“Then that’s fine. By the way, where did you put the stubs?”
“In a kitchen drawer.”
“Put them inside the theater pamphlet. Nobody goes out of their way to store ticket stubs. They might suspect something if you have them in your drawer.”
“Okay, I’ll take them out.”
“By the way…” Ishigami swallowed. He tightened his grip on the receiver. “The owners at Benten-tei … do they know about me going there to buy my lunch?”
“What…?” Yasuko asked, momentarily taken aback.
“What I’m asking is, do the people who run the store where you work know that your neighbor comes there frequently to buy lunches? This is rather important, so please be honest.”
“Well, yes, actually. The owners were saying they were happy you were such a reliable regular.”
“And they know that I’m your neighbor?”
“Yes … is that bad?”
“No, I’ll worry about that. You just do as we discussed. All right?”
“Yes.”
“Right,” Ishigami said, turning to set down the receiver.
“Oh, um, Mr. Ishigami?” Yasuko’s voice came softly.
“Yes?”
“Thank you. Thank you for everything. We’re in your debt.”
“No…” Ishigami paused. “Don’t mention it,” he said, and he hung up the phone.
When Yasuko said “Thank you,” he had felt a tingle rush through his body. Now his face was flushed, and he welcomed the night breeze on his skin. He was even sweating a little.
Ishigami headed home, elated. But his high didn’t last long when he remembered what she had said about Benten-tei.
He realized that he had made a mistake when talking to the detectives. When they asked how well he knew Yasuko, he had only told them that they said hello when they chanced to meet. He should also have told them about the lunchbox shop.
“Did you confirm Yasuko Hanaoka’s alibi?”
Mamiya had called Kusanagi and Kishitani over to his desk. He was clipping his nails.
“The karaoke box checked out,” Kusanagi reported. “The person at the desk there knew her face. And they were in the book, from nine forty for an hour and a half.”
“What about before that?”
“Considering the time, they probably caught the seven o’clock show at the theater. It ended at nine ten. If they went to eat ramen after that, their story holds,” Kusanagi said, looking over his notes.
“I didn’t ask if their story held, I asked if you checked it out.”
Kusanagi closed his notebook. His shoulders sagged. “Just the karaoke box.”
“You call that doing your job, Detective?” Mamiya asked, glaring up at him.
“C’mon, Chief. You know it’s almost impossible to check out alibis in theaters and ramen shops.”
One ear listening to Kusanagi, Mamiya pulled out a business card and threw it on the desk. The card read “Club Marian.” It gave an address in Kinshicho.
“What’s that?”
“The place where Ms. Yasuko used to work. Togashi dropped in there on the fifth of March.”
“Five days before he was murdered.”
“Apparently, he was asking about Yasuko. Anyway, I think that’s more than enough for even you to figure out what I’m getting at.” Mamiya pointed to the door behind the two detectives. “I want you to go and check out that alibi, every bit of it. If anything doesn’t fit, I want you to go back and talk to this Yasuko again.”
FIVE
A small pole about thirty centimeters long stuck up from a square box on the lab table. There was a ring, only a few centimeters across, encircling the base of the pole. The strange item would have looked a bit like a carnival ring-toss game were it not for the cord snaking out of the side of the box and the single toggle switch on top.
“What the heck’s this?” Kusanagi muttered, bending down to stare at the device.
“I wouldn’t touch that if I were you,” warned Kishitani beside him.
“Nah, I’m sure it’s fine. If this thing were dangerous, he never would’ve left it lying out here like this.” Kusanagi flicked the switch. The moment he did so, the ring around the pole began to float upward.
Kusanagi gaped. The ring was hovering in midair, wobbling slightly.
“Try pushing the ring down,” came a voice from behind him.
Kusanagi looked around as Yukawa walked into the room, a file folder cradled in his arms.
“Welcome back. Class?” Kusanagi asked as he turned back to the floating ring. Reaching out gingerly, he tried to push it down with his fingertips. A second later he yanked back his hand. “Yowch! That thing’s hot!”
“It’s true, I’m not in the habit of leaving dangerous objects lying about. I do, however, assume a basic knowledge of physics.” Yukawa strolled over to the table and flicked off the switch. “This device is only high school–level physics, as a matter of fact.”
“Well, I didn’t take physics in high school,” Kusanagi said, blowing on his fingertips. Kishitani laughed immoderately.
“Who’s your friend?” Yukawa asked with a raised eyebrow.
The smile vanished from Kishitani’s face and he bowed curtly. “Kishitani. I work with Detective Kusanagi. I’ve heard a lot about you, Professor. You’ve helped us out with a lot of cases, haven’t you? They call you Detective Galileo down at the station.”
Yukawa frowned and waved his hand. “Don’t call me that. I don’t help out because I enjoy it, you know. I just couldn’t bear listening to Detective Kusanagi’s faulty attempts at reasoning on a certain occasion, and I made the mistake of correcting him. I’d be wary of spending too much time with him, if I were you. You might catch whatever he has that’s hardened his brain into a rock.”
Kishitani guffawed, earning him a glare from his superior.
“You laugh too much,” Kusanagi grumbled. “Besides,” he said, turning to Yukawa, “you know you enjoy trying to solve our cases.”
“What’s there to enjoy? Do you know how much valuable research time I’ve squandered on your account? I certainly hope you haven’t brought me another of your annoying, so-called ‘unsolvable’ puzzles today?”
“No, you’re off the hook for now. We just happened to be in the area, so we dropped in.”
“Ah, that’s a relief.” Yukawa walked over to a nearby sink, filled a kettle with water, and set it on a gas burner—the start of his usual instant coffee ritual. “So, did you resolve the murder along the Old Edogawa River?” he asked, measuring coffee powder into a cup.
“How did you know we were working on that case?”
“Simple deduction. It was on the news the same night you took a call while in my lab. And from the look on your face, I would further deduce that the investigation isn’t going so well.”
Kusanagi gestured dismissively. “Oh, I wouldn’t say it’s going all that badly. We have a few suspects now. It’s just getting started.”
“Oh? Suspects?” Yukawa asked over his shoulder, not sounding particularly interested.
“Actually,” Kishitani chipped in, “I don’t think we’re heading in the right direction, myself.”
Yukawa lifted an eyebrow at him. “You object to the direction the investigation is taking?”
“Well, I wouldn’t call it an objection…”
“I’d prefer you didn’t call it anything,” Kusanagi said with a scowl.
“Sorry, sir.”
“Why apologize?” Yukawa asked, clearly starting to enjoy himself. “You follow orders, yet you have your own opinion—sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Proper, even. Without people to question the status quo, how can we ever hope to arrive at truly rational decisions?”
“Nah, that’s not why he’s against the investigation,” Kusanagi said with a sigh. “He just wants to be a knight in shining armor.”