The Four Leaf Murderer

Chapter 11 -That Komaeda guy-

"Hey, Hinata-kun! Happy to see you back! Who did you bring us with you?" greeted the servant with a smile as he glanced at Chiaki.

"Well, hmm…It's just a friend of mine.., I mean…It's Chiaki." I responded.

"Haha! I see… that's good! And..did you guys already chose what wanted to eat?" He asked politely.

"Not yet..,can you please come back later?" I responded.

"Haha! No problem." He said as he left, still smiling.

"The servants here are so friendly don't you thing?" I inquired as I faced Chiaki who seemed angry and confused.

"What's wrong?" I asked innocently.

"What do you mean, WhAts wRoNg?" She murmured.
I stared at her confused.

"Hinata! You were talking with our suspect right now!" She murmured while yelling at the same time.

"Our suspect? What do you mean it can't be our s-" I begin to say as I got interrupted by Chiaki.

"Hajime. It. Is. Him. I can't believe you knew that guy the whole time.." she sighed.

"Look-" I tried to defend myself, but Chiaki got faster.

"Didn't you saw his picture? They are the same guy!"

"I can't remember the picture we saw of him." I ended, admitting.

"What do you mean?" She questioned.

I don't want her to think I'm weird but..

"I don't know, however, I'm sure I saw his picture, I just somehow can't manage to remember it at all."
"Why is that?"

"I don't KnoW-" I said a little louder which drew the attention of Mr.servant.

"Hinata-Kun? Is everything okay there?" He asked sincerly.

I turned and stared at him for a second.
Still trying to see if I could recall his face, but no.. for me, he has always been my usual servant and no one else.

I also never realized I was the only one he called by his name, whenever he asks other people if they are okay he would say something like " is everything okay at table 06?". He never called clients by their names besides me.

It is strange… but maybe its because I am the only one who gave him my name?

Why am I trying to find him excuses?!? I am a detective and should always stay objective in my judgments.

"Hinata-?" He repeated worriedly.
"Yes! Everything is fine."

"If you say so.." he replied, not convinced, but he still got back to work.

"Why does He call you Hinata-Kun?" Asked Chiaki immediately as he left. "Does he know you?"

"I have no idea." I cried.

"Hajime, I need you to be honest about this, can you tell me all you know about him?" She demanded seriously.
"Okay," I sighed.

It's not like I have any other choice.., I don't understand what happened either, but I will try my best to explain it.

"Well, I used to go pretty often to that restaurant, you could even say I was a daily client."

"Why didn't you say it before?"

"I did say it! I just prefered not to go into the details that's all."

"And That servant… Komaeda.. was the one who served me every single time I came here," I said.

"And didn't you thought that seemed weird?" Asked Chiaki blaming me.

"No, at least not at the moment.."

"And how does he know your name?"

"Well, he asked for it obviously.."

"And you didn't ask for his?"

"Of course I did, but he told me that it was useless for me to know his name and that I could simply call him 'Mr.Servant.' because it is all that he is." I said.

"And why didn't you realize it was him?"

"What do you mean 'it was him'? You talk as if he was the killer, but we arent sure of nothing." I said highering my voice by accident.

The people who were seating in front of us turned to face us with an interrogative look.

"I'm sorry." I apologized, and they turned back.

"Why are you finding him excuses!?" She asked concerned.

"Why are you accusing him?! that guy is so nice! I may have not known his name, but what I know is that he is definitely not a murderer!" I said defensively.

"Hinata-- I don't know why you are saying this, you said that you didn't know him, but now you say that you are sure he would never commit a murder? You know you can't let feelings interfere in cases like this one, you are a Detective, the most known sleuth of the city, you have to stay objective, anyone could be the murder.." Said Chiaki seriously, trying to pull me together.

I sighed and tried to calm down "You are right, I shouldn't be making him excuses. I don't even know why I am doing this."

"Now tell me, why didn't you tell us that it was him in the picture, were you scared of something?" She assumed.

"Scared? Hell No! I'm telling the truth about this, I honestly don't know! When I saw the picture… It's like it was a totally different person, like my brain couldn't match the two persons to be one same."

"Hajime..did you know Komaede before?" She repeated, but calmly this time.

"No, I swear I did not, at least not personally I didn't know him besides him being a servant in that restaurant, I don't know what did he do to my brain."

Chiaki gave me a sad look to empathize even though she clearly couldn't understand.

Then all of a sudden she started looking around searching for something.
I saw her eyes widening a little.

"What is it?" I asked.
"Have you seen Komaeda?" She demanded worriedly.
"No?" I said as I stand up from my seat "wasn't he supposed to come back to take our command?"

"Well, I can't see him anywhere." She said as she woke up too.

Another servant came to us, It was a girl this time.

"Is everything okay, sir?"

"Yes, um… Have you seen the servant who was standing here?"

"You mean Komaeda? It's 12am, his out for his break."

"It's already 12am?!" I cried.

"Yeah, you guys stood here for more than 45 minutes chattering.. When he left, I am the one who took his place, and I am now here to serve you." She said smiling.

"Could you please tell us where he is?" Asked Chiaki the servant girl.

"Probably not far from here, why do you need him?" She asked suspiciously but also curiously.

"Nothing you must worry about," I said.
Which made her worry even more.

"We just want to ask Nagito something." Said Chiaki reassuring her, Using his first name to make it look like she knew him personally.

"Oh, if that's all..." She replied smiling.

"Okay, so maybe we should go now."
I said as I left followed by Chiaki.

We left the restaurant and looked around searching for him.
"Can you see him?" Asked Chiaki.