, and sent them off to see what they could reveal. She continued to examine the body, trying to find out the cause of death as Tamon Kai entered the autopsy suite, dressed like the doctor in full protective biohazard clothing.

‘Found out how she died yet?’

‘I’m doing that now.’

‘Cardiac arrest?’ asked Kai with a smile, knowing that saying ‘cardiac arrest’ would annoy the doctor.

‘You know full well that cardiac arrest is just the heart stopping. Why it stopped is what’s trying to be discovered. So far it looks like asphyxiation.’

‘Damn, that’s a horrible way to die.’

Asphyxiation only takes a few minutes. Unfortunately for the asphyxiating victim, that is one hell of a long time when every single fibre in your body is screaming out for badly needed oxygen. Yukiko looked at the swabs.

‘She was raped. The vaginal swab came back positive for seminal fluid.’

‘So, he kidnapped her, raped her, suffocated her and then hacked off her boob?’

‘I can only hope his malicious mutilation was after her death. Imagine the pain of having a body part removed without anaesthetic.’

‘If it’s all the same to you Doc, I’d rather not.’

Her internal organs were all within normal limits. Her stomach contained the remains of her last meal eaten, suggesting that when she struggled with her killer, her digestion had slowed down in a response to her fear.

‘You do realise we’ve got a meeting with one of the profilers’?’ asked Tamon.

‘I would have thought so,’ replied the doctor.

_____________________________________________________________________________

After the autopsy, Dr Kobayashi and Tamon filed out and into the open plan changing room where they disinfected their biohazard clothes and set into the conference room, where one of the profilers were already waiting.

The man who was calmly sitting at the head of the table looked like a typical Japanese stereotype. He was short and balding, with thick rimmed black glasses, and was wearing a suit. He was a little portly, could be described as ‘plump’. He stood up when Yukiko and Tamon entered the room and shook both of their hands. Fuuta Watanabe took his seat again at the head of the table, which slightly annoyed Yukiko. She set the suitcase she had taken with her after performing the autopsy on the table and took out of it the photos of the dead women so far, and spread them out on the table in front of herself and the two men.

‘So far, it looks like the killer is only interested in western women. In all three cases so far, the victims have all been women who originally came from Europe. It seems his intention is the same in all. He rapes them, and then I sincerely hope asphyxiation comes before the incision of their left breast,’ relayed Yukiko.

‘What evidence have you got that one: the killer is the same in all cases, that it’s not a copycat, and two: that they were raped?’ asked Fuuta.

‘Seminal fluid was recovered from the vaginas of all three victims, and tested for DNA. It’s the same in all three cases,’ replied Tamon.

‘Is that all you know so far? Because I have a tight schedule and don’t want to be kept waiting for longer than possible,’ said Fuuta.

‘Well, no, that’s all we have at this moment in time,’ replied Yukiko. ‘I for one was actually hoping that maybe you would be able to supply any theories you may be having.’

‘I have none. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to leave.’

Fuuta Watanabe got up from the table with a nod to both the doctor and Tamon and slammed the door shut on his way out. Tamon glared as he left.

‘Pompous man,’ he snarled. ‘Can’t stand him.’

‘He could’ve at least tried to think of something, but still, he’s useful when provoked.’

____________________________________________________________________________

Yukiko and Tamon left the conference shortly after Fuuta Watanabe, and decided that they ought to make their way over to the house of Alison’s family, to comfort them and also to see if they had any information. Tamon led the way out of the morgue, and to their destination.

To their horror, when they found the house of Alison’s parents, they saw that they were not the only people giving the unfortunate family a visit. Hordes of reporters, cameramen and sound men were gathered around the front door, pressing their equipment as close to the family as they could possibly get. The elderly couple, whom Yukiko assumed were the parents were standing, looking out at everybody, holding onto each other tightly, unable to answer any of the relentless questions being fired at them.

The couple noticed Yukiko and her companion, and the reporters turned around. When they saw the medical examiner for themselves, there were blinding flashes of light as pictures were shaken, and the microphones were being shoved down their throats, cameras thrust up close to their faces. A young female voice sounded suddenly, trying to steer the insensitive reporters away.

‘Come on now, people, leave these folks alone! Move along, nothing needing doing here, excuse me sir, can you please not point that damn camera at me, you don’t know where it’ll end up, please, go away.’

As the crews were reluctantly shuffled away, Tamon could see Yukiko’s younger sister, Ninja Kobayashi. She smiled and turned away to face the couple.

Ninja and Yukiko never used to get on when they were growing up, and Ninja was horribly abused by her parents, who were so proud of Yukiko. Yukiko remembered the time Ninja confronted their father, after he slapped her around the face for ‘misbehaving’, and shuddered slightly.

_____________________________________________________________________________

‘I don’t see what I’ve done wrong!’ shouted Ninja, glaring at the intimidating figure of her father in front of her. ‘I’ve haven’t done anything wrong! Nothing! Just you and your goddamn imagination again!’

‘If only you could be like your sister…’ snarled Father. Yukiko, who was watching, hiding from the doorway, felt a sudden rush of embarrassment and hatred towards her father for causing Ninja to feel like she had no friends in her family, always in the shadow of her sister.

‘I know what’s wrong with you…’ started Ninja, dangerously. ‘You’re sexually frustrated. Mum can’t satisfy you and you can’t have Yukiko, so you take out your anger on me!’

Yukiko silently drew in breath and moved further out of sight. She knew that her sister had really done it this time. Sure enough, she was right. Her father struck Ninja around the face with a backhand slap which caused her to stagger backwards and then, before she could lose her balance completely and topple over, he grabbed at her shoulders and slapped her again. Their mother came in to see what the commotion was about, and, instead of being horrified by what was happening to Ninja, like Yukiko would have thought; she just glared evilly at the girl, clearly thinking that she must have done something to deserve this abuse. Father then made it even worse by snatching a heavy ornament from off the mantelpiece behind him, and hurling it at Ninja. The china shattered on impact instantly, as she tried in vain to run out of the way. A piece of the breakable material embedded itself in her arm, and when she tried to pull it out, the injury worsened, leaving a long slash all down her arm, which was pouring with crimson blood.

Ten minutes later, Yukiko found Ninja sitting on the ground in the nearby forest, sobbing and still trying to pull out the china which was firmly stuck in her arm. She glanced up when the shadow of her sister spread over her. Ninja’s expression darkened ominously, clearly thinking that she was in for another beating, but from her sister.

Yukiko crouched down and looked at the wound. Ninja pulled her arm away protectively.

‘Let me see it. I’m not going to hurt you, Ninja, I’m not like Dad.’

‘Ha, and I’m not as stupid as you take me for. Go to hell,’ snapped Ninja.

Yukiko pulled the roll of bandages she had with her into sight and asked Ninja to show her arm again. Ninja reluctantly held her wounded arm out for her sister to see. Yukiko managed to get a grip on the piece of china and pulled it out. Ninja cried out in pain and held her arm, fresh tears falling down her face. Yukiko tried to comfort her sister as much as possible and attempted to wrap the bandages around her bleeding arm.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Yukiko shook her head to try and clear it of the unpleasant memories of her childhood. Ninja caught sight of her older sister and Tamon and waved. The parents of Alison suddenly turned from distressed to angry as they saw the couple heading towards them.

‘How dare you! How dare you go to the media and tell them about our daughter!’

‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, no, wait, we didn’t say anything, we never do. Dunno how they found out, ma’am, but it certainly wasn’t from us,’ said Ninja, stepping in expertly.

‘Can we please come in, just to ask you a few questions about Alison? I understand that it must be difficult, especially with the press all over the place, but if you could manage to answer our questions, then we would be most grateful,’ added Yukiko.

Alison’s mother and father stepped aside to allow the three visitors inside and guided them to the living room, where they sat down.

‘Okay, myself and Detective Kai are going to ask you a few questions about Alison. What was she like? In personality, I mean?’

Alison’s father sniffed and wiped his eyes.

‘She was very caring. Very giving. On the night she went missing, we had a phone call from her flatmate, who said that she had been gone for several hours, and she had only gone to see if she could help somebody with their car engine.’

‘Help with a car engine?’ repeated Tamon, looking bewildered.

‘Yes. Alison would always try to help people, even if she had no idea what she was doing. She had no idea how cars worked, but still, she went outside to help this person, and he was the last man who saw her alive…’ sobbed Alison’s mother.

‘So do you think that person was the killer?’ asked Ninja.

The mother shrugged as another tear worked its way down her face.

‘I have no idea. All I know is that some bastard killed my daughter. He killed her! And for what? Why? Dr Kobayashi, you work with the dead, you work with the victims of cases such as these. Why did he kill her? Why?’

‘Mrs Granger, I am terribly sorry for your loss. Really, I am. But I have no idea why any of these people die. The victims of homicides, their reason for death apart from the fact the killer wanted to murder them…I wish I could tell you, but I can’t.’

‘Can’t you try to imagine?’ questioned Mr Granger. ‘Can’t you imagine what goes on in the heads of these sick bastards?’

‘I try not to think those sorts of thoughts, sir. They are not the kind of things that I want floating in my head when performing an autopsy, or in court, or when meeting the profilers.’

‘Would she really go out late at night to help a total stranger in the pouring rain fix his car, even though she knows nothing about cars?’ Ninja asked incredulously.

‘Yes, she would.’ Replied Mrs Granger, a touch defensively. ‘She was such a caring girl. She always tried her best to make sure that people were okay, putting them above herself. She was also too damn trusting for her own good. That’s probably what killed her. The fact that she automatically trusts everybody.’

Yukiko’s interrogation was interrupted by the doorbell ringing, and two people entering the house.

‘Oh! S-sorry, didn’t realise you had guests, Mr and Mrs Granger,’ stammered the woman in the doorway. The doctor smiled at her.

‘Never mind us, we can’t hog all the time of these two people. Ninja, Tamon, let’s go.’

Yukiko stood up and walked swiftly out of the Granger’s household, the other two following meekly. When the door closed, Tamon turned to the doctor.

‘Why did you stop then? Just ‘cause those people turned up? There’s still loads we need to get out of them!’

‘You can’t stop them from getting visits from friends and acquaintances just because we are there. Anyway, I think we’ve got enough to be going on with for now.’

‘Really?’ Ninja’s tone of voice was highly sceptical.

‘Yes, Ninja, I do. Come on.’

The doctor’s attention was attracted halfway to the car by an argument going on between two teens who lived near each other. Both looked to be about sixteen, and one was most definitely a Goth, judging by her all-black clothing and all-black makeup. She was getting hassle from the other girl. Ninja and Tamon were having whispered conversation behind Yukiko’s back. But she did not pay attention, and was transfixed to the argument ahead of them.

‘You really think you’re hot, don’t you? Just ‘cause you wear all that black crap, with that rubbish on ya face, you think that makes you sooo great, but lemme tell you now, you’re not!’

The Goth girl pulled back her right hand and struck her opponent squarely in the face, simmering with rage. She turned her back on the fight and stormed off, fury sparking off her. She pushed past Yukiko without muttering an apology and burst into the house next door but one to Alison’s parents.

The other girl wandered over and immediately started bitching about the departed Goth.

‘God, she’s such a joke. Just because she’s a Goth, she thinks that she can cast spells and hexes and all this stuff. Can you believe that?’

Yukiko muttered something unintelligible as the other young girl raised her eyebrows and walked off, still smirking about her argument.

Yukiko turned her attention to the flirting couple again and rolled her eyes. Yukiko was not very old; she was only twenty-seven, and Ninja was twenty-five. Tamon was twenty-six, but still very good at his job. Ninja was decided since she was nineteen after being hurt badly that she was going to give up men, and live the carefree single life, and since then, had never let a single man get anywhere near her. Although, that had taken a lot of effort, because there were plenty of men who tried to seduce her. But since she met Tamon, she had become much more lenient, and it seemed like she was starting to let down her emotional barriers and was putting herself back in the risk of being hurt. Tamon was aware of this, and was making the post of Ninja while he had the chance.

Yukiko ushered Ninja and Tamon along and sent them on their way once she got back to the morgue. The doctor herself, on the other hand, spent the rest of the day working on the other cases that she had coming in. It was either her over active imagination, or there seemed to be more and more cases coming in. She felt run off her feet already, and there was still hours left until the day was over.

_____________________________________________________________________________

At the stroke of midnight, the Goth girl who lived on her own next door but one to Mr and Mrs Granger was up in her room, still boiling with anger over her run in during the afternoon. She went outside into the back garden and picked up a few chicken bones she had been leaving to dry out in the sun for several days and took them back to her room. Keeping her anger worked up inside her, she stamped on the bones, calling out ‘With these bones I now do crush…’ She gathered the bony dust up into a bag and crept outside, following the path she had done many times when stalking her enemy, and scattered the bone dust over the girl’s house and property. Making her way back to her house, she snatched up a bell on the table inside the front door and rang it three times. ‘I call upon the Ancient Ones from the great abyss to do my bidding. I invoke Cuthalu, God of Anger and the creatures of the underworld, hear me now…

‘Bones of anger, bones to dust, full of fury, revenge is just, I scatter these bones, these bones of rage, take thine enemy, bring him pain, I see thine enemy before me now, I bind him, crush him, bring him down, with these bones I now do crush, make thine enemy turn to dust, torment, fire, out of control, with this hex I curse your soul, so it be!’

_____________________________________________________________________________

Yukiko did not return to the morgue until twelve o’clock the other day, where she was instantly greeted by her morgue supervisor, a young woman called Mavira Ito. She was a young Japanese woman, but took pride in being original and unique and had died her hair a bright fiery red.

‘What have we got today?’ asked Yukiko.

‘This one is really strange, Dr Kobayashi,’ replied Mavira as she and the doctor walked out of the women’s changing rooms and into the morgue. She showed Yukiko the body which had just come in. ‘I performed the autopsy, but I couldn’t find a cause of death. There was nothing wrong with her to suggest what had killed her. It’s weird. I’ll let you have a look at her, see if you can spot something I missed.’

Yukiko bent over the figure of the body on the autopsy table and gasped. She raised a hand to her mouth behind her face mask.

‘Do you know her, Doctor?’

‘Sort of. I saw her yesterday. Alive. She was having an argument with a Goth girl, and this one, the dead one, was making fun of her. Apparently, the Goth girl was into witchcraft and suchlike.’

‘So you think that girl put a curse or something on her?’ questioned Mavira.

‘I don’t know. Let me re-autopsy her, just to make sure.’

After Yukiko had finished her re-autopsy, she backed away, shaking her head in disbelief and snapped off her gloves. She turned to the phone located by the door exiting the morgue and rang Tamon.

‘Get here quickly, there’s something urgent I need you to see.’

Tamon arrived minutes later, panting as though out of breath. He had obviously ran the whole journey. He stooped low in front of the doctor, breathing heavily.

‘Why didn’t you bother taking the car?’

‘Your sister has it,’ wheezed Tamon.

Yukiko rolled her eyes and practically dragged Tamon over to the body and almost had to hold him upright so he could see the face. He swore softly. He got onto his mobile phone and called Ninja and explained the situation to her.

‘Okay, I’ll go over and visit her.’ Yukiko could here every word Ninja was saying over the phone.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Ninja stopped outside the house herself and Yukiko watched the Goth girl storm into and hammered on the door. The door opened a fraction, stopped from opening any wider by a burglar chain.

‘Hi, my name’s Ninja Kobayashi. You smashed into my sister after your argument with that other girl. Can I come in? I need to ask you a few questions.’

‘Sorry, I don’t let people I don’t know into my house.’

‘Listen lady, my sister is the chief medical examiner here, and also I’m linked to the cops, and if you want me to get them round here and bust in, then carry on defying me. Your choice,’ snapped Ninja.

‘Okay, okay, you can come in. Jeez,’ replied the girl angrily. She opened the door and stepped aside for Ninja to enter. She shut the door with a deft back kick.

‘Anywhere to sit down?’

‘In the living room.’

Ninja never would have guessed that the girl was a Goth just by looking at her house. There was nothing gothic or occult style about it. It looks like the home of a normal person, thought Ninja. She sat down in the armchair facing the Goth girl and leant forwards so she could start her interrogation.

‘Who was that woman you were fighting with yesterday?’ asked Ninja, staring into the dark brown eyes of the Goth girl. ‘What was her name?’

‘Why so interested?’

‘Don’t piss me around. Just tell me, okay?’ retorted Ninja. She had the feeling that this was going to be a difficult interview.

‘Whatever. Her name was Michiko. Don’t ask me what her surname was, I don’t know and I don’t really care. You mentioned your sister was the chief medical examiner. Was that mentioned just so I thought you had authority and let you in, or is that fact relevant?’

‘That fact’s relevant. That Michiko girl you were arguing came into the morgue this morning and her autopsy was performed by the chief’s assistant. She’s dead, and you were the last person she spoke to.’

‘Crap. I saw her speaking to your sister.’

‘How could you know that? You were in the other direction.’ Ninja’s reply snapped back instantly.

‘I was watching.’

‘She mentioned to my sister that you perform hexes and curses and things like that. Do you?’ queried Ninja.

‘What, have you got something against Paganism?’

‘Did I say that?’ Ninja was feeling tetchy already. ‘Do you cast spells?’

‘The occasional one. Not many though. Why, what’s it to you?’

‘Michiko died of unknown causes. The assisting chief couldn’t find anything to say why she might’ve died. It’s suspicious.’

‘What, you think I killed her?’ whispered the girl.

‘Did you?’

‘No! And I don’t appreciate you coming in my house and making such stupid allegations! Get out now!’

‘As you wish miss. Sorry to have bothered you.’

At the front door of the Goth girl’s house, Ninja turned around to face her again.

‘Just out of curiosity, what’s your name?’

‘Kikko. Kikko Sato.’

‘Pleased to meet you Kikko Sato. See ya later.’

The door slammed shut behind Ninja and she made her way back to the morgue to relay the information she had found out to Yukiko and Tamon.

_____________________________________________________________________________

When Ninja returned to the morgue, she passed on all the information she had learnt from her meeting with Kikko to her sister and Tamon. Yukiko turned towards the women’s changing rooms muttering something about needing to write up the cases on the computer situated in her office.

She signed into her email service to have a quick look at any messages waiting for her, when she came across one from an unfamiliar name. Yukiko frowned at the subject, which read ‘You better watch your back…’

Her curiosity piqued, she opened it, oblivious to the fact that an email message from and unknown sender could infect her office computer, which would be by far, the last thing needed.

“Hey Kobayashi, do you know who I am? Didn’t think so. Bitches like you want to be careful. I could be watching you. I could be behind any door. I could be spying on you through any window. I could ATTACK from any direction. Do you know what my favourite day is? It’s THURSDAY. So long, slag, I’ll be in touch again sooner than you’ll expect…”

Feeling panicked, Yukiko ran back into the morgue without worrying about biohazards being traipsed around, where Ninja and Tamon were watching Mavira performing another autopsy and snatched her sister and practically threw her in front of the computer. Tamon trailed after the two women, worried.

‘Read that!’ screeched Yukiko, pointing at the monitor. ‘What does it sound like this person’s hinting to you?’

‘Um,’ started Ninja, exchanging a glance with Tamon. Neither of them wanted to express what they thought.

‘It sounds like…whoever this person is…they’re going to attack me on Thursday. Oh God, and it’s Wednesday today..’ trailed Yukiko.

‘Do you want me to stay over tonight?’ asked Ninja, in a gentle voice. Yukiko nodded slightly, still staring at the computer screen.