Dining in Silver

[Kudo Yukiko]

"Right away," Kyoko nodded, walking away in order to retrieve the head chef. Once she found him in the kitchen, she said as she stood behind him, "Auditore-san, there is someone that wants you in the freezer! Fujiwara-san's dead! The police are on their way."

"I know a little bit," Yukiko confirmed her head as she continued to whisper. "Restaurateurs depend a lot on a food critic's ratings and customer responses in order to get a certain number of stars that denotes their quality; Argento Aso is actually a two star restaurant—restaurants can have up to five stars! Sometimes if a restaurant gets a good review, it might get people to try it out for themselves."

"I know that Yuusaku and I have tried our fair share of restaurants while abroad through ratings in the newspaper. It's a very good resource for tourists! But what does that have anything to do with this, Heiji-kun?"

[Hattori Heiji]

Heiji brought his hand to his chin as he thought for a moment. So the kitchenmaid's behavior is a bit odd for being hired to such a restaurant. It could be shock from seeing a body or maybe it was because the victim called the kitchenmaid by her first name. Could they be lovers? Maybe they had a domestic.

"She might be the murderer." Heiji whispered to Yukiko when she asked what this mean. He turned fully to look at Yukiko. "The restaurant could be getting bad reviews due to the kitchenmaid. So the waiter might have threatened to tell management about it. But not wanting to lose her job she decided to kill him. Or they might be lovers who had a heated discussion at work. Which ended badly."

As for Auditore, he had turned off the oven and followed Kyoko back to the crime scene. The man's skin was pale and his hair brown. He had a couple freckles over his face and spoke with broken japanese.

"I heard Fujiwara-san is dead. And that someone had some questions?" He asked not really believing that one of his coworkers was dead. And in the restaurant as well! How could someone do that?

"I did." Heiji said stepping forward and away from Yukiko. "What have you been doing for the past couple hours. Have you went to the freezer at all? If so what for?"

Auditore looked at the kid before him and couldn't believe it. Who was this brat and where did he think he could get away playing police.

"I though a police officer was here to question me not a kid." Auditore said with a grunt of distaste.

[Kudo Yukiko]

"E-Eh? Isn't that a bit quick to assume, Heiji-kun? Aside from her behavior there's no evidence on that!" Yukiko retorted, and she understood where the woman was coming from. No soon as Heiji addressed her by her forename, she was hostile—as expected from someone who didn't like being addressed by their forename from a complete stranger.

But when Romano Auditore arrived with Kyoko in tow, Yukiko merely observed as Heiji dealt with the situation. She then laughed nervously as she walked up and stood in front of Heiji, "I apologize for my friend's behavior, but will you please answer him? It'll save the police a lot of time. You can trust him, he's the son of the Superintendent Supervisor of the police. The information you provide will go directly to the source." She decided not to mention that he was from Osaka, wondering if they wouldn't have trusted his credentials.

[Hattori Heiji]

Romano Auditore looked at the woman then back to the boy in shock. Really now who knew that this boy was the kid of such a high ranking officer. It would be best to at least answer the kid's question then wouldn't it? At least until the police came then he could probably ignore the boy all he wanted to.

"Fine, what do you need answered boy?" Auditore asked.

Heiji cleared his throat and stepped out from behind Yukiko. He was happy that the woman could think on her feet but standing in front of him seemed a bit over the top.

"Did you go the the freezer at any point tonight? How well do you know the victim and do you know if he has any enemies?" Heiji asked simply. It was a start. But it was rather odd how defensive the people were in the restaurant.

"I went in before we opened to check the meat count. I haven't been in there since. I only know Fujiwara-san as a co-worker. The only people I can think of are the customers he has rudely served." Auditore answered quickly. It brought out his accent even more and Heiji almost had a hard time listening to it.

"Why do you say those he served? Was he a bad waiter?" Heiji questioned before looking over to Yukiko. "Do you think that might be plausible? Getting angry enough to kill someone over service?"

[Kudo Yukiko]

Yukiko was surprised at Heiji's question, but continued to stand close to him in order to continue to whisper. However, whether or not they could hear her speak she was uncertain. "It's possible. Yuusaku's dealt with a whole bunch of unusual murder cases, you know. Some people simply can't hold grudges in, remember that one case we had back in Osaka?"

"Auditore-san, how newly hired was Fujiwara-san?" Yukiko asked, tilting her head out of curiosity. "Was he properly trained in order to provide good customer service to a waiter? Or did he have any health conditions that might have made him a little irritable?"

Kyoko continued to remain silent, turning her head as she heard police sirens. "One moment," Kyoko said, dismissing herself in order to greet the police.

[Hattori Heiji]

Heiji nodded at Yukiko. Remembering the case all to well back in Osaka. Actually a lot of cases had someone hurt or killed over something as stupid as a fight or something small. Heiji could never understand how someone could resort to that. How someone could just be blinded so much from anger. He looked at Auditore waiting for the man to answer. Even as Kyoko left to let the police in.

"All waiters and waitress are trained the same. Although Fujiwara-san was known to be a nuisance in fact he served a food critic and it ended badly if I do recall because the man could not keep his temper in check." the chef answered calmly.

"Was that tonight? Is the food critic still here?" Heiji asked, but Chef Auditore shook his head.

"No, they left some time ago. In fact I finished reading their review on the restaurant not to long ago. That's how I know Fujiwara-san had served them because of what it said."

"Has anyone else read the review?" Heiji continued with his questioning. But Romano shrugged and replied:

"You will have to ask them."

[Kudo Yukiko]

"What do you mean by he couldn't keep his 'temper in check'? Were they fighting over something?" Yukiko asked, frowning. "If you knew that the situation would erupt, why didn't you have Fujiwara-san wait on another table and allow a more professional waiter to takeover?"

It was a simple question, wasn't it? Maybe that would have saved them a better review.

"Auditore-san, do you mind if I read the review? Do you still have it?" Yukiko asked as gently as she could. "I don't live in Japan anymore, so you won't have to worry about my opinion on your restaurant after reading the review—it's unbiased."

Right behind Romano, Kyoko walked up with the policeman in tow. "They're here!" She announced, allowing the officers to start their work.

[Hattori Heiji]

Romano looked at the woman who was with the kid and put his hands on his hip.

"The hostess or host should have done that. It's not my job to pay attention to the floor staff, my staff is that in the kitchen." Auditore replied. "And if you look on your phone you should be able to find the review there."

As for Heiji he was talking with the police and telling them what had been discovered so far. Of course they were Tokyo police and didn't know how much they would trust his voice. Hopefully with solving some cases here in Tokyo gave him some credibility. Thankfully it looked like he was somewhat known. Although the detective looked a little annoyed to have a high school detective snooping about.

"I have it down to three suspects." Heiji declared. He had examined the body and found some interesting clues. And after listening to Auditore and Hidaka he had began suspecting a few people. "The food critic who the victim had rudely served. Hidaka the kitchenmaid and Auditore Romano the chef."

[Kudo Yukiko]

Yukiko frowned at his reaction. "I see, and who was in charge of the floor staff when this occurred?" Taking out her cell phone, Yukiko attempted—and successfully managed—to search for the review on the internet.

"W-What?" Kyoko was shocked when she heard her name mentioned under the list of suspects. "Why am I a suspect? Just because I was the unfortunate one to find Fujiwara-san in the freezer? How much proof is that?"

"It's enough proof, actually," Yukiko confirmed. "Unfortunate as it may seem, but you were still at the scene. Auditore-san, do you have access to the food critic's number so that the police may summon them to the scene? In the meantime, Heiji-kun, I'll read over this review while we're waiting."

[Hattori Heiji]

"I can give a name, but we don't know critics personally. I'm sure he's in the phone book though." the Chef commented before turning to the officer and giving the name 'Hashimoto Kazuhiro'. Heiji made sure to note this down although he was sure the food critic wasn't the murderer. He only said that name to throw off the real culprit.

"Let me know what ya find out Yukiko-han!" Heiji said with a smile towards the woman before turning back to the two kitchen employees. "Now if ya don't mind can we see the yer work stations?"

"I don't see the problem. Just wash your hands. The kitchen has to be a sterile place." Auditore replied.

"Chau chau, let's go we'll wear gloves or wash our hands!" Heiji spoke with a wave of his hand.

Chef Auditore lead them into the kitchen and as the police looked at other knives that were laying out Heiji went to a knife block and saw two of them in it. Curious he grabbed the handkerchief he usually carried with him and pulled one out. It was just an ordinary knife so he put it back. But as he reached for the second knife he felt a pair of eyes glaring at his back.

Apparently the culprit was glaring at him meaning he was getting close. Heiji's smile grew bigger as he reached for the handle and pulled the knife out. The cruel metal glinted lightly but there were dull stains on it and at the very end. The tip was missing.

Heiji had found the murder weapon. Now he just needed a solid motive for more evidence.