Fletcher punched me lightly on the shoulder when I hesitated over the word ‘partner.’
“Haruto Sato,” he said and mustered up a smile for the two of us.
“It’s nice to meet you. Why don’t you tell us what’s been going on?” I tried to keep my voice level and calming since Haruto reminded me of a rabbit in an unfamiliar space.
Haruto took a couple of deep breaths and then a sip of his tea to finish calming his nerves. “It started a week ago,” he began. “I had just gotten home from work, and I was unlocking my door when I spotted this white delivery van sitting at the end of the street. That’s not uncommon,” he continued hurriedly as if he was afraid I was going to mock him for this observation. I nodded for him to continue. “That’s what all delivery vans look like, I know, but it just sat there, and its windows were so dark, I felt like it was… watching me.” He laughed. “I’ll admit, I watched The Strangers the night before, so maybe I was a little jumpy.”
“Fun movie,” Fletcher said from her spot on my desk. “A bit derivative, but it did pioneer the home invasion phase in the horror genre.”
I twisted my neck to give her a look that said, ‘not helping,’ even as Haruto nodded along with her statement.
“Then what?” I asked Haruto in an effort to keep the conversation on track.
“Right. So I didn’t think anything of it. But I kept noticing similar-looking vans while I was on my way to work, and every time I glanced out my window, there was always one in the parking lot.”
“Where do you work?” Fletcher asked.
“At the Highland Archive Centre. I restore old manuscripts, particularly ones from the Middle Ages. I’m in Inverness for a year, for, well, it’s kind of like a placement program before I return to London.” Some of the anxiety dropped from his voice as he entered the familiar territory of his work.
“Are you working on anything in particular right now?” Fletcher continued, and I nodded in approval. She was both gathering information and working to calm Haruto down.
“This collector here in Inverness came across this old, old, old copy of The Life of Saint Columba. That’s why I was sent up here. We’re still working to determine its age, but it’s in bad shape, and I’ve been working to restore it as well as date and catalogue it.” He perked up, straightening in his seat as his voice began to take on a ‘professor who’s about to embark on a long aside’ slant. “Did you know that it contains the first known recorded sighting of a water monster in the Loch Ness?”
My mood darkened at the mention of the Loch Ness monster, but I fought to keep it off my face. “The people following you?” I prompted, hoping to lead to conversation back to more tactical matters.
“Right.” Haruto took a deep breath as he tried to reorient himself. “The next night, when I got home, my door was unlocked. I always lock my door.”
Fletcher clearly decided my desk was uncomfortable because she grabbed an empty chair and pulled it up between the two of us. “Was anything missing? Out of place?”
“No. Everything was normal.” I could see in Haruto’s face that he knew how his story sounded. It sounded like he was paranoid, jumping at shadows, imagining connections that simply weren’t there.
“Have you noticed anything substantial?” I asked. I didn’t mean to sound dismissive, but it came out that way anyway.
His face fell at my words. “I’ve seen the same woman four times. On my street, outside my work, inside the Archives… though we’re open to the public, so I guess that’s not overly suspicious… and then outside the pub where I went to get dinner last night. I think she has dark hair. I don’t know. She was always wearing a hat or a hood, but she’s tall. As tall as you are, maybe.” He leaned forward and stared at me with pleading eyes. “Look, I know it doesn’t sound like very much, but I promise I’m not just imagining things. Someone’s watching me. I can’t concentrate on my work. I can barely eat. I almost destroyed an entire page of my manuscript the other day, and--”
“I believe you,” I cut him off before he could spiral any further into his building whirlwind of anxiety. Then I corrected myself, nodding at Fletcher. “We believe you. We want to help. Do you feel comfortable going home until we can come by this afternoon to look it over and make sure it seems secure?”
Haruto’s face contorted with panic at the thought of going home alone, so I quickly continued, “What if I sent a constable with you to watch over things until we get there?”
The fear drained away, leaving exhaustion splattered across Haruto’s features. He nodded slowly. “I guess that would be okay.”
“Everything is going to be fine,” I promised as he wrote down his address and phone number. Odds were, he had watched one too many horror movies and worked himself up over nothing, but if our investigation helped ease his mind, then I didn’t see the harm in poking around his house, so long as it didn’t take too much time away from the Finn Wair case.
I asked Constable Barnes to escort him back to his apartment and keep a lookout for a few hours, promising him a couple of pints as a thank you for the favour. It was so easy to bribe people with the promise of pints around here.
Once Haruto left, I tucked the slip of paper with his address on it into my pocket and stood, pulling my long duster off my chair and slinging it around my shoulders. “Ready to head to Finn’s school?”
Fletcher hopped up eagerly. “Yes.”
“I’m driving.”
“I figured.” She smirked as I nodded, glad that she understood how
