Keigo Higashino - Malice

If you really want to know about what happened back then, there’s a much better way than talking to me. Hey, I don’t mind talking about it, but I’ve forgotten a bunch, and it’s hard to keep it all straight sometimes. Hell, I lose track of what I’m saying when I’m trying to talk about something that happened yesterday! (Laughs)

So, right, it’s much better if you just read that book, the one out under Hidaka’s name. What was it called? Forbidden hunter or something?

Forbidden Hunting Grounds ?

Yeah, that was it. You heard about that one, Detective? Well, then you could’ve saved yourself the trouble coming out here to talk to me.

Anyway, I don’t read books at all, but when I heard about the murder, I thought I might take a peak at that one. That was my first time ever in the library. I almost got nervous just walking in there, like I was going to get in trouble or something. (Laughs)

So, right, I read that book because when I heard about it, especially the part about Fujio being the model for one of the characters, it sounded like it was pretty much our middle school. So I thought, hey, maybe I show up in there, too.

You read it, Detective?

Right, well, don’t tell anyone else this, but it’s all true. No, seriously. It might be written up like it’s a novel and stuff, but everything in there’s the stone-cold truth, no frills. Course all the names are changed. But everything else is exactly like it happened. Read that, and you’ll know it all. It’s got stuff in there even I forgot.

You remember the bit about the kid getting wrapped in cellophane and dumped in the gym? Man, when I read that, I started sweating bullets. (Laughs) See, I was the one in charge of that whole thing. It’s not like I’m proud about it. But, you know, a kid’s gotta blow off steam somehow, right?

Anyway, it was Fujio calling all the shots. He didn’t do much himself, not directly, but he gave the orders. It wasn’t like he was our leader or nothing, but if you ran with his crew, you were guaranteed a good time. So we did. (Laughs)

On the rape:

I don’t know much about that. No, for real. I knew he had his eye on some girl. Long hair, kinda short, pretty girl. Fujio was big as a gorilla, but he had a thing for the real little ones, that was his type. That’s all in the book, too. I was pretty impressed when I read that. The writer really knew his stuff. Of course, it makes sense if it was Gooch writing it.

Then there’s that bit about Fujio disappearing every once in a while? I think in the book, he keeps stepping out right during the middle of sixth period, I mean before school was even finished. But that’s not exactly right. He didn’t leave in the middle of sixth period, he’d leave right when it was done. That’s why he was never in homeroom at the end of the day. As for where he was going, the book got that right. There was a street that pretty little girl always walked home along, and that’s where he’d go. But he never brought any of us with him. He went alone. So I can’t really say what he was up to. Except, I bet what the book says is close enough. I can totally imagine him hiding behind some tree, checking her out, laying his plans. Kinda creepy when you think about it, right? (Laughs)

Except, when he did that thing to the girl, he wasn’t alone. He brought someone with him. I don’t know who. No, for real. I’m not trying to protect anyone. Why would I? It wasn’t me! Look, I did some bad things, but I’m not helping anyone rape someone. You gotta believe me.

It was only one other person?

I know what the book says, about the guys keeping a lookout and the videotape and all, but that’s not how it went down. There was just one other kid, the guy holding her down. And it wasn’t a videotape, it was just a picture. Taken with a Polaroid camera. Fujio took the picture himself, the way I heard it. I don’t know what happened to it though. I’m pretty sure that bit about Fujio selling the tape to the yakuza was all made up, too. I never saw the picture, at any rate. (Laughs) I wanted to at the time, though, sorry to say. But it never got as far as me.

Actually, you know who might know something? Nakatsuka. He was like Fujio’s right-hand man, and Fujio used to give him stuff to hold on to, you know, in case the cops ever searched him. (Laughs) If Fujio gave that photo to anyone, it would have been Nakatsuka. Course I doubt he’d still have it.

I don’t have his contact info here, but his first name was Akio. Akio Nakatsuka.

Didn’t Nonoguchi tell you anything about all this? I’m pretty sure he knows most of it. That’s how he wrote that book, right? Maybe it’s not the easiest stuff to talk about, but still.

Why is it hard to talk about?

Well, come on. Who wants to drag lousy stuff that happened to them when they were a kid out into the light? Most people bury it and move on.

Was Nonoguchi bullied?

Gooch? Sure, but not for long. Fujio never took him seriously, not at first. No, he had his eye on Hidaka. Thought that kid was too big for his own britches. He pulled out all the stops, really gave him a thrashing, but Hidaka never flinched. So Fujio just kept getting worse, trying to put the little punk in his place, you know? And that’s how it escalated to that stuff in the book.

Hidaka was the victim?

That’s right. It was Hidaka we wrapped up in that cellophane. Pretty sure the acid out the window was meant for him, too.

Not Nonoguchi?

Oh, no, by then Gooch was with us, totally. One of the guys. He was the closest thing to an underling Fujio ever had. We used to send him on errands, and stuff like that.

Weren’t Hidaka and Nonoguchi friends?

Hardly. Well, I don’t know what happened after they graduated, of course. They come across as best buddies in all the newspaper reports, but that must’ve been after middle school, because it certainly wasn’t true back when I knew them. I mean, Nonoguchi used to rat out Hidaka to Fujio all the time, telling him things Hidaka was saying behind his back. If it weren’t for that, I doubt Fujio would’ve been so gung ho about showing Hidaka who was boss.

On the character Hamaoka:

Oh, yeah, that was Hidaka. No doubt about it. I know Nonoguchi wrote the book, but since he had to do it in Hidaka’s name, maybe that’s why he made him the main character?

Which character in the book was Nonoguchi?

Huh, kinda hard to say. Just one of the bullies, I guess.

Course, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, does it? A bully publishing a book under his victim’s name? What’s up with that?

Interview: Koichi Mitani

I’d appreciate it if we can keep this short. I’ve got a meeting to get to.

I’m not even really sure what it is you expect to learn from talking to me. I know you detectives have to scour every bit of your suspect’s past, but the last time I knew Nonoguchi was when we were in high school!

I’ve spoken to his elementary school friends as well.

Wow, you’re going that far back? Well, I don’t know what to say about that. I suppose I wonder if it’s really necessary. Not that I’m telling you how to do your job. (Laughs)

So… Nonoguchi was a pretty normal high school student, nothing special. We talked a lot, mostly because we liked the same books and movies and stuff like that.

Did he ever talk about becoming an author?

Oh, sure, he told me that was his ambition. I remember him writing some short stories in his notebooks and showing them to me. I don’t remember most of them, but he wrote a lot of science fiction, as I recall. The stories were pretty good. At least good enough to entertain a high school student.

On Nonoguchi’s choice of high school:

I don’t know. I think it was probably just because his grades in middle school were the right level for admission to our high school?