Remote Control

by Kotaro Isaka

  Haruko knew next to nothing about the vehicle. All she could think of was the tune Aoyagi had sung when they took shelter from the rain in it. Nanami j:)ulled (jn her sleeve and asked what she was humming.

  "It's the jingle from the ad tor the car," she said, and did it more loudly so the girl behind the counter could hear. To 1 laruko's surprise a light seemed to go on in her eyes.

  "Why didn't you say so?" she laughed, reeling oil the make and motlel iis though this were the way other customers |)la(ed lhc*ir orders.

  "I'm alraid 1 tlon't know the year," ll.uuko said.

  REMOTE CONTROL

  "Well, let's see what we can do," said the girl, wandering off down a row of shelves. Haruko hurried after her. Stopping in front of the batteries, the clerk turned to look at her. "It's probably that one, or that," she said, pointing at two different boxes. "But 1 guess you could make either one work if vou had to."

  j

  "Would you mind explaining how you hook it up?" Haruko asked. The girl gave her another mildly disapproving look but then apparently thought better of it.

  "Yes, ma'am, of course. Let's go try it on your car." She didn't particularly like the "ma'am," but Haruko followed her out to the parking lot. When they got the hood open, Haruko was given a lecture on battery installation.

  "Remove the negative cable first, then the positive one."

  "You have to do it in that order?"

  "If you don't, you could short out the engine."

  "'Short out'?"

  "Just do it in that order," said the girl. "Then you remove the old battery and clean the terminals. Finally, you connect the new battery, this time starting with the positive cable." Haruko nodded solemnly at each step, and Nanami, standing on tiptoe to see the engine, nodded along with her. "If you're planning to do it yourself, make sure you've got a wrench: but any gas station will do it for almost nothing"—the implication being that some assistance was clearly indicated in her case.

  "Thanks," said Haruko. "Could you get rid of the box for me?"

  It

  Haruko Higuchi

  "What's it for?" Nanami asked, looking at the large bag next to her seat.

  "You'll just have to wait and see," Haruko said. To avoid traffic, she got off the Loop and headed north on back streets, but as soon as she thought she'd found a good route, the brake lights of the car ahead came on and she was stuck again. For a while, they inched along, until she suddenly realized they were coming to a checkpoint.

  THE INCIDENT

  A number of police cars were parked on the shoulder, and an officer with a flashlight was signaling for cars to pull over. Several more of them were questioning drivers. Before she had time to think about what she would say—or even to get nervous—she was pulling up.

  When she rolled down her window, a face was staring at her. Human—she could tell by the hat—but almost completely devoid of any character.

  ''Sorry for the inconvenience, ma'am,” the man said. ''But we believe the fugitive may be in Izumi Ward, and we're searching all vehicles in the area.”

  ''Is that so?” Haruko said. For some reason, the words sounded unnatural even to her own ears.

  ''Would you mind opening the trunk, please?” Haruko bent forward and pulled the little lever under the seat. When she sat back up and looked in the rearview mirror, she saw that several policemen were lined up behind the car. One of them lifted the trunk. She knew she had nothing to hide, but somehow she still felt uneasy. ''Is this your daughter?” the one at the window continued, peering in at the back seat.

  "Yes,” Haruko said, glancing at his face and then looking quickly away. Without thinking, she jiggled the keys hanging from the ignition, but then, worried that this would be taken for impatience, she dropped her hand to her lap. ''It's just one man?” she asked, hoping to draw his attention away from the sound.

  The policeman looked at her and waited a beat. ''Yes, that's right.”

  ''Does he have a car?”

  ''We aren't certain.” She wanted to know more, but she realized she couldn't continue to question him.

  ''Where are you headed?” he asked.

  ''I'm not really sure myself.”

  ''Well, the area is dangerous, so we'd j)refer it if you could avoid unnecessary trips.”

  ”1 understand, and I'll l)e careful,” Haruko said. The car shook as they slammed the trunk shut, harder than was strictly necessary. When she looked in the mirror again, one ol the co|)s was giving the thumbs-u|) sign.

  "Sorry to have inconvenienced you, ma'am. You're tree to go,” she was told.

  As she was turning the key in the ignition, Nanami called out horn tlu' back

  REMOTE CONTROL

  seat. "Mister! That bad man is Mommy's friend." Haruko shuddered, and glanced involuntarily at the man still standing next to the car. His eyebrows rose, but she closed the window and pulled back onto the road, watching him in the mirror. The last thing she saw was a second man in a suit coming to join him.

  h

  Haruko Higuchi

  "Did 1 say something wrong?" Nanami asked as they drove away.

  "No, everything's fine."

  The road was nearly empty beyond the checkpoint, and they were soon on a broad avenue with three lanes of traffic in each direction. The zelkova trees on either side seemed to watch them, long limbs reaching out toward the car like bony fingers. Haruko pulled over to the side of the road and switched on the hazard signal.

  "Are we there now?" Nanami said, craning around to see. Haruko scanned the blind of bushes. It must be somewhere around here, she thought, trying to make the empty lot in front of her match up with her memory.

  She was so engrossed in this task that she didn't notice a car stopping right behind her, and if she hadn't been wearing a seatbelt she would have jumped out of her seat in surprise when someone tapped on the glass next to her. Letting out a little cry, she rolled down the window.

  "Mrs. Higuchi," said the square-jawed man staring in at her. "We meet again." She realized almost immediately that it was the detective from the hospital. It took her a second more to retrieve his name: Mamoru Kondo. He must have been the man in the suit at the checkpoint.

  She smiled up at him. "Something tells me this isn't a coincidence," she said.

  "Where are you going?" he asked.

  "Everyone seems to want to know where Tm going," she said, feeling her pulse quicken. "Do 1 really have to tell you?"

  "1 would appreciate it if you would."

  "Well, if you must know, Tm going to visit a friend. Is there something suspicious about that?"

  THE INCIDENT

  ''Of course not/' he said. "But Masaharu Aoyagi is still on the loose."

  "And you think I'm on my way to meet him?"

  "We need to rule out the possibility. 1 know it may seem a bit extreme to be following you around, but we have no choice."

  "Sorry to be so much trouble," she drawled, but sarcasm seemed lost on him.

  "You're a scary man!" Nanami piped up at that moment, apparently not wanting to be left out of the conversation and not liking the tone Kondo was taking with her mother.

  Leaning closer to the window, he looked back at her. "But there's a scarier man than me somewhere around here," he said.

  "He's my mommy's friend," she told him. Haruko panicked for a moment, but then remembered that Kondo knew this already. She looked at Nanami and scratched her nose.

  "I know he is," Kondo said. "That's why we're worried about your mommy."

  "Oh!" Nanami said suddenly. "I have to go potty. Right now!"

  "Can't you wait a bit?" Haruko asked, checking the mirror.

  "No, I have to go now!"

  "No, sweetie, not here." But she looked up at Kondo who was still stationed outside the window. "Would you mind if 1 take her into the bushes for a moment?" she asked.

  "I'm afraid it's not allowed," he told her.

  "1 know, and normally I wouldn't do it. But this is a 'state of emergency,' apparentl
y."

  "It's a state of 'mergency! It is! I've got to go!" Nanami cried.

  Haruko thought she could feel Kondo's oflicial shell soften slightly. He took a step away from the car. "Come right hack," he said.

  "And if Aoyagi gets in touch in the meantime, you'll he the first to know." She grabbed her j)hone, pulled the key from the ignition, and climbed out ()i the car. T hen she got Nanami out of her seat and shoulderetl the hag that had been sitting next to her. Kondo was about to get hack into his car when he noticed the hag.

  ".Mrs. Higuchi," he called alter her. "What's in the hag?"

  "It you really have to know, it's all the things girls neerl to go |)otty," Haruko said. Kondo turnetl and climhed into his car.

  REMOTE CONTROL

  T he battery was heavier than slie thought, hut she was careful not to let any strain show on her face. "Let's go," she said, dragging Nanami off into the bushes.

  "Did 1 help, saying 1 had to go potty?" Nanami asked as they walked.

  "You certainly did! I'm glad you remembered."

  h '

  Haruko Higuchi

  "What do we do with it?" Nanami whispered, looking down at the bag. But Haruko was staring, amazed it was still there, exactly as it had been all those years ago. It was almost funny, huddled in the weeds, unchanged despite everything that had happened. This nondescript yellow car was becalmed, sidelined in the stream of time, stuck here in this forgotten place. With all the time in the world, the weeds and grass had grown up to conceal it from all but the sharpest eyes. "What's it doing here?" Nanami asked, tugging at her sleeve. "It's really dirty."

  It was, shockingly so. She had remembered it as being yellow, but in point of fact it was fossil brown now. But it was still here.

  Bending down, she found the key hidden in the wheel well, exactly where it had been in the old days. She fitted it in the lock and opened the door, telling Nanami to get in on the passenger's side.

  "What's it doing here?" Nanami repeated her question.

  "It's always been here," Haruko told her, climbing into the driver's seat. She turned arourid to study the interior. It smelled of dust and mildew, but it had been like that even back then. She inserted the key and turned the ignition, and though she hadn't been expecting it to start, the desolate click and dead silerice still disappointed her.

  "Always? Since when?" Nanami persisted.

  "Since before you were born."

  "That's silly," she laughed. "Before I was born?"

  "It's pretty old, isn't it? It's a good old car."

  "But it doesn't go anywhere," she observed. She had wriggled closer to

  THE INCIDENT

  Haruko until she was practically sitting in her lap, apparently trying to see what her mother was doing with the key.

  "No, it doesn't," said Haruko, putting her back on the seat. She reached down beside her own seat and pulled on the little lever she found there. It gave easily, and she thought she could feel the hood release in front of her, though the windshield was completely obscured in a layer of dust and pollen. "Now, let's see if we can do it just the way the lady at the store taught us."

  She was amazed how easily she managed to change the battery—she who was usually defeated by electrical gadgets. What's more, they had succeeded in getting exactly the same type. She felt a surge of gratitude to the girl at the store. A bit surly, but she knew her auto parts. When she had finished reconnecting the cables, she slammed the hood shut, sending up a puff of dust.

  "Will it go now?" Nanami asked as she began to climb back inside. Haruko got behind the wheel. "Will it go?" Nanami repeated.

  "I hope so."

  She wasn't sure herself why she was so intent on getting the car running again. But it had something to do with fireworks, and the idea that an old friend could be seeing them at the same time from somewhere else. Was there a chance that Aoyagi would remember this old car the way she had? She didn't know where he was or what was happening to him, but she did know that he wasn't responsible for this terrible crime. "Okay, let's give it a try."

  Masaharu Aoyagi

  Aoyagi turned the key and then let it go; the engine was dead. Admittedly, he had no reason to exj)ect anything different.

  Still, he had been hopeful. When he had sj)otted the back ot the empty lot as he walked along the river, he had made a little bargain with late: il the Ciii was still there and he could get it to rmi, he would esca|)e. 1 le knew it was an unlikely fantasy, but it was the best he could think ol .itul it sent him plunging into the bushes.

  l.7

  REMOTE CONTROL

  But the engine was dead. That was a fact. He sat for a moment with his arms over his head. Then he brought them down hard on the steering wheel. And then again. Tlie car shook. The battery had probably been dead even back then, and now many more years had passed and more grime had collected on the old yellow body. He'd been lucky just to find the key after all this time.

  He tried turning it one more time. Just a dry click. He released the handbrake and stepped on the accelerator. Then he. stomped harder, mashing it to the floor. At last he let go and rested his head on the wheel. If only he'd been able to bring a battery with him. He had known he would probably need one, but he was afraid to show his face at a gas station. But at least it was sheltered here, cut off from the road and the river by the tall grass and thick bushes. He should probably try to rest, to get some much-needed sleep. Perhaps when he woke up, months and years would have passed and no one would remember him anymore. . . . More worthless fantasies.

  He looked at his backpack on the seat next to him. Then he turned the key again—how many times had he tried it now? Nothing. He opened the glove compartment. He had heard it held a supply of condoms for this makeshift love hotel. Morita said he was afraid some joker would put a pinhole in one and had sworn he would never use them. The one time he had come here with Haruko, he had prayed she wouldn't find them.

  Now it held nothing but a small note pad and a grubby pencil. He began to write before he realized what he was doing.

  'T am innocent. Masaharu Aoyagi."

  It was pathetic. Not even long enough to be a haiku. But it was the truth. I'hen why couldn't he get anyone to believe it? He folded the paper and slipped it under the sun visor. Someone would find it, someday. Would it make them wonder? Or sneer?

  And what will have become of me by then?

  "Don't settle for too little." For some reason the words popped into his head. The mantra of the creepy fish in that old computer game. Haruko had said it convinced her it was time for them to break up. "If we go on like this," she'd told him, "we're headed for a life of 'Good effort.'"

  He had been slouched back in the seat, but now he sat up straight. Reaching out toward the window next to him, he traced a star on the glass and then

  THE INCIDENT

  tried to write ''Excellent!" underneath. But the dirt was mostly on the outside and the smudges he left were illegible. He gave the key one final turn. Nothing.

  Giving up on the car, he made his way out of the bushes and back to the river. He needed to get a battery.

  .A narrow dirt track next to a bridge took him into high grass again. It was an overgrown hiking trail following the course of the river, ignored by tourists and barely used even by the people living nearby. Away from prying eyes for a moment, he walked along lost in his thoughts—thoughts, hopefully, of finding a battery. But a part of him knew already how absurd this was, and this part had stopped hoping at all.

  Did you really think you could get that car running? he asked himself.

  Not really, he had to admit. It's just that 1 thought 1 might have a chance if 1 could. Clutching at straws, probably.

  All of a sudden, there was an unfamiliar vibration on his back. The cell phone Miura had given him was ringing. He fumbled in his pack and managed to pull it out. The display told him the incoming number was blocked, but he pushed the answer button anyway.

  "Too bad," said a voice. It was Miura. "
It seemed like a good idea to get an old friend to drive vou out of town in his truck."

  "Tm glad you think so."

  "But they found out. Did he cut a deal with them?"

  "No." Iwasaki hadn't let him down.

  "Would it surprise you if 1 told you 1 was the one who turned you in?" Miura said.

  "What?"

  "If—1 said 'if.' But 1 didn't," he laughed. " The j)olice and 1 don't see eye to eye, as you can imagine." Aoyagi finmd nothing to say in reply. "Are you still there? . . . (.an't y(3u take a joke?"

  "Who'd be stupid enough to believe anything a serial killer says?"

  "Ohhhh!" he wailed. "But 1 hel|)ed you, I rescued you. Aiul 1 would nexer ever turn you in." It was true: he had removed the haiulculls iind let him stiiy in his aj)artment. But he might have done it on a whim. Aiul il he IkkI heli)ed him (jn a whim, he might just as easily sell him out on atiothei. App.uently, more than any sense ol sympathy or justice, it w
  REMOTE CONTROL

  with him. "But I don't care wliether you believe me or not," he said. "I just have two things 1 wanted to tell you."

  "CTood news?" He didn't want to hear any other kind.

  "I suppose you could say that. Or at least some good advice."

  "What kind of advice?"

  "About a way out."

  "I'm all ears."

  "The TV was just showing the tape of you buying the helicopter. And the one of a practice flight in a field."

  "That wasn't me."

  "Obviously," said Miura. Aoyagi was almost disappointed to hear how quickly he had worked it out. "I could tell right away. And that's when I realized you'd fallen into something big. This is no ordinary plot, nothing one man could have cooked up. This is major." At last, someone who seemed to understand. "These guys are big league, with resources to spare, able to come up with a double when they need one."

  "At last, someone who understands," Aoyagi said, this time aloud.