Chapter 11

Satoshi stared at his desk blearily. Last night, Dark had led him and his men a merry chase. He had run them in circles, and the chaos had concluded with one of his lieutenants mistaking another officer for Dark and hitting the unfortunate fellow with a Taser. Dark had gotten away with the statute and Satoshi had been up until dawn with the paperwork. After he finally managed to leave the station, he had gone back to his apartment for an entire hour and a half of sleep.

The commander had drunk half a pot of coffee before coming to school in an attempt to wake himself up. It's hadn't worked. Instead, he was still tired, but now his hands were shaking slightly from the excess of caffeine.

And to top it all off, Niwa looked perfectly fine for a person who had likewise been up for most of the night.

It was not an auspicious beginning for a day that had the potential to be so extremely important.

The entire morning passed in a haze, although Satoshi dutifully took his usual thorough notes. As soon as the lunch bell rang, however, he headed for the roof. The commander pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed the number he had found in the phone book that morning.

"Yamamoto Tailoring," a pleasant voice answered.

XXXXX

Daisuke bounced up the stairs to the roof. He'd been eating lunch with the twins and Saehara, but he'd excused himself to talk to Hiwatari.

He pushed open the door to the roof just in time to see Satoshi lower his cell phone and turn it off.

Huh. I wonder who he was talking to, Dark said with lazy curiosity.

Who knows? Daisuke shrugged.

I didn't know he talked to people other than you.

Dark, he works on the police force. I'm sure he talks to people other than me all the time.

Dark considered this. You're right. He wasn't talking to you, so he must have been talking about me.

Daisuke rolled his eyes. Not everything in the world is about you.

It should be, the thief said cheerfully.

Satoshi approached him. "Yes, Niwa? What do you need?"

The redhead smiled. "I just wanted to talk to you for a little bit."

The teen stared blandly at him. "Why?"

See, this is why no one talks to him.

Daisuke sighed. "I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to be late this afternoon. I have some errands I have to run first. Sorry."

"Actually, that works out well," Satoshi said, unexpectedly. "I can't research today. I have an appointment after school, and I don't know how long it will take."

"Oh," Daisuke said in concern. "Are you sick?"

For some reason, the commander looked surprised. "No, why?"

"Well," the redhead began, "You said you had an appointment, and I just assumed it was with a doctor." He looked over Satoshi appraisingly. "To be perfectly honest, Hiwatari-kun, you look awful."

The older teen gave him a wry look. "Thank you, Niwa."

"Seriously, are you okay?" Daisuke asked worriedly. "Was it…Krad?"

"No," the commander said with an impatient sigh. "Just very little sleep, that's all. Chasing Dark all night is not exceedingly conducive for getting the recommended eight hours."

"Sorry," Daisuke said, flushing slightly.

Satoshi looked at him oddly. "It's not your fault, Niwa."

"Yeah," the redhead sighed. He brightened and attempted to change the subject. "So what's your appointment about, then?"

"Research," the commander said neutrally.

Daisuke recognized a warning when he heard one and dropped it. "Cool. I guess I'll see you later, then, okay?"

Satoshi nodded and returned to his spot.

Why'd you back off? Dark asked, confused. I mean, 'research' could mean anything. It could have been important.

Hiwatari-kun didn't want to talk about it, he said as he walked towards the stairwell. I'm not going to push it.

Dark sighed deeply, but didn't say anything

Waving back at the seated teen, Daisuke bounced back down the stairs to Riku-san and his other friends.

XXXXX

"Thank you for agreeing to see me, Yamamoto-sama," Satoshi said as he stepped over the threshold of the small tailor's shop.

"Not at all," the old woman said cheerfully. "It's rare enough to find a teenager interested in the old days." She led the way past the sales room and through a small storeroom into the part of the building where she obviously lived. Yamamoto motioned the teen to a faded sofa and sank into a threadbare armchair. "You said on the phone that you were trying to solve a mystery. How can I help?"

"You were a seamstress here forty years ago, correct?" Satoshi asked, sitting down carefully.

"Yes," Yamamoto acknowledged. "In this very building. I made dresses for most of the well-to-do women in town."

"Costumes as well?"

The woman nodded.

"Have you kept records of sales from back then?" Satoshi pulled out a blown-up copy of the newspaper photo of the mysterious woman. "Would you be able to find out if you made the costume for this woman, and who ordered it?"

The old woman took the picture and studied it carefully. She shook her head. "No, I got rid of all those old records when I switched all of my bookkeeping to computer."

Satoshi's heart sank. Tracing the woman through her costume has been his last lead. A dead end to all those weeks of research. Concealing his disappointment, he stood. "Thank you for your time," he began.

"Where are you going?" Yamamoto demanded. "I don't have the records, but I don't need them, I still remember the dress."

Hope flared on the commander's face before he could control it. "Who ordered the dress?"

The woman looked at him appraisingly. "Why do you want to know?"

Satoshi was silent for a moment. He considered telling her that it was a police investigation and that she, as a civilian, was required to cooperate. But Satoshi had been trained from birth to notice detail. Moreover, he was a Hikari with an artist's eye. And when he looked at the old woman's frail form, he saw the steel beneath.

Strong-arm police tactics would not work on her. "I can't tell you…but I'm worried about a…friend. I need to know," he said simply.

Eyes that had lost none of their cunning or intelligence stared back at him coolly for a moment, and then softened. "You look like you have a good soul." She nodded once decisively. "Her name was Kobayashi Rika. She and her mother were some of my best customers. They were here at least once a month."

"Thank you," Satoshi said sincerely.

She waved the thanks away and studied the picture again, lost in reflection. "The style that winter was for big and elaborate, lots of ruffles and layers. Rika went to the other end of the spectrum and chose a costume that was simple and flowing. It allowed her beauty and grace to shine through unhindered." Yamamoto looked up at Satoshi and smiled. "It's a shame that you can't see her face; Rika-san was a true beauty." She paused. "Would you like to see a picture of her?"

"Very much," Satoshi said as he stood up.

The old woman started to struggle her way out of the deep chair. He courteously offered the woman a hand up, and she smiled at him. "Rika-san was a good friend of my daughter," Yamamoto said as she led the way to a closed door further down the hall. "They were almost the same age. My Kasumi was a year or so younger, but they played together as children. They remained close when they were grown. In fact, Kasumi was the nanny to Rika-san's daughter for a few years. But then Kasumi died, and Rika-san did not come here anymore."

She pushed the door open. The room was clearly old-fashioned, and just as clearly belonged to a young woman. Although a few storage boxes rested here and there, for the most part the room must have been exactly as the girl had left it.

Yamamoto sighed. "I keep meaning to come in and clean this room out, but I can never make myself do it. Kasumi was my only child."

"I'm…sorry?" Satoshi offered, feeling awkward. The majority of his research experience thus far had been studying old books. He didn't have much experience in interviewing people. That was something detectives did. Not special commanders.

She smiled. "You're sweet for listening to an old woman babble." She walked over and picked up a framed photo. "This is Rika-san and Kasumi when they were about sixteen."

Satoshi picked up the offered photo, looked at the two girls, and promptly almost dropped it. Kobayashi Rika bore a distinct resemblance to Harada Risa.

That was a complication he had not considered.

The bell over the front door of the shop chimed faintly, and the woman turned. "I must have a customer." She looked back at Satoshi and smiled apologetically. "Do you mind?"

Satoshi shook his head and took a step towards the hall.

"Oh, feel free to look around. Maybe you can find something that would help your friend," she said, motioning him to stay. "Just…be careful."

"Of course," Satoshi said with a slight bow.

And with that, Yamamoto left. Mentally shrugging, Satoshi moved along the perimeter of the room. The normal accessories were there: bed, desk, and bookshelf. There were several framed photographs of Kasumi through the room, often in the presence of Rika. Satoshi passed by the bookshelf, and casually scanned the titles. There was an outdated assortment of romance novels and thrillers, along with a surprising number of history texts, many of which Satoshi recognized from his own research. As he looked over the books, a glint caught his eye. One of the hardbacks at the very end of the bottom shelf was unlabeled, and a gold chain appeared to mark a page. He picked it up out of curiosity and riffled through it. The gold chain was attached to a locket, and the book appeared to be a journal. Satoshi was about to close it when the words 'Rika's mysterious stranger' in the entry caught his eye.

With a slight guilty glance towards the open door, Satoshi opened the journal. And once he began to read, he could not stop.

As he finished the last entry, a sickening suspicion was beginning to arise in his mind. Satoshi pulled a small camera from his pocket and photographed the relevant entries. He had just put the journal back in its place on the shelf and slipped the contents of the locket away into his pocket with the camera when he heard Yamamoto's footsteps.

"Thank you very much for your assistance," he said formally, bowing slightly.

"Are you finished already?" she asked, nonplussed.

"Yes, thank you." Satoshi moved toward the door.

"Did you find anything?" the woman asked, falling in beside him as he walked.

Satoshi's heart twisted. "Perhaps."