A/N: Thanks to all of you who voted so far! Be sure to vote if you haven't already! Currently, the first-person-POV from Hiyori's POV is in the lead. Will continue to put in updates. :)

Chapter 12: Kanami Is Missing

Sitting at her father's desk, Kanami rolled a pen back and forth along its surface. Presently, Inspector Etou was going over a summary of their findings with Hiyori and Sergeant Tanaka. However, the Minoseki Toji was only half paying attention. The gears that would normally be whirling in her brain were now rusty and stuck. Something was preventing Kanami from concentrating—something one of the suspects said at the theatre earlier in the day.

'What was it? What doesn't feel right?' she thought.

Still lost in thought, Kanami reached into an open bag of chips on her father's desk. Sergeant Tanaka always had a habit of leaving his snacks lying around wherever he went—much to Inspector Etou's annoyance. The crunching sounds Kanami's mouth made reached her father's ears right away. Sergeant Tanaka had eaten enough chips and left enough crumbs on his office floor to make Inspector Etou hate any loud munching period.

"Kanami, pay attention!" he snapped.

Jumping a few feet in the air, the Minoseki Toji nervously apologized, rubbing her neck awkwardly. Inspector Etou shook his head in exasperation before turning back to the whiteboard. On it were their new clues.

Nishiyama Maina: Pregnant with Kawamura Taiyo's child. Could have bumped off her husband to be with her lover. Wanted the house insurance money for herself.

Kawamura Taiyo: Refer to Nishiyama Maina. Had similar motives.

Chizuru/Shino Akira: May have wanted money from the victim's will. May have wanted to avenge her mother.

Matsuno Jun: Was stealing money from the victim.

Kishinouye Hiroshi: Had a dislike for the victim. Planned on firing him.

Kishinouye Yoko: Refer to Kishinouye Hiroshi. Had similar motives.

"Well, we have them all here—as many leads as we could uncover for now," Inspector Etou sighed. "At present, all we can really do is think. I suggest we close our eyes, sit back, and do so. Someone killed Nishiyama Keishi, but the question is who?"

For the next ten minutes, none of them spoke. Sergeant Tanaka, who had a tendency to easily get distracted, unfortunately, lost his train of thought quickly. It was an unlucky mannerism that he always attributed to his below-average grades, during his school years. The sergeant instead started internally singing the lyrics of a new catchy country song he recently heard.

Hiyori's thoughts, on the other hand, were more focused.

'It's true that I don't think Nishiyama Maina and Kawamura Taiyo are involved in this mess. The woman, for one thing, doesn't seem to have the brains for it, nor the nerves. Something tells me the arson idea was Kawamura Taiyo's. But the murder! What about the murder? I suppose Matsuno Jun could've done it—he always struck me as an untrustworthy man. But Chizuru was with him the entire time...unless they're both in on it. God, this whole case just confuses me. Even doing paperwork at the bureau is easier than this... Shoot—did I give those documents to Director Maniwa yet?'

And from there, Hiyori's mind was preoccupied with stress of a different sort.

More accomplished with his work, Inspector Etou's thoughts ran as follows:

'It must be Matsuno-san. Without a doubt, this whole deal with the stealing must be part of a grand money-laundering scheme. And if there was blackmail involved too on Nishiyama Keishi's part—which I wouldn't be surprised of—Matsuno-san must've finally got spooked and put him out of the way. Yes...that must be it...'

Resting her head on her father's desk, one would've thought Kanami was asleep. But in reality, her brain was once again active and more so than those of the other three investigators. When she, at last, opened her eyes, she thought, 'If my theory is correct...then all along this crime was committed not out of murderous spite, but out of heartbroken pain.'

Later that night, Sergeant Tanaka and Hiyori left the Kamakura Police Station to go home. However, Kanami and Inspector Etou stayed in the latter's office, hunched over the flickering light of the desk lamp. They were resolved on staying up the whole night, no matter what. Only a few people were working the night-shift, so it was relatively quiet.

After a few hours of just staring at his computer screen, Inspector Etou was becoming too cross-eyed. Fatigue won over his determination to work late and within a couple more minutes, he was snoring away at his desk. After wrapping a blanket around her father's shoulders, Kanami took out the small notepad and pen she always carried in her uniform pocket.

She wrote first: Morning meeting over coffee. The Minoseki Toji bit the top of her pen perplexedly, before letting it flow across the page.

'Shino Sayuri...Shino Sayuri...' she internally repeated.

With a frown, Kanami turned her father's laptop towards her before searching up the kidnapping case. The details were all there, clear and straightforward—but Kanami was no longer looking at them. She was now fixed on a few pages of letter paper in front of her.

Flinching slightly as she dipped her toe into the water, Hiyori inched herself slowly into the bathtub. A hiss escaped her mouth as she tried to adjust to the steaming hot temperature. Relaxing a little, she let out a sigh before resting her head against the edge of the tub and closing her eyes. The aromatic scent of her lavender mint bath salts wafted through the air, as she let herself enjoy this quiet moment. This was the time Hiyori liked best in the day—the time when she could have her evening bath, free from the eyes of publicity.

"Is there anything else you need, Hiyori-sama?"

The ebony-haired girl turned her head slightly to where Sanae was standing respectfully to the side. In her arms, she held Hiyori's towel and bathrobe.

"Care to lend a friendly ear?" asked Hiyori.

"Of course," the silver-haired girl said with a smile.

She laid Hiyori's things along a towel rack and knelt down next to the tub, not caring if her apron and black dress got wet. Secretly, Sanae was glad to be her mistress's special confidante. When she first met Hiyori at the Heijou Institute, Hiyori seemed to have an impenetrable wall around her. She had struck Sanae as someone who was trying to hide a lot of hurt. And yet, despite several attempts to get closer to the mysterious girl, Sanae never succeeded. Undeterred by the seemingly hopeless situation, the silver-haired girl was an understanding person and knew that Hiyori would open up with time. And in order to understand her, Sanae was willing to be patient.

She never would've thought she'd end up being Hiyori's closest friend within the walls of the Origami Family Estate. Sanae's heart warmed a little at the special and comforting feeling. And as Hiyori's lady's maid, she was determined to remain fiercely loyal to her mistress. Making Hiyori happy was all Sanae needed to be content. Her heart ached whenever her mistress seemed sad or cross.

"You can tell me anything, Hiyori-sama," Sanae said.

Comforted by the silver-haired girl's reassurances, Hiyori related everything she learned during the day. Sanae listened intently, never interrupting once, despite the numerous questions she had on her mind.

"How sad! That pretty woman, Chizuru...being the daughter of Nishiyama Keishi and Shino Sayuri. I wonder how she felt being the product of such a violating crime," Sanae said, as she helped dry Hiyori off.

Tying her bathrobe tightly around her, Hiyori sighed, "The thing is I don't know which of them it is."

"I'm sure Etou-san knows already," Sanae reassured. "She is the greatest Toji detective in Japan after all."

"She's the only Toji detective in Japan," Hiyori snorted sarcastically.

"There's something other than this case that bothers you, isn't there?" Sanae said.

Hiyori couldn't understand how she read her so easily. But there was no use denying it.

"Sometimes I just feel there's a great difference between the intellect of Kanami and I. It makes me rather ashamed of myself," Hiyori admitted.

To her surprise, her lady's maid warmly smiled. "Hiyori-sama, have you forgotten? You were the one who deduced that Nishiyama-san and Kawamura-san were lovers and the perpetrators of the arson. You did that on your own. Don't think that you aren't a great detective yourself."

"Thanks, Sanae, for reminding me. That...that means a lot."

The silver-haired girl's lips turned up once again and she consolingly put a palm against Hiyori's cheek. "I'll turn down your bed for you."

Hiyori never ended up falling asleep that night. For hours and hours, she tossed and turned in the bedsheets, before eventually staring up at the ceiling. In the end, the Origami Head gave up and decided to go over to her writing desk. She could at least do some paperwork instead of just lying on her back. Hiyori wasn't sure how long she worked for, but it was her phone ringing that woke her up. Cringing at the drool that was on the document she fell asleep on, Hiyori groggily reached for her cellular device.

"Hello?"

"Hiyori-chan, I finally know who it was that killed Nishiyama Keishi!"

The sun shining through his window blinds was what woke up Inspector Etou. With a rheumatic grunt, he stretched his limbs. It felt as though tight bounds around him were snapped free as he tried to get the stiffness out of his body. Rubbing his bloodshot eyes, the inspector's vision finally began to clear, ever so slightly blinded by the light of the dawn.

'Knew I should've had a coffee last night. What kind of inspector am I?'

"Good morning, Kanami," he yawned, tiredly.

Inspector Etou's once-exhausted senses were now alert and shocked with worry. For there was no sign of his brown-haired daughter. Where did she go off to? The inspector hoped that she was still somewhere in the police station. Inspector Etou tried to calm himself down. There could be several reasons for Kanami's disappearance. She could be in the washroom. Or perhaps she left and crashed the night at Hiyori's mansion. But even if she did leave, Inspector Etou knew his daughter was trustworthy enough to leave a note.

Just as he was about to despair in panic, the inspector's eyes caught something on his desk. He at once recognized it as his daughter's notepad. Quickly, Inspector Etou flipped it open. The writing was shaky and very uncharacteristic of Kanami's usual penmanship:

1) Morning meeting over coffee

2) Gunpowder

3) Combustion device

4) Fly system

5) Drug

6) Nameplate

7) Bottle of water

8) No indentation on the second page

9) Shino Sayuri

Inspector Etou was bewildered at these notes. Some he could understand, but others were baffling. What could they possibly mean? They certainly meant something to Kanami—they meant she was on the track. Contacting Hiyori was his best bet on finding his daughter, so Inspector Etou first started by phoning her. However, after several futile attempts, it was apparent that the Head of the Origami Family had either turned off her cellular device or wasn't answering it.

"Kanami, where are you?" Inspector Etou sighed, as he punched in Sergeant Tanaka's number.

The response came right away. "What's wrong, Etou? It's early in the morning."

"Did Kanami contact you earlier? Do you know where she is?" Inspector Etou questioned.

"No to both questions, sir. Why? What happened?"

"I fear the worst may have happened. Hurry down to the station immediately."

A/N: As you can see, I wanted to include Sanae in another chapter again. Heh heh. Who do you think is the murderer? And where has Kanami gone? The next chapter is the last one for this fanfic. I know that this fanfic is shorter than my other three mysteries, but I promise the fifth fanfic will be longer.