The Devotion of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino [77]
But Yukawa had never told Kusanagi the reason why he had come to suspect Ishigami in the first place. It seemed that he had somehow come to the conclusion that Ishigami had a crush on Yasuko—but he hadn’t mentioned any evidence he had to support that theory.
Still, Kusanagi trusted Yukawa’s skills of observation and deduction, almost to the point that, if Yukawa thought something was so, the detective assumed it was correct unless proven otherwise. Which made what Kusanagi had heard at Club Marian all the more interesting.
Why hadn’t Yasuko come to them with an alibi for the night of March 10? If she had committed murder and prepared an alibi, she would have wanted to tell them about it as soon as possible. But that might not be so if Ishigami had instructed her not to tell them. Maybe he had given them instructions to never say more than was absolutely necessary at any given time.
Kusanagi remembered another remark Yukawa had made, back before he had shown any real interest in the case. When Kusanagi told the physicist that Yasuko Hanaoka had retrieved her ticket stubs from the movie pamphlet, what had he said?
“If we assume that the tickets really were bought to establish an alibi, that she put them in the pamphlet expecting you to come and ask her for them, I’d say that makes her an adversary to be feared.”
* * *
It was just past six o’clock, and Yasuko was about to remove her apron, when a customer entered Benten-tei. She smiled and gave a reflexive “Hello!” in greeting, but when she saw the man’s face, she hesitated. It was a face she knew, but not well—that of Ishigami’s old friend.
“Remember me?” he asked cheerily. “I came here before, with Mr. Ishigami.”
“Oh, oh yes. I remember you,” Yasuko said, regaining her poise and her smile.
“I happened to be in the area, and remembered your lunch boxes. The one I had the other day was really quite good.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“I’m thinking today I’ll … let’s have the special. I know that’s what Ishigami always gets, but you were out of them last time. How about today?”
“No problem,” Yasuko said, giving the order to the kitchen and undoing her apron strings.
“Oh? Were you on your way home?”
“Yes. I work until six.”
“Oh, I see. So, you’ll be going back to your apartment?”
“Yes.”
“Mind if I join you for a bit, then? There was something I wanted to talk with you about.”
“Talk about? With me?”
“Yes, well … I wanted your advice, I should say. It’s about Ishigami.” The man smiled.
Yasuko grew uneasy. “Oh, I’m sorry but I hardly know Mr. Ishigami, actually.”
“I won’t take much of your time at all. We can talk while we walk,” he offered, his tone soft but his words insistent.
“All right, then, for a little, I suppose,” Yasuko replied, seeing no easy way out of the situation.
The man introduced himself as Yukawa. He was an assistant professor at the university where Ishigami had studied.
After a few moments Yukawa’s lunch box was ready, and the two left the shop together. Yasuko had ridden to work on her bicycle, as usual. Now as they set out down the street she pushed the bike along beside her, until Yukawa said, “Let me take that,” and began to push it for her.
“So you’ve never talked much to Ishigami?”
“Not much. Just a word or two when he comes to the shop.”
“I see,” he said, and then fell silent.
“You said you wanted some advice?” Yasuko asked. She felt the tension growing inside her.
But Yukawa did not reply. Yasuko’s unease became a physical pain that spread across her chest and was starting to make her shoulders ache when finally he said, “He’s a simple man.”
“What?”
“He’s simple. Ishigami, I mean. I don’t mean stupid—I mean he’s straightforward, direct. The solutions he looks for in his work are always the simplest. He doesn’t start a problem by looking for many answers at once. And he always chooses a simple approach to get where he’s going. That’s why he is so good at what he does. There’s no indecision,