“What about the inside?”
“What about it? The treasure part is just a shelf, like a false bottom. There’s nothing under it.”
Kusanagi grabbed the handle part of the trolley with both hands and gave it a shove. It moved much more easily than he had expected. When he pushed down gently on the handle, the front wheels of the trolley rose off the ground.
Kusanagi exchanged a look with Utsumi. She gave a discreet nod, as if to say, Just as Professor Yukawa predicted.
“Is there anything else?” Maya Miyazawa asked.
“We’ll get back to you. So this treasure chest here is complete?”
“Yes.”
“And it was used in the parade just like this?”
“Yes...”
Kusanagi detected a suggestion of wariness on Maya Miyazawa’s face.
“Detective Utsumi, show Ms. Miyazawa that video.”
“Yes, sir,” said Utsumi, thumbing her phone again.
“This video was taken by one of the spectators on the day of the parade,” said Utsumi, showing the screen of her phone to Miyazawa Maya. “There are people dressed in pirate costumes dashing around and pushing the treasure chests.”
“So what?”
“They’re performing little stunts. Sometimes they stand on the backs of the trolleys, but the front wheels don’t lift off the ground. We consulted an expert and he said that would only be possible if the treasure chests were weighted down in some way.”
Maya Miyazawa nodded and moistened her lips with her tongue. “Oh, is that what this is about?”
“Did you do something to make the chests heavier?” Kusanagi asked.
“Yes, we added ballast. Sorry. I forgot to mention that.”
Did she really forget? Kusanagi wasn’t inclined to believe her. “Tell us about this ballast then.”
“When the chest is like this, its balance is hopeless. The lid is open, right? That gives the chest a very high center of gravity. Unless you’re very careful, the whole thing will just topple over. We put ballast in the bottom of the chest to add stability. We actually killed two birds with one stone that way. You need to be a good actor to make it look like you’re pushing something heavy when you’re actually pushing something that doesn’t weigh much. That’s too much for amateurs.”
“Our expert reckons that the overall weight, chest included, would have to be around ninety pounds,” Utsumi said.
“That’s probably about what we had.”
“What did you use for ballast?”
“Bottles of tea and water. We stuck a couple of cardboard boxes — each of them holding six two-liter plastic bottles — into each of the chests. When we’d finished marching in the parade, we gave the drinks away.”
Kusanagi did some quick mental arithmetic. That would be fifty-three pounds per chest.
“How did you get the boxes in and out?”
“That’s not especially difficult. In fact, it’s easy.” Maya Miyazawa undid a couple of metal clips at either end of the chest. The front and both side panels swung down and open, exposing the interior. A couple of straps were bolted to the bottom of the empty chest. “You stick the boxes in here, fix them in place with these straps, and then put the sides back up.”
It certainly was very simple. You could probably do it in less than three minutes.
“When did you put the ballast in the chests?”
“When we assembled them. On the morning of the parade.”
“Where did you do it?”
“At a sports ground near the starting point of the parade. It was the designated place for the teams to prepare.”
“Your team was the last team in the parade. Were the treasure chests in the sports ground the whole time you were waiting?”
“Yes. Does that matter?”
“There are more and more teams taking part in the parade every year. Isn’t there a risk of mix-ups with so many people milling around in one place?”
“To an extent, yes,” conceded Maya Miyazawa. “That’s why we get there early. We want to be sure we’ve got more than enough time to make our preparations.”
“With the place being so crowded, would you notice if someone tampered with your props?”
Maya Miyazawa’s face clouded over. “Tampered? What do you mean?”
“It might, for example, be possible for someone to surreptitiously replace the ballast in the chest with something else.”
Maya Miyazawa looked puzzled. “Why on earth would anyone want to do a thing like that? Still, I suppose that, yes, someone could probably do it, if they wanted to.”
“What did you do with the chests when you got to the end of the parade?”
“We stored them in the yard of the nearby elementary school. Just temporarily.”
“Temporarily meaning how long?”
“Until the results were announced. If you make the top three, you get to do an encore. Sadly, we finished fourth.”
“How long did you have to wait for the announcement?”
“About two hours.”
“I know I’m repeating myself, but were the treasure chests in the schoolyard throughout those two hours?”
“They were,” replied Maya Miyazawa, looking rather fed up. She flung out her right hand, palm facing outward, as if to parry Kusanagi’s next question.
“Don’t! I know what you’re going to ask me. Would I have noticed if someone had tampered with them there? The answer is, no, probably not. Are you happy now?”
“Thank you very much,” said Kusanagi. “Who was responsible for assembling and disassembling the chests?”
“The props team.”
“Did you get any feedback from them? Any reports of anything untoward happening with the chests?”
“No, not so much as a peep.” Maya Miyazawa shook her head.
“Okay. Could I get the names and contact details for everyone on the props team?”
“Sure. I’ll email you a list later.”
Kusanagi peered into the back of the storeroom. “Oh, that reminds me. Would I be right in thinking that the themes of the performances are kept secret until the day of the parade?”
“Absolutely. We never tell anyone the theme unless they’re directly connected to the team.”
“Meaning who exactly?”
“The members of the team and our supporters.”
“Your supporters?”
“Our sponsors, I mean. The money we get from the local authority doesn’t come near to covering our expenses. My bookstore makes a contribution, for example.”
“How about Tojima-ya Foods?”
Maya Miyazawa seemed to catch her breath. She nodded feebly.
“Tojima-ya Foods is one of the bigger local businesses. Yes, they support us, too.”
“You seem to be on friendly terms with Shusaku Tojima, the firm’s managing director. Would he have known the theme of this year’s performance in advance?”
“Probably.”
“Would he have known about the treasure chests?”
“I’m not sure.” Maya Miyazawa tilted her head to one side. “Some of the sponsors drop in on us to see how we’re getting on with our preparations. He could have come by when I wasn’t here. But if he did, someone would have shown him what we were doing.”
“You don’t recall showing him yourself?”
“I don’t remember doing so. I can’t be sure. Maybe it’s slipped my mind.”
Maya Miyazawa was choosing her words with care. One got the impression she was doing her best to avoid any inconsistencies finding their way into her story.
Kusanagi opted for a change of tack.
“You saw the Niikuras at the starting line before the parade got underway, didn’t you?”
“Uh-huh...” There was a look of vague distrust on Maya Miyazawa’s face. “They help out with the music and they did a last-minute sound check for us. I’ve already discussed this with another detective.”