The Devotion of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino [58]
Kusanagi got up from the sofa, his pen still poised over his notepad. “Were you at work on March tenth?”
Kudo’s eyes went wide with disbelief for a moment, then his face hardened. “What, you want me to provide an alibi, now?”
“Yes, in fact,” Kusanagi replied, seeing no need to beat around the bush. Kudo was already angry, after all.
“Hold on a moment, then,” Kudo said. He went over to his briefcase and pulled out a thick notebook. He flipped through the pages and sighed. “Well, I don’t have anything on my calendar for that day, so I assume I went to work as usual. That means I probably left work around six o’clock. If you need to confirm that, ask one of my employees.”
“And after you left work?”
“Like I said, I didn’t write anything down, so I assume it was the same as every day. I came home, ate something, and went to bed. Too bad I live alone—no witnesses for you to question.”
“Could you try remembering just a little more about that day for me? You understand, I’m just trying to reduce the list of suspects we need to check.”
Kudo looked almost despondent now, and he opened up his calendar again. “All right. The tenth, huh? Oh right…” he muttered half to himself.
“Did something happen?”
“Yes, I went to a client’s after work. It was in the evening … that’s right, he treated me to yakitori.”
“Do you know around what time that was?”
“Not exactly. I guess we were out drinking until nine or so. I went home straight after that. This is the client,” Kudo said, pulling a business card out of his notebook. The card bore the name of a designer’s office.
“Thank you,” Kusanagi said, declining to take the card. “I won’t need that.” He then put away his pen and turned toward the door.
He was slipping into his shoes when Kudo called after him.
“Detective? How long are you going to be watching her?”
Kusanagi met his glare silently.
“That’s how you knew I went to see her, right? Because you have her under surveillance? And then you tailed me back here.”
Kusanagi scratched his head. “You got me.”
“Then can you please tell me how long you intend to keep following her?”
Kusanagi sighed. He gave up trying to smile and instead stared at Kudo. “We’ll follow her as long as there is a need to, sir.”
Kudo looked like he had something more to say, but Kusanagi turned his back on him, opened the door, and left the apartment.
Back out on the street outside the building, the detective waved down a taxi.
“Imperial University.”
The taxi driver nodded and pulled out. In the back, Kusanagi took out his notepad. Glancing over his own hastily scrawled notes, he reflected on his conversation with Kudo. He would have to check his alibi, but he had already come to a conclusion.
The man’s innocent. He’s telling the truth.
That, and Kudo really was in love with Yasuko Hanaoka. Just as he’d pointed out, there could be any number of other people who might have wanted to help her.
The front gate at Imperial University was closed. There were a few lights here and there, so it wasn’t completely dark, but still the university at night had an eerie feel to it. Kusanagi went in through the student entrance and checked in at the security office. “I’m supposed to meet with Assistant Professor Yukawa in Physics Laboratory 13,” he told the guard, though he didn’t actually have an appointment.
The halls in the science building were deserted. Yet there were some people around—as he could see from the light streaming from beneath several of the laboratory doors. Probably researchers and students working overtime on a project. It reminded Kusanagi that Yukawa had once told him he sometimes spent the night in the lab.
Kusanagi had decided to check in on Yukawa tonight even before he met with Kudo. The university wasn’t far from Kudo’s apartment,