Lucinda opens her eyes with a slight throbbing in her head. Knowing that she had no dream last night, and it was the first time her sleep was uninterrupted. She rises from her bed and walks to the bathroom cabinet, where she withdraws a bottle of aspirin. She puts two pills into her mouth and swallows them with some water. Closing the cabinet, she glances at her reflection in the mirror. She appears as if she'd gone days without sleep. She'd lost some weight and her bright smile had dimmed to the point of her not knowing herself anymore. "Is this how sleepless nights feel like?" she thought to herself, patting her cheeks.
She took a few minutes to stand in front of the mirror, preparing for the day. After freshening up, she trudged downstairs to make breakfast, enjoying every bite. She kept encouraging herself to stay positive, no matter how hard the situation was, as it all starts with a delicious meal. After cleaning up the dishes, she gives her mum a goodbye kiss and then heads to work.
***
Kei walked into the station with a cup of coffee in his hands. He savoured the taste of plain coffee on a Tuesday morning, scrolling through japan times on his phone, looking at the headlines of the day.
" Sergeant Kei, sergeant...," came a voice from behind, sounding out of breath.
He turned around to find out who had called him; it was one of the new recruits in the station, wondering why he was out of breath while attempting to catch up with him.
"Sergeant Kei, the superintendent needs you in his office," he said, his face already flushed from running.
"Mmm, what's your name?" Kei asked, turning in the opposite direction for the superintendent's office, making sure to walk at a normal pace for his junior to catch up with him, since he had long legs.
"Sosuke Henmi, sir," he said with a salute, standing at attention. Kei stood for some minutes staring at his junior and taking notes on his features. Henmi didn't seem like an officer for one. Instead, he looked like an intern for a newspaper. He was one of the most talented in his academy, but his body structure didn't look it. 'All he needs is experience,' Kei muttered to himself.
"No need to salute or be up tight around me," Kei said indifferently. He wasn't one for all the formal saluting and all, it always made him feel uncomfortable. He started walking in the direction of the super intend's office. With his junior trailing after him.... Kei stood before the office door, the words Yamamoto Ooishi gleaming in bright gold. He knocked before entering. This was a crucial case that called for his father's involvement. He walked up to the only empty seat in the room and sat down without being invited. Henmi looked at him like he'd grown two horns. He knew fully well that a junior officer wasn't supposed to sit until his senior invited him to do so in a formal setting. He couldn't say anything except to stand beside Kei.
No one could say anything in the room, after all, Kei had an impressive track record, and they were all used to his behaviour. The meeting commenced with Kei giving records of the last encounter he had with Lucinda and all he got from her with accurate details. "So Hayashi is truly the one looking after her," said one of the seniors in the room, nodding his head with understanding like he'd for seen this happening.
Someone had passed a file to him, on the file it read Kusakabe Hinato, it had all her track records of cases she'd solved and departments she'd worked in and all her achievements, but something was amiss, this particular case, it was noted that she was the one to have opened this case, but then it had mysteriously closed, with her disappearing with all the evidence and a child that was a major link to the case, it was truly mysterious, this intrigued Kei some more, deep down he patted himself for not throwing this case away. He kept on reading through her file, not hearing what was being spoken at this meeting, till he finally hears someone cough, then he looks up from the file.....
"Noguchi, are you cleared for the procedure?" asked Yamamoto Ooishi, looking out the window of his office with his back turned to Kei.
"Yes sir," he replied, to indicate he was listening.
"Any other briefings needed?" Yamamoto asked, looking around.
Kei sat for some time thinking about what he needed to say. He finally said, "I want Officer Sosuke to join me and you can assign my partner to someone else for now."
He got up from his chair, "Sosuke, follow me," he ordered without waiting for a reply from his super intend, he left the office with Henmi trailing after him..... They got to the parking lot, Kei tossed him the keys to his car, Henmi stood a bit confused as to why he'd passed on the keys.
"You drive, we're scouting," Kei replied without waiting for Henmi to ask his questions. He looked a bit confused, but he'd heard about his senior and his weird cold behaviour, shrugging his shoulder, he gets into the car and starts the ignition.
***
This was the third cup of coffee for Henmi, while it was Kei's fourth for the day, they'd parked out in front of Lucinda's house, scouting Hinato Kusakabe (Hayashi Himari) waiting for when she'd walked out of the house, he'd gotten there when Lucinda was just walking out of the house, he'd made sure Henmi parked at a secured hidden corner that no one else would suspect them of being trespassers.... Hours of sitting and waiting, Mrs. Hayashi stepped out of the house, locking the door after her, she pulled on her shades, got into her car and drove out. Kei woke Henmi up when he noticed it from the side rear-view mirror.
As Henmi surveyed his surroundings, he immediately remembered where he was and that he was on duty, "follow the green Mercedes," Kei said, his eyes still fixed on the car. Henmi turned on and followed the car.
"Careful now, don't make it noticeable that you're following her," he said, making some detailed notes on what time she'd stepped out of the house. As they followed her, they spotted a signboard on the sea dock market with the words Nakashi fish market written on it. They'd parked a few miles away from her car. They'd waited for some minutes. When she finally came out with some bags that had fish in them, she got into her car and they trailed after her....
Mrs. Hayashi drove round town like nothing was wrong. However, she'd noticed the car parked outside when she'd sent Lucinda off to work. Since her days of being a police officer and going rogue, she always made sure to take note of her surroundings, especially when she spotted that something was off. She looked through her rear-view mirror and noticed the car was trailing after her; she smiled and slowly stepped on her accelerator, taking them for an enjoyable drive round town and it's been really long since someone trailed after her like this. Feeling the rush of blood in her veins, making her cheeks and neck flush, while having fun shaking them off her path...
***
Kei and Henmi took notes on how she spent her time shopping before heading home. He felt something was slightly off. The way she drove felt like she knew he was trailing after her and decided to play his game. 'Well, this investigation isn't over,' he thought to himself. It was already 8pm by the time they drove past the Hayashi residence. Kei was about to ask Henmi where he lived when he remembered he had been planning to check up on Lucinda and kick-start this case.
"Henmi, drop me a few blocks from the cakes 'n ale bakery," he pointed out, timing Lucinda's departure with her friend. As soon as the last customer left the bakery, Kei stepped out of the car, looked into the side-view mirror, roughing his hair a bit, he upturned his collar, to make it look like he's just coming from the office. He put his hands in his pocket and carried the makeshift suitcase from the back seat of his car.
Before leaving, he told Henmi, "come get me from Higashi-Maizuru Park," before walking away.
***
Lucinda noticed someone like Kei walking by, when it hit her that she forgot to take his number twice. Instead, she cleaned up the last table, when she ran out and tapped his shoulder, sure of herself that it was really Kei. He turned and smiled at her. "Hi, I didn't see you there," he said, lying through his teeth.
"It's okay, what are you doing here?" she asked, giggling in the process like a schoolgirl in love.
"Oh, I had some work to do around this area and decided to pass by, hoping you'd notice," he said, tousling his hair in the process.
"It sure did work," Lucinda said. They stood for some minutes looking at each other, waiting for the other to talk, when Yuri walked out and saw both of them standing without saying anything.
"Cindy just tell him you want his number!" Yuri shouted out, helping Lucinda say what she couldn't say. Blood rose to Lucinda's cheeks. Feeling a bit uncomfortable because of Yuri.
Kei chuckled at what Yuri said. He took out a paper and pen from his suitcase and wrote down his number. Under it, he wrote something else. He passed the paper to Lucinda and winked at her before walking away.
Lucinda blushed some more before running into the shop.
"Yuri, I'll kill you!" she shouted as she made it to the changing room.
Yuri laughed, knowing that Lucinda actually appreciates her help sometimes, "Thank you and I love you, my best friend in the entire world is good enough," Yuri said, still laughing at Lucinda. Ignoring Yuri, Lucinda looked down at the paper and she saw his message saying, 'Meet me in front of the coffee shop a few blocks down.'
***