Keigo Higashino - Malice

And Gooch, he spent his share of time in the crosshairs. Actually, yeah, he got beat up pretty bad. People messing with his lunchbox, taking his money. He probably got locked in the janitor’s closet once or twice, too. He was just the type, the kind bullies like to pick on.

The cellophane-wrap incident:

You mean they wrapped him up in that stuff they use in the kitchen? Yeah, maybe I heard about something along those lines. But you gotta understand, there were things like that going on all the time.

The hydrochloric acid incident:

I didn’t hear about that, but it could’ve happened. It wasn’t the best middle school, to say the least. Mayhem was pretty much par for the course.

Were you ever involved?

Well, it’s nothing I’m proud of, but, yeah, I knocked some heads together once or twice. Just a little, though. Nothing serious. Honestly. See, the problem kids liked getting us regular students involved. If you resisted, you’d be the next one on the chopping block, so you kind of had to go along with ’em. It felt terrible. I mean, who wants to beat up on some snot-nosed little kid who doesn’t even fight back? Everyone knew it was going on, too. I remember I put some dog shit in this kid’s bag once, and our student leader was sitting right there, but she pretended not to see. Masuoka, her name was. Even if you weren’t helping ’em, you were letting ’em get away with it. Yeah, those kids loved picking on people, but I think they liked getting us other students’ hands dirty even more. Of course, I didn’t think about it like that back then.

On Fujio:

Oh, yeah, no way I could forget Fujio. I don’t think I was the only one who wished he’d disappear. I bet even the teachers were hoping he’d walk off a cliff.

He was just a bad egg. He thought nothing of making some poor kid’s life a living hell. He was bigger than some of the grown-ups, too, and really strong, so who was going to stop him? Course, when the other bullies figured that out, they fell all over each other to be friends with him. Figured they were safer being on the winning side. I think that just encouraged him, you know? Fujio’s the kind of kid they’re talking about when they say someone’s a lost cause.

Was Fujio the ringleader?

Oh, yeah, without a doubt. He called all the shots. I even heard that whenever any of the kids in his posse stole someone’s lunch money, they had to give it to him first, and he would distribute it. Basically no different from the yakuza, really.

On Fujio’s departure:

Boy, were we happy when he left school. I mean, peace at last, finally! Things did change a lot after he left, too. It was like a big mood shift. There were still a few bad seeds around, but it was nothing like when Fujio was in charge. I didn’t ever find out what happened to him, though. There was a rumor he’d beat up some kid from another school and got sent to juvie, but I doubt it was anything as big as that, or it probably would’ve made the local paper.

Does Fujio have something to do with your case, Detective? Didn’t Nonoguchi kill Hidaka because he was stealing his books?

The other members of Fujio’s circle:

No idea what became of them. They’re probably all productive members of society.

I think I’ve got a class roster around here somewhere. The addresses and phone numbers are old, though. Hang on, I’ll go get it….

Interview: Harumi Nitta

Mr. Hayashida gave you my name? Junichi Hayashida? I don’t even remember a Hayashida in my class. No… No, I’m sure he was there. I’ve just kind of blocked the whole thing out, I guess.

So, where to begin? My maiden name was Masuoka, and, yes, I was a student leader. They picked one boy and one girl every year. It’s not like we had any real responsibilities. We mostly just made sure everyone got their homework assignments and delivered messages for the teacher. Oh, and we helped run student meetings in homeroom. Boy, there’s a word I haven’t used in years. I don’t have any kids.

On Hidaka and Nonoguchi:

I’m really sorry, but I hardly remember either of them. I mostly hung out with the girls. That’s just how it is in middle school.

On bullying:

There was probably some bullying going on with the boys, but I never noticed anything. It’s hard to say what I would’ve done if I had noticed, but probably telling the teacher would’ve been a good place to start.

I’m sorry, but… my husband will be home any minute. If you’ve got what you need, can we wrap this up? I really don’t think I know anything that’d be of any help. Also, I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone else I went to that middle school. It’s just… a difficult subject. I haven’t even told my husband. Thanks.

Interview: Masatoshi Tsuburaya

Thanks for coming out here. Why not come inside? Sure… we can talk right here in the hall, if you prefer.

On Hidaka and Nonoguchi:

Oh, I remember them, sure. I’ve been retired, let’s see… about ten years, but I remember every single one of the students in my classes. You spend that much time with the same kids for a whole year, you get to know them pretty well. And those two were in my first class after I started teaching at that school. You don’t forget your first bunch of students.

Nonoguchi, he was a star in composition. He might not have gotten 100 on every paper, but he was right up there. As for Hidaka, no, he didn’t leave too much of an impression on me in terms of his schoolwork. Good or bad.

On bullying:

I don’t think Hidaka got bullied much, and Nonoguchi definitely didn’t. There were some bad kids, sure, but I never heard about anything happening to him.

Hayashida said he was bullied….

Well, that comes as a real surprise! I certainly had no idea. And don’t give me that detective look, that’s the honest truth. There wouldn’t be any point lying about it now, would there?

Look, the reason why I said Nonoguchi definitely wasn’t bullied is because, if anything, he was on the other side of the equation. He had this phase where he was hanging out with the bad kids; it got to the point where I was pretty worried about him. His parents even came in to talk to me about it. I seem to recall talking to him about all of this on occasion.

Of course when a kid starts hanging out with the wrong crowd, there isn’t much that’s going to save him if he doesn’t have an ally. I don’t mean me, or any other teacher, or his parents. It was his friend Hidaka that turned him around. You wouldn’t know it to look at him, but that Hidaka was a tough cookie. He couldn’t stand to see people getting stepped on. He’d even lay into us teachers sometimes if he felt like we were being too hard on the class.

I think it was around New Year’s when those two boys came to my house to visit. It was more like Hidaka brought Nonoguchi along with him. They didn’t say much, but I got the feeling that they were there to apologize for giving me grief at school.

I was sure the two of them would go on to be best friends for life, so it was a bit of a shock when they ended up going off to different high schools. They both did pretty well in their classes, so I wouldn’t think they’d have had any trouble getting into the same place if they’d wanted to.

It’s really a shame what happened. I wonder what went wrong along the way. I wouldn’t have expected that of either of them.

Interview: Tomoyo Hirosawa

The Nonoguchi boy? Sure, I remember him. They were our neighbors. He came by every once in a while to buy bread. We had a shop, up until about ten years ago.

On the murder:

Now that was a surprise. I mean, those boys? Doing those things? It’s enough to make you wonder.

On Nonoguchi’s childhood: