Disclaimer: Detective Conan is not mine. This fanfic is a translation.
Enjoy Reading!
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April 13, Tuesday.
After finishing the report on an accidental case he had solved two days ago, Ritsu noticed Hayasaka fast asleep, slumped over her desk.
After nearly two weeks of working together, Ritsu felt that, despite her lack of experience, this female officer wasn't bad. At the very least, she was hardworking, willing to put in the effort, and especially skilled when it came to writing reports and summaries.
After reviewing her file again, he discovered she had majored in literature in college. No wonder she was so good at writing.
Once Ritsu finished packing up his things, he stood up, ready to wake her and head off work together. But just then, the phone on her desk rang loudly.
"Ah! Mamoru, don't go!"
"…"
As Hayasaka groggily opened her eyes and realized her superior, Inspector Sasajima, was standing in front of her with a complicated expression, she hurriedly wiped at the nonexistent drool at the corner of her mouth and nervously asked, "I-Inspector, what do you need?"
Ritsu patiently pointed at the still-ringing phone, raising an eyebrow without saying a word, clearly curious how long she would stay half-asleep.
Hayasaka's disconnected brain finally rebooted. She quickly grabbed the phone and answered in a gentle tone, "This is Hayasaka from First Investigation Division, Unit Three. How can I help you?"
After hearing the details on the other end, she immediately realized there was no chance of getting off work early today to rewatch her favorite Sailor Moon episodes… Mm, Mamoru must have missed her so much that he briefly appeared in her dream.
"Inspector, there's a missing person case that needs us to investigate."
"Have them send over the missing person's details, along with the approximate time and location of disappearance. Don't drive, we'll go together. I'll pick you up tomorrow morning."
"Okay!"
Normally, missing person cases wouldn't be handled by the First Investigation Division. However, the officer previously in charge had been unable to locate the missing girl, so they had no choice but to seek help from Ritsu, who had recently achieved the highest case-solving rate and happened to be available.
After nearly two weeks of working together, this was Hayasaka's first time sitting in the passenger seat of Ritsu's supercar. She suppressed her excitement while using her phone to communicate with the officer previously assigned to the case.
From Hayasaka's explanation, Ritsu learned that the incident occurred on a day off from Hamura Public High School. The missing girl, Morishima Mao, had planned to go to her part-time café job to learn how to brew coffee.
Morishima Mao lived at 1-10 Mizuhomachi, Hamura City, and the café where she worked was located at 1-15 Hanehigashimachi. If she took the bus, the trip would take about 20 minutes.
She had arranged to arrive at the café at 1:30 PM on April 10. She left home at 12:30 PM.
A 20-minute trip, yet she left an entire hour early.
Ritsu frowned slightly. "Didn't she go straight to the café?"
"No. She rode two extra stops and went to Hamura Department Store. Surveillance cameras on the first floor in the cosmetics section captured her."
"What were the times she entered and left?"
"1:04 PM and 1:28 PM."
The latter time was already dangerously close to her scheduled arrival at the café. Could it be that the missing girl had no sense of time?
"How was her behavior at school? Did anyone ask?"
Hayasaka flipped through her notebook and answered, "Her grades were quite good, she consistently ranked near the top of her class. She was also very popular at school. According to her close friend Nagakawa, whenever they made plans, Morishima would always arrive 10 to 20 minutes early. She was never late."
A contradiction appeared.
The missing girl clearly had a strong sense of punctuality, even a habit of arriving early. So why would she leave home early, only to linger at a nearby department store until she was nearly late?
With only two minutes left, it would've been impossible to reach the café on time. For someone that disciplined about time to break her own pattern, there were only two possibilities.
First, she accidentally lost track of time and ended up late.
Second, the agreed meeting time at the café had been altered.
Ritsu glanced at his watch. There were about five minutes left before they reached the bus stop near where she disappeared.
"Besides the female employee who answered the phone, who else was at the café that day?"
"Other than the female clerk Sato, there was a male employee Takahashi and the café owner Yamamoto," Hayasaka replied while checking her notes. "Oh, right, Morishima made two phone calls before she disappeared."
"Who did she call?"
"Both calls were from another close friend, Ashiya. The first call was at 1:40 PM, right when Morishima arrived at the bus stop. The call lasted just over twenty seconds. She said she had reached the next stop and was heading to the café, then hung up."
"The second call was at 1:46 PM, six minutes later. Ashiya said the second call seemed to be made indoors because it was very quiet."
"What did they talk about?"
"Morishima said it wasn't convenient for her to talk at the moment and that she would call back later. Then she hung up again, also about twenty seconds."
Both calls were very short.
In just six minutes, she went from outdoors to indoors. But could a café in operation really be that quiet? Grinding coffee beans and brewing coffee both produced noise.
Which meant, the "indoors" she had reached… definitely wasn't the café.
Ritsu parked near the bus stop. A streetlight flickered due to a malfunction, but it was still enough to make out the buildings shrouded in the night.
The first floor housed the now-closed café, while the second and third floors appeared to be residential units, a very common structure in Japan.
"The officers who handled this case for three days, did they identify any suspects?"
"Yes. Their main suspect right now is the café owner, Yamamoto Kenji."
Ritsu raised an eyebrow. That matched his own suspicion. But if they had already identified a suspect, why hadn't they solved the case? That was what puzzled him.
"Did they search Yamamoto's residence?"
"Yes, they did. They didn't find anything unusual… Well, actually, there was something. On the bottom shelf of his bookshelf, they found quite a few… videos with themes of confinement."
Confinement.
"The police didn't arrest him because he has an alibi?"
Hayasaka nodded. "According to the staff, Yamamoto left the café at 1:30 PM after noticing Morishima hadn't arrived on time. The employees also confirmed that Morishima never showed up at the café that day."
Leaving without even confirming whether she was on her way didn't make sense. Not to mention, they had her contact information. Even making a quick call before leaving would have been more reasonable.
"Can you have the officers send over the two surveillance clips from the department store?"
"I'll contact them right away!"
While Hayasaka made the call, Ritsu began observing the surroundings.
He measured the distance from the bus stop to the café entrance by simulating a girl's walking pace. It was less than twenty meters, barely a one-minute walk, even at a slow pace.
The gap between the two phone calls was five minutes.
She didn't enter the café so where did she go indoors?
Ritsu walked back to the bus stop and stood there, staring at a bakery about twenty meters away.
Where did she go?