Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality.
Viktor E. Frankl
ePub
A4Chapter 14
T
he lights were much brighter than she had expected. They reached into thenooks and crannies that were normally in shadow and revealed just how
grubby they were. I’d have given the place a proper cleaning if I’d known it
was going to be like this, Kaori thought. But it was too late now. She knew
they were going to pixelate her face, but she could hardly ask them to
pixelate her apartment as well. From the discussions she had overheard
earlier, showing her apartment was one of the aims of the exercise.
“Let me get this straight. You didn’t know that your boyfriend had
even had an accident at his workplace, did you?” asked the female TV
reporter. She had a forceful face and long hair pulled back behind her head.
“No, I didn’t know. What he told me was that he’d fallen down a flight
of stairs on his way home from work,” said Kaori. That was how she
remembered things.
“Can you describe his original injuries?”
Kaori tilted her head to one side.
“Fuyuki insisted they were nothing serious, but he looked pretty
uncomfortable to me. When I urged him to go to the hospital, he said that
rest should do the trick and then spent the next few days in bed.”
“Did he say anything about having had an accident at work at that
time?”
“Nothing.”
Kaori realized that the camera was pointed at her belly. She had
already told them she was pregnant. The faces of the TV crew had lit up at
the news.
“Not long after, the agency told Fuyuki that his contract had been
terminated. What did he tell you about the reasons behind his termination?”
“That they were a load of nonsense, but there wasn’t anything he
could do.”
“He subsequently started to suffer from aftereffects. What sort of
symptoms were they exactly?”
“Severe stiffness in the neck and shoulders … then he lost all
sensation in his left hand. The symptoms might have been there earlier. He
could have been keeping quiet about them to avoid worrying me.”
The female interviewer gave an emphatic nod. Kaori must have given
her the answer she had been hoping for.
“The aftereffects made it very difficult for Fuyuki to find other work.
It was the company that was responsible for the original accident, and it
was the company’s determination to cover up the accident that ultimately
prevented Fuyuki from going to the hospital. What do you think about
that?”
“That’s something I only just found out about. If it’s true, then I think
it’s awful, really awful. If he’d gone to the hospital, things wouldn’t have
turned out the way they did.”
“Turned out the way they did? You mean that the murder wouldn’t
have taken place?” A microphone was thrust in Kaori’s face.
“No, I, uh, I just mean that he wouldn’t have suffered so much
physically.”
“But what about the murder? Takeaki Aoyagi, the head of production,
was the person who masterminded the cover-up of workplace accidents at
Kaneseki Metals. Don’t you think there’s got to be a link between that and
the murder?”
“The murder…” Kaori, who was starting to get confused, shook her
head. “I don’t know. I certainly don’t think Fuyuki had anything to do with
the murder. He’s simply not capable of doing anything like that.”
The reporter’s face clouded. She frowned and raised a hand.
“Cut! Do we want her to say that?” she asked her staff.
There was a whispered discussion and a man in glasses came over to
Kaori.
“A word, Ms. Nakahara? You want to think the best of your boyfriend,
we get that. The fact is that he stole the victim’s wallet and fled the scene.
Surely, it’s hard to believe that he’s not involved in the crime?”
“Well … I suppose so.”
“So you do think he was involved in the crime, then?”
She grunted in assent.
“Well, then, could you make that the starting point of your answers?
Why did Fuyuki end up involved in a crime? Surely you’ve got to admit
that him being the victim of a malicious accident cover-up was what led
directly to this crime?”
Kaori was feeling confused all over again. She agreed with what the
man said: Fuyuki was the victim of a workplace accident cover-up. He felt
cornered and then one thing led to another. His words from that evening
echoed in her head: “I’ve done something terrible—”
“You … you could say that.”
“You bet you can! All we want you to do is to tell us what you really
think. You don’t need to say anything fancy or flowery. Just exactly what
you think. Good. Now we’re going to retake that part.”
“Okay.” The whole crew sprang into motion as Kaori said the word.
There was something predatory about the look on the female reporter’s
face. This time give us the proper answers or else! Kaori felt intimidated.
“I’d like to ask you about the murder. Takeaki Aoyagi, the victim, was
the mastermind behind the cover-up at Kaneseki Metals. Do you think
there’s a link between the two things? Let me be very clear here that
murder, whatever the motivation for it, can never be condoned.”
The question had been bulked up. Kaori was at a loss what to say.
Should she ask them to cut to give her time to think? She shrank from the
piercing gaze of the interviewer. She didn’t dare make such a request. She
had to come up with some kind of answer.
“I think that … that what took place happened because my boyfriend
was the victim of a workplace accident cover-up.”
“So you’re saying that he was responsible for the crime?”
“Yes,” agreed Kaori, feeling dazed.
“Lovely. That’s a wrap,” a voice immediately said. The female
reporter sprang to her feet with a look of triumph on her face. She didn’t
give Kaori a second glance.
Kaori sat in her dilapidated apartment as the equipment was packed up
and the TV crew prepared to leave. She felt bewildered. After she had seen
them off, she was left holding twenty thousand yen in cash. Money was the
reason she had agreed to do the interview. Money was what she needed
right now.
Yesterday, the boss of the delicatessen where she worked had told her
he wouldn’t be needing her for a while.
“I hear that your live-in boyfriend is the suspect in the Nihonbashi
Bridge murder case.”
Her boss was as soft and plump as a loaf of bread. He had made the
comment diffidently enough, but Kaori still recoiled.
“How do you…?”
She hadn’t told any of her delicatessen coworkers that she lived with
Fuyuki.
An anxious frown appeared on his face.
“I got a phone call. This woman. She said she was a regular customer
of ours. Lives near you and sees you around all the time, she said. Told me
how the police searched your place. She was out in the street, watching.”
Kaori lowered her eyes. Her memory of the search was all too vivid.
Her boss was right: a group of bystanders had gathered to watch. And one
of them was a customer here. The world was full of people who loved
spreading nasty gossip, people who did nothing when you needed help
most.
“We’re a customer-facing business, Kaori. We don’t need nasty rumors
circulating. You can understand that.”
Kaori had no reply. She would probably have done the same thing
herself in the boss’s shoes.
Kaori sighed as she looked at the twenty thousand yen. Right now, it
represented a considerable sum of money, but it wasn’t as if it really solved
anything. She needed to figure out a way to earn money. She had once been
approached by a fellow in a black suit who was recruiting for a sleazy
hostess club. She still had his business card. Knowing Fuyuki wouldn’t like
it, she hadn’t seriously thought about it at the time; now she wondered
about giving him a call.
It’s no good. She patted her belly. The state I’m in, I won’t be able to
work for very long. Who knows if they’d even give me a job in the first place
—
That was when it happened. Her cell phone, which was lying on the
low table, started to ring.
“Hello?”
“Hello, is this Kaori Nakahara?”
“Speaking. Who’s this?”
“This is Kyobashi Central Hospital. There’s been a change in Fuyuki
Yashima’s condition. We’d like you to come as fast as you can.”
Kaori’s heart was in her throat. Her whole body grew warm and the
hand with which she was holding the phone began to tremble.
