She was sitting on one of the chairs in the restaurant playing with her phone, when the door slid open. The first customer of the day was someone she had seen only the day before.
“Good evening,” said Manabu Yukawa, as he stepped inside.
“Good evening. Yesterday was fun.”
Natsumi went to the back of the restaurant and returned with a rolled-up cool towel on a little tray. “What would you like to drink?”
“Beer. Then the usual.”
“Coming right up.”
She relayed the order to the kitchen, extracted a bottle of beer from the refrigerator, and took it to his table, together with a glass and the appetizer. Today’s appetizer was boiled and half-dried bonito simmered in soy sauce.
“Thank you.” Yukawa poured beer into his glass. “I got a visit from a detective today. To grill me about my movements yesterday.”
“A detective went to see you? I wonder why.”
“He asked me when we were together — from what time until what time — and then when we were apart. He didn’t say why he was asking. My impression was that he was less interested in my movements than in verifying your statement.”
“Oh... really?”
“I knew you had nothing to hide, so I just told him the facts. He pressed me to be as precise as possible about times. I explained that my memory was a bit hazy and he should take my answers with a pinch of salt. If I did get anything wrong, there may be some small discrepancies in our statements. I just wanted to say sorry in advance.”
“I should apologize to you for the police bothering you like that.”
“No need, you’re the ones who have suffered. Of course, taking a purely objective view, the police have every reason to be suspicious of you and your family.”
“That’s true, but I think we’ll be okay. My mom and dad have both got perfect alibis.”
“They took a customer who wasn’t feeling well to the hospital, I heard?”
“That’s right.”
“Do they know the woman’s identity? I imagine the police will want to speak to her.”
“I’m not sure.”
Natsumi hadn’t thought about that.
“Natsumi,” came Yutaro’s voice from the kitchen. The takiawase Yukawa had ordered was ready.
As she was picking up the dish from the kitchen, Natsumi asked her father if he knew who the woman customer was.
“No, not really. All I know is that her family name is Yamada,” replied Yutaro, busily cooking something.
Natsumi brought the dish of takiawase to Yukawa and told him the woman’s name.
“Yesterday was a Sunday, so there can’t have been all that many patients in the emergency room. If the police know her name, it will be easy enough to get the rest of her details from the hospital. They may not even need to go that far. The nurses can testify that your parents were at the hospital, can’t they?”
“Yes, they can.” Natsumi found Yukawa’s cool and reasonable tone comforting.
For a while, no more customers came in, not even customers who were usually there, day in, day out. Was this because of Hasunuma’s death? Natsumi wondered. Perhaps the locals had decided that the Namikis had something to do with it. Natsumi remembered her phone conversation with Tomoya Takagaki the night before. He certainly seemed to think that. At that moment, who should appear but Tomoya himself.
“Evening,” Natsumi said.
Tomoya looked around the restaurant. He was obviously unsure where to sit.
“Why not this one?” Yukawa motioned to the seat opposite his. “Fancy sharing?”
“May I?”
“Of course. You’re very welcome.”
“I’ll take you up on that.” Tomoya sat down in the seat Yukawa had indicated.
It was a novel sight. Since both men were regulars, Natsumi had often seen them exchange the odd word now and again, but she’d never seen them sitting at the same table.
“Did you a get a visit from a detective?” Yukawa asked, pouring beer into Tomoya’s glass.
“How did you know?”
“It’s not hard to guess. You’re like the Namiki family. From the police point of view, your position is a sensitive one.” Putting the beer bottle down on the table, Yukawa picked up his own glass. “You’re on their list of suspects.”
“The detective who came to see me in my office today is the same one who came to see me after Saori’s body was found,” said Tomoya. “She asked me for my alibi.”
“A woman detective, eh? Does your alibi hold up?”
“It ought to. I was with a couple of friends from work during and after the parade.”
“Then you’ve got nothing to worry about,” Yukawa said. “What else did she ask you?”
“She asked me if I’d heard of something called the Prosecutorial Review Commission.”
“The Prosecutorial... Oh, of course.” Yukawa’s eyes blinked behind his glasses as if he’d just realized something.
“What is it — the Prosecutorial Review Commission?” Natsumi asked the two men.
Yukawa looked up at her.
“It’s a panel that reviews and rules on the rightness of a prosecutor’s decision when he decides not to indict a suspect. If anyone disagrees with the prosecutor’s decision, there can be an appeal. The people on the commission are ordinary members of the public. They’ve got to be over twenty and they are chosen by lot.”
“You’re very well informed, Professor,” Tomoya said.
“One of my friends was selected,” said Yukawa offhandedly.
“Well, I’d never heard of it. To be honest, today I finally understood the difference between deferment of dispensation and simply dropping charges... I don’t quite know why she was asking me questions about that, though.”
“Probably because the police believe that no one familiar with the workings of the Prosecutorial Review Commission would murder Hasunuma at this stage of the legal process. Even if the prosecutor did formally decide not to indict, there would still be the opportunity to lodge an appeal against the decision. There was no need for anyone to do anything as extreme as to take revenge into their own hands.”
“I see. Well, I didn’t know about the commission, so I could still be a suspect.” Tomoya sighed and picked up his beer glass. “The detective asked me another odd question. Had I tried to find out where Hasunuma lived before he moved back to Kikuno? I told her no, I hadn’t. It never even occurred to me to do so.”
“The police must be working on the assumption that whoever killed Hasunuma started plotting their revenge as soon as the prosecutor released him. Finding out where he lived would have been part of that.”
“You think that’s why she asked me? If I were the killer — I’m just speaking hypothetically here — I would hardly give her an honest answer.” Tomoya stuck out his lips in a pout. “I don’t know why she even bothered asking.”
“Because she thought she’d be able to tell if you were lying.” Something in Yukawa’s tone suggested that he knew the detective.
“Maybe you’re right. She’s quite an attractive woman, but she’s got eyes like razors.” Tomoya grimaced and took a swig of beer.
Customers started floating in in dribs and drabs. None of them were the usual familiar faces.
After finishing his dinner, Tomoya left. The professor, who said he was going to stay, insisted on paying for his drinks. It was unusual for Yukawa to hang out in the restaurant for such a long time.
Niikura and Tojima came in together not long after. They had each decided to go to the restaurant and had just bumped into each other on their way there, they explained. They both sat down at Yukawa’s table, where Tomoya had been.