Sasagaki nodded and set his cup back down. ‘I understand you’re having Mr Imaeda do some work for you.’
Kazunari felt his jaw tighten.
‘I understand your alarm,’ Sasagaki said, ‘but I really need you to be completely candid. You should know that it wasn’t Mr Imaeda who told me about you. As a matter fact, he’s gone missing.’
‘What?’ Kazunari blurted. ‘Really?’
‘I’m afraid so.’
‘Since when?’
‘Well…’ Sasagaki scratched his hair. ‘That’s not entirely clear. All I know is that around the twentieth of last month he called Mr Takamiya asking if he could meet that day or the next. Mr Takamiya told him to come the following day, and Mr Imaeda said he would call before coming. But no call ever came.’
‘So no one’s heard from him since the twentieth?’
‘That’s correct.’
Kazunari folded his arms across his chest and groaned despite himself. ‘Why would he go missing?’
‘That’s what I mean to find out. As a matter of fact, I met with him not too long ago myself,’ Sasagaki said. ‘Concerning an investigation. I tried contacting him once later, but no matter how many times I rang, he never picked up. So I came up to Tokyo yesterday and paid a visit to his office.’
‘And no one was there?’
Sasagaki nodded. ‘Quite a few letters stacked up in his mailbox, too. I had the concierge let me into his unit.’
‘What did you find?’ Kazunari asked, leaning forward.
‘Nothing much. No sign of an incident or any struggle. I let the local precinct know but I doubt they’ll put much effort into finding him.’
‘Might he have gone into hiding?’
‘Possibly. But I don’t think it’s very likely.’
‘Why not?’
‘I just think it’s more likely something happened to him.’
Kazunari swallowed. The inside of his mouth was bone dry. He took a sip of his tea.
‘Was he involved in anything dangerous?’
‘That’s the question, isn’t it?’ Sasagaki reached into his pocket. ‘Mind if I smoke?’
‘Go right ahead,’ Kazunari said, pushing the stainless steel ashtray from one corner of the table until it sat in front of the detective.
Sasagaki pulled out a Hi-Lite cigarette. You don’t see those much these days, Kazunari thought, staring at the classic blue and white packaging.
The detective blew out a thick stream of white smoke.
‘Based on what I picked up the last time I met Mr Imaeda, his biggest case involved the investigation of a particular woman. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you who that is.’
The detective’s friendly smile vanished, and Kazunari almost flinched at the sharp, lizard-like look in his eyes.
No point in playing dumb, he thought, even as he realised it was probably the detective’s look that had disarmed him. He might be craftier than I gave him credit for. Kazunari nodded slowly. ‘Yes, I know.’
Sasagaki nodded again.
‘And you’re the one who requested he investigate Miss Yukiho Karasawa?’
‘You said you got my name from Takamiya,’ Kazunari responded, ignoring the question. ‘I don’t see the connection.’
‘It’s not all that difficult,’ the detective replied. ‘Nor particularly pertinent.’
‘Yes, but it still makes me wonder…’
‘So much that you can’t answer my question?’
Kazunari nodded, meeting his gaze. Against a lesser adversary he might have tried to glare, but he was convinced it would have little effect on the battle-hardened detective.
Sasagaki smiled and took a drag on his cigarette. ‘For various reasons, I too have a strong interest in Yukiho Karasawa. Which is how I noticed when someone else started looking into her. Naturally, I got curious about who that was, so I went to meet Miss Karasawa’s ex-husband. Takamiya told me that there was talk she was getting married again and someone from the groom’s family was looking into her. He gave me Imaeda’s name.’
‘And?’
Sasagaki picked up an old leather satchel and put it on his knee, opening the clasps. He pulled out a small tape recorder. A knowing smile on his face, he placed it on the table and pressed the play button.
There was a beep and then a voice, clear enough to understand over the hiss of the tape.
‘Hi, it’s Shinozuka, calling about the Yukiho investigation. I wanted to know how it’s going. Give me a call.’
Sasagaki pressed the stop button and placed the tape recorder back in his satchel.
‘I borrowed this from Mr Imaeda’s answering machine the other day. I’m correct in assuming the Mr Shinozuka on the line was you?’
‘Yes. That would’ve been from the beginning of the month.’ Kazunari said with a sigh. He thought a moment about protesting this invasion of privacy, then discarded the idea as pointless.
‘Right. So, I gave Mr Takamiya another call to ask him about you.’
‘And he told you everything?’
‘He told me enough. Anyhow, like I said, it’s not that difficult a thread to follow.’
‘As you say.’
‘Let me ask again, it was you who requested the investigation into Miss Yukiho Karasawa?’
‘Yes.’
‘And who wants to marry her?’
‘A relative of mine. But she hasn’t given him an answer.’
‘Mind telling me the name of this relative of yours?’ Sasagaki asked, opening his notebook.
‘Do you really have to know that?’
‘That’s what we do, in my line of work. We ask a lot of people a lot of questions. If you don’t want to say, that’s fine. No skin off my nose. I’ll just have to go around asking a lot of other people a lot of questions until I find someone who can tell me who it is that wants to marry Yukiho Karasawa.’
Kazunari frowned. That would be a disaster, and the detective knew it. ‘It’s Yasuharu – my cousin.’
Sasagaki scribbled the name. ‘I’m guessing that’s Yasuharu Shinozuka, correct? And he works at this company?’
Kazunari told him his cousin was managing director.
‘There are a few things I don’t understand, if you don’t mind?’ Kazunari said.
‘Not at all, though there may be some things I’m not at liberty to share.’
‘You said you had interest in Yukiho Karasawa for various reasons. I was wondering if you could tell me what those reasons are?’
A wry smile spread across Sasagaki’s face. ‘Unfortunately, that’s one of the things I can’t share.’
‘It’s confidential?’
‘To be frank, I’m just not ready to talk about it. There are still too many unknowns. You see, this whole thing goes back to a case that’s eighteen years old.’
‘Eighteen years?’ Kazunari shook his head, trying to picture an investigation spanning such a long period of time. ‘Can you tell me what that case was, at least?’
A brief moment of indecision passed across the detective’s face. Then he blinked and said, ‘Homicide.’
Kazunari straightened and breathed out a long sigh to steady himself. ‘Who was killed?’
‘You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t answer that,’ Sasagaki said, holding his palms out to indicate he’d given all he could.
‘But she – Yukiho was involved?’
‘Let’s just say it’s likely she holds an important key to understanding what happened.’
‘But wait,’ Kazunari said. ‘Isn’t the statute of limitations already up, if it happened that long ago?’
‘I’m afraid so, yes.’
‘But you’re still on the case?’
The detective picked up his box of Hi-Lites and jabbed a finger in, fishing out a second cigarette. Kazunari didn’t remember when he had snuffed out the last one.
‘It’s a bit of a long story, as you might imagine, and it’s not finished. Nor do I think it will ever reach its conclusion without me go
ing back to the very beginning, if you follow.’
‘I’d love to hear it.’
‘Not today,’ Sasagaki said with a smile. ‘For one thing, it’s eighteen years’ worth of a tale, and I’m afraid we’d be sitting here a very long time in the telling.’
‘Some other time, then?’
‘Sure,’ the detective said, looking him in the eye and taking a deep drag on his cigarette. ‘Someday, when we have time.’
Kazunari reached for his tea and discovered that both their cups were empty.
‘Would you like some more?’
‘No, I’m fine. If you don’t mind, though, I have another question for you.’
‘Yes?’
‘Can you tell me the real reason why you asked Mr Imaeda to investigate Yukiho Karasawa?’
‘You already know that. I mean, it’s nothing unusual. Lots of people in our position like to find out about potential spouses before the wedding.’
‘I’m sure they do. What I don’t get is, why you? I can understand if it were the groom’s parents, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a cousin going out of his way to hire a private eye. And there’s another thing that makes it strange that you, in particular, would want to investigate Yukiho Karasawa. You’re old friends with her ex-husband. Go back further and the three of you were in the same dance club in college. So you should know quite a bit about Miss Karasawa without going through the trouble of investigating her. And yet you did.
‘That might be reason enough to wonder,’ the detective continued, ‘but in all honesty, it was something else that piqued my curiosity about you. It was the tape I found in Imaeda’s answering machine. Specifically, the way you said her name. It sent a shiver down my spine, Mr Shinozuka. Call it a hunch, but something in your voice made me think “this man fears Yukiho Karasawa”, and I want to know why.’
The detective snuffed out his second cigarette. He leaned forward, placing both hands down on the table. ‘I need you to tell me the truth. What was the real reason you asked Mr Imaeda to look into Yukiho Karasawa?’
Something had shifted about Sasagaki’s demeanour. The authoritative weight was still there, but he no longer felt threatening. Rather, he seemed warm and eager to help. He must use this face when he’s questioning a suspect, Kazunari thought. Immediately he understood that this, then, was the question the detective had come here today to ask. It didn’t matter to him in the least who wanted to marry Yukiho Karasawa. It only mattered why Kazunari suspected she was dangerous.
He chuckled. ‘Don’t go barking up the wrong tree, detective. I was being honest when I told you I hired Mr Imaeda purely for my cousin’s benefit. If my cousin hadn’t wanted to marry Yukiho, then I couldn’t care less what kind of woman she is or what kind of life she leads.’
‘I see.’
‘You were, however, right about one thing,’ Kazunari continued.
‘And that is?’
‘She does scare me.’
‘Ah.’ Sasagaki leaned back in the sofa, looking him in the eye. ‘And why is that?’
‘Well, it’s a little vague, and very subjective.’
‘Not a problem,’ said Sasagaki with a wry grin. ‘I live for vague subjectivity.’
Kazunari explained everything to Sasagaki in roughly the same fashion as he had when he first spoke with Imaeda: he sensed someone or something behind her, a shadowy backer with lots of money, and not a lot of morals. Everyone who got involved with her ended up meeting misfortune.
Despite the tale sounding increasingly ridiculous as he told it, Sasagaki listened to every word, a serious look on his face as he puffed at his third cigarette.
‘I see,’ the detective said once he had finished. ‘Thanks for sharing that with me.’ He put out his cigarette and bowed his head in gratitude, giving Kazunari a good look at his greying hair parted right down the middle.
‘I’m sure you think I’m letting my imagination run away with me.’
‘Not at all,’ Sasagaki said waving a hand in front of his face as if to brush away the mere suggestion. ‘To be honest, I’m a little surprised you understand the situation as well as you do. It’s impressive for someone your age to show such intuition.’
‘You mean… you think I’m right?’
‘That I do,’ Sasagaki said with a nod. ‘I think you’ve seen right through to the truth of Yukiho Karasawa. Unfortunately, few people possess your keen eye, especially when it comes to her. Even I was blind for a very long time.’
‘So my intuition about her, that’s correct?’
‘As far as I can tell,’ the detective replied. ‘Nothing good happens by getting involved with her, that’s for certain. And I have eighteen years of experience to verify that.’
‘Well, then, I’d sure like to introduce you to my cousin.’
‘As I would like to meet him and warn him. Though I doubt he’d listen. You’re the first person I’ve even been able to talk with openly about this.’
‘What I wanted – the whole reason I hired Mr Imaeda in the first place – was to get something decisive on her. A smoking gun,’ Kazunari said.
‘You learn anything from his investigation?’
‘Nothing, really. Just a few details about her stock trades. Imaeda was only getting started.’
Kazunari had already decided he would forbear mentioning what the private eye had said about him being the one Yukiho Karasawa truly loved.
‘Well,’ Sasagaki said in a low voice, ‘this is only conjecture, but I think Mr Imaeda might just have found something decisive, as you say.’
‘Proof of her backer?’
The detective nodded. ‘The other day when I was looking through Mr Imaeda’s place I couldn’t help but notice he had nothing on Yukiho Karasawa at all in his files. Not even a single photograph.’
‘What?’ Kazunari’s eyes widened. ‘You mean —’
‘Someone who was afraid of that particular investigation may well have played a part in Mr Imaeda’s disappearance.’
Kazunari shook his head. The thought didn’t even seem like a stretch, not any more. Yet there was still that faint whiff of unreality to it.
‘And you believe that,’ he muttered. ‘You believe someone would go that far.’
‘So you think she’s bad, but not that bad?’
‘Couldn’t his disappearance be a coincidence? Maybe he got wrapped up in something else?’
‘Doesn’t fit,’ the detective said with confidence. ‘Mr Imaeda gets two newspapers delivered, and when I checked with the delivery people they said that a man called to stop delivery last month on the twenty-first, because he was going on a trip.’
‘A man who could have been Mr Imaeda.’