Chapter 63

For now, Hasegawa-san stuffed everything back into the pouch so it wouldn't be noticed. Then, acting as if nothing had happened, she averted her gaze toward the day after tomorrow and came back our way.

Detective Chikage rose from her seat, put her hands on her hips, and scolded her.

"Ms. Hasegawa, please don't act on your own!"

Hasegawa-san didn't seem willing to admit she'd done anything wrong. Without even looking guilty, she shifted the topic elsewhere.

Instead of talking about Uchima-san's pouch, she started talking about me.

"Huh? This kid—he looks familiar... Is he your boyfriend?"

I nearly jumped at the outrageous misunderstanding. Forcing myself to stay calm, I answered in unison with Detective Chikage, "That's not it." But Hasegawa-san refused to accept it, clutching her stomach and bursting into laughter.

It looked like she'd taken my words as a cover for embarrassment. Detective Chikage pressed a hand to her face as if to say there was nothing she could do.

Nothing I could say would convince her otherwise, so I gave up and decided to wait for time to pass.

To change the subject, I brought up Uchima-san.

"Ah—um... Shouldn't we be talking about Uchima-san? Wasn't there something dangerous inside?"

Hasegawa-san shook her head.

"Ah... this kid seems to have heard about Uchima. He's glaring as if something suspicious might be inside... but there wasn't. Nothing worth noting..."

"Something did fall out, though—"

"Just the pens and memo pads that were inside. And maybe some sugar packets..."

"Huh? Why sugar?"

While I wondered why sugar would be in Uchima-san's pouch, Hasegawa-san sat down and pointed to the side of the table.

Next to the coffee creamers, stick sugar was neatly lined up on the table. She picked up several and showed them to me.

"This, this, this. Exactly the same kind. And I've seen him put a few in before."

Saying so, she boldly stuffed some into her own bag. Don't tell me she was planning to take them home just because the sign said "Please help yourself." Both Uchima-san and Hasegawa-san...

I was too stunned to speak.

Back in her seat, Detective Chikage pulled her smartphone from her pocket and searched, "Is it really okay to take these home?" Not that you'd need to look it up—taking more than you could possibly use is obviously a nuisance to the café.

Thinking about it, something felt off about everything that had happened.

Would a man planning to commit suicide steal sugar from a café? If he intended to use it, it would be a completely pointless act.

Why had I even assumed Uchima-san was planning suicide? Maybe I'd simply taken a clipping from a novel as a suicide note.

To find out, I needed to ask either Detective Chikage or Hasegawa-san whether he had a reason to die. But Detective Chikage was absorbed in her phone.

So I asked Hasegawa-san.

"Um... Could I ask you about the very beginning? There's something bothering me. About the reason he might die. He really had a motive you thought would make him commit suicide, right?"

Her expression turned serious. She nodded at my words and, in a low voice, told me Uchima-san's motive.

"Actually... a few months ago, his younger sister fell down the stairs in this department store and ended up in a vegetative coma... Uchima blamed himself, agonizing over why he hadn't noticed something was wrong before the accident."

"...Blamed himself? As if he could have seen it coming?"

"Exactly. The accident had a cause. His sister... she worked at another café on the fifth floor of this building."

"Hmm... Then—"

"It seems they were really running a black operation. Overwork caused her poor condition and distraction, and she just... stumbled down the stairs..."

Uchima-san had noticed his sister's exhaustion but couldn't do anything. That's why he regretted it. I could accept that as a reason to die.

"That café's really getting slammed, huh. They probably can't even stay open..."

When I muttered that, Detective Chikage contradicted me.

"It's operating normally right now."

"Huh?"

She said, "I couldn't figure out the legal stuff, but I do know this," and showed me the screen of a gourmet site on her smartphone.

"Turns out one of the part-timers was involved in the accident. Reviews from people who've been there say, 'Even after that accident, the part-timer's attitude was the worst.'"

For some reason Detective Chikage stressed the word "part-timer."

"Did something happen with the part-timer?"

"Oh, you picked up on that. She was connected to the accident."

"No, I didn't get it at all. You just said 'part-timer' with a really strong intonation..."

"Oh... did I? Well, anyway. In some comments the part-timer's name is given—it's Haruki. Apparently this Haruki girl was the cause of the accident."

"Why would she be the cause..."

"I asked some regulars on SNS. Seems Haruki's shifts were unusually short, while Uchima-san's sister had an abnormally high number of shifts."

Listening to Detective Chikage, I understood the part-timer's misdeeds.

"In short, Haruki kept pushing her own shifts onto Uchima-san's sister, right?"

"Exactly. The sister was really earnest and couldn't say no. Isn't that right, Hasegawa-san?"

Detective Chikage turned toward Hasegawa-san and asked. "That's right," came the reply. "I've known her since she was little—she could never refuse a favor."

Hmm... Thinking about it, something still felt wrong.

Was what Uchima-san was planning really suicide...?

After hurting his own sister, the café was carrying on as if nothing had happened... I started to tell them surveillance was still important, but Detective Chikage and Hasegawa-san exchanged looks and began to panic.

Sensing something was up, I asked,

"...Don't tell me..."

Detective Chikage stood up, handed me the check and a ten-thousand-yen bill. As I took them, she said,

"The pouch is gone! We've lost sight of Uchima-san...! Pay for me! I'll go search...!"

So that's what had happened.

A bad feeling washed over me. If we didn't find Uchima-san quickly, something terrible would happen. Detective Chikage might not be able to find him alone. I had to search too...!

I dropped the money at the register and shouted, "Keep the change!" as I dashed out of the café.

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