Silence of the Geisha Horror: Yukis Revenge (11 page)

“My daughter.”

His words hung heavy in the air for a long moment. “Your daughter?”

“Yeah. She was a real firecracker. Kinda like you, but with an actual personality.”

She let out a surprised laugh. “I wonder who she got that from.”

“Right? She got her smarts from her mother though, bless her heart. I...I didn't think I would make it when her mother passed away, but my baby helped me through. She was so strong. She was going to law school, and she took an entire semester off to live with me and make sure my sorry ass ate, and got back and forth from work. I was a wreck.”

“She sounds amazing.”

“She was.” Silence fell again, but she didn't rush along his story. He would continue when he was ready. Yuki could feel the pain radiating from him, but surely there had to be a bit of relief as well. Humans were pack animals, they were not designed to keep grief and loss bottled up all to one's self. “And by sheer will, she got my head on straight. She still lived up here, but she decided to go back to school. She would always tell me that I would book the crooks and she would cook 'em in court. I missed her, but I knew she needed to be in school. That girl's mind was always running. But then...”

“Then?”

“One night she didn't come back. I waited up for her. She always texted me when she was going to spend the night at a friends or go out partying. Heck, she made me text her every night before I went to sleep to make sure I did actually try to get in bed.

“I knew something was wrong as soon as I called and her phone and it went to voice mail. I immediately called the police and we started the search.”

“You didn't have to wait forty eight hours or something?”

“That's just a movie myth. You can report a person missing the moment you think they are. The only catch is if they are an adult that hasn't committed any sort of crime, they can request that the police do not inform you when they are found. That really only happens in stalking cases.”

“Did you find her?”

He shook his head. “Not me. Xavier did. He had officers hold me back. She was-was-” His voice broke and although his back was to her, Yuki knew he was shedding bitter tears. They were so close to each other, both sitting on either corner of the small bed, but that space might as well have been a continent. “He found my little baby pants-less, face down in a storm drain. He wrapped her up in his coat and we called an ambulance.”

He took a deep steadying breath, but Yuki felt like her throat was squeezing too tight to do the same. The pain, the torture in his voice was just awful.

“It turns out she had been on a date with some well-to-do politician's son. On the ride back to campus, he beat her, knocked her unconscious, violated her, and dumped her out of his car like she was trash. My baby, my little Gwen. She wasn't even human to him.

“I brought her here, and this time it was my turn to take care of her. I tried. I tried so hard. But all she wanted to do was sleep. So I let her. I let her have whatever she wanted. But she wanted nothing. It took me two months to figure out that she wanted to
be
nothing.

“And that bastard, the smarmy little monster who hurt my baby? His dad flew him to france before we could get out hands on him. Back then, people were even more biased against victims than they are now. If her daddy's a cop, how could this have happened? She must have just regretted it the next morning. She shouldn't have been out so late if she didn't want to get hurt. That's the issue with women attending college. My little girl was wasting away in this room, missing teeth, part of her vision gone because he beat her skull in so violently with a trophy, but
no
, it must have been her fault. Not some self-entitled rich bastard who thought he was above the rules.”

“I'm sorry,” Yuki murmured. “I'm so, so sorry.”

“So am I. I was stupid then. I still believed in happy endings. I thought I could somehow make her better by filling her world with all the nice things I could get my hands on. A puppy. Flowers. Her childhood friends to visit for talks where she just stared out the window.

“And then, on Saturday, the twentieth of April, at approximately three pm, when I was taking a nap, she snuck into the medicine cabinet and swallowed everything she could. The doctors told me she would have passed out within fifteen minutes. She never woke up.”

His back straightened but Yuki could not be more of a mess. Big, salty tears were streaming down her cheeks, and little hiccups of pain fought their way out of her throat. Gwen had known exactly what she felt. Gwen had fought the same fight that Yuki was struggling with now.

But when she lost, she didn't just let her rapist win. She destroyed the man who had been routing for her all along. She never got to see the grumpy, but still altruistic old geezer he would become. She stole years of happiness from herself, and him.

“I'll never forget shutting off the life support for my little baby, and holding her hand as she slipped away. She was finally at peace, but I knew I would never had that again. I went over and over in my head all the things I could have done to save her. I should have forced her to get up, to move, to fight for the person she once was.

“So, Miss Kobayashi, you can see that I'm not going to make that mistake again. I switched over to the Sex Crimes unit and studied all I could. I went to therapy. I went to support groups. I got smarter. Not for her, for Gwen it was too late. But I was never going to let another girl walk down the road my baby did. So you are going to
get up
and get your ass downstairs to eat if I have to pick you up and carry you there myself, goddammit.”

It took her a couple of moments to compose herself enough to answer. “Okay. I'll get dressed.”

“Good...good.” Slowly he stood, nodded at the wall, and headed back out -closing the door behind him.

Yuki wiped her face with the comfortable, feeling new resolve flow through her. She was not the first woman to be tortured and made a plaything for the rich. She would not be the last. But she was beginning to form an idea.

She managed to get a pair of pajama pants on and a sweater, then headed down the stairs. Her injuries were almost completely healed, but the emotional wounds obviously had a long way to go.

The smell of delicious grilled meat filled her nostrils as soon as she was on the ground floor, and she made her way to the kitchen and sat herself down. As per usual, McAnany sat across from her, passing her a full plate.

Her thoughts were beginning to whirl in a demanding crescendo as she chewed the meal. She lasted as long as she could, before broaching the topic with the equally silent retired Detective.

“Do you even think Buck will just get tired of tormenting me and just leave me alone?”

“Honestly? Probably not. For all we know this is some big game to him and you're giving him the time of his life. He's probably never been challenged like this before.”

“So you think someone will have to stop him or it will never end?”

“Pretty much.”

“And you think the police will stop him?”

“Unless Xavier does some fancy footwork and sniffs out some rats, probably not.”

She dropped the conversation, and just stared at the man, trying to put her thoughts into order. He eventually noticed her gaze.

“What?”

“What would you do if you found that boy that hurt you daughter?”

“He's probably off in some Swiss alp that I'll never get to. No point in thinking about that. I spent years torturing myself with the thought that he got off while my daughter paid the ultimate price.”

“But if you did somehow run into him, what would you do?”

All compassion drained from his face as he gave her a very matter of fact look. “Easy. I'd castrate him. And then I'd let him rot in jail for the rest of his life.”

His answer clicked with something inside of her, and her expression mirrored his own. “I think that's exactly what I'm going to do.”

“
What?
”

“You said it yourself. He's not going to stop. The only way to ever have peace is to make him stop. And get my revenge.”

Part Three

The United States is ranked third in rape related crimes of all countries.

“What? Are you crazy?”

“Probably. But you got a better idea for bringing these bastards to justice?”

He stared at her, incredulous, but she could see a slight bit of agreement in his hardened eyes. He knew she was right from experience.

“No.” He admitted finally.

“Exactly. They're going to continue to abuse the law because no one has ever put them in their place.”

“And you're going to, a five foot nothing Asian woman with PTSD?”

“Who else?”

He shook his head and leaned back in the chair. “You know what, maybe I'm crazy myself. Let's get these sons-a-bitches.”

Yuki couldn't hold off her wicked grin. “Perfect. First, we gotta take out their supports. All those things that leave them feeling nice and secure. Any of them have a girlfriend? We break them up. A best friend? We ruin that too. Business connections? We expose them if they're corrupt.”

“And just how are we supposed to do that.”

She sat up in her seat and donned her most coquettish look she could. “You just so happen to be addressing the number one hostess, the mystic bloom of the orient. No man can resist my wiles.”

“That was almost terrifying.”

She laughed, and dropped the act. “You haven't seen anything yet.” She got up and rushed out.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“To grab my laptop. I think I just found my new hobby, and we have a lot of research to do.”

“You're something else, you know that?”

“Of course.” She paused to look back at him. “Detective White can't know about this.”

He nodded in agreement. “If we're going outside the law, we can't compromise his integrity. This just be me an you, the geezer and the baby.”

“Sounds like the next greatest super hero team.”

“Just grab your fancy computer and bring it down to the study. I'll boot up the desktop. Four hands are better than two for scrolling the web.”

“Thank you.”

“You got it.”

She rushed to upstairs and grabbed her computer, then practically flew back down. For the first time since that awful, devastating night, she had a purpose.

Buck, Jean-Luc and Thomas were going to rue the day that they had ever tangled with Yuki Kobayashi.

She promised them that much.

*

The National Women's Study found that victims of rape and sexual assault have been found to be three times more likely to suffer from a major depressive disorder.

The three men had been nightmares for so long, it was weird to suddenly have such detailed bios on each of them. But after two solid weeks of research, a little creative dancing around the law by McAnany, and some rudimentary hacking, Yuki knew everything there was to know about the unholy trio.

Thomas Reginald was a banker and part of the much applauded London elite. He had been friends with Buck for years. All over there were pictures of the two on the golf course, or attending charity events together. The judge always had a different woman on his arm, but at every event for the past three years, Thomas had the same girl. Either he had a favorite escort, or he had a main squeeze.

A squeeze that turned out to be a rather popular theater actress in jolly ol' London. Her star was rapidly rising, and surely her agents would want to make sure her mounting fame wasn't tied to something as nasty as the rape of an American orphan.

And little ol' Jean-Luc was originally from beautiful France. That enough was enough to get McAnany steaming -no doubt reminding him of the boy that escaped his grasp oh so long ago.

It turned out the weaselly little videographer had immigrated to England after graduating university. According to the web, that's where he became the personal assistant to one Julian Warbucks. Most of the candid online reviews of him described him as creepy, or awkward. He also always had a date for all the events Yuki could find pictures of, but she could tell by the women's postures that they were professionals.

It had taken quite a bit of maneuvering, but Yuki managed to get a hold of his parent's address. Certainly his sweet little mother, Mathilde, would want to know about her darling baby's exploits.

And finally there was the head honcho himself, Mr. Julian Warbucks. He had no family to speak of, and no significant other. He had never been married, and as far as she could find, he was the pinnacle of society in every online article. In fact, he was chosen to host many charity balls and events in the UK. These events kept him relevant and somehow wealthy. The correlation there escaped Yuki.

But what she did know is she had a plan. Take out the girlfriend. Take out the family support. Take out the public approval, and then take away their power. But if she was going to put this plan into action, she was going to need to call in a lot of favors.

She and McAnany both were.

That's how Yuki ended up at the back door of the Black Unicorn on a Monday night.

She stared up at the plain employee entrance. McAnany had been against this, but she knew it needed to be done. Besides, she hoped to go back to work eventually. Being a helpless victim didn't have much of an income.

Finally, she took a deep breath and went inside. Monday was one of the worst shifts, with only three to four girls on the floor at max, and two on call. But Rowena was one of those girls and perhaps Yuki's only hope.

“Sakura, Sakura is that ye? Oh mi god, I 'eard what happened. Are ye okay?”

Yuki couldn't help her surprised looked as the red head bounded up to her from one of the break couches. “You heard?”

She nodded. “Managements been super dodgy about the whole thing, but I did a little diggin'. Mother's right furious.”

“She is?”

“Is she here?”

“Ye. She got in such a row with the owner that they weren't comin' forward with evidence that they demoted her to weeknight shifts.”

Yuki decided it was now or never. “And do you think that's right?”