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David Norris
ePub
A4Chapter 30
I
t was after two p.m. by the time they got back to Tokyo Station. At Kaga’ssuggestion, they decided to go directly to Shubunkan Junior High School.
When they got there, they went to the office. The woman who had
escorted them to the visitors’ room the previous day was taken aback to see
them again.
“I’m sorry,” Kaga said, “but we need to have another word with Mr.
Itokawa.”
The woman made a few keystrokes on her computer. “He’s teaching
right now. Is it urgent?”
“No. If he’s busy, we’re happy to wait until the class is over. Can we
use the same room as yesterday?”
“You’re welcome to. Can you find your own way?”
“No problem.”
They went to the visitors’ reception room and sat on the sofa side by
side, just like the day before. Neither of them said a word. They had said all
that needed saying on the bullet train back. (Though it was primarily
Matsumiya listening as Kaga expounded his theory.)
A number of things had come to light over the last twenty-four hours.
Both men were confident they would uncover the truth any minute now.
The bell rang for the end of the lesson. This was accompanied by a
roar that got louder and closer until they could hear a mass of boys surging
back and forth along the passage outside.
A few minutes passed and the door opened. It was Itokawa. He came
across as even more leery than the previous day.
Matsumiya and Kaga both got up and greeted him with a bow.
“What do you want now? I really don’t think there’s anything more I
can tell you.” Itokawa spoke gruffly, making no attempt to conceal his
annoyance.
“I do apologize. Actually, we would like you to show us something,”
Kaga said.
“What?”
Kaga paused a moment. “The swim meet results,” he said. “As you
know, there was a swim meet on the same day the accident occurred three
years ago. We would be grateful if you could show us the official record of
the event.”
Itokawa’s face twitched.
“Why on earth do you want to see that?” His tone was defensive.
“Everyone says that Tomoyuki Yoshinaga did what he did because he
was so upset at how poorly he had performed at the meet. Given that, we
think it makes sense for us to see just how bad his results were.”
Itokawa frowned. “What’s the point of that? Everyone knows
Yoshinaga performed badly. I can tell you that myself.”
“What we want to do”—Kaga took a step forward—“is to get the
details. We would appreciate your cooperation.”
Itokawa looked uncomfortable as the tall detective loomed over him.
“Fine. If you’d just wait here.”
“No, we’ll come with you. The staff room’s just across the way, isn’t
it?”
“The records aren’t kept in the staff room, they’re in the coach’s
room.”
“That’s not a problem. We’ll come with you.”
Matsumiya got to his feet and stood shoulder to shoulder with Kaga.
“Let’s go.”
Ever so grudgingly, Itokawa turned around and left the room.
Matsumiya and Kaga went after him.
Students stood chatting to one another in clusters outside the main
school building. They looked inquisitively at Matsumiya and Kaga as they
went by. Any grown-up other than a teacher was a person of interest in their
little world.
The coach’s room was on the second floor of a small building
immediately beside the swimming pool. The changing rooms were on the
first floor.
Itokawa unlocked the door. The room was small and contained a desk,
some lockers, and a cabinet. On the shelves, there were rows of thick
binders. The titles on the spines showed that they contained the results of
the meets.
“Exactly what we’re after.” Kaga pulled out a pair of white gloves.
“You’re okay with us taking a look?”
“Knock yourself out,” Itokawa replied gruffly.
As Matsumiya pulled his gloves, he watched Kaga rapidly leafing
through one of the files.
His hand stopped when he reached a certain page. The date of the meet
was August 18, three years ago. The day the accident had happened.
Matsumiya skimmed through the different events and the swimmers’
names until he found the name Tomoyuki Yoshinaga in the fifty-meter
freestyle. Yuto Aoyagi had swum in the same race, he noticed.
With his gloved hand, Kaga was pointing at another part of the page. It
was the entry for the two-hundred-meter relay. Matsumiya gulped as he
read the names of the team members.
First leg Yuto Aoyagi (3rd year)
Second leg Tatsuya Sugino (3rd year)
Third leg Tomoyuki Yoshinaga (2nd year)
Fourth leg Shota Kurosawa (3rd year)
“Take a note of this,” Kaga whispered. Matsumiya didn’t need to be
told; he had already pulled out his pen. The race results were of no interest
to them; all they cared about was who had been on the relay team.
Neither Yuto Aoyagi nor Tomoyuki Yoshinaga had taken part in any
other events.
Kaga closed the file and put it back on the shelf. The two detectives
turned around at the same time and were confronted by Itokawa standing
there. His face was gloomy and there was a cunning glint in his eye.
“Happy now?” Itokawa asked.
“Very happy. Could I ask another question?”
“What now? I’ve things to do, you know.”
“What subject do you teach?”
Itokawa frowned suspiciously. “Math.”
“Really? Well, there are all sorts of formulas in junior high school
math: Pythagoras’s theorem, the quadratic equation, that sort of thing.”
“And what’s that got to do with anything?”
“Memorizing formulas enables you to solve a whole variety of
problems. If, however, you memorize a formula wrongly to start with,
you’ll end up getting things wrong over and over again. That can happen,
can’t it?”
“Indeed, it can.” From the expression on Itokawa’s face, he was
clearly wondering what on earth Kaga was getting at.
“Make sure to get your students to memorize all the formulas
correctly.”
“Thank you, but I really don’t need you to tell me that.”
“I don’t suppose you do. Yes, sorry. Thanks for your help,” said Kaga,
speaking quickly and signaling to Matsumiya that they should be on their
way.
After leaving the school, they went to a local diner and had a late
lunch.
Once they finished their meal, Matsumiya extracted a few sheets of
paper from his bag. It was the photocopy of the registry of swim team
members.
“Tatsuya Sugino and Shota Kurosawa? These two were involved in the
accident three years ago along with Yuto Aoyagi. We can be one hundred
percent sure of that.”
Kaga nodded as he drank his after-lunch coffee.
“Very probably. Or at least, they have important information about the
accident. Something that they can’t reveal to anyone. Yesterday, it seemed
clear that Yuto was protecting someone. That’s got to be the other two boys.
I’m guessing he feels he can’t tell us the truth without getting their
permission first.”
“We need to get the three of them together to get them to talk to us.”
Kaga slid the photocopy to his side of the table. “I’ll go for Tatsuya
Sugino. You handle Shota Kurosawa.”
“Got it.”
The addresses showed that they lived quite a way from one another.
“It’s four thirty now. School will be over soon,” said Kaga, glancing at
his watch.
“Shall I bring Shota Kurosawa to you?”
Kaga pondered a moment. “How about we use the Aoyagi house as a
base?” he replied. “Yuto will probably be there now. And if he’s not, he
soon will be.”
“Yeah, fine. I’ll call you when I’ve found Shota Kurosawa.”
“Got it.”
Matsumiya parted from Kaga outside the diner and caught a cab. The
driver had GPS, so Matsumiya got the driver to input Shota Kurosawa’s
address.
The taxi stopped in the middle of a residential district. Matsumiya paid
the fare and slid out. In front of him there stood a row of substantial houses.
He walked along inspecting the nameplates and soon found the Kurosawa
house. It was a rather grand residence in the European style.
Matsumiya pressed the intercom and gave his name. As soon as the
woman who answered heard the words “Tokyo Metropolitan Police,” her
voice became one degree shriller.
The woman who appeared at the front door was elegantly dressed in a
lilac cardigan. This had to be Shota Kurosawa’s mother. She squirmed
uncomfortably when Matsumiya told her that he wanted to speak to her son.
“Has he done something wrong?”
“No, no.” Matsumiya smiled and made a deprecatory gesture with his
hand. “I just want to ask him a couple of questions. Isn’t he back yet?”
“He did come back, but then he went straight back out. He said
something about meeting a friend.”
“A friend? What, from his current school?”
“No. A friend from his club in junior high.”
“Club? You mean the swim team?”
The mother seemed disconcerted to find the detective so well informed
about her son. “That’s right.” She looked anxious and tucked her chin
defensively into her neck.
“Which friend?”
“It’s … Aoyagi.”
Matsumiya caught his breath. Was this just a coincidence?
“Do you know where they’re meeting?”
“I’m not sure.” She tilted her head to one side. “He said something
about meeting at the station.”
Matsumiya’s heart started pounding. The situation was becoming
critical.
“I need you to call your son right now and ask him where he is. Don’t
say a word about me.”
“Wha—!… How do I phrase the question?”
“That’s up to you.”
Shota Kurosawa’s mother went back into the house, a shell-shocked
look on her face. Matsumiya called Kaga and explained the situation while
he waited on the doorstep.
“That’s certainly worrying. I’ll head for the station too. We’ve got to
find them.”
“What about Tatsuya Sugino?”
“He’s not yet back from school. Who knows, perhaps he’s going to
rendezvous with Yuto and Shota.”
“All three of them at this specific moment … Do you think it’s a
coincidence?”
“No way. The murder of Yuto’s father provoked a change of mind in
Yuto. On top of that, I reckon the questions we put to him about the
accident yesterday got him thinking about links between the accident and
the murder.”
“I’m on edge.”
“Good. Relaxing is the last thing we want to do right now. We’ve got
to locate the boys.”
“Got it,” Matsumiya said. The front door opened just as he ended the
call. Shota Kurosawa’s mother looked crestfallen.
“He’s somewhere near the station, but he wouldn’t tell me exactly
where.”
Nothing doing, then. Matsumiya got the woman to give him Shota
Kurosawa’s cell phone number and took off.
When he got to the Nakameguro Station area, he started looking into
all the cafés and fast-food restaurants, keeping in touch with Kaga by phone
as he did so. The fact that there were so many youngsters of the same age
around only complicated things.
He was walking past a burger joint when a school uniform he
recognized caught his eye. He stopped and looked in. Yuto Aoyagi was
sitting at the counter by the window. Was the long-haired youth sitting next
to him Shota Kurosawa?
Matsumiya called Kaga to let him know.
Kaga soon showed up and the two of them made their way into the
restaurant. They went straight over to Yuto and Shota. The long-haired
youth, who was the first to notice them, swiveled around on his stool. A
look of surprise came over Yuto’s face when he followed suit.
“You’re Kurosawa, right?” Kaga said to the long-haired youth.
“What if I am?” Kurosawa said defensively.
Kaga looked down at Yuto. “Expecting Sugino any minute now?”
Yuto said nothing. From the sideways view of the boy’s face,
Matsumiya could see that he was trying to tough it out, the way kids do.
“Guess I’m right.”
“Piss off,” Yuto said, his eyes averted. “Who we see is none of your
business. We’re not breaking any laws.”
“Isn’t it because you broke the law that you arranged this little gettogether?”
The blood drained from the two young men’s faces at Kaga’s remark.
Shota Kurosawa’s eyes visibly reddened.
“What time is Sugino coming?” Kaga asked.
“He’s not coming,” Yuto replied sulkily. “I told him five o’clock, but
he hasn’t shown up yet. He doesn’t pick up when I call or reply to my
texts.”
Matsumiya looked at his watch. It was already after half past.
“When did you arrange this meeting?” Kaga asked.
“Lunchtime. I sent him a text. We’re at the same school, but he’d be a
marked man if the other kids saw him talking to me. I wanted to spare him
that.”
“Did he reply to that text?”
“Yeah. He was like, ‘I’ll do my best to be there,’ so I followed up
with, ‘You’ve got to come.’ Fat lot of good that was.” Yuto clucked his
tongue.
Kaga held out his hand. “Show me that text.”
Yuto gasped and his eyes widened. “What?”
“Just show me the damn thing. Now.”
Intimidated by Kaga’s forcefulness, Yuto pulled out his cell phone.
Matsumiya looked over at the phone in Kaga’s hand. Yuto had indeed
sent two texts to Tatsuya Sugino today. The first one read: “Need to talk to
you. Also contacted Kurosawa. We’re meeting at the Nakameguro burger
joint at 5.” Sugino’s response was: “Got stuff to do at home. Not sure I can
make it. I’ll be there if I can.” That was when Yuto had sent his follow-up
text. “This is SUPER important. You MUST come. May be linked with my
dad’s case. Yesterday the cops questioned me about Yoshinaga’s accident,”
it said.
Kaga gave Yuto back his cell phone and turned to Matsumiya.
Matsumiya flinched at the sight of his cousin’s face. The eyes had a
piercing look that he had never seen in them before.
“Call the incident room. Tell them to track down Tatsuya Sugino
urgently. Worst-case scenario, we could already be too late.”
