Antique Shop?BEAR? - Chapter 7
Chapter 7 – Whispering Earrings
Even after landing at work, her concentration remained at a standstill. Thank goodness she was in charge of opening the store. Even as she made preparations; cleaning up, putting up new pop-ups, replacing new books and top-selling books; in her mind, she was stuck with her mother’s actions and the woman wearing the earrings. After the shutters were lifted, she checked the sales at the cash register and discovered that the sales in the previous month were indeed higher.
Last month was summer vacation, so it was natural for sales to drop this month since sales of magazines with appendices, assigned reading materials, and books to read on the train were booming annually. Even so, when the person who oversees the area comes, he or she will always have something to say.
As per the routine, the part-time staff arrived before noon, thus Rei paid for sandwiches and bean-jam buns at a bakery in the station and consumed them in the staff room. When she flipped open her phone, there was a reply from her mother.
“What’s going on?”
She assumed her mother will be working tomorrow. Her mother had been working as a clerk for a construction company all these years. After much deliberation, she chose not to reply. Prior to leaving work, Rei handed over the checkout to Tachibana and headed to the station where her parents’ house was located. From the station, it was a fifteen-minute walk to her parents’ house. Her father purchased the house and now her mother lived by herself in the spacious house.
The house that was purchased for sale was a lovely house with white walls and a red roof, but upon seeing it after a long time, the garden was in such disrepair that half of the living room window was obscured. The trees in the yard were growing wildly, while the white walls were severely stained with mud and traces of rain.
Once entering with a duplicate key, the smell of cigarettes caused her to involuntarily gulp. When Rei was living here, her mother used to smoke outside, but now that nothing bothered her anymore, she smoked everywhere. The kitchen was overflowing with garbage and the odor of food scraps was horrendous. Several bottles and cans of alcohol lined the sink. Since the room was well-lit, Rei was struck by the devastation of the room. The living room was littered with clothes; the table was still set with alcohol, cigarettes, and rice that she didn’t know when it had been eaten; and the corners of the room were accumulating dust and hair. It was never in this state when she returned late in the year, so she must have been in a hurry to do the cleaning.
The living room had a toilet, bathroom, and washroom across the hall. Rei stepped out into the hallway, her heart pounding. From the reflection of the light, she could tell that there was a dent in the hallway. Squatting down and looking closely at the dent, she noted what appeared to be a bloodstain. Heading toward the bathroom, it was cleaner than she imagined and had been spotlessly kept up. However, the fact that this was the only place that was clean conveyed a strange feeling. In the bathroom, a storage shed was placed on the floor where detergent and other supplies were stored, but the supplies were placed on the towel shelf. Wondering what was going on, she opened the storage shed.
Rei was so astonished that her heart nearly stopped. There was a freezer in the storage shed on the floor.
Don’t look at it.
Even though she understood the situation, her hands were still in motion. When she opened the freezer, the woman’s head jumped out at her.
“Ugh…!”
Within was a body that had been dismembered into small pieces. Frost was already on the bones and head, but still, she could tell it was that woman. The bones of her legs and arms had some flesh on them, whereas the flesh of her face, nose, ears, and cheeks had been removed. There were also a lot of crushed bones in the freezer as if the internal organs had somehow been disposed of. The woman had been dismembered from the neck down, and her face was still intact. Although the smell had been suppressed by the freezer, Rei felt like vomiting. Restraining her mouth with a handkerchief, she managed to hold it in and shut the freezer, covered the storage shed, and headed straight for the front door. To avoid encountering her mother, she took a different route to the station. Her heart was racing, and she regretted her decision to go to her parents’ house. Once arriving at her own house, she burst into tears of relief.
Later that day, Rei was by herself in a daze. All she could think about was whether these earrings belonged to her father’s cheating partner, yet the corpse was missing her ears. Turning pale, Rei removed the earrings and retrieved the paper bag from the antique shop, and stuffed it in the small box. The bag included only a certificate of authenticity without the phone number of the store or any other information.
If it is the same one… why would that antique shop have it…?
She had entirely forgotten about it, but now she was reminded that the owner of the antique shop had told her that there was an engraving on it.
t to s… my father’s cheating partner…
My father’s cheating partner is Hiyama Tae, and my father’s name is Sakura Shun. No doubt about it. These earrings were probably worn by my father’s cheating partner, which my mother had sold off.
If that body is… Hiyama Tae… it makes sense that my mother murdered her…
Not knowing what to make of it, she left the house with the earrings without bothering to wait for the clock to strike at 11 p.m. It might not lead to anything, but the antique shop was all it has to offer.