The mystery starts with a love scene
"Look, look! The bath's glowing!"
A girl's voice echoed from the bathroom.
Considering what sort of hotel this was, it wasn't odd for the bath to shimmer like an aurora or to spout bubbles.
"Come on, aren't you going to come look?"
I was sitting on the double bed by myself in silence when she prompted me again.
Yeesh. What is she trying to lure me into doing? "We didn't come here to play, Nagisa," I told the girl. Actually, she was old enough now that I should call her a woman.
She poked her head out of the bathroom, then came over to me. For some reason, she was smiling faintly. "If we're not playing, does that mean we're serious?"
The room was illuminated by indirect light.
Sitting down on the bed next to me, she looked up at me with a mischievous smile. "I mean, we're spending one of the first nights of a new year in a place like this… You know?"
Makeup suited her even better now than it had in high school. Her already well-defined features were even more attractive, and as I sat there with nothing to do, her rouged lips whispered sweetly to me.
We were more grown-up than we'd been when we met.
Of course we were. It had been more than two years since she'd hauled me up by my shirtfront in that classroom after school. Both Nagisa and I were well past the legal age. We weren't kids anymore.
"I know. Want me to put my fingers in your mouth?" Gently, Nagisa pushed me down onto the bed. "You liked that, didn't you, Kimihiko?"
When had we started calling each other by our first names? We'd said and done so much together that I couldn't remember those little details.
"That's a fetish of yours, isn't it—letting a girl slobber all over you." "That rumor isn't just exaggerated; it was made up entirely."
What started it was your shoving your fingers down my throat in that classroom after school.
"But they even call it the stabber finger."
"Are you trying to run me through or something? It's called the pointer finger. Because you use it to point at people." This was how our conversations usually went, and I gave a little sigh.
"Your eyelashes sure are long."
Nagisa's face suddenly got a lot closer. Her perfume was that familiar citrus scent. I thought its calming fragrance expressed Nagisa's (surprisingly delicate) feelings really well.
"Kimihiko."
She was right in front of me now. Her figure had also matured quite a bit. "Nagisa."
Our lips drew closer and closer. Nagisa shut her eyes. And then— "Except we're here for work."
My eyes snapped open. I flung Nagisa onto the bed, then focused my ears on the sounds from the next room over which were coming through my Bluetooth headset.
"…I mean, I knew that. I also figured this was where things were going and rolled with it, okay? Geez, who just throws girls onto beds like that, huh?"
Nagisa was muttering something, but more importantly… "We've got a winner here. Definitely guilty."
I handed the headset to Nagisa, who took it grudgingly. The audio from the next room over was…
"Ohh, this is… Yes. Absolutely." Awkwardly, Nagisa averted her eyes. Considering what type of hotel this was, I doubt I need to tell you what was happening over there.
"Huh? Oh, they're really branching out. Hm, they're putting that in there?
Whoa…"
"We didn't come here to find out what modern bugs are capable of, but we sure did anyway."
We'd planted the bug in our target's bag ahead of time. Now that we'd gotten this audio, we had solid proof.
"I feel bad for the guy who hired us, but we'd better let him know about this."
I took out my smartphone and started putting together a report on our infidelity investigation.
We'd gotten this request at the end of last year from an office drone who
suspected his wife was cheating on him. The client's wife was a model at the top of her field, and they'd gotten married a few months ago in a top secret ceremony. However…
"His gorgeous model wife is cheating on him with a guy in her industry.
That's rough." Nagisa sighed uncomfortably.
"Yeah, and the client is… Maybe it's rude to say this, but he's a bland office worker. If a male model steals his wife, the news might hit him extra hard."
"Yeah, the guy she's cheating with is superhot."
"Yeah. By the way, Nagisa, you can take the headset off now." "…Wh-what are you talking about?"
It seemed mean to interrupt when she was enjoying herself so much, but I took the headset back, then immediately texted the report to our client.
"Still, how do you suppose an ordinary office worker managed to convince a model to marry him?"
I'd been curious about that myself. Not only that, but here she was, cheating on him just a few months after their wedding. It was all pretty weird.
"Well, anyway, we've got this one solved now, don't we? Even if it's left a bad taste in our mouths," Nagisa said, tucking her hair behind her ear.
"Yeah. Want to stand by until the target leaves the room?" Figuring that would be about two hours from now, I checked my watch. We'd probably be home by dinnertime.
"I see. What will we do while we're waiting?" Nagisa asked. She was sitting with her legs kicked out to the sides in an M shape, and she looked up at me through her lashes. The turtleneck she was wearing showed off her curves; she really had matured since high school, in several ways.
"I know you're not actually that dense, Kimihiko."
The heater was on in here; the room was a little warm, and Nagisa's cheeks were flushed.
"…Well, I guess there are some things you have to face head-on."
I needed a way to productively kill two whole hours, so I rummaged in my bag for a certain item. "I'm not done with any of my winter term homework. Help me out."
I was lucky to have a brilliant friend in the same seminar. At this rate, I was perilously close to getting held back a year. Rolling my shoulders, I opened my laptop.
"I wish you'd get held back a year for your whole life."
That sulky face of Nagisa's was the only thing adulthood hadn't changed.
About two hours later, as predicted, there was motion from the room next door.
"Great. Nagisa, let's go." "How about a thank-you?"
I saved the report, which I'd finished with Nagisa's help, then we grabbed our stuff and went after the target. Once we'd seen the pair enter the elevator, we ran down the stairs. Fortunately, it wasn't too many floors.
"There they are. That pair in coats."
Outside the hotel, in a gloomy alley with the sun almost below the horizon, Nagisa pointed at a couple in overcoats. They had their arms linked companionably. They probably had no idea their rendezvous had been witnessed.
"What do you want to do? Should we keep following them?" I asked Nagisa.
We already had proof of the affair. There didn't seem to be much point in shadowing the couple any longer… But just as I was mulling over our options, it happened.
About fifty meters ahead of us, the woman we were following gave a short scream.
What had happened? What was going to happen?
As we started running to catch up, we saw that a man had dashed out of an alley. He had a blade in his hand, and he was shouting. "Traitor!"
"—! Is that our client?"
In the distance, the woman's lover held her close, protecting her. For a moment, the man with the knife hesitated, but then he screamed again and raised
his weapon above his head.
Nagisa and I wouldn't make it in time. The man's blade began to descend toward the other man's back.
"Argh, not again."
I sighed at my own incompetence, or maybe because she'd stolen yet another march on me. Next to me, Nagisa was probably feeling the same way. We stopped, weary but relieved, and exchanged looks.
Did we have time for that, you ask? Sure. The incident was already over.
"Nice try, but no. Put down the knife and surrender."
A figure in white had appeared out of nowhere and pinned the man with the knife.
The ace detective had probably been ready well in advance, then carelessly fallen asleep. But once again, she'd waltzed in to steal the best part.
"Assistant, don't just stand there. Hurry up and call the police."
Her elegant dress hadn't changed a bit, but she did look a little more grown-up than she had when we first met.
She was the keenly intelligent, talented, beautiful, flawless, and unimpeachable ace detective.
The only reply I could offer her was one of my typical sarcastic ones: "Couldn't you have helped us out a little sooner, Siesta?"