‘Nobody I heard of. If they were friends from Yokohama, I’d know. We all keep in touch. There are three in Sheffield, two in Bangor, one in Cambridge.’
‘Do you visit any of them yourself?’
She shook her head. ‘It’s too far on a bike. That’s my transport.’
‘You don’t drive?’
‘No.’
If this was true — and it was an instant response, spoken without sign of evasion — one crucial question was settled. She hadn’t driven to Bath with a body in the back. ‘You’ve known Mari a long time?’
‘We went through school together in Yokohama.’
‘What was she like?’
‘Very good company. She was open and truthful. Laughed a lot. I was looking forward to seeing her again.’
‘We need to get a picture of her as a personality, likes and dislikes, that kind of thing.’
‘There was the music, of course,’ Taki said. ‘She was passionate about that. Serious music. She didn’t have time for modern pop.’
‘When you say passionate...?’
‘I mean it. She’d travel to concerts in other cities. Her bedroom was full of posters of famous musicians, just like some girls go crazy over rock stars. She had a really top-class sound system and hundreds of CDs. Music was her main thing when we were going through school.’
‘Did she play an instrument?’
‘I never heard that she did. Her mother was a professional violinist and maybe that put Mari off, thinking she could never live up to that standard. She could read music, I know that. She’d buy the score and follow it.’
‘She studied maths, her father told me.’
‘Sure, in Yokohama University. There’s some kind of link between music and maths, isn’t there?’
‘Do you know if she had boyfriends?’
‘I expect so. I haven’t seen her for some time.’
‘At school, I mean.’
‘We all went out with boys. Mari was no exception.’
‘Was Mikio a particular friend?’
‘Of Mari’s?’ She blushed a little. ‘You mean Mikio at this university? They were seeing each other at one time. You’d better ask him.’
‘Are you and he...?’ Diamond asked, picking up on the blush.
‘Absolutely not.’ Her voice shook a little. ‘Just because we went through school together it doesn’t mean a thing. We happen to be studying in the same department in the same university, that’s all.’
The charged quality in her response alerted Diamond. ‘Is something the matter between you?’
‘This has nothing to do with Mari.’
‘But...?’
‘We don’t get on now.’
‘Is that why he wasn’t sitting outside when we arrived? To avoid you?’
‘It could be.’
‘Have you spoken to him at all about Mari’s death?’
‘We don’t speak.’
‘But after her father phoned and was so distressed, didn’t you ask Mikio if he’d heard from her?’
‘No.’ She was increasingly tight-lipped. And this interview had started so well.
‘It’s as serious as that, the rift between you? What’s behind it, Taki?’
She dipped her head.
Diamond, at a loss, glanced to his left for assistance.
Ingeborg said to Taki in little more than a whisper, ‘We need to know. It may seem personal to you, Taki, but we don’t ask questions without a good reason.’
Without looking up, she said, ‘My trouble with him has nothing to do with Mari.’
‘You don’t know,’ Ingeborg said. ‘It could be important. Did he try it on with you?’
After another long pause, Taki lifted her head and faced them, her eyes red-lidded and tearful. ‘At the end of the summer term, he got me drunk. He wasn’t dating me, or anything. We were with other students in a pub in the town and everyone was drinking. He kept filling my glass with cider. When I got up to go I was unsteady. I’ve never been drunk before. I couldn’t stand up properly. Everyone except me seemed to think it was funny. Mikio said he’d take me back to my lodgings. He had to hold me up. I remember him at the house helping me upstairs. After that, it’s a blank.’
‘Do you think he took advantage?’
‘I woke up at some time in the night feeling ill. I was alone in my bed and my head was hurting. I managed to get to the bathroom and threw up. Then I realised I was naked.’ She twisted her fingers in an agitated way. ‘I have no memory of undressing.’
‘He stripped you,’ Ingeborg said, making it more of a statement than a question. She was always alert to abuse of any sort.
‘What else can I think?’
‘Were you bruised? Sore? Do you think he raped you?’
‘If he did, it wasn’t obvious. I was too drunk to know. It’s so humiliating. I can’t believe I encouraged him, but even that is possible. You’d think I would have some memory of it, only I don’t.’
‘He could have added something to your drink.’
‘I’ve thought about that. I simply don’t know.’
‘It happens. If it was just drink, you’d probably have some recollection. Is there any talk of guys here using the date-rape drug?’
‘I haven’t heard it mentioned.’
‘As you say, you could be mistaken,’ Ingeborg said, appearing to sense that her outrage was adding to Taki’s distress. ‘Maybe you undressed yourself. Where were your clothes?’
‘On a chair.’
‘That doesn’t sound like a man intent on rape.’
Taki made a small movement with her shoulders that suggested she’d like to be persuaded, but wasn’t. ‘I didn’t see him again until the new term started and then I was too embarrassed to speak to him. In fact, we haven’t spoken since. What makes it worse is that some of the others who were with us in the pub still treat it as a joke.’
‘How does he react when they tease you?’
‘He doesn’t say anything.’
‘Does he have a reputation for sleeping around?’
‘No. I’ve heard nothing like that.’
Diamond joined in again. ‘Back in Japan, before you came here, what did the girls think of him?’
‘Nothing special. He was just another guy.’
‘Did you ever go out with him?’
‘I don’t think he was interested in me.’
‘But you said he was interested in Mari.’
‘I said they dated a few times. I doubt if it ever got serious.’
‘When she spoke to you on the phone about coming to Exeter, did she speak about seeing Mikio as well?’
She gave a nod. ‘It was kind of awkward. She asked if I saw him and I said yes because I do in lectures and she said it would be good for the three of us to meet and would I like to tell him she was coming. I didn’t want to tell her what happened with Mikio, so I said a better idea was to wait until she arrived and maybe we could fix something then.’
‘What did she say to that?’
‘She misunderstood me. I must have sounded really cool about her plan, because she jumped to the idea I was dating him and didn’t want her to come between us. I insisted that wasn’t the case, but I don’t know if she believed me.’
‘So how did you leave the arrangement?’
‘Like I said, we’d keep it loose. She was going to let me know by text when she was coming.’
‘Is it possible she called Mikio herself?’
‘I don’t know.’ Taki frowned. Then her eyes became huge behind the glasses as if an appalling scenario was surfacing in her brain. ‘I guess it’s possible.’
‘Did she have his mobile number?’
‘We all had contact numbers.’
‘We’ll ask him,’ Diamond said. ‘If you didn’t tell him Mari was coming, how else would he have known?’
She still looked deeply troubled. ‘What I said to you just now — about what happened to me last term — doesn’t have to go any further, does it? I’m not accusing him.’