Kusanagi decided it was time to order a search of Hasunuma’s apartment and to get him to come to the station for an interview.
Kusanagi chose to conduct the interview himself.
The Hasunuma sitting across from him in the interview room today was considerably thinner than the Hasunuma of nineteen years ago. His cheeks were hollower, his face more wrinkled, and his eyes sunk deeper into their sockets. Only the deadness of his eyes and the blank, inexpressive quality of the face were the same.
Hasunuma didn’t react when Kusanagi introduced himself. He’s probably forgotten all about that low-ranking detective from nineteen years ago, Kusanagi thought.
He felt a degree of relief when Hasunuma volunteered his name and his address when he asked for them. Hasunuma wasn’t going to opt for the silent route right from the get-go.
Kusanagi decided to play his first card. “Is this you?” he asked, placing a printout in front of Hasunuma. It was a photograph showing him withdrawing money from an ATM.
Hasunuma shot him a cold glance. “I don’t know,” he said in a flat voice.
“A sum of money was withdrawn from the bank account of Yoshie Hasunuma on this day. Now, if this person is not you, that would mean that someone has stolen your stepmother’s cash card and managed to find out what her PIN number is. We would have to investigate this as a case of theft and we would, of course, have to ask you, as a member of the victim’s family, to help us with our inquiries. Would you be prepared to help us?”
Hasunuma looked directly at Kusanagi. He noticed how much white was visible under his irises. Hasunuma sniffed loudly, pulled his wallet out of his jacket, and extracted a card from it. A cash card. He placed it on the table.
“May I have a look?”
Hasunuma slowly closed his eyes to indicate yes.
The name YOSHIE HASUNUMA was embossed on the card. It was one of the old-fashioned ATM cards without a built-in fingerprint reader.
“Why are you in possession of this card?” Kusanagi asked, handing it back.
“Oh, I have my reasons.” Hasunuma took the card.
“Those reasons being?”
Hasunuma gave a modest shrug. “It’s private. I’d rather not say.”
“In your interview with Shizuoka Prefectural Police, you stated that you hadn’t been in contact with or seen Yoshie Hasunuma, your stepmother, for many years. When was the last time you saw her?”
“It’s so long ago, I’ve forgotten.”
“A rough date will be fine.”
“I wouldn’t want to say anything vague or imprecise.” Hasunuma pressed his lips together. Kusanagi got the impression he was stifling a laugh.
Now he’s starting to show his true colors. Kusanagi steeled himself.
Kusanagi shifted to a different angle of attack.
“Where were you living three years ago?”
Hasunuma tilted his head to one side. “I can’t remember. I’m always drifting from one place to another.”
“You were renting an apartment in south Kikuno in Kikuno City. There are records of these things.”
“There are?” Hasunuma was completely impassive.
“Why did you move out?”
“I dunno. Can’t remember.”
“You also quit your job. Why? Did you have a reason for that? Something serious?”
“Uhm, no,” said Hasunuma listlessly. “I really don’t remember. I mean, whatever. I’m always changing jobs.”
Whatever the question, apparently his strategy was to play dumb.
“What did you do for dinner in those days? Cook at home? Eat out?”
“Me? Sometimes fixed my own meals, sometimes went out, I guess.”
“Did you ever go to a local eatery called Namiki-ya?”
The shadow of a grin appeared on Hasunuma’s lips.
“Oh, I went to all sorts of places. I can’t remember them all.”
“The daughter of the couple who run the restaurant was called Saori Namiki. She’s the girl whose body was found in your stepmother’s house after it burned down. Does that bring anything to mind?”
Slowly shutting his eyes, Hasunuma started to shake his head robotically from side to side. “No. I have nothing to say.”
Kusanagi glowered at Hasunuma whose face was as blank as a Noh mask. He sat there limp, immobile, and indifferent.
“A little over three years ago, you used one of the company minivans to drive from your apartment to the house of your stepmother, Yoshie Hasunuma, and back, didn’t you? The journey was recorded on the N-System.”
This was a partial bluff on Kusanagi’s part. They hadn’t yet checked the journey to that precise level of detail.
Nothing changed in Hasunuma’s expression. “I don’t recall,” he replied flatly. Something in his manner suggested that he found the whole idea of making such a claim based on N-System data faintly ridiculous.
That’ll do for today, Kusanagi thought to himself.
“I think we’re good. Thank you for coming in.”
Getting languidly to his feet, Hasunuma headed to the door, which the junior detective, who had been taking notes during the interview, was holding open for him. He stopped halfway and looked back at Kusanagi.
“How’s this going to play out, Detective Kusanagi?” He was almost smiling.
“I’m sorry?”
“Mamiya — wasn’t that his name? I bet he’s quite the big shot, too, now, eh?”
The snide remark left Kusanagi speechless.
So Hasunuma did remember. He had known all along that his interviewer was the junior detective who had visited him in his apartment nineteen years ago.
With a final sneer, Hasunuma left the room.
About two weeks after this interview, an important development took place. Among the articles seized during the search of Hasunuma’s apartment were his work overalls from when he worked at the recycling company. Even though the overalls appeared to have been washed, there were faint traces of what looked like blood.
The overalls were immediately sent to the crime lab. Both the blood type and the DNA turned out to be a match for Saori Namiki.
Should they arrest Kanichi Hasunuma? Kusanagi discussed it with Director Mamiya and Commissioner Tatara. The whole situation was strikingly similar to what had happened nineteen years ago. They could prove that Hasunuma had handled and unlawfully disposed of Saori Namiki’s corpse; but proving that he had killed her was a different matter entirely. They had no direct, physical evidence.
After talking it over, the three men concluded that going ahead was a viable option. This time the body had a depressed skull fracture. That was different from nineteen years ago when specifying the cause of death had been impossible to determine. Someone had struck Saori with sufficient force to stave in the cranium; one couldn’t argue that there was no intent to kill.
The moment they arrested Hasunuma, he started behaving exactly as he had nineteen years before. Throughout his time in detention, he remained resolutely silent. Apparently, he did the same thing when questioned by the prosecutor.
Kusanagi and the rest of his team were not surprised. It was what they had anticipated. They had arrested Hasunuma on the assumption that he could still be indicted even if they didn’t manage to get him to confess.
The prosecutor took a different view of the matter. Just before the end of the legal detention period, when they had to charge him or release him, the prosecutor reached his decision: They would defer prosecution until there was more evidence.