Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [95]
His mom was silent. Wataru kept quiet too. The news stations continued talking about it, and the variety programs were already being replaced by live feeds from the school. Unfortunately, there was no new information.
Sometime around four, while Wataru was lying in his bed, resting, the doorbell rang. Thinking it was Wataru’s homeroom teacher come to pay a visit, his mother took off her apron and straightened out her hair before running to answer the door.
But the unexpected guest was Sanae’s mom. Wataru knew her from having seen Sanae and her together several times at the mall and the nearby supermarket. Wataru had been nervous around her at first—she wasn’t just the mother of a classmate, she was the mother of a girl—but Sanae’s mom was the friendly sort, and it had been easy to talk to her when they met.
“I heard from my daughter that Wataru wasn’t feeling well and thought I’d drop by for a visit. She wanted to come too, but with all the commotion in town I thought it best to keep her at home.” She looked over at Wataru who had emerged from his bedroom to say hello.
“Oh,” his mom said, “I’m sorry—Wataru’s fine.”
“But look at those scrapes! And is that a bump on your head, poor child! Were you sleeping? You should go back and lie down, sweetie.”
Kuniko quickly shuffled Wataru back to his room, handing him the melon Sanae’s mom brought as a get-well-soon gift. Wataru sensed the vibe in the room almost immediately. They were going to talk about something he wasn’t supposed to hear.
Of course, Wataru pressed his ear to the closed door of his room and began eavesdropping in earnest.
“Mrs. Mitani, actually, there was something I wanted to talk to you about,” Sanae’s mom began. “Your son goes to the same cram school as one of the missing kids, right. That Ashikawa boy?”
Wataru jumped. They were talking about Mitsuru.
“That’s right,” he heard his mother answer.
“I hear he’s quite a good student, and handsome to boot.”
“I’ve never met him, actually. He’s never come over to our place.”
“Oh, is that so? Sanae seemed to think he and your son were friends. Perhaps she was mistaken. Well, silly me, I thought that, if they were friends, you might know something about him. That’s why I came.”
“Know something about him? Such as?”
Sanae’s mother’s voice suddenly got quieter and more intense. “Well, I’m not one to spread bad rumors, but you see, my husband noticed something a while back. Up until now we had kept it to ourselves, seeing as how it had nothing to do with the children.”
What had they noticed about Mitsuru? In Wataru’s head, the image of Mitsuru’s aunt crying repeated over and over. They’ll come asking questions about his family. What had she meant by that?
“Four years ago, there was this horrible incident at an apartment building in Kawasaki, you see. A company man, age thirty, killed his wife and her lover, then committed suicide. Well, it just so happens that this man’s last name was Ashikawa, and they had a son in the first grade.”
Wataru’s mom was silent. Wataru held his breath.
“They had another child, a baby girl—she was only two or so. The father killed her along with her mother. I suppose he couldn’t bear to leave the child behind with her mother gone.”
Sanae’s mom continued in an excited whisper. “Now, the story went that Mr. Ashikawa discovered his wife’s lover was coming to their house while he was away at work. So one day he came home at lunchtime and caught them in the act. He killed the three of them on the spot. And, after that, he waited in the apartment for the son to get back from school. He was going to kill him…”
“Please, stop this at once,” Wataru heard his mom say loudly. “I don’t want to hear this story anymore.”
“Oh, I’m terribly sorry,” Sanae’s mother replied, “but I’m not just making idle chatter here, you know.” She continued. “You see, the neighbors noticed something was wrong, and before the son came home, the husband escaped. He was on the run for a few days until he turned up someplace—Shizuoka, I think it was