“?!”
Kobayashi peeked over their shoulders and fell silent, too.
They looked around the room, but it was nowhere to be found!
Mito rushed into the bathroom. Mayuka threw open the closet door. Kobayashi checked diligently around the desk. Hinata pulled open the glass door, looked behind the curtains, and examined the balcony.
“It’s not here!” Mito shrieked.
“It’s gone!” said Kobayashi. He was pulling all the desk drawers open, despite knowing a violin couldn’t possibly fit in any of them.
Mayuka even opened every last drawer in the closet.
Hinata checked under the pillows on the beds and under the mattresses, and even yanked the covers off the top.
“It’s gone!” “It’s gone!” “It’s gone!” “It’s gone!!”
All four of them looked at one another vacantly.
The three-hundred-million-yen Stradivarius was gone!
Ding-dong!
The sound of the room’s intercom made them all jump. Mayuka was closest to the door, and she turned to the others for direction.
“Let’s find out who it is before we open the door, Mayuka,” Kobayashi whispered, right as a loud voice called out, “It’s Chihori! Please open up. I’ve brought the captain!”
Mayuka opened the door. The captain brushed past Chihori and strode into the room.
“Mito!” he said, walking up to the girl and taking her little hand in his large ones. “There’s been a mistake. It seems we forgot to ensure that you were off the boat before leaving. It was…Chihori’s mistake.”
Chihori shook her head in protest. “No, it wasn’t! I mean, yes, I made a mistake by not checking the room. But opening a door locked by a guest should only be done under emergency circumstances. And when I checked with the front desk, the staff told me that Mito and her group had already disembarked. There was also a record of their checking out in the system. Either someone made a major mistake, or it was done on purpose…”
“Who was on duty at the desk?” the captain demanded.
Chihori waved a hand in front of her face. “I—I don’t know. There are thousands of people on staff. I haven’t had the time to remember all their names yet…”
“Just a minute,” Kobayashi interrupted. “You said that there’s a record of us leaving in the computer system?”
Chihori nodded.
“And, Captain, you confirmed this?”
“Yes, the computer said you had already disembarked, but Chihori has an obligation to properly check the room…”
“Then, Hinata, you should go to the kennel and make sure Chris is okay,” said Kobayashi. “Find out what their records say about Chris.”
Hinata agreed. He needed to go get Chris; the uproar over the violin had merely delayed him…
“I’ll go with you,” Chihori said firmly.
When they reached the kennel, Liz was startled to see them.
“Oh, Hinata! Didn’t you leave the ship last night? I was shocked when I heard, since Chris was still in his cage. What happened?”
“There was a mix-up, and their group didn’t get off the ship,” said Chihori. “Liz, what do the kennel records say?”
Liz seemed a bit befuddled by the situation and led the others to the counter. “First, I’ll bring Chris out. I’m sure he’ll be very happy to see Hinata again.”
She went back behind the counter and to the right and returned after a moment with Chris.
When the dog saw Hinata, he barked happily and leaped into the boy’s arms.
“I’m sorry, Chris. Did you miss me?”
I’m so glad he’s all right.
Hinata hugged Chris tight, rubbing his back again and again.
Liz put her hands on her hips and said, “A dog’s owner is always number one in its heart. Well, Chris has already eaten breakfast. He was a very hungry boy. Now, as for our records…”
She went back to the reception counter, where she showed the laptop screen to Chihori.
“Here it is. See how it says his owner took him back? Hinata didn’t show up while I was on my shift last night, so I just assumed the party ran late. When I got here this morning and checked the system, it said he was returned to his owner, so I thought, ‘Great!’ But then I looked at his cage, and there he was!”
Chihori frowned. “Who was on the night shift?”
“Dan. Maybe he accidentally input it wrong… Do you have your card, Hinata?”
Hinata took his kennel pass out from his bag and showed it to her.
Liz shrugged. “What in the world could have happened? Still, I can’t believe he didn’t double-check that the records matched the animals in the kennel. I’ll have to have a talk with Dan about this…”
Hinata and Chihori returned to the fourth deck, where the uproar was only growing. Now Soga had barged his way into Mito’s room.
“The Stradivarius is gone?! You must be joking!” he roared, his voice audible all the way out into the hallway. “That violin is worth three hundred million yen. Things like that don’t just disappear!”
Chihori looked at Hinata with alarm. “The violin is gone?!”
Oh, right. We didn’t tell Chihori about that…
“Y-yeah… When we came to, the violin case on the desk was empty.”
“O-oh, dear…” She put a hand to her forehead.
In the hallway, several large men in suits were standing around menacingly.
“Those are Mr. Soga’s bodyguards. He always has them with him,” Chihori said, looking annoyed.
Hinata tugged Chris’s leash a little closer. One of the men glared at the dog.
“Wh-who is Mr. Soga, anyway?” Hinata asked. “He collects fancy violins, right? Is he rich?”
“He’s the president of a major restaurant chain,” Chihori answered. “He also owns a number of other companies. He must be ultrarich. He’s a regular on this ship.”
“Excuse me,” came a voice from behind them. Chris jumped up in surprise.
A pudgy man wearing glasses was eyeing the bodyguards with concern. His small jacket looked rather tight and uncomfortable on him.
“Did something happen?” he asked.
Chihori panicked and held up her arms, waving them back and forth in front of her chest. “I-I’m so sorry, sir. This will be resolved soon. Please return to your room for now…”
But the man didn’t budge. He continued staring down the hallway, curiously taking in the situation. Chihori gave Hinata a little push on the back, encouraging him to keep going. He slipped between the bodyguards and peered into the open door of Mito’s room.
“It is not my fault!” said Mito, her voice loud and clear. “We were fast asleep and have no idea what happened!”
“How utterly irresponsible. You were in possession of my precious violin, and you simply went to sleep without protecting it?”