"Come on, put your coat on, Ryuzaki! It's cold out here!" Misa insisted, still trying to convince her boyfriend's best friend to dress for the weather.
"It's not my coat if I never agreed to you buying it." the detective said calmly, arms folded in obstinance as he stood outside the door of the police headquarters.
"But I spent a lot of money on it and went to the trouble of it being in a design I knew you would like." she whined, the kitten ear headband she was wearing seeming to droop with her disappointment.
"I don't like clothes in general, so what makes you think I'd like a coat in any design or for an excessive amount of money?" he countered, now picking out dirt from underneath his fingernails.
"We can't work on today's case until you put that on, Ryuzaki." Light finally spoke up, his voice seeming halfway between a sigh and a laugh.
"Ah! Come onnnnn, wear it Ryuzaki!" the model continued pouting.
"No; I already put on a pair of leggings you bought me so the wind wouldn't cut through my jeans."
"Wear it!"
"No; I don't care how many variations of Hershey's kisses you'll feed me when we get back to headquarters."
"Wear it." Misa pulled Ryuzaki by his shoulders so their faces were just millimetres apart. "Or I'll give you a real kiss."
"Yes... my lady." Ryuzaki said quietly, face flushed and an awkward expression spreading across his features.
"Yay! And I was just kidding, Light, I'd never kiss him over you!" Misa said, causing Light to blush and scratch at his hair a moment. Putting the heavy plaid jacket's fur inside on her friend's shoulders, he slid his arms through the sleeves with a sigh.
"Are you happy now?" He asked, looking defeated as the jacket's weight seemed to slouch his already stooped shoulders a bit further.
"Very!" The model confirmed, flipping her blond hair out in the breeze as the three began walking.
"I guess you would be if you found someone to dress up in exchange for sweets." Light interjected smugly.
"Hey! How did you…" Both Light and Ryuzaki's eyes diverted their gaze to her coat pocket, which had the imprint of a rectangle.
"Chocolates, caramels, and peanut brittles are often stored in sleek rectangle boxes…"
"…And the only way you could convince me to wear this is with the promise of candy or humiliation." Ryuzaki finished in his usual monotone. "I'll be taking that now, if you don't mind, I'm going to need it very soon."
The three continued their walk, Ryuzaki in the front and following the directions to the location on the map. These are the instructions to the home of the Hodou family, whose daughter was taken… not giving instructions to headquarters, but only to the three of us, via email indicates shame on their behalf of this situation. It's likely they'll speak only the details they believe they must, and keep personal bits to themselves. It's best to assume their withholding info. Light's thoughts weren't far behind his friend's. In fact, they'll undoubtedly censor their story if they're embarrassed by their lapse in judgement, probably because they feel their responsible for letting their daughter out so late. So if they stop at telling us what she was doing, they might have an idea why the killer took her. With a quiet knock on the door of the house the trio waited; they'd reached the house after only fifteen minutes of walking. "To think we'd let something this close slip past the radar…" Ryuzaki murmured disappointedly to himself. The door opened to a mother in her mid thirties, rueful smile on her face.
"You're the detective team, right?"
"Ah." Light answered, nodding with a gentle smile of his own.
"Well come in then, there's a lot to talk about. I'm Mitsuki Hodou." she replied, gesturing them all into the house. The scent of earl grey filled the place, tea matching the scent set out on the table as a welcome gift. "Please, make yourselves at home, all people function better in comfortable settings." the group sat down in the chairs on the long side, and Ms. Hodou sat at the end. As everyone picked up their tea, she began speaking. "As you all are aware, my daughter, Himetami, has become apart of a small string of kidnappings. She went out at 8:00 in the evening to go on a date with a boy she met, Kutsuko. I wanted her back at 10:30, she was only a small walk from here after all. I thought I could trust her to come back safely… but she never did, and Kutsuko has no car, they're kids with petty yen to spend."
"And that's all you know?" Ryuzaki said, an expectant sigh in his voice.
"I should know more, but I'm growing forgetful in my age." she replied, a half hearted laugh present in her voice.
"Oh, I know what could help!" Misa spoke up excitedly, waving her hand like an elementary genius. "I can name off a number of activities she might have been doing, and that could help you remember. I'm a girl after all, and I've been on loads of dates, so I know what she likes to do if she's the feminine type."
"You're smarter than I thought you were." The woman laughed at Misa's enthusiastic suggestion, and Ryuzaki and Light exchanged a surprised, but pleased glance. "Please do as you've suggested."
"Hey! Liiiight, she's teasing me. Is it because I'm blonde? " Misa pouted playfully for a moment as her boyfriend laughed.
"It's because you're the Daphne of our little mystery gang." He added, petting her hair playfully and giving her a kiss on the forehead.
"Aha, you're right of course." Misa conceded, practically purring at Light's attention. "Anyway, do you think she was at a concert?"
"No, she's a bit sensitive to loud areas."
"Shopping?"
"Don't think so, I bought her some clothes just last week."
"A romantic stroll in the park?"
"Nope, she'd get jealous of the closer couples there."
"Restaurant?"
"I think that's possible."
"Coffee?"
"Getting warmer…" the young mother seemed to have a look of muddled recollection on her face, like the pieces of the mental puzzle were falling into place, but somewhat out of order.
"A bake shop?"
"No, I don… wait. That's right. I remember something now."
"What is it?" Ryuzaki and Light leaned in eagerly.
"Tami… she had a gift card in her hand with a picture of a peanut butter caramel pas…" A loud, whale call like noise sounded abruptly from the third seat on the left; Ryuzaki's stomach.
"My 'gut instincts' are 'telling' me that's definitely for the bake shop you're mentioning." He said, a blush heating his cheeks. Everyone stared for what felt like a century… and laughed, smiles and humoured chortles from all, mother excusing herself. He sighed in relief, mentally high fiveing himself at his killer play off of an embarrassing body betrayal. He fished out Misa's candy offering of earlier from his pocket. Unboxing and unwrapping it, he bit into the white chocolate with macadamia and strawberry swirls. His salivary glands and his brain kicked into overdrive on the earl grey tea and confectionery. So she went on a date to the bake shop… likely only spent about 30 minutes there, Hodou-san called and submitted a case at exactly 10:47 that night… she was likely taken at precisely 10:07 PM, from what it sounds like, she finished her date, and was taken after, while making her way back home. Hence why we never received a call from Kutsuko either, reasonably assuming he had nothing to do with this case… this detail prompted him to speak with the two.
"Light, at what times were the previous victims reported to have gone missing?"
"Uh," he shuffled through some of the files he'd brought with him in his coat pocket. "Between 10:30PM and 9:56PM."
"Those are relatively close together… approximate distance from home at those times?"
"No more than five miles on both sides, and the activities at the time were reported to be similar." Misa interjected.
"And it's all females… this is likely a sex trafficking case." Ryuzaki concluded, the room growing thick with tension for a moment. Light let the construction paper of the folders and files clack loudly against the oakwood table, standing up and pushing in his chair, murmuring "I think we're done here." The rest of the trio followed suit, and the mother was in the living room, looking at a picture of Himetami.
"Hodou-san?"
"Ah, gomen, I seem to have drifted." The woman smiled her kindly smile, hands in her hair, self-consciously. "I take it you're finished for now?"
"Yes, do you know which bake shop uses the image you described on the gift card from last night?"
"Hmm… I think it was called Turtles and Truffles."
"Thank you, we'll have this case finished in no time." Light gave her a reassuring gaze before filing out the door with Ryuzaki and Misa. As the house disappeared from view behind them, Light spoke up again. "Misa," the blonde looked at him as he called her name. "Go on a date with Ryuzaki, around the same time that the previous victims were reported to have left home. I'll be watching from the alleys of the streets as you guys are visiting the shops and libraries. When you two pretend to part ways, I'll be at the corner with a police squad when the guy behind all this tries to take you." Ryuzaki looked over at Light with a reluctant and cautious admiration. It's good I turned back time for us, Yagami Light, otherwise I'd say you were behind this, punishing teens for escaping themselves with attention from someone else.