“To the inn?”
“I need a change of clothes and my makeup. And money. The detective said it was okay as long as I told the guard.”
“All right. I guess that makes sense. I don’t think many of my clothes would fit you anyway,” she said, putting down her beer can and standing.
Wakana’s room was on the second floor of the shop. They went down the stairs, through the dark shop interior, and outside. The van was parked right in front. Narumi took the keys from Wakana and got in. Though the make was different from the one that they had at the inn, she was used to driving vans. “Drive safely,” Wakana said as she pulled out.
She drove along the empty coast road and started up the slope past the station. Pretty soon the inn came into view. There were several red flashing lights out front, like the kind they put up at construction sites. The young officer in uniform was sitting on a folding chair out front, but he stood when he saw the van approach.
Narumi stopped the van and explained herself to the guard. He opened the front door, talked to someone inside, then told her she could go in. A middle-aged, overweight officer was standing inside the lobby. He had the TV on, tuned to a show with some comedians talking loudly.
“You mind if I go with you?” the officer asked. “If someone finds out I let you go in by yourself, I’ll get in trouble.”
Narumi nodded and went inside. The police officer turned off the television and followed her in.
In her room, she pulled a large traveling bag out of the closet and started cramming whatever clothes she could find into it.
“So, what’s your plan? Kind of a tough situation, huh,” he said. Narumi shrugged and didn’t say anything.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked,” he continued. “A long time ago, I was stationed at the police box out by the train station. I was there for twenty-some years. Hari Cove was bustling back then, you know. This place was pretty busy too. But it’s hard these days, with the economy in the tank. Who has the time or the money to fix every little thing that goes wrong in these places? I sympathize with your pops, I really do. Just a stroke of bad luck, that’s what it was. Well, that and throwing out the body. If he hadn’t done that…”
Narumi had stopped listening to him halfway through his monologue, but he didn’t seem to mind. Her bag packed, she left the room. As soon as they were back in the lobby, the policeman turned the TV back on and sat down on the wicker bench without so much as a nod in her direction.
When she opened the front door, she heard voices talking outside. It sounded like they were arguing.
“I’m sorry, but those are the rules,” the young officer from before was saying. “No one not associated with the investigation is allowed inside.”
“Like I said, I’m associated. I was staying here until just this morning.”
“That’s not associated enough.”
“How associated do I have to be? Where’s the cutoff? Explain.”
It was Yukawa, staring the young officer down, a scowl across his face.
“Mr. Yukawa?” she called out to him.
“Just the person I wanted to see,” he said. “Can you please ask this fellow to let me inside, just for a little? I’ve tried talking with him myself, but it’s absolutely no use. He speaks in riddles.”
“You’re the one speaking in riddles,” the officer retorted. “And how complicated is ‘no’? Please, go home,” the officer said, stepping inside the inn and shutting the door behind him.
Yukawa put his hands to his hips and sighed. “Well, that’s just great.”
“Why did you want to see inside?”
“Because forensics was in here trying to re-create what happened and I thought I would check and see if I could tell what they were up to. You see, I have a theory that their experiment didn’t go well.”
Narumi stared at the physicist’s face for moment, then blinked. “Didn’t go well? Why not?”
In lieu of an answer, Yukawa pushed his glasses up with one fingertip. “And to think I walked all the way up here for this,” he said, then turned and began walking down the hill.
“Wait, I’ll give you a lift,” Narumi said, running over to the van.
Yukawa got into the passenger seat, and they took off. The resort hotel where he was staying was less than ten minutes away.
They rode in silence. Narumi was still wondering what he meant about forensics, but she had a feeling there was no point in asking him again.
The hotel came into view, but before they reached the front, Yukawa said, “Let me off here.”
“Why? I can drive you up to the door.”
“No,” he said. “Kyohei and his father are staying here too. They might see you.”
“Oh…” Narumi pulled over to the side of the road. “Yeah. Probably a good idea not to get into that now.”
“Also, there were a few things I wanted to ask you,” Yukawa said. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
Narumi looked over at him. Her heart thudded in her chest. “Yes?”
“Do you think Mr. Tsukahara’s death was an accident?”
Narumi tensed. “If it wasn’t an accident, what was it?”
“I’m asking the questions. Here’s another. Did your parents tell you it was an accident?”
“My father did. He explained it to me.”
“And you believed his explanation?”
“Should I not have? Where are you going with this?”
“Just wondering if there was any doubt in your mind, even a little. No, that’s not entirely true. I’m sure there were quite a few things that didn’t fit right. Just like I’m sure you have at least two good reasons why you would have believed your father anyway. The first would be, you trust him. The second is, you want to believe. In fact, both reasons might apply.”
Every word the physicist spoke felt like a physical thing, probing something deep inside her chest. But not too deep, or too painful. These were quick, calculated thrusts.
“Okay, so maybe there were a few strange parts in my father’s story. But maybe he just doesn’t remember what happened, and I don’t think little contradictions necessarily add up to a big problem. You have to remember, he’s turning himself in. He knows he did wrong. Why sweat the details?” Narumi said, a little defensively.
“True. You may be right. So, different subject. How well did you know the very unfortunate Mr. Tsukahara?”
“How well? I barely know anything about him. Except that he used to be a detective in Tokyo.”
“You may recall I have a friend in Tokyo homicide. If I asked him, I could get in touch with Mr. Tsukahara’s widow. If you wanted to write an apology on behalf of your parents, I could make that happen. If you wanted it.”
Narumi felt a shiver run down her spine. It hadn’t occurred to her until now that she owed Tsukahara’s widow an apology. “I think I’d like all the questioning to be finished before I decide what to do,” she said at last.
“Understood. I’ll tell my friend. Thanks for the ride,” Yukawa said, opening the door, but he didn’t get out. Instead, he turned back around and said, “What are you going to do next? Are you going to stay in Hari Cove?”
Narumi hesitated. She couldn’t be sure exactly why he was asking her. “I haven’t thought about it yet. I don’t even know what I’m going to do tomorrow.”
“But the ocean will still need saving, won’t it?”
“Of course.”
“And how long will you be the one saving it?”
She stared back at him. “How long?”
“Are you going to stay here, watching over these waters until the day you die? Are you not going to marry? What if you met someone but he had to go far away? What would you do then?”
“Why are you asking me these things?”
Yukawa stared at Narumi through his glasses. “Because I feel like you’re waiting for someone. I feel like you’re trying to protect Hari Cove until someone specific comes back.”