For the Untrained Eye

*

    It took a few weeks for Suga and Mari to view Miura's medical records. "He is being treated for anxiety and bipolar depression..." Sugawara sifted through the records. "He's taking pretty strong meds to stop his depressive episodes."

    Mari took the records from Suga as he passed them over to her. Even at just a glance at his records, she could tell that Miura was definitely struggling with manic episodes. "Do you think he is abusing his prescription? If he were to be taking more than the prescribed amount, it would cause a manic, aggressive episode. It also says here his medication was just changed about two months ago." Sugawara watched as Mari's eyebrows furrowed and she read over the medical records over and over again. He found her to be quite pleasant when she was like this. Invested in her work and unguarded.

    "Captain?"

    "Huh?" Suga snapped out of his daze as Mari stared at him with confusion.

    "I said, this isn't enough reason for a warrant to search his home, much less bring him in. What should we do?"

    Sugawara bit his lip and glanced over at Aoyama who was finishing up writing a report on his patrol. Hiro noticed his gaze and groaned before speaking. "No, absolutely not. Why me? Can't Inari do it?" Inari glanced over at Suga with curious eyes as she heard her name but wasn't fully paying attention to the conversation.

    "Can't Inari do what?" She muttered.

    "We need someone to keep surveillance on a suspect." Mari sighed, "A man by the name of Miura Yato. We think he could be involved with the 'suicide' cases that seem to be happening frequently now." Inari glanced over at Aoyama who stared back at her with pleading eyes. Inari was sure Rei, Hiro's wife, and him had gotten into an argument recently and it would put a strain on them if he took up this surveillance job.

    "You'll owe me."

    "Thank you, I won't forget this." Hiro sighed in relief.

    "I want the good cookies, none of that store brand bullshit." Inari laughed.

    "So it's settled, Inari and I will be surveilling Miura." Suga stated, "Inspector Yamashita, I would like for you to gather more information on him and make sure he is our only viable suspect."

                                                                                            .

    "You're warming up to Inspector Mari now huh?" Inari grinned widely as she opened up a sandwich she bought from the convenience store. Both Inari and Akahoshi sat in Inari's car as they did their surveillance. Akahoshi Sugawara glared intensely, he knew exactly where Hanako's thoughts and mind were running off to. Although, he was getting along pretty well with the chilling woman, he still found her quite uncomfortable to be around. "She's not as stiff as you think she is. You just have a biased opinion and always compare everyone to this perfect ideal in your head."

    Hanako's comments stung as she glanced over at Suga with a mouthful of sandwich. "I'm not biased. I just don't trust her."

    "Has she given you a reason not to trust her? Has she lied to you? Caused any harm?" Hanako pressed further. Sugawara remained silent as he thought of the stiff inspector. She was probably sitting at her desk right now, even though it was already past midnight and she should be home. "You see, you only hate her because you want to hate her. Yet, she's given no reasons for you to treat her the way you do."

    "I don't hate her." Suga muttered like a child whining in a argument he has already lost. "I just don't feel entirely comfortable around her."  Hanako laughed at her childish superior. He was well-built, handsome and very smart, but she couldn't help be think that he had the emotional intelligence of a five year old.

    "You both make each other so uncomfortable. Don't you think the two of you could put in some effort to get along? It would be n-"

    "Miura." Suga cut off the conversation as he watched Miura walk out of the apartment complex. They had been watching him for about four days with no luck of seeing anything. Section Chief Tanaka was about to give up on the suspect, bur now as Hanako and Suga watched him walk out at two in the morning they weren't so sure they could let him off so easily.

    Miura didn't even glance at his surroundings. Instead he looked angry as he marched towards his car and roughly opened and slammed the door closed after he climbed in. With a low rumble the car engine came to life in the otherwise silent neighborhood. "Where are you headed to?" Sugawara muttered.

    They had ended up following Miura to what seemed like a nightclub he frequented. It's neon lights shone brightly with the words 'Magic Palace' in cursive font. "A strip club?" Hanako thought out loud as they both watched Miura enter the building. "Wasn't the last victim a waitress? Was she a waitress at a strip club?" Suga shrugged before pulling out his phone and dialing Mari's number.

                                                                                            .

       Mari sat at her desk, blankly staring at her computer screen as she read the words over and over again. The overtime was starting to get to her as her eyelids begged for her to sleep. The words distorted themselves and she could barely focus on any of them as she read each one about six times.

    It wasn't until her phone rang that she suddenly became more alert and sat upright. "Inspector Yamashita Mari speaking." 

    "Mari, I need you to tell me about the last victim on the 'suicide' case." Sugawara spoke. "Her name was Umeda Saori." Mari's eyes no longer distorted the words on her computer screen as she typed rapidly on her keyboard. The name popped up and she quickly read over the details.

    "Umeda Saori, twenty-four years old. Cause of death was ruled to be suicide, but is under investigation as a murder. She was working as a waitress at a strip club called Sunnies, but it looks like she also picked up shifts at another strip club by the name off......" Mari's eyes read quickly trying to find the name. 

    "Magic Palace." Mari and Suga spoke simultaneously.

    "How did you know that?" Mari's eye brows furrowed and she grabbed hold of her phone that she had previously been supporting with her shoulder.

    "Miura is finally making a move. It seems like he is a frequent customer at Magic Palace." Sugawara muttered. "Is there anyway we can search up any of his records on credit cards?" 

    "Legal ways?" Mari laughed lightly, but she typed away at her computer regardless. It didn't take her long to bring up Miura's credit card information, but they came out clean. "He's most likely only using cash. He's quite good at making sure he can't be connected to this case."

    "He won't be able to deny frequenting this club." Suga glared at the area where Miura had disappeared into the club. "I'm bringing him in."

    "NO!" Mari yelled making Akahoshi flinch and pull his phone away from his ear. "It isn't solid enough, if you bring him in now we won't have a strong enough case and he'll run." Mari got up from her seat and began pacing back and forth. "We'll need to speak to the clubs staff and gain evidence and witnesses."

    Inari's eyes remained on the club as Akahoshi and Mari argued over the phone. Mari was definitely right, but Akahoshi feared the things Miura could do with in the time he would be running free. "Captain. You know she's right. We can't just rush this. If we do we run the risk of him getting away with everything." Sugawara sighed heavily staring blankly at the obnoxious neon sign once more before nodding. 

    "Alright." Suga hung up the phone and turned the car engine back on before driving off into the night.

    Sugawara stopped at the station and watched as Inari got into her own car and drove off. Stepping out of his car and into the station he mumbled a couple of greetings to the officers on night duty. He had hoped, as he rounded a corner, to not a familiar head of ash gray hair. Mari, however, still sat in her seat. This time her head had finally gone down and she was peacefully sleeping on her keyboard. Sugawara quietly walked over muttered curse words under his breath before sitting across from her.

    He watched her in silence. Mari's strong personality was gone as she softly breathed and was seemingly vulnerable to her surroundings. 

    Suga jumped as Mari spoke in her sleep. She mumbled incoherently making Suga think she had woken up suddenly. "No....Ren...." Suga stood from his seat as he watched Mari's face contort in pain. He could easily tell she wasn't having a pleasant dream as Mari gripped her mouse with tons of force. "You can't." Suga didn't know how to react so he reached for her face, but instead he pulled it back as MAri's eyes shot open.

    "Ren?" Akahoshi was confused as Mari stared at him in a daze. "Captain? Captain!" She shot up from her sleeping position hitting her head on her monitor. "Ow shit." Suga couldn't help it as he let out a hearty chuckle and moved back over to his desk. "What are you doing back here this late?" Mari looked at the time displayed on her computer to see it read an hour past midnight.

    "Gonna quickly type up a report on our surveillance. Why are you still here, you should have gone home if you were just going to fall asleep." Suga hid his smile as Mari stared in disbelief. Suga didn't want to bring up her nightmare so instead he tried his best to steer clear of the encounter. "You've been working pretty late, head home."

    Mari didn't even try to fight him on the subject and merely nodded before packing some things and heading out. "Have a good night Sugawara."

    Sugawara frowned as she was back to referring to him casually although she knew he didn't approve. Although, he was somewhat glad she was her normal self it irritated him that she continued to disrespect him in these small ways. 

                                                                                                .

    It wasn't until the next morning that the whole team could talk and devise a plan on the capture of what they had begun to call 'The Suicide Killer'. Inari had voiced that Miura should be put on full watch, but it was going to be hard as they needed more hands. Aoyama listened carefully as he was filled in on information he had missed.

    "We can't directly surveile him, however, we can gather information to bring him in. We'll need to speak to workers in both Sunnies and Magic Palace." Mari scribbled messy notes on a piece on paper. "If we can't prove anything then it'll be for nothing."

    "We'll need to catch him in the act." Suga looked almost defeated as he stared at his desk.

    "What?! No! That will put someone at risk!" Aoyama refused.

    "We can't connect anyone to the suicides, that's precisely why they were pushed off as suicides." Suga sighed. "Those murder cites were so clean and lacked any evidence that anyone, but the victims were there. If we don't have more concrete evidence it's going to be impossible.