‘A novel?’ Sasagaki said, looking over the computer and the desk. ‘You don’t have any photographs of him, do you?’
‘No, I’m sorry. I don’t.’
‘Even a small one is fine. All I have to see is his face.’
‘No, I really don’t have a single photo. I never took one.’
It was the truth. Noriko had wanted to take a photo together several times but Akiyoshi always refused – another reason she had nothing left to remember him by.
Sasagaki nodded, but seemed clearly suspicious. Noriko swallowed.
‘Would you have anything he wrote by hand? A memo, or journal?’
‘I don’t think so. If he had anything like that, he didn’t leave it.’
‘I see,’ Sasagaki said, taking another look around the room. Then he smiled at Noriko. ‘Right. Sorry to bother you.’
‘I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.’
As Sasagaki was putting his shoes on, Noriko stood, torn by indecision. The detective knew something about Akiyoshi and she wanted to know what it was. But if she told him who it really was in that photo he’d shown her, she worried she might be signing Akiyoshi’s ticket to prison herself. Even if she never saw him again, she didn’t want that for him.
Sasagaki finished putting on his shoes and looked up at her. ‘Thank you for your time,’ he said.
‘Not at all,’ Noriko said, her throat a little choked.
Just then Sasagaki’s eyes looked back out at the room behind her, fixing on something. ‘What’s that?’ He was pointing at a small shelf beside the refrigerator. ‘Is that a photo album there?’ he asked.
‘Oh, that?’ She looked back at the small plastic album sitting on the shelf. It was a cheap thing they had given her at the camera shop, free with her developed pictures.
‘There’s nothing in there,’ she said. ‘It’s from when I went to Osaka last year.’
‘Osaka?’ Sasagaki said, his expression perking up. ‘You mind if I take a look?’
‘Oh, go right ahead, but there aren’t any pictures of people,’ she added, handing him the album.
All of the photos were ones Noriko had taken by herself on her trip to Osaka: strange buildings and houses, nothing interesting. She’d felt mischievous taking them and had never shown them to anyone, not even Akiyoshi.
The photos got a clear reaction from Sasagaki. His eyes went wide and his mouth hung halfway open.
‘Is there something there?’ Noriko asked, half afraid there might have been a photo of Akiyoshi in there that she’d somehow missed.
Sasagaki didn’t answer right away but continued looking at the photos. Then he turned the album towards her, opened to a certain page.
‘Why did you take a picture of this pawnshop?’
‘Oh, I don’t know. No particular reason.’
‘And this building here. Any reason you thought to take a picture of that?’
‘Why do you ask?’ she asked, her voice trembling.
Sasagaki reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the photograph from before, the one of Akiyoshi. ‘Let me tell you something. The sign on your photo here reads “Kirihara Pawnshop”, right? Well, that’s this man’s real name: Ryo Kirihara.’
Mika’s toes and fingertips felt as cold as ice, and they weren’t getting any warmer, no matter how long she stayed in bed. Mika buried her head under the pillows and curled up like a cat. Her teeth were chattering; her whole body was trembling.
She closed her eyes and tried to sleep. But as soon as she began slipping away there he was, the man without a face, attacking her. Her eyes shot open in fright. A cold sweat drenched her body and her heart beat so fast she was afraid it would burst.
She wondered how many hours she’d been lying here. She wondered if she would ever sleep again. She didn’t want to believe that what had happened that day was real. She wanted it to be a normal day like the day before, or the day before that. But it wasn’t a dream. And the pain in her lower abdomen was proof of that.
Leave everything to me. You don’t have to think about anything, Mika. She could still hear Yukiho’s voice ringing in her ear.
Mika couldn’t remember where Yukiho had appeared from. She didn’t even remember what she had told her. She probably hadn’t said anything. But somehow Yukiho had understood and known exactly what to do. She had Mika dressed in moments and then they were riding in the BMW. Yukiho was making a phone call while she drove but Mika couldn’t understand what she was saying, either because she was speaking too fast or Mika’s brain was moving too slowly. The only thing she remembered was Yukiho repeatedly demanding that this ‘be kept an absolute secret’.
Yukiho took her inside the hospital, not through the front door, but in through the back. Mika didn’t think to wonder why at the time. Mika didn’t think about much of anything.
She wasn’t sure afterwards if they had examined her, or done anything to her. She just lay on her side, her eyes tightly closed.
An hour later they were driving home.
‘The doctor says you’re fine. You don’t have to worry about anything,’ Yukiho said gently as she drove. Mika couldn’t remember how she had replied, or even if she had replied at all.
Yukiho never mentioned telling the police. She didn’t even ask Mika for any details. The details weren’t important to her, it seemed. Mika was grateful for that. She didn’t feel as if she could talk about it and she was terrified that other people might find out.
At home, she saw her father’s car in the car park and her heart stopped. What would she tell him?
‘Tell your father you felt like you were coming down with a cold so I took you to the doctor,’ Yukiho told her, as though lying to her father was no big deal. Maybe, given the previous events of the day, it really wasn’t. ‘I’ll have Taeko bring you your dinner in bed.’
That was when Mika realised that what had happened could be – no, would be – their secret. A secret she’d share with the woman she hated most in the entire world.
Yukiho’s performance in front of her father was brilliant. No sooner did she mention the hospital trip than she defused Yasuharu’s worried look by telling him, ‘Don’t worry, we got some medicine.’ He didn’t seem suspicious about Mika’s unusual gloom either. On the contrary, he seemed almost pleased that she had relented enough to permit her arch-enemy take care of her.
That night, Mika stayed in her room. Taeko brought her dinner as promised and Mika feigned sleep while she laid the food out on the side table. After Taeko left, she tried a little bit of the soup and the casserole, but it only nauseated her. After that, she just lay in bed, curled into a ball.
As the night grew deeper, her fear grew worse. All the lights in the room were out. She was scared to be in the darkness, but she was more scared for her body to be revealed by the light. She felt like someone was watching her. She wanted to live under a little rock, like a minnow in the sea.
She wondered what time it was and how much pain she would have to endure until the sun rose. She wondered if every night would be like this, and the anxiety pressed down on her like a weight. She bit her thumb.
Just then, she heard the click of the doorknob turn.
Mika froze, looking out at the door from under her covers. Through the darkness she saw it swing slowly open. Someone was coming into the room. She saw the hem of a silvery gown drift across the floor.
‘Who is it?’ Mika asked in a hushed, hoarse voice.
‘I thought you might be up,’ Yukiho replied.
Mika turned away. She didn’t know how to act towards this person, the only other person who knew her secret.
She heard Yukiho step closer. Mika glanced at her out of the corner of her eye. She was standing by the foot of her bed.
‘Get out,’ Mika said. ‘Leave me alone.’