The Devotion of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino [89]
It’s over, he thought. The physicist had seen through everything.
* * *
Misato sat in uncomfortable silence, eating her apricot pudding. Yasuko wondered once again whether it would have been better just to have left her at home.
“You get enough to eat, Misato?” Kudo was asking. He had been fretting over her all evening.
Misato nodded, mechanically sticking the spoon into her mouth, without even a glance in his direction.
You can drag a teenager to a good restaurant, but you can’t make her enjoy it.
They had come to a Chinese place in Ginza for dinner. Kudo had insisted that Yasuko bring her daughter, and so she had dragged Misato along, despite the girl’s protests. In the end, Yasuko had convinced her to come by telling her that it would seem unnatural for them to avoid going out—that it might make the police suspicious.
But now that she saw how worried Kudo was, she regretted it. All through dinner, he had tried a variety of approaches to get the girl to talk, but he had failed to get more than a few terse words out of her all night.
Misato finished her dessert and turned to her mother. “I’m going to the bathroom.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Yasuko waited for Misato to leave, then turned to Kudo, clasping her hands together. “I’m so sorry.”
“Huh? About what?” He looked genuinely surprised, though Yasuko knew it was an act.
“She’s really shy, that’s all. And I think she has issues with older men.”
Kudo smiled. “Don’t worry. I didn’t imagine we’d be great friends by evening’s end. I was just like her when I was a teenager. I’m happy just to have gotten to meet her today.”
“Thanks, you’re too kind.”
Kudo nodded. He fished in the pocket of his jacket, which hung on the back of his chair, and pulled out a cigarette and lighter. He had refrained from smoking during dinner on account of Misato.
“Any developments since we last spoke?” he asked, taking a puff.
“Developments? With what?”
“That investigation.”
“Oh.” Yasuko lowered her eyes for a moment then looked back up at him. “No, nothing. Life’s been pretty normal, actually.”
“I’m glad to hear that. The detectives leaving you alone?”
“I haven’t seen them in a while. They haven’t been to the shop, either. How about you?”
“Nothing to report on my side. I think they’ve given up on me.” Kudo flicked some ashes into an ashtray. “Though there is something bothering me. I think it might be related.”
“What’s that?”
“Well…” Kudo mused for a moment before opening his mouth again. “It’s just, I’ve been getting these strange calls lately. The phone rings at my house, and I pick it up, but there’s no one on the other side.”
“Really? That sounds unpleasant.” Yasuko frowned.
“Yeah. And then there’s this—” After a moment’s hesitation, he pulled a piece of paper out of his coat pocket. “I found this in my mail the other day.”
Yasuko saw her name written on the paper and froze. The message read: “Keep away from Yasuko Hanaoka. She’ll never be happy with a man like you.”
The note had been written on a computer and printed out. There was nothing to indicate from whom it had come.
“Someone sent you this in the mail?”
“No, I think they put it in my mailbox by hand.”
“Do you have any idea who it might be?”
“Not a clue. I was hoping you might know.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t imagine…” Yasuko reached down to her handbag, taking out a handkerchief. Her palms were beginning to sweat. “That’s all there was? Just this note?”
“No. There was a picture, too.”
“A photograph?”
“From the time I met you in Shinagawa. Whoever it was took a picture of me in the hotel parking lot. I had no idea.” Kudo shook his head.
Unconsciously, Yasuko’s eyes swept the room. Certainly no one was watching them here?
By then, Misato had returned, so they didn’t discuss the note anymore. A few minutes later they left the restaurant, said good-bye to Kudo, and climbed into a taxi.
“I told you the food would be good,” Yasuko ventured, but Misato frowned and said nothing. “I wish you hadn’t made that face the whole time.”
“Then you shouldn’t have taken me along. I told you I didn’t want to go.”
“But he invited