“Good. It seems no one has any complaints.”
Detective Baron nodded with satisfaction.
“Then first, Hayes!”
“Yes, Detective.”
“You take charge of Archduchess Catherine.”
The reason for this selection was clear.
‘It’s probably because of the photo in my pocket.’
Well, I didn’t have any major complaints either.
“Understood.”
“And Charlie.”
“Yes!”
“You take the artist’s side.”
“You mean Mr. Albrecht? No problem! It’ll be natural if I follow him around pretending to be a fanatic fan. I actually am a huge fan of his!”
Detective Baron cleared his throat uncomfortably.
It was impossible to tell whether it was because Charlie was flightily claiming to be a fan of a suspect, or because he felt like his only fan was being taken away.
“Finally, I will take on the first great detective, Arthur Sterling.”
“Will you be alright?” I asked worriedly. “He’s a great detective. He won’t be an easy opponent.”
Detective Baron snorted.
“Hmph! That’s exactly why I should handle him. Who else would I entrust him to?”
Well, to be honest, the detective’s track record wasn’t exactly great….
“Just don’t get kidnapped somewhere this time,” Charlie said, voicing exactly what I wanted to say.
“Eek! Shut up! If you understand, then disperse! Disperse!”
He really was a short-tempered man.
Charlie left first, and as I was about to leave while grumbling, Detective Baron suddenly grabbed my shoulder.
“Hayes. Just in case, let me say one more thing.”
His voice was solemn, different from just a moment ago.
“I know well that you are a detective. And not just any detective, but a great one whose value is currently skyrocketing. To be honest, wanting to investigate Taylor John is just my own greed, and I know it’s shameless of me to say this to you, who has no obligation.”
“…”
“But I’ve staked my life on this case. Too many precious lives have been lost because of Taylor John. So… I’m asking you. Please, for this once, focus solely on this case. If you happen to take on a new commission while Taylor John is in the Capital, I won’t be able to forgive you.”
“…Honestly, Detective, you worry too much.”
I removed Detective Baron’s arm from my shoulder and shrugged with a lighter voice. It was to ease his worries.
“I told you. I only accepted the last commission to get information on Archduchess Catherine. Do you think I’m crazy enough to take on a new commission in this situation? I’m not that disloyal.”
And more than anything.
“I might not be as much as you, Detective Baron, but I’m serious about catching Taylor John as well.”
“…I’ll trust you.”
Only then did the tension leave Detective Baron’s shoulders, as if he were relieved.
***
As I was about to leave the police station, it had started to drizzle.
The weather hadn’t looked that bad in the morning, but the rain had started during the brief meeting at the station.
‘Darn, I should have brought an umbrella instead of a cane.’
Even without this, the Empire was a place where it rained frequently. Because of that, many gentlemen used umbrellas as substitutes for canes.
Well, in my case, I used my cane for self-defense, so that was out of the question.
‘Should I ask if they can put lead in an umbrella handle too?’
But walking around with an umbrella filled with lead seemed like too much, even for me. I would surely collapse from exhaustion before catching any criminal.
I was standing there blankly watching the pouring rain and thinking these thoughts when Charlie, who happened to be coming out, spotted me.
“Oh. Mr. Hayes, you don’t have an umbrella? Then use this.”
“What about you, Charlie?”
“You don’t have to worry about me.”
As if it wasn’t just a polite gesture, Charlie ran back into the police station and soon reappeared with another umbrella in his hand.
“My memory isn’t very good, so I lose my umbrella often. Because of that, I keep a stash of them.”
“Ah, I’m the same way.”
“What? Even though you’re a detective, Mr. Hayes?”
Geez, that’s offensive to hear as a detective. Even a detective can have a bad head and a poor memory.
‘One day, I’ll definitely find a detective with a worse memory than me and shove him in front of Charlie. To show him that you can be a detective even with a bad memory.’
While thinking such trivial thoughts, I hurried my steps back to the office.
Archduchess Catherine would arrive at the Imperial Capital’s train station tomorrow. To follow her, tomorrow would be a very busy day. I had to get plenty of rest before then.
“…Hm?”
However, in front of the detective agency, someone was sitting weakly, leaning against the office door.
‘…Is it Toby?’
I sent him back a little while ago, so why is he here again? Is it because of the rain?
Thinking of the child standing out in the rain made me worried. I hurried over to open the office door for him, but… something was strange.
He was too large to be Toby. Furthermore, that familiar, distinctively round silhouette was…
“Chairman?”
“Ah, Detective Hayes.”
Chairman Peterson lifted his head and smiled weakly. He was soaking wet, his entire body drenched by the rain.
“I finally get to see you. I’ve missed you so much.”
“…! What on earth is with your appearance? No, first, come inside!”
Startled, I immediately brought him into the office. But at that moment, an uneasy intuition sprouted in my heart.
The fact that Chairman Peterson was sitting there in such a state meant that the matter was extremely serious.
He had surely come to give me a commission.
***
I handed a towel to Chairman Peterson.
I wanted to give him a change of clothes, but there was no way my clothes would fit him. Instead, I made him a cup of hot tea and handed it over.
While the Chairman warmed his body with the tea, I planned to explain calmly. That unfortunately, I was in a position where I couldn’t take on a case right now. That if he needed a detective, I would introduce him to another capable one.
‘Mr. Walter… he should still be in the Imperial Capital.’
The last case was quite regrettable, but objectively speaking, Walter was an excellent detective. Whatever the Chairman’s concern was, Walter would surely be able to resolve it well.
“Um… Chairman.”
However, before I could even speak properly, Chairman Peterson gulped down the hot tea and set the empty teacup down with a clatter.
‘Right. I forgot the Chairman can’t really feel heat.’
And before I could say anything, he shouted.
“How can something like this happen!”
The opening was intense.
“Telling me to withdraw from my business! Saying that the clock I made drove a child mad! How, how could they say such things!”
“Pardon? Withdrawing from business? A clock drove a child mad?”
These were questions I had no choice but to ask.
Why was Chairman Peterson a chairman? Wasn’t it because he owned the leading accessory company, Peter-Hering? And Peter-Hering’s main product was clocks.
But someone suddenly told him to withdraw from the business? Who? And what was this about driving a child mad?
‘No, let’s calm down. What am I going to do even if I hear this? I’m going to pass this case to Mr. Walter anyway, so if I just tell him to talk to Mr. Walter—’
“I’m so resentful and wronged that I’m about to go crazy! Please listen to my story! Do you know how those wicked fellows are slandering me? They say my clocks drive people mad! They’re saying that’s why a young child beat someone to death!”
“…What?”
Really, this was a story I couldn’t help but listen to.
***
Where should I begin?
As you know, Mr. Hayes, I run a small accessory company. Yes, that’s right. Peter-Hering.
It’s a name created by putting together ‘Peter’ from Arthur Peterson and ‘Hering’ from Allen Hessington. I suppose you could say I wanted to combine two different surnames into one.
Why Peter-Hering and not Peter-Hess? Allen said Peter-Hess didn’t look stylish at all. He said the name Peter-Hering had a more luxurious feel. Anyway, doesn’t he have his funny side?
Ah, I’ve rambled too much. To start the story again, I’ve been pushing clocks as the main product of Peter-Hering.
It wasn’t easy. While I’m confident that the quality of our clocks is second to none, there were already established luxury clock brands in the minds of the public.
So, I made unique clocks our main product. Yes, that’s right. Something like this wristwatch I’m wearing right now.
A lightweight wristwatch instead of a pocket watch. A simple wall clock instead of a cuckoo clock.
This marketing strategy was quite effective. The wall clocks, in particular, sold well. While wristwatches didn’t have a huge advantage over pocket watches, wall clocks significantly reduced the space a clock occupied in the home, so many families preferred them.
Among the many families that bought a Peter-Hering wall clock was the Washers family.
Very unfortunately, the child of this Washers house was said to have been born somewhat lacking. Unlike other children his age, he was very late to start speaking and showed no interest in what others did in front of him.
Mr. Washers supposedly suspected his wife of having an affair. He said that since both he and his wife were very intelligent people, there was no way their child could be this dull, and the child must have been born lacking because she had committed adultery with someone like a stable hand.
Eventually, Mr. Washers left, and only the wife and child remained.
In such a situation, one might have sent the child to an orphanage, but Mrs. Washers was truly remarkable. Somehow, she raised the child on her own.
During the day, she went out to work, leaving the child with a nanny, and when she returned in the evening, she poured all her heart into the child. The child seemed to know his mother’s love; no matter how well the nanny treated him, he wouldn’t even look at her. He spent the whole day waiting only for his mother to come.
Our company’s wall clock was a mother’s gift for such a child.
When the child first received the wall clock as a gift, he was said to be overjoyed. He liked the wall clock so much that he spent all day staring intently at it.
But then, one day, the child suddenly said this.
“The shadow has disappeared from the clock hands!”
After saying that, he cried all day. What do you mean all day? Even after one week passed, he couldn’t stop crying. No matter how much the people around him asked for the reason, he just kept talking about the shadow of the clock hands.
…It was from this time that bad rumors about our company began to circulate. They said that it was eerie enough that a child who should be running around actively was staring at a clock all day, but seeing him have such fits, there must be something evil dwelling in our clocks that addicts children and drives them mad.
It was a ridiculous, false rumor. It wasn’t even worth listening to. Since it was clearly a malicious rumor spread by a competitor, I didn’t even respond properly. I thought any intelligent consumer would naturally laugh at such a superstition and ignore it.
Then one day, the Washers’ nanny said she couldn’t take it anymore. Naturally. If you heard a child crying in the house all day, who could live without going mad? The nanny shouted and scolded the child several times, asking what the big deal was with a clock shadow. The shouting was so loud that even the neighbors passing by heard the scolding.
In the end, the nanny’s scolding seemed to have been effective. The child stopped crying that evening and didn’t even look at the clock anymore. Instead, he asked to change rooms. Of course, the child’s mother allowed it.
But, but you see.
The next evening, when the child’s mother returned home.
The nanny was dead in the child’s original room. Leaning against the wall where the clock had been hanging. Her whole body was covered in blood.
In the nanny’s arms, she held a broken wall clock stained with blood.
“Aaaahhh!!”
The child’s mother screamed frantically. Hearing the commotion, the child in the next room came over.
“Oh?”
The child, witnessing the terrible scene where the nanny who had cared for him until now had been murdered, said this.
“The shadow has returned to the clock hands!”
As he said that, he smiled brightly.