Journey Under the Midnight Sun

by Keigo Higashino

  A boy of about ten years old was standing in the doorway. A skinny kid, in a sweatshirt and jeans.

  Sasagaki hadn’t heard the boy on the stairs at all. When their eyes met, the darkness deep in the boy’s eyes made Sasagaki swallow.

  ‘You Mr Kirihara’s boy?’ he asked.

  The boy didn’t respond. Instead, Matsuura looked around and said, ‘Yeah, that’s him.’

  Still without a word, the boy stepped out into the shop and began putting on his sneakers. His face was expressionless.

  ‘Where you going, Ryo?’ Matsuura asked. ‘You should stay home.’

  The boy ignored him and walked out.

  ‘Poor kid. I can’t imagine what he’s going through,’ Sasagaki said.

  ‘Yeah,’ the man agreed. ‘Even a kid like that, it’s gotta be tough.’

  ‘A kid like what?’

  ‘Er, it’s hard to explain,’ Matsuura pulled one of the files from the cabinet and placed it on the counter in front of Sasagaki. ‘Here you go. The latest ledger.’

  ‘Thanks.’ Sasagaki took it and flipped through the pages of men and women, skimming down through the list of names, but all he could see were the boy’s dark eyes.

  The autopsy report arrived at Homicide the following afternoon.

  The time and cause of death matched what Dr Matsuno had said at the scene, but the contents of the stomach gave Sasagaki pause. There were undigested remains of buckwheat, onions and herring, consumed two to two and a half hours prior to death.

  ‘If that’s true, what are we to make of the belt?’ Sasagaki asked Nakatsuka, who was sitting nearby with his arms crossed.

  ‘The belt?’

  ‘Yeah, it had been loosened two notches. Like you do after eating a big meal. But this was two hours later. Wouldn’t he have tightened it back up?’

  Nakatsuka shrugged. ‘I don’t see what’s noteworthy about that. Maybe he just forgot.’

  ‘That’s the thing,’ Sasagaki said. ‘When we checked out his pants, it turned out they were big in the waist for a man his size. If he loosened his buckle two notches, they would’ve been slipping when he walked.’

  Nakatsuka’s eyebrows knit together as he glanced at the autopsy report on the conference table. ‘So why do you think he loosened his belt?’

  Sasagaki took a look around the room before leaning in closer. ‘Because the victim had some business there that required him loosening his belt. Then, when he tightened it back up, he missed the usual spot. Of course, we don’t know if it was him tightening it or his killer.’

  ‘What business would require him to loosen his belt, exactly?’ Nakatsuka looked up innocently.

  ‘C’mon. He was dropping his trousers.’ Sasagaki grinned.

  Nakatsuka leaned back in his chair with the sound of squeaking metal.

  ‘You suggesting a grown man would go to some place that dirty and dusty just to squeeze some titties?’

  ‘I admit it wouldn’t be my first choice,’ Sasagaki said.

  Nakatsuka waved a hand like he was swatting away a fly. ‘It’s an interesting story, but I think you’re letting your gut get ahead of your evidence. We need to find out where the victim was before he got killed. There was buckwheat in his stomach? I’d check the local soba places first.’

  ‘Yes sir,’ Sasagaki said, turning to leave the room.

  It didn’t take long to find the soba shop Yosuke Kirihara had visited that day. According to Yaeko, he frequented a place by the name of Saganoya on the shopping street near the train station. A detective paid the shop a visit and was able to find a witness who could place Mr Kirihara there around four in the afternoon on Friday. He’d eaten the herring soba. Calculating back from the state of digestion put the time of death between six and seven in the evening. That meant they would be looking at the time period from five to eight for establishing alibis.

  However, there was the statement from Matsuura and Yaeko that the deceased had left the pawnshop at two-thirty. That left the hour or so before he arrived at Saganoya unaccounted for. The walk from his house to the restaurant was only ten minutes, even at a leisurely pace.

  The answer to that question came on Monday, with a single phone call to the police station from a female employee of the local Sankyo Bank branch. Apparently Yosuke Kirihara had visited the bank before closing hours on Friday.

  Sasagaki and Koga went out to the bank, located across the street from the south side of the train station.

  The woman who’d called was a cashier with a short fringe complementing a round, cheery face. She sat down with the detectives at a meeting table usually reserved for discussing customer accounts. It was separated from the rest of the bank floor by some free-standing dividers.

  ‘When I saw his name in the paper the other day I wondered if it was the same Kirihara I knew. So I checked the name again when I came in this morning and got permission from my boss to give you a call,’ she told the detectives, sitting with her back perfectly straight.

  ‘Around what time did Mr Kirihara come to the bank?’ Sasagaki asked.

  ‘A little before three.’

  ‘What did he come about?’

  Here, she hesitated slightly before she was able to overcome her instinctive reluctance to reveal customer information. ‘He closed out a CD account and withdrew the money.’

  ‘How much?’

  She hesitated again, wetting her lips. She glanced at her boss out of the corner of one eye and said in a quiet voice, ‘Exactly one million yen.’

  Sasagaki’s eyes widened. It wasn’t the kind of money one typically walked around with.

  ‘And he didn’t say anything about how he was going to use the money?’

  ‘No, I’m afraid not.’

  ‘Did you see what he did with the money? Did he put it away somewhere?’

  ‘Not exactly. I know I handed it to him inside a bank envelope, but other than that…’ She frowned, trying to remember.

  ‘Had Mr Kirihara done anything of the sort before? Closed accounts with a lot of money in them?’

  ‘No, not as far as I know. I’ve been in charge of his accounts since the end of last year.’

  ‘How did he seem to you when he took the money out? Was he unhappy about anything, or possibly excited?’

  She frowned again. ‘He didn’t look too distraught, no. In fact, I think he said something about coming back to make a deposit soon.’

  After reporting back to headquarters, Sasagaki and Koga paid a visit to the pawnshop to ask Yaeko and Matsuura whether they knew anything about the money Kirihara had withdrawn. But they were still a block away when they stopped. They could just see the front of the shop, and the long line of mourners gathered on the road outside.

  ‘Oh, right.’ Sasagaki sighed. ‘The funeral’s today.’

  The two detectives watched the shop from a distance. Yaeko appeared at the door at the head of the procession that would carry the casket out to the waiting hearse. Her complexion didn’t look as good as it had the first time Sasagaki met her and she seemed smaller, physically, yet at the same time somehow even more alluring. The strange attraction of a woman in mourning, Sasagaki thought.

  Yaeko was clearly accustomed to wearing kimonos. Even her footsteps seemed calculated to make her look good. If she’s trying to play the part of the beautiful young widow, she’s doing a knockout job. Their investigation had already revealed that she’d once worked as an escort over in the nightclub district in Kitashinchi.

  From behind, her son appeared, carrying a framed photograph of his father. Ryo, that was his name. Sasagaki had yet to exchange words with the boy.

  Ryo’s expression was as blank as the last time the detective had seen him. There was no trace of emotion in his dark, sunken eyes. They looked like eyes made of glass, vacantly following the motion of his mother’s feet.

  The detectives waited until evening before trying the pawnshop again. As before, the metal shutter in front of the store was half-closed when they arrived. This time, h
owever, the door behind it was locked. Sasagaki tried the doorbell. He could hear the sound of a buzzer from inside the shop.

  ‘Think they’re out?’ Koga asked.

  ‘If they were, wouldn’t they have put the shutter down all the way?’

  Finally, they heard the sound of the door being unlocked. It opened slightly and Matsuura stuck his head out. ‘Detective!’

  ‘We had a few questions,’ Sasagaki said. ‘Is now a good time?’

  ‘Let me check with Mrs Kirihara. Be right back.’ He shut the door behind him.

  The two detectives exchanged glances.

  A few moments passed until the door opened again and Matsuura welcomed them inside. Sasagaki stepped in first. He could smell the scent of funeral incense in the air.

  ‘The funeral go OK?’ Sasagaki asked. He’d spotted Matsuura in the circle of casket-bearers.

  ‘Yeah, we got through it somehow. I’m pretty beat, though,’ he said, smoothing back his hair. He was still in a black suit, but he had removed his tie. The top two buttons of his shirt were undone.

  The door behind the shop counter slid open and Yaeko emerged. She’d changed from her mourning clothes into a navy blue dress and let down her hair.

  ‘Sorry to trouble you after the day you’ve had,’ Sasagaki said.

  She shook her head. ‘Have you found anything out?’

  ‘We’re still gathering information. Actually, we came across something I wanted to check with you. Although’ – Sasagaki pointed towards the door behind her – ‘if you don’t mind, I’d like to offer some incense. Always good to give the Buddha his due.’

  Yaeko looked startled for a moment and glanced at Matsuura before saying, ‘Of course, I don’t mind at all.’

  ‘Thank you, I’ll only be a moment.’

  Sasagaki took off his shoes and stepped up to the raised floor behind the counter. His eyes darted towards the door off to the side, the one that hid the stairs going up to the first floor. There was a small bolt lock on the door and it was pulled shut, making it impossible to open from the other side.

  ‘Excuse the odd question,’ Sasagaki said, ‘but what’s that locked for?’

  ‘Oh,’ Yaeko said, ‘that’s to stop thieves from coming in through the top floor at night.’

  ‘Pardon, the top floor?’

  ‘The houses in this part of town are so close together, they jump from roof to roof. A watch-seller nearby us had it happen to him not so long ago. My husband put the lock on.’

  ‘I take it there’s nothing of value upstairs, then?’

  ‘The safe is down here,’ Matsuura said from behind him. ‘And we keep everything from our customers down here, too.’

  ‘Does that mean no one is upstairs at night?’

  ‘No, we sleep downstairs,’ Yaeko said.

  ‘I see,’ Sasagaki said, scratching his chin. ‘And you always lock it this early in the evening?’

  ‘Oh, no,’ Yaeko said, coming up beside him and unlocking the door. ‘I just locked it out of habit earlier.’

  Which means no one’s upstairs, Sasagaki thought.

  He opened the sliding door in front of him to find a small room with a tatami-matted floor. There seemed to be another room behind that, hidden behind another sliding door. The downstairs bedroom, Sasagaki thought. He didn’t imagine much happened in there other than sleeping, especially with Ryo sharing the same room.

  The family altar was up against the western wall. Yosuke Kirihara smiled out of a small frame set to one side. The photo was of him at a younger age, wearing a suit. Sasagaki lit a stick of incense and placed it in the tray on the altar. He pressed his hands together and sat with his eyes closed for a full ten seconds.

  Yaeko came with tea. Still on his knees, Sasagaki bowed his head and thanked her for the tea. Next to him, Koga took his own cup.

  Sasagaki asked Yaeko if anything had occurred to her about the case or the events of the day her husband died. She shook her head immediately. Seated out in the shop, Matsuura was quiet, too.

  Gradually, Sasagaki swung the conversation around to the topic of the million yen Kirihara had taken out of the bank. Yaeko and Matsuura both looked surprised at this.

  ‘He didn’t say anything to me about one million yen,’ Yaeko said.

  ‘I didn’t hear anything about that either,’ Matsuura said. ‘The boss took care of most of the business side of things, but if he was dealing with something that big, I think he would’ve at least mentioned it.’

  ‘Did your husband spend any money on entertainment? Anything potentially expensive, like gambling?’

  ‘No,’ Yaeko said, ‘he never gambled. He didn’t really have any hobbies to speak of.’

  ‘Work was his hobby,’ Matsuura added from the side.

  ‘Right, well then…’ Sasagaki hesitated a moment before asking, ‘How about any… other kinds of… entertainment.’

  ‘I’m sorry?’ Yaeko frowned.

  ‘Basically, what I mean is, women. Did he go out to clubs, anything like that?’

  Yaeko nodded, understanding. Sasagaki had feared he might be touching a nerve, but that didn’t seem to be the case at all.

  ‘I don’t think he had a woman on the side, if that’s what you mean. He wasn’t the kind to be able to do that sort of thing.’ She sounded very sure of herself.

  ‘So you trusted him, in other words?’

  ‘I wouldn’t call it that…’ Yaeko said, her words trailing off as she looked down at the floor.

  Sasagaki asked a few other questions before standing to go. He hated to leave empty-handed, but there didn’t seem to be much else here for them at present.

  As he was putting on his shoes, he noticed a pair of scuffed sneakers off to one side of the door. They must belong to Ryo, which means he’s home…

  Sasagaki glanced at the door with its sliding lock, and wondered what the boy was doing upstairs, all alone.

  The continuing investigation gradually revealed the path Yosuke Kirihara had taken on the afternoon of his death. Already established was his departure from home at two-thirty, followed by a trip to Sankyo Bank near the station to withdraw the one million yen, then a late lunch at Saganoya where he ate the herring noodles. He’d left Saganoya just after four.

  At issue was what happened next. An employee at the shop was under the impression that Kirihara had walked, not towards, but away from the station when he left. If he hadn’t come to the vicinity of the station to get on a train, then his only other reason for being there would have been to get the money.

  The investigation team began questioning people in two areas: around the station, and near the building where the body had been found. The station team was the first to find anything.

  A customer matching Kirihara’s description had visited a local cake shop called Harmony. There he had asked for ‘that pudding with lots of fruit on it,’ the employee reported, by which he’d meant Pudding à la Mode, a speciality of the chain. However, as it happened, they were all out of Pudding à la Mode that day. The customer had asked if there were any other shops where he might get something similar nearby.