The Devotion of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino [94]
Kusanagi nodded, his eyes going to Ishigami’s ears. They were puffy, cauliflower ears—the sure sign of a judo wrestler. There were more than a few men on the police force with ears like his.
“What did you do after you killed him?” he asked.
“I knew I had to conceal the identity of the body. I thought that if you police knew who he was, you would surely suspect Yasuko Hanaoka. First, I removed his clothing with the box cutter. Then I smashed his face.” Ishigami’s tone was cold and even. “That is, I laid him on his back, put the plastic sheet over his face, and struck him several times with a large rock. I don’t remember how many times I hit him, but I’d say a dozen at least. Then I used the lighter to burn off his fingerprints. After all that, I took his clothes and left the scene. A little way from the bank, I found an oil drum, so I put the clothes in there and burned them. The fire leapt a lot higher than I’d expected, and I started to worry that someone might notice, so I decided to just leave them there. I walked back to the road, caught a cab, and went to Tokyo Station, where I got in another cab for home. It was a little after midnight when I returned to my apartment.” He let out a drawn-out sigh. “That’s it. That’s what I did. You can find the electrical cord, the box cutter, and the disposable lighter in my apartment.”
Kusanagi glanced at Kishitani out of the corner of his eye; his assistant was writing furiously. The detective set a cigarette to his lips. He lit it, blew out a puff of smoke, and stared at Ishigami. The man’s face was expressionless once more, his eyes a total blank.
There weren’t any gaping holes in the story. Everything he’d said about the body’s condition and the scene of the crime matched what the police knew. Since none of the details had been released publicly, it was easier to think that he was telling the truth than to believe the alternative.
“Did you tell Yasuko Hanaoka that you killed him?” Kusanagi asked.
“Why would I?” Ishigami replied. “I couldn’t have her slipping up and telling someone else. Women are terrible at keeping secrets.”
“So you haven’t talked to her at all about what happened?”
“Not at all. And once you started sniffing around, I took great pains to make as little contact with her as possible, so as not to attract suspicion.”
“You said you had a way of communicating secretly with Ms. Hanaoka before. Could you tell me about that now?”
“There were several ways we communicated. For one, she would talk to me.”
“You mean, you would meet somewhere?”
“Nothing like that. People might see us. She would talk in her own apartment, and I would use a device to listen to her.”
“What sort of device?”
“By placing a sound amplifier on the wall between our apartments, I could hear her voice.”
Kishitani’s pen stopped in mid-stroke and he looked up. Kusanagi knew what had stopped him.
“You mean, you were eavesdropping on her?”
Ishigami’s brow furrowed with surprise and he shook his head. “It wasn’t eavesdropping. She was talking to me.”
“So Ms. Hanaoka knew about this listening device?”
“She might not have known about the device, but she was facing the wall between our apartments when she spoke.”
“So that’s why you say she was talking to you?”
“That’s right. With her daughter there, she couldn’t talk to me openly, you see. So she pretended to be talking to her daughter, when she was really sending me messages.”
The cigarette in Kusanagi’s hand had burned halfway down to the filter, but he hadn’t flicked it once. He dropped it in the ashtray. His eyes met Kishitani’s. The junior detective was scratching his neck, perplexed.
“Did Yasuko Hanaoka tell you this—that she was only pretending to talk to her daughter, when in fact she was talking to you?”
“She didn’t have to tell me. I know everything about her,” Ishigami asserted, vigorously nodding his head.
“So she didn’t tell you that, then? Maybe this whole arrangement was just in your head?”
“Nonsense!” Ishigami’s expressionless face flushed slightly. “You see, I knew about the