Ignatius Kobayashi and the Desperate Fool

Untitled Part 1

"If that's true, then it couldn't've been the wife." Kobayashi's frown deepened as he scratched 'wife' off the list of suspects.

"Why not?" complained Bernard Levitt. "You said she told you she wasn't happy with the marriage. And she had a motive, too. The money!" As he spoke, he jabbed a fat finger at the young investigator's mahogany desk.

"Not that much money, since her husband was accumulating quite a hefty amount of debt. She also has a bulletproof alibi."

"Not bulletproof..."

"She was at her lover's house at the time, Mr. Levitt. The man confirmed it."

"But what if," Bernard started slowly, his thick brow furrowed in concentration, "what if they're both lying! What if they did it together, huh?"

The younger man shook his head. "There was only one set of footprints leading from the garden to the street. Looking at the prints, anyone could tell that the person who made them was light and had fairly small feet. The lover, well... He's neither. He's a gorilla, to put it bluntly."

A vein on Bernard's forehead pulsed. "I'm sick of this. Let's take a break."

"No. We don't have time for breaks."

This was answered by an exasperated groan.

Kobayashi sighed, adjusting his rectangular glasses. "Look, we need to solve this, and we need to solve this quick. We need to figure out who would stab a fairly wealthy middle-aged man to death in his own garden at 11:23 at night and then proceed to drag the body out into a car and drive away. We've already eliminated the neighbours– they were on vacation. The maid-- she had just gone home. The son-- he was asleep before the maid left. The wife and the wife's lover, we just talked about them... We still haven't gone over the ex-wife, the estranged daughter... Well, we need to get to the bottom of this as quickly as we can."

"I can't do this anymore." Levitt leaned forward to rest his balding, dome-like head on Kobayashi's desk.

"You have to."

"I don't even know what to do!"

"We just need to go through the list of suspects–"

"'We just need to'? Easy for you to say!" Bernard retorted, "You're the one who's the private eye! I'm just a regular person! Why do I have to help you with this?"

Kobayashi frowned, fiddling with the silver watch around his slim wrist. "Where are you going with this?"

"I wish I hadn't done it," Levitt grumbled into the desk.

The investigator froze. "Excuse me, but I didn't quite catch that."

The larger man lifted his head to meet the other's eyes. "I wish I hadn't done it."

Kobayashi was still for a moment before he sighed deeply and removed his glasses. He put them down gently onto his desk and pushed out his chair to stand.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Just opening the blinds." The young man walked a few paces across the thin grey carpet until he reached the window. It was situated on the wall left of the desk, and when the blinds were opened, pleasant sunlight flooded the room. Ignatius Kobayashi's office was on the sixteenth floor of his building; as he looked out the window, he could survey the parking lot beneath him. He gazed down at the rows of little cars, waiting. "See? Much better, isn't it?"

"Are you even listening to me?" asked Levitt.

"I'm listening. I just don't think that statement warrants a response," the investigator said, keeping his voice even.

"What do you mean!?" Bernard shouted, standing up. "You don't care that I regret this?"

"We don't have time for your regrets."

The older man growled and stomped to the centre of the room. "I wish I was back at home."

Kobayashi finally looked away from the window and back at his client. "With your cheating wife and your son who never speaks to you?"

"Yes. Better there than here with a private eye who can't do his job."

"I'm trying, Mr. Levitt."

"Not hard enough!" the middle-aged man spat. "What if you fail, huh? What if people find out what we've done? Aren't you scared of that?"

Kobayashi chuckled and shook his head. "Not at all."

"Why not? We've been here for an hour and we're no closer to being able to frame someone than we were when we started!" shouted Bernard, his pudgy cheeks red with anger and his forehead vein throbbing dangerously

"You're forgetting to trust me," the detective said with a smirk.

"I don't know why I ever did!"

As Ignatius Kobayashi grinned wickedly at the other man, the sunlight shone through his short black hair, making it look red, red like fire. "It's simple, Mr. Levitt. You were desperate. You were unhappy with your life; so much so that you were willing to pay me to help you fake your own murder. You were desperate, and so you were foolish. You're about to reap the consequences."

Bernard's expression suddenly turned from rage to terror. "Consequences? What do you mean? What are you going to do to me?"

"Me? Nothing! The police outside, however..." The slim man cocked his head towards the window. "They're going to arrest you for fraud, forging a death certificate, tax evasion, delinquency on loan payments, and perhaps more."

"B-but..." the older man stammered desperately, "You'll be charged, too! For helping me!"

Kobayashi shook his head. "Helping you? No. I told your wife and son about your little plan before we even got to work. I never even interviewed anyone else. I was the one who called the police, anyway, so I have done nothing against the law."

Bernard went pale, the infamous vein shrinking away in fear. "No, no... You're joking, right?"

"Unfortunately, I'm not. Well, look on the bright side. You've certainly escaped from your old life, haven't you?"