“I assume you recall that Otoha told us Reina was involved with many men? And that from what she told us, I was able to determine that she was trying to manipulate us into thinking that Reina naturally dated many men at once, and that there might be some secret wrapped up in Reina’s romantic life.”
“I remember.”
“Now I think there’s only one way to think about this. Otoha learned directly from Reina that she was pregnant. She also knew whose child it was. Then she pretended that Reina was dating multiple people so we wouldn’t be able to guess whose child it was…Oh, and of course, she was lying just now when she said she didn’t know Reina had been pregnant.”
I looked at the woman, but as always she remained graceful and showed no sign of being shaken.
“Okay, let me go over it again,” Dr. Higano said. “Who was Otoha trying to protect?”
I thought for a second…and finally understood what he was getting at.
“Ah,” I started to say.
But I couldn’t accept it.
That was impossible. It was too…disgusting.
For some reason, my eyes began to fill with tears.
And that’s when I realized how much Reina had been a special, almost holy presence for me. At Junseiwa, I had felt lonely, confined, and tremendously insecure. And this above all was why I was struck by her purity. Amidst everything else, Reina Myoko had an almost symbolic existence at Junseiwa Academy. A distant, unreachable existence.
Her light shone brightly, and I spent my adolescence walking with my head lowered.
I had wanted to make that school, and my adolescence, something special. But despite my best efforts, something vulgar and disgusting had wormed its way in. I didn’t want to accept it. So I instinctively denied it.
However—the reason Reina had an abortion. The reason she ended her engagement with Ken. Koichiro’s motive. Everything started to come together.
“That’s right,” Dr. Higano said mercilessly, unaware of my feelings. “Koichiro. It was your child that Reina carried in her womb.”
Silence.
After a long moment, Ken broke it.
“B-But,” he said, his stoic poker face broken, showing clear distress. “That’s totally insane.”
“Let it be insane,” Dr. Higano said.
I hated it when his language became so intense.
“The truth has very little value here.”
He flicked one of the glass blocks he was holding. It hit another on the table.
“It doesn’t matter whether the theory is correct or not. What does is how he reacted to this conversation.”
I looked at Koichiro.
If Dr. Higano’s theory was purposefully off the mark, he should’ve been confused or angry.
I was hoping for that reaction.
“Ah, n-no…” he said.
But then Koichiro gritted his teeth. His clenched fists were trembling.
It was all totally obvious.
I suddenly felt utterly drained and held my head in my hands.
“Wait a minute,” he said.
But “Otoha” smiled and cut in.
“Obviously Reina’s dad doesn’t have an alibi. And based on his reaction, he might even have had a physical relationship with her that would give him a motive. But that’s it. That’s not proof he was the killer.”
“Absolutely,” Dr. Higano agreed.
“I’m still pretty suspicious of the syndicate. They had plenty of reasons to go after her. Plus, they’re so massive, no one would ever believe they did it.”
“First, I’ll attempt to prove it was Koichiro.”
The doctor wasn’t operating as she expected. In the face of Dr. Higano’s attitude, she just smiled and kept quiet.
“Let’s assume that Reina’s yet-to-be-discovered BMW was used to transport the body. We return to the original question: let’s think about why Reina, who went so far as to live in a ramshackle wooden apartment to conceal the fact that she had money, didn’t have a driver’s license and yet had a luxury car. It had to be because she drove celebs and guests from the secret club in the car and wouldn’t have been able to fool them if it wasn’t a high-end vehicle, right? Having a luxury car and Shota as her chauffeur were essential to her operation. However, owning a luxury car would damage the front she worked so hard to create. So obviously she tried to hide the fact that she owned a BMW as much as she could. That’s why she parked it at a lot half a mile from her apartment.”
His theory was convincing.
“The killer took advantage of this fact. He moved around in the BMW no one knew was hers, killed her, abandoned the body in the park, and then erased all traces connecting him to the crime before returning the car to its original location. He may have even removed evidence from her apartment linking Reina to the BMW to prevent the police from finding the car so quickly. He must’ve known that if he wrapped up everything before the police knew about the BMW, they wouldn’t ever realize it had been used to transport the body. However, things didn’t work out so neatly.”
It came to me, and I said, “The Mukojima police were already watching the parking lot.”
“Exactly. Whether he was shaken by the severed foot or through some negligent slip, Shota, who had been living with her and hiding the money, let the police in to the BMW early on. He was the driver, or possibly even the owner in name, so obviously he would’ve known about the car. The killer hadn’t been expecting that. Because the police were guarding the parking lot, the killer couldn’t return the BMW to its original location.
“So where is the BMW now? I’d guess he slipped it into a large parking garage to make it more difficult to find. But he only had a single day after he killed her, so he wouldn’t have been able to put together a real elaborate plan. If the police put enough manpower on it, they’ll turn up the car.”
“So if we locate the BMW…” I said.
Dr. Higano nodded and finished my sentence: “…It might have some evidence.”
But the woman quickly cut in. “So what you’re saying is you can’t find any evidence here, and you may not find any in the car either?”
Dr. Higano smiled wryly. He was trying to provoke Koichiro to force him to confess. The woman was clearly trying to prevent that with her quick response.
However, her efforts were fruitless; Koichiro was starting to react.
Dr. Higano pointed at Koichiro’s pants pocket.
I’d also noticed that Koichiro had a hand in his pocket ever since we started talking about the car.