‘The kitchen where the coffee was poisoned, for starters. And a picture of the cutlery and kettle in evidence.’
Utsumi’s eyes widened. ‘You’re going to help?’
Yukawa frowned and gave his head a scratch. ‘I might think about it a bit, in my spare time. I’m curious to know how someone in Hokkaido was able to poison someone in Tokyo, a thousand kilometres away.’
Utsumi grinned despite herself. Reaching into her shoulder bag, she produced a folder. ‘Here.’
‘What’s this?’
‘The photos you asked for. I took these this morning.’
Yukawa opened the file and pulled back a little.
‘If we figure out how she did it,’ he said with a grin, ‘we can serve Detective Kusanagi a lethal dose of humble pie.’
TEN
When Kusanagi called Hiromi Wakayama, she was in Ayane Mashiba’s patchwork classroom. He jumped in the car with Kishitani behind the wheel and they headed for the school. The place was a white apartment building with tiled walls, nestled in amidst a row of trendy stores. There was no lock on the building’s main door, unusual for that area. They took the elevator up to the third floor, where a sign on room 305 read ‘Anne’s House’.
Kusanagi pressed the doorbell and, almost immediately, the door opened. Hiromi looked out, a worried expression on her face.
‘Sorry to barge in like this,’ Kusanagi said, stepping inside. He squared his shoulders. ‘Actually …’ The words died on his lips. Ayane Mashiba was behind Hiromi, seated in the centre of the room.
‘Did you find anything out?’ Ayane got up and came towards the detectives.
‘I’m sorry, Mrs Mashiba, I didn’t know you were here, too.’
‘Hiromi was helping me make some decisions about what to do now. Did you need her for something? I’m sure she’s told you everything she knows.’
Her voice was low and calm, but it held a definite tone of irritation directed towards Kusanagi. Her eyes fell on him, and the sorrow in them made him shrink back.
‘Actually, there’s been a slight development in the case,’ Kusanagi said, turning towards Hiromi. ‘I’d like you to come with us back to the station.’
Hiromi’s eyes opened wide and she blinked several times.
‘What’s all this about?’ Ayane asked. ‘Why does she have to go with you?’
‘I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to talk about that right now. Ms Wakayama, if you wouldn’t mind? Don’t worry, we’re not here in a marked police vehicle,’ he added.
Hiromi glanced worriedly towards Ayane, then nodded to the detective. ‘Fine. But I don’t have to stay there? I mean, I’ll be free to go home?’
‘As soon as we’re finished.’
‘I’ll get ready.’
Hiromi disappeared into the back for a moment, then reappeared wearing a jacket and carrying her bag. While she was gone Kusanagi found himself unable to look at Ayane. He could feel her eyes on him, glaring.
Hiromi stepped out into the hallway, following Kishitani. Kusanagi had turned to join them when Ayane grabbed him by the arm. ‘Wait.’ Her grip was surprisingly strong. ‘Hiromi’s not a suspect, right?’
Kusanagi hesitated. Kishitani was waiting with Hiromi just outside the door.
‘You go on ahead,’ he said, closing the door before turning to face Ayane.
‘I … I’m sorry,’ she said, letting go of his arm. ‘But there is no way that she could have done this. If you’re suspecting her for whatever reason, you’re making a horrible mistake.’
‘I’m afraid it’s our job to look into every possibility, no matter how slight.’
Ayane firmly shook her head. ‘The possibility that she did it is zero, do you understand? She couldn’t have killed my husband. I’m sure you understand that.’
‘Why couldn’t she?’
‘You know, don’t you? About their relationship?’
Kusanagi gaped. ‘So you knew?’
‘Yes. I spoke with Hiromi about it the other day – that is, I figured it out and confronted her, and she admitted to it.’
Ayane began to describe their exchange at the hotel. Kusanagi was astonished by what she was telling him, but not as amazed as he was to have found the two of them here, today, working in the same room. He assumed the fact that her husband was dead had something to do with it; yet he found himself utterly baffled by a woman who would maintain a working relationship with someone who had betrayed her the way her apprentice had.
‘I went home to Sapporo because I couldn’t bear to stay in the same house with him. I’m sorry I lied.’ Ayane lowered her head. ‘But you have to understand that she had absolutely no reason to kill my husband. You can’t suspect her of this.’
Kusanagi blinked. What kind of person went to such lengths to protect the woman who stole her husband? ‘I understand what you’re telling me,’ he said. ‘But we can’t make decisions based on how we feel about the suspect. We need objectively verifiable physical evidence.’
‘Physical evidence? So you have evidence proving Hiromi poisoned my husband?’ Ayane’s eyes flashed with a hard light.
Kusanagi sighed. He debated with himself under the weight of her stare. At last he decided that revealing the latest evidence wouldn’t cause any further complications in the investigation. ‘We found out how the poison got into the coffee,’ he said, and told her about the traces found in the kettle in the kitchen. ‘And no one is known to have been in the house on Sunday, other than Hiromi herself.’
‘Poison, in the kettle? How does that incriminate her?’
‘It’s not conclusive,’ the detective explained, ‘but as long as there exists a possibility that Ms Wakayama did put the poison into the coffee, she will remain a suspect.’
‘But …’ Ayane said, then faltered, at a loss for words.
‘Sorry, but I need to get going.’ Kusanagi gave a curt bow and left the room.
As soon as they got Hiromi back to the station, Mamiya brought her into an interrogation room to begin questioning. Though normally this would have been done at the local precinct headquarters, Mamiya had chosen the Metropolitan Police Department instead – a sure sign he believed she would confess and turn herself in. Once she’d confessed, they would write up a warrant for her arrest, and only then take her to the Meguro station. It was a setup to give the press the photo op they wanted: a criminal being led off to justice.
Kusanagi was waiting at his desk for the results when Utsumi returned. The first thing she said when he looked up was that Hiromi Wakayama was not the criminal.
When Kusanagi heard her evidence, he frowned. Not because it was another ridiculous theory – in fact, it was exactly the opposite. It made complete sense. If Hiromi Wakayama had put the poison into the coffee, the junior detective explained, she wouldn’t have left the kettle on the stove after discovering the body.
‘So then who put the poison in the kettle?’ Kusanagi asked. ‘And don’t tell me it was Ayane Mashiba, because we’ve already established that that’s impossible.’
‘I don’t know who it was. I can only guess that somebody must have gone into the Mashiba residence after Hiromi Wakayama left on Sunday morning.’
Kusanagi shook his head. ‘There’s no indication that anyone else went in there. It was just Yoshitaka Mashiba. Alone.’
‘We can’t say that for sure. We just haven’t found out who it was yet. In any case, there’s no point questioning Ms Wakayama any further. Not only is there no point, it might be a violation of her rights,’ Utsumi said with unusual force-fulness.
Kusanagi was at a loss. He was contemplating the situation when his mobile phone rang. Feeling saved by the bell, he relaxed as he looked down at the phone display, only to tense up again immediately. It was Ayane.
‘Sorry to bother you when you’re busy. But there is something I have to tell you.’
‘Yes?’ Kusanagi gripped his phone tightly.
‘Finding poison in the kettle doesn’t necessarily mean that somebody actually put poison in the kettle.’
Kusanagi was flustered again. ‘Why’s that?’
‘Well, perhaps I should’ve mentioned this earlier, but my husband was extremely health conscious, and never drank water straight from the tap. Even when cooking, I always used water from a filter. He only ever drank bottled water, and he asked me to use it when I made coffee, too. I’m sure he used water from a bottle on Sunday.’
‘So you think the poison could have been in the bottled water?’
At the desk next to him, he saw one of Utsumi’s eyebrows go up.
‘I just thought that it might be a possibility. It just doesn’t make sense for Hiromi to have done it. And if the poison was in the bottled water, somebody else could’ve done it. Anyone.’
‘Well, that’s true, but …’
‘For instance,’ Ayane went on, ‘it could even have been me.’