The Devotion of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino [71]
“What if Ishigami killed him, but they both helped dispose of the body?”
“I won’t say that’s not a possibility, but the likelihood is pretty low. Yasuko Hanaoka’s movie theater alibi is shaky, but her alibi after that is pretty sound. If she timed it just right, she could have committed the murder and still made her alibi, but she wouldn’t have had time to do that and dispose of a body.”
“What part of her alibi exactly have you not been able to confirm?”
“The time between 7:00 and 9:10 when she says she was watching a movie. The ramen shop and the karaoke place after that all checked out. That, and she did go into the movie theater at least once. We found half of a ticket stub there with her and her daughter’s fingerprints.”
“So you think it was during that two hours and ten minutes that she and Ishigami murdered her ex-husband?”
“They might also have disposed of the body then. But, considering travel time, she must’ve left the scene before Ishigami did.”
“And where did the murder take place?”
“I don’t know that. Except it was probably Yasuko who called Togashi there.”
Yukawa sipped his coffee without a word. He wrinkled his brow bemusedly, as if unconvinced by his friend’s explanation.
“Got something to say?”
“Not particularly.”
“Well if you do, have out with it,” Kusanagi said. “I’ve told you what I think, so now it’s your turn.”
Yukawa sighed. “He didn’t use a car.”
“Huh?”
“I said, Ishigami didn’t use a car. He would need one to carry a corpse, right? Since he doesn’t have a car, he would’ve had to get get one from somewhere. I don’t think he has the means to procure a car in such a way that he would leave no trace behind. Not many law-abiding citizens do.”
“We’ll be checking all of the rental agencies, of course.”
“Good luck with that. I can guarantee you won’t find anything.”
Kusanagi glared at the physicist, but Yukawa seemed unconcerned.
“All I’m saying is that if the murder happened somewhere other than the place where the body was found, then it was probably Ishigami who carried it there. There’s still a good possibility that the murder did take place at our crime scene. If two of them were involved, anything is possible.”
“So,” Yukawa said, lifting the cup of coffee up to his lips, “you think the two of them killed Togashi, caved in his face, burned off his fingerprints, stripped his clothes and burned them, and then walked away?”
“Like I said, they might have left at different times.” Kusanagi looked down at his cup of instant coffee and suppressed a small shudder. “Yasuko would’ve had to reach the movie theater by the time the movie ended, at least.”
“And according to your theory, the victim rode that bicycle to the crime scene?”
“I guess so, yes.”
“Which would mean that Ishigami had forgotten to wipe it for fingerprints. You really think Ishigami would have made such a simple mistake? Ishigami the Buddha?”
“Even geniuses make mistakes.”
Yukawa slowly shook his head. “Not that one.”
“Okay, then why do you think he left those prints on the bicycle?”
“That’s what I’ve been wondering,” Yukawa said, crossing his arms. “I haven’t come to a conclusion yet.”
“Maybe you’re overthinking this. That guy might be a genius mathematician, but he’s certainly a novice murderer.”
“They’re the same thing,” Yukawa stated simply. “Murder probably comes even easier to him.”
Now Kusanagi shook his head. Examining the stains on his mug, he said, “in any case, we’re keeping an eye on him. If we proceed on the assumption that there was a male conspirator, it broadens the range of our investigation considerably.”
“If this new theory of yours is correct, it means the crime was carried out in a rather slipshod manner. We have the fingerprints left on the bicycle, the half-burned clothes—all evidence of carelessness. My question is, do you think this crime was planned from the beginning? Or did it happen more spontaneously?”
“Well—