After Hayasaka spoke with Tsurumi, the man immediately realized the seriousness of the situation upon hearing that the male customer might be the serial murder suspect. He didn't dare slack off and promptly gathered all the nightclub employees for an emergency meeting.
Following more than an hour of one-on-one questioning, Tsurumi finally brought the police some good news, one of the hostesses had once witnessed Akimoto Risa interacting with the suspect outside the nightclub.
"Please ask Tsurumi-san to bring that hostess to the Metropolitan Police Department. Don't worry, this is just a standard interview. We'll see her in half an hour."
After hanging up the phone, Hayasaka looked toward Ritsu and asked, "Inspector, I've arranged for her to come to headquarters and give a statement. Should we start investigating the disappearance locations of Aizawa and Himeka now?"
Ritsu stared at the map of Beika Town for quite a while before shaking his head. "It's already close to noon. You should all go eat something and rest for a bit. You've worked hard all morning."
"But I'm not hungry yet. I can still participate in the interro—"
Right at that moment, Hayasaka's stomach completely betrayed her. Having only drunk a glass of milk for breakfast, she had long since become starving hungry. The resentful growl from her stomach immediately made the usually serious-faced Ritsu chuckle.
Ritsu pressed his lips tightly together to suppress the urge to laugh before teasing, "Still planning on participating in the interrogation now?"
Hayasaka's pretty face instantly flushed red. She turned around in panic and stammered, "I-I'm going to eat!"
Miwako, who had been quietly watching the show the whole time, reached out and smacked Takagi on the back while he hunched over trying desperately not to laugh.
"Takagi, let's go eat too. With Onizawa here, everything will definitely be fine."
"Ah! O-Okay, Sato-san!" Takagi immediately straightened up after being smacked, then hurried along beside Miwako like an obedient little husband.
The faint blush rapidly spreading across Takagi's ears didn't escape Ritsu's notice. Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, he wondered, 'Could Takagi have feelings for Sato?'
Ritsu suddenly felt that his emotional intelligence had improved quite a bit lately. He could actually see through this kind of secret crush now. In a fairly good mood, he quietly hummed an unknown tune while walking toward the First Division interrogation room.
About thirty minutes later, a long-haired girl wearing a sailor uniform and standing around 165 centimeters tall appeared at the interrogation room entrance.
Ritsu sized up the outfit that prioritized style over warmth. Tokyo had already entered autumn in September, and short sleeves with a short skirt were pretty rare on the streets nowadays. Most people at least wore a light jacket over them.
'A sailor uniform? Don't tell me this nightclub hires minors too? Though she does look older.'
Leaning lazily against his chair, Ritsu said in an unhappy tone, "Looks like Tsurumi wants to become a guest in our interrogation room himself. He even dares to hire high school students?"
The girl in the sailor uniform froze for a moment before awkwardly waving her hands. "No, Officer, I'm already twenty-nine years old. I've long since been an adult."
"??"
Ritsu blinked twice in confusion. He began wondering whether this woman had repeated grades for years when she quickly explained first.
"Tonight's theme is sailor uniforms, so I just wore it out directly to make things easier before work."
"Oh."
So it was just a nightclub theme party. Since Ritsu had never been to a nightclub before, he naturally didn't understand that sort of culture.
Returning to the matter at hand, he steered the conversation back on track.
"Let's start with introductions. I'm Takashi Onizawa from First Division, Section Three. I hope you'll cooperate properly and provide us with useful leads."
"Hello, Officer Onizawa. My name is Yumeko Hamabe. I'm twenty-nine this year, graduated from Kumagaya High School in Saitama Prefecture, and never went to college. At the club my hostess name is Yume-chan. My hobbies are karaoke, and my favorite food is—"
Did she mistake the interrogation room for a matchmaking event? The corner of Ritsu's mouth twitched slightly as he raised his voice to interrupt her.
"Hamabe-san, were you close with Akimoto Risa?"
"Our relationship wasn't very good. Akimoto was super stingy. Once I borrowed some change from her, and when I paid it back, I was short by only ten yen, but she still made a huge fuss over it. She earns more than I do, yet she's ridiculously cheap!"
Hearing Hamabe's complaints, Ritsu recalled the information he had asked the tech department to retrieve during the half-hour wait. His fingers rhythmically tapped the desk as he slowly said,
"Do you really know Akimoto that well?"
"Huh?"
"If you don't know someone well, don't casually stick labels on them. She came from Nagoya to Tokyo to work as a hostess so she could help support her family. She saved money because her father was critically ill and needed treatment. To her, money was important, even one yen."
Hamabe froze. She truly hadn't known about Akimoto's past.
But now that she thought about it carefully, Akimoto never joined group dinners, and after work she would walk two kilometers just to catch the night bus and save money. Maybe she really wasn't stingy at all, just frugal.
Crossing his arms over his chest, Ritsu coldly asked, "Where exactly did you see Akimoto with the male suspect?"
"At the entrance of an alley near the nightclub. I saw her talking with the man, and then she got into his car." Hamabe looked regretful as she recalled it. If she had walked up and chatted with them back then, maybe the tragedy wouldn't have happened.
"Can you describe the man's appearance?"
"He was probably around 180 centimeters tall, had short brown hair, and wore a black outdoor jacket. I don't remember any other features. He had a really ordinary face without anything memorable about it."
"What about the vehicle he was driving?"
"It was a silver BMW, but I don't know much about cars, so I don't know the model."
Not knowing the model or license plate definitely made things troublesome.
Ritsu pulled out a map of Roppongi and asked, "Can you point out where this alley was?"
After quickly locating the nightclub where she worked, Hamabe pointed to the alley entrance and explained, "This alley is a shortcut to the night bus stop. Akimoto walked this route all the time. I saw her use it many times."
"Then why were you using that alley? Were you taking the night bus too?"
"I…" Hamabe lowered her head in shame and softly admitted, "One of my customers was waiting for me in that alley."
Guilt. Regret. Even remorse.
Ritsu withdrew his scrutinizing gaze. He could more or less guess that the customer was probably a married man. Otherwise, who would deliberately hide in an alley with no surveillance cameras in the middle of the night?
"He drove there, didn't he?"
"Y-Yes."
"Then I'll need you to take me to him. I need your customer to provide his dashcam footage."
Hamabe hesitated.
If they showed up at this hour, it would definitely alarm his family. But if she continued hiding the truth, the police would eventually find him anyway during the investigation.
"Time is critical. There's a strong chance the killer will strike again tonight, so please cooperate with us, Hamabe-san."
"Okay… I'll take you there. But could you please not reveal my identity… because… because his wife is pregnant."
For a moment, Ritsu didn't know how to respond. He found it somewhat absurd.
The wife was at home struggling through pregnancy, while the husband was out having an affair with a nightclub hostess. But what left him most speechless was Hamabe herself, knowing perfectly well it was wrong, yet still unable to stop herself from crossing the line.
"I won't expose your identity. But paper can never fully wrap up fire. Think carefully about your actions."
"...Okay."
The moment Ritsu stepped out of the interrogation room, he spotted Hayasaka approaching with a paper bag in hand.
"You came at the right time, Hayasaka. Lend me your car for a bit, I need to go handle something."
"Did you find a lead? I'll drive you there. Here, take this."
"What's this?"
"I asked the owner of Antarctic Ramen to send it over. Black pepper beef buns. At least eat something to fill your stomach a little."
"Heh, thanks."