She looked puzzled. “That’s strange. Do you think the old man is lying?”
“It certainly looks that way.” Kaga turned toward Akifumi and went on: “According to Mr. Terada, he left here at about five thirty and got back at around seven on that day. In other words, his walk lasted roughly an hour and a half.”
“Oh!” Akifumi’s jaw dropped in astonishment. He had been there when the boss told Kaga about his walk and hadn’t thought twice about it. When you did the math, though, Genichi’s account made no sense.
“Yesterday, I did the identical walk with you. Even the slowest walker could do it in less than an hour. Obviously everyone has their own pace, but an extra thirty minutes? That’s too much to overlook.”
“You think the boss took a different route from the one we took?”
“That’s the logical interpretation. I think he may be making a detour somewhere along the way — and that he bumped into Ms. Mitsui there. He’s claiming that they met in Hamacho Park to keep that other place secret. That’s my guess.”
“Where can he be going?” Shimako looked questioningly at Akifumi.
“No idea.” Akifumi cocked his head.
“I’ve actually found out where your husband has been going. I can also hazard a guess as to why he doesn’t want anyone else to know. One thing I want to be crystal clear about: this has absolutely no connection to the murder. If I’m right, the best thing will be to let sleeping dogs lie. For my part, I have to confirm the facts so that I can report them to my superiors. That’s the reason I’ve been dropping in here so often. I thought about confronting your husband directly, but given the sort of person he is, I was pretty sure that he wouldn’t tell the truth. Pressuring him by ambushing him during one of his walks would be taking things too far. Secret hopes can be a source of great happiness. I don’t want to do anything to wreck that.”
Akifumi and Shimako exchanged looks. What was this verbose speech supposed to mean?
“Stop beating around the bush and just tell us where my husband’s been going!”
“Let me ask you a question first. It’s about your daughter. She’s married and living in Ryogoku?”
“Has something happened to her?” Shimako’s face clouded with anxiety.
Akifumi stared at Kaga in bewilderment. Why had the detective brought up Kanae?
“In a way, yes. Your daughter’s pregnant.”
Akifumi gasped — and his surprise was only deepened by Shimako’s reaction.
“How do you know?”
Kaga grinned merrily. “So I’m right.”
“Is it true?” Akifumi asked Shimako.
“Yes, but don’t tell the old man.”
“Are you still in touch with Kanae?” asked Akifumi.
“I see her from time to time. I was never against those two getting married in the first place. Hideyuki has a job — for now he’s only a contract worker, but it’s with a good company. Everything’s on track for him, except that pigheaded father of hers—” Shimako clapped a hand to her mouth, suddenly remembering that Kaga was there. “I’m sorry, Detective. I shouldn’t be washing the family’s dirty laundry in front of you.”
Kaga waved a deprecating hand. “Not to worry. You saw your daughter yesterday. The two of you went shopping together. Am I right?”
Shimako’s eyes widened.
“How did you know?”
“After bumping into you here, I went and made a few inquiries in the baby goods section of the department store you’d been to. A store clerk confirmed that two women who matched the description of you and your daughter had been in earlier. That’s how I know Kanae’s pregnant.”
“Did I tell you I’d been with my daughter?”
“You didn’t, no. It was just something that came to me when I saw you in the taxi.”
“The taxi—?”
“Yes, you were in the right-hand passenger seat in the back. Normally when people take taxis by themselves, they sit on the left, because that’s the side you get in. It’s the side with the automatic door. The fact that you were sitting on the right suggested that someone else had been sitting on the left. Someone you dropped off, before returning home. I’d already heard from Akifumi about the family’s problem, so it was easy enough to guess who that secret someone was.”
Akifumi looked at Kaga admiringly. That’s one smart detective.
“Okay, so you figured out that I’d been shopping with my daughter. How did get from there to the baby goods department?”
“That was simple. I already had reason to suspect that your daughter was pregnant.”
“What!” Akifumi hollered. “I’d only told you about Kanae a few minutes before. How could you possibly figure out she was pregnant from what I told you?”
“Well, I wasn’t a hundred percent certain. It was more of a hunch.”
Akifumi folded his arms on his chest and groaned.
“I just don’t get this. I mean, I work here, and I had no idea whatsoever that Kanae was pregnant. How did you get this hunch, Detective? Are you clairvoyant?”
“No such luck. Unlikely as it sounds, it was Donkichi who gave me the idea.”
“The dog?”
“About halfway through our walk yesterday evening, Donkichi got confused about which way to go. Do you remember?”
“Now that you mention it, yes.”
“It was at the intersection on Ningyocho Boulevard. When you pulled on the lead, he followed you obediently into Amazake Alley and toward the park. Why did he seem lost and confused for a moment or two before that?”
“You tell me.”
“That set me thinking. What if your husband was in the habit of turning off at that point rather than going straight ahead? Going left would bring you back here. What about if you take a right? Where does that take you?
“Hah!” Shimako cried. “To the Suitengu Shrine!”
“Precisely.” Kaga nodded. “There was an email on the murdered woman’s computer. She said that she’d ‘stroked the puppy on the head’ at the same old plaza and ‘bumped into the clock shop man from Kobunacho.’ When I saw the word ‘plaza,’ I thought she was talking about the park. Then I thought, hang on a minute, what if she’s talking about a shrine or temple? And there is a puppy at the Suitengu Shrine, you know.”
Kaga pulled out his cell phone, rapidly pressed a few buttons, then turned the phone so Shimako and Akifumi could see the screen. Akifumi’s jaw dropped when he saw the picture.
It was a bronze statue of a seated dog with a playful puppy off to one side.
“The statue’s called the Dog of the Beloved Children. You see these symbols around the base? They’re from the Chinese zodiac. Touching your star sign is supposed to bring you luck. Plenty of people pat the puppy’s head for the same reason. So many people touch it, that it’s gone all shiny.”
“I know. I’ve stroked it myself.” Shimako smiled.
“I thought, what if Mineko Mitsui had been stroking the head of a bronze puppy, rather than a real one? Assuming she had, that invites the question: what was your husband doing at the shrine? Since Suitengu is the shrine of conception and safe childbirth, there was only one possible answer.”
“I see. That’s most impressive,” declared Shimako.
She did a sudden double take. “But doesn’t that mean that my husband knows Kanae’s pregnant?”
“Yes, he must. My guess is that he was worried about her — she is his daughter, after all — and that he made some inquiries of his own. He probably discovered she was pregnant that way.”
“He must have made up his mind to forgive them for running off together. Why doesn’t he just say so instead of slipping off to shrines on the q.t.?”
“That’s never going to happen,” Akifumi said.
A rueful smile replaced the frown on Shimako’s face.