Yasuko returned Kudo’s look, noticing his fine features. So this is why he suddenly wanted to meet. He did suspect her, if only a little.
She smiled faintly. “Don’t worry. I had nothing to do with him, really.”
“That’s what I thought. Still, it’s nice to hear it from your mouth.” Kudo nodded and looked at his watch. “Well, since you’re here, how about dinner? I know a great yakitori place.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t tonight. I didn’t tell Misato I’d be out.”
“Oh, right. Well, I don’t want to make things difficult for you, then.” Kudo grabbed the check and stood. “Shall we?”
While he was paying, Yasuko took another look around. No one in the tea lounge looked even remotely like a detective.
She felt bad admitting it to herself, but while Kudo remained under suspicion, she felt easier about getting together with him. After all, the more the police suspected him, the further from the truth they were. But that seemed bound to change. In any case, she wasn’t sure she should let her relationship with Kudo continue to progress as quickly as it had. She wasn’t afraid of becoming intimate—she wanted it, in fact. But she was afraid that doing so would upset the tenuous balance of her life. Ishigami’s masklike face flitted across her mind.
“I’ll give you a lift,” Kudo said after paying the bill.
“It’s all right. I’ll take the train.”
“No, let me give you a ride.”
“Really, it’s okay. I need to do some shopping.”
“Hmph,” Kudo grumbled, but in the end he saw her off cheerily. “All right, well, I’ll see you later, then. It’s all right if I give you a ring?”
“Of course, and thanks for the tea.” Yasuko returned his smile before walking away.
She was at a crosswalk making for Shinagawa Station when her cell phone began to ring. Still walking, Yasuko pulled out her phone and looked at the display. It was Sayoko at Benten-tei.
“Yes?”
“Hey, Yasuko? It’s Sayoko. Can you talk?” There was a strange tension in her voice.
“Sure, what’s wrong?”
“I just wanted to tell you that the detectives dropped by again after you left today. They were asking some strange questions. I thought you should know.”
Gripping her cell phone tightly, Yasuko closed her eyes. Those policemen were at it again, weaving a spiderweb around her wherever she went.
“What do you mean, ‘strange’?” she asked uneasily.
“They were asking about that guy. The high school teacher? What was his name again? Ishigami?”
Yasuko almost dropped the phone. “What about him?” Her voice was trembling.
“Well, they said they’d heard there was someone who came to buy our lunches just to see you, and they wanted to know who he was and what he did. I think they might have heard something from Kudo.”
“Kudo?”
Yasuko couldn’t imagine how this had anything to do with him.
“Yasuko, I think I might’ve said something to him once … and he must’ve told that to the police.”
Now it made sense to Yasuko. The detectives had talked to Kudo, heard about Ishigami, then gone to Benten-tei to corroborate what he told them.
“And what did you say, Sayoko?”
“Well, I didn’t want to raise any suspicions by hiding it, so I told them the truth. I told them he was a schoolteacher who lived next to you. But that we had just been guessing about his reasons for coming. It’s not like he told us anything.”
Yasuko’s mouth was dry. So the police had finally found Ishigami. Had it been Kudo who put them on the trail? Or was there some other reason they were watching him?
“Hello? Yasuko?”
“Yeah, sorry.”
“Anyway, that’s what I told them. I hope that was okay? I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?”
She had, but that was the last thing Yasuko could admit.
“No, not at all. I can’t see how it would be a problem. He’s certainly got nothing to do with all this.”
“That’s what I thought. I just wanted you to know that the detectives had come back.”
“Right, thanks.”
Yasuko hung up. Her stomach churned; she wanted to throw up.
She felt sick and queasy all the way back to her apartment. She stopped to do some shopping at a supermarket on the way, but couldn’t even remember what she had bought by the time she made it home.
Ishigami was at his computer when he heard the door of the next apartment open and close. There were three photos up on his screen: two of Kudo, and one of Yasuko as she went into the hotel. He had wanted to get a shot of the two of them together, but he’d been worried that Kudo would spot him; and if Yasuko had happened to see him, too, there would have been a scene. So he had let his better judgment prevail and kept his distance.
Ishigami imagined the worst-case scenario. He’d need these photos then, for sure. He just hoped it never came to that.
He glanced at the clock on his desk before standing. It was almost eight o’clock in the evening. Yasuko and Kudo hadn’t been together for very long. He couldn’t help but make note of how that fact put him at ease.
Telephone card in his pocket, the mathematician left his apartment and walked down the street as usual, taking a careful look around to make sure he wasn’t being watched.
He thought about the detective, Kusanagi. It was strange. Even when Kusanagi had come asking about Yasuko, Ishigami had gotten the feeling that the man was really there because he wanted to know about Manabu Yukawa. What sort of connection did they have? It was hard for Ishigami to plan his next move without knowing whether or not he was a suspect yet.
He called Yasuko’s cell from the now familiar public phone. She picked up on the third ring.
“It’s me,” Ishigami said. “Is now a good time?”
“Yes.”
“Anything happen today?” He wanted to know what she had talked about with Kudo, but couldn’t find a way to ask the question. If he hadn’t tailed the man, he never would have known they’d met at all.
“Er, actually…” she began.
“Actually what? What happened?” He imagined Kudo filling her head with all kinds of crazy ideas.
“The detectives, they came back to Benten-tei. And, well, they were asking about you.”
“About me? How?” Ishigami swallowed.
“Well, it’s kind of a long story, but some of the people at the shop have been talking about you since before all this began. Sorry, I don’t want to say anything to make you angry…”
What was making Ishigami angry was the roundabout way she was giving him the information. She would be no good at mathematics, he could tell.
“I promise not to get angry. Please just tell me as bluntly as possible. What were they saying about me?” Ishigami waited, ready to hear something unflattering about his looks or demeanor.
“Well—I’ve denied it all along, you understand—but some of the people at the shop think that you come there to buy lunches just so you can see me.”
“What?” For a moment, Ishigami’s mind went blank.
“I’m sorry. They thought it was funny, like a joke. That’s how they talk about things. They really don’t mean any harm by it. I don’t even think they seriously believe it themselves,” Yasuko said, vainly attempting to do some damage control.
But Ishigami barely registered half of what she said. He was wondering how someone else had noticed—someone other than Yasuko.
They were right, of course. He did go to the shop every day just to see her. And he realized that unconsciously he had expected her to notice how he felt. Still, it made his entire body hot with shame to think that someone else, a third party, had noticed first. How they must have laughed to see an ugly man like him head over heels for a beautiful woman like her.