Connections are Found [Tokyo Metropolitan Police]

" Oh lord yes," the woman replied, licking her lips and heading up to the stairs. This was getting exciting.

"Let's split up to cover more ground. I'm going to check out the pantry," said Guy as he headed off that way.

Bayle headed up the stairs and down the hallway, where an open door on the left showed her where the library was. Through the door, she could see a man already inside, shuffling books around on the shelves. After only a quick glance, she knew, this was the same Chinese man that had been inside the ramen shop.

She slipped her hand into her purse and flicked the safety off of her Desert Eagle. " Well hello there," she said walking into the room, hand in her purse.

The man looked up from his books curiously, before putting on a smile. "Oh, hello. Have... Have we met before?"

" I saw you at the ramen shop earlier. You have quite an appetite. Do you live here?" She walked over to him to take a look at the books he was rifling through.

"Ah, yes, I remember!" He carried the stack of books to the table and set them down. "No, I'm just getting paid to clean up here for a while." He extended a hand. "My name is Li Shenshun."

"Nice to meet you," she replied in chinese, bowing instead of shaking his hand. "I'm here to take a look around here, if you don't mind while you clean..." she said picking up the books he had just set down. She began to leaf through them.

"No, of course not," Li replied, bowing back to her. "Just so long as everything doesn't get out of order. Everything in here needs a lot of work..." He returned to organizing the books while Bayle leafed through the books on the table. When her back was turned, he only briefly looked back at her out of the corner of his eye.

She kept a close eye on him as well, and the time. She looked through as much as she could before her half hour was up. "Well, it was lovely meeting you Li. Good luck getting this place organized." she smiled brightly at him and exited at an angle, keeping an eye on him. She would have to ask the widow about this man as soon as she had the chance.

"Yes, good to meet you too, Ms. Falain!" he replied cheerily. Once she had exited and closed the door, his face had once again returned to its cold stare.

***********

"Sorry to have kept you waiting."

They were seated in the pantry of the extravagant house, the soft velvet of the furniture and plush carpeting showing just how well-off the widow was even after her husband had died. The widow set the tea on the table between them, leaning forward to show off the cleavage her dress exposed even more. Guy was as red as a tomato, seated across from an attractive widow and beside an even more impressive... ah, what was it she did again?

"N-not at all!" said Guy, averting his eyes... which settled on the perfume bottles lining the shelf on one side of the pantry. "That's quite a collection you have."

"Yes..." she sighed wistfully. "It was Yuzuki's hobby. He had an amazing sense of smell."

"Of course," said Guy, remembering the files. "Yuzuki Sakutarou. Former executive of Fiore Cosmetics." It was so strange. On the table behind the couch they sat on, he spotted a picture of the two of them. The widow, young and curvaceous, stood beside a short, wrinkled, bald man with a frog-like face. These two were really married?

The widow seemed delighted. "You know that much? Just what I would expect from a detective!"

" Like he boasts, he's Japan's number one." Bayle said with a slight giggle. " Out of curiosity, who is that handsome man you have up there cleaning your library? He doesn't really seem like your type." she joked, motioning to the picture of her and her husband.

The widow chuckled heartily. "Oh, heavens no! He's putting my books in order. I've been much too busy to keep this place straight, and there's only so much that my maid can handle. He said he was looking for work, so I'm paying him generously for it."

" How very nice of you. So, can you tell us anything else about your late husband? Mainly any details about his role at Fiore?" Bayle took a sip of the tea as the widow answered.

"Hmm..." She thought for a moment, before taking a deep breath. "Well, he had an excellent sense of smell. When, I met him, he was still married to his first wife, Toshiko, and a perfume designer. He went overseas a lot, developing new perfumes for companies, before Fiore hired him as an executive. He designed some of the best. This perfume I'm wearing right now is one of them. It smells like gardenias, and he said it was great for this time of year.

She leaned back. "He was a strange person. He was distant most of the time, but he could become very caring and intimate when we were together. He warmed up to me fast... and he left Toshiko to be with me. I never liked strong perfume, but he really influenced me. I'm not sure what else I can say about him..."

" What a very interesting life. I think I own one or two of his creations myself. This tea is delicious by the way." she took another long sip before continuing. " If it's not too personal...may I ask how he died?"

"It was a car accident while he was overseas. They brought his body back after the accident so that I could identify it."

" Oh I see. Thank you for answering that. Even though it was awhile ago, I'm sorry for your loss..." she took another sip of tea and looked over at Guy to see if he had any other questions for the woman.

"It's alright..." said the widow, but suddenly perked up. "Oh, have you two found Mi-chan yet?"

"No, not yet," said Guy. "Sorry."

"OH!" Guy straightened in his seat at the exclamation. "What if... Yes, that has to be it! I stole Yuzuki from Toshiko, so she stole Mi-chan from me!"

" Oh...well...where does she live? We can definitely go speak with her." Bayle asked whipping out a small notebook and a pen from her purse.

At Bayle's request, the widow gave them the address to Toshiko's mansion.

"She hates people, so she lives there by herself. Please, find Mi-chan, even if you have to search her mansion!"

" Don't worry we'll get right on it. Do we need anything else here Mr. Kurosawa?" Bayle asked.

"I can't think of anything else. It's getting pretty late so we should probably call it a night. Thanks for all your time!" he said to the widow, who bowed back to him.

"The pleasure was all mine! If there's anything else you need, don't hesitate to ask!"

They left the mansion just as the sun was starting to set. Guy turned to Bayle. "Well, we sure learned a lot today! This is a detective's heyday! I probably need to head back to the Agency and fill in Kiko about everything. You have stuff you need to do at Fiore, don't you?"

" Well, that depends on whether or not I can get onto the roof. I actually might have to wait until tomorrow night...would you mind if I tagged along with you? I need to get my credit card back from Kiko-san." she reached into her purse and clicked the safety back onto her gun.

"Sure, come on back! I'll be going to bed early anyway, so you have plenty of time to do whatever it is you want to do."

He started off back toward the Agency downtown, a spring to his step.

"Ah yes, I mean to ask. What exactly is it you do for a living? You seem like a very... strong person," Guy said awkwardly, trying not to blush.

" You know that saying about early to bed early to rise is bullshit right?" she asked with a chuckle. She herself was a big fan of staying up late. "As for your question, I'm an international weapons dealer. Speaking of which, would you like your payment in guns or money? Maybe both? And of course by guns for you I mean tazers and such...unless you really want A gun." she said with a smirk.