Detective Yamamoto Helps an Acquaintance Part 2

The security office, Satoshi was gratified to find, was well labeled and easy to find. Unfortunately, the guard on shift took his duties very seriously and for whatever reason, he refused to believe that Detective Yamamoto, and by extension Satoshi and Ishioka, were anything other than cosplayers or convention-goers.

"Run along, kids," said the security guard. "I am very busy ensuring this convention is safe and secure for you to play dress up." Out of reflex, Officer Ishioka moved her hand to reach for her badge but stopped when she realized she no longer had it. Nevertheless, she apparently thought she might as well try to appeal to authority.

"Mister security guard," she said with some venom. "I am Officer Hitomi Ishioka from the city police department, and I am here on official business. You will let us in to review the security tapes or you will suffer the consequences for hindering this investigation." This gave the man pause until he considered that the diminutive girl had not produced a badge or any kind of identification. Even so, he decided that perhaps discretion was the better part of valor, and on the off-chance she really was a cop, it would mean trouble and repercussions for him if he impeded her.

"Very well, officer," he said as politely as he could manage. "Right this way."

The security gaurd brought them into his cramped, dimly-lit office. One wall was full of monitors, each of which displayed the live feed of a different camera placed somewhere inside the convention center. On a smaller monitor, sitting on the desk instead of mounted on the wall, was the footage from earlier in the day. The security guard had called it up and based off of instructions from both Detective Yamamoto and Officer Ishioka, he narrowed the footage down to a specific camera and time frame. Once the footage was set, the guard managed to find a couple chairs so at least everyone could view it in relative comfort.

Satoshi wasn't unduly surprised, but the security tapes weren't especially helpful. They were spooling through from the approximate time Ishioka had first gotten changed in the morning, until the time in the afternoon when she noticed things were missing. He had a feeling that Detective Yamamoto wasn't really pinning her hopes on them, but Officer Ishioka had started to become desperate.

"Wait, there!" shouted Detective Yamamoto, pointing at the monitor. The security feed had been moving at increased speed, so Satoshi had missed it, but Detective Yamamoto spotted a shady figure who had gone into the changing room with nothing and had come out wearing the same clothes and carrying a bundle. Officer Ishioka leaned forward and squinted at the monitor. The resolution was fairly poor, so it hard to get a good read on the culprit's identity and whether or not he had truly pilfered Ishioka's clothes, but this information gave the trio more to go on than they had even a few minutes ago. Officer Ishioka turned to the security guard.

"Is that man still at the convention?"

The guard shrugged. "I can check the tapes." He switched the feed from the camera by the changing rooms to the camera by the entrance. It took a bit of close watching, but to the dismay of all involved, it appeared as though the man left. Of course, it wasn't entirely clear. The security camera's resolution was not as good as it could have been, and the angle of the camera was such that it caught the back of the man. From this angle, it was not clear that it was the same person, as the telltale bundle was obscured from view. Officer Ishioka, who had stood out of her chair in excitement, now slumped back into it, no doubt feeling defeated.

"Cheer up, officer," said Satoshi. "I'm sure things will work out." He said this somewhat expecting her to respond in anger, but to his surprise and dismay in equal measure, she didn't say anything. The darkness of the security room partially obscured it, but Satoshi thought he could see tears starting to glisten in her eyes.

~~~

After thanking the security guard for his time, the trio left and ventured back into the main stretch of the convention center. Things were looking grim. At this point, they had no leads beyond the vague appearance of the culprit, and the knowledge that he had left the scene of the crime cleanly. For some reason Satoshi couldn't fathom, the security cameras only extended within the building and not outside to the parking lots, where they might have caught a different angle of the culprit or caught his license plate.

"What do we do now?" said Satoshi, addressing Detective Yamamoto. Officer Ishioka had been despondent since leaving the company of the security guard, so he figured she wouldn't answer even if she had something to say.

"Lunch?" asked Yamamoto. Inwardly Satoshi sighed. He figured that maybe food could wait for later, if only to assuage Ishioka's worries, but in truth, Satoshi was starting to feel a little hungry too.

Given that it was the afternoon and the lunch rush had already died down, the cafeteria was fairly empty, giving the trio ample space to sit, eat and try and formulate a plan of what to do. The food wasn't remarkably good, but Detective Yamamoto didn't really seem to care. Satoshi ate less ravenously, but he couldn't help but notice that Ishioka wasn't eating at all. He couldn't help but sympathize with her plight, but considering how everything had gone up until this point, he couldn't find any words to reassure her that weren't also painfully trite. After Detective Yamamoto and Satoshi had finished their food and started thinking out loud, Officer Ishioka finally started eating, albeit slowly.

"I think our best bet," Satoshi started, gesturing at a map of the convention center he had picked up, "is to retrace the route of culprit."

Detective Yamamoto nodded approvingly. "I agree. It's really all we can do." Officer Ishioka still said nothing, but if Satoshi had to judge, she looked like she felt slightly better for having eaten something.

Back at the changing rooms, the trio took stock of things. There wasn't much more that they could investigate or hope to glean from the changing rooms, but Detective Yamamoto adamantly declared that they start from the very beginning and walk through the entire series of events.

"First," said the detective, "we know that the culprit left here with your things." Detective Yamamoto started walking in an exaggerated manner taking a few steps down the hallway back to the main space. Satoshi and Ishioka followed some distance behind.

"The culprit passed through here," said Satoshi, gesturing to a path through the main floor of the convention center.

"He got lost in the crowd approximately here," said Yamamoto. She walked out into the center of the wide open space and turned back to face her companions.

"And finally, he left," said Satoshi, as he walked past Yamamoto in the direction of the entrances and exits. Having laid everything out, Satoshi realized that what they knew was pretty bare-bones, and there wasn't really anything they could latch onto to produce another lead. He was increasingly fearful that he and the detective would have to break the bad news to Officer Ishioka.

Come to think of it, Satoshi thought, I don't think the detective has ever failed.

It might be a novel experience for Detective Yamamoto to have to admit defeat, and Satoshi suspected that things would only be made worse by the circumstances. He knew all too well that Detective Yamamoto and Officer Ishioka didn't see eye to eye, and he imagined that Ishioka had to swallow a considerable amount of pride to actually ask Yamamoto for help. That Yamamoto might not actually be able to help, it seemed to Satoshi, would be a very bitter pill to swallow. Satoshi walked back to where Yamamoto and Ishioka were standing.

"Do you have any ideas?" he asked the detective. He was hoping she would have something to go on, some angle that eluded him, but the detective shook her head.

"I'm not sure what we can do. There isn't enough to go on," the detective replied. Satoshi thought he heard a note of regret in her voice, and he hoped that despite the antipathy between them, Detective Yamamoto had made a genuine effort, but was unable rather than covertly sabotaging the investigation.

"That's it then," said Ishioka sullenly. She sounded well and truly defeated. "Thank you for your help, Hanako."

"I'm sorry I couldn't do more, Hitomi," the detective replied. The trio began walking towards the exit, and each of them was quiet and withdrawn in their own way. As Satoshi walked, his foot kicked something that skittered across the ground. Looking down, he saw that it was a plastic bottle, mostly empty, that someone had abandoned on the ground. Satoshi felt a brief flash of annoyance.

Some people are such slobs, he thought. He stopped to pick up the bottle and carried it over to the nearest trash can. He was about to drop the bottle in when he stopped. His gaze had glanced over the garbage can and its contents, and for a brief instant, something sparked a feeling of recognition in his brain.

Surely it couldn't be, he thought as he set the bottle aside for the moment and reached into the trash.

"Detective?" Satoshi called, raising his voice slightly. "Officer Ishioka?" The two of them stopped in their tracks and turned towards Satoshi.

"Assistant, that's disgusting," Yamamoto chastised, seemingly not realizing that he may have stumbled blindly onto something.

"I think I've found something," he said, pulling out a bundle. The coin finally dropped, and Detective Yamamoto and Officer Ishioka rushed over. The three of them all agreed that this strongly resembled the bundle from the security feed. Ishioka snatched it away from Satoshi and carried it over to the nearest empty table. With shaking hands she unwrapped it and her eyes lit up. Manically, she started shuffling through the contents of the bundle. First she was happy, then she was ecstatic, and then her face turn bright red.

"Are those your clothes?" Satoshi asked. Perhaps he had asked the obvious question, but someone had to do it. Ishioka nodded.
"There's are my clothes, and my badge is here," she said, pulling it out and holding it up to demonstrate, "but all of my underwear is gone." Satoshi was at a loss for words, but Detective Yamamoto burst out laughing.

"Someone stole your panties?!" Yamamoto exclaimed, far louder than was polite or decent. "Even if you could get them back, I don't think you'd want them!" At that remark, morbid as it was, Satoshi couldn't help but chuckle, even if he did his best to stifle it. Officer Ishioka's embarassment converted to anger.

"Well even if I wanted them back, you couldn't find them, you poor excuse for a detective!"

"Ladies, please-" Satoshi started to say, but both the detective and the officer rounded on him and made it clear that his intervention in their personal squabble was not welcome. The squabble escalated further into a full-blown shouting match, and to Satoshi's eternal shame, the three of them were ultimately asked to leave and escorted out of the building. The security guard was palpably smug and vindicated in his own mind at getting to kick out the snooty police officer that had talked down to him.

Having been kicked out and now milling about on the sidewalk, both Detective Yamamoto and Officer Ishioka had calmed down. The case had been solved in a sense, and despite the somewhat pyrrhic nature of the victory, Ishioka got her badge back, which on balance she considered to be the most important thing that had gone missing today. Despite quieting down and ending their shouting match, there was an uncomfortable silence between the two of them. Satoshi felt it was incumbant upon him to patch things up and end this entire debacle on something like a positive note.

"Well, officer," Satoshi said, putting on a more cheerful tone. "You've got your things back. I'd say that this has been a success." Taking the lead from Satoshi, Detective Yamamoto spoke up as well.

"Correct, assistant." she said. "We'll be off back to the office. You can expect an invoice whenever Satoshi mails it out!" Detective Yamamoto turned around quickly and started to walk away with Satoshi in tow before Officer Ishioka responded, just on the off chance that she said something rude and reignited the conflict.

"Detective Yamamoto! Satoshi!" Ishioka called after them when they were about a dozen paces away. She bowed at the waist. "Thank you for all of your help!"

"It was our pleasure!" Satoshi called back, turning halfway and looking at the officer. Detective Yamamoto didn't turn or even look over her shoulder. Instead she raised an arm and gave a silent thumb's up as she continued walking. 

MONDAY

After the events of the weekend, between the convention, the theft, and the investigation, Officer Ishioka felt incredibly tired and almost excited to be back at work at the start of the week. It wasn't that she normally wasn't excited for her job. In fact, she quite enjoyed it, but the routine comforted her more than usual after the chaos of the weekend. She walked into the precinct as she always did, but as she was walking past reception, the lady at the desk, instead of just wishing her a good morning, as was her pattern, she also passed her a letter.

"We received this earlier this morning," said the receptionist. "It's addressed to you."

"Thank you," said Ishioka. Her tone of voice was somewhat puzzled, as she didn't think she was expecting a letter, much less one that would be delivered to her at work. She walked down the hallway over to her desk and set the letter down in front of her. The letter was indeed addressed to her and the handwriting that wrote out her name and the address of the precinct was messy and barely legible.

She opened the envelope and pulled out the contents to find an invoice. Everything clicked into place and she remembered something about Detective Yamamoto's assistant sending out an invoice. Admittedly, she was somewhat curious as to what kind of money Detective Yamamoto would charge. Intellectually, she figured it could go one of two ways. On the one had, she could charge a lot, citing her rate of success and overall efficiency. On the other hand, she might not charge all that much, as she was merely an independent detective without any professional credentials.

She unfolded the invoice and started to read it:

Dear Officer Hitomi Ishioka,

Please find enclosed an invoice for your recent case that was solved by the illustrious Detective Yamamoto. Listed below is a summary of charges for labor hours, reimbursement for meals, reimbursement for travel, and all standard fees and additional charges.

Please pay in full and make all checks payable to Detective Yamamoto.

Sincerely,

Detective Hanako Yamamoto

As Officer Ishioka read further and further through the letter and associated invoice, the more angry she became. There was no way that hack Detective Yamamoto could justify charging for eight hours, much less charging as much as did per hour. Ishioka knew for a fact that even Yamamoto and her assistant combined didn't spend as much on food as she had listed in her invoice. Perhaps the most galling thing was the 'reimbursement for travel' charge. They had walked.

Even though she was considering just crumpling up the invoice and being done with it, Officer Ishioka started to think better of it. After all, she currently sat here, at her job, at her desk, rather than being chewed out or fired for having lost her badge.

Taking everything into consideration, Officer Ishioka conceded that things had worked out for the best, and it was largely due to the help of Detective Yamamoto and her assistant. It would cut into her personal finances for sure, but she could afford to pay and the detective deserved compensation for her services.

~~~

"Do you know Officer Ishioka's address, detective?" Satoshi asked. Detective Yamamoto looked up to him, slightly confused.

"What do you need her address for?" 

"I need to address the envelope so we can send her the bill for the other day."

"Oh, the invoice," said the detective. "You don't need to worry about that anymore." Yamamoto's tone of voice told Satoshi that there was some mischief afoot. Satoshi almost dreaded to ask for clarification.

"Why's that, detective?" Satoshi asked. Detective Yamamoto gave a devious grin.

"I already delivered an invoice this morning."

 Satoshi wasn't sure what sort of horrors that invoice contained, but something told him that any goodwill the detective had accrued with Officer Ishioka through the case had now balanced out with the invoice.