Case File N°1: Of Misplaced Obsessions - Something I Saw.

The hours went by faster than I thought, and before I knew it, I was sitting in a big chair in a rather comfortable hotel room, with Mrs. Munehara and the detective in front of me.

We had already been waiting for several minutes, without me really knowing why, when someone knocked several times on the door.

The detective got up, and opening the door, said:

"We were waiting for you, come in."

She pushed herself aside to let the newcomer in, and to my surprise, I saw the young boy I had sat on irreverently the night before.

He had a shifty look in his eyes, and didn't particularly want to look anyone in the eye. But what struck me more was that he unconsciously avoided looking in the direction of Mrs. Munehara.

The latter, however, did not remain silent for long.

"Sagawa-kun?" She was surprised, recognizing the young man visibly.

The voice made the young man react, for he immediately turned his head towards the customer, before looking away, embarrassed.

"Well, now that everyone is here, we can finally close this case properly!" Exclaimed the detective, all smiling.

She acted as if she hadn't noticed the strange tension in the room at all, which encouraged the boy to sit down in turn, but not without choosing the chair furthest away from the group.

The detective, still standing, then turned to me and smiled, before turning again, this time to Ms. Munehara.

"Munehara-san, to begin with, I will tell you how I conducted the investigation," she explained.

The client nodded, obviously ready to wait for the young woman's conclusions.

"As I told you on the phone last night, your stalker was caught," she explained. "But I didn't tell you who it was until now, because I wanted everyone to be present."

She then pointed to the young man who had arrived last, and announced:

"As I thought, the person who was pestering you and calling you every night was Sagawa-kun here."

Ms. Munehara was surprised by this revelation, and confused, looked at the young man who was nervously avoiding looking up at her. But she wasn't the only one who was surprised.

I wondered why the detective presented things in this light.

"But... why did you do that, Sagawa-kun?" Ms. Munehara asked, dumbfounded.

The young man didn't answer anything, which signaled to the detective that she should explain everything.

"First of all, let's start by going over what links you. Nijima-kun here didn't know it, but you knew each other before, didn't you?"

"That's right," Ms. Munehara said, nodding her head. She then turned to me, and added, "Since I moved here, I go shopping at a convenience store not too far from here. And Sagawa-kun is currently working there..."

Oh... So they knew each other well before the fact...

But I didn't see how that changed anything about the phone calls.

"The fact that Sagawa-kun knows you is very important," the detective continued. "Because that's the reason he kept calling you."

"We don't know each other that well, though... And I don't think I've done anything to get his attention in that way..." Said the client, a little embarrassed.

"That's just it. You didn't know each other well enough to have each other's cell phone numbers. Hence the calls to your landline, since the number was easily found in the phone books." Explained the detective. "He didn't know you well enough, but you still chatted from time to time, when you came to shop, right?"

"I... I guess..." Ms. Munehara conceded.

The detective then turned to the high school student, and with a thoughtful look, resumed her explanation.

"Which brings me to my next point... The incident with the flowers."

"You mean Sagawa-kun is the one who left the flowers outside my house, and broke into my apartment?" Asked the client, now worried.

The high school student reacted sharply, as if he wanted to protest, but remained silent, his trembling eyes focused on the woman he'd been calling for the past few weeks.

"No," the detective quickly contradicted. "It wasn't Sagawa-kun, and as I told you the day before, the culprit has been turned over to the police."

"That's... that's right..." Ms. Munehara realized. "But in that case, who got arrested?"

The detective pointed to the high school student again...

"The incident was known to the whole neighborhood, and Sagawa-kun also learned about what happened. You may have even talked about it without realizing it, while you were shopping."

Then she turned to Mrs. Munehara, and pointing to her in turn with her hand, added:

"Think about it. You work in a convenience store, and you see this woman, always alone, coming to do her shopping. She doesn't have a wedding ring, and maybe she even said she lives alone..."

"I... I may have said I was living by myself... Yes?" Ms. Munehara remarked.

"So it's not strange to worry about a person with that profile, when you hear from the rumors circulating in the neighborhood, that someone broke into her house."

It did indeed make sense. The boy could very well have cared about the client. But if so, why had he come to call her over and over again?

"You said the convenience store wasn't too far away, right?" The detective pointed out. "In fact, it's so close, someone might choose to take a little detour before heading home, to follow you and see where you live. And that person..."

She turned back to the high school student, who still didn't dare look at Ms. Munehara. He continued to stare at the carpet of the room.

"...Could have seen something strange. Of concern, even."

The deduction startled the young man, and seemed to worry the client even more. I myself was discovering certain elements of the case that I had not been aware of until now. And I was eager to know more.

Maybe it was this feeling, which made people read so many detective stories?

A few seconds, maybe a whole minute, passed before the young man finally spoke. He seemed resigned, as if he knew this moment would come. Maybe he and the detective had talked together the day before, while I was being taken to the hospital?

"What the lady says is true..." He finally said, finally raising his eyes to the people around him. "I had been a little worried, considering you had always been a smiling and pleasant person to talk to during my shift. So one night... I passed by your street."

At these words, Ms. Munehara smiled bitterly.

I also sensed that the young man was sincere, and I wondered where this was going.

"I admit that I followed you, and I apologize, but at the time, I was not thinking right..." Said the high school student while grimacing. "So, I knew in which apartment you lived. And one evening, while I was not working, I passed in the district. And, as the lady says... I saw something."