I’d like as much as you can offer, please, no matter how seemingly insignificant. One way or another, his testimony is completely unreliable and the crime scenes were relatively bare.
Completely unreliable? The words garnered an amused smirk from Hakuba, who leaned forward in his chair.
“Certainly, Kirigiri-san. I understand more than most how difficult it is to work with that particular colleague of mine…” Hakuba tried to repress the smile, and cleared his throat with a small, polite cough into a fist. “Ahem.
"The night of the inciting incident found both myself and Hattori-san on the same case, but through different districts as it had crossed some boundaries as far as territory is concerned. In the spirit of erring on the side of caution – redundancy routines, you see – I was asked to make a record of whatever details I could find regarding the culprit’s whereabouts. More of a fact-checking affair, you understand.
"Unfortunately, it was raining quite heavily, and I took shelter in an abandoned cafe that just so happened to be the… exact same that Hattori-san found fitting as he sought respite from the rain.”
Hakuba sighed. “Be it luck or terrible misfortune, I can’t be sure.”