A little after three o’clock, the group filed into Mito’s father’s van outside the veterinary clinic.
The cruise ship had a dress code, which meant you had to wear the right clothes for the occasion. For a formal dinner, guests were required to wear dresses and tuxedos and the like.
“But this is a more informal sail-away party, so merely wearing your nice going-out clothes is good enough,” Mr. Sugisaki said.
Suzune put Hinata in a suit anyway, however. He felt like he was going to suffocate. And since Chris was with him, he also had the usual bag he took on their walks slung over his shoulder.
As for Mayuka, she was in a frilly lilac dress. Her shoes were shiny and black with straps over the top, and her pigtails were tied with little flower decorations made of the same fabric as her clothes.
“I wore this dress to a relative’s wedding. Isn’t it nice?”
Hinata thought her usual clothes suited her better, but he was smart enough not to say that out loud.
The young man in the wheelchair, Kobayashi, was dressed in a suit he’d pulled out of the back of his dresser. “It’s been a long time since I wore this. The necktie’s as uncomfortable as ever,” he said, sticking his finger down the front and pulling again and again. He’d done everything he could to smooth down his usually scruffy hair.
Chris had no way of dressing up, of course, so he looked the same as ever.
“Maybe we should have bought a collar with a little bow tie on it,” Mayuka said, dissatisfied. Hinata ignored her.
Mito sat in the passenger seat, holding her violin case. She was wearing a simple black dress. Apparently, the famous Stradivarius was inside the case.
Hinata, Chris, and Mayuka were piled into the back seat. And, with Yuusuke’s help, Kobayashi joined them. His cool, state-of-the-art powered wheelchair went into the very back with Mito’s things.
“We’ll be on our way, then,” Mr. Sugisaki said to Yuusuke. “I should be bringing them back at around nine o’clock.” And then they drove off.
There was an awkward, prickly mood around Mito, who didn’t say a word the whole trip. Before the others got into the car, her father had told them, “I’m sorry, she’s usually very tense before a performance, so I wouldn’t expect much conversation.” Hinata and Mayuka made sure not to bother her.
“It’s in Yokohama, right?” Kobayashi said quietly to the others in the back. “The incident that separated me from Chris happened at the Port of Yokohama. That was the first and last case that Christie the police dog ever tackled. I’m a bit nervous about going back…”
That’s right… That’s where the bad guys captured Mr. Kobayashi before locking him up for all that time, separating him from Chris. And it made him unable to walk, too…
Hinata merely nodded, choosing not to interrupt.
“Before that, we went to the coast guard headquarters in Yokohama. There was a training program to spot drug smuggling. They said you were very good at it, Chris… Do you remember?” Kobayashi said, smiling at the Shiba Inu.
Chris whined gently at Hinata’s feet. He might have been saying, “Of course I remember.”