“Possibly. That makes sense. But crushing the second victim’s eyes pointed to our blind spot, and to glasses, so carrying away the left arm must mean something.. .but once again, it’s the right leg that bothers me, Misora. The killer’s treatment of it is so muddled. You yourself said that disposing of a body isn’t easy, but neither is cutting one up. It must have taken ages. It doesn’t strike you as rather dangerous to do something like that in a townhouse? There are houses on either side, sharing walls, and they might notice at any moment.”
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“Both limbs were cut off right at the root... the body was found over there. Right, pictures, pictures Misora flipped through the folder she had already taken out and produced the photographs of the third crime scene. The same picture that had helped them figure out the message at the second scene. She held the photograph up, lining it up with the room and pinpointing where the body had been. “It was over here, lying on its back, with the right arm and left leg flung out wide... hmm…”
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“Well, if your theory is correct, we have plenty of time before the next murder takes place. Let us be thorough. Speaking of which, don’t you think it’s time you explained why the fourth murder will happen on the 22nd?”
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“Yeah, I suppose.”
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Misora put the photographs away and turned toward Ryuzaki. He wasn’t facing her. They’d known each other five days and had met three times, and it was becoming clear that Ryuzaki was not aware that it was customary to face the person you were speaking with. But by this point, she was hardly going to dwell on something so insignificant.
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“It’s such a simple matter it almost seems like a waste of breath. The third murder happened on August 13th, right?”
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“Yes, you don’t even need to check.”
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“There were Roman numerals on the first victim’s body, but this time we have Arabic numerals.
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Thirteen... 13. If you write a one and a three next to each other... they look like a B.”
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“Yes,” Ryuzaki nodded.
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This was so simple she had worried that he would laugh at her but he seemed to be taking it surprisingly seriously.
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“Come to think of it, I once saw a children’s game show where they asked what one plus three equaled, and the answer was B...”
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“Exactly. B.”
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“B.B.? But Misora, that works for the third murder, since it took place on August 13th, but what about the other dates? The cross word puzzle reached the LAPD on July 22nd, the first murder wis on July 3
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1st, the second on August 4th. and you’ve predicted ilu fourth on August 22nd.. .none of which form the letter B.”
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“Not at first glance. But apply the same principle following a different pattern. The easiest is the first murder...July 31st. Three and one. Reverse the two and you get thirteen.”
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“Okay, I’ll grant you the 3 1st. That seems reasonable enough But what about the fourth and the two 22nds?”
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“Same thing. Just change the pattern. Take the problem you mentioned from the children’s game show one plus three. August 4th four is the normal answer to that equation. And August 22nd if you take one from the tens place and put it in the ones place you end up back at thirteen,” B.
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Thirteen.
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“In other words, every day the killer takes action, the 22nd, the 31st, the 4th, the 13th...the tens place and the ones place add tip to four. In each month there are only those four dates that do that. Only four.
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And something happens on every one of those. Also, the Wara Ningyo started out at four. One plus three equals four. And this might just be a coincidence, but worth putting on the pile the gaps between the cases, four days and nine days, if you add four and nine, you get thirteen... B.”
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“I see. Not bad,” Ryuzaki said, nodding. Misora beamed.
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“Picking up on the similarity between thirteen and B is a pretty good idea.”
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“Isn’t it? So the fourth murder will happen nine days after the 13th, on the 22nd. Nine, four, nine... I considered the possibility of another four, and the murder happening on the 17th, but it seemed far more likely that it would be the 22nd. After all, something already happened on that day last month.
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And there’s absolutely no way to get from seventeen to B, no matter how hard you try. So the fourth murder can only take place on the 22nd.”
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The 17th had already passed, and there had been no related murders in Los Angeles on that day. She had been a little worried, but the strength of L’s declaration had kept her calm. She had told herself that four days and nine days adding up to thirteen had been pure chance, an irrelevant coincidence that the killer could afford to ignore.
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“If I could add one thing,” Ryuzaki said. “That particular method of transforming twenty-two to thirteen is a little forced. Bending the argument to suit your purpose—there’s no reason to move the one from the tens place like that. It’s not like switching the numbers from thirty-one to thirteen. That explanation was clearly created after the fact.”
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“Eh... but, Ryuzaki..
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“Don’t misunderstand me—I fundamentally agree with your reasoning. Just not that particular point.”
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“But... then...” If he refuted the most important date, the entire argument fell apart. He had effectively refused to agree with anything she’d said.
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“But I have a suggestion. Misora, you were raised in Japan, right? Then you are more familiar with Japanese numerals than I am.”
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• . Numbers in kanji?”
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“Visualize the kanji for twenty two.”
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The kanji...
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She pictured the characters in her mind, but they failed to suggest anything.
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“Well?”
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“No, I don’t know what you...”
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“Oh... then let me try a hint. Misora, imagine that the middle kanji, the kanji for ten: is a plus sign.
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Which means 1 is actually two plus two.”
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“Oh.”
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That wasn’t a hint. It was the answer.
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“Add them together and you get four... and you already explained brilliantly that four was one plus three. After all, if one plus three is B, then we have to put one and three together, which is the same as one plus three, which create the shape of the letter B. That’s exactly why we can read twenty-two as I.
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We just need enough reason to add the numbers together. And with this condition, your reasoning for placing the fourth murder on the 22nd sounds accurate. I was somewhat bowled over by the force of your conviction earlier, and was a little nervous about following your lead, but now I feel as happy as if I’d drunk a mug of molasses.”
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That metaphor gave Misora heartburn.
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But apparently Ryuzaki believed this was why she had said the fourth murder would take place on the 22nd. Not full marks, since his reasoning for the actual date was better than hers, but she could relax a little.
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“But Misora,” Ryuzaki said. “One more thing.”
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“Yeah?”
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This was the second one more thing.
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It caught her off guard.
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“Your theory is based on the assumption that when the killer chooses his victims, he requires that they have the initials B.B. But like we discussed, there is still a possibility that the killer is after Q.Q., not B.B.”
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“Oh, yeah...”
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If the fourth victim turned out to be a child with the initials Q.Q., lying face down, then their theories would be thrown out the window.
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“If it is Q rather than B, then your theory doesn’t hold water. You would have created it from nothing, forcing it into existence based on faulty logic. Based on coincidence.”
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“Coincidence... that the number thirteen looks like a B? But it’s so blatant… and Q just fits in there so neatly...”
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“Yes. I agree. I don’t believe any of it was coincidental. But your theory is based on hindsight. Created after the fact. I want to know why you chose to build your theories on B, not Q.”
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“Well...”
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Because L had said so. Rather firmly. “The killer is B.” She’d known in advance. But she couldn’t tell Ryuzaki that. She had to keep L a secret from him. She couldn’t let her guard down and let something slip, no matter how much they spoke.
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“I guess with three victims... there were two Bs to one Q, and B just seemed more likely. I thought about Q afterward, of course, but I couldn’t find any patterns that related to it she said, trying to cover.
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But even as the words left her mouth, she knew they sounded unnatural.
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And sure enough, Ryuzaki dismissed it, “That’s so arbitrary. Nothing to support it at all.” Her good mood was gone now. She bit her lip—she had reached those conclusions working backward, trying to figure out a reason for what L had said. L’s word supported it, so it was probably right, but that didn’t change anything