The Devotion of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino [103]
Just before Kiyosu Bridge, Yukawa climbed the steps to the road. Kusanagi followed and found Yukawa waiting for him at the top.
“See that office building?” The physicist pointed to the building closest to them. “See the glass doors at the entrance?”
Kusanagi looked and saw the two of them reflected in the doors. “Yeah. What about them?”
“When I visited Ishigami right after the murder, I saw the two of us reflected like this in these doors. Actually, I didn’t notice at first. It was Ishigami who brought it to my attention. Until that moment, I hadn’t even considered the possibility he might be involved with the case. I was just happy to be reunited with an old competitor.”
“So you started to suspect him when you saw your two reflections?”
“It was what he said. ‘How have you managed to stay so young, Yukawa? You still have a full head of hair! How different we two are!’—Then he ran his fingers over his own head. It surprised me. Ishigami had never been the type to worry about physical appearances. He had always been of the opinion that a man’s value was not determined by such things, and he’d never wanted to live a life where such things could be a concern. Yet here he was, worried about his thinning hair. Something about which he could do nothing. That was when I realized he was in a position where he suddenly did have to worry about his own appearance—in other words, he was in love. Yet why would he suddenly come out and reveal such a thing, here, in this place?”
Kusanagi understood. “Because he was about to see the girl of his dreams.”
Yukawa nodded. “My thoughts exactly. I started thinking that this woman working at the lunch shop, his neighbor, whose ex-husband had so recently been killed, was the object of his affections. Which raised an important question: what was his relationship to the case? If he was so taken with this woman, he would have to be worried about it, yet he was playing the part of a disinterested observer to a T. Or perhaps I was assuming too much and he wasn’t in love at all. That’s why I got together with him again and accompanied him to the lunch shop. I thought I might see something in his expression that would reveal him. And as chance would have it, we ran into someone entirely unexpected at the shop—an acquaintance of Yasuko Hanaoka.”
“Kudo,” Kusanagi said. “He’s dating her.”
“So it seems. And when I saw Ishigami’s face as he watched this Kudo fellow and her talking—” Yukawa narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “That did it. I knew at that moment that Ishigami was infatuated with her. I could see jealousy written all over his face.”
“But that raises another question, doesn’t it?”
“It does. There was only one way to explain the resulting contradiction.”
“Ishigami was involved with the case—so that’s why you started to suspect him.” Kusanagi glanced back at the glass doors. “You scare me sometimes, you know. I’m sure Ishigami never suspected such a tiny imperfection in his performance would become a fatal flaw.”
“He’s a unique man. And even after all those years, my memory of him as he was back then is still vivid. If it weren’t, I’m sure I wouldn’t have have noticed a thing.”
“His bad luck,” Kusanagi said, starting toward the road. He stopped when he noticed that Yukawa wasn’t following him. “I thought you were going to Benten-tei?”
Eyes downcast, Yukawa came toward him. “I have to ask you to do something I normally wouldn’t ask. I don’t think you’ll like it.”
Kusanagi chuckled. “That depends on what it is.”
“Do you think you can forget you’re a detective, just for a moment?”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“There’s something I need to tell you, but you my friend, not you the detective. And I can’t have you telling anyone else, ever. Not your police chief, not your friends, not even your family. Can you promise me this?”
Kusanagi saw a terrible urgency in the eyes behind the wire-frame glasses. He could tell that Yukawa felt forced into making a decision he wasn’t ready to make.
He wanted to