Chapter 32

“What on earth happened to Hosotani-san, Saeki?!”

I shouted as I chased after Saeki at full speed.

“A man showed up when we pulled into the parking lot! Then Hosotani-san told me to go get you! I don’t know what’s going on anymore!”

“A man?!”

“Yeah, a man in a suit wearing glasses!”

A man in a suit wearing glasses?

“The moment she saw that guy, Hosotani-san started shaking uncontrollably, muttered a few words, and then urgently told me to go fetch you!”

Saeki shouted desperately as he bounded down the office stairs.

I followed right behind him.

We sprinted through the entrance out to the parking lot, but there was no sign of Hosotani-san.

There was no sign of the man Saeki mentioned either; only Hosotani-san’s car remained.

“Hosotani-san! Where are you?! I brought Yamato!”

“Hosotani-san!”

Saeki and I raised our voices and called out as hard as we could.

There was no answer.

“Saeki, try calling her cell phone.”

“Ah, y-yeah, right…”

With that, Saeki nervously dialed Hosotani-san’s number.

Right then—the melody of a trendy love song started playing.

“This ringtone, it’s Hosotani-san’s!”

Tracing the source of the sound, we found a smartphone under Hosotani-san’s car.

“Hosotani-san’s smartphone… Yamato, what, w-what does this mean?!”

Saeki turned to me, making no effort to hide his panicked expression.

“I-I don’t know…”

Even as I answered, a certain thought popped into my head.

Shortly after, a senior employee who learned of the situation contacted the police.

With three patrol cars pulling up in broad daylight, local residents gathered around to see what was happening.

Every one of us employees was questioned by the police officers, and we answered everything we possibly could.

And just as everyone’s questioning wrapped up and the officers were about to leave the company building,

“Wait, please!”

A completely exhausted Saeki called out to stop the police officers.

“What is it?”

“Hosotani-san… Hosotani Kazumi muttered something like this earlier when she saw the man I talked about. She said Saburo Yamazaki…”

“Saburo Yamazaki? Are you saying that’s the name of the suspicious man you saw?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I think that’s probably it!”

“Hmm. Saburo Yamazaki, huh… Understood, we’ll look into that man.”

“P-Please do!”

While Saeki bowed deeply, the police officers left the building.

By the time all three patrol cars drove away, the surroundings had grown completely dark.

Four days had passed since Hosotani-san vanished.

We received word from the police that no person named Saburo Yamazaki turned up among Hosotani-san’s acquaintances.

Just to be safe, they thoroughly checked anyone with the exact same name living nearby, but since there was no criminal record whatsoever, the case was going to be treated as a disappearance.

However, only Saeki and I had a different theory.

“Dammit. It’s definitely that guy. That guy in the suit with glasses must have done something to Hosotani-san.”

“Saeki…”

“Yamato, do you really not know anything? Why did Hosotani-san try to call you at a time like that?”

“I don’t know… I’m sorry.”

“Tsk…”

Saeki stomped his foot against the concrete floor of the company roof.

Saeki suspected that the man he saw was tied to Hosotani-san’s disappearance.

And I, too, suspected that the man was involved in Hosotani-san’s disappearance. No, rather than suspecting it, I was convinced of it.

After all, the description of the man Saeki saw closely matched the murderer Hosotani-san had told me about before.

[Just now, I saw a serious-looking man around 170 cm tall, with short black hair, slicked back, wearing glasses and a suit near the B-Mart close to work. I think he’s probably a murderer.]

This was a line from a LINE message I had previously received from Hosotani-san.

I had no idea how Hosotani-san learned the name Saburo Yamazaki.

Perhaps there was some new spell of Hosotani-san’s that I didn’t know about.

But one thing was clear: Hosotani-san had already likely been killed by the murderer named Saburo Yamazaki.