Reina had been renting an apartment in a wooden building that was about as far as you could get from a “high-end” lifestyle. She did drive a luxury BMW, but that was an exception; there was no other reason to think she was wealthy.
And Koichiro said he was still rebuilding his household finances. If his daughter had that much money, he’d never say something like that. It seemed likely that she was intentionally concealing her wealth and that even that apartment was meant to camouflage what she had.
It was difficult to imagine that Reina, a lone casino employee, built up that much money through legitimate means. So of course she could never tell her father about it.
But did anyone know about it? There had to be someone who knew about it and was hiding that fact. And if they couldn’t say anything about it, perhaps her death was connected to her money?
“But even so…” I mumbled.
I was still convinced Reina wasn’t ordinary.
And I didn’t think her mystery ended with the money.
I zoned out, looking over at the hotel entrance while I thought about Reina. A number of guests were coming and going, but there wasn’t anything unusual.
“Is everything okay?” Dr. Higano asked.
At first, it seemed he was talking to me, but I realized he was looking at someone behind me.
I turned around to find a man with slicked-back black hair. He gave the impression of a Johnny-on-the-spot concierge, and I thought he was for a moment, but when I looked closely I realized it was none other Shota Akiyama.
“Huh?! Shota? What happened to your hair? Didn’t you just have a dyed perm?”
“That was a wig,” Dr. Higano replied for him.
“A wig? What on earth for?”
Shota scratched his nose. “Don’t worry about that. There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about.”
It wasn’t just his hair; he seemed completely different from earlier. His face was more masculine, and there was an intensity in his eyes.
What the hell was going on? Had I missed something?
I was completely confused, but this had to be something important. I straightened my collar.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll listen.”
“Umm…Well, it’s kind of important, so I wanted to let that guy Yamaji know. Is he still at the station?”
“Yeah, he should be.”
“Then I’ll go to the station.” He turned to walk away.
“Excuse me? Uhh, wait a second. There’s no reason for you walk away like that. We can go over togeth—Ah, but I have to watch the others.”
“I’ll wait here,” Dr. Higano said.
Dr. Higano wasn’t an officer, so I couldn’t just let him take over, but Shota had already walked off. I nodded and decided to leave the guard duty to him.
The doctor passed me the tablet. I looked at the screen and saw that Noi-tan had a psychotic-looking smile on her face and was gesturing with her hand. Take me with you, she seemed to be saying.
I put the tablet under my arm and quickly chased after Shota, who had already exited the hotel.
✦ ✦ ✦
The hotel was only about 300 meters from Tokyo Bay Station. We walked the dimly lit alleys, which didn’t match the rest of Odaiba. I looked at Shota from the side. He was walking briskly, his posture straight. And it finally came to me—Shota had only been pretending to be superficial.
What did that mean? I didn’t have my thoughts together yet. I had too many questions, and it was impossible to know which one to ask first.
Eventually I asked the first question that came to me. “Shota, did you know that Reina had over 100 million yen?”
Shota opened his eyes widely. “Damn, you cops are impressive…” he stammered. His face tightened up. “I can’t believe you figured that out so fast. When you need the cops, I guess—”
“You guess what?”
Shota looked me in the eyes and then averted his gaze. “I’ll save it for later.”
In the end, Shota didn’t tell me anything that made a difference.
✦ ✦ ✦
We made it to the station quickly. I showed Shota in and then turned to go back to the hotel.
I was annoyed. He clearly seemed to know something important and I had to wait to hear it. But I couldn’t leave Dr. Higano alone on guard duty for too long, and I had to deal with Otoha Tamachi. The only solution was to leave Shota to Yamaji.
“Hey hey heeeeyyy,” Noi-tan’s strange voice called out to me. The timing couldn’t have been worse. “Now I know you’re a worthless rookie leeching off the taxpayers’ dime—did you really think Shota was just some bozo with a part-time job? I’m right, right? Well, you’re wrong. Why would you ever think that? Akiyama had a serious relationship with Reina. She’s not gonna waste her time on a nobody!”
When Noi-tan put it that way, I knew she had a point, but I couldn’t believe Shota would actually go as far as putting on a wig to disguise himself.
Irritated, I kept the tablet under my arm and refused to look at it.
“Oh, the silent treatment? Is that what you’re doing now? Well, you can ignore me, but you can’t ignore the fact that you’re dumb as bricks! Did you think Dr. Higano was wrong? He saw through Shota’s disguise from the beginning and had me look into things.”
“Look into things?” I said, finally looking at the damn green bear again.
“Hehe. Want to hear something good? I’ll tell you, but nothing’s free: Promise me you’ll stop flirting with Doctor and I’ll tell you.”
“I haven’t been flirting with him,” I retorted.
And it wasn’t like my pitiful attempts at flirtation would’ve had any effect anyway.
“Then promise not to make anymore duck faces at Doctor. Promise not to talk so cutesy and not to purposefully let your bra strap show.”
“I wasn’t doing any of that in the first place!”
“Also,” she said, her animated face turning serious. “I want you to cut off your right hand.”
“What?”
Because her voice was artificially modulated, there was no way for me to know what she was thinking on the other side of the screen.
I felt chilled, like I’d been stabbed in the back with an icicle. I didn’t blink, and I could feel myself start to sweat.
Noi-tan continued to stare at me seriously, and then suddenly burst into hysterical laughter. “Pfff haaa ha ha ha!” She buckled over, clutching her stomach.
“I’m kidding, duh! Why so serious? Are you that dumb? You’re probably dumb enough to believe those urban legends on the net, like that the moon landing was fake.”
I was completely dumbfounded for a moment, then I bit my lip and looked up at the ceiling.
What was wrong with me? Why did I keep taking this bear at her word when she was just a bag of jokes? I was embarrassed about how quickly I’d gotten worked up.
“Well…I guess you basically agreed not to flirt with Doctor, so I’ll tell you what I know. So listen up! And I hope this frustrates you!”
I stared at the awful bear.
It probably wasn’t anything at all. I prepared myself for nothing.
“Shota Akiyama also has over 100 million to his name,” Noi-tan said.
I just kept staring at her, waiting for her favorite words: I’m joking.
I mean, it was Shota Akiyama we were talking about. He seemed like your average young dude.
But what about everything he had said before he cleaned up his appearance?
I waited and waited, but Noi-tan didn’t say anything else.
I looked up at the ceiling again.