“If I am right, this will be a seriously lucky guess,” Dr. Higano said. “One definite proof of a person’s humanity is our inability to let something go or throw something away. We walk around with things because, irrationally, we think they’re safer with us than somewhere else. So perhaps the killer still has it with him.” He smiled. “The key to the BMW, that is.”
Everyone noticed the obvious shift on Koichiro’s face.
“Time for a body search,” Yamaji said. He wrenched Reina’s father up by the shoulders.
Koichiro’s face had gone pale and he was soundlessly shaking his head. He fumbled in his pocket and placed something on the desk.
It was a car key.
When “Otoha” saw this, she quietly sighed in resignation.
No one could counter that.
Dr. Higano, the detective, had completely taken over.
He, too, sighed, and a concerned look appeared on his face. “As Ken said, the two of them really loved each other. Which is exactly why Reina went to such lengths to take her revenge…You get what I’m suggesting, right?” Dr. Higano’s voice turned scolding. “That love was forbidden.”
Ken stepped across the room. He walked unhurriedly, even relaxedly. His face was as emotionless as a ghost’s, but in one fluid motion he grabbed the evidence bag off the desk near the door. We’d placed it there to gauge the reaction of the three men during their questioning.
Inside the bag was the knife.
Ken tore the bag and threw it away, brandishing the knife at Koichiro. He slowly approached him. It all happened so suddenly. The look on Ken’s face was completely unaligned with his actions, and in their confusion no one was able to react right away.
“This man,” Ken said, his dead face starting to pour out globs of sweat. “He shouldn’t be alive.”
Ken’s threat snapped me out of my daze.
We had to stop him.
But the knife had me frozen. I wasn’t used to the rough and tumble like Yamaji was, and I instinctually turned to him, counting on him to do something.
“Ah!” When I saw Yamaji I realized his face was full of scorn for Koichiro.
Yamaji and his warped sense of justice had no intention of getting in Ken’s way as he meted punishment out on this awful man.
“This man…is just an animal.” Ken’s voice was shaking. His face had stiffened into a crude contortion. He looked more disturbed than angry. He wasn’t used to sharing his emotions; he was unable to express them clearly.
But I’d never seen such rage before.
To cut to the chase, it all ended quickly without Yamaji even having to get involved. Ken stood there heaving breaths, unable to move, the knife trembling in his hand until he released it and let it fall to the ground. He froze, hopeless and exhausted, and let his head hang down.
Koichiro stared at the blade of the knife on the ground and suddenly cried out:
“Reina’s scheme!
“Forbidden!
“Just an animal!”
He was spitting back the phrases people had used about him. “I see.” He covered his face with his hands. “I see. So that’s what it was.”
For a moment he remained with his hands over his face. He dug his fingers into his skin with immense pressure. It was as though he was trying to crush his own head with all the force he had.
Then he took his hands away.
“Whew,” he sighed.
The face revealed under the hands was as expressionless as a Noh mask.
He didn’t seem quite human.
“Ken,” he said and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You called me an animal. Do you think that’s true?”
Ken opened his eyes wide and lifted his head to look at Koichiro, who said, “I mean, children are the property of their parents, aren’t they?”
Brutal.
Words like that would’ve enraged anyone.
Koichiro was starting to realize that himself. His own brutal statement was also a declaration that he no longer had anything to hide.
No one responded. We all wanted to hear whatever else it was this poker-faced man had to say.
Still expressionless, Koichiro slowly turned, looking at each one of us observing him, and then continued in his detached manner.
“I had sex with Reina. Often. But what does it matter? She loved me, she wanted the pleasure. We weren’t related, so ethically there was nothing wrong with it either. You can’t criticize me for it. Actually, Reina loved me and was trying to avenge me, even after we got physical.”
He shook his head.
“However, Reina betrayed me. She got pregnant with my child and tried to keep it.”
The tone in his voice made it sound like he had no responsibility for what happened.
“I’m a politician. If the world learned that my adopted daughter had my child, I’d lose everything in an instant. Even if we managed to raise the kid in secret, there’d always be damning proof right there—living with us. It would be like living with a bomb. I wouldn’t have been able to put up with it. I persuaded Reina to have an abortion, I thought she’d agreed. But in the end she wasn’t convinced. She threatened to go public with the fact that I’d impregnated her. She had the irrefutable evidence of DNA test results, too.
“I was confused. Her behavior was bizarre. When I asked her if she wanted me to lose my job, she said she didn’t care because she’d raise the kid herself, she had that much money. Obviously, money wasn’t the problem for me. But I couldn’t handle being gossiped about, while she lived off the profits of her shady activities. There was only one solution.”
Koichiro paused.
“I had to kill her.”
I could understand every word he said.
But I was utterly unconvinced.
“Why did you use such a violent method?” I asked. “You inflicted so much pain on your own daughter.”
He responded as though it were obvious: “Because there’s no way in hell you’d ever think a parent was capable of doing something so cruel.”
Someone screamed.
Ken was yelling and tears were rolling off his face down to the floor.
Koichiro looked over at Ken. There was the slightest shift in his previously expressionless face, but I caught it.
Koichiro smiled, as though he were happy.
I had to get out of here.
“Koichiro Myoko,” Yamaji said in a clinically neutral tone. “You’re under arrest for murder.” But he couldn’t hide the anger on his face as he put Koichiro in cuffs.
When I looked at Koichiro, an expression almost of relief floated across his features. And at this point, I wanted to abandon thinking any further of this case.
However…
I took a covert glimpse at Dr. Higano.
Ahh!
He’d let down his guard for a moment.
Seiren Higano was toying with the glass cube puzzle he’d broken. He seemed almost…morose, an expression he’d never revealed before.
✦ ✦ ✦
And I still hadn’t forgotten what he had said when I first asked him, “Have you identified a suspect?”