‘Did they say they were married?’
‘Well …’ The waitress frowned, thinking. ‘Maybe I just assumed they were. They certainly looked like a married couple. They were very close … they often came in after going shopping.’
‘Do you remember anything else about the woman? Any little detail would be helpful.’
A worried look came into the girl’s eyes. ‘Well, this might’ve just been another assumption of mine, but …’ she began slowly. ‘I think she was a painter.’
‘A painter … Like an artist?’
She nodded, looking up at him. ‘She brought a sketchbook with her one time … or something like that, anyhow. It was in a case about this size.’ She spread her hands about sixty centimetres apart. ‘It was square and flat.’
‘But you never saw inside it?’
‘No, I didn’t,’ she replied, looking down.
Kusanagi recalled that Hiromi Wakayama had told him one of Yoshitaka’s exes was involved in publishing. If she was a painter, maybe she published books of her artwork. But that didn’t fit with what Hiromi had said about Yoshitaka not wanting to give his opinion of her books. Looking over a collection of drawings or paintings couldn’t have been that onerous a task.
‘Anything else you noticed?’ Kusanagi asked.
The waitress shook her head, then shot him a curious look. ‘Were they not married?’
‘I don’t think so, but why?’
‘Well, I don’t remember all the details,’ she said, putting a hand to her forehead, ‘but I have the feeling they talked about kids – not their own kids, but about wanting to have kids. At least, I think that was them. Or, I don’t know … I might be getting them mixed up with another couple.’
Bingo. She wasn’t confused. The couple had definitely been Yoshitaka Mashiba and his girlfriend of the time. A lead, finally. Kusanagi let himself get a little excited.
He thanked the waitress and let her go, reaching out for his cup of chai. It had gone cold, but the blend of spice and sweet milk was sublime.
He drank half the cup, considering how he might track down Mashiba’s painter. Then his mobile phone rang. He checked the display and saw with some surprise that it was Yukawa. He kept his voice low as he answered, not wanting to bother any of the other customers. ‘Kusanagi speaking.’
‘It’s me. You good to talk?’
‘Yeah. I’ll have to keep my voice down, but how could I refuse a rare call from you? What’s up?’
‘Got something I wanted to talk to you about. Any time today?’
‘I can make time, if it’s that important. What’s this about?’
‘I’ll save the details for when we meet, but suffice to say, it’s about your current case.’
Kusanagi sighed. ‘You and Utsumi got some secret plan brewing again?’
‘If it were a secret, would I be calling you? So do you want to meet or not?’
Arrogant bastard, Kusanagi thought with a dry chuckle. ‘Fine. Where do you want me?’
‘I’ll leave that to you. Just somewhere smoke-free, if you don’t mind,’ Yukawa said, his tone suggesting that it was irrelevant whether Kusanagi minded or not.
They met in a coffee shop near Shinagawa station, close to the hotel where Ayane was staying. Kusanagi planned to wrap up the talk with Yukawa quickly so he could go and ask her about the painter ex.
He found Yukawa already there, sitting at the back of the no smoking section, reading a magazine. Despite the fact that winter was around the corner, the physicist was wearing a short-sleeved shirt. A black leather jacket rested on the chair next to him.
Kusanagi walked over to his table and stood beside it. Yukawa didn’t look up.
‘What are you reading so intently?’ the detective asked, pulling out a chair.
Yukawa tapped his magazine with his finger. ‘It’s an article about dinosaurs. They’re talking about using CAT scan technology to analyze fossils.’
‘A science magazine, then,’ Kusanagi said, secretly disappointed that he hadn’t managed to catch Yukawa unawares. ‘So what’s so great about CAT scanning dinosaur bones?’
‘Not bones. Fossils,’ Yukawa said, finally looking up. He adjusted his glasses with one finger.
‘What’s the difference? Aren’t all dinosaur fossils bones?’
Yukawa’s eyes narrowed with mirth. ‘That’s what I like about you. You never defy expectations. You always say exactly what I think you’re going to say.’
‘Your point being that I’m an idiot.’
A waiter approached, and the detective ordered a tomato juice.
‘An unusual choice,’ Yukawa said. ‘Watching your health?’
‘So what if I don’t feel like tea or coffee right now? Cut to the chase. What’s this all about?’
‘I would’ve been happy to talk about fossils a bit more, but fine.’ Yukawa lifted his coffee cup. ‘Did you hear what Forensics had to say about my poisoning idea?’
‘I did. Doing anything with gelatin would’ve left traces, meaning the possibility such a trick was used in this case is zero. I guess even the great Galileo makes mistakes sometimes.’
‘It’s not very scientific to say things like “absolutely” and “zero possibility”. It’s also rather unorthodox to say someone made a mistake when they’ve only presented a hypothesis that proved to be incorrect. But I’ll forgive you on the grounds that you’re not a scientist.’
‘If you want to be a sore loser, you could at least be a little more straightforward about it.’
‘I don’t see how I’ve lost anything. Disproving a hypo -thesis is progress. It narrows our options by closing off a possible path of entry for the poison into the coffee.’
Kusanagi’s tomato juice arrived, complete with straw. He left the straw on the table and gulped it down. The sharp taste of the juice stung his tongue after all that tea.
‘But there’s only one path of entry,’ Kusanagi said. ‘Some -one put the poison in the kettle. Either Hiromi Waka yama, or if it wasn’t she, someone else Yoshitaka Mashiba invited in on Sunday.’
‘So you deny the possibility that the poison was mixed in with the water?’
Kusanagi’s mouth curled upward at the corners. ‘I make it a policy to believe what Forensics and the labs tell me. They found no poison in any of the bottles. That means it wasn’t in the water.’
‘Utsumi thinks the bottles might’ve been washed out.’
‘Yeah, I heard about that. She thinks the victim washed the bottle out himself. Problem is, people don’t wash out bottles of water. I’d be willing to put money on that.’
‘But you have to agree there’s a possibility he did?’
Kusanagi snorted. ‘Not a bet I’d like to make. But if that’s the way you like to play, by all means. I’m more of a sure-thing kind of guy myself.’
‘I’ll admit your current path of investigation is more of a sure thing. But remember, there are always exceptions. In science, it’s important to cover everything.’ Yukawa shot the detective a serious look. ‘I have a request.’
‘Yeah?’
‘I’d like to see the Mashiba house again. Think you can get me inside? I know you have a key.’
Kusanagi raised an eyebrow at the eccentric physicist. ‘What are you going to look at? Didn’t Utsumi show you everything the other day?’
‘Yes, but my viewpoint’s changed since then.’
‘How’s that?’
‘Call it a shift in my thinking. Maybe I did make a mistake, after all. I’d like to know for sure.’
Kusanagi tapped a finger on the table. ‘You mind being more specific?’
‘I’ll tell you once we’re there, if I find that I did, indeed, make an error. It’s better for both of us that way.’
Kusanagi leaned back in his chair and sighed deeply. ‘What are you up to, Yukawa? This is some deal you’ve made with Utsumi, isn’t it?’