Regardless of the ridiculous doubts I had about myself, I still had work to do.
As a detective, or rather, as a human being, I had to observe the minimum level of courtesy.
The first thing I needed to do was return the borrowed items to their owner.
“I’m sorry.”
At Chairman Peterson’s mansion, I bowed my head as soon as I faced him.
“You were kind enough to lend me these clothes, but I couldn’t keep my promise to return them intact.”
First it was the knight uniform I borrowed from Marie, and now it was this suit. I seemed to have a jinx when it came to properly looking after expensive clothes borrowed from others.
The clothes, which had begun to look tattered from the moment I ran through the crowd at the party, were ruined beyond recovery after enduring the flames of the explosion.
The large hole in the collar of the shirt was the fatal blow. The charred hole, caused by flying debris, looked impossible to fix even with careful sewing.
Of the borrowed clothes folded neatly in the paper bag, the only thing intact was the Jaguar half-mask. I felt I couldn’t even show my face, thinking I had damaged his son’s memento.
“You don’t need to worry too much about it.”
However, Chairman Peterson accepted the clothes calmly with a gentle smile.
“Didn’t you become a hero while wearing those clothes, Mr. Hayes? If he knew his clothes were worn while saving countless lives, Allen would surely have been very proud.”
I felt like I could finally breathe a little easier thanks to those words.
“Thank you for saying that.”
“More importantly, look at this. I liked this article so much that I even had it framed.”
As if trying to change the mood, the Chairman chuckled and pointed toward a wall.
An article from the business section—which I usually didn’t bother to read—was hanging there. The protagonist in the black-and-white photo was unmistakably me.
[Old Soldiers Never Die? The Undying God of Investment, Arthur Patterson!]
“Now that you’ve become famous, Mr. Hayes, it seems my eye for investing in you is finally being recognized. Everyone around me is anxious, regretting that they didn’t claim you first. Thanks to that, I’ve had a very pleasant time at business gatherings lately.”
The Chairman looked genuinely delighted.
“They kept asking me the secret to my investments. When they found out I’ve been your sponsor since you were unknown, they glared at me as if they wanted to kill me. I even heard someone ask what was so special about these eyes buried in fat that I always manage to pick up treasures.”
The Chairman let out a hearty laugh.
‘Those… eyes…’
“Are you really okay after hearing such insults?”
“Of course! Isn’t a personal insult from an enemy essentially the same as high praise? They only said that because they were so incredibly jealous.”
Looking at the laughing Chairman Peterson, it hit me once again that this man had climbed his way up from the very bottom.
“If they’re so envious, they should just succeed themselves. Really, I don’t know why they’re so busy that they can’t even beat one insignificant president of an accessory company.”
He had said something similar when we first met.
At the time, I thought the Chairman was just being excessively humble, but looking at him now…
‘I guess bragging while pretending to be humble is his hobby.’
As I listened, a question suddenly occurred to me.
“But is the fact that I’m receiving investment from you really worth a business article?”
I had heard before that successful detectives often received sponsorship from nobles or businessmen. But I thought it was just similar to sponsoring an artist—something to show off their wealth and prestige.
Why would this make it into the business section?
“It is absolutely worth an article. Isn’t it an important topic to see which businessman has which outstanding detective? When running a company, there are more than a few headache-inducing incidents. The sponsored detective must be skilled for us to trust them with such matters.”
Ah, I understood.
‘So, it’s like a corporate lawyer.’
While the police existed in this city, their skills were never fully trusted. Therefore, just as a successful modern company would have in-house corporate lawyers, they needed a sponsored detective—just in case they needed investigative power.
“If there is ever anything I can do to help you, Chairman, please let me know.”
“Oh, really?”
The Chairman’s eyes sparkled excessively. I hadn’t meant it as an empty remark, but I didn’t expect him to be this happy.
He grumbled as if he had been waiting for this.
“There are always troublesome things. Lately, a competitor has been inflating trivial stories and spreading annoying rumors. Those bastards. I should just grab them by the scruff of the neck and…!”
The creative curses that followed made me reflexively take a step back.
‘The Chairman has quite the personality.’
I never expected someone who smiled so gently to pour out such unheard-of profanities.
“…is what I should do. Don’t you think so, Mr. Hayes?”
“I certainly agree.”
I’m sorry. I actually didn’t hear the last part. I felt like my ears would start bleeding if I kept listening.
“Anyway, though it’s annoying, it hasn’t reached the stage where I need a detective’s help yet. If the situation gets more serious, I will certainly ask for your help then.”
“Yes. Please call me whenever you need.”
The talk about requests ended there. Afterward, the conversation naturally shifted toward the recent case.
“Doesn’t the Chairman already know everything?”
“Haha, reading it in the newspaper is quite different from hearing the story directly from you.”
I began the story feeling a bit embarrassed, and the Chairman listened like a child hearing an adventure tale. Chairman Peterson was an excellent listener.
He clenched his fists during the tense parts and let out a sorrowful sigh when the culprit’s story came up.
“Ah, Daisy… Isn’t it a cruel world? It is even more cruel to an orphan.”
Chairman Peterson showed a particularly sympathetic reaction to the culprit of this case.
‘It’s probably because of Allen.’
The Chairman’s spiritual foster son, Allen.
‘Now that I think about it, they have a lot in common.’
Daisy and Allen.
Both grew up poorly in struggling orphanages and had their lives changed after meeting a sponsor. But they were also alike in that their lives ultimately ended in tragedy.
“It has only been five years since the war ended,” Chairman Peterson whispered bitterly. “The orphans produced by the war have nowhere to turn. That is why they suffer injustices at the hands of people like Madame Moss, or end up as criminals after being crushed by society. I am trying not to spare any support for facilities like orphanages, but…”
The Chairman let out a deep sigh.
“Isn’t it as meaningless as returning starfish washed up on the beach back to the sea?”
No matter how many you return to the ocean, countless more starfish will be washed up with a single wave.
“Chairman…”
“Well, it was just a thought that came to mind. Please, continue your story.”
I continued the story as he requested.
The Chairman enjoyed the entire narrative, but he showed no particular reaction to the story of Detective Baron’s rescue. To be honest, it seemed he wasn’t particularly happy about the detective’s survival.
‘I expected as much… but it’s bittersweet.’
The reason I couldn’t just let it slide was because of the conversation I had with Detective Baron not long ago. The words we exchanged kept swirling in my head.
***
“It was very lucky. You were awake when we opened the door to the prop room, Detective.”
It was a casual remark I made while visiting him in the hospital.
“If you hadn’t been awake then, the outcome of the case would have been completely different.”
Neither Charlie nor I had any medical knowledge. If we had found an unconscious detective, we likely would have left the party immediately to save him. Since we wouldn’t have obtained information about the fireworks, we wouldn’t have realized how urgent the situation was.
As a result, the detective might have been saved, but the rest of the people likely would have died.
“The culprit’s plan failed entirely because you regained consciousness.”
Charlie, who was listening, added a word.
“The doctor said it was a miracle. He said he couldn’t believe you could maintain such clear consciousness and express yourself clearly in that state.”
Detective Baron snorted.
“Miracle, my foot… That’s just mental strength, pure mental strength!”
I thought it was his usual old-fashioned talk, but the detective continued in a low voice.
“…Trapped inside that amber, I couldn’t see anything and couldn’t move an inch. The only thing I could do was think.”
I couldn’t respond with a joke to those words. The detective had been tied up inside the dark amber for nearly ten days. Generally speaking, it wouldn’t have been strange for him to suffer from trauma.
“I thought about all sorts of things in there. The person I thought of most was Chairman Peterson. The last conversation I had with him before I was trapped wouldn’t leave my mind.”
Detective Baron twisted his lips into a self-deprecating smirk.
“His last words kept echoing in my head. That voice filled with resentment, saying he had nothing to say to a policeman who couldn’t save his son.”
“…”
“If I had lost consciousness like that, another person might have lost their family and ended up hating the police. I didn’t want that. So, I used that voice as a whip to hold onto my consciousness. Because at least this time, I wanted to protect people.”
“Detective…”
Charlie looked at him with tears welling in his eyes. As if trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere, Detective Baron chuckled and shrugged.
“Well, for all those grand resolutions, I think I passed out several times. But I was able to wake up at the most important moment, so isn’t that a relief?”
***
“Mr. Hayes?”
“Ah.”
I snapped back to reality at the Chairman’s call.
“…That is the end of the story. That is how the case concluded, and we were able to escape safely.”
“That was quite an amazing adventure.”
The Chairman showed a favorable smile.
‘Should I say it or not?’
After hesitating for a long time, I finally closed my eyes tight and spoke.
“Chairman.”
Chairman Peterson looked at me.
“Detective Baron asked me to pass this along. He wanted to thank you for your help.”
“…”
“He said that thanks to you, many people were saved.”
Because of Chairman Peterson, I went to the prop room and discovered the clue to the bomb. Because of the words the Chairman left behind, Detective Baron was able to maintain consciousness inside the amber. That was what the detective had said.
“I have no desire to receive any gratitude from a detective.”
Chairman Peterson’s face wavered with complex emotions.
“I didn’t help out of pure goodwill, nor was it any great help.”
“That doesn’t matter. Just please know this one thing.”
I returned the words the Chairman had said to me.
“If it were Allen, he would surely be proud of the fact that so many people were saved with his father’s help.”
“That is…”
Instead of answering, the Chairman sank deep into the sofa. His face was hidden behind the plush backrest.
“…Maybe so. That boy was unnecessarily kind.”
Fragments of various emotions seeped from his low, sinking voice. Knowing that this answer was the best the Chairman could give, I silently bowed and left the room.