Detective Yamamoto and the End?

MONDAY

Satoshi reread the letter:

Dear Mister Sakamoto

We at Good Book Publishing have received the manuscript of your novel The Eccentric Detective and we wish to proceed with publication.

Accompanying this letter is a check that constitutes your publishing advance. Should you choose to cash this check, we will consider this as acceptance of our publishing terms contained herein.

Sincerely

Harumi Tachibana

Talent Acquisition

Good Book Publishing

Satoshi was floored. In one fell swoop, it seemed as though his dreams had now come true. Of course, he still felt somewhat wary of publishers given his most recent face-to-face interaction, but this letter seemed legitimate, as was the check that accompanied it. Satoshi had initiated contact with this particular publisher, so he felt he could safely rule out that the whole thing was a scam. Furthermore, what were the odds that this publisher would be as crooked as the last one he dealt with? He felt the odds were astonishingly small.

The check was another matter. It spoke of quite a spectacular sum of money on paper, but with it came strings. There were the usual strings of becoming beholden to the publisher. If Satoshi wanted to make continual royalties from his book, he would first have to sell a number of copies to pay back this advance. However, even that string paled in comparison to the thing that worried Satoshi the most: Detective Yamamoto.

When the detective had initially helped him, she stated explicitly to him that she would not accept one penny of his money until he had become a successful author. It seemed as though that time had now arrived. It wasn't that he didn't want to pay her or that he felt she didn't deserve to be paid, it was just that this seemed to be a turning point. If he became a successful author, could he really justify spending his time helping Detective Yamamoto solve mysteries and cases, especially when he did so for free? Somehow, Satoshi thought that if he had to explain to his publisher that his hypothetical next novel was late because he busied himself doing other work for free, they were likely to be unhappy about it.

This put Satoshi in quite the pickle indeed, and he wasn't sure how he should proceed. As Satoshi frequently did when he came to a mental impasse, he decided to start cleaning. Unfortunately, his apartment wasn't exactly due for a deep cleaning. Washing the windows and vacuuming the carpet didn't clear his mind as much as he had hoped, and it occupied less time than he anticipated. Satoshi was forced to resort to his final method for clearing his head. He took a walk.

His walk around the city was long and meandering, but he took special care to avoid Detective Yamamoto's agency. It wouldn't do to accidentally face the problem he was trying so hard to avoid. Nevertheless, Satoshi felt guilty. It would be a slight exaggeration to say that Detective Yamamoto had always treated him well; she had occasionally taken advantage of him to buy lunch or groceries for her, but just as many times, she had returned the favor. No matter how he tried to rationalize it, he couldn't find it in himself to use this as ammunition in his decision making process. He sighed. This was a lot tougher than he would have liked.

~~~

At around noon, Satoshi decided that he had wandered as much as was likely to help him. He had also started to become more than a little hungry. Satoshi reflected that, assuming he did take the publishing deal, and frankly his mind was fairly made up that he would, thanks to that publishing advance, he could afford to splurge on lunch.

On a whim, he decided to go to the ramen shop the detective had taken him to before. The food, as Satoshi recalled, was excellent even if he didn't have the chance to fully appreciate it at the time. As before, Satoshi greeted the man, sat at the counter, ordered ramen, and waited for his food. The cook promptly prepared the food and served it to him. Just as Satoshi remembered, the food was indeed excellent, and he ate it with relish, but it didn't go any way towards helping him solve his dilemma.

He concluded with some trepidation that he might just have to be forthright about everything. After all, he had every intention of paying the detective. The only issue was whether or not she would become upset that he wouldn't be there to assist her anymore. It wasn't like Detective Yamamoto was liable to yell and scream at him. He worried more than anything that she would be saddened and disappointed. He knew how she tended to cope with things and it wouldn't lead to a good outcome. Satoshi didn't want to be the cause of trouble for anyone, least of all Detective Yamamoto.

Satoshi was on his way over to the detective's office when he ran, quite literally, into none other than the detective. The detective had been jogging down the street and hadn't been paying much attention to where she was going.

"Oh, Detective Yamamoto," said Satoshi as he regained his balance.

"Assistant," replied the detective, "I was wondering where you were. You didn't show up this morning like you usually do, you weren't at your job, and I didn't think you were on a date." This simple observation struck Satoshi like a lash.

"Detective Yamamoto," said Satoshi. "Hanako, there's something I've been meaning to tell you." The detective looked at him expectantly. Despite the tone of foreboding in Satoshi's voice and the use of her given name, the detective didn't seem to be anticipating bad news. Instead, she continued to look at him almost with an air of child-like innocence.

"Can you make it quick? We've got a case to solve," said the detective. This gave Satoshi pause. Could he just leave Detective Yamamoto short-handed with no notice? He was forced to consider very quickly how to respond. In the few instants he took to think, he thought of the good and the bad. Sure his life had been threatened once or twice while helping the detective, but on the other hand, he had taken part in helping dozens of people and he had fun while doing so.

"Sure," said Satoshi. He pulled out the publisher's check he had received from his pocket. "I finally landed a publishing deal. How much do I owe you?"

"Is that all?" asked the detective with a small degree of exasperation, as though payment for services rendered was a trivial issue. "We've got a case to solve! You can pay me later."

"Of course, detective," Satoshi smiled. Detective Yamamoto started jogging again now with Satoshi in tow, walking behind her.

I've managed to juggle writing and investigating so far, thought Satoshi. I can keep doing it.

"Hurry up, assistant!" called the detective. In her haste she had pulled ahead of Satoshi and was progressing to the site of whatever case she had previously accepted.

 "I'll be right there!" Satoshi called back, stepping up his pace.