Keigo Higashino: Malice

“I wondered for a long time what it would take to drive someone to do that. To devote what little time remained to them to destroying another person’s character. To be honest, I couldn’t find any logical explanation for such behavior. I wonder if you’d even be able to explain it yourself, Mr. Nonoguchi.

“It reminds me of something that happened ten years ago. Perhaps you remember—that time when one of my students stabbed the ringleader of a group of bullies right after graduation. When the police asked those bullies why they’d abused my student so severely, all they were able to come up with was that they ‘just didn’t like him.’ It was just hate. Pure, simple malice.

“I wonder if you aren’t operating on the same level. I wonder if, deep inside you, it wasn’t just malice toward Hidaka, incomprehensible even to yourself, that led to his death.

“But where could such malice have come from? I looked into your past and his in great detail, but I couldn’t find any reason why Hidaka earned your hatred. He was a good boy… no, an exceptional boy. You should have thanked him, not killed him. Even after you’d spent all that time egging on Masaya Fujio, goading him to torture Hidaka, years later he was there to help you.

“I know you felt inferior to him. And I know how, as an adult, you envied Hidaka. The one person in the world you couldn’t bear had become a hugely successful author. Everything you wanted, he’d achieved. When I imagine how you must’ve felt when he received his first award, it makes all the hair on my body stand on end.

“But you still reached out to him, didn’t you? That’s how badly you wanted to become a published author. You thought having a connection to him would be a shortcut to achieving your dream, so you decided to ignore the malice in your heart, if only temporarily.

“It wasn’t easy, was it? I can’t say whether it was bad luck, a lack of talent, or a mix of both, but you never realized your dream. When your body began to fall apart around you, you realized that you never would.

“When you realized your own death was imminent, you stopped holding back. You couldn’t bear to leave this world with so much rage burning inside you. The fact that Hidaka knew about your past and he had proof that could expose those secrets, that wasn’t the reason you acted. But it was enough to push you over the edge, to push that darkness you held within you out into the light. You decided to spend your last days planning the perfect crime. You murdered a man and let yourself get caught in order to steal everything from your victim—to ruin his name and his honor and everything he loved, even stealing the credit for the books he wrote.

“That pretty much sums up my thoughts on this case. Do you disagree with anything I’ve said?… I’ll take your silence as a no.

“Let me suggest one last thing before I go.

“In the background interviews I conducted, people remember you and your mother having a dislike, even a prejudice, against Hidaka and the other people living in your neighborhood.

“There was no basis for that prejudice. Nor any indication anyone else shared that prejudice.

“It occurred to me that this whole dislike of Hidaka might not have started with you at all. It might be your mother’s misguided prejudices that planted the seed that led you astray. I just wanted you to know that. Since you can’t blame Hidaka anymore, maybe you can blame her.

“I’ve been talking for some time, haven’t I? My mouth’s quite dry.

“Now that you’ve given your permission for the surgery—and I checked, it’s irrevocable—the doctors will be coming for you soon. I hope your surgery is a success, and that you have many years left ahead of you.

“After all, you have a trial to look forward to.”

The Devotion of Suspect X

Salvation of a Saint

KEIGO HIGASHINO is the bestselling and most widely read novelist in Japan, as well as several other Asian countries, with hundreds of millions of copies sold worldwide. His work has been adapted in dozens of television series and films in several countries and languages. He won the Naoki Prize for The Devotion of Suspect X, the first novel featuring his character Detective Galileo, and the English translation was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Novel and the Barry Award. He lives in Tokyo, Japan.

The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

MALICE. Copyright © 1996 by Keigo Higashino. Translation copyright © 2014 by Alexander O. Smith. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.minotaurbooks.com

Cover design by Ceara Elliot/Little, Brown Book Group Limited and David Baldeosingh Rotstein

Cover photograph of cherry blossoms © Leungchopan/ Shutterstock.com

eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.

Higashino, Keigo, 1958–

[Akui. English]

Malice / Keigo Higashino; translated by Alexander O. Smith. — First U.S. edition.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-250-03560-8 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-250-03561-5 (e-book)

1. Police—Japan—Fiction. 2. Murder—Investigation—Japan—Fiction. I. Smith, Alexander O., translator. II. Title.

PL852.I3625A5713 2014

895.63’6—dc23

2014019885

e-ISBN 9781250035615

First published in Japan as Akui, by Kodansha

First English Edition: October 2014

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1