Read Online Only a Shadow by Steve Bein - Free Book Online Page A

airspace.
    Bumps was still wheezing, his eyes pinched shut and all his yellow teeth visible, when Mishima and Toyoda approached with a handcuffed Saori. The sunglasses in Toyoda’s black hair were off-kilter, and Mishima had his tie undone, his jacket slung over one shoulder. A crowd of bystanders formed a wide semicircle, centered on Mariko as if choreographed that way, their formation stopping at the border between wet and dry pavement.
    â€œIs it true?” said Toyoda. “Is she your sister?”
    Mariko looked up at the glowing sky and the domes of Plexiglas. Rain pounded the mall’s roof, not half as loud as Mariko’s thundering heart. “Give her to me,” Mariko said.
    â€œWait!” Bumps said as Mariko passed him off. “I’m useful to you! I got information!”
    â€œSure you do,” said Mariko, then nodded for Mishima and Toyoda to leave. Both men stood their ground, their gazes flicking between Mariko and Saori. “That guy you’re holding is a suspect,” Mariko said. “Customarily we take them down to post and book them.”
    Mishima’s chubby face sank, and Toyoda gave Mariko the evil eye, but at last they did as they were told. Mariko shook her head. She didn’t know what it would take to earn these boys’ respect, but apparently running down a fleeing perp single-handedly wasn’t sufficient.
    â€œMiko,” Saori said, “you have to get me out of this.” Her teeth were like her pusher’s, gray where they were not yellow. She’d lost weight since Mariko had seen her last; her cheeks seemed hollow, her lips thin like an old woman’s. Her face was flushed, but not with shame; Mariko could only see indignance there.
    â€œI don’t know how to help you anymore, Saori.”
    The sallow face hardened. “Are you kidding? What are you doing, staking me out now? Those guys came out of nowhere.”
    â€œWell, that makes one thing that’s gone right tonight.” Mariko’s laugh sounded forced even to her. “Shit, Saori, if you had any idea how bad this thing went down, you’d know how bad you’re tweaking.”
    â€œI’m not tweaking.”
    â€œUh-huh.”
    Mariko took Saori by the joint between the cuffs and gave her a gentle shove in the direction the other two had taken Bumps Ryota, toward the pair of squads they had waiting in the mall’s shipping dock. She hated being put in this position. Ever since Saori had started using, all Mariko had ever wanted to do was help. Saori was the reason she’d put in for Narcotics in the first place: to bust the shitheads who would sell to her sister, yes, but also to try to get an understanding of addiction itself. The only understanding she’d gleaned so far was that an addict had to hit rock bottom before recovery. Was getting arrested by her own sister rock bottom enough? Was Mariko helping at all? She couldn’t be sure.
    As she ushered Saori along, she found the mall had become a breeding ground for shoppers, mostly high school girls still in uniform; their numbers seemed to have tripled in the last minute or so. Text messages had summoned them like a wizard’s incantation, exorcising them from every corner of the mall and drawing them all to this one place. Gawking faces passed judgment from every direction, and at least a dozen cell phones had their tiny black bug eyes trained on the fabulous Oshiro sisters. Within the hour every teenager in Tokyo would have received the image from a friend.
    Saori fussed at her cuffs, twisting her bone-thin arms. “You know what, Miko? This is bullshit. You want to stake me out, fine. Just don’t lie about it. Be the overprotective bitch you’ve always been; just come right out and say it.”
    â€œWe were staking out your pusher. It’s not my fault you came to buy tonight.”
    â€œWhatever. I’m not even carrying.”
    Mariko stopped. “Is