Detective Yamamoto and the Mermaid Part 2

Satoshi woke up. This was unexpected, as he thought for certain he would have drowned ignominiously, surrounded not by loved ones, but by a pile of litter and trash. More importantly, now that he was awake, he noticed two important things: he was no longer in the water, and he was clutching something as though his life depended on it, to the point where his hand was beginning to cramp up. Belatedly, Satoshi also noticed Detective Yamamoto kneeling over him.

“Detective?” Satoshi croaked. Detective Yamamoto responded decisively by slapping him across the face. Satoshi's eyes rattled in his skull, but when they stopped oscillating and refocused, he saw that she was not merely wet from the swim, but appeared to have been crying.

“You idiot!” screamed the detective. “I thought you drowned!”

“What happened?” Satoshi asked, at risk of receiving another slap. Detective Yamamoto took a breath to compose herself.

“I don't know,” she said. “I was searching for the wallet, I went to check in with you, and I saw you lying here in the surf.”

“Who pulled me out?” Both Satoshi and Detective Yamamoto looked around. The beach was all but abandoned, save for about a dozen people far off in the distance, too far away to help or notice.

“No one did,” replied the detective. “There's no one here except us.”

“It must have been the mermaid,” muttered Satoshi, only half serious. The detective's expression took on a worried aspect, as though she feared he had suffered brain damage. Rather than slap him again, just it case it rattled his addled brain further, the detective put a hand on his shoulder reassuringly.

“Whatever you say, assistant.”

Satoshi, now feeling significantly more lucid, had the luxury to notice the object he was gripping onto. It was a leather wallet, and one that looked as though it had been soaking for a bit. Detective Yamamoto followed Satoshi's gaze and noticed the wallet.

“Is that?” she asked, trailing off as Satoshi lifted it up to inspect it in greater detail. He opened the flap of the wallet, and sure enough the driving license bore a picture that greatly resembled the client.

“I guess it is,” said Satoshi, just as baffled as the detective.

“Well,” said the detective, clapping her hands together. “I'm sure you're happy to hear that we can leave now.”

~~~

“I'm telling you, someone dragged me out of the riptide,” Satoshi said insistently. Detective Yamamoto wasn't exactly being dismissive, but she certainly wasn't taking his version of events at face value.

“Assistant, there was no one anywhere near you,” replied the detective. She let a little of the exasperation she was feeling show in her voice, especially since it was now clear Satoshi suffered no ill effects from the near drowning.

“Well maybe it was the mermaid,” Satoshi sneered. After all, it presented as good an explanation as any other. Detective Yamamoto stopped dead in her tracks. She turned and looked at Satoshi in the same manner as someone watching a small, injured creature trying to get up and start walking.

“Not you too,” whined the detective.

“What?” Satoshi was now becoming defensive. “Do you have a better explanation for what happened?”

“Yes! You were lucky and you drifted back to the shore.” The detective said this with vehemence, but Satoshi felt fairly certain that it couldn't be the case. The current had been pulling him downwards. It wouldn't make sense for it to just shift out of nowhere and carry him to safety. Furthermore, it didn't explain the hands he saw. Of course, were he pressed on the topic, Satoshi could concede that maybe it was a hallucination. He wasn't exactly in a right state of mind at the time, but nevertheless, there were too many things that didn't quite add up for him.

“Fine! Don't believe me then.” Satoshi crossed his arms and turned his away from the detective as they began walking again. They hadn't come to an agreement on the topic, but the pair seemed to agree to stop discussing it for the time being.

~~~

Back at the detective agency, neither Detective Yamamoto nor Satoshi were surprised to find the client still waiting, sitting in the same chair he had been when the pair had left.

“We found your wallet,” said Detective Yamamoto. As if on cue, Satoshi produced the wallet from his pocket and handed it to the man.

“You found it!” he said, almost surprised. “Where was it?”

“Under the pier, near a mound of garbage,” replied Satoshi. The man looked around furtively.

“What about the mermaid?” Detective Yamamoto and Satoshi turned to one another, both mutually looking out to see if the other would reignite the argument.

“We didn't find any conclusive proof of it,” said the detective, taking the high road.

“But did you see it?” the man persisted. The detective sighed and waved her hand at Satoshi before flopping into her chair and cracking open a beer.

“Well, I didn't see it,” said Satoshi, putting extra emphasis on the word. “I think it saved me from drowning.” The client at once seemed amazed, startled, and affronted.

“I'm glad it worked out for you,” he sniffed, before changing the subject. “Now, how much do I owe you detective?” Detective Yamamoto, now halfway through a second beer, came up for air. She reached into the drawer of her desk, and once again praising her assistant's foresight and organizational prowess, produced a premade invoice. Satoshi had made a few different invoices intended to bill clients for cases of varying complexity. Today, Detective Yamamoto opted for a low-end case. The man squinted to read the invoice, then reached into his wallet, produced a few soggy bills of varying denomination, and made to leave.

“Thanks for your help, detective,” said the man as he shut the door behind himself. Once the man had left, Detective Yamamoto sat back up straight in her chair and almost glowered at Satoshi.

“This isn't over,” said the detective.

“I beg your pardon?” Satoshi asked, now confused.

“This isn't over,” the detective repeated.

“I mean what isn't over.”

“This business with the mermaid.” Satoshi now knew where this was going. For whatever reason, Detective Yamamoto had gotten a bee in her bonnet and now the only way to get her to drop the topic was to indulge her.

“Of course, how could I forget?” Satoshi asked rhetorically. The detective continued as though he hadn't said anything.

“Tomorrow we're going to go back down to the beach and we're going to scour it until you're convinced there isn't a mermaid.”

“Detective,” Satoshi said, becoming exasperated, “we don't have to go to all the trouble.” Detective Yamamoto threw up a hand for him to stop.

“Don't think you can talk your way out of this.” she said. Satoshi sighed. It had been worth a shot.

SUNDAY

Detective Yamamoto and Satoshi arrived at the beach especially early. Satoshi felt resentful and not without good reason; he couldn't recall any other circumstances that had gotten the detective up and working at something so early and eagerly. He sighed heavily. The water had been cold enough yesterday. He could only imagine how cold the water would be now, just as the sun was barely over the horizon.

“Are you really sure you want to do this?” Satoshi asked sullenly. He secretly hoped that by applying reverse psychology and implying the detective wasn't totally on board with this, he could plant a seed of doubt and curtail what would no doubt be a long, arduous day.

“As sure as I am that there's no such thing as mermaids,” replied the detective. There was something incongruous about the determined look on the detective's face contrasted with the bikini, snorkel, and flippers, but Satoshi couldn't muster the energy to laugh.

“Whatever you say, detective.” Detective Yamamoto tutted at Satoshi and started shambling towards the water.

“Come on, assistant,” she called over her shoulder. “You need to show me where you were yesterday.” Satoshi bowed his head and began to trudge to the edge of the water.

Just as he feared, the water felt abominably cold. He swore under his breath and then jumped in all at once. After all the sooner this whole thing got under way, the sooner it would be over with, and frankly that couldn't come soon enough. Satoshi paddled out into the water and over in the direction of the pier with Detective Yamamoto following closely behind.

“Alright,” said Detective Yamamoto, treading water in place. “Where now?” Satoshi pointed ambiguously downwards.

“Down here,” he said, before qualifying his statement. “It's kind of under the pier. There's should be a big pile of junk.”

“After you,” replied Detective Yamamoto. Satoshi put the snorkel in his mouth and took a deep breath before submerging himself and diving down. Detective Yamamoto followed seconds later. Satoshi swam under the pier and down to where he had been when the current caught him. He took a special precaution to ensure he maintained a grip on the structural pillar lest he nearly drown himself again, or worse yet, succeed. With his free hand, he pointed further down to guide the detective. Detective Yamamoto, seemingly unaware of the currents, continued swimming down to the pile of trash. She swam at a leisurely pace, seemingly unconcerned with the bubbles tentatively drifting out of the top of her snorkel. Satoshi finally couldn't hold his breath any longer and surfaced to breathe freely. Detective Yamamoto followed after a moment.

“Satisfied?” Satoshi asked. The detective shook her head.

“Not by a long shot. That's just a heap of garbage.” The detective put her snorkel back in her mouth and dove down again. Satoshi dipped his face in the water to watch, but refrained from diving down past the snorkel's reach.

Detective Yamamoto dove down to the heap again and started rooting around. It was as the detective shifted the various bits of metal and plastic that a detail occurred to Satoshi. When he had explored the area previously, he had noticed something like an enclosure or a depression that the garbage had been surrounding, almost as if there was a small underwater cave. When Detective Yamamoto rose again, he flagged her down.

“Did you find the cave?” he asked.

“The cave?” The tone of the detective's voice was all the answer Satoshi needed.

“Yeah. The trash heap wasn't solid. It looked like there was empty space in the middle of it.”

“I didn't see anything like that,” said the detective pensively, almost musing to herself more than conversing with her assistant. “Can you show me where you saw it?” Satoshi nodded and prepared to dive again. Once again, he dove with the detective hot on his tail. Satoshi swam down to the heap, and cognizant of the current, took great care not to get swept along. He circled the heap, looking for the entrance he had seen, but after he made two full revolutions, he reached the conclusion that it wasn't there anymore. It was possible that it had been covered by the detective disturbing the heap, but Satoshi felt the distinction was largely academic. He indicated to the detective that he was going to surface and did so.

“It's not there anymore,” said Satoshi once the detective had risen and brushed her wet hair out of her face. Upon parsing his words, her expression turned to a thoughtful scowl. The scowl stayed for all of thirty seconds before fading away into neutrality.

“Well, I guess that's that.” she said with a pronounced note of finality.

“So we're done here?” Satoshi asked. He couldn't help but let some small bit of enthusiasm leak into his voice.

“Why not? This is where the alleged mermaid was, and it's clear she isn't here now.”

“Great, meet you back on shore.” Satoshi turned about face and began swimming. Detective Yamamoto started swimming as well, but at a more sedate, thoughtful pace. As she reached a depth where she could begin walking out, Satoshi now stood on dry land, pulling off the flippers one at a time.

On an impulse, Detective Yamamoto looked back over her shoulder. Her jaw dropped. For a brief instant, she saw a figure far off in the distance. She couldn't make out any concrete features; the figure had the sun behind it, making it at best a silhouette. The figure waved coyly in the direction of the detective and her assistant and dipped below the water, swimming off to who knows where.

“Assistant, assistant!” the detective hollered. She splashed her way onto dry land and started tugging on his wet suit. “Did you see that?”

“See what?” Satoshi asked, turning around. He looked at the detective and then the expanse of water behind her. “There's nothing here.”

Detective Yamamoto was dumbfounded. She pointed out towards the water and struggled to string words together.

“B-but, but, she waved...” the detective said, stumbling over her words.

“She?” Satoshi asked.

“The mermaid!”

 “But detective,” Satoshi said, now grinning devilishly at the prospect of the shoe being on the other foot, “there's no such thing as mermaids.”