It was pretty natural to get flustered when a man as attractive as Dr. Higano called you beautiful.
But why was I so worked up? I felt like it had to be more than just that.
I kind of felt like he’d targeted me or something. And not in the normal way that you’d target someone romantically.
“Come on, Doc,” Yamaji interrupted. “Stop teasing the help. Princess here hasn’t had a boyfriend yet. She might trip and fall for you.”
“You have n-no idea whether I’ve had a boyfriend or not!”
“C’mon now,” Yamaji said. “Don’t underestimate the deductive powers of a veteran law enforcement officer.” He made a camera with his fingers and thumbs and directed it at me. “Hmm. Judging from the steam rising off of your body…I’ve got it—you’ve never even been with a man!”
“I could write you up for sexual harassment!” I almost shrieked. Yamaji was such a crude old man.
Dr. Higano smiled with just the edges of his mouth and ignored our exchange. “Now then,” he broke in, standing and reaching his hand out to me. “I’m Dr. Seiren Higano, psychiatrist and part-time detective.”
I struggled valiantly to hide my embarrassment and timidly returned his handshake. “I’m Sergeant Yuri Uguisu, with the Tokyo Bay 1st Investigative Unit.”
I’d only intended to give his hand a gentle shake, but Dr. Higano firmly grasped my hand with both of his like he was trying to memorize its shape.
“Not much flesh on your hand,” he observed. “Very thin. The hand of a hard worker.” My face reddened, a stark contrast with Dr. Higano’s cold hands.
“You always give your job title when you introduce yourself,” Yamaji said blandly. “That’s a sign of a lack of confidence.”
Yamaji’s snide remark drained the blush from my face. His comment sobered me. He occasionally did come in handy.
“Well, maybe that’s because I do lack confidence,” I admitted. “Nobody looks at me and thinks ‘She’s a cop who investigates serial killers.’”
Dr. Higano released my hand and narrowed his eyes, looking fascinated. “You do take pride in the work you do, correct?”
“Yes. I take pride in it,” I answered immediately. There was no confusion there.
Or rather, I had no confusion in providing that response.
“That’s enough of an introduction for the rookie,” Yamaji said. “Sorry to get right to it, but we’re here for your advice, Doc. This morning we found a woman’s body with the face removed and left foot cut off. The name of the victim is Reina Myoko. Happens to be Princess here’s high school classmate, apparently. At this point, the suspects are the victim’s boyfriend, her fiancé, and her father, her only relative. That’s it. Now, the details of the case—“
“W-Wait a second, Yamaji!” I sputtered. “Giving out victim and suspects’ personal information is a total violation of confidentiality!”
“Don’t be such a hardass,” Yamaji said. “The brass already know.”
“Already know?” I paused. “Now that you mention it, Section Chief Otawara did seem to be really okay with us coming here…”
“I’m the only one that works with Doc, so you should be thanking me. I found him.”
“What?” I asked. “I just wanted to know why an officer who’s supposed to uphold the law would be bending the rules!”
Yamaji sighed resignedly. “I thought you’d say something like that. Look here, Princess. You’ll figure out soon enough that in this line of work you’ll never solve any real world crimes if your investigation is strictly by the books. Like the sting operation you were working on this morning. If you did one thing wrong, it’d be illegal, right?”
“What I was doing this morning and this here are…”
Totally different, I wanted to say. But I couldn’t bring myself to say it.
“Princess, what is your highest priority?” he asked.
“It’s…” I trailed off. Of course, I wanted to catch the serial killer Masquerade.
“You don’t have to say it,” Yamaji let me off. “For me, it’s all about justice. I want to catch the criminals that have taken over society and create a more peaceful, decent place, even if I make only a microscopic contribution. If I have to break a few rules to do that, then that’s the breaks. What do you think?”
If we could catch Masquerade by leaking details of the investigation to Dr. Higano, then I had no choice but to do so.
I’d taken a vow. There was nothing I wouldn’t sacrifice for that.
“You still don’t seem convinced.” Dr. Higano smiled.
“N-No, I’m fine.”
“I meant that you still don’t seem convinced you can trust my abilities as a detective. Would you say that’s the case? If only I could somehow convince you…Ah, yes. May I demonstrate for you my detective powers of deduction?”
“Your powers of deduction?”
Dr. Higano took the glass puzzle in his hands and pointed it toward me. Smaller versions of me were reflected in the transparent cubes.
“Hmm. Ah ha,” Dr. Higano mused, with little consideration. Then he became assertive. “You became a policewoman to take revenge on Masquerade.”
“What?!” My eyes bulged open. Yamaji must’ve said something to him beforehand, but when I looked at Yamaji he was shaking his head.
“In order to do so, you had to cut ties with a close friend. You live on your own, and you keep some distance from your family. Recently you’ve been suffering from headaches.”
I haven’t mentioned any of these things to anyone. Not even Yamaji. Dr. Higano was able to guess these simply by having me look at his puzzle.
“Is this some kind of joke?” I wanted to know. “Are you trying to say all of that was reflected inside your stupid puzzle?”
“Unlikely,” he grinned. “That would make me a fortune teller. I am a psychiatrist, and a detective. I’ll add that this is merely a glass puzzle, not a crystal ball.” He set the puzzle on his desk.
“Then how?” I asked.
“It’s quite simple. In the few minutes since you arrived, I observed you and was guided by logical inferences. Fortunately for me, they all seem to have hit the mark.”
“There’s no way you could get all that with just inferences…”
Dr. Higano saw me wrinkle my brow and crossed his arms. “I’ll start with the easiest to explain. First, the reason I knew you’re having headaches. You probably don’t even realize it, but since you arrived you’ve ground your teeth a number of times. You seem to be constantly anxious. Your automatic nervous system must be thrown off. You’re constantly in a state of being clenched, so your shoulders tighten up. Even now I can tell that the muscles between your head and shoulders are stiff. This can lead to headaches. You should make an effort to relax more in your day-to-day. I’d recommend drawing a bath with your favorite powder, having a warm soak in the tub, and then put on some relaxing music just before bed and light a pleasant-smelling candle.”
“I feel like I’m getting a physical…”
“My apologies. I’m sort of a workaholic.” He laughed for a second and then continued. “The other thing that I’ve noticed from observing you is the frequency of your double bind reactions.”
“Double bind?”
“I mean the times when what you said didn’t match your facial expression. Based on the timing of the double binds I could see, you haven’t fully accepted the fact that you’re an officer. However, you’re trying to convince yourself that it’s what you want and that you take pride in it.”
I pursed my lips.
“This is what I’ve gathered from the tone of your voice, the way you dress, and your facial expressions. I’m sensing that you’re very serious and patient, but have a certain anxious sensitivity?”
“I’d agree, but…”
“This corresponds with the characteristics of someone with a type A personality.”
I frowned before I could stop myself. “I actually am type A, but…I’m sorry, Doctor Higano, I thought that blood type personality theory didn’t have any scientific basis? I heard that humans have such multifaceted personalities that we tend to think we fit whichever blood type people tell us we are.”
“That’s the Barnum effect. That’s how fortune tellers are able to do what they do.”
Here he was again with the technical terms.
“As you mentioned,” he continued, “there is no scientific basis for links between blood type and personality. However, there is a psychological phenomenon called labeling theory. When people are labeled, they have a tendency to go along with those labels. To give you a concrete example, if those with type A blood are told by those around them from a young age that they are very diligent, they themselves become convinced that’s the way they are, and they start to behave like someone who is type A. That’s what I mean.”
I could see where he was coming from. However, my blood type had nothing to do with his conclusion that I’d joined the police to get revenge.
“I can tell that you’re a pretty straightforward person. Can you deny the fact that you’ve been influenced by that label?”
“I think I have been influenced,” I admitted.
I’d been a so-called “good kid” for as long as I could remember.
Someone said I was “mature,” so I acted that way, and then someone would say I was “clever,” so I studied hard. That’s definitely how I was wired.
“After seeing how you behaved, your parents must’ve wanted you to be more typically feminine, didn’t they? But in reality, you are in some senses the exact opposite of traditionally feminine. You became a police officer who investigates brutal crimes. Judging from the frequency of your double binds, you’re still resisting it yourself. For you to become an officer given those conditions, you had to have been incredibly motivated and determined. I can imagine how difficult it was to betray the expectations everyone had of you and how you must’ve consciously recalculated all the relationships you’d had up to that point. For you, Sergeant Uguisu, it was natural to think your circumstances compelled you to become an officer.”
There was no way for me to respond. My mouth was strangely dry.
I mean, everything was spot on. And his logic was flawless. Hearing it put like that, no one would be surprised by how I turned out.
But this was impossible. I’d only just met Doctor Higano today for the first time.
“My deductions made it that far and then I got caught up on one thing: your name. Uguisu isn’t a very commonplace surname. I remembered that Masquerade’s first victim had the same surname. That’s when the pieces started to fit together. I realized that being close with one of the victims might make a powerful motivation.” Dr. Higano quickly moved the pieces of his glass puzzle. “It was an obvious conclusion to reach. Just as obvious an ending as death is for a murder victim.” He put all the different aspects together and finally put them into words: “You joined the police to take revenge on Masquerade.”