The Devotion of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino [80]
When it was done he collected the answer sheets and walked out of the classroom. The moment the door shut, he heard the room erupt into conversation. There were audible cries of relief.
Back at the teachers’ room, a man—one of the office assistants—was standing just inside the door, waiting for him.
“Mr. Ishigami? There’s someone here to see you.”
“To see me?”
The assistant walked up to him and whispered in his ear. “I think he’s a police detective.”
Ishigami sighed.
“What are you going to do?” the assistant asked, peering at him intently.
“What am I going to do? He’s waiting for me, isn’t he?”
“Yes, but I could tell him you’re occupied and send him home.”
Ishigami chuckled. “No need for that. Where is he?”
“The parent conference room.”
“I’ll be right there.” Stashing the test answer sheets in his bag, Ishigami made his way toward the conference room. He would have to grade them at home later.
The assistant started to follow him, but Ishigami waved him away, saying, “I’ll be fine on my own.” He knew well enough what the assistant was up to. The man wanted to know why the detective was there and had only suggested that they give the detective the brush-off in hopes that Ishigami would tell him what the visit was all about.
The man Ishigami had expected to see was waiting for him in the conference room: the detective named Kusanagi.
“Sorry to bother you here at school like this.” Kusanagi stood and bowed curtly.
“I’m not usually here over spring vacation. I’m surprised you found me.”
“Actually, I dropped by your apartment first, but it seemed you were out so I called the school. They said something about a make-up test? You have to give make-up tests during spring break?”
“It’s worse for the students, I assure you. And today wasn’t a make-up test. It was a re-make-up test.”
“You don’t say. Let me guess: you like putting pretty tough questions on your tests.”
“Why do you say that?” Ishigami asked, looking the detective in the eye.
“Just a feeling.”
“They’re not tough, though. I merely take advantage of the blind spots created when students assume too much. And they usually assume too much.”
“Blind spots?”
“For instance, I give them a question that looks like a geometry problem, but is in fact an algebra problem. If all they’ve done is memorize the problem sheets in their books—” Ishigami abruptly stopped talking and sat down across from the detective. “I’m sorry. I’m guessing you didn’t come here to talk about high school mathematics. So, why are you here?”
“Nothing much, really,” Kusanagi said, joining him at the table and pulling out his notepad. “I just wanted to ask you about that night again.”
“By ‘that night,’ you mean…?”
“The tenth of March,” Kusanagi said. “I believe you’re aware that’s when the incident occurred?”
“You mean the body they found by the Arakawa River? That one?”
“Not the Arakawa, the Old Edogawa,” Kusanagi corrected him without missing a beat. “You may remember me and my partner coming to ask you questions about Ms. Hanaoka? Asking if you’d noticed anything peculiar that night?”
“Yes, I remember. And I’m pretty sure I told you I didn’t recall anything out of the ordinary.”
“That’s right, you did. I was just hoping you could try to remember that evening in a little more detail for me.”
“How do you mean? It’s hard to remember something when nothing happened.” Ishigami let himself smile a bit.
“Right, but what I’m looking for—or what I was hoping to find—was something that maybe you didn’t pay particular attention to at the time, but might actually turn out to be a valuable piece of evidence for us. Maybe you can just tell me about that evening in as much detail as possible? Don’t worry if it has nothing to do with any incident.”
“All right. I suppose,” Ishigami said, scratching the back of his neck.
“I know it was a while ago now, so I brought something I thought might help you remember the day.” Kusanagi handed over a chart of Ishigami’s work schedule for the week of March tenth, showing a list