“Where did they send you today?” Nishiguchi asked.
“East Hari. I spent the whole day walking around with Shizuoka Prefecture detectives, showing them around.”
“Up at that summer colony? Marine Hills, was it?”
“We went there too, but we spent most of our time doing questioning at a different development, where Senba’s wife’s family lived—the place is a parking lot now.”
“Senba’s wife was from East Hari?”
“Apparently so,” Hashigami said, setting down his chopsticks and pulling his notebook from the jacket he’d draped over the chair next to him. “According to the files we got from Tokyo, Senba was originally from Toyohashi City, down in Aichi. He came up to Tokyo when he got a job, and married a girl from the same company when he was thirty.”
Hashigami opened his notebook and showed Nishiguchi a page that read, “Etsuko, maiden name: Hino.”
“Wait, so his wife already had her family house in East Hari, but they bought a summer home there too?”
“Not quite. By the time they got married, her old house had already been taken down. She only lived in East Hari through high school. After that they moved to Yokohama. Right after she got married, they lived in Tokyo. When Senba turned thirty-five, he quit his job and started his own company doing electrical repairs. They were living in Meguro Ward at the time. Business went well, and at the age of forty-six, he bought the summer place in Marine Hills. I guess his wife always dreamed of living in a place where she could see the same ocean she looked out on as a child, so he bought it for her—that’s what he told the detectives after his arrest.” Hashigami put down his notebook and picked up his chopsticks.
“Huh. He doesn’t sound like such a bad guy, except for the murdering part,” Nishiguchi commented between bites.
“Well, things took a turn for the worse, obviously. He might’ve been flush enough with cash at one point to buy a summer home, but with a small business, one misstep can ruin everything. Turns out they’d gone out on a limb on a new project, and it became an albatross around their neck. Pretty soon they were drowning in debt and had to file for bankruptcy. He got to keep the house in Meguro and the summer home down here, but then his wife got sick. Cancer.”
Nishiguchi frowned. “You weren’t kidding about that turn for the worse.”
“Some guys just run out of luck,” Hashigami said, picking at his stew. “They sold the place in Meguro to pay the medical bills, and moved to East Hari. So his wife’s dream came true, though not quite in the way they’d hoped, and it didn’t last long. She died right after they moved down here, and then it was just him.”
“Not the easiest place to live by yourself,” Nishiguchi said, remembering the abandoned summer home.
“No, it’s not,” Hashigami agreed. “He stuck it out for a while, though. Until things got bad. So he headed back up to Tokyo and started doing work for other electricians. That’s right around when he got arrested.”
Nishiguchi nodded. “I read the file.”
“I guess he was broke, and lonely, and things just kind of fell apart. Not that it makes what he did any better, but I feel some sympathy for the guy.”
Nishiguchi’s chopsticks stopped in midair. “You think Tsukahara sympathized with Senba, too?”
Hashigami mulled it over for a moment, then said, “Why not? He was the arresting detective, so he was probably the one who wrote that report about Senba buying the place in Marine Hills. He might have thrown that detail in there to make things go a little easier for the guy in court.”
“Hmm. You suppose it’s possible Senba didn’t bear Tsukahara much of a grudge?”
“Could be,” Hashigami agreed. “There were still a few people left that knew his wife’s family in East Hari, and they told us that after Senba and his wife moved to Marine Hills, they came over to pay her old neighbors a visit every now and then. They all seem to think Senba was the nicest guy you could know. More than a few of them wondered why he did it, if there wasn’t some bigger reason for the murder. Come to think of it, I could see how that curiosity might’ve brought Tsukahara back to visit.”
“So Hidetoshi Senba and the current case are…?”
Hashigami shook his head. “Entirely unrelated. The prefectural guys lost interest pretty quick, too. Guess we were barking up the wrong tree.”
TWENTY-SIX
A game show was on TV, with celebrities trying to complete various hazardous challenges to the laughter of a studio audience. Kyohei wasn’t particularly interested in it, but he sat with his arms resting on his knees and pretended to enjoy the show. Aunt Setsuko arrived with a tray of cut pears, which she placed on the low table beside him. “Dig in,” she said.
“Thanks,” Kyohei said, ignoring the tiny fork she placed next to the plate and grabbing one of the slices of pear with his fingers.
He’d eaten dinner with his aunt and uncle and had stayed on in their small apartment inside the inn afterward. Uncle Shigehiro was sitting nearby, reading a book and drinking tea. Narumi had eaten with them but left as soon as dinner was done.
“What did you get up to today, Kyohei?” his uncle asked. “I didn’t see you outside of your room much.”
“Summer homework, mostly. And I played some video games after.”
“Homework? Good boy.”
“Well, I only just started. But the professor helps me out when I don’t get anything.”
“The professor?”
“He means Mr. Yukawa,” Setsuko said as she stood and went off to the kitchen.
“Oh, right. I wonder how long the professor’s planning on staying,” Shigehiro said.
“He told me he couldn’t go until he was done with his research, but he couldn’t get anywhere with it because the DESMEC people were a bunch of idiots.”
“That so? Well, I suppose he is a professor at Imperial University, so at least we don’t have to worry about him running out of money.” Shigehiro ran a hand through his thinning hair before looking at Kyohei. “Did he say anything about what happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, is he upset about that guy dying, or was he wondering about how he might’ve died, or anything like that?”
“Not to me. He did say it was hard to relax with the police coming and going all the time.”
“Yeah,” Shigehiro said and gave a long sigh. “Bad luck for you too, huh. This is supposed to be your time in the sun, and I haven’t even had the chance to take you swimming yet. Sorry about that.”
“I don’t mind. The ocean will always be there next time.”
“Yeah,” Shigehiro said again, when the cordless telephone began to ring. He moved to get it, but it stopped ringing almost immediately. Setsuko must’ve picked it up at the front desk.
Kyohei looked at the time. It was almost nine. The game show was finished. Kyohei held the remote control in his hand and wondered what kind of an excuse he could come up with for staying a little bit longer. Uncle Shigehiro would go take his bath anytime now; he only had to hold out until then.
He flipped through the channels until he found a show starring a popular actress he’d heard about. He’d never seen the show before, but he immediately put down the remote and settled in as though he’d been waiting for it to start.
“You like these shows?” his uncle asked after a few minutes.
“I guess,” Kyohei said without taking his eyes off the TV. He hoped his uncle wasn’t a fan.
The cordless phone began to ring again, except with a different ring tone than before.
“Who could that be?” Shigehiro wondered, not moving to pick up the phone.
The sound of hurrying footsteps came down the hallway and Aunt Setsuko came in.
“It’s your father, Kyohei,” she said, picking up the phone. “Hello? Are you still there? I’ll hand you over to him.” She held the phone out to Kyohei.