The Daydreamer Detective Opens a Tea Shop

by S. J. Pajonas

  I was nothing? I was, really, nothing?

  I placed my hands on either side of the sink, letting the cool surface ground me. I was smart, savvy, and I had excellent taste in friends and art. But was I stupid enough to believe I was worthy of more? A successful business, a peaceful life, and a love I could trust?

  Slamming my hand against the sink, tears coursed down my cheeks. I’d thought I was strong, but I’d let Amanda wear my confidence thin. Yasahiro had tried to stop me, and I hadn’t listened. I should have listened to him, or I wouldn’t have been in my mom’s bathroom completely doubting him.

  And I had no reason to doubt him. Really. His actions the last few months had been honest and true. Everyone saw what a good man he was, and he never hid that we were a couple. Amanda would say anything to get to me. She’d pull out every last weapon in her arsenal to get back at Yasahiro for leaving her.

  I couldn’t let her do that.

  “Mei-chan, are you all right?” Mom’s voice leaked in through the door, so I sniffed up and opened it to let her in. Mimoji-chan snaked in, too. Party in the bathroom!

  “I’m…” I took a moment to stop my lip from quivering. “I’m sick of always being undermined. I’m sick of being told I’m just not good enough.” I turned on the faucet and ran cold water over my hands, splashing some on my hot, teary face.

  “You… You are an amazing woman,” Mom said, patting me on the back. “You’ve been through so much these past few years. When I look back at all the jobs you had and the dead-end boyfriends and the debt, I see someone who kept getting back up and fighting. You won’t lose this fight either.”

  I laughed as I wiped my face off. I had just imagined walking outside and punching Amanda right in the nose, that perfect nose. As good as that would feel, she’d sue me and I’d go to jail for assault.

  “Mei-chan,” Mom said, her voice turning solid and strong, “you will fight this. Your honor, the family’s honor is at stake. We’ve been through a lot in the past year. I’m fighting to bring us back from the fire. You need to fight too.”

  I sighed and was careful not to roll my eyes. Mom still hadn’t forgiven me for revealing our hardship to Yasahiro, and in turn to Chiyo and everyone else. She fully expected me to prop up the family image as much as possible.

  “What did she say to you out there?” Mom picked up Mimoji-chan and sat with him on her lap on the closed toilet.

  “Doesn’t matter. I don’t want to repeat it.”

  “Hmmm.” She stroked the cat’s fur, her eyes focused on the wall past me. I washed my hands again while I waited for her. “If I were in her shoes, trying to get back the happiest days of my life right before I screwed it up, I would say or do just about anything to reverse the damage.”

  “Please, Mom.” I rolled my eyes as I hung up the towel. “You would do no such thing because you have an actual heart.”

  “Okay, fine. I wouldn’t do that. But she would. So just remember who you’re dealing with. She’s not some amateur. She’s a skilled fighter.”

  “Right.” I closed my eyes and stretched out my neck. My shoulders were so tense I thought they’d never relax. “Look, I figured we’d stay here for a few more hours, but I’ll take her back to Yasa-kun’s now, give her her things, and tell her to go. Man, I couldn’t even make it a day with her!”

  Mom reached out and squeezed my hand. “Now try to imagine marrying her and spending the rest of your life with her.” She raised her eyebrows at me, and my heart skipped. “You can see why Yasahiro-san got out when he did.”

  We left the bathroom, and I peeked out the front window. Amanda was still sitting in her chair except now she was talking to someone on her phone.

  “So, I think there’s a thief on the loose around here.”

  I turned away from the window and followed Mom into the kitchen. She pointed to the hooks by the door. Her kitchen apron was missing.

  “Oh no, really? Someone actually snuck into the house?”

  She nodded her head, a slow bouncing movement. “I guess I should also lock the doors?”

  “Yeah. Did they take anything else?”

  “My house shoes are gone too.”

  “Wow. Who would steal your house shoes and apron when the rice cooker and the knives are more valuable?”

  Mom’s hand hovered over her knife block for a moment before she hummed and looked closely at it. Then she opened the dishwasher and peered inside.

  “Looks like they got my new chef’s knife too.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. It’s one thing to steal shoes. It’s another to take a sharp knife. Mom stood with her hands on her hips and stared out the window.

  “Whoever is stealing things must live nearby or they have a very quiet getaway car because I just used that knife this morning.”

  This was so bizarre. “Okay, this either means we lock up everything, and we wait for them to show up again, or I get you some surveillance.”

  “I can’t wait on the planting,” Mom said, continuing to search the kitchen. “These seeds must be planted this week or we’ll be behind.”

  I walked over to her laptop, hidden under a pile of papers on the desk. A right, good camouflage job, Mom.

  “Then let’s order a surveillance camera or two, and I’ll hook them up to the Wi-fi. I’ll get you the same ones I installed at the tea shop. They’re great. Even Hase-san installed them next door so he could work in the shop and not worry.” Video surveillance was becoming bigger in Japan with smaller, more inconspicuous cameras and the concerns of crime trumping personal privacy. “There are ones that are super small now, and I can even access them on my phone.” I’d done a lot of research into cameras for the tea shop since there’ll be quiet days when I can paint in the back but still keep the shop open. The cameras I bought had a motion sensor and would keep an eye on the store and the front entrance.

  Opening a browser on Mom’s computer, I purchased a set of cameras from a Tokyo electronics shop and opted to have them delivered straight to Mom on Monday.

  “After I return from the city on Monday, I’ll install them before Yasa-kun and I leave for Kumamoto. Just keep everything locked until then. Maybe you need a dog?” I laughed as Mom sneered. She was not a dog person.

  I heard my phone ringing in my bag in the front room, so I ran out to answer it. It was Goro.

  “Mei-chan, how are things with the devil incarnate?”

  “Heating up,” I replied, glancing out the window again at Amanda. She was done talking on her phone and now was watching the house. I took the phone down the hall to my room.

  My room had morphed over the last six months to a sanctuary away from life when I needed it. I had installed shelves on the wall to hold my belongings from my old apartment in Tokyo. On top of my dresser, I kept candles, incense, and photos of Yasahiro and me from our nights out in Chikata and our winter trip to the onsens. I stared at his photo as I talked to Goro.

  “It’s easily the fourth or fifth circle of hell.”

  “I bet,” he said, chuckling. I wanted to reach through the phone and smack him. Sigh. I’d had so many violent reactions to everything. This always happened when people came in and disrupted my life. “Anyway, the chief wants me to come by and ask Cheung-san a few more questions about the attack last night. Are you at Yasa-kun’s place?”

  “No. I brought her to my mom’s for the day because…” I looked at the ceiling, trying to decide whether to be honest or not. “Because I really didn’t want her in my tea shop while I worked there. I don’t think she knows about it, and if she did, she’d probably find a way to tell me it was a horrible idea and how Yasa-kun is pitying me by helping to fund it.” I thought bringing her out to Mom’s place would help me keep her busy, but really I just didn’t want her hanging around my baby and ruining things.

  A wave of sickness rolled over me as I imagined Amanda coming into Oshabe-cha and ripping it apart. I wouldn’t put it past her.

  Goro was silent on the other end for a
few moments. “That bad, huh?”

  “Yeah,” I whispered and cleared my throat. “Anyway, I think we’re ready to leave here, and then I’m planning to send her back to Tokyo. I can’t take it anymore.”

  “Okay. Don’t worry about it. I have her number, and I’ll coordinate with her later in my shift.” I pulled the phone away from my head to turn it off when I heard him say, “Mei-chan?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Be careful. I’ve been looking into her assault, and a few of the neighbors said they saw a young man run from the scene after she was attacked. Apparently, she was quite loud. No one could give any good descriptions though. I would tell you to keep her for her own protection, but I know you don’t want to do that.”

  I said, “Not really,” even though I felt guilty about it. I couldn’t stand her, but I didn’t want her to be attacked again.

  He sighed. “Okay. I’ll call her and see if I can get her to come to the precinct instead.”

  “That’s a much better idea.” I hung up, grabbed my bag, and went back outside.

  Amanda was staring down at her phone in her hand. It rang and startled her, and she raised the phone to her head with a shaking hand. “Hello?” Her voice cracked, and a shiver ran up my back.

  After a moment, she jerked the phone from her ear and turned it off.

  “Nothing. That’s the third call where all I hear is… I don’t know. Birds?”

  She looked up at me and her face was pale. I saw fear there, but I didn’t care.

  “Let’s go.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “Did Yasahiro ever tell you about the girl he was with before me?”

  Shut up, shut up, shut up. I clenched my jaw and hit the gas pedal hard. If I could get back to Yasahiro’s apartment quicker, I could lock myself in the bedroom and not listen to her.

  “Wow. She was a sorry mess, an artist who was into all of these video installations. They were the stupidest things I had ever seen. Anyway…” She flipped her hair for good measure. “Yasahiro let her live rent free in his Paris apartment and then introduced her to all of these museum owners. He even paid for her to learn graphic design instead. She was decent at it, so he got her a job, and then broke up with her once she could afford her own place.”

  Sweat poured down my neck as I imagined a younger Yasahiro living in Paris with some other woman before Amanda came on the scene. He told me he started investing in property when he was twenty-two, small amounts of money he put up as capital that helped a friend’s construction company upgrade apartments in France, Spain, and Italy. Once the apartments were updated, they turned around and sold them for a profit. He made awesome money within two years. He talked of his investments and school, but he never talked about any of his other ex-girlfriends. I could see him living with another girl, letting her come in and eat his food, sleep in his bed. Isn’t that what he did for me?

  I was going to vomit. I could feel it.

  “We started dating when she was moving out of his place.”

  I pulled into the parking spot at Yasahiro’s apartment, jumped out of the car, and slammed the door. A wave of nausea overcame me, and I bent over the sidewalk, but nothing came up. The wave receded into the ocean, pulling my sanity with it. There was no way I could spend another minute with this woman.

  “Are you okay?” Amanda asked, and I stood back up, sucking air in through my nose.

  “Fine.”

  She swept her eyes over me, and I avoided making eye contact by grabbing my purse. “I want to take a nap.” I opened the door and went inside, barely holding the door open enough for her. It came swinging back and hit her on the shoulder.

  “Ow. Hey! I’m injured, you know?”

  “Really? I couldn’t tell.” My deadpan voice was right on point because she didn’t even pretend to rub her arm or mock pain.

  I pushed open the apartment door and barreled in, again not waiting for her. This was not my apartment, but I was welcome here, not her. It was my stupid idea to let her into my life, and I’d just about had it with her stories and constant historic updates on Yasahiro. I didn’t know what was true and what was a lie. I didn’t know what to believe, and it was impossible for me to just ask him. I trusted him, but he kept secrets from me, and I didn’t know why.

  “Look, I think you’re doing just fine. You’re welcome to sit on the couch, watch TV, and eat whatever food you want.” I pointed to the living room. “But let’s make one thing clear. You get an hour to make plans and then you’re out of here. Understand?”

  She opened her mouth, and I could tell a protest was on its way.

  I held up my hand, and she closed her lips. “You may be injured, but you’re fine. Goro Hokichi, the policeman you met last night, will call you soon. But I don’t care what you do or where you go as long as you’re gone from here.”

  She puckered her lips and shoved her hands into her designer jeans.

  “I don’t want to see you again until Monday. Yasahiro is either selling you his share of the apartment or you’re both selling it, and we are done. You don’t get him back. You do not get any part of our lives. At all. Do you understand me?”

  Her lips twitched, and I detected a note of humor, but I was dead serious.

  “I understand what you’re saying, yes. But I don’t agree. Yasahiro is not done with me. He’s done with you, and you don’t even know it.”

  “Oh yeah?” I folded my arms over my chest.

  “Don’t try to play in the big leagues with me, Mei. You’ll lose.”

  I let out a string of Japanese obscenities that would’ve made my mother blush. “Have a nice life, Amanda.”

  I grabbed my purse, a protein shake from the fridge, and left the room, locking the bedroom door behind me.

  My hands and knees shook with rage, and I had to crawl to get to the bed. What was I thinking? I couldn’t play these games with her! I opened my mouth and torpedoed my only ship in the fleet! I closed my eyes and saw myself bailing water from a sinking boat while everyone saluted me as I went to a watery grave.

  Amanda was a shark, and she would circle me until I gave up. There would be no stopping her from making a meal out of me. I was doomed. Finished.

  I yawned as I tossed my dirty clothes to the floor. The protein shake went down the hatch quickly, and then I climbed into bed and pulled up the covers. Sleep rushed up to greet me despite my brain churning through possible ways to keep Amanda from destroying my life and Yasahiro’s.

  When I woke up an hour later, I opened the door slowly and peeked out into the living area. No sign of her. I checked the bathroom, and she wasn’t in there either. I tiptoed around the kitchen, table, and couch, but saw nothing. She was gone and everything else with her was gone as well.

  Good. I hoped I never saw her again.

  I was free! Oh so free! I twirled around in the empty apartment happy that Amanda had left, and if I was lucky, I wouldn’t see her until Monday. I jumped up and landed in a crouch, pumping my fist. Yes.

  It was only mid-afternoon, and I still had time to get things done around the house and the tea shop. I threw back on my farming clothes from the morning and bounded down the stairs, unlocking the door to the tea shop from inside the hallway and turning on the lights. Everything was looking good! What the place really needed was a scrub down and dusting, then I would open the boxes of bentos Hisashi donated from Etsuko and position them up on the shelves. A piece of her would live on in this store, and I was delighted to display her collection here.

  I filled up my cleaning bucket and got to work. Listening to music while I scrubbed, I worked for a solid ninety minutes on every surface I could reach. When the major cleaning was finished and the floors were mostly dry, I took out my step ladder and dusted off the beams and any cobwebs from the corners. The space transformed and became a welcoming place, bright and spotless, perfect for my customers who would be critical of anything out of the ordinary.

  I dumped the water in the back room sink and cleaned
up my painting supplies from the day before, when I left to go have lunch with Yasahiro. Wow. That felt like a lifetime ago. I stood and looked at my painting for a moment, considering which section to work on next when my vision fuzzed and my head began to throb.

  Oops, I had forgotten to eat lunch. Again. We had eaten a late breakfast, so it slipped my mind despite all the hard labor I’d been doing. The protein shake I drank before my nap had been exercised away an hour ago.

  Eating took priority over unloading Etsuko’s bento boxes, so I closed up the shop and headed up to Yasahiro’s place. Back inside, I set up the rice cooker and checked my phone while I turned on the shower to hot. I hadn’t received any texts from Yasahiro today so things must have been fine at Sawayaka. I was sure that if Amanda had left here and went to bug him, he would’ve texted or called.

  I made it all the way through my shower and was toweling off when my phone rang. It was Goro, and my heart beat raced. What now? Had he picked up Amanda, and she was giving him a hard time?

  “Hey there,” I said into the phone as I ran into the bedroom with the towel wrapped around me. “What’s up? I just got out of the shower. I took a nap earlier, and when I woke up, Amanda was gone. Did you come get her?”

  “No. I didn’t. When did she leave?”

  “I’m not sure. I was asleep from noon to one. Sometime then.”

  “Huh,” he sighed, and I froze with my hand in the one dresser drawer of clothes I kept at Yasahiro’s. His voice didn’t sound right. “Mei-chan, I’m outside.”

  “Why are you outside of here?”

  “I’m here to get you and bring you down to the station. We found Amanda dead on the outskirts of town about thirty minutes ago.”

  The phone slipped out of my hand and hit the floor. “What?” I yelled at it, pulling my pants and shirt on and picking the phone up. “You’re joking.”

  “I wish.”

  The buzzer screeched in the next room so I ran out and pressed it, opening the door on the ground floor. I looked out the door and Goro was ascending the stairs with his partner, Kayo, and two more police officers behind him. My stomach sank at the strict faces coming my way.