atsuya Sugino was in no state to talk rationally. Since he was a minor, the

police thought about sending him home, before finally deciding to hold him

at the Nihonbashi Precinct station. They couldn’t overlook the fact that he

had already attempted suicide once.

The next day, Ishigaki ordered Matsumiya and Kaga to handle the

boy’s questioning, as they were best equipped to do so. That was how they

had ended up in the interrogation room with Tatsuya Sugino. Since he was

no more psychologically stable than the day before, getting him to talk

coherently was all but impossible. Nonetheless, by dint of patient and

persistent questioning, the two detectives managed to get an idea of the

overall shape of the case.

What follows is a summary of the confession they coaxed, prodded,

and pieced together out of Tatsuya Sugino. His actual statement was a great

deal less tidy.

It was on the day of the incident that Tatsuya Sugino had gotten the phone

call. School was over for the day and he was about to head home.

He didn’t recognize the number.

He picked up and the person at the other end gave their name. When

he said he was Tomoyuki Yoshinaga’s father, Tatsuya was incredulous.

“I want to talk to you about the accident at the swimming pool that

happened three years ago. Could we meet?”

Sugino tensed. What could Yoshinaga’s father want with him so long

after the event? Had he worked out what had really happened?

“Will anyone else be there?” he asked.

“No, just you and me. I’ll probably get around to talking to the others

eventually, but I thought I’d start with you. So, can we meet?”

His tone was mild enough, but there was a steeliness in his voice that

made it clear that no wasn’t an acceptable answer. Unable to come up with

an excuse on the spur of the moment, Sugino agreed. They arranged to meet

at the turnstiles in Nihonbashi Station.

“There’s a place I want to show you,” Yoshinaga’s father said.

The meeting was set for seven o’clock the same day. Sugino went

home first. His mind was a swirl of fear and anxiety. What was Yoshinaga’s

father going to say to him? What was this place he wanted to take him to?

Sugino wondered if the police were involved. What they’d done to

Tomoyuki Yoshinaga must be considered attempted murder. If Yoshinaga

died, it could qualify as murder, plain and simple. Was Yoshinaga’s father

hoping to send all three of them to jail?

The life of the man’s only child had been totally destroyed. Handing

them over to the police probably wouldn’t be enough for him. He would

want revenge, of course.

That was it. Having finally discovered the truth, Yoshinaga’s father

was plotting his revenge on the three of them. And Sugino was first.

If that’s what was going on, he would have to do something. Sugino

knew that what he’d done was unforgivable, but he wasn’t ready to pay for

it with his life.

Would brute force be enough? Just because the guy was middle-aged

was no reason to get complacent. Some men that age were as strong as any

high schooler and hard to beat in a fight. And if the guy was set on revenge,

he might bring a weapon with him.

Sugino extracted something from the drawer of his desk. It was a knife

that one of his cousins had given him a long time ago. He slipped it into the

pocket of his parka just in case.

At seven o’clock, he was at Nihonbashi Station when he felt a tap on

his shoulder. He turned to see a suntanned man standing there. His head was

big and his shoulders broad. If it came to a fight, Sugino could never beat

the guy.

There was no sign of animosity on the man’s face. “Shall we grab a

coffee?” he said with a good-natured smile.

They went into a nearby café. When asked what he wanted to drink,

Sugino said anything would be fine. Yoshinaga’s father ordered two cafés

au lait, which he brought to the table.

Once they were settled down across from one another, the next thing

the older man said came completely out of left field. “I need to start by

apologizing. The fact is, I’m not Tomoyuki Yoshinaga’s father. I’m actually

the father of your friend Yuto Aoyagi.”

Sugino was astounded. Come to mention it, though, the man opposite

him did look a bit like Yuto. Although Sugino had been to the Aoyagis’

house on numerous occasions, he’d never run into Yuto’s father.

“I said I was Yoshinaga’s father because I wanted to gauge your

reaction. If you had nothing to be ashamed of, then your response would

have been straightforward and frank. Unfortunately, you sounded very

jumpy on the phone. Frightened, even.”

Sugino had no comeback. He felt conflicted: angry at having been

tricked and curious as to why Aoyagi’s father should be behaving like this.

“Look, Sugino,” Aoyagi’s father said. “Why don’t you just tell me the

truth about the events of three years ago? All I want is to know how the

accident really happened. I’m pretty sure that my son, Yuto, was involved.

I’m right, aren’t I? You’re his closest friend. You, if anyone, should know.”

While Aoyagi’s father clearly had his suspicions, he obviously had no

idea of what actually happened that day. Having convinced himself that

Yuto was somehow involved, he wanted to get the truth from his son’s

friends.

“I don’t know anything about it,” Sugino replied. “Really, I don’t.”

There was a quaver in his voice. Even he had to admit his performance

wasn’t convincing. In fact, his acting was a disaster.

“So you’re involved too. I thought as much,” Aoyagi’s father said,

seeing through him right away. “Listen, Sugino, I’ve made up my mind

about something. If push comes to shove, I’m willing to make my son hand

himself in. Try to pull a fast one on me, and you’ll only make even more of a mess of your life. Just tell me the truth. You and my son—you both had a

hand in the accident, didn’t you?”

Sugino wanted to make a run for it. He wanted to yell, “No!” and get

the heck out of there. But his legs refused to move. Besides, running away

wouldn’t solve anything. This guy was ready to hand his own son into the

police, for God’s sake!

“Well, are you ready to talk?” That was the question that pushed

Sugino over the limit. He nodded his head.

Now there was no stopping him. He answered all Aoyagi’s father’s

questions and confessed everything that had happened. As he spoke, he

could feel his heart growing lighter. He had a renewed sense of what a

monstrous lie he’d been living.

“Thank you for your honesty,” Aoyagi’s father said when Sugino was

finished. “It all makes sense to me. Including the things my son has been

doing.”

Sugino was just wondering what that last remark meant when

Aoyagi’s father announced, “There’s a place I want you to see. It’s already

too late and we won’t be able to get in, but we can still have a look at it.

That will have to do. Come on, let’s go together to the place of atonement.”

He didn’t get any more specific than that.

They left the café. “It’s this way,” Aoyagi’s father said and started

walking.

“What you boys did is quite unforgivable. You’d be demonized if

word got out. It could well impact your chances of getting into college. But

none of that matters. Your whole lives are still ahead of you. You can start

over, but if you want that second chance, you’ve got to stop lying to

yourselves.”

As they walked along the street, Aoyagi’s father spoke fervently about

how making a clean breast of it was the best thing to do. His argument was

compelling enough. At the same time, it gave Sugino a glimpse of all the

difficulties that would lie ahead of him.

His future, his education—

Thanks to an official recommendation from his school, Sugino had

managed to secure a place at his first-choice university. It had taken him three years of hard work to earn that place. Was it all going to be wasted?

He stopped. I can’t go along with this any further, he thought.

“What’s wrong?” Aoyagi’s father asked.

“I can’t do this. Just pretend you didn’t hear any of what I told you

back there. I’m begging you.”

“That isn’t possible. I’m going to tell everyone the truth. I believe

that’s the best thing for you and the best thing for my son. Come on.”

Aoyagi’s father resumed walking. To Sugino, there was something

about his back that seemed to exude stubbornness.

Not even Sugino himself could explain his emotional state at that

moment. He just knew that he had to do something, that he had to stop this

man. His fingers closed around the handle of the knife before he even knew

what he was doing.

Aoyagi’s father must have sensed something, because he stopped and

turned around. Sugino flung himself at him, holding the knife out in front of

him.

He smashed the older man up against the wall so that their bodies were

pressed tight together. It was only then that he realized they were in some

kind of underpass.

Aoyagi’s father barely uttered a sound. Backed up against the wall, he

crumpled and then fell to his knees. The knife was lodged deep in his chest.

Sugino made an effort to pull it out, but it wouldn’t move. In desperation,

he used his school tie to wipe the handle clean. Agitated though he was, he

was still thinking about fingerprints.

He started to retrace his steps. That was when he spotted someone

lurking in the shadow of an office block. Anxious not to be seen, Tatsuya

Sugino took off. He ran as fast as his legs would carry him.

Back at home, he spent the night shut up in his room, trembling and

fearful. Terrified that the police might show up, he didn’t get a moment’s

sleep. When morning came, he anxiously checked the internet for news.

What he discovered was completely unexpected.

A man suspected of killing Aoyagi’s father had been hit by a car and

was in critical condition.

Mystified, Sugino started rooting around. He discovered his

extraordinary good luck. Not only was someone completely different

suspected of the crime, the guy was also in a coma—

This is a miracle, Sugino thought. Provided the guy doesn’t recover,

I’m out of danger. Who knows, perhaps I’ll get away with it even if he does

come around.

That was when he got an email from Yuto Aoyagi. He felt a searing

pain in his chest when he saw the subject line: “My Dad’s Dead.” Still, he’d

already made up his mind to tell no one what he had done. Suppressing his

agitation, he forced himself to compose a sympathetic-sounding message,

which he sent off.

He was in a quandary when everyone at school started giving Aoyagi

the cold shoulder after the workplace accident cover-up business came to

light. Sugino didn’t know how to interact with his friend. Not having much

choice in the matter, he decided to keep his distance. His doing so didn’t

seem suspicious to Aoyagi.

When Fuyuki Yashima, the murder suspect, died without coming out

of his coma, Sugino thought he was home and dry. That turned out to be

premature. Yuto Aoyagi came out and said that he wanted to have a threeway

discussion with him and Kurosawa. His refusal to say what he wanted

to talk about only made Sugino more uneasy.

Then he had got the fateful text from Aoyagi. Aoyagi wanted to meet

ASAP to discuss the accident at the school pool. The police knew that the

accident and his dad’s murder were linked and were taking steps

accordingly.

Suddenly, everything went black.

He’d been found out. They knew he’d murdered Aoyagi’s father. If the

police were on the case, he would never get away with it. It was over. Over.

Sugino blundered through the streets in the grip of despair. What

should I do? What should I do?

When the police asked him why he was in Shinagawa Station, he

couldn’t come up with an answer. He had no idea how he had gotten there.

He had a vague memory of having intended to throw himself in front

of a train. Dying seemed like the best thing I can do. And I still think it is—