The Devotion of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino [84]
“Well, thanks for your vote of confidence. You know my division chief is already losing interest in Ishigami. Pretty soon my hands will be tied as well. That’s why I need you to tell me why you’ve had your eye on him. Come on, Yukawa, you’ve had your fun. Why won’t you tell me?”
A serious look came across Yukawa’s face, and he set down his coffee. “I haven’t told you why because doing so would be meaningless. What I have to say wouldn’t help you all.”
“Why not let me be the judge of that?”
“Okay: the reason why I started to think he might have been involved is the same sort of reason you yourself have been talking about since you got here. Somehow I got the feeling that he might have a thing for Yasuko Hanaoka, so I thought I’d see if he had anything to do with the murder. Now, I’m guessing you want to know why I ‘had a feeling,’ and all I can say is, it was a hunch. Call it intuition. I’m not sure that anyone who didn’t understand Ishigami pretty well would be able to pick up on it. You’re always talking about a detective’s intuition, aren’t you? It’s something like that.”
“Well, this is unexpected. You’ve always made intuition sound like a dirty word.”
“I’m allowed to branch out now and then, aren’t I?”
“All right. Then at least tell me when it was you first noticed that Ishigami had a thing for her.”
“Sorry,” Yukawa replied immediately.
“C’mon!”
“It’s a matter of pride. Ishigami’s pride, I mean. It’s not the kind of thing I want to tell other people.”
Kusanagi sighed. Just then, there was a knock on the laboratory door, and another student stepped in tentatively and looked around.
“Over here,” Yukawa called out to him. “Sorry for calling you up like I did, but there was something I wanted to talk to you about with regard to your report the other day.”
“What might that be?” The student froze behind his glasses.
“Your report—it was well written. Just, there was one thing I wanted to check with you. I was wondering why you used solid-state physics to describe your process.”
The student looked bewildered for moment. “Wasn’t it a solid-state experiment…?”
Yukawa chuckled and shook his head. “Actually, the experiment is, in essence, based on elementary particle physics. I was hoping you’d consider that in your approach as well. Just because the problem seems like one of solid-state physics at first doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t consider other theories. Tunnel vision is no way to make it as a researcher. Your assumptions are your worst enemies. Trust them too much, and you’ll fail to see what’s right under your nose.”
“Right.” The student nodded.
“I’m giving you this advice because you do such good work. Thanks for dropping by.”
The student thanked him and left.
Yukawa turned his attention back to Kusanagi, only to see Kusanagi staring back at him.
“What? There something on my face?”
“No, I was just thinking you science types all seem to say the same things.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I visited him, Ishigami said something a lot like what you said just now.” Kusanagi told his friend about Ishigami’s mathematics test.
“Blind spots due to assumptions, eh? How like him.” Yukawa grinned. But the next moment, the physicist’s expression changed. Suddenly he stood, and clutching his head in his hands, he walked over to the window. He looked out and upward, toward the sky.
“Hey, Yukawa?”
But the physicist merely held up his hand for silence. Kusanagi shrugged and sat watching his friend.
“Impossible,” Yukawa muttered. “There’s no way he could’ve—”
“What? Could have what?” Kusanagi asked, unable to restrain himself any longer.
“Show me that paper you had. Ishigami’s work schedule.”
Kusanagi hurriedly produced the folded paper from his pocket. Yukawa took it. He stared at it for a moment, then quietly groaned. “I don’t believe it…”
“Don’t believe what, Yukawa? What are you talking about? Tell me!”
Yukawa thrust the schedule back toward Kusanagi. “Sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“Huh? No way!” Kusanagi resisted. But when he saw the look on his friend’s face, he lost the next words