Keigo Higashino: Malice

“You say that like you were standing there watching me do it.”

“Actually, it was you who gave me the idea, albeit while you were speculating that Miyako Fujio was the killer. In your version, she pretended to leave the Hidakas’ and then went around to the office, did she not? I wondered if you weren’t simply relating what you yourself had done.”

I shook my head slowly. “Serves me right for trying to be helpful! I wouldn’t have said a thing if I’d thought you were going to twist it around and throw it back at me like this.”

Detective Kaga looked down at his notebook. “In your own account, you described your departure from the Hidakas’ in the following manner: “‘Good-bye,” she said, and stood watching me until I’d turned the corner.’ She here refers to Rie Hidaka.”

“So? That’s what happened.”

“According to what you wrote, she went as far as the front gate to see you off. Yet when I talked to her about this, she said she only saw you as far as the front door. How do I explain this contradiction?”

“I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a contradiction! One of us remembered events differently, that’s all.”

“Really? I don’t think so. I think you purposely wrote a false account of what happened. You did this in order to camouflage the fact that you never went to the corner. You never even left the front gate.”

I scoffed. “Ridiculous. You’re dreaming this stuff up and trying to make it all fit. It’s amazing what you can accomplish once you’ve drawn your conclusion in advance.”

“Personally, I feel I’m approaching this case very objectively.”

The look in his eyes made me flinch, even though my brain was off wondering about completely unrelated things, such as why this man loved saying personally all the time.

“Fine, whatever. You’re free to make whatever conjectures you like. But while you’re at it, I’d like you to paint the whole picture for me. What happened next? I was crouched beneath the window, and what then? Did I sneak in through the window and whack Hidaka?”

“Did you?” Detective Kaga looked directly at me.

“Hey, I’m asking you.”

Kaga shook his head slightly. “I’m afraid only the one who did it knows all the details of the crime.”

“What? Are you asking me to confess? Believe me, I’d be happy to—if I’d actually done it. But I didn’t do it. Sorry to rain on your parade. Let’s get back to the phone call, shall we? Remember, the one I got from Hidaka after you claim that he was killed? If that wasn’t from Hidaka, who was it from? My story has been reported widely in the press. If someone else happened to have called me around then, wouldn’t they have gone to the police by now?” I stuck up a finger as though I’d just had a thought. “Wait, you think I had a conspirator, don’t you! You think I had someone call me on purpose.”

Kaga looked around the room without answering. His eyes eventually came to rest on the cordless phone sitting on the dining-room table. He went over, picked it up, and then came back to the sofa.

“You didn’t need a conspirator. All you needed was for this phone to ring.”

“But how does the phone ring if no one’s calling?” I clapped my hands. “Wait! I see what you’re getting at. You think I was carrying a cell phone in my pocket. Then, when Oshima wasn’t looking, I called my own home phone. Right?”

“That would be one way to do it.”

“Fine, but that’s impossible. I don’t have a cell phone, and I don’t know anyone I could have borrowed one from. Besides, couldn’t you just check the records? I’m sure the telephone company would be able to see if I’d called my own phone number.”

“Actually, it turns out to be very difficult to run a reverse trace and look up where a phone call came from.”

“Ah, is that what it’s called—a reverse trace?”

“However, that isn’t necessary, since it’s very easy to tell who a particular phone call was made to. All we need to do in this case is check and see where Mr. Hidaka called that day.”

“And did you?”

“We did.” Kaga nodded.

“I already know the answer, but tell me, what did you find?”

“We found a record of a call from his house to your apartment at six thirteen.”

“Of course you did. Because he called me and we spoke.” I tried to appear confident even though my fear was growing by the moment. If the phone company record hadn’t been enough to dispel Kaga’s suspicions, then he was onto my trick.

Kaga stood and returned the cordless phone to the table. This time, however, he didn’t come back to the sofa. “Hidaka was supposed to send his finished manuscript by fax. However, there’s no fax machine in his office. I’m sure you know why.”

I almost said that I didn’t, but I held my tongue instead.

“Because he could send it directly from his computer, right?” Kaga asked.

“I’ve heard that can be done.”

“It’s very convenient for people who still need to send faxes. You don’t have to keep paper at hand, for one thing. Of course, Hidaka was going to switch to sending in his submissions by e-mail once he was in Canada. He’d already asked his editor to make any necessary adjustments for this on their end.”

“I don’t know about any of that. I don’t use computers much. All I know is that Hidaka once mentioned something about sending faxes directly from his computer.”

“There’s nothing difficult about it. Anyone can do it. And the software comes with lots of useful features. You can send to several different numbers simultaneously if you want, and you can save a list of common recipients. Also”—Kaga paused, looking down at me—“if you set the time, you can have it send a fax automatically.”

I looked at the floor, away from his eyes. “And you think that’s what I did?”

He didn’t answer the question. There was no need.

“It was the lights that bothered me at first,” he said. “You said all the lights were out when you arrived at the Hidakas’. The killer had probably wanted to make it look like Hidaka had gone out, though you couldn’t figure out why they had left the computer on, correct? I think I know why. Because the computer was necessary for the fax trick to work. It had to be left on. After you killed Hidaka, you scrambled to create an alibi. Specifically, you turned on his computer, pulled up some suitable document, and set the computer to fax that document to you at 6:13 p.m. Then you went around and turned off every light in the house, a necessary step for the story you were going to tell. If you were going to return to the house at eight o’clock, think Hidaka wasn’t home, and then go so far as to call his hotel, you needed the lights to be off. Even if the lights had been on only in that one room, you would have come around and looked through Hidaka’s office window before calling the hotel. And you wanted Rie Hidaka to be there with you when you discovered the body.”

After this little speech Kaga paused. Perhaps he was waiting for me to retort or attempt an explanation. I remained quiet.

“I think you probably considered the computer monitor yourself,” he went on after a moment. “As I said previously, the monitor puts out quite a bit of light. But the PC needed to be running. You could’ve turned off just the monitor, but that would’ve been dangerous. Rie was with you when you discovered the body, and if she had noticed that the computer was running but the monitor was turned off, that might’ve been enough to tip off the police to your trick right there on the spot.”

I tried to swallow, but my mouth was completely dry. I realized I was terrified of meeting Kaga’s eyes. He had seen right through my flimsy layers of subterfuge, right through my skull and down into the very thoughts that had been in my head.