Back on the first floor, Sasagaki glanced around the shop. Yukiho was nowhere to be seen. She was probably in a back office somewhere, tabulating the day’s takings.
‘Thanks for the help,’ the man whispered just before they left.
Sasagaki nodded. The rest would be up to them, the younger generation. He wished them the best of luck.
Sasagaki went out of the store with a few other customers. The other two detectives broke out from the crowd and went to another of their co-workers across the street. They would regroup, then head in to question Yukiho.
Sasagaki pulled his coat tighter and started to walk. A mother who had just left the store before him was walking with her child.
‘That’s lovely,’ the girl’s mother was saying, looking at something in the little girl’s hand. ‘You’ll have to show it to Daddy when we get home.’
The girl was about four years old. She was holding something up in her hand, a piece of paper fluttering in the wind.
Sasagaki’s eyes went wide. The red paper in the girl’s hand had been expertly cut into the shape of a reindeer.
‘Wait, where did you get that?’ he asked, suddenly grabbing the girl’s arm from behind.
The girl’s mother turned, shocked, her hands going to protect her daughter. ‘What are you doing!?’
The little girl looked as if she was about to cry. A few passers-by stopped to watch.
‘I – I’m sorry. I just wanted to know where your daughter got that,’ Sasagaki asked, pointing at the reindeer.
‘She got it just now, at the store.’
‘From whom? Who gave that to you?’
‘Santa gave it to me,’ the girl said.
Sasagaki spun around and ran at full speed, gritting his teeth against the ache in his knees.
The doors to the shop were already closed. The few detectives standing outside looked surprised when they saw Sasagaki running toward them.
‘What is it?’ one of them asked.
‘Santa Claus!’ Sasagaki shouted. ‘He’s Santa Claus!’
Immediately grasping the situation, the detectives lunged forward and forced open the closed automatic glass doors, spilling into the shop. Ignoring the floor staff trying to stop them, they ran up the stopped escalator.
Sasagaki tried vainly to keep up with them, but then had another thought and instead turned back outside to head down the narrow alleyway that ran along the side of the shop.
I’m an idiot. How long have I been chasing this guy? How long has he been lurking in the shadows where no one would see him, watching over Yukiho?
Behind the building was a metal staircase with a railing that led up to a door. He ran up the stairs and yanked the door open to see a man standing in front of him, dressed all in black. He looked surprised to suddenly see someone appearing in front of him.
It was a strange, lingering moment in time. Sasagaki knew the man standing in front of him was Ryo Kirihara. And yet he couldn’t move to grab him. He couldn’t even speak. Meanwhile another part of his mind realised that Ryo knew who he was, too.
A second passed and the moment was gone. Ryo whirled around and began running in the opposite direction.
‘Stop!’ Sasagaki shouted, chasing after him.
He ran through the corridor and out into the first floor of the store. The other detectives were there in force. Ryo was running, weaving between shelves piled high with expensive-looking bags. ‘It’s him!’ Sasagaki shouted.
The detectives turned and ran. Ryo was making for the top of the elevator. We’ve got you now, Sasagaki thought.
But just before Ryo reached the escalator he swerved, and without a moment’s hesitation he leapt off the balcony.
A cry went up from the store clerks on the floor below. There was a loud crash of something breaking. The detectives raced down the steps of the escalator.
Sasagaki reached the escalator a few seconds behind them. His heart was racing painfully. Hand to his chest, he took the steps slowly.
Down on the ground floor, the giant Christmas tree was lying on its side. Ryo Kirihara was lying next to it, his arms and legs splayed out. He wasn’t moving.
A detective ran closer and tried to pull him up, but then he stopped and turned toward Sasagaki.
‘What is it?’ Sasagaki asked. The detective just pointed down at Ryo. A pool of blood had started to spread on the floor beneath him.
Sasagaki walked over and knelt down. He started to roll Ryo over when he heard another scream.
There was something sticking out of Ryo’s chest. It was hard to see through the blood, but Sasagaki knew exactly what they were. His scissors.
Someone shouted for an ambulance and he heard footsteps running, but Sasagaki had seen enough corpses in his life to know when it was too late for that. Sensing a presence, he looked up. Yukiho was standing nearby, her face as white as snow.
‘Who is this man?’ Sasagaki asked, looking her in the eye.
Yukiho was as expressionless as a porcelain doll. ‘I don’t know him at all,’ she said quietly. ‘The manager hired him.’
A young woman showed up, her face pale, and introduced herself as the manager.
The detectives were starting to move. One began roping off the scene. Another began questioning the manager, and another put his hand on Sasagaki’s shoulder.
The old detective let himself be led away. He was walking a little shakily. He looked up and saw Yukiho going up the escalator, looking like a white shadow from behind.
Not once did she look around.