Shinichi heard his phone chime and looked up from the research book. He slipped off his glasses and tossed them on to the desk along with the book and crossed over to the table. After rummaging through the documents he found it under the fifth file and above the autopsy photos.
A text? He swiped his phone keypad and unlocked it. An unknown number usually meant one of two things. His mother was using a payphone or a hotels or a certain thief that liked to send cryptic riddles and puzzles. Opening it he found that it was nether. Eyes narrowing he hesitated over the text bar.
[text]: who is this?
Alas, poor Shinichi; once Hakuba was out, he was completely out until well into the next morning. Friday found him with a cold, wet nose digging under his palm, then a tongue licking his face. He blinked, groggy, and pushed away from the wriggling dog with a half laugh, half whimper. “God, Twig, what the bloody hell are you doing?”
She responded by stretching out on her belly, front paws batting at his face while her undocked tail waved back and forth eagerly.
“You’ve been stuck in here all night, haven’t you? All right, all right… I’m getting up."
It took him a while to get out of bed and dressed enough to take her outside, but soon enough he was in the back garden, relaxing on the bench next to the koi pond, checking the messages on his phone while sipping a cup of green tea. Although he didn’t intend to stay with his father long, it was at least nice that he still had staff around to make it for him.
Kudou’s message confused him at first, but then he sighed. Right. It had been a pain to track down Shinichi’s number, but he’d thought it necessary. Perhaps he should have asked for it via email… but then, he did say that he would call. Kudou should have been expecting it.
[text] Hakuba Saguru. Apologies; I should have mentioned that earlier.
Hakuba glanced up from his phone and watched Twig sprint across the yard, then looked back at his phone, wondering if he should add anything else.
[text] It seems that I’m just as much a ferret despite having been retired.