Motoyama stood and began giving his own report on news they’d received from Tokyo concerning Hidetoshi Senba. Hozumi was chatting and laughing with Isobe. Most of the other ranking officers weren’t even listening. It was clear that the room had lost interest in Senba and their suspect’s past.
And once the case was closed and a little time had passed—
I’ll go pay Narumi a visit, Nishiguchi thought. The presence of an officer might comfort her. He could be with her the entire time while the trial was going on.
A smile slowly spread across Nishiguchi’s face as the cloud over his thoughts lifted.
FIFTY-SEVEN
Kusanagi waited by the exit at Shinagawa Station for a full five minutes after Yukawa’s train was supposed to arrive before he saw the physicist walking toward the ticket gate. He was wearing a light-colored jacket and carrying a large document case under one arm. Kusanagi raised a hand in greeting, and Yukawa nodded back.
“Looks like you got yourself a tan,” Kusanagi said by way of greeting.
“I had to do more outside work than expected.”
“Glad to hear you’re keeping busy,” Kusanagi said. He had a vague grasp of what Yukawa had been doing out in Hari Cove, but he didn’t need to know the details. Yukawa stopped, looking at the long line of taxis waiting in front of the station.
“Something wrong?” Kusanagi asked.
“No, I was just amazed at how one’s perception of certain things can change in just one short week. For instance, train stations. I never realized how vast the stations in Tokyo are.”
“Got the country-living bug?”
“Hardly. No, in fact I’ve only reaffirmed that I don’t belong out there. I’m much more comfortable in a crowd. And look at all those wonderful taxis. Speaking of which, where’s your car?”
No sooner had Yukawa spoken than a red Pajero pulled up and parked alongside the curb. They ran over and got inside—Kusanagi in the passenger seat, Yukawa in the back.
“Long time no see,” Utsumi said as she pulled away from the curb.
“Kusanagi tells me you’ve been out pounding the pavement on this one—unofficially, no less.”
“Sounds like you’ve been doing your share of unofficial work too, Professor. Just can’t stay out of trouble, can you?”
Yukawa was silent for a moment, considering his reply. “No, I wouldn’t put it quite that way,” he said. “If trouble had been my concern, I had plenty of opportunities to avoid it. Even if you’d asked me point-blank to help you with your investigation, I could’ve always refused.”
“That’s my first question,” Kusanagi said. “Why are you being so helpful?”
“I believe I already told you.”
“Only something vague about a certain person’s life being ‘seriously disrupted.’ So who’s this mystery man … or woman?”
Yukawa made an audible sigh. “I’ll have to tell you at one point or another, but I’m not sure it will mean much when I do. The Kawahatas turning themselves in has made an already complicated situation worse. I might’ve been overly optimistic.”
“Lead me on, why don’t you.”
“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Yukawa apologized. “I will tell you everything. Just not right now.”
“Aren’t you going to have to show your hand today?” Utsumi asked.
Yukawa thought for a while, then said, “I’m not coming with you today to lay any mysteries bare. I’m just looking for confirmation. If I get that, then many things may indeed become clear. But don’t think that this will solve everything. In fact, it’s more likely that we’ll end up a good distance away from anything like a solution.”
“Leaving us unable to prevent a certain person’s life from being seriously disrupted, maybe?”
Yukawa shook his head at Kusanagi and said, “I don’t know.”
For a while after that, the three of them rode in silence. Utsumi took them up on the freeway and exited at the Chofu interchange.
A few moments later, they pulled in to the parking lot at the Shibamoto General Hospital.
Yukawa stopped as they walked into the hospice. He looked around. “It’s so quiet,” he said.
“Yeah, Utsumi has a theory about that,” Kusanagi said. “She says it’s so the patients don’t notice the passing of time.”
Utsumi sighed. “It was more of an idea than a theory,” she added.
“I’d say it was a rather astute observation,” Yukawa said.
They took the elevator to the third floor. The nurse in the pink uniform was standing outside the visitors’ room, just like she had the day before.
“Sorry to bother you again so soon,” Kusanagi apologized. She smiled and asked them to wait as she walked off down the hall.
The director of the hospital had been unenthusiastic about giving Kusanagi permission to bring another visitor to see Senba when he’d called the hospital that morning, and he took some persuading. As they waited for Senba, Kusanagi was full of questions, though he decided it would be better to follow Yukawa’s lead. He was the man on the ground in this case, and he knew Hari Cove. If there was any key to tying together all the disparate threads of this investigation, Hari Cove was where they’d find it.
Kusanagi heard the sound of wheels rolling across the tiled floor and stiffened in his chair. Senba arrived, wrapped like a mummy in beige pajamas. He was facing straight ahead, a look of deep alarm floating in his sunken eyes. Kusanagi assumed it was because he thought they were going to ask him about Tsukahara again. He glanced sideways at Yukawa, curious to see how the physicist would act toward a man in his final days.
Yukawa’s eyes were fixed firmly on the old man. His face betrayed no emotion or surprise. Either he’d seen terminal cancer patients before, or he’d made an accurate assumption about the state Senba would be in.
“Should I introduce myself?” Yukawa asked.
It took a moment before Kusanagi realized the question had been directed at him. He turned to Senba. “Thanks for talking to us yesterday. I brought someone else who wanted to meet with you. This is my friend Yukawa. He’s not a police officer, he’s a scientist. A physicist.”
Yukawa held out his business card, but Senba’s arm didn’t move. The nurse took the card for him and held it up in front of his face.
Senba’s eyes moved across the card. His lips parted, and he made an inquisitive grunt.
“I suppose you’re wondering why a physicist would want to talk to you,” Yukawa said. “As a matter of fact, up until this morning, I was in Hari Cove.” His voice was low, but it echoed in the quiet room.
Senba’s eyelids twitched.
Yukawa opened his document case and pulled out a single file and turned the cover so Senba could see it.
“I’m involved in a project investigating the potential development of undersea resources in Hari Cove. I attended the hearing the other day. You’re aware of the development project? I heard you sent Mr. Tsukahara to the hearing in your stead.”
Senba gave a jerky nod.
“The sea in Hari Cove…” Yukawa began, speaking slowly, “… is beautiful. Enough to make you catch your breath. I saw the crystals on the seafloor. There’s no other word to describe them but miraculous. They are a true miracle, Mr. Senba, and they’ve been well looked after. I shouldn’t be surprised if the sea there today looks exactly as it was the last time you saw it.”
Senba began to sway, almost noticeably. His cheeks tightened and his lips trembled. For a moment, Kusanagi read his expression as fear, but he soon realized he was mistaken. The old man was trying to smile.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen with the development project. Except, even if it does go ahead, it won’t be for some decades. We can expect that technologies to preserve the environment will have advanced significantly by that point. I tell you this as a scientist who is committed to preserving the beauty of the cove and will do anything in my power to keep it unblemished. This is my promise to you.”