“Hakuba-san, then. A pleasure to meet you! My name is Karin Kanoya. And what’s this about a case? How old are you? You don’t look any older than me. You’re a police officer?” She frowned, crossing her arms. “I can assure you there aren’t any criminal activities going on here. Feel free to ask me anything you like, though.“
At his sheepish admission, Karin’s smile returned, her attitude melting away in the face of his request. “Of course I have decent eclairs. Best eclairs in the country, if I do say so myself. And I do. And so do three of the nation’s top food magazines.” Laughing, she pulled a pair of tongs from under the counter, gesturing to the display case to her left. “I have chocolate, vanilla, and spiced cinnamon at the moment, but the last one changes every few days. I get bored.“
The young detective listened intensely to everything that the baker said, hesitant, curious… but relaxed in relief at the news about the eclairs.
"Oh, thank God,” Hakuba said, smiling. “I’ll take one of each, please… and a glass of milk if you have it? I can’t tell you how terribly I’ve been craving them."
He stepped up against the counter, eagerly, and remembered that he’d been asked other questions. "Oh, and ah, I’m seventeen. I’m a detective – private consultant, really… for investigations. I work with the police force on cases now and again. The, ah, case I mentioned earlier concerned some break ins recently, actually…”