Кэйго Хигасино - A Midsummer’s Equation

“All finished?” Motoyama asked, as gently as possible.

“I thought I’d give her a little time by herself. And, I was hoping that might give me a chance to hear some of the details?”

“Certainly,” Motoyama said. “There’s a room we can use.” He looked over at Nishiguchi. “You stay here and bring the widow to room number two when she comes out.”

“Yes sir,” Nishiguchi replied.

He waited for about ten minutes in the dimly lit hallway before the door quietly opened and Sanae emerged. Her eyes were red, but there was no trace of tears on her face. She must’ve already touched up her makeup, Nishiguchi thought.

The meeting room was on the second floor. When they arrived, Motoyama was pointing at a map spread out across the table, indicating the location where Tsukahara had been found. Okamoto was there, as well as Commissioner Tomita. Tomita stood up from the table with surprising swiftness for someone so overweight. He immediately bowed and offered his condolences.

“They found him in a place called Hari Cove,” Tatara said, turning to the widow. “Ever heard of it?”

She shook her head and sat in one of the chairs.

“Director Tatara informs me that your husband left the inn without indicating exactly where he was going,” Motoyama said. “Was that typical of him?”

Sanae’s hands clutched the handle of the bag on her knees tightly. “He had been taking trips to hot springs and the like on occasion — by himself, as I usually work on the weekdays. Sometimes he’d have a particular destination in mind, but other times he would just have a general idea, like he was going to see the foliage, or the ocean. I knew he was headed in this general direction this time, but not precisely where he was going.”

“Had he ever mentioned Hari Cove before?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t think so,” she said.

Motoyama picked a travel bag up off the chair next to him and placed it on the table. “Have you ever seen this bag?”

“That’s his, yes.”

“Would you mind checking the contents and letting us know if there’s anything in there that looks unfamiliar to you?”

“Is it all right to touch it with my bare hands?” Sanae asked — the kind of question only a detective’s wife would think to ask, Nishiguchi mused.

Motoyama nodded.

She checked the contents and told him that everything inside was her husband’s, as far as she knew.

“And the cell phone? As far as we could tell, he hadn’t used it much recently. We see the last call as having been made three days ago, to the Green Rock Inn. Probably when he made his reservation.”

Sanae picked up the phone and checked recent calls. “That would be pretty normal,” she told them. “He’s had the phone for a while, but he rarely used it. He spoke of not having many people to call since retiring... and he never sent text messages or e-mail.”

Motoyama nodded. Next, he pulled a plastic bag containing a single piece of paper from the inner pocket of his jacket. This, too, he placed on the table.

“Are you familiar with this? Feel free to pick it up.”

Sanae took the plastic bag and examined its contents. A frown spread across her face.

It contained a piece of paper that Nishiguchi had discovered folded into the pocket of Masatsugu Tsukahara’s shirt. It was printed with the words “Informational Hearing and Discussion on the Proposed Development of Submarine Hydrothermal Ore Deposits” and was marked with an official DESMEC stamp.

Sanae shook her head and set the plastic bag down. “I’ve never seen this before.”

“What is it?” Tatara asked.

“It’s an attendance voucher for a hearing in town,” Motoyama explained, filling them in on the proposed development and the local reaction.

“And Mr. Tsukahara attended this hearing?”

“Yes, we have a witness who saw him at the meeting hall yesterday, and it’s our opinion that he came to Hari Cove with the express purpose of attending that hearing.”

Tatara frowned and looked over at Sanae. “And you never heard anything about this?”

“Not a word. I’m not even sure what these ore deposits are.”

Tatara shook his head and rested his elbows on the table. “Well, that’s odd.”

“We talked to some of the people involved with the hearing, and they did indicate that there were people there other than locals or those directly related to the development project,” Motoyama said. “Since it is the first proposal of its kind in Japan, they opened attendance to anyone in the country who wanted to come. Could Mr. Tsukahara have had an interest in resource development? That voucher was only sent to people who specifically requested one.”

Both Sanae and Tatara nodded at that, though neither looked convinced.

Commissioner Tomita spoke. “Could it be possible that in his travels after retiring he developed an interest in the environment? Environmental groups have been talking quite a bit about the proposed development and the risk of damage to the ocean around Hari Cove. That might’ve led him down here.”

It was an almost flippant theory, Nishiguchi thought. Tomita clearly wanted this case to go away quickly. There was no sign it was anything other than an accident, and he couldn’t have appreciated the presence of a Tokyo Police director on his home turf.

Tatara didn’t respond, instead pulling the map over toward him.

“How do we get from here to the place where it happened? I’d like to see it for myself, if that’s all right.”

“We’d be happy to give you a lift,” Motoyama offered.

“Great, then, let’s go.”

“Right... Er, about the body. I assume you haven’t made funeral arrangements yet?”

Tatara looked slowly between Motoyama’s and Okamoto’s faces before turning to Commissioner Tomita. “I gather, then, you don’t have plans for an autopsy?”

Nishiguchi stiffened in his chair. Having a director from Tokyo homicide even mention the word autopsy made everything seem more serious.

“Er, well, no. I mean, based on all the reports we’ve had so far, there’s really no need,” Tomita managed, casting a look at Okamoto that screamed help me .

“The local physician’s opinion was that death was due to cerebral contusion,” Okamoto said, his tongue tripping over his words. “Right?” he said, looking at Motoyama.

Motoyama nodded, and added, “We also analyzed his blood for alcohol content. He had been drinking, but not to the level of impairment. It might have made him a little unsteady, however. Our working theory is that he went for a walk to clear his head, climbed onto the seawall, slipped, and fell down on the rocks.”

Tatara looked down at the table in silence for a few moments before looking back up. “Let’s go take a look at the scene first,” he said. “We can consider the remains later. If that’s all right?” The last question he directed toward Sanae.

“Of course,” she replied.

They arrived at the scene about half an hour later.

Getting down to the rocks themselves was too much trouble, so they settled for looking down from the seawall. They could still clearly see the blood splashed on the rocks below. Sanae put a hand over her mouth as a choking sob escaped her lips. Tatara held his hands together in silent prayer for a moment before he began scanning the scene.

“We’ve been questioning people in the area since this morning, but nobody spotted Mr. Tsukahara down here last night,” Motoyama explained, his tone apologetic. “Out in the countryside, few people go outside after eight o’clock.”

Tatara looked around. “Must get pretty dark at night.”

“Pitch black, yes.”

“And this was about four hundred meters from the inn? I’m surprised he managed to walk that far in the dark. Or was he carrying a flashlight?” Tatara muttered, half to himself.