Кэйго Хигасино - A Midsummer’s Equation

Hozumi made a sour face. “It’s hard to say. No one’s been able to track him down, right?”

“Not yet. He had some relatives down in Aichi, but they say they haven’t heard from him since he went to prison.”

“No doubt they want to keep it that way, too.” Hozumi tugged at his mustache. “From looking at the report, it doesn’t seem likely Senba bore a grudge against the victim. Still, just in case, we should probably do some questioning around Hari Cove in case anyone has seen someone matching Senba’s description.”

“Will do,” Isobe said, turning back to the room. “Any suspicious vehicles?”

Another investigator stood, but the report he gave was largely unhelpful. No one had spotted any unusual activity in the area, vehicular or otherwise. They’d compiled a list of people who said they had seen cars parked that evening, but nothing to link any of them to the murder.

Isobe groaned and turned back to Hozumi. “Well?”

Hozumi folded his arms across his chest. “Well, I suppose there’s not much to do but see if we can verify who all those cars belong to, one by one. If someone put him to sleep and poisoned him in a car, that could’ve been done a considerable distance away from where the body was found. We should probably widen the area of our search.”

“Got it,” Isobe said quickly.

Nishiguchi sighed and sunk lower in his chair. He had no idea which way the investigation was going to go, but it was a sure bet it wouldn’t involve him. At least he had something to show for the whole thing: his reunion with Narumi Kawahata. Once things settled down, he planned to invite her out to dinner. He’d already started wondering what restaurant he should pick.

By the time the Save the Cove group got to Hari Cove Harbor, the DESMEC undersea resources survey boat was already at the wharf. Narumi’s eyes widened. The boat was much bigger than she’d expected.

“That’s not a boat, that’s a ship,” Sawamura muttered.

Sawamura parked his truck next to the lone car already in the lot, and everyone got out and headed for the wharf. In addition to Narumi and Sawamura, there were five others in the group who’d been sitting in the back of the truck, among them the couple that had joined Narumi at the bar after the hearing.

The survey boat was even more impressive up close. Narumi guessed that it measured at least a hundred meters from bow to stern. Size-wise, it could easily compete with a luxury yacht, but from the dirt and wear on the hull of the ship, it was clear not much effort had been put into keeping up its appearances. This was a working ship, complete with a cargo crane sticking off of the deck.

“I’m impressed they got it into the harbor,” Narumi said.

“The harbor is naturally quite deep. I hear that’s one of the reasons DESMEC chose it,” Sawamura explained.

Two men walked over and greeted them. She recognized one of them as Kuwano, from DESMEC’s public outreach office, the emcee on the first day of the hearing. The other, slightly younger, turned out to be one of his subordinates.

“Thanks for coming today,” Kuwano said, smiling broadly. “We hope you’ll take this opportunity to get a good look at what we’re doing here.”

On board, they were first shown to the pilothouse, where Kuwano began rattling off facts about the boat’s size, tonnage, maximum speed, and range until Sawamura interrupted him, saying, “We really don’t need to know anything that’s not directly related to the undersea resource development you’re doing.”

“Right, of course,” Kuwano apologized.

They walked through the engine room, communications room, and chart room next. The only thing Sawamura showed interest in was a door marked “Salon,” which he specifically requested to see.

Inside, they found a table, a sofa, a large flat-screen TV, and a media cabinet. The room was large enough for a dozen people.

“This looks like an excellent use of our tax dollars,” Sawamura said.

“On long surveys, people might have to spend several months in cramped quarters,” Kuwano explained. “Without a little entertainment, well...” His voice trailed off.

Next, they were taken to the research rooms, five in all.

Kuwano stood in front of a row of monitors and control boards. “Room one contains controls for the various sonar systems on board, including our multibeam echo sounder, as well as a side-scan sonar, and the remote control for our winch,” Kuwano explained, a distinct gleam of pride in his eyes. “In order to mitigate the noise from water turbulence, all of the actual sonar equipment is in a special sonar dome positioned toward the center of the hull—”

“How many times do I have to tell you people?” a voice coming from behind a large jumble of machinery echoed loudly in the small room. Kuwano froze mid-explanation, his mouth hanging open. He blinked and looked around before finally closing his mouth again.

“Listen,” the voice continued. “I told you there are two ways to wind the coil. Two ways. I even remade the program with that in mind.”

Narumi peeked around the machinery and saw Yukawa standing across a desk from a DESMEC employee. The desk held a laptop computer, stacks of files, and what looked like blueprints spread out between them.

“I know that, which is why I tried to contact you, but I couldn’t get through to your cell phone,” the employee was explaining.

“It broke. Cell phones break. It happens. Why didn’t you call the inn?”

“I did call the inn. But they told me you weren’t staying there. Something about you canceling at the last minute?”

“Yes. I’m staying in a different inn, as I informed DESMEC that day.”

“Well, nobody told me. Why’d you change your reservation anyway?”

“I fail to see what business it is of yours.”

“Er, right, yeah,” the man said, grinning sheepishly.

Narumi felt a hand on her shoulder and looked around. It was Sawamura.

“Let’s go.”

She nodded and followed him out. Kuwano showed them the remaining research rooms, then brought them to the upper deck, where he began explaining the various observational equipment on board. A lot of the technical jargon was over Narumi’s head, but Sawamura looked like he was following, and kept asking questions.

“With the free-fall grab, after it sinks down to the seafloor and gets a sample, the weight detaches so it can rise back up, correct? What happens to the weight? Is it just abandoned?”

“Yes, but the weight itself isn’t anything that can cause any harm down there.”

“How can you say that for certain?” Sawamura asked. “I mean, you are introducing something to the environment that wasn’t there before. Especially now, when in so many areas there is widespread pressure to stop dumping into the ocean, I wonder about a plan that involves intentionally abandoning foreign objects on the seafloor.”

Kuwano frowned. “The relative safety of this method has been globally recognized—”

“But this is our ocean. Who cares what they might think in France or the United States? This is a decision we need to make here, in Japan.”

Kuwano grimaced and fell silent. Narumi felt a touch of sympathy for the man.

Though she might not have caught all of the technical details, it was clear that the DESMEC researchers had been using all of the technology at their disposal to assess and approach this development of a previously untouched and largely unknown part of the world. At times during the explanation, she had even been genuinely impressed by the technology. Maybe Yukawa was right about having to be able to see things from both sides.

Kuwano moved on, explaining a few of the other monitoring devices before he checked his watch. “That about wraps up everything we have to show you. I want to take you to the conference room and show you some footage we have of one of our test surveys, but it will take a little while for us to get ready. Feel free to walk around in the meantime. Just, please let one of us know if you plan on leaving the deck.” He bowed curtly and left them.