The Four Leaf Murderer

Chapter 08 -The phone number-

Chiaki glanced at us but she said nothing as she was too absorbed in her game.

"Well, sure thing," I said as I followed Mahiru to the corridor.

"Do you need anything?" I asked starting the conversation.

"No! I just wanted to talk, and I didn't felt like doing it in front of the others." She said scratching her arm looking at the ground.

"Okay, then… What's up? It's been a while we didn't really see each other…I guess.." I said trying to fill the conversation.

I never felt comfortable in these kinds of talks.

"Yes! It's been a while… I was quite surprised when I realized you were a…y'know..detective and all.." she said playing with her feet.

'Am I missing something?' I thought confused.

I felt more and more uncomfortable as she talked, I just couldn't get why.
"And… What about you? What did you become since?"

"Well, I am still studying, and I hand a photography business to help me get the money to pay for my college."
"That's quite impressive!" I said proudly.
"What? You thought I couldn't do it?" She said defensively.

"No..no! That's not it! I always knew you were a strong woman." I said trying to fix my mistake.
Uhhh..it always had been that way with Mahiru.

"You think so?" She said innocently as if it was what she wanted me to say.

"Yeah…? Why?" I said wincing.
She got closer to me.
"M-Mahiru are you sure you feel alright?" I said stuttering a bit.
I got more uncomfortable as she got closer…

"I-I'm sorry." She said as she stepped back.
"I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to go out someday."

"Going out?…yeah sure..w-why not?" I answered always more confused about what had just happened.
Did something even just happen?

"Great! Then what about tomorrow?" She said smiling.
"T-tomorrow?" I repeated.

"Yeah, is it okay? Tomorrow at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, I'll send you the place." She answered joyfully.

"I-I guess.."
'WHY AM I STUTTERING? she made me lose all the confidence I had build with only a few sentences.'

"But wait! You don't even have my phone number." I said.
"It's okay, I do have it."
"..how?"
"I have my tricks." She laughed.

I got back to Chiaki, but alone this time, as Mahiru said she had to leave.

Chiaki was the first one to see me enter the room as the inspector seemed to be occupied with whatever the heck he was doing, he didn't even look at me.

Chiaki was about to say something but she got interrupted.

"What was it all about?" Said the inspector without lifting his head.
"Nothing important," I said.

He gave me an interrogative look so I corrected myself.
"I mean nothing related to the case."

"I see, now look at this."

"What is it?" I asked.

"It is all we have been able to find about our suspect." Answered Chiaki.
"A phone number?" I inquired.

"Yes, no address, no family, no mail, only one phone number." Said the inspector disappointed.

"That sure looks strange…" I said looking at the almost blank profile.

"That is exactly what I said." Replied Chiaki as she continued "so..do you think we should call it?" She said staring at me.
I was about to answer but I got interrupted by my coldhearted colleague. "We obviously should." He said in his usual monotone voice.

"I am doing it," I said as I got my phone from my pocket and copied the number.

It was ringing…
I put the speaker so everyone could hear.

"Hello! And welcome to the splendid Bagel Restaurant, The one and only Hopeful restaurant where you can get your favorite food with its delicious taste in no time almost! and with the friendliest of employees!" Said a joyfull girl's voice.

I looked at both Chiaki and the inspector with a confused look, to which they replied with an even more confused one.

I took a deep breath and tried to sound confident again.

"Hello? I am looking for a certain .Nagito Komaeda? Do you know someone of that name?"
I got no reply.

"Just Give up, it was probably a false numero." Said the inspector in disappointment.

I sighed as I realized he is probably right.

I waited a little bit longer and was about to hang up when I finally got a reply.

"You are looking for Komaeda? He is one of my employees… what is it for this time?" She asked kinda annoyed.

……I thought about a fake story to give before I answered..

"He is a friend of mine, he gave me that phone number as his, is it so?" I answered trying to seem convincing.

It again took some time before we got a reply.

"No, this is not HIS phone number it is the number of the restaurant he works in." Said the girl seemingly irritated by the situation, but she stayed calm nonetheless.

"I see, why did he give me that number? Can you give me his?" I asked as I took my notebook to write it down.

"He gave you that number because he oddly DOESNT have a cellphone. I am really sorry for the trouble, but could you not call this number every time you want to talk to him. As he doesn't have one he uses ours every time he needs to use a phone number, like for official documentations…. and for his friends too apparently."

Without even looking at her I could feel Chiaki's poker face as she heard that he didn't have a cellphone, which made me slightly laugh.

That is quite funny
Considering that I also didn't have a cellphone for a very long time, I actually didn't like those… even though Chiaki kept harassing me to buy one.

"You don't know what you are wasting!!" She would say "..No Candy Crush, No Doodle Jump, and No Minecraft Pe-"

I would then laugh and say something like "Besides Minecraft, I have no idea of what are those other games about."

But with my work, I started getting contacts and got forced to buy one.

"So he doesn't have a phone…?" I repeated.
"That is right." Affirmed the phone girl.

"Is he here now? I would like to talk to him." I asked her hoping she will accept.

"No, but he is supposed to. He left this morning saying that he has something really important to do." She said in a carefree way.

I looked at the two people present with me in the room.

"If he is really the murderer, we better not let him ramble in liberty, god knows what he may be doing right now.'

As I thought this I felt weird, like a feeling of dizziness.
I then felt like someone was here, but we didn't know about it.
I then heard a sound. The sound of a vase breaking.

"What is this sound?" Asked the phone girl.
"It's nothing, I think my cat broke something again." I improvised.

"Ah, I know how it is, mine does this everytime, but they are so cute, I can forgive them anything."

"…yeah…" I said not really paying attention anymore.

The inspector had left the room to go see what was doing that sound.

"So, I will let him know that you called."

"Oh, Yes, thank--- no wait!" I corrected myself.
I almost believed in my fake story myself.

"What?"

"There is no need to bother him with this, we will probably meet again, and I will ask him to give me another number, I am sorry for the time wasted," I said, hoping she still believes me.

"There's no problem." She said calmly.