Noriko returned to the kitchen and started to put away her shopping: veggies in the fridge, frozen stuff in the freezer, everything else on the shelf. Before she closed the refrigerator door, she pulled out a can of beer.
Making her way to the living room, she turned on the television and switched on the electric heater. She picked up a throw rug that lay in a ball in the corner and draped it over her legs while she waited for the room to warm up. There was a game show on TV pitting various comedians against each other. The one with the worst score would be forced to bungee-jump off a bridge. It wasn’t the kind of show she would have been caught dead watching before but now she found she liked them because they were so ridiculous. She already had enough to think about, sitting alone in her cold, empty apartment.
She pulled back the tab on the beer and drank, feeling the coolness flow from her throat to her belly. It gave her goosebumps and she shivered. It felt good. She kept a supply of beer in the fridge in the winter. He liked to drink beer most when it was cold. He said it kept him sharp. Noriko hugged her knees to her chest. I should eat dinner, she thought. Nothing special. She could just warm up the stuff she’d bought at the convenience store. But even that seemed like far too much trouble. Inertia was working against her. She didn’t even feel hungry.
She turned up the volume. Too much quiet made the room feel colder. She edged a little closer to the heater.
I know what my problem is. I’m lonely.
She had loved being alone before, taking a break from the pressure of human contact. She’d even breathed a sigh of relief when she cancelled her contract with the matchmaking service. But now that she knew what it felt like to be with someone she loved she couldn’t go back. It just wasn’t the same. She took another swig of her beer and tried not to think about him, but when she closed her eyes, there he was, sitting at his computer.
Her beer was finished. She crushed the empty can between her hands and put it on the table next to two others just like it – one from yesterday, and one from the day before. She’d recently given up trying to keep the house clean.
I’ll microwave something, she thought, it’s the least I can do. She was just standing up when the doorbell rang.
She opened the door to see an older man standing outside in a rumpled coat. He had broad shoulders and a sharp look in his eyes. Noriko immediately guessed his line of work and a bad feeling began to form in the pit of her stomach.
‘Noriko Kurihara?’ the man asked. He had an Osaka accent.
‘Yes?’
‘The name’s Sasagaki.’ He held out a business card, blank except for a phone number and his name. ‘I was a detective with Osaka police until last spring.’
Noriko nodded, unsurprised.
‘I was hoping I could ask you some questions, if you don’t mind?’
‘Right now?’
‘If you don’t mind. Maybe at the café down the street?’
Noriko frowned. She didn’t feel like going out, but she didn’t relish the idea of inviting a stranger in, either. ‘Can I ask what this is about?’ she asked.
‘A few things, including your visit to the Imaeda Detective Agency.’
Noriko gasped.
‘So you did go to Mr Imaeda’s office in Shinjuku? That’s the first thing I wanted to check on,’ the former detective said with a pleasant smile.
Her unease began to spread, but it came with a glimmer of hope. Maybe this man would know where Akiyoshi had gone. She hesitated for a few more seconds before opening the door wider. ‘Why don’t you just come in?’
‘You’re sure?’
‘It’s fine. Pardon the mess.’
The detective stepped in. He had an old man smell to him.
Noriko had gone to the Imaeda Detective Agency in September, roughly two weeks after Akiyoshi suddenly vanished from her life. There hadn’t been an accident, she knew that. He’d left his set of keys in an envelope in the mailbox. He’d also left most of his things behind, not that there was much to begin with.
The largest of his possessions was the computer, but Noriko had no idea how to use it. After debating with herself for some time, she finally invited over a journalist friend who was good with computers and had her check to see if there was anything on it. She found nothing. According to her, the hard drive had been wiped completely clean and all the floppy disks were blank.
Noriko racked her brains, trying to think of some way she could find out where Akiyoshi might have gone. The only thing she could remember was the empty file she had found in his duffel bag that night, the one with the name of the Imaeda Detective Agency on it. She looked in the phone book and found it right away. Noriko paid a visit to Shinjuku the following day.
Except the agency had been a dead end. The young woman there had told her there was no record of anyone named Akiyoshi, either as a client or a case. Which made the former detective finding her through the agency very curious indeed.
Sasagaki seemed a little surprised to hear that she had gone to check after a man who had been living with her and suddenly disappeared.
‘It’s odd that he’d have an empty file from the agency like that,’ Sasagaki said when she finished explaining. ‘And you have no idea where he might have gone? Did you contact his friends and family?’
She shook her head. ‘I couldn’t. I don’t know any of them. I don’t really know anything about him.’
‘Interesting,’ Sasagaki said, looking a little taken aback.
‘Um, can I ask what you’re investigating, Mr Sasagaki?’
He hesitated for a moment then said, ‘This may come as a surprise to you, but Mr Imaeda has also gone missing.’
‘What?’
‘Yes. It’s a bit of a long story. I’ve been trying to find out where he went, and haven’t had any luck. Which is why I’m here, grasping at straws as it were.’
‘I see. When did Mr Imaeda go missing?’
‘Last summer, August.’
Noriko thought back and almost gasped out loud. That was right around the time that Akiyoshi had gone out for a night, taking the cyanide with him – the same night he’d come back with the empty file from the Imaeda Detective Agency.
‘Something wrong?’ the former detective asked, his eyes squinting.
‘No, it’s nothing.’ Noriko shook her head.
‘Incidentally,’ Sasagaki said, pulling out a photograph, ‘have you ever seen this man?’
Noriko took the photograph and nearly shouted out loud. He looked younger than when she had met him, but it was Yuichi Akiyoshi, without a doubt.
‘Well?’ Sasagaki asked.
Noriko tried hard to keep her heart from beating out of her chest. Her mind was racing. Should she tell the truth? Why would a former detective be walking around with his picture? Was Akiyoshi a suspect in some crime? Had he killed Imaeda? No…
‘I’m sorry, I don’t know him,’ she said, returning the photo. Her fingertips were trembling and she could feel that her cheeks were red.
Sasagaki stared at her face for a long moment, looking through her. Noriko turned her head away.
‘I see. That’s unfortunate,’ Sasagaki said softly, putting away the photograph. ‘I suppose I should leave.’ He stood. ‘Actually,’ he said after a moment, ‘I wonder if you could show me anything that belonged to Mr Akiyoshi, anything that might help me find him?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Something he left behind, if you don’t mind?’
‘No, not at all.’
Noriko showed Sasagaki into the back room where Akiyoshi’s computer was still sitting.
‘This was his computer?’
‘Yes. He was using it to write a novel.’