The Devotion of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino [61]
“Well? Do you remember anything?”
“Hmm. Not really. He does look familiar though.” Ishigami shook his head. “I’m sorry I don’t remember more than that. Maybe I’m mistaking him for someone else.”
“Right, no problem,” Kusanagi said, frowning slightly and putting the photo back into his pocket. He pulled out a business card. “If you think of anything, do you mind dropping me a line?”
“Certainly. Um, does he have something to do with the case?”
“I really can’t say at this time. We’re still looking into it.”
“Is he involved with Ms. Hanaoka somehow?”
“They had some contact, yes,” Kusanagi said, being intentionally vague. He didn’t want to divulge any more information than he already had. “By the way, you were at Benten-tei with Yukawa the other day, yes?”
Ishigami looked up at the detective. The question was so unexpected, for a moment he didn’t know how to respond.
“I happened to see the two of you there,” the detective went on. “I was on the job. Sorry I didn’t say hello.”
So they are staking out Benten-tei.
“That’s right. Yukawa said he wanted to buy a lunch box, so I took him there.”
“Why go all that way? Don’t they sell lunches at the convenience store by the school?”
“Well, you’d have to ask Yukawa. Benten-tei was his idea.”
“Did you discuss anything about Ms. Hanaoka or the case?”
“Well, only what I told you before—that you wanted my help with the investigation.”
Kusanagi shook his head. “I mean other than that. As he probably told you, I ask Yukawa for advice on cases. Turns out he’s more than just a physics genius, he’s also a gifted sleuth. I was just hoping he might have said something about his thoughts on the case.”
Ishigami was confused. If they were meeting as often as it sounded like they were, then Yukawa and the detective should have been exchanging information. Why would the detective have to ask him what Yukawa thought?
“No, he didn’t say anything in particular,” Ishigami said.
“I see. Very well. Sorry to bother you on your way home.”
Kusanagi nodded farewell and headed back along the way that they had come. Ishigami watched him go. A feeling rose inside him, making him queasy, as though an elaborate formula he’d thought was perfect was now giving false results because of an unpredictable variable.
ELEVEN
Kusanagi pulled out his cell phone as he emerged from Shinozaki Station. He looked up Manabu Yukawa’s number and pressed the call button. Then, phone to his ear, he looked around. It was three in the afternoon—the lull time between the lunch rush and the commuter hour—but there were still plenty of people out on the street. A line of bicycles stood in front of the supermarket across the way.
Kusanagi’s cell found a signal quickly, and he waited for the dial tone—but then, before the phone began to ring, he closed it with a snap. He had just spotted the man he was looking for.
Yukawa was sitting on a guardrail in front of a bookshop, eating an ice cream cone. He was wearing white trousers and a simple black long-sleeved shirt. He was wearing sunglasses, too—a sleek, fashionable pair.
Kusanagi crossed the street and approached him from behind. Yukawa wasn’t moving. His eyes were fixed on the supermarket and its environs.
“Detective Galileo!” the detective exclaimed, hoping to get a rise out of his friend, but Yukawa’s reaction was unusually subdued. Still licking his ice cream, he looked around, his head turning in slow motion.
“I see your nose is as keen as ever. Who says the police need bloodhounds to do their sniffing for them?” he said, his expression unchanging.
“What are you doing here?” Kusanagi asked. “Oh, and before you say it, ‘I was eating ice cream’ isn’t an acceptable answer.”
Yukawa chuckled. “I might ask you the same question, but there’s no need. The answer’s quite evident. You came looking for me. Or rather, you came here hoping to find out what I was up to.”
“Well, now that the jig is up, you can just come out and tell me what you’re up to.”
“I was waiting for you.”
“Me?