Page 31 of The Red Collar
“Thank you for assisting on such short notice,” Hayashi said. He opened a picture of Ozawa on his phone and passed it to the employees. “Take a good look at the picture and tell me if you remember seeing this woman here.”
Hayashi’s phone was passed from person to person, with the employees shaking their heads.
“I know her,” one waitress said. “She was with the group that celebrated here.”
Shinji exchanged a glance with Hayashi.
“What were they celebrating?” the chief asked. “And how many people were there?”
The waitress contemplated before replying, “Fifteen people or so. I think it was a reunion of some sort. That’s what I heard one of them say. He cheered to their reunion.”
Hayashi pulled a drawn portrait of the jogger from his pocket. He had it requested so they didn’t have to show a picture of a strangled man to people and to prevent them from noticing details which hadn’t been made public.
“Did you see him among the crowd?”
The waitress stared at the portrait. “No… Well… I might have. There were so many people besides this group. I distinctly remember the woman because she spilled champagne on the table and I cleaned it up. She apologized and that was the whole interaction.”
“Are there pictures of the event?” Shinji asked.
The manager stepped forward. “We don’t take pictures. Usually clients come with a photographer or they take pictures themselves.”
“What about security cameras?”
“I’m sorry, but we’ll require a warrant to provide any video footage of our establishment,” the manager said, his tone changing from amiable to defensive.
Shinji looked at Hayashi whose gaze had turned into a glower. They couldn’t do much in that case. There had been no crime committed in the restaurant, so the manager was more than within his rights to refuse.
“All right,” Hayashi said. “I’ll get the warrant. These are my contact details.” He handed the waitress a business card. “Call me if you remember anything else. Anything at all,” he emphasized.
Disappointment lingered as they returned to the car. Hayashi grabbed his pack of Mevius, grunted when he saw it was empty and opened the glove compartment, where two other packs were stashed. Shinji’s gaze followed him as Hayashi picked one.
“What?” Hayashi asked.
“You smoke a lot, sir,” he said carefully.
“I’m a stress smoker.” Hayashi shrugged and opened the window before lighting his cigarette.
Shinji raised a brow. “Then… you’reverystressed, sir.”
Hayashi burst into laughter, blowing smoke out of his mouth and nose like a dragon. “Yeah, I guess I am. I’ve been smoking for a long time, but it’s become a more frequent vice in the last three years.”
“May I ask what happened in these past three years?” Shinji inquired, driving the car back to the main street and toward HQ.
Hayashi paused, the earlier amusement disappearing, and he took a drag, then exhaled slowly. “I was promoted.”
“Oh.”
“And well, some other personal stuff too,” he added in a low tone, then fell quiet.
Shinji chanced a glance at Hayashi. He sat slumped in his seat, hand out the window, eyes focused on the buildings and jaw clenched tight. Shinji couldn’t help but wonder what sort of things Hayashi had gone through in his personal life. He didn’t know anything about the chief outside the cases he’d seen on TV. And Hayashi didn’t know anything about him outside their brief discussions in these past few days.
For a second, Shinji was almost tempted to ask, but stopped himself. If he expected Hayashi to share personal details, he’d have to share personal details too if asked. And his personal life in Hiroshima had a worrying amount of supernatural events that he wouldn’t be able to speak about with a non-supernatural. Even if he could share, he’d just end up being called a lunatic, like he had been, many years ago.
~ * ~
On Thursday, Shinji’s phone buzzed as he hurried to put on his suit. He wasn’t a morning person and nearly always ran late. Shoving a piece of toast in his mouth, he checked the messages. One was from the chief which read “I’m here” and the second was an answer from one of Ozawa’s friends who had reached out wanting to meet with them.
Good news among more great news as last night a liaison from the Onmyoryo had contacted him. They’d scheduled him for a meeting next week on Wednesday evening. He was going to get hisreiryokuunsealed and be able to use his full powers then finally get a jurisdiction assigned in Tokyo.
