“So do I. Was anything stolen?”

Sakahara shook his head. “No, nothing. And there’s a fortune in

magenes up there. There’s something else, too. ” He pointed to

where some evidence had been bagged and temporarily placed on

one of the crates. “Whoever these people were, they were armed

with machine pistols. ”.

Akiro bent down and examined the guns in the clear plastic bags.

They were caked with blood.

“Don’t the Yakuza use these?”

Sakahara nodded. “Yeah, but they’re not the only ones. If they

were Yakuza, the question is, what would they want with Kanno?

And what happened to Cornwall and the others who came in the

limo?”

“Inspector Katayama?”

They turned at the sound of the voice. “Down here, Sensei, ”

called Akiro.

Yohaku came down the stairs. He got halfway down and stopped,

his eyes wide.

“Are you all right, Sensei?”

“Yes. Simply startled at the strength of the emanations here.”

“You may not want to see this, Sensei, ” said Sakahara. “It’s

pretty gruesome.”

“No, I will come down. I must see. There is something… ” He

stopped at the foot of the stairs and gasped at the horrible sight.

“I’m sorry you had to see this, Sensei, ” said Akiro. “Allow me to

present Inspector Sakahara. He is now in charge of this case.”

“Thank you for coming, Sensei, ” said Sakahara. “It’s a privilege

to meet you. I’m only sorry it had to be under these circumstances.

As you can see, these men—assuming they were all men—were

killed by necromancy. That accounts for the trace emanations

you’ve picked up.”

For a moment Yohaku said nothing. He merely stared around at

the blood-spattered basement storage room, his eyes slightly

unfocused.