detectivephiliac:

Not much, to be honest. The evidence was destroyed well – certainly not the work of an amateur. Even the body didn’t give much, especially since there wasn’t any identification at the time. We carried out the investigation before the officials got there and left afterwards, as Hattori-kun had something he had to attend to.

But the body hadn’t been found until that day, so it presumably was in that dumpster since the day of the murder. Decomposing hurt the evidence and it became difficult to determine even the cause of death… And Hattori-kun admittedly became little help because of the odor and the infestation of bugs.

As said, the cafe was literally nothing but ashes… Nothing was recognizable… Except… except for a cell phone, which Hattori-kun identified as his. It wasn’t functioning – perhaps just a dead battery – but it was among the ash and didn’t appear to have been caught in the fire due to its condition…

The odor gave Hattori problems? Hakuba hadn’t been aware of this tidbit of information. Not that it was terribly uncommon; all decomposing bodies gave off a rather pungent odor once it reached a certain stage… that was just part of the chemical process. Still, he noted that for later, and nodded once again to Kyouko.

“There’s much here that suggests quite a few things to Hattori’s – as you put it so aptly – unreliable testimony. Am I correct in assuming that your current theory is that Hattori-san had something to do with the death of that man that you found, as well as the fire? Perhaps being the cause…”

Hakuba finished his tea and set it on the table, reaching for the kettle to make another cup.

“Also, your tea is getting cold, Kirigiri-san…" 

detectivephiliac:

A separate case brought me to the hospital Hattori-kun was staying at. While looking for someone else, I found out he was staying there.

I had… never exactly met a famous detective before, you see. I much prefer to work in the shadows – but I recognized his name and impulsively decided to check it out myself. He told me about his case and I said I was willing to help, so when he was discharged, he called me and requested my services.

“Understandably…” Hakuba wondered if Kyouko thought of him as a famous detective as well, then… If Hattori-san was worth visiting, perhaps…?  Not that that mattered. He chided himself inwardly. And drank more tea.

“So what is your next step from this juncture, Kirigiri-san? What did you learn when you visited the site?”

detectivephiliac:

… There’s no point in blaming yourself. You couldn’t have forseen it. It’s not as if you neglected to give that possibility a single thought even though it had been staring at you in the face. The possibility didn’t even enter your mind…

*She stopped, some sort of distress or regret flashing on her face for a few moments.*

I feel… the corpse was not responsible for the fire. Culprits wouldn’t exactly return to a scene where they know a fire will start at. They must have approached the fire afterwards for some reason. And if, they happened to be an assailant of Hattori-kun… who ended up unconscious a couple blocks away from the fire…

Hakuba couldn’t be sure, but it almost sounded as if the girl were blaming him. At least, making him partially responsible. Had she meant to sound sarcastic, or was that his own insecurity making him think that? The half-brit wasn’t certain. So he drank more tea. 

After a moment, he lowered the cup again and nodded to her.

“And now with no recollection of what happened…" 

There were a lot of things about this case that bothered him, aside from being all about Hattori and partially about the argument that they’d had. Things weren’t adding up.

"May I ask how you came to be on this case, Kirigiri-san? Specifically – if you know why Hattori-san asked you for your help…”

detectivephiliac:

I see. So you didn’t know… You seem to be fearing the worst – that he is the culprit for this specific incident. He claims he doesn’t remember anything after entering the cafe with you.

We also found a decomposing body not far from there. It was slightly scorched – the clothes at least – and looked like it had been there… well, at least since the incident. Hattori-kun claimed to not know him, but the location of the corpse and the condition seem to suggest he was at the scene of the fire while it was still burning. So… that gives us a witness to the fire.

“No, I wasn’t aware of the building’s demise.” Hakuba scrolled through his phone with one hand, tapping buttons and screens, while reaching for his teacup with the other. 

“Doesn’t remember our interaction… found singed body… Hattori’s injuries…" 

The detective took a sip of tea, then finally glanced back at Kyouko. 

"When I visited Hattori-san in the hospital on the insistence of one of our mutual friends, I did show him the lighter, which seemed to cause him some amount of distress. Whether he was the cause, or the corpse, or someone/thing else entirely… I feel somehow responsible.”

detectivephiliac:

I’m looking for the truth, to put it simply.

The cafe had been burned down to the point where almost nothing remained. Now, assuming you yourself did not burn it down, that means there wasn’t a chance for this lighter to be used. The remains say that you and any other potential witnesses must have been quite a distance away when the fire started, since no one seemed to notice the smoke. At least until it was too late. It takes a fair bit of time for a building to be reduced to nothing but ashes.

Hattori-kun had mentioned the lighter, so I just wanted to verify it.

*She looked at the lighter closely, as if there was a chance of a tiny hidden message on it.

She hadn’t forgotten about Heiji’s cellphone, which was mostly unscathed despite being in that mess, but she wasn’t going to bring that up now.*

The lighter was on the small side and very well-kept. No scratches or scuffs, very clean and orderly. On one side was engraved an ornate crest with a lion and unicorn. On the other side was the inscription ’S. J. Hakuba’ in script. The tool was in perfect working condition, and the only sign of wear was the faintest groove where the thumb rests to flick it open.

Hakuba watched the detective with his lighter, doing his best to behave and not feel too territorial. After all, she was only doing research, and he didn’t need to explain why he owned a –

“Burned down?" 

Startled, Hakuba straightened up in his chair, the fished in his pocket for his mobile phone. "I hadn’t heard that part. I must admit that I turned in my findings and left for London the next morning, withdrawing from the case. I’d intended to look back into it after visiting Hattori-san in the hospital, but other things have called my attention…”

Had Hattori burned it down? Had his lighter been part of that? It was true that it took quite a while to burn down a building of that size and, if done properly, could have quite the time delay between starting and becoming noticeable. 

The half-brit detective looked deeply troubled as he pulled a hand to his chin, considering. But then, what of Hattori’s memory loss and injuries? It could have easily been caused by the very culprit that they were to track down..

“Perhaps I shouldn’t have left him there alone…" 

detectivephiliac:

*She remained quiet for a short time, digesting the information and trying to piece it together.*

And you returned to the very same cafe – nothing amiss at that point? And if it isn’t a bother, could I examine that lighter?

“Certainly.”

Hakuba set his tea cup down and reached into his suit jacket, withdrawing the polished silver lighter. He looked it over briefly before offering it to the girl, 

“And, no… other than Hattori-san’s barbed comment, which might have been poetic were it not for his atrocious accent, there was nothing about the cafe that I noticed.”

He tilted his head curiously, regarding the other detective.

“Might I ask what it is that you’re looking for, specifically?”

detectivephiliac:

*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. 

detectivephiliac:

You have nothing to worry about. I’m not a person who goes around revealing personal information about others. I’m… rather experienced with keeping such knowledge to myself. It makes things much simpler if such knowledge remains unsaid.

Was there more in that discussion?

“I appreciate that, Kirigiri-san, more than I can express." 

Hakuba set one of the cups of tea before the young woman, and gestured to the rest of the tray.

"Please feel free to dress your tea however it suits your preference. As for the discussion… Not really, no. He managed to catch sight of the cross that I wear and made accusations. After a few rounds of insults, I brought up his father and he pinned me to the floor. Although…”

The detective looked thoughtful for a moment, turning to his own tea which he began to sort out.

“I did return a little later to retrieve my suit jacket that I had left. Hattori-san had been through my things and taken my lighter. Upon meeting him again, however, he returned it in a huff, and I parted again. Which concludes the inciting incident." 

detectivephiliac:

*Kirigiri didn’t make a move to grab the tea once it had been brought in – but she watched the woman curiously and said a polite “thank you” when the tray had been set down. She eyed the woman as she left, and once gone, she turned her attention to the other detective once more.*

As you were saying, Hakuba-san?

Hakuba waited until the door finished closing with an audible click, leaving the two to their privacy. They would not be interrupted again for at least two hours, as per usual procedure. The blonde detective checked his watch to take note of the time, then leaned forward again to begin preparing the tea for himself and his guest.

“Thank you for your patience,” he said at first. “Where was I… ah, the topic of conversation.”

Truthfully, Hakuba did not want to explain what they’d been discussing, nor to divulge any of the secrets that the Osakan had managed to uncover that night. But now that another detective had been involved, he knew it would be wise to be forthcoming. After all, evasiveness only hindered accurate deduction and wasted time – which was a crime in and of itself. 

“From what I recall, the majority of our discussion was foolish name-calling and a ridiculous amount of focus on my heritage and his behavior.”  While that was true, it wasn’t exactly accurate either. Hakuba bit his lip, then poured water into the cups.

“Somehow, Hattori-san managed to uncover the fact that I am, in fact, a practicing Christian – at least by some definition of such – and made it a point to reprimand me for my personal and private beliefs. Of which he really knows nothing about. I have no intentions of making this knowledge commonly available, so you’ll have to forgive me if I ask you to keep that on a need to know basis only.”

Hakuba set the kettle down on the table a little too hard to be silent, which startled him. “If it hadn’t been for the cursed Japanese weather, he wouldn’t have found out in the first place! Why had I not thought to bring an umbrella?”

detectivephiliac:

…

I see. I’m… not entirely sure I see Hattori-kun as someone who would do such a thing, but I don’t know your relationship. Nor have I known him for particularly long, for that matter. But… if you don’t mind, could you tell me the subject of your discussion?

“I seem to bring that particular trait out of him more easily than most,” Hakuba admitted casually, shrugging his shoulders as if he were helpless in that regard. Completely innocent, of course.  He sighed again.

“Yes, of course I will divulge…”

There was a knock at the door. Hakuba paused and glanced over, before looking back at Kyouko. 

“Ah, I apologize for the interruption… that will be Baaya with the tea." He looked back to the door again. "Come in.”

The door opened and emitted the elderly woman from before, carrying a tray with tea kettle, two cups, plates, spoons, and an assortment of accompaniments for the tea. She moved into the room briskly, nodding her head to the two detectives as she made her way to the coffee table.She set the tray there, then nodded once more, before heading back toward the door.