Crammed in the back seat of Hotaru’s Prius with Kenji, Koji and “Swimsuit Kaneda,” Ishiro was forced to reflect once again on his lack of foresight. His own car, a gorgeous Nissan GTR R35 with custom paint and anime decals was far too flashy and recognizable to be taken out on an investigation. A minivan would have been so much better. He made a mental note to ask his secretary to buy one in the morning—no point waking her up this early, they had to go now, there was no way she could procure something this fast.

  On the plus side, the roads were mostly empty, and if it weren’t for the endless number of traffic lights, they would be near Enoshima already. They were being followed by five more cars full of volunteers, but a few had stayed at the base with Yuto. He needed to hold his podcast and some people had to man the lines. Who knew when something would come up? They couldn’t afford to miss out on intel, not now that they were so close.

  At long last, the cars arrived at their destination, and the teams split up to check out each of their targets, while Hotaru continued directly to Enoshima Island proper. He crossed the bridge and parked at the Shoten shrine, like a tourist would. It was a short walk from the Yacht club, but wouldn’t attract any attention. They moved in pairs to survey the area. Nothing was opened yet, but if someone was around, a group of five would be noticed, or at least, that’s what Hotaru said. Sometimes Ishiro wondered about Hotaru’s actual background—his guidance since the kidnapping was remarkable. Professional. Then again, he was brilliant and had always loved detective anime.

  Whatever it was, he was the leader they needed and Ishiro didn’t feel the need to question him further. Tagging along with Hotaru and Kaneda, he headed straight for the docks. Everything was still closed and would be for at least another hour—this was no fishing port with sailors heading out at the wee hours of the morning, but a Yacht Harbor. Wealthy yacht owners rarely showed up any time before the sunrise. The port was much smaller than they had anticipated and, like most Yacht harbors near Tokyo, it seemed pretty full. In fact, there were only five empty spots in the entire port at that time. According to Kaneda, one of them should have birthed Aiko’s ship. Her catamaran was missing!

  “Should we go get a coffee and wait for the shipyard to open?” Ishiro asked.

  “You guys go ahead,” Hotaru said.

  “What are you going to do?” Ishiro asked.

  “I’ll see if I can find someone out fishing somewhere along the jetty. Fishermen are creatures of habit. If one of them is fishing around this time, he might have been fishing too when Kaori left, if she did.”

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  “Want us to go with you?” Kaneda asked.

  “Nah, the place is small, and it’s better if only one of us is asking questions. I doubt a fisherman would welcome being approached by three guys at this time of the day. Go ahead, I won’t be long.”

  He was right. Barely fifteen minutes later, he was back. He’d met two fishermen, but neither had seen anything. However one of them had been asked similar questions just the day before. They weren’t alone on the trail, and they were a full day behind!

  As they discussed about the best way to get a confirmation from the port authorities, Hotaru’s phone rang.

  “Kenji? What is it?” he asked.

  “We found it!” Kenji exclaimed, his voice quivering in excitement. “Kaori’s car! It’s in the parking behind the pudding shop, on the other side of the bridge. They wrapped it with a car cover, that’s why no one found it until now!”

  Hotaru didn’t bother to confirm. Kaori’s pink Lexus was well known to them, there was no way a car guy like Kenji could get that one wrong.

  “OK, put the cover back on, make sure nothing is visible and wait for my call.” Hotaru answered and turned to Ishiro and Kaneda. They could barely contain their curiosity. He didn’t make them wait for it.

  “She definitely came over here. Kenji found her car. Now we need to find the ship details and figure out how we can track it.”

  “My cousin knows Aiko, I think. She could call her and ask her about it.” Ishiro said.

  “That’s awesome!” Kaneda exclaimed “If we…”

  “No.” Hotaru interrupted curtly. “This could get Kaori into trouble. We are almost sure that she didn’t contact Aiko. If Aiko finds out her ship is gone out of the blue, what do you think is going to happen? This could put Kaori’s enemies on her trail or get her arrested by the coast guards and we still don’t know why Kaori’s on the run. We need to find her first. Either of you know anything about sailboats?”

  “Sure, I have one, you know!” Ishiro answered.

  “Excellent. Then the best way to go is probably to ask the Yacht club about Aiko’s place. Tell them you are considering to move your ship over to Enoshima, and that Aiko told you to check out on her spot. Get them chatting, we need to find out the name of her ship and a way to locate it. I’m sure there has to be some kind of GPS tracking, or something like that.”

  “You got it, Hotaru!”