A Book Can't Be Judged By The Cover

Chapter 124: Connecting The Dots

After heaving an exhale, Kikuchi Koji cleared his throat and spoke. "Well then, if I may, I’ll cut right to the chase." He began. "How are you related to Ricardo Basilio? Are you personally related to him?"

A smile appeared on Masaru’s face as he clasped his hands together. "Before I answer that," He responded. "How are you related to Sasajima Seiji and Sasajima Mizuki?"

"So that’s where we’re starting huh, but I asked the question first." Koji pointed out, clasping his hands together before he exhaled deeply.

"Sigh~ all right. I’ll answer." Even though Masaru didn’t do anything wrong, he raised his hand as if he was held at gunpoint. He then gestured towards Koji to sit down so they could have a much more comfortable talk with each other. "Four months ago... my company was involved with a shipment. You already know that we’re a company that deals with imports, right? That’s why you signed a partnership with us in the first place."

"Right. Continue." Koji’s voice was biting cold. He wanted Masaru to just cut to the chase and get the explanations over with.

Just this morning, Koji received news from a certain source that Masaru was actually connected to a guy named Ricardo Basilio. For a quick background, Ricardo Basilio was actually a wanted criminal who established a crime gang in Japan. He was the ringleader, and he was even considered the leader of a certain yakuza group. Whatever it is... it was fairly obvious that Ricardo Basilio is one of the most threatening yet most influential people in Tokyo, if not the whole of Japan. Some were even inclined to believe that he had connections with the authority, that’s why he could get away with crimes that his men committed.

By a stroke of fate, Kikuchi Koji tasked himself to uncover Ricardo Basilio’s evil deeds and have him locked up in jail for good. But he couldn’t find a hole in the aforementioned guy’s defenses. He was simply uncatchable, and he had been staying under the radar for quite some time now. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

His investigations then led him to Masaru... who was actually connected to Ricardo Basilio’s smuggling. That’s why he didn’t waste any time driving toward his company and setting up a one-on-one meeting with him.

This leads the series of events back to the present.

"I swear on my life... I wasn’t involved with any of his smuggling whatsoever. I delivered some spare parts from China, and then when the cargo came to the port... it didn’t contain any spare parts. I don’t know where it went wrong... someone probably slipped a worker good money... and then that worker changed the cargo before it left the port."

"Understandable... I knew the incident didn’t make it in the news but I was able to dig it up. I’m sorry about that." Koji bowed his head towards Masaru. For a moment back there, he was blinded by his anger and fury. For a moment, he thought that Koji was actually involved with the guy named Ricardo Basilio. For a moment, he doubted his business partner and he felt a little bit guilty about his unjustified actions.

"Now it’s my turn to ask... how are you related to Sasajima Seiji and Sasajima Mizuki?"

For the second time, Kikuchi Koji heaved a sigh. It had already been a year since the two died in a suspicious car accident, but Koji still couldn’t believe that it happened. He was still in his grieving stage. "Seiji and Mizuki? They were good friends of mine... we’ve been best friends since high school."

.....

Unrecognizable faces, indistinct voices, misinterpreted sounds.

The smell of iron wafting in the air.

The whirring of automobiles, an uneven tire slowly rolling around as if to hypnotize.

The distant lights. Police cars. The sticky reddish liquid flows on the asphalt.

The sight of the overturned truck with its driver slumped on the driver’s seat, blood seemed to trickle down his head.

The sight of a masked man... going down the truck and disappearing into the distance while Hajime’s family helplessly dangled on their upside-down car.

The truck’s detached tire, rolling slowly to the opposite side of the road as the cloud darkened— an indication of the coming of the rain.

Hajime struggled as the seat belt wrapped around his body. He wanted to catch the masked man no matter what. But no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn’t get out of the car. The seatbelt continued to tighten, constricting his movements. He struggled to breathe, but his fighting spirit was still evident in his eyes. His futile attempt to escape continued until the seat belt tightened all over his body.

From a distance, he watched as the masked man approached the car to check if he had completed his job. Hajime could tell that beneath the mask, the man was smiling from ear to ear.

And then the seatbelt wrapped all over his head, like a snake trying to choke the life out of him.

...

"HAAHGHK~!!!" When Hajime woke up from yet another nightmare

, he let out a scream that was cut short since there was a shard of glass in his mouth. Wincing in pain, he spat out the shard of glass in his mouth. Blood and water escaped his lips, and he felt a stinging pain on his tongue. Apparently, he had cut his tongue while he was sleeping... but then again, it was a miracle that he didn’t spit out the shard of glass in the middle of his slumber.

Darkness entrapped Hajime, and he felt as if he was suffocating. In the span of a split second, Hajime managed to regain his composure and he immediately concluded that he was inside a car’s trunk. He rolled around, trying to take a peek through the gaps in the trunk’s cover in order to get a vague idea of where he was.

’Megumi. What happened to Megumi?!’ Hajime muttered to himself. He didn’t bother to scream since that would just attract the kidnappers. ’I have to go find Megumi!’

Clank!

Hajime heard someone trying to open the trunk so he immediately grabbed the shard of glass with his hand and rolled back to his original position. By the time the trunk was opened, Hajime was already pretending to sleep.

"He’s still asleep. The kid." Shelly called out. Hajime instantly recognized her voice, concluding that it was the debt collectors who were behind the kidnapping.