Emica turned to Maro. “You keep records of the assignments of every single guard on staff, don’t you?”
“Absolutely,” Maro said. “The records would be in the main guard house.”
“Let’s go,” Kentario said, marching out the door without another word.
Out in the guard house, Kentario paced the room while Maro pulled up the relevant files on the computer. “Here it is,” he reported, after a minute or two. “Reiji Nakamura. He was on shift that night.”
“Where is he now? Does he still work here?”
“He does. He’d be at home, I expect. He wasn’t rostered on yesterday.”
“Send a police car to pick him up,” Kentario said. “I want to know exactly what happened after Aki made that report.”
◊◊◊
Reiji Nakamura sat ramrod straight on a hard wooden chair, staring up at his three interrogators with wide eyes. “How can I help you, sirs?” he asked, wringing his hands in his lap. He was younger than Kentario had expected, only twenty-five, with a boyish face and a lean build. A quick glance at his neck confirmed that he was a beta, the telltale scent glands of an alpha noticeably absent.
“On the night of the winter solstice a year and a half ago,” Kentario stated, “a young kitchen hand allegedly informed you of a security breach in the palace. What do you remember about that report?”
Reiji frowned, his eyes dropping to the floor as he thought back. “Yes, I remember that. She said… there were deliveries being brought into the kitchen through a service door, instead of going through the main gate… Oh fuck!” His face turned pale suddenly as he clapped a hand to his mouth, and Kentario felt his temper flare again. Urgently, he stomped down on his anger. They were so close to the truth, and he couldn’t afford to screw things up now.
“Oh fuck, what?”
Reiji glanced at Maro. “I forgot. I was supposed to fill in a report, but I forgot. I’m so sorry. It was really late when the solstice festival finished, and I just went home and fell asleep, and then… I forgot.”
This time, however, it wasn’t Kentario who was ready to rip the young man’s throat out. Maro’s eyes narrowed, his expression turning deadly.
“You forgot?” Maro said. “Youforgotto report a major breach in security?” he repeated, his voice deceptively calm. But his expression was far from calm, more like the expression of a mother bear who’d just discovered that her cubs had been killed.
Kentario himself said nothing, unwilling to move even an inch, lest he rip the man’s head off right where he sat.
Instead, Emica stepped forward, though even she seemed to be struggling to retain her composure. “That service door was used by armed raiders to enter the palace and to murder the king and queen,” she informed the guard, her voice cracking on the very last word. “The entire stability of Galandeen has been threatened by your failure to make that report.” Reiji swallowed hard, while Emica searched for her next words. “Reiji Nakamura, you are under arrest for conspiracy to high treason. May the Goddess have mercy on you.”
When neither Maro nor Kentario moved, Emica fetched a pair of handcuffs from a cabinet on the wall and secured them around Reiji’s wrists. “You have the right to an attorney, and you will be tried in court in accordance with our laws.” It sounded like that last sentence was difficult to say, and it was sorely tempting to just shoot the man where he sat.
But Kentario knew that Ryu would be horrified by such a brutal act, and it was that fact alone that prevented him from drawing his gun and pulling the trigger.
“Go and fetch the police,” Maro told Emica, his voice little more than a growl, then he added, to Reiji, “You’ve got a one way ticket to a very long stay behind bars.”
Emica strode out of the room, returning a moment later with two police officers in tow. They filled them in on Reiji’s confession, and scant minutes later, he was being led away to a waiting paddy wagon.
Once he was gone, a tense silence filled the room.
“This doesn’t answer the whole problem,” Kentario pointed out. “There’s still the question of when and how that door was opened and who else knew about it. And then we need to find out how the raiders found out about it and who let them in. Even without a padlock, that door should have been bolted during the night.”
“If we were getting regular deliveries through that door, it would have been fairly easy for them to target any one of our suppliers and hit them up for information,” Maro said. “Delivery boys carting fish around aren’t going to risk their lives if someone’s threatening them.”
“But someone still had to let them in,” Kentario repeated.
“One step at a time,” Emica said, ever the voice of reason. “Based on current evidence, can we agree that Aki was not to blame? It would be nice if we could at least ease her mind a little.”
“Agreed,” Kentario said, and Maro nodded quickly. “She reported the breach twice, and at the very least, Reiji confirmed that she did tell the Guard. As Aki herself said, if nothing was done after that, it’s a reasonable conclusion on her part to think that the issue was resolved.”
“We should speak to Liandra next,” Maro suggested. “But I’m also going to want to interview every single person who works in the kitchen. There must be more than two people who knew about that door, and I want to know why no one else reported it.” There were dark bags under his eyes, and he ran a tired hand through his hair. From his expression, he was blaming himself for the entire attack, regardless of how many precautions he’d taken to prevent that sort of thing, and for the first time since he’d arrived back at the palace, Kentario felt a trickle of sympathy for the man.
Just at that moment, his stomach growled, and Kentario glanced out the window. It was getting dark, and he checked his watch. It was getting on for seven o’clock. “Maybe you should get some rest,” he suggested, an unexpected concession on his part. “You’ve been awake for nearly two days straight. I think we could all do with a little time out.” Even though Kentario had managed to catch a few hours sleep last night, the stresses of the day were catching up with him, and even Emica seemed to be wilting under the constant pressure.
But Maro shook his head. “This happened on my watch. I’m not sleeping until I know exactly how deep this goes.”
