The Devotion of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino [50]
“Something more to drink?” Kudo asked her, a line of red showing beneath his eyes.
“I’m fine, thanks. Why don’t you order something?”
“No, I’ll pass. Save it for dessert.” He smiled and dabbed at his mouth with a napkin.
Yasuko had gone out to dinner with Kudo several times back when she was a hostess. Whether the meal was French or Italian, he had never stopped at the first bottle of wine.
“Drinking less these days?”
Kudo nodded thoughtfully. “I suppose I am. Less than before, at any rate. Maybe I’m getting old.”
“There’s nothing wrong with moderation. You have to take care of yourself.”
“Thanks.” Kudo laughed.
He had called her cell phone earlier that day to ask her out to dinner. At first, she hesitated, but then she accepted. The murder investigation had given her pause. It felt wrong, somehow, to go out to dinner at a time like this. Wrong for her, and especially for her daughter, who was surely even more frightened by the whole thing than she was. There was also the matter of Ishigami, and his help in covering up Togashi’s death. She wondered how long his assistance would remain unconditional.
Then again, she thought, maybe it was precisely at times like these that she should do her best to act normal. If she didn’t have a particular reason not to go, wouldn’t it be “normal” to accept an old friend’s offer to go to dinner? It would be more unnatural for her to refuse, and if word of it reached Sayoko, then she might grow suspicious.
Whatever the line of reasoning she came up with to rationalize it to herself, Yasuko knew it was all a pretense. The real reason she had accepted Kudo’s offer was that she’d wanted to see him again.
She wasn’t sure if she had romantic feelings for him. In fact, before he had showed up the other day, she had scarcely thought of him in the last year. She was fond of him, that was true, but at present, it went no further.
Yet she couldn’t deny that after he had invited her out, she had felt elated—an elation very similar to what she remembered feeling when making a date to meet a lover. She had even felt her body warming. Heart aflutter, she had asked Sayoko if she could get out of work early.
It was possible that all she really wanted was an escape from the worrying that had become a constant in her life. Or perhaps she wanted once again to be treated like a woman, to feel those things she had not felt in so long.
Regardless of the reasons, Yasuko didn’t regret accepting Kudo’s invitation. Though she couldn’t help feeling like she was sneaking away from something else she should have been doing, it was undeniable that she was having fun.
“What did your daughter do for dinner tonight?” Kudo asked, taking a sip of coffee.
“I left her a message telling her she could order out. I’m guessing pizza—it’s her favorite by far.”
“Hmph. Poor girl. Eating pizza while we’re here with this feast.”
“I don’t know. I think she prefers watching TV and eating pizza to a place like this. She’s not fond of formal dining—or anything else where you have to act proper.”
Kudo nodded, frowning. He scratched at the side of his nose. “That may be, that may be. I doubt she’d like to share a meal with some strange old man, either. But maybe next time I could take the both of you out to something simpler. A sushi-go-round, perhaps?”
“Thanks. But you don’t have to worry on our account.”
“It’s not worrying. I’d like to meet her—your daughter.” Kudo raised his eyes shyly from his coffee.
When he had first invited her out, he’d insisted that she bring her daughter along. And Yasuko had been sure of his sincerity, which made her happy.
Yet she had known at once that she couldn’t bring Misato. It was true that the girl didn’t like places like the restaurant Kudo had chosen. That, and Yasuko didn’t want her daughter to have to deal with people at a time like this. If the conversation had chanced to drift to the murder, she didn’t know