“Why are you being so impatient? There’s no need for haste. The ace of spades is in our hands. We’ll choose the right time and obtain the money in a secure way.”
Juri shook her head vigorously. Her shortly cropped hair went wild. “You might be having fun thinking of this as a game, but put yourself in my shoes, too. I don’t want this tension anymore. I want to be able to relax.”
Shouting those words, Juri rushed into the bedroom. Her reaction felt sudden to me. I understood her feelings, but I didn’t see why a wave of emotion had surged forth now.
When I went into the bedroom, Juri was lying prone on the bed. I sat down next to her and stroked her recently dyed hair. She’d been so bold in showing me her ’do, so what was with this change?
Juri’s hand came around to my back. I silently lay down on my side. Then my body covered hers.
“Hug me tight,” she murmured. “The only time we can be together is now.”
—
Indulging in sex was ridiculous. I understood that, but how had I come to think fondly of this girl who was using my armpit as a pillow?
The only time we can be together is now—that was true. After we successfully completed this game, we would never meet again. We couldn’t do something so dangerous. That had been my intention since the beginning.
But it bugged me now. Frankly speaking, I was starting to want to extend my time with her. It wasn’t just that. I was thinking of ways not to part with her even after scoring the ransom.
What’s gotten into you, Shunsuke Sakuma? You weren’t that kind of man.
The next morning when I woke up, Juri wasn’t next to me. Instead, the smell of coffee wafted through the air.
When I peeked from the bedroom doorway, Juri was going back and forth between the dining table and kitchen. There were already several dishes resting on top of the table.
I took the digital camera resting on the cabinet, and from the door’s gap, aimed it at her. It was right when she was carrying a tray. I pressed the shutter, making sure the flash wouldn’t go off. She didn’t notice. When I checked on the camera display, it was somewhat dim, but she was captured beautifully. I opened the cover right there and took out the memory card.
“Are you up?”
Juri approached, apparently having heard me sneaking around. I quickly returned the camera to the cabinet. The card remained gripped in my hand.
The door opened and Juri came in. I was standing right next to the door, so she looked surprised.
“What, were you up?”
“I just woke up. It looks like you prepared breakfast for me.”
“Because I’m a freeloader. I need to give back a little. And we’d get tired with just cream stew.”
When Juri turned her back to me, I seized the chance and slipped the card into the inner pocket of a jacket hung up nearby.
Ham, eggs, vegetable soup, toast, and coffee made up the menu. It wasn’t what you’d call cooking, but considering the contents of the refrigerator, she couldn’t have done any better.
“It’s like I’m a married man,” I tried and mumbled the words after taking a bite of toast.
“Why aren’t you married?”
“Well. Me, I want to know why people do get married. I can’t possibly swear to spend my entire life with someone I’m bound to get tired of.”
“But that person, at least, will stay by your side. No matter how ugly of an old man you become, you won’t be alone.”
“In exchange, no matter how ugly of an old woman she becomes, I have to stay by her side. And sooner or later, you’re alone. Whether you’re married or not, it’s the same.”
“But wouldn’t you have your kids? Even if your spouse passes away, your family would still be there.”
“Is that right? Look at me,” I pointed at my chest with my fork. “I have parents. But I’m living alone like this. I haven’t called them in years. Is a son like that family to his parents? It’s as good as not having me.”
“Even if you’re not home, they know you’re somewhere. Maybe your parents are satisfied with just that. Maybe they enjoy just imagining the kind of life you’re leading.”
I snorted and brought the coffee to my mouth. She looked at me as if to say, What’s so funny about that?
“I didn’t think you’d be telling me about the importance of family.”
Juri cast down her eyes. I’d poked her where it hurt.
I crushed the egg yolk and mixed it with the ham, then put it in my mouth.
“Why don’t you talk to your parents?” she asked, still facing down.
“I have no business with them—that’d be the most accurate way to put it. They’re just a nuisance to me. Sometimes I get a boring call about clerical stuff and once that bit is over, we have nothing left to discuss.”
“Where’s your family home?”
“It’s in Yokohama. Around Motomachi.”
“That’s a nice area.”
“Girls always say that. Walking around there on your boyfriend’s arm and being born and raised there are different things.”
“Do they have some kind of store?”
“My father was an ordinary white-collar worker. Nothing to do with the Motomachi shopping street at all.”
“Is your father still working?”
I shook my head. “Actually, he died. When I was in elementary school.”
“Oh…I see.”
“My parents got divorced. I was taken in by my father. But he died of illness so I was returned to my mother. At the time she was back at her family’s house, so I lived with them.”
That household ran a furniture store. It was a pretty famous store locally. My grandfather and grandmother were in good health and living with their oldest son’s family. So my mother and I had joined them. My mom helped with the shop and also handled the housework. I never felt unwanted there at the house my mother had been raised in. It wasn’t just my grandparents who were affectionate toward me, but also the eldest son and his wife. They had a daughter and son, and neither treated me like a freeloader.
“But I noticed eventually. It was a manufactured peace.”
“What do you mean?”
“In the end, my mom and I were just a nuisance for them. Of course we were. A divorced woman with a child living with them indefinitely, family or not, was a nuisance. In particular, I wasn’t related by blood to my aunt, so no wonder she was annoyed. She didn’t show it clearly on the surface, but you sense that sort of thing. When I really watched her, though, I saw that we weren’t the only ones she was two-faced with. My aunt was a rock-solid person who was also a gifted businesswoman. The one managing that store wasn’t really my uncle but my aunt. The employees trusted her more, too. That made her confident. She didn’t just stay behind the scenes and bossed around her husband and father-in-law. I don’t think my grandparents found it amusing. They were trying to find a way to reinstate their wobbly son. But this uncle of mine was really worthless. If he came across a bothersome situation, he hid behind his wife. It must have been frustrating for my grandparents, but they’d retired. If their daughter-in-law was maintaining the store, even if they hated it, they had to be civil. Thanks to all that, various vibes swirled in that big family.”
In concluding my lengthy response, I added, “Boring stuff.”
“It’s not boring. So then what did you do? I think it must have been hard being considerate among those kinds of adults.”
“It wasn’t hard. I was bewildered, but once you figure out how everything works, it’s easy. The point is that I sensed there were rules. As long as I followed those rules, it wasn’t difficult at all.”
“Rules?”
“Everyone wore a mask to accommodate the situation. You couldn’t do anything that would remove our masks. Reacting strongly to someone else’s actions was pointless. After all, it was just a mask. So I decided to put on a mask, too.”
“What kind of mask?”
“In a nutshell, the most appropriat
e mask for the situation. As a kid, it meant fulfilling adult expectations. Although that didn’t simply mean being a good boy. When I was little, I wore the mask of a mischievous child; after some time, I wore the mask of a rebellious teen. After that, the mask of adolescence. The mask of a young man pondering his future. In any case, it had to be a mask that was familiar to adults.”
“Unbelievable…”
“It was no big deal. And wearing a mask is just easier a lot of the time. No matter what anyone says, the other person is talking to a mask. I can just stick my tongue out under it, and in the meantime, I can think of what kind of mask to wear next to make them happy. Human relationships are cumbersome things. But by adopting this method, it becomes nothing.”
“You’ve been doing that ever since?”
“I’ve been doing that ever since.”
Juri put her fork down and hid both her hands under the table. “It seems kind of lonely.”
“Does it? I don’t think so. To begin with, everyone wears a mask to some degree in going about their lives. Hasn’t that been true for you, too?”
“I wonder…”
“It’s an unlivable world otherwise. If you expose your true face, you don’t know when it’ll get pummeled. This world is a game. It’s a game where, depending on the situation, you put on the relevant mask.”
“The mask of youth, huh.”
“What did you say?” I pulled back my fingers from my coffee cup. “What did you just say?”
“Nothing.”
“No, I know I heard it. The mask of youth…Why do you know the name of that game? It hasn’t come out yet.”
I glared at her. After averting her gaze for a moment, she looked up fearfully. The pink of her tongue peeked out between her lips.
“I’m sorry. I looked.”
“At what?”
“At the stuff lying around. The stuff on your computer.”
I sighed and put my fingers around my cup. I sipped some coffee. “Did I not tell you not to touch my stuff?”
“That’s why I’m apologizing. But you have to understand. I wanted to know more about you. What kind of person you are. And how you were born and raised.”
“Everything to know about me, I just told you. I wasn’t really happy, and I wasn’t especially miserable.”
“Your mom right now?”
“She remarried when I was in high school. He’s a company man who deals with construction materials. He’s a quiet person, and he was kind to me—” I shook my head and corrected myself. “He wore the mask of a kind man, is what I should say. And he’s probably continuing to wear it now.
“That’s all there is to say about me,” I concluded. Juri didn’t ask anything more. I regretted drawing out my reminiscences.
After breakfast, I returned to the CPT Owners Club on the internet. There was a new post there.
24 hours (Julie)
Good morning. Even though I prepared the money, suddenly the agreement got postponed. Boo. I’m kind of pissed off, so I’ve decided to put a 24-hour time limit on it. If they don’t contact me by then, I just might to have to go to you-know-whom!
Sorry for bitching so early in the day.
12
Juri’s hair when she got out of the bathroom was a dark maroon. It seemed a little brighter than her original color, but it was better than the earlier blond.
“That looks better on you,” I said. “Blond hair doesn’t suit Japanese people.”
“Adults all say that.”
“Aren’t you an adult?”
“I mean older men.”
“When I see Japanese people with flat faces and blond hair, I’m embarrassed for them. It’s like they’re showing off a Western complex.” Seeing she was becoming angry, I added, “I’m talking about young people in general. I wasn’t saying your face is flat. Of course, it’s not carved as deeply as a Caucasian’s.”
Maybe thanks to the last unnecessary bit, she brusquely sat down on the sofa looking no less peeved. “So did you think of a good method?”
“I’m thinking.”
“You’re still thinking? We only have twenty-four hours now.” She looked at the clock and shook her head. “Since that post was written at six in the morning, if we have until tomorrow at six that’s seventeen hours.”
“There’s no need to dwell on that.”
“But if he isn’t contacted by then, he says he’ll go to the police…”
I raised one hand to stop her from talking and then picked up the stereo remote. When I started the CD, it was midway through The Phantom of the Opera. I loved the musical and had seen it several times. It was the story of a sad man who covered his hideous figure with a mask to become something more than human.
It isn’t just him who’s wearing a mask—that was my impression every time.
I just might have to go to you-know-whom. What did that mean? Did it mean he would contact the police? Ridiculous—as in, he hadn’t contacted them yet? If he thought a threat like that would work, then he wasn’t taking the kidnappers seriously.
And yet I couldn’t be entirely sure. According to my own Hakozaki Junction operation, the police weren’t involved.
Maybe Katsutoshi Katsuragi really hadn’t gone to the police yet.
I shook my head. There was no way. It was a trap. They were giving us the illusion that the police weren’t on the case just so we’d act recklessly.
“You should have gotten it yesterday while he was doing that,” Juri said.
“Doing what?”
“Driving in circles in Hakozaki. You saw that he didn’t have a police tail. So we could have just had him leave his car there. Once Papa left, we could have moved the money from the car or even driven away in it.”
“How stupid. The police would have followed us immediately.”
“Where were they? There weren’t any.”
“It’s not that there weren’t any. They had to have been watching the Mercedes from somewhere.”
I thought they might have been standing by at various interchanges on the Metropolitan Expressway. I also needed to assume that they’d listened in on our exchanges with Katsutoshi Katsuragi.
“Say we told them to bring the ransom to a designated place,” I said. “We could tell the person who’d brought the cash to leave immediately. But if we nonchalantly went to get the ransom, we’d get caught no matter what. Do you know why?”
“Because the police are watching.”
“Right. The detectives would have their eyes peeled waiting for the culprit to appear. They say that’s the best moment to nab a kidnapper. Then I’ll ask this: how do the police know about the place?”
“That’s obvious. It’s because the hostage’s parents or someone tells them.”
“Exactly. In other words, not telling them the exchange location until the last minute is only prudent. But if you don’t tell them anything, the person who’s transporting the cash doesn’t know where to go. It’s a difficult tradeoff.”
“So you indicate the general location. Then, once they get close, you tell them the exact spot.”
“You say it like it’s easy, but that usually doesn’t go well. You should assume that the police’s network will react quickly. It’s not even a matter of minutes. You have to carry the thing out in seconds.”
“And you’re thinking how.”
“Well, yeah. It’s taking shape, though. I’m glad I took my studies seriously.”
“Your studies?”
“You’ll see.”
I booted the computer and, after massaging my fingers, wrote the following text:
Dear Katsutoshi Katsuragi,
Due to an unexpected development yesterday, we were forced to suspend plans. The unexpected development was the involvement of the police. While we observed, we felt their presence. While it is unclear whether or not we were right, if you did contact the authorities, and if some sort of investigation has been opened, that is extremely regrettable. We would need to drop this dea
l immediately. Juri Katsuragi would never be able to return to you.
We will warn you once more. Do not have the police intervene. If in the next transaction, we feel they have, we will withdraw without hesitation. We will not contact you. And there will be no exchange after that.
In other words, for both of us, this is the last chance. Now we will give you several instructions. We do not want to meet further unexpected difficulties.
• Fit the three hundred million yen ransom into as small of a bag as possible. We would think a suitcase would be reasonable. You do not need to lock it with a key, but wrap the bills in a black plastic bag so that the contents are not distinguishable by just opening the top. You may by no means deposit a transmitter. If there is evidence of one, we will consider that a breach of our agreement. We have prepared a means of checking for a transmitter.
• Prepare a notepad, writing utensils, and cellophane tape.
• The transporter this time is your wife. The transport vehicle will be your wife’s BMW. Like with the ransom, you may not have a transmitter on your wife or the car. If we detect any, the deal will be off.
• Prepare a cellphone for your wife. Provide the number on the usual website.
Our next contact will come within twenty-four hours. Be on standby.
After reading it four times over, I used an account made with a fictitious name and sent it. Now, there really was no turning back.
“Do you have a way of checking for a transmitter?” Juri asked.
“There are several methods. A metal detector would work, or even a radio wave detector.”
“But then, you can’t use those until you have the ransom in hand.”
I smirked. “True.”
“Then why give out those instructions? Isn’t it pointless?”
“It’ll be somewhat of a deterrence. You could call it a threat. They have no idea what methods we’ll resort to, so they have to heed our warning.”
“Are you sure they will?” Juri tilted her head.
“I think the ransom itself will probably not have a transmitter. Even if the exchange is successful, it could anger the culprit, which they don’t want. If they do plant a transmitter, it’ll be on the transporter or the car.”