‘So the wife and the assistant were a thing?’
‘Seems like it.’ Sasagaki tapped off his ash into the ashtray. ‘Ryo made Fumihiko give him the photograph and promise not to go sniffing around about his father’s murder any more.’
‘They made a deal?’
‘So it seemed, but the more he thought about it, the less Fumihiko thought it was so simple. Which is why he told me about it.’
Sasagaki remembered the teenager’s face, covered with pimples.
‘What wasn’t simple about it?’
‘He started wondering if it hadn’t all been a set-up.’ The cigarette had burned short between Sasagaki’s fingers but he took another drag. ‘See, the reason Fumihiko was a suspect in the first place was they found a keychain that belonged to him at the scene of the crime. But according to him, he had never been there before and the keychain wasn’t one that could have easily fallen off his bag.’
‘So Ryo stole the keychain and left it at the scene?’
‘That’s what Fumihiko thought might have happened. Which would peg Ryo as our middle-school rapist. He could have spotted Fumihiko with his friend at the movie theatre, then gone straight to the scene and done the deed. Then all he had to do was plant the fake evidence.’
‘But did Kirihara know that Fumihiko was going to go to the movies that day?’ Kazunari asked the obvious question.
‘That’s the problem right there,’ Sasagaki said, lifting a finger. ‘Fumihiko says he never told Kirihara about his plans.’
‘Then the set-up would have been impossible.’
‘Agreed, and that’s where Fumihiko’s line of conjecture hit a dead end.’ But I still think he had something to do with it, Fumihiko had told him, a chagrined look on his face.
‘Still, it piqued my interest enough that I checked the records on the rape incident, which is when I found out about Yukiho’s involvement. That sent me back to Fumihiko with a few more questions.’
‘Like what?’
‘Mostly about how he came to go to the movies that day. It turns out the tickets were a gift – Fumihiko’s mother was working at a cake shop at the time and one of her customers gave them to her. But it gets better: the tickets were for Rocky, which Fumihiko had expressed interest in several times, and they were only good for that day. He would have to go to the movies that night, or miss his chance.’
Kazunari shook his head with disbelief. ‘Did you find out who the customer was who gave her the tickets?’
‘I didn’t get a name. But Fumihiko remembered his mom telling him it was a girl, around the same age as him, well-dressed.’
‘Yukiho.’
Sasagaki gave him a grim smile. ‘If we assume that Yukiho and Ryo pinned the rape incident on Fumihiko to keep his mouth shut about Ryo’s mother’s affair, everything falls into place. Though the collateral damage – Miss Fujimura in this case – seems exceedingly cruel.’
‘I agree it’s cruel, but the choice of the Fujimura girl might not have been entirely random.’
Sasagaki raised an eyebrow. ‘How so?’
‘They may have had reason to target her – this is something Mr Imaeda told me.’
The private eye had told Kazunari that the girl who was attacked had been Yukiho’s rival in class, but that following the incident she had become a subservient member of Yukiho’s clique.
‘I hadn’t heard any of that,’ Sasagaki said with a grimace. ‘So they were killing two birds with one stone.’ He looked up at Kazunari. ‘I hate to even suggest this, but there’s a possibility that what happened to your friend in college wasn’t entirely coincidental either.’
‘You think Yukiho planned that one too.’
‘I wouldn’t rule it out.’
‘Neither did Mr Imaeda. But why?’
‘Probably because she believed that rape was the surest way to break someone’s spirit.’
Kazunari shook his head. ‘That’s really something to say about a person, even Yukiho.’
‘I know. But if I’m right, this all leads us back to the motive in the murder of Ryo’s father.’
Kazunari’s eyes widened and he was about to say something when the phone on his desk began to ring. He swore under his breath and stood from his chair to get the phone. He answered the call in a hushed voice and quickly returned to the armchair. ‘Sorry about that.’
‘You OK for time?’
‘Yes, fine. That wasn’t a work call, actually. It was regarding an issue I’ve been looking into,’ Kazunari said, then after a moment’s hesitation, he added, ‘When you came in, you congratulated me on my promotion. Actually, this is more like a demotion.Are you familiar with the pharmaceutical company Yunix?’
‘I’ve heard the name.’
‘Well, something very strange started happening last year. Our company and Yunix are competitors in several areas and it came to light that some internal information from Shinozuka Pharmaceuticals was leaking out to their teams.’
‘How did you find out?’
‘Someone inside Yunix informed us. Of course, the company denied everything.’ A thin smile rose on Kazunari’s face.
‘I suppose these things happen in research,’ the detective said. ‘But how does that relate to you?’
‘According to the informant, I was the one who leaked the information.’
Sasagaki’s eyes widened. ‘That doesn’t sound very likely.’
‘It shouldn’t, because it didn’t happen,’ Kazunari replied, shaking his head. ‘I had no idea what to make of it. Nor was the identity of the informant ever revealed. They only communicated via phone calls and mail. But the information leak was verifiable enough. When the guys in the lab saw the materials the informant sent them, they went blue in the face.’
‘But you didn’t leak that information.’
‘Of course not. Unfortunately, someone has made it look like I did.’
‘Any idea who?’
‘No,’ Kazunari replied immediately.
‘I see. Still, getting demoted over something like that seems a little harsh.’
‘The board members didn’t believe it was me either. But the company had to take some kind of action. And there were some who thought that because the trap was clearly set for me, that was reason enough to move me out of headquarters before more damage was done.’
Sasagaki listened, dumbfounded.
‘That, and one other thing,’ Kazunari said. ‘There’s at least one board member who would prefer to keep me at a distance.’
Sasagaki raised an eyebrow.
‘My cousin, Yasuharu.’
‘Ah…’ Sasagaki said.
‘It was a good chance for him to get the one naysayer to his marriage out of the picture. This assignment was supposed to be temporary – but one wonders how long they intend “temporary” to last.’
‘And you’re looking into this?’
A hard look came over Kazunari’s face. ‘I need to find out how the information leaked.’
‘Have you found anything yet?’
‘A little,’ Kazunari replied. ‘Whoever did it accessed our computers. We have a pretty advanced system, with both the network connecting computers internally and an external network allowing us to share data with other research facilities outside the company. That’s how the hacker got into our system.’
This was already straining Sasagaki’s understanding of computers but he listened attentively.
Kazunari smiled, noticing the look on the detective’s face. ‘It’s really not that complicated. Basically, the hacker used a phone line to get on to one of our internal computers. So far, I’ve determined the access came through computers at the Imperial University Hospital. In other words, the hacker first accessed the pharmacy system at Imperial University, then went from there into our system. But it’s been very difficult trying to figure out where he accessed the Imperial University system from.’