Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [38]
Kuniko spotted him and waved. The woman turned and greeted him. He smiled and asked her how she was doing. With the trip to Chiba this close, he didn’t want to risk any mistakes, and, since he wanted to stay on his mother’s good side, that meant acting like a respectable little boy. It worked. Kuniko went and got him a plate and gave him permission to go eat in his room. The snack was a gorgeous piece of cake, decorated with heaps of fruit. “Mrs. Saeki brought these for us. Be sure to thank her, now.” She smiled at their guest.
In Castle Mitani, it was the law of the land that when Queen Kuniko was entertaining a caller, Prince Wataru’s duty was to sit and take tea with them while they grilled him with boring questions about school and his friends. Today’s unexpected reprieve from his princely chores came first as a relief, but then puzzled him. His parents were super-strict, after all. Why the sudden generosity?
In the living room behind him, Kuniko and Mrs. Saeki were talking in hushed voices. Whisper, whisper.
So that was it! They didn’t want him to hear whatever it was they were talking about. Of course, the only thing to do in this situation was to eavesdrop. Wataru picked at his cake with his fingers, one ear pressed against the door.
The first low voice he heard belonged to his mother. “So what are the police doing about it?”
Wataru’s eyes widened. He licked a stray dollop of cream off one finger.
“Well, they’re looking for the perpetrator, of course. I’m sure they must have a good idea of who did it by now.”
“Some pervert, I’m sure. No doubt he’s done something like this before.”
“Well, maybe. But they think it may have been a group of bullies.”
“What, you mean like high school students? Surely not any kids in middle school, right? I mean, look at what they did. And at least one of them could drive.”
“I suppose, but what about all these children in high school who just stay home and play hooky? It could have been a bunch of those types.”
“Just the sort to cause trouble, I’m sure. But, my, this isn’t just trouble, is it? It’s a serious crime!”
“And that’s exactly why I say we need a neighborhood watch program. I only have boys like you, but think about the parents with girls. They must be terrified!”
“One can only imagine!”
“Those poor dears,” Mrs. Saeki sighed. “And the Daimatsus too…”
Wataru had just finished eating the cherry from the top of his cake. He gasped and swallowed the seed. The Daimatsus? The same Daimatsus who own the building? It made sense that it would be them. It was Mrs. Saeki, after all, who had first told his mother the saga of the unfinished building.
“Their daughter, she was in middle school, wasn’t she?”
“That’s right. But I hear that the Daimatsus never went to the police—not right away, at least. Then this happened, and they started thinking that it might be the same people who kidnapped her. That’s when they finally talked about it. Of course, the police were making the rounds by then.”
“Well, I guess I understand how they felt, but I still think they should have gone to the police sooner.”
“It sounds like the whole affair was quite a shock for the Daimatsus’ daughter…they say she went mute! She was, I don’t know, somehow broken by all of this.”
Kuniko was silent with astonishment. But the one who was truly reeling was Wataru. His ear was still glued to the door, his face as white as the cream smeared on his cheek.
The Daimatsus’ daughter…unable to speak…broken.
They had to be talking about Kaori. Who else could it be? That stunningly beautiful girl in the wheelchair with the vacant eyes, her head wobbling on that graceful neck like a limp doll’s every time her brother gave her a push. Whatever it was they were talking about, it had something to do with her condition. What had those perverts, or hoodlums,