“You’re the mama here?”
“You could call me that,” Sugimura replied with a smile.
“Quite the place you’ve got. Business looks good,” Kusanagi commented, glancing over his shoulder at the tables.
“It’s mostly just for show. I think the owner runs it for the tax break. Most of the customers are indebted to him for one thing or another.”
The detective nodded.
“This whole thing could shut down any day, really. Sayoko was right to get out while she still could and start that luncheon shop of hers.”
Kusanagi suspected business wasn’t all that bad—he even detected a hint of defiant pride in the way the woman casually mentioned her predecessor. This Sonoko Sugimura was a survivor.
“I believe some of our people from the department were down here the other day?”
She nodded. “They came a few times, asking about Mr. Togashi. Is that why you’ve come today?”
“We’re sorry to take your time like this.”
“Well, I told the other gentlemen this, so I may as well tell you, too. If you’re trying to pin this whole thing on Yasuko, you’re barking up the wrong tree. She has no motive, for one.”
“No,” Kusanagi said, waving a hand, “we’re not here because we suspect Yasuko. It’s just that our investigation isn’t going as smoothly as we’d have liked, so we’re trying to make a fresh start.”
“A fresh start, hmm?” the mama echoed with a sigh.
“Previously, you told us that Shinji Togashi had come here on the fifth of March?”
“That’s right. It was quite a surprise, seeing him after all that time. I couldn’t imagine why he would be dropping by now.”
“So you knew him?”
“I’d met him once or twice. I worked together with Yasuko back in Akasaka, you know. That’s where I knew him from. He was a big spender back in those days, always dressed to a T. Quite handsome, too.”
Kusanagi sensed from her tone that this description hardly applied to the Togashi she had met in March.
“And Shinji Togashi was trying to find Ms. Hanaoka, is that correct?”
“I think he wanted to patch things up between them. But still, I didn’t tell him anything. I knew all too well the hell that poor girl had been through on his account. I thought as long as I didn’t say anything she’d be safe, but I didn’t count on the girls. One of them knew about Yonazawa and Sayoko’s lunch shop, and she told that smooth talker everything.”
“I see,” Kusanagi said with a nod. After working for a long time in a business like this, which thrived on human connections, a former hostess would find it nearly impossible simply to disappear.
“Does a Mr. Kuniaki Kudo come here often?” he asked next, changing his line of questioning.
“Mister Kudo? From the printing company?”
“That’s right.”
“Quite often, yes. Though not so much recently.” Sugimura tilted her head. “Has Mr. Kudo done something?”
“No, no. We’ve just heard that he was one of Yasuko Hanaoka’s regulars back when she was a hostess.”
Sugimura’s lips softened and she nodded. “He was. He thought the world of that girl.”
“Were they seeing each other outside the nightclub?”
“Hmm…” The woman tilted her head again. “Some of the girls thought she was, but as I see it, their relationship began and ended at the club.”
“How so?”
“Well, they were closest when Yasuko was in Akasaka. But right around then she started having trouble with Mr. Togashi, and it seems Mr. Kudo found out. After that, he became more like Yasuko’s counselor then her lover. I don’t think things between them progressed very far at all romantically.”
“But after Ms. Hanaoka got divorced, they could have started going out…”
Sugimura shook her head. “Mr. Kudo’s not that sort of man, detective. After he’d been giving her all this advice on how to make things right between her and her husband, he couldn’t go dating Yasuko after the divorce. It would have made it look like that was his plan from the start. To be honest I think he intended to maintain a sort of platonic friendship with her after the divorce. Mr. Kudo is married, after all.”
So Sonoko Sugimura didn’t know that Kudo’s wife had passed away. Kusanagi decided there was little to be gained by telling her, so he kept silent.
For the most part, he guessed that she was right about Yasuko and Kudo’s relationship. Like other experienced detectives, he respected a hostess’s intuition when it came to the affairs of men and women. Sugimura’s observations were in line with his own, only confirming Kusanagi’s hunch that Kudo was innocent. Which meant it was time to change the topic.
He pulled a photograph out of his pocket and showed it to the mama. “Know this man?”
It was a photograph of Tetsuya Ishigami. Kishitani had snapped a shot of the teacher as he left his school one day. In the photograph, the mathematician’s eyes were fixed on some faraway point. It had been taken from an angle, and at a distance, so that Ishigami wouldn’t notice.
Sugimura frowned. “Who’s that?”
“So you don’t know him?”
“No, sorry. I can tell you he’s never come to this club.”
“His name’s Ishigami. That ring any bells?”
“Mr. Ishigami…”
“Maybe Ms. Hanaoka mentioned him?”
“I’m sorry. If she did, I don’t remember it.”
“He’s a high school teacher. Did she ever say anything about seeing a teacher?”
“I don’t know,” Sugimura replied, her frown fading. “I talk to her now and then on the phone, but she’s not said anything of the sort.”
“What about any other relationships Yasuko might be having? Has she asked you for advice with anything, or told you anything about that?”
At this question, Sugimura let slip a wry chuckle. “The other detective who came before asked that as well, and I’ll tell you what I told him: she hasn’t said anything. Maybe she is seeing someone, and she didn’t want me to know, but I don’t think that’s the case. That girl’s got her hands full raising Misato. I’d imagine she hasn’t the time to bother with love right now. Mind you, it’s not just my opinion. Sayoko said something of the sort not too long ago.”
Kusanagi nodded quietly. He hadn’t expected to hear much about a possible relationship between Ishigami and Yasuko here at the club, so he wasn’t too disappointed. Still, hearing someone say that there was no man in Yasuko’s life made it hard for him to feel confident about the theory that Ishigami was Yasuko’s conspirator.
Another customer walked in. Sugimura glanced with interest in his direction.
“You said you kept in touch with Ms. Hanaoka on the phone? I was wondering when you last talked to her.”
“The day that Mr. Togashi was on the news, I think. I was so surprised I had to call her up. I’m certain that I told that to the other detective, too.”
“How did Ms. Hanaoka sound at the time?”
“No different than ever, really. She told me the cops had already been by to talk to her.”
That was us, Kusanagi thought, but he didn’t feel the need to mention that to Sugimura.
“And before that, you didn’t tell her that Togashi been in to the club asking after her whereabouts?”
“I didn’t. Which is to say, I couldn’t bring myself. I didn’t want to make her upset.”
So Yasuko Hanaoka hadn’t known that Togashi was looking for her. And if she didn’t know he was coming, she wouldn’t have had time to devise a plot to murder him.
“It did occur to me to mention it … but at the time, she sounded so happy, there just wasn’t a good moment.”
“At the time?” Something tugged at the back of Kusanagi’s mind. “You mean the last time you talked to her on the phone, when Togashi was on the news? Or some other time?”