The mood couldn’t have been farther from a pleasant afternoon tea. As soon as Kazunari started talking, Yasuharu’s mouth twisted into a scowl where it stayed while he, together with Sasagaki, began telling the story of Yukiho Nishimoto. They told it all, every little event they had managed to piece together. Ryo’s name came up several times.
Halfway through, Yasuharu slammed the table with his hands and stood. ‘Ridiculous,’ he scoffed. ‘I wondered what you were going to say, but this – this takes the cake, Kazunari.’
‘Please, hear us out.’
‘I’ve heard more than enough. Look, if you’ve got so much free time on your hands that you’re going digging for dirt that isn’t there, why don’t you spend it trying to fix that company of yours.’
‘Actually, I have information about that, too,’ Kazunari said to Yasuharu’s turned back. He stood. ‘I know who set the trap for me.’
Yasuharu looked around, a twisted smile on his face. ‘Don’t tell me Yukiho did that too?’
‘You heard about the hacker that accessed the Shinozuka Pharmaceuticals network? It turns out that the hacker used a computer at the Imperial University Hospital to do it. And one of the pharmacists there was living with none other than Ryo Kirihara.’
Yasuharu’s eyes opened a little wider at this. Then he said something the old detective didn’t quite catch, but it sounded like ‘so what’.
Sasagaki pulled a photograph out of his coat pocket. ‘Would you mind taking a look at this?’
‘What’s this? A building?’
‘This is the pawnshop where the murder happened twenty years ago in Osaka. The pharmacist took this picture when she went to Osaka with Ryo Kirihara.’
‘And?’
‘I asked when she made that trip. They went for three days, from eighteenth September of last year through to the twentieth. I believe those dates should be significant to you as well.’
It took Yasuharu a moment to remember, but he did. His light gasp indicated that.
‘That’s right,’ Sasagaki said. ‘On nineteenth September Reiko Karasawa passed away. The hospital was at a loss to explain why her breathing suddenly stopped. This provides one possible explanation…’
‘Ridiculous,’ Yasuharu said, tossing the photograph aside. ‘Kazunari, I want you to take this crazy old man and leave. Pull something like this again and you’ll never come back to our company, ever. You’d do well to remember that your father isn’t on the board any more.’
He picked up a golf ball lying on the ground by his feet and flung it at the net. It hit one of the metal poles supporting the net and ricocheted back towards the house, where it struck a potted plant out on the terrace. There was a cracking noise like something had broken. Yasuharu didn’t even look. Stepping up on to the terrace, he opened the sliding glass doors and went inside.
Kazunari sighed. He glanced at Sasagaki and chuckled dryly. ‘That went well.’
‘He’s quite taken with the woman. That’s her greatest weapon.’
‘He’s too angry to think straight right now, but once he cools down, the things we said will start to make sense to him. We’ll just have to wait.’
‘If that time ever comes.’
The two had turned to leave when Taeko came running out to see them. ‘What happened? I heard a loud noise.’
Kazunari shrugged. ‘Yasuharu threw a golf ball and I think it hit something.’
‘Was anyone hurt?’
‘Just a potted plant. No human casualties.’
The housemaid turned to inspect the plants on the terrace.
‘My, it’s one of her cactuses.’
‘Yukiho’s cactuses?’
‘She brought them from Osaka. Dear me, the pot’s completely destroyed.’
Kazunari went over to Taeko.
‘Does she have a thing for raising cactuses or something?’
‘No, I believe they belonged to her late mother.’
‘Oh, right. She did say something about that at the funeral.’
Kazunari had stepped away when he heard the maid say ‘What’s this?’ behind him. He turned to see her reach into the broken pot and pull something out.
‘Look what I found,’ she said.
Kazunari examined the contents of the woman’s hand. ‘Looks like a piece of glass.’
‘It was near the bottom of the pot. It must have been mixed in with the dirt,’ she said, shaking her head and placing the glass on top of the pieces of broken pot.
‘What’s going on?’ Sasagaki said, coming over to see.
‘Nothing much. There was a piece of glass inside the pot that broke.’ Kazunari pointed to the broken cactus pot.
Sasagaki looked, his eyes falling on the slightly curved piece of glass. It looked like a lens from a pair of sunglasses. It was broken midway across. He picked it up carefully. A moment later he felt his blood stir. Memories came flooding back, tangled in his mind. Gradually, they resolved into a clear picture.
‘You said she brought these cactuses from Osaka?’ he asked in a hushed voice.
‘That’s right. They were at her mother’s home.’
‘In the garden?’
‘That’s right. She had them lined up by the side of the house. Is something wrong?’ Kazunari asked, noticing the old detective’s unusual behaviour.
‘Maybe,’ Sasagaki said, holding the broken lens up to the sky. It had a faint greenish tint to it.
It was nearly eleven at night and they’d been preparing for the opening of R&Y Osaka all day. Natsumi followed along behind Yukiho, making a complete circuit of the shop for a final check. Both in floor space and inventory the shop was considerably larger than its counterparts in Tokyo. They had pushed their PR campaign to its limits and beyond. Now all they had to do was wait.
‘Well, I think we’re ninety-nine per cent of the way there,’ Yukiho said after they had finished.
‘Only ninety-nine?’ Natsumi asked. ‘You mean it’s not perfect?’
‘No, but that will give us something to strive for tomorrow,’ Yukiho said with a smile. ‘Time to rest our weary bones. We should both go light on the drinking tonight.’
‘The celebration’s tomorrow, right.’
‘Absolutely.’
It was already half past eleven when the two of them got into the red Jaguar.
Yukiho sat in the passenger seat, taking a deep breath. ‘All we can do is our best. I, for one, am sure you’ll be great.’
‘I hope so,’ Natsumi said, a little worried. She would be directly in charge of running the Osaka store.
‘Be confident. You’re number one. Got it?’ She gave Natsumi’s shoulder a shake.
‘Got it,’ Natsumi said, looking over at the other woman. ‘But, to be honest, I’m scared. I’m not sure I can do it like you do it, boss. Aren’t you ever frightened?’
Yukiho turned and looked at her directly. ‘Natsumi? You know how the sun rises and sets at a certain time each day? In the same way, all of our lives have a day and night. But it’s not set like it is with the sun. Some people walk forever in the sunlight, and some people have to walk through the darkest night their whole lives. When people talk about being afraid, what they’re afraid of is that their sun will set. That the light they love will fade. That’s why you’re frightened, isn’t it?’
Natsumi thought she understood. She nodded.
‘You know,’ Yukiho continued, ‘I’ve never lived in the sunlight.’
‘Hardly,’ Natsumi said with a laugh. ‘Boss, as far as I’m concerned, you are the sun.’
Yukiho shook her head. There was an earnest look in her eyes that wiped the smile off Natsumi’s face.
‘No, there never was a sun in the sky over me. It’s always night. But not dark. I had something in place of the sun. Maybe not as bright, but enough for me. Enough so I was able to live in the night like it was day. You understand? You can’t be afraid of losing something you never had.’
‘So what did you have in place of the sun?’
/>
‘It’s hard to describe. Maybe you’ll understand someday,’ Yukiho said. Turning her eyes back on the road. ‘Let’s go.’
Natsumi turned the key.
Yukiho was staying at the Sky Osaka Hotel in Yodoyabashi. Natsumi was already renting an apartment in North Tenma.
‘The night’s just getting started down here, isn’t it,’ Yukiho said, looking out of the window.
‘There’s certainly no lack of nightclubs in town, that’s for sure. I used to go out a lot back in the day.’ Natsumi said, and heard Yukiho chuckle in the seat beside her. ‘What?’
‘I heard you slipping back into the local accent,’ she said.
‘Oh, I’m sorry, it’s just —’
‘No, it’s fine. You’re in Osaka; you should talk like a local. I should probably switch back myself when I’m in town.’
‘I think it would suit you, honestly.’
‘Really?’ Yukiho said with a smile.
She let Yukiho off in front of the entrance to the hotel.
‘See you tomorrow, boss.’
‘Sure thing. If anything comes up tonight, don’t hesitate to give me a call.’
‘It won’t, but I will.’
‘Natsumi?’ Yukiho extended her right hand. ‘Let’s do this thing right,’ she said, her voice a perfect Osaka drawl.
Natsumi shook her hand and smiled.
The hands on the clock had just passed midnight and Yaeko Kirihara decided it was time to close up when she heard the squeaking of the old wooden door opening and an older man in a dark grey coat stepped in.
When she saw who it was, the forced smile faded from her face and she gave a little sigh.
‘Well, if it isn’t Mr Sasagaki. Here I was thinking it was the God of Fortune come to give me a very belated blessing.’
‘Don’t say that,’ Sasagaki replied. ‘You know I’m your lucky charm.’
Sasagaki hung his scarf and coat on the wall and sat down at the counter. He was wearing a rumpled brown suit under his coat. He might not be a detective any more, but he still dressed the part.
Yaeko put a glass on the counter in front of him, opened a large bottle of beer and poured. It was all he ever drank at her shop.
Sasagaki took a sip, savouring it, and had a bite of the simple appetiser Yaeko put out for him.
‘How’s business? Getting to be time for those year-end parties, I should think.’
‘Business is just what you see. The bubble burst here years ago. Not that I ever saw any bubble.’
Yaeko took down a glass for herself and poured. She drank down half in one gulp.
‘I see the years haven’t slowed you down at all,’ Sasagaki said, reaching out for the bottle. He filled her glass to the top.
Yaeko nodded thanks. ‘It’s all I got.’
‘How many years have you been running this place again?’
‘Too long,’ she said, counting on her fingers. ‘Fourteen, I guess. Yeah, fourteen years this February.’
‘That’s a nice long run. Sounds like you found your calling after all.’
That made her laugh. ‘Maybe so. The café I ran before this only lasted three.’
‘Not helping with the pawnshop at all?’
‘No. I hated that work. It was never a good fit for me.’
And still she had been married to a pawnbroker for almost thirteen years. That was the biggest mistake in her life, she had decided. She should have kept working at that bar in North Shinchi. She’d probably be the owner by now if she had, and business was always hopping there.
After her husband was killed, Matsuura ran the store for a while. But pretty soon there was a family meeting and the shop was entrusted to Yosuke’s cousin. The Kirihara family had been in the pawnshop business for generations and a few of their relatives ran shops under the same name in different parts of town. Just because Yosuke had died didn’t mean his widow could do whatever she wanted with the store.
Matsuura soon quit. According to her cousin-in-law, he’d taken quite a bit of the shop’s cash with him when he left, but she never heard any hard figures. In all honesty, she couldn’t have cared less. She left the house and the shop to her in-laws and with the money they gave her opened a café in Uehonmachi. She hadn’t known until then that Yosuke had never even owned the land the pawnshop had been built on; they’d been leasing it from his older brother.
Things went fine right after her café opened but about six months later the customers dropped off until they hardly came at all. She was never sure exactly why. She tried offering new menus, and redecorating, but nothing seemed to work. Soon she had to cut staff, which meant the service got slower, which meant even fewer people came.
The café closed without making it even for three years. She always took it as a personal affront that the Space Invaders boom had come along right after she left, sending young kids in droves to neighbourhood cafés.
She had managed to land on her feet, though. One of her friends from her old hostessing days got in touch with her to tell her about a shop in Tennoji that was up for sale. The terms were good and she jumped on it immediately. That was her current bar and she had managed to keep it afloat. When she thought about what she would have done without it, it gave her goosebumps.
‘How about your son? Still no word?’ Sasagaki asked.
Yaeko smiled faintly and shook her head. ‘I gave up on Ryo a long time ago.’
‘How old would he be these days? About thirty?’
‘Something like that. To tell you the truth, I don’t really remember.’
Sasagaki had started showing up every once in a while, from around the fourth year after she started the bar. She knew he had been the lead investigator in her husband’s murder, but he rarely talked about that. He never failed, however, to mention Ryo.
Ryo had lived with her in-laws through middle school. It was a boon to her, busy as she was starting her café, that she didn’t have to take care of a kid at the same time.
Around the time that she started her current bar, Ryo left the Kiriharas and came to live with her. It didn’t mean much, however, she was soon to discover. She was always up late with the customers, after which she would sleep deeply, only waking up some time in the afternoon, after which she’d eat a simple meal, get in the bath, put on her face, and start opening the shop. Not once did she make breakfast for her son, and dinner was usually something from the bar. They barely saw each other for more than an hour a day, if that.
Ryo started spending more and more nights out. When she would ask where he was staying, he only gave vague replies. But she never heard anything from the school or the police, so she didn’t pay it too much mind. She was too tired just getting through each day to worry about him.
On the morning of his high school graduation Ryo got ready for the day just like any other. Yaeko was awake that day, still in her futon. Normally he left without saying a word, but that day he stopped in the doorway and looked around. ‘I’m leaving, Mom.’