“What do I do if they ask if it’s a voice I’ve heard before? Could I answer it’s Makiko Esumi’s voice?” Juri smiled impishly.
“Be my guest. The police would never knock on Esumi’s door even if you did. Well, they can go bother her if they want.”
“So the cool woman’s task is to watch me.”
“She’s your jailer and caterer. Even though you didn’t have an appetite, that woman had you eat, and you couldn’t resist. You were eating with a blindfold on, so nothing really hot. Nothing that would be hard to eat. It was probably sandwiches. We’ll say she untied your hands at least then. However, at those times, she tied up your legs instead. Yeah, let’s go with that.”
“When I eat, my hands are free, my legs are tied together…” It seemed Juri was picturing it in her head.
“Makiko Esumi had one more task. She was your conversation partner. We’ll say she chose topics unrelated to the case and chatted with you. About actors, fashion, sports, that kind of thing.”
“Boyfriends?”
“That’s—” I shook my head. “We’ll say she became less talkative whenever that topic came up. The woman wasn’t acting alone, so the police will probably think that the principal offender was her boyfriend or husband. In which case, they’ll want to know anything she said regarding love. That would be a hassle. A massive creative burden on you.”
“I see.” Juri seemed to be onboard. “Can I ask you something?”
“What is it?”
“When I went to the bathroom, did I have my blindfold on? How would I go about it when I couldn’t see anything? Would Makiko Esumi have assisted me? I kind of don’t like that.”
I nodded with a strained smile. She had a point. It was a part we at least needed to pin something down for. “How about this? Whenever you said you wanted to go to the bathroom, the woman would take your hand and lead you to it. Your blindfold came off only after you got into the bathroom.”
“So then the two of us would go in together?”
“It felt cramped, but what can I say? The kidnappers didn’t want to give you any extra information. Once your blindfold was off, the woman would leave. After that, you had a little leisure time for yourself. You could pee, or whatever, to your heart’s content.”
“What a way to put it. You old perv.”
“Naturally, you observe the bathroom interior. It was like this. The walls were concrete. There was just a small ventilation fan and no windows. The light was an incandescent lamp. They had amassed a reserve of toilet paper and even sanitary napkins. The toilet was Western style. It also came with a spray feature.”
Juri clasped her hands as though in relief. It was probably hard for her to imagine taking care of her business without the spray feature. There would be more and more people like her with every passing year.
“The door was wooden. Originally it was made so that it locked from the inside. You know, the kind with a lateral bolt. However, the mechanism was taken out to keep you from holing up in there.”
“I wonder if I can remember all that.” Juri knit her brows, made fists with both hands, and held her head in between them. “I need a cheat sheet.”
“The police will ask whether you heard anything when you were in the bathroom or when you were going to and from it.”
“I can’t go wrong with saying I heard nothing, right?”
I shook my head. “Once you’re blindfolded, your hearing becomes fairly acute. If you tell them you heard nothing at all, they might get suspicious. It’s better if you heard something.”
Juri snapped her fingers. “Ships.”
“Not bad.” I nodded. This girl really was sharp.
“When we made the first call,” Juri said, “we went to Yokosuka and had them hear the whistling. It was so they’d think the hideout was near a harbor, right? Then now too, wouldn’t it be good to have the same thing?”
“You’re right. But if you say you always heard it, that would be unnatural. The criminals would definitely have been wary of that. You heard it once or twice, but it sounded distant. That’s what you should tell them.”
“Got it. Will that do on the sound front?”
“Just ship whistles and nothing else would be weird. The sound of cars passing by, let’s add that too. Because places where you can’t hear that are rare.”
“Ships and cars.” Juri had on her game face.
“All right, the cool woman isn’t the only person you met. We need at least one more person to come on stage. That’ll be the man.”
“I know. The principal perpetrator who took the ransom.”
“Principal perpetrator? That’s quite a tongue twister. But he’s exactly that. You’ve been forced to work with that perpetrator at least three times. Once was the time you initially called. The police will probably ask you to talk about that in detail.”
“This has become really tiring.” Juri made a dejected face and scratched her head.
“Those guys are desperate. The ransom money was just whisked away, okay? Forgive them for interrogating you.”
“Sure. So, how should I explain it?”
“You say that you were told to call home. At that time, you heard the voice of the lead perp. Like with the cool woman, the police will probably ask what kind of voice he had.”
“Who should I make it this time? How about Masaharu Fukuyama?” Her eyes lit up. She must have been a fan.
“In my mind he’s in his forties, though. Is there a person you can think of?”
Juri moved her pupils around before slapping her knee. “I think the homeroom teacher I had my senior year in high school was around that age. He doesn’t have to be famous, right?”
“Works for me. Well, that covers the first call. The next part is a little difficult. It’s the Hakozaki conversation. That time, there’s no way you didn’t leave the hideout, so the police will probably be persistent.”
“I guess ‘I don’t know anything’ wouldn’t pass muster?”
“But you still had your blindfold on. Additionally, they put headphones on you. Loud music was playing from them. It was obviously an arrangement on the criminals’ part to keep you from hearing extra sounds. They had you get in the car like that and took you somewhere. You don’t need to know too much about the place. You couldn’t see or hear, so who’s to blame you? There, they finally took off your headphones, but the blindfold stayed on. Eventually, the man gave you detailed instructions. Like I did then. You did what the man told you and talked to Katsutoshi Katsuragi on a cellphone.”
“That time, you wrote what I was supposed to say on a note, though. If I were blindfolded, that wouldn’t work.”
“You were parroting the lines. You repeated exactly what the man said to you.”
In any case, the police would probably check on the hotel we had used. There was no place else where you could monitor Hakozaki Junction. Plus, you could get to the guest floors of that hotel from an underground parking lot via an express elevator. Even if you were leading a girl who was wearing a blindfold and headphones, you could get through without anyone wondering about her strange getup.
The police would probably go to inquire at the hotel, but the staff would never figure out who we were. We’d left nothing they could latch on to.
“And lastly, the time we got the ransom money.”
“Once again, I had a blindfold and headphones on when I was put in the car.”
“Right. However, this time, you tell them you stayed inside. You were forced to call on the cellphone like that.”
“Without going anywhere?”
“You felt that the car was constantly moving. Sometimes it stopped, but not for long. The police will interpret that as the criminal group traveling along the expressway while giving instructions for seizing the ransom. They won’t be able to tell from where the group was watching Komagata PA or the whole expressway.”
At that point, I heaved a sigh.
“That’s it for you aiding the culprits.”
br /> “But actually there was one more time. A key part—my role in receiving the ransom.”
“You didn’t go as yourself, did you?”
“I did as you told me. I put on the plainest clothes ever, and you saw how I could change my makeup.”
I nodded, satisfied. “That’s fine then. That wasn’t you. The woman named Matsumoto that Nakamura from Nissei Auto’s Mukojima branch handed the cargo to was simply someone else. Her hair was long, and she had sunglasses on.”
“A woman like this,” Juri put on a wig that was by her side, and dark sunglasses.
“Not even the slightest resemblance to Makiko Esumi,” I said with plenty of sarcasm, taking the items away from her. “We’ve got to dispose of these too. And the burner. What else do we have to dispose of—”
“Probably our history.” Juri looked into my eyes as she said that.
15
Two full days had passed since we’d obtained the ransom money. There was no change in the bills. I timidly tried touching them with my hand, but nothing strange happened. It seemed no trap had been set.
I put my thirty million yen into a grocery bag. “This is my cut. That makes the rest of it all yours.”
Juri laid her eyes on the tabletop and breathed a small sigh. “It’s pretty cumbersome. And it looks heavy.”
“It means we had that big of a match.”
I passed a department store paper bag to her. She started putting the bills into it. Two hundred seventy million yen. It really would be quite heavy.
“What should I do with this money?”
“You can do whatever you want with it. It’s yours. But you shouldn’t use it in a flashy way.”
Juri shook her head. “That’s not what I mean. I can’t just carry this money home. Am I going to keep it in a coin locker or something? And then get it after things have cooled down?”
“Coin lockers are dangerous. If by chance they find the key, then you’re done for. And we don’t know how long it’ll take for things to cool down. Once the storage time has passed, it’ll be opened. Game over.”
“Then what should I do?”
“Do you have a sanctuary somewhere? A convenient place where only you go and only you know of? If you have a place like that you can store it there for a while.”
After thinking for some time, she grinned. “There’s just one place. A good place.”
“Where?” As soon as I asked her, the answer came to me, and I frowned. “You want to say this condo, but we can’t do that. After getting you back safely, we won’t ever get in touch again. We said so from the beginning, remember?”
“But there’s no other good place.”
It seemed she really had set her sights on my room. “Okay. Get ready to go out.”
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll know if you follow me.” I stood up. “Don’t forget the two hundred seventy million yen.”
I left my room and headed to the parking lot. I looked at the clock. It was nine thirty at night.
“Hey, where are we going? You can tell me, can’t you?”
“Yokosuka.”
“Yokosuka…again?”
“You said that you had that friend who went to America, right? Was her name Yuki? We went to erase your message.”
Ah, comprehension finally came over her face. “So we’re going to hide it in Yuki’s room.”
“That’s the safest, isn’t it?”
The answering machine incident had been a headache, but now I was glad that room existed. I’d been worried about the hiding place for the money the entire time.
We got into the MR-S and, like we had that night, drove with the roof up. Juri was preciously hugging the money in the paper bag on her knees. It was her livelihood from here on out.
“Hey, I wonder if the police investigation has started,” she said.
“Of course. It should have when we sent the kidnappers’ fax.”
“Do you think they’ve found a clue?”
“There’s no way they would.” I curled my lips. “If they did, it’s a fake clue. The faint sound of ships in the background, and such.”
There was no worry about them coming at us via the emails or cellphones. The sole witness was Nakamura from the Nissei Mukojima branch, but if Juri was to be believed, the man wouldn’t be able to furnish useful information to the police.
“But there is one clear clue,” Juri said.
“What’s that?”
“The culprit speaks English. With a British accent.”
At that, I jerked the steering wheel. The body of the car swerved widely off the centerline. I immediately righted it.
“Are you good at English?” I asked, feigning calm.
“Not really. I honestly don’t know much about accents. I just thought it kind of sounded British. Am I wrong?”
“Well, maybe.” I felt sweat running down my leg.
She was right. I’d lived near London for a year. You could say that was when I’d become proficient in English. Some people could tell.
I changed expressways, and we arrived at Yokosuka. I saw the restaurant we had stopped at before. I remembered that someone had sprayed my MR-S.
“Could you wait there again?” Juri said.
“No, that place is bad luck, so let’s not do that. I’ll drive up close tonight.”
“Close…”
“Next to Yuki’s condo. Carrying a package that big is difficult, isn’t it?”
“I’m fine. If you wait next to the condo, with this kind of car you’ll stand out.”
“I’m more scared of you standing out. You’re just leaving the package in the room, right? If I’m only parked for a short time, no one will get suspicious. Tell me the way.”
“Oh, uhh, turn right at that corner.”
“Right, is it?” I turned on the blinker and entered the right lane.
However, from that point it was a disaster. Juri’s navigation was unreliable. She made mistakes about which corners to turn on and we got lost. In the end it took over thirty minutes to get to the condo after wandering around. Juri’s excuse was that she’d never gone there by car.
“Even so, that was terrible. Oh well. It’s that condo?” I turned my eyes to the right side of the road. There was a white building that looked at least four stories high, but it seemed like there weren’t many units. It was almost midnight, and about half the rooms still had lights on in the windows.
“Well, I’m going.”
“Be careful.”
From inside the car, I watched Juri’s back as she carried the heavy-looking paper bag. Fortunately, there were few residences in the area. It was late and it seemed we didn’t have to worry about people seeing us.
I gazed at the condo. I hadn’t asked the room number, so I didn’t know which floor Juri intended to go up to. In a four-story building, there might not be an elevator. Carrying that package up the stairs would probably be hard.
I stayed like that for about five minutes, then thought, That’s weird. There wasn’t a new light turning on in any window. Yuki’s room would probably be dark, so Juri should have turned on the light immediately.
Maybe I just couldn’t see it from this side?
About five more minutes later, Juri came out. She crossed the street at a jog and approached my car.
“Sorry for making you wait,” she apologized, getting into the passenger seat. It seemed she was a little out of breath.
“Did you hide it okay?” I said, starting the car.
“Yeah, perfectly.”
“Wouldn’t Yuki’s parents or someone go in?”
“That’s okay. She said that would never happen. Even if someone did go in, I hid it where they wouldn’t be able to find it easily.”
“Is Yuki’s room that big?”
“It isn’t, but it’s pretty disorganized with furniture everywhere.”
“And the floor plan?”
“Huh?”
“The floor plan of Yuki’s room. Is
it a studio?”
“Ah, uhh, it is. What about it?”
“No, I was wondering what kind of rooms young people live in around here.”
If it was a studio, then if the light were turned on, it would be visible from outside, I thought.
After we had driven for a while, Juri said, “Hey, do you want to try going there?”
“There?” I stepped on the brake.
“That place. You remember, right? We went there the last time we came.”
“Ah…” Of course I hadn’t forgotten it or anything. “Why there?”
“Because, tonight is the last night. I have to go home and we won’t meet again.”
I was silent. It was as she said. I was thinking about escorting her somewhere tonight and contacting Katsutoshi Katsuragi. With that the game would be over.
“So, I thought we might go to that place with those memories.” She said it in a somewhat offhand tone. It might have been out of embarrassment.
I took my foot off the brake pedal. Yokosuka was a decoy location for us, so it was better not to hang around for too long. But I thought maybe a short while was okay. Just as she said, this was our last night together.
I stopped the car on the hill at the tip of Miura Peninsula half an hour later. Like that other night, I let down the hood completely and took in the grassy scent. Next to me, Juri was taking a deep breath too.
Unfortunately, it seemed that there were clouds spread across the sky. Tonight we couldn’t see the stars.
“It was a short time, but it was so much fun,” Juri said looking at my face.
“It was a thrilling game.”
“I think every day after tomorrow will feel really boring.”
“It won’t be. I’ll keep saying it, but you still have a job left to do.”
“That’s nothing. Compared to what I’ve been up to.”
“That’s promising.” I laughed.
“Mr. Sakuma.” Her eyes emitted a sincere light. “Thanks for everything.”
“That’s hardly necessary. I got fun out of this, too. It’s been a pleasure playing a do-or-die match for the first time in a while.”