Кэйго Хигасино - The Name of the Game is a Kidnapping

“Huh.” Looking at my face, she took a seat on the bed. “Because if you brought a valued customer’s daughter back home and she were emaciated, you’d give a bad impression?”

The girl was as obnoxious as ever. It made me want to put her in her place.

I drew a chair and sat down on it. I took the remote and turned off the TV.

“And? Do you feel like going home now?”

“I told you I wouldn’t. Get off my back.”

“I need to make sure. Because it’s important.”

“It’s important?” She scowled. “How?”

“I’ll explain later. I want to check one more thing. Last night, you told me you wanted me to get you money. Whatever amount you’d rightfully inherit, you even said. Was that a joke?”

“Why would I ever joke about that? I’m not a kid, it’s not like I ran away to see how much my parents care about me.”

“So you’re really serious.” I glared at her.

“I’m telling you I am. How many times are you going to make me say it?” she told me irritatedly.

“Splendid.”

Still in the chair, I opened the fridge next to me. I took out a can of Budweiser and popped the top. The fizz vigorously overflowed down my fingers.

I had a mouthful and put the can on the desk. I examined Juri’s expression anew. She stared back at me dubiously, looking a little creeped out.

It was time for me to decide. Hearing my proposal, how would this girl react? If she turned me down, it’d be game over at that moment. She’d simply tell her father just how crazy in the head Shunsuke Sakuma was. Without a doubt, her father would tell Kozuka and demand that I be fired immediately. Kozuka could never go against Katsutoshi Katsuragi. I would be driven out of the company.

But clinging to Cyberplan as things stood would just make me miserable. In that case, I wanted a match.

I was remembering the arcade games I played as a kid. After Space Invaders went out of style, countless others appeared. When a new one came out, I would go by the arcade. Backed by colorful images, the machine would propose a duel.

INSERT COIN — it was the same as then.

I opened my mouth at last. “How about a game?”

“A game?” Juri looked suspicious.

“A game that’ll grant your wish. You’ll be able to snatch from the Katsuragis whatever you’re worth. I get compensated, too.”

“What are you up to?”

“Asks who? This was your idea in the first place.” I took the can of beer in hand again. Gulping it down, I fixed her with a gaze and continued, “A kidnapping game.”

When she entered the condo unit, before taking off her shoes, Juri’s nose twitched.

“Do you smell something?” I asked.

“No. I thought it’d smell more like a man. But it smells pretty good. Is it mint?”

“It’s just the deodorant. I don’t like the room to smell, either. Even if it’s my own smell.”

My place was a one bedroom. Juri sat down on the loveseat in the living room. She looked around and said, “So you keep it pretty clean.”

“I clean it up once a week.”

“Huh, you don’t look like you would.”

“If you make a habit out of it, it’s nothing. The important thing is to make sure that you don’t collect too much stuff. I keep throwing out all the extra stuff. If you do that, cleaning up isn’t hard at all. As long as you have thirty minutes, you can get it done. One week is ten thousand eighty minutes, so if you just put in some effort for thirty minutes, you can spend about ten thousand minutes in comfort. But if you don’t put in the thirty minutes of effort, you’ll have to spend ten thousand minutes in discomfort.”

As she listened to me, Juri made a blatantly disgusted face. “Do you have anything to drink?” she asked.

“Should I put on a pot of coffee?”

She didn’t nod. She had her eyes on a Swedish board placed on the wall. “Some liquor would be nice.”

She was such a cheeky girl. But tonight I’d humor her. “Okay. Beer, scotch, bourbon, brandy, sake,” I listed, putting up my fingers. “What do you want?”

Juri crossed her legs, then her arms. “I want Dom Pérignon. Pink.”

Did she want me to slap her? But I held back. “Usually I have two or three refrigerated, but last night I happened to drink my last one. I do have wine, though, if you’ll pardon me.”

Juri sighed, or rather, huffed, “It can’t be helped, I guess. Make it red then.”

She must have been trying to come across as an adult woman. Well, I’d put her in a good mood. “Understood, mademoiselle.”

I had Italian wine that I’d received as a gift lying in the corner of my cupboard. I used a screw-type opener to pull the cork.

Tilting her glass, Juri took some time mouthing the wine. I predicted she’d say it was a little young or something like that.

But she nodded as though satisfied. “Yeah, it’s good.”

“Glad to hear it. Are you selective about your wine?”

“Not really,” she denied unceremoniously. “If I drink it and I think it tastes good, that’s good enough. Remembering the maker is too much work.”

“But you know Dom Pérignon.”

“It’s the only champagne I know. My dad likes to say, ‘Dom Pérignon equals champagne, and anything else is a different drink.’”

Katsutoshi Katsuragi’s face wandered into my mind. I had to object. “Champagne just means a fizzy wine made in the Champagne region. But it’s not just Dom Pérignon.”

Juri shook her head at this. “Actually, how to make champagne was a secret process handed down at the Hautvillers monastery in Champagne. Then it spread to the entire region. The person who invented that process was the cellar master of the monastery, Dom Pérignon. That’s why Dom Pérignon is the true champagne.”

“Well, well.” I knocked back my cheap red wine. “That was illuminating.”

It was revolting. Katsutoshi Katsuragi probably spouted wisdom like that tilting his champagne flute.

“Anyway, I want to continue on with what we talked about earlier,” I said.

“About the game?” As expected, Juri’s expression became tense.

“Of course. I want to check one more time that you’re serious about doing this.”

“If I weren’t I wouldn’t have come here.”

“Give it to me straight. Are you feeling up to a kidnapping game or not? If you’re hesitating, tell me. Depending on the case, I’ll give you time to think.”

But at my words, she shook her head as though annoyed. “I told you I didn’t run away from home as a joke, didn’t I? I even have a grudge against the Katsuragis. I’m in.”

“All right. Then how about a toast before we begin.” I refilled our wine glasses and lifted mine. “May victory be ours.”

Juri also hoisted her glass and clinked it against mine.

It wasn’t as though I had an amazing strategy. Everything was still up in the air at this stage. But, for the first time in a while, I was excited. It was my response to coming across a game that was worth the challenge.

“There are two or three things I need to check.” I put up my index finger. “First, after you left home, did you talk to anyone? For instance, did you call any friends?”

Juri immediately shook her head. “There’s no way I’d do that. I’d be in trouble if they told on me.”

“Right. Then next, go over what you’ve been doing from yesterday to today. Uhh, you said you went to a family restaurant. Which one?”

“Why do you need to dig so deep?”

“Because I want to know who you’ve come into contact with. If, by some chance, someone remembered your face, that would be a hassle.”

“That won’t be a problem.”

“Listen. Why do you think criminals get caught by the police? Because they’re all careless about their actions. You need to be conscious of where you left what traces, otherwise you can’t anticipate the police’s movements.”