The Devotion of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino [87]
“If you have concerns about the direction their investigation is taking, shouldn’t you be talking to Detective Kusanagi, not me?”
“Yes, eventually, I’ll have to. But I wanted to talk to you first, for reasons I’ve just stated.”
“Because you’re my friend.”
“Yes. I might also say because I don’t want to lose your genius. I want to clear away all of this distraction and get you back to doing what you do best. You’ve got a precious brain and I don’t want it being wasted like this.”
“I don’t need you to tell me that. I already abhor wasted time,” Ishigami said. He turned away and began to walk again—not because he was worried about being late to his class, but because it had suddenly become too uncomfortable for him to continue standing in that spot.
Yukawa followed. “In order to solve this case, we mustn’t think that the suspect’s alibi is the problem. The problem lies elsewhere. A difference greater than that between geometry and algebra.”
“So, out of curiosity, what is the problem?” Ishigami asked without looking back.
“It’s not a simple thing, so it’s hard to give you a simple answer; but if I had to sum it up in one word, I’d say it’s a matter of camouflage. Subterfuge, even. The investigators have been fooled by the criminals’ camouflage. Everything they think is a clue isn’t. Every hint they uncover is merely a breadcrumb set in their path to lure them astray.”
“That sounds complicated.”
“Oh, it is. But if you simply change your way of looking at it, it becomes surprisingly simple. When an amateur attempts to conceal something, the more complex he makes his camouflage, the deeper the grave he digs for himself. But not so a genius. The genius does something far simpler, yet something no normal person would even dream of, the last thing a normal person would think of doing. And from this simplicity, immense complexity is created.”
“I thought you physicist types didn’t like talking in the abstract.”
“I can be more concrete, if you like. How are we doing on time?”
“I’m still good.”
“Still have time to drop by the lunch shop?”
Ishigami glanced at his friend before returning his gaze to the path ahead. “I don’t buy lunch there every day, you know.”
“Really? I heard you did. Well, almost every day.”
“Is that your smoking gun that links me to this case?”
“Yes and no. If you were simply buying your lunch at the same shop every day, that wouldn’t mean anything, but if you were going to meet a particular woman every day, that’s something no interested observer could overlook.”
Ishigami stopped and glared at Yukawa. “Do you think because we are old friends, you can just say whatever you like?”
Yukawa met his gaze. Facing him straight on like this, Ishigami could sense the strength behind the physicist’s eyes.
“Wait, are you really angry? I’ve upset you.”
“This is ridiculous,” Ishigami muttered, setting off again. He began climbing the stairs that led up toward Kiyosu Bridge.
“Clothes they think belonged to the victim were found a short distance away from the body,” Yukawa said, following a pace behind. “They were half-burned, in an oil can. They think the murderer did it. When I heard that, I wondered why the murderer didn’t do a better job and burn the clothes completely. The police seem to think it was because he wanted to leave the scene as quickly as possible, but that leads one to wonder why he wouldn’t have just taken the clothes with him to burn someplace else when he had more time. Or maybe he thought they would burn more quickly than they did? Once I started thinking about it, it bothered me. So I tried burning some clothes myself.”
Ishigami stopped again. “You burned your clothes?”
“In an oil can, yes. A jacket, a sweater, some pants, shoes … oh, and underwear. Bought them at a used-clothes shop. I was surprised how much it cost! See, unlike mathematicians, we physicists aren’t satisfied with something until we’ve performed the experiment ourselves.”
“And your results?”
“They burned pretty well, actually, and put off a lot of toxic fumes,” Yukawa told him. “There