Before Conan could recover, the manager's wife took his hand and started leading him toward the dessert house.
Seeing this, Mrs. Sakihara seized the chance to say, "You take this child around for a while. I'll go find Mr. Hashimoto."
Conan's ears practically perked up: Two suspicious people were getting together! And there was that Mr. Kurosawa, whose suspiciousness was still unclear... What exactly were they planning?!
The manager's wife failed to notice the child's changing expression. When the lawyer's wife mentioned Hashimoto Maya, she merely frowned slightly.
—That was the guy who had suddenly stood her up ten-odd minutes ago. Given the manager's wife's meticulous nature, she was extremely displeased by such a last-minute cancellation.
But on second thought, she had been the one to postpone their meeting first due to an emergency, and she really did want to discuss this cooperation...
After turning the matter over in her mind, the manager's wife gave a polite smile. "All right. It was also my fault for being late and disrupting everyone's plans."
Mrs. Sakihara caught the faint, concealed dissatisfaction behind her courtesy and felt a little helpless. Mr. Hashimoto had been perfectly normal while they were on the island, a reliable planner who had everything under control. But the moment they came ashore, he had become unusually wary. Just now, he had even abandoned the person he was supposed to be negotiating with and sneaked off alone to who knew where...
Of course, she could not say any of that outright.
So Mrs. Sakihara tactfully said, "Actually, after arriving here, Mr. Hashimoto saw the physical Dessert Museum and felt that it was far more impressive in person than in the photos. He couldn't help going up to a nearby high point to take a look—once he's finished, he'll definitely come