*She didn’t touch the tea quite yet, preferring to focus fully on the story.*
You returned? When was this? And when did you obtain your lighter?
Hakuba added two sugars and a dollop of honey to his tea, then stirred it silently while he considered his answer.
“I returned approximately fifteen minutes after I had left,” he said calmly. Really, it was 13:45:33 minutes, but in recent conversations with others, it seemed that most found that level of detail unnecessary and pretentious.
“The lighter had been in my suit jacket, as it is now, in one of the inner pockets. I unintentionally left the jacket behind when it was requested that I leave. When I returned those fifteen-” he winced, just faintly, at the inaccuracy, “-minutes later, it was gone. Shortly thereafter, Hattori-san reappeared and returned it – but only after some choice, scathing remarks about how ’…something so simple as a cross… inject[ed] fear like a syringe injects hot air into an IV line,’ I believe it was.” Hakuba didn’t bother trying to emulate the Osakan’s awful accent.
“Ridiculous. Honestly, I hadn’t expected my colleague to be a thief, but I suppose anyone is capable of crime."
Hakuba set the stirring spoon aside and sipped his tea.