Detective Yamamoto and the Cheating Boyfriend Part 2

Things only seemed to get worse as he drove off. Satoshi had to prompt Detective Yamamoto to start her car and start following after him. Ryu continued driving, and rather than getting on the highway and driving to work, he took another detour, this time towards a flower shop. Detective Yamamoto’s expression became even more thoughtful. Like before, Ryu stopped, parked, went in, and left in short order. This time, he left carrying a rather immense bouquet of roses. Satoshi couldn't get a good count, but it certainly looked as though there were at least a few dozen roses.

“Things aren’t looking good,” said Satoshi. His tone of voice made it clear that he dreaded giving Hitomi the bad news.

“I’m not so sure,” said the detective slowly. “If he was cheating, why would he be so public about this?”

“He probably doesn’t expect to get caught,” retorted Satoshi. The detective merely nodded and tapped on the steering wheel thoughtfully. When Ryu’s car drove off, Yamamoto waited a beat before following him again. As they drove, Satoshi continued to contemplate things in silence. Things weren’t quite adding up, but more than anything else, Satoshi didn’t want to have to deliver the bad news to Hitomi that her boyfriend was cheating on her.

Once more, Ryu took a turn into a different plaza. Satoshi recognized that the restaurant he parked by was an expensive one, with a sterling reputation. As before, he entered, lingered for a bit and then left, this time entirely empty handed. Neither Satoshi nor the detective said anything, although in the detective’s case, this was due to being lost in thought rather than because of the discomfort of the situation. Satoshi briefly prompted her as Ryu’s car drove off, and she started driving after him at a sedate pace. The silence continued until a got to a point where Satoshi felt he needed to say something.

“So, what do you make of all this?” asked Satoshi after clearing his throat. Detective Yamamoto made a non-committal shrug.

“I don't think he's cheating on Hitomi,” said the detective.

“What makes you say that?”

“It's a hunch.”

A hunch was far less than Satoshi was willing to stake his reputation on, even if Detective Yamamoto's hunches had a tendency to be correct, but he refrained from voicing his opinion. Internally, Satoshi was steeling himself for the horror of more highway driving, but all the events of the day up until this point seemed to have given Detective Yamamoto enough to think about so that she drove at a reasonable pace instead of flooring the accelerator and hoping for the best.

The more relaxed pace of the drive gave Satoshi the opportunity to think about something other than his impending mortality, and something occurred to him: if Ryu was driving to work, he was taking perhaps the longest route possible. As weird as it seemed, Ryu appeared to be driving back home. Satoshi said as much to the detective.

“It looks like you're right, assistant,” she said slowly. Detective Yamamoto still wasn't entirely focused on driving or talking as she pondered the case.

Satoshi's suspicions were ultimately proven correct as Ryu pulled back in to the driveway in front of his home. Detective Yamamoto kept driving past the house to maintain an appearance of not following Hitomi's boyfriend.

“I think we might have to stake out the house,” said the detective after an extended silence. “There's something going on here.”

“If it will help us solve the case,” said Satoshi. Admittedly, he felt a little excited. He had never been on a stake out and the novelty of the situation made it seem like it could be fun. Of course, there was also the distinct possibility that they were about to witness Ryu's infidelity first hand, but Satoshi secretly hoped this whole thing would turn out to be nothing. Satoshi retained this outlook as Detective Yamamoto found a good place to park that wouldn’t arouse suspicion and simultaneously give a good view of the comings and goings at Ryu’s house. After the first half-hour had passed, Satoshi began to wish he had something else to do. They had just been sitting and watching and nothing had happened in that time.

It made some degree of sense. It was only the late morning in the middle of the work week. It would have been suspicious if Ryu’s house had been a hub of traffic. However, just because there was nothing going on now, it didn’t mean that he wasn’t up to something. So they sat. They sat and waited as one hour, then another, then another passed, and with each second that ticked by, the appeal of sitting here for even one instant longer diminished that much more to Satoshi.

In defiance of how Satoshi had gotten to know her so far, Detective Yamamoto had remained mostly silent save for a murmur here and there. Satoshi didn’t want to ask lest he interrupt her thought process, but he reckoned she was thinking about this case and what all the ramifications of Ryu’s actions might possibly be.

In the late afternoon, just in time to have an early dinner, another car arrived. Satoshi snapped immediately out of the torpor he had fallen into and got the detective’s attention by tugging on her sleeve. Her eyes focused and she looked up at the new car.

A woman emerged from the car and started walking towards the door of the house, but it was a woman both Detective Yamamoto and Satoshi recognized. It was Hitomi. Satoshi let out a disappointed sigh and Detective Yamamoto leaned forward to rest her forehead on the steering wheel. On the one hand, Satoshi felt he could take this turn of events as a good sign that Ryu wasn’t cheating, but on the other hand, his excursion into the city instead of going to work appeared suspicious in its own way, and raised more questions that didn’t have satisfactory answers so far.

“Well, today was a wash,” said Satoshi, with a note of dejection entering his voice.

“Cheer up, assistant,” said the detective with her usual cheery tone entering her voice. “I’ve got a theory and I think it would be best discussed over dinner.”

~~~

While it met the strict definition of dinner, given that the meal was eaten late in the day, after nearly a full day of sitting quietly and not eating, the cup ramen was not something Satoshi would have considered ‘dinner’. Nevertheless, hunger proved to be a potent seasoning, and Satoshi felt it would be rude to complain. As he slurped noodles from the cup, the detective began to talk between mouthfuls of her own food.

“I don’t think Ryu is cheating on Hitomi,” she said. Satoshi didn’t question her verbally; he was too busy eating, but he gave her an inquiring look. “We don’t have concrete proof, but there was opportunity yesterday to cheat if he wanted to.”

Satoshi nodded as he pondered the detective's theory. “That’s true, but wasn’t he lying to Hitomi about going to work today? Why would he lie if he isn’t cheating?”

“He might be getting ready to propose.” Satoshi was incredulous. “Think about it,” said the detective. “He went to a jewelry store and came out with something small, like a ring. He also bought a bundle of roses. Those are romantic. He also went into that big fancy restaurant, didn’t come out with anything, and wasn’t there long enough to eat a meal. I think he was setting up a reservation.”

“So he was setting up a reservation. What if it isn’t for Hitomi?”

“If it isn’t for Hitomi, why not bring another woman then and there?”

 Detective Yamamoto had raised a good point. Thinking about it, this all made a certain amount of sense to Satoshi, but he still found himself somewhat hesitant. If they were to reassure Hitomi based on this, there was no good outcome. They would either spoil the proposal, which was no doubt intended to be a surprise, or they would be wrong. He said as much. The detective nodded.
“That’s why we need something else to go on.”