“It’s not boring. So then what did you do? I think it must have been hard being considerate among those kinds of adults.”
“It wasn’t hard. I was bewildered, but once you figure out how everything works, it’s easy. The point is that I sensed there were rules. As long as I followed those rules, it wasn’t difficult at all.”
“Rules?”
“Everyone wore a mask to accommodate the situation. You couldn’t do anything that would remove our masks. Reacting strongly to someone else’s actions was pointless. After all, it was just a mask. So I decided to put on a mask, too.”
“What kind of mask?”
“In a nutshell, the most appropriate mask for the situation. As a kid, it meant fulfilling adult expectations. Although that didn’t simply mean being a good boy. When I was little, I wore the mask of a mischievous child; after some time, I wore the mask of a rebellious teen. After that, the mask of adolescence. The mask of a young man pondering his future. In any case, it had to be a mask that was familiar to adults.”
“Unbelievable…”
“It was no big deal. And wearing a mask is just easier a lot of the time. No matter what anyone says, the other person is talking to a mask. I can just stick my tongue out under it, and in the meantime, I can think of what kind of mask to wear next to make them happy. Human relationships are cumbersome things. But by adopting this method, it becomes nothing.”
“You’ve been doing that ever since?”
“I’ve been doing that ever since.”
Juri put her fork down and hid both her hands under the table. “It seems kind of lonely.”
“Does it? I don’t think so. To begin with, everyone wears a mask to some degree in going about their lives. Hasn’t that been true for you, too?”
“I wonder…”
“It’s an unlivable world otherwise. If you expose your true face, you don’t know when it’ll get pummeled. This world is a game. It’s a game where, depending on the situation, you put on the relevant mask.”
“The mask of youth, huh.”
“What did you say?” I pulled back my fingers from my coffee cup. “What did you just say?”
“Nothing.”
“No, I know I heard it. The mask of youth…Why do you know the name of that game? It hasn’t come out yet.”
I glared at her. After averting her gaze for a moment, she looked up fearfully. The pink of her tongue peeked out between her lips.
“I’m sorry. I looked.”
“At what?”
“At the stuff lying around. The stuff on your computer.”
I sighed and put my fingers around my cup. I sipped some coffee. “Did I not tell you not to touch my stuff?”
“That’s why I’m apologizing. But you have to understand. I wanted to know more about you. What kind of person you are. And how you were born and raised.”
“Everything to know about me, I just told you. I wasn’t really happy, and I wasn’t especially miserable.”
“Your mom right now?”
“She remarried when I was in high school. He’s a company man who deals with construction materials. He’s a quiet person, and he was kind to me—” I shook my head and corrected myself. “He wore the mask of a kind man, is what I should say. And he’s probably continuing to wear it now.
“That’s all there is to say about me,” I concluded. Juri didn’t ask anything more. I regretted drawing out my reminiscences.
After breakfast, I returned to the CPT Owners Club on the internet. There was a new post there.
24 hours (Julie)
Good morning. Even though I prepared the money, suddenly the agreement got postponed. Boo. I’m kind of pissed off, so I’ve decided to put a 24-hour time limit on it. If they don’t contact me by then, I just might to have to go to you-know-whom!
Sorry for bitching so early in the day.
Chapter 12
Juri’s hair when she got out of the bathroom was a dark maroon. It seemed a little brighter than her original color, but it was better than the earlier blond.
“That looks better on you,” I said. “Blond hair doesn’t suit Japanese people.”
“Adults all say that.”
“Aren’t you an adult?”
“I mean older men.”
“When I see Japanese people with flat faces and blond hair, I’m embarrassed for them. It’s like they’re showing off a Western complex.” Seeing she was becoming angry, I added, “I’m talking about young people in general. I wasn’t saying your face is flat. Of course, it’s not carved as deeply as a Caucasian’s.”
Maybe thanks to the last unnecessary bit, she brusquely sat down on the sofa looking no less peeved. “So did you think of a good method?”
“I’m thinking.”
“You’re still thinking? We only have twenty-four hours now.” She looked at the clock and shook her head. “Since that post was written at six in the morning, if we have until tomorrow at six that’s seventeen hours.”
“There’s no need to dwell on that.”
“But if he isn’t contacted by then, he says he’ll go to the police…”
I raised one hand to stop her from talking and then picked up the stereo remote. When I started the CD, it was midway through The Phantom of the Opera. I loved the musical and had seen it several times. It was the story of a sad man who covered his hideous figure with a mask to become something more than human.
It isn’t just him who’s wearing a mask—that was my impression every time.
I just might have to go to you-know-whom. What did that mean? Did it mean he would contact the police? Ridiculous—as in, he hadn’t contacted them yet? If he thought a threat like that would work, then he wasn’t taking the kidnappers seriously.
And yet I couldn’t be entirely sure. According to my own Hakozaki Junction operation, the police weren’t involved.
Maybe Katsutoshi Katsuragi really hadn’t gone to the police yet.
I shook my head. There was no way. It was a trap. They were giving us the illusion that the police weren’t on the case just so we’d act recklessly.
“You should have gotten it yesterday while he was doing that,” Juri said.
“Doing what?”
“Driving in circles in Hakozaki. You saw that he didn’t have a police tail. So we could have just had him leave his car there. Once Papa left, we could have moved the money from the car or even driven away in it.”
“How stupid. The police would have followed us immediately.”
“Where were they? There weren’t any.”
“It’s not that there weren’t any. They had to have been watching the Mercedes from somewhere.”
I thought they might have been standing by at various interchanges on the Metropolitan Expressway. I also needed to assume that they’d listened in on our exchanges with Katsutoshi Katsuragi.
“Say we told them to bring the ransom to a designated place,” I said. “We could tell the person who’d brought the cash to leave immediately. But if we nonchalantly went to get the ransom, we’d get caught no matter what. Do you know why?”
“Because the police are watching.”
“Right. The detectives would have their eyes peeled waiting for the culprit to appear. They say that’s the best moment to nab a kidnapper. Then I’ll ask this: how do the police know about the place?”
“That’s obvious. It’s because the hostage’s parents or someone tells them.”
“Exactly. In other words, not telling them the exchange location until the last minute is only prudent. But if you don’t tell them anything, the person who’s transporting the cash doesn’t know where to go. It’s a difficult tradeoff.”
“So you indicate the general location. Then, once they get close, you tell them the exact spot.”