The Devotion of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino [99]
“And that’s your basis for refuting his story?”
Yukawa spun back around and glared at the detective. But his eyes were filled with sadness, not anger.
“There are some things in life that we have to accept as truth, even though we don’t want to believe them. I know that.”
“And still you think Ishigami’s innocent?”
Yukawa’s face twisted, and he shook his head. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“I know what you think happened. You think it was Yasuko Hanaoka who killed Togashi, and Ishigami’s been trying to protect her. But the more we’ve looked into it, the less likely that scenario seems to be. We have several pieces of evidence pointing to Ishigami’s being a stalker—so much that it would have been very hard to fake, no matter how enthusiastic he was about protecting her. Besides, how many people are there who would willingly take the blame for something like murder? Yasuko isn’t Ishigami’s wife or part of his family. She’s not even his lover. Say he had wanted to protect her, and in fact helped conceal the murder—when all that fell apart, most people would resign themselves to their failure at that point. It’s only human.”
Yukawa’s eyes widened, as though from a sudden realization. “Yes,” he muttered. “People give up when things go bad. It would be nearly impossible to protect someone to the bitter end like he would have had to do.” He gazed off into the distance. “Hard even for Ishigami. And he knows it. That’s why—”
“What?”
“No.” Yukawa shook his head. “Nothing.”
“As I see it, we have to accept that Ishigami did it. And unless some new facts come to light, I don’t see this investigation going in a different direction.”
Yukawa rubbed his face with his hands. He breathed a long quiet sigh. “He’s chosen this,” he said at last. “He’s chosen to spend the rest of his days in prison.”
“It’s not really a choice now that he’s killed someone.”
“Indeed,” Yukawa whispered. He stood still for some time, his head hanging. Then, without moving, he said, “I’m sorry, but maybe you could leave me alone for a while. I’m tired.”
Something was definitely wrong with Yukawa. Kusanagi wanted to ask more questions, but instead he rose from his chair in silence. His friend did look terribly exhausted.
Kusanagi left Laboratory 13 and made his way down the dimly lit hallway. At the top of the stairs he ran into a student. Kusanagi recognized the young man’s thin, nervous face. He was a graduate student, one of Yukawa’s; his name was Tokiwa. He was the one who had told Kusanagi that Yukawa had gone to Shinozaki the last time the detective had dropped by the laboratory.
Tokiwa nodded slightly as he walked by.
“Hey there,” Kusanagi called out. Tokiwa turned around, a look of confusion on his face, and the detective smiled at him. “Do you have a moment? There was something I wanted to ask you.”
Tokiwa checked his wristwatch and said yes, he had a little time.
They left the physics building and went to the nearest cafeteria, one frequented mostly by students in the sciences. Kusanagi bought them both coffee from a vending machine and sat down across from Tokiwa.
“This is way better than the instant stuff you guys drink in that lab,” the detective observed, taking a sip from his paper cup.
Tokiwa smiled, but his face was still tense.
So much for breaking the ice. Kusanagi inwardly debated chatting with the student for a little longer, but he decided it would only be a waste of time, so he got down to business. “I wanted to ask you about Assistant Professor Yukawa, actually. Have you noticed anything odd about him lately?”
Tokiwa was clearly bewildered by the question. Kusanagi immediately regretted his own directness, but what was done was done. “I mean, has he been looking into anything unrelated to his university work, or gone anywhere unusual?