The Devotion of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino [69]
He called Yasuko’s cell from the now familiar public phone. She picked up on the third ring.
“It’s me,” Ishigami said. “Is now a good time?”
“Yes.”
“Anything happen today?” He wanted to know what she had talked about with Kudo, but couldn’t find a way to ask the question. If he hadn’t tailed the man, he never would have known they’d met at all.
“Er, actually…” she began.
“Actually what? What happened?” He imagined Kudo filling her head with all kinds of crazy ideas.
“The detectives, they came back to Benten-tei. And, well, they were asking about you.”
“About me? How?” Ishigami swallowed.
“Well, it’s kind of a long story, but some of the people at the shop have been talking about you since before all this began. Sorry, I don’t want to say anything to make you angry…”
What was making Ishigami angry was the roundabout way she was giving him the information. She would be no good at mathematics, he could tell.
“I promise not to get angry. Please just tell me as bluntly as possible. What were they saying about me?” Ishigami waited, ready to hear something unflattering about his looks or demeanor.
“Well—I’ve denied it all along, you understand—but some of the people at the shop think that you come there to buy lunches just so you can see me.”
“What?” For a moment, Ishigami’s mind went blank.
“I’m sorry. They thought it was funny, like a joke. That’s how they talk about things. They really don’t mean any harm by it. I don’t even think they seriously believe it themselves,” Yasuko said, vainly attempting to do some damage control.
But Ishigami barely registered half of what she said. He was wondering how someone else had noticed—someone other than Yasuko.
They were right, of course. He did go to the shop every day just to see her. And he realized that unconsciously he had expected her to notice how he felt. Still, it made his entire body hot with shame to think that someone else, a third party, had noticed first. How they must have laughed to see an ugly man like him head over heels for a beautiful woman like her.
“I’m sorry. You’re angry, aren’t you?” Yasuko asked.
Ishigami hurriedly cleared his throat. “No, no … What did the detectives do, exactly?”
“Like I said, they heard that rumor, and so they came to the shop asking who this person—you—were, and the person at the shop gave them your name.”
“I see,” Ishigami said, still burning. “And where do you think the detectives heard that rumor?”
“I … I’m not sure.”
“Is that all they wanted to know?”
“I think so. That’s all I heard.”
Receiver gripped tightly in his hand, Ishigami nodded. This was no time for indecision. He didn’t know how it had happened, but it was clear the police were gradually setting their sights on him. He had to think of an appropriate response.
“Is your daughter there?” he asked.
“Misato? Yes, why?”
“Can I speak with her a moment?”
“Sure, of course.”
Ishigami closed his eyes. He focused all of his energies on divining what detective Kusanagi was planning, what action he would take, what he would do next. Yet, in the middle of his thoughts, there he found the face of Manabu Yukawa. What was the physicist’s role in all this?
“Hello?” came a young girl’s voice over the line.
“It’s Ishigami,” he told her. “Misato … you said you talked about the movie with your friend on the twelfth? Mika was her name, right?”
“Yes. And I told the detectives that, too.”
“Right, so you said. I was wondering about your other friend—Haruka, was it?”
“That’s right. Haruka Tamaoka.”
“You told her about the movie, too, right? Did you talk about it more than that one time?”
“No, just the once. Well, maybe a little.”
“You didn’t tell the detectives about her, right?”
“No, only about Mika. You told me I shouldn’t mention Haruka, so I didn’t.”
“That’s right. But I think it might be time to talk to them about her now.”
Ishigami glanced around the park, making sure no one was nearby, before giving Misato detailed instructions on what