Keigo Higashino: Malice

When there was no answer at the front door, I left and started walking back toward the station. Along the way was a small park with a pay phone by its entrance. I pulled out my wallet and stepped into the booth.

I got the number for the Crown Hotel from information and then called and asked for Hidaka. The desk put me through immediately and Rie answered, “Hello?”

“It’s me, Nonoguchi. Is Hidaka in?”

“No, he hasn’t come to the hotel yet. I think he’s still at home. He still had some work left to do.”

“I don’t think he’s there.” I explained that I’d been to the house and it didn’t look like anyone was home.

“He said he wouldn’t be here until pretty late.”

“So maybe he just went out for a bit then?”

“That doesn’t sound right, either.” Rie went quiet. “Look, how about I come and take a look,” she said after a minute. “I should be there in about forty minutes. Where are you now?”

I told her that I could kill time at the local café and then meet her at the house when she got there. After hanging up, I left the phone booth, but before going to the café I decided to take one more look at Hidaka’s place. When I got there, the lights were still all out. But this time, I noticed that the Saab was parked in the driveway. That bothered me.

The café was a specialty coffee shop and one of Hidaka’s favorite places to go when he wanted a change of scenery. I’d been there several times, and the owner recognized me and asked after Hidaka. I told him I was supposed to meet up with Hidaka, but that he’d been a no-show. We talked about baseball for a good half hour before I paid my tab and left, walking quickly back toward the Hidaka residence.

I got to the front gate just as Rie was getting out of a taxi. I called out to her and she smiled at me. But when she looked at the house, her face clouded over. “There really isn’t a single light on.”

“I guess he’s still out.”

“But he didn’t say he’d be going anywhere.”

She walked to the front door, pulling the keys out of her bag. I followed along behind her. The door was locked. She unlocked it, went inside, and started turning on lights. It was cool inside the house. Empty.

Rie walked down the hallway to Hidaka’s office. This door was also locked.

“Does he always lock the office door before leaving?” I asked.

She shook her head as she fished another key from her purse. “Not much recently.”

She opened the door. The lights in the office were off, but it wasn’t completely dark. The computer was on, and a pale glow came from the monitor. Rie felt along the wall for the light switch, then she abruptly stopped.

Hidaka was lying in the middle of the room, his feet pointing toward the door.

After being frozen for a few seconds, Rie dashed over to him. But before she reached him, she stopped in her tracks, frozen again, her hands pressed to her mouth.

Gingerly, I approached. Hidaka was lying facedown with his head twisted so I could see the left side of his face. His eyes were half-open. They were the eyes of a corpse.

“He’s dead,” I said.

Rie slowly collapsed to the floor. The sobs came welling up the moment her knees touched the carpet.

While the police were examining the scene, Rie and I waited in the living room. At least, it used to be the living room; now that both the sofa and the table were gone, it felt a little bare. Rie sat on a cardboard box filled with magazines, while I paced in circles like a bear, occasionally poking my head out into the hallway to see how the investigation was proceeding. Rie was crying the whole time. I looked at my wristwatch: 10:30 p.m.

Finally, there was a knock and the door opened. Detective Sakoda came in—a calm fellow, approaching fifty. He seemed to be in charge of the investigation.

“Might I have a few words?” he asked me after glancing at Rie.

“Sure, anything.”

“I’m fine to talk, too.” Rie dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. Tears were still in her voice, but her words were clear. I remembered what Hidaka had said earlier that day, about her being able to dig in when it mattered.

“It won’t take long.”

Detective Sakoda asked us to tell him everything that had happened that day up until we found the body. I started first, and as I talked, I realized my story would have to include Miyako Fujio.

“Around what time did Hidaka call?” Detective Sakoda asked.

“It was a little after six, I think.”

“And did he mention Ms. Fujio when you spoke?”

“No, he just said he wanted to talk to me about something.”

“So it could’ve been about something else?”

“It’s possible.”

“Any idea what that might have been?”

“No, not at all.”

The detective nodded, then turned to Rie. “Around what time did Ms. Fujio go home?”

“After five, I think.”

“And did you speak with your husband after that?”

“A little.”

“How did he seem?”

“Upset. The talk with Ms. Fujio hadn’t gone so well. But he told me it was nothing to worry about.”

“And it was after that when you left the house and went to the hotel?”

“That’s right.”

The detective nodded. “Okay, so you were planning to stay at the Crown Hotel tonight and tomorrow night, then leave for Canada the day after tomorrow? But your husband had some work to finish, so he stayed behind at the house.” Sakoda looked over his notes as he spoke, then looked back up at Rie. “Who knew that your husband would be at home alone?”

“Well, myself and…” She looked at me.

“Of course I knew. And I expect that someone at the magazine, Somei Monthly, would have known as well.” I explained that Hidaka had been writing a serialized novel for them and it was the next installment that he was staying behind to finish. “Still, that hardly narrows down your suspects.”

“I’m just collecting facts,” Detective Sakoda said, smiling ever so slightly.

He then asked Rie whether she’d seen any suspicious people around their house lately. She said no. That was when I remembered the woman I’d seen in the garden earlier that day. I wondered if I should say something, but ultimately kept silent. Who would commit murder to avenge a cat?

When the questions were done, the detective said he would have one of his men take me home. I would’ve preferred to stay with Rie, but it sounded as if they had already called her parents and someone was coming to pick her up.

As the shock of discovering Hidaka’s body gradually faded, I could feel a wave of exhaustion coming over me. I felt bleak inside when I thought of walking all the way to the station and taking the train all the way home. I decided to accept the offer of a ride home from the police.

A crowd of police were still outside the room, mostly walking back and forth down the hall. The door to the office was open, but I couldn’t see inside and I assumed the body had already been removed.

A uniformed officer called out to me and led me to a police car parked outside the front gate. It was the closest I’d been to a police vehicle since the time I was pulled over for speeding. A tall man was standing next to the cruiser. If he was a police officer, he was in plainclothes, but the way the streetlights fell on him made it hard to see his face.

“Long time no see, Mr. Nonoguchi,” he said.

“Do I know you?” I stopped, squinting at the man’s face.

He stepped forward out of the shadows. It was a familiar face, with narrow eyebrows and close-set eyes. I knew I knew him, but it took a moment for the memory to surface.

“Do you remember me?”

“I do! Er…” I thought for a moment. “Kaga, right?”