Fuminori Nakamura - Evil and the Mask

WHEN I MADE my way through the lobby and left the hotel, the guy who had driven me there was already gone. I figured that Mikihiko Kuki was probably going to sleep all by himself in that gloomy room. I hailed a cab and we drove across the dry asphalt, past the sparse lights from the office blocks, the lights from the apartment buildings, the headlamps of innumerable cars. I watched them flash by without really seeing them, pondering my father’s missing ear. Various thoughts flitted through my mind — how his alcohol consumption had increased as he grew older, the fact that when I closed the door to that underground room he had been carrying poison to kill himself. I wondered if his hunger in the basement had reminded him of the hunger he’d experienced as a child or during the war.

When I checked my cell phone I had an email from Kyoko, saying that I shouldn’t come home because a shady-looking guy was hanging around outside. I was pretty sure it would be Aida, so I sent a reply saying that I didn’t care and I was on my way. After thinking for a minute, I rang the private eye. He answered straight away. There was an indistinct buzzing in the background, but a few moments later it abruptly went quiet. I didn’t want the taxi driver to overhear our conversation so I made him stop the car, got out and leaned against the trunk.

“I met Mikihiko Kuki,” I said.

“Just now?” His tone grew tense.

“Yes. It was a big surprise. Apparently he was behind Yajima’s targeting Kaori.”

“Then that means …”

“He wants to get his hands on her. To get her addicted so he owns her. He must be totally insane, to do something like that even though he’s not particularly interested in her. I still don’t know what he’s really up to, though. By the way, about my phone, they did get it from Konishi after all.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Can’t be helped. The thief was in JL.”

“JL?”

“One of their members is related to the Kukis, the grandson of Shozo Kuki’s twin brother. His father was the head of Rahmla who killed himself. It looks like he’s trying to use Kaori to get money out of me. The ones who’ve latched onto Kaori, they’re all Kukis.”

He didn’t reply.

“It’s one crazy family. They really are. It would have been better if they’d never adopted her in the first place. It’s because she got mixed up with such an insane mob that she’s had such a hard time. That’s what the Kukis are like — stubborn, malevolent, vindictive. Maybe it’s Shozo Kuki’s curse. No, it goes back further than that.”

I realized that my speech was growing more rapid. I took a deep breath to calm myself for what I had to say next.

“Would it be possible for me to meet with Kaori?”

My voice cracked and faltered. Despite my best efforts my heart was still racing, disturbed by my audacity.

“Also, could you study Mikihiko Kuki’s habits? What bars he frequents, anything.”

This was the same thing I’d asked him to do for Yajima.

“Will do.”

“Thanks. But aren’t you going to ask why?”

There was a pause, as though he was thinking. Cars sped past as I leaned against the taxi.

“In our job,” he said, “we never question a client’s request. I think I’ve said this before, but in our line of work we see things you don’t normally see, and we make the impossible possible. Our job is to do the client’s dirty work, things outside the scope of day-to-day-life.”

“But why do you put yourself in that position? Sorry, it’s none of my business.”

I didn’t know why I was talking like this.

“No, I don’t mind answering. I think I’m taking revenge on the world.”

“Revenge?”

“I want to change everything about the world, change what is assumed to be the normal course of events. I can’t say for sure if that’s a kind of revenge or not, but at any rate, I feel like I’m fighting against the tide that’s always pushing people in one direction. By breaking the rules.”

“Don’t you think people make their own choices in life?”

“They do, but in many cases their choices are limited — unless they break the rules.”

I stared at the lights of the apartment buildings in front of me, conscious of the hard metal of the taxi against my hips.

“But maybe those transgressions are part of the tide,” I said. “Sorry, we’ve gone off topic. What have you found out about Shintani’s past?”

“Well, I don’t see anything suspicious. It’s true that after they split up, Sae Suzuki had some serious emotional problems, and some people said that might have caused the accident.”

I tried to remember if any of Shintani’s favorite movies dealt with a theme like that.

“The mother, Yaeko, seems to think so. That’s probably why she hates Shintani. She didn’t even let him go to the funeral.”

“Really? Not even the funeral?”

The stream of cars had gradually diminished. I closed my cell phone. When I started to get back into the taxi I realized that someone was sitting in a black car that had been parked behind me the whole time. If he was tailing me, I thought, he was making his presence very obvious. Pretending to be checking my email, I used my phone to record the car on video. I climbed back into the cab, checked the picture and sent it to the detective. When we took off again, the other car followed right behind, as though it wanted to be seen. The detective sent me a reply saying that the car belonged to the investigator hired by Mikihiko Kuki.

I watched it in the side mirror, reflecting that as soon as Mikihiko stuck his oar in, this guy showed up — even though there was no point tailing me, since he obviously already knew where I lived. I decided to ignore it, and didn’t turn around again.

WHEN WE REACHED my apartment, Aida was standing out front. I paid my fare and got out, feeling wearier than ever. He was on the phone, but hung up as soon as he saw me. In his hand was a half-finished cigarette. The car that had been following me drove straight past, perhaps because Aida was there. I headed for the entrance but he held up an arm to bar my way.

“It’s good manners to say hello, even if you’re not going to roll out the red carpet.”

“I’ve got nothing to say to you.”

I tried to move past him but he grabbed my shoulder. In the distance the black car disappeared reluctantly around the corner, as though delivering a warning.

“What’s the big deal?” he said. “I won’t be able to see you again for a while.”

I stopped and looked at him. He was still wearing the same worn-out shoes.

“No matter how much I look at Sae Suzuki’s death, you’re still in the clear. The more I look at it, the more it looks like it was her own fault. Unfortunately. And luckily for you, at precisely the time of the accident you were in a university tutorial presenting a report for your professor. The whole class saw you. Your alibi is rock solid. Yaeko’s theory that you hired someone to do it just doesn’t seem realistic.”

“In that case you can give it up, can’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess. But while I was reviewing the case I realized again just how much I hate you.”

He was staring at Shintani’s face.

“You never stop and think about things, do you? Never brood, never fret over small stuff. You just skate smoothly through life. I don’t know if you were really interested in movies or not, but the other members of the film society said that you were just putting on an act.”

I had no idea if what he was saying was true, but it seemed funny that I’d been watching the movies that Shintani was supposed to like, and had been moved by them.

“It’s not just that I feel sorry for Yaeko. When I heard that a week after Sae’s death you went out drinking with your friends, laughing hard enough to wet yourself, I couldn’t forgive you. Sure, maybe you’re not responsible. But right up till the day she died she was thinking only of you. That’s what your life’s been like since then too. For some reason people die all around you while you carry on blithely. It’s a bizarre existence. As if they’re carrying the burden for you. Personally, I despise people like you. But look at you now.”