A Cop's Eyes (3 page)

Neither of them knew much about the love of a parent. After
they lost both and were adopted by Kimura, their days were filled with abuse. It was often said that people who faced abuse as kids repeated the cycle with their own kids; that was probably because they didn't know an adult's love and had no idea how to show it to their own children. But Naoko, who'd been thoroughly abused by Kimura, showered Haruna with love. She raised her daughter as though her life depended on it. She was an amazing person.

How about himself? If he were to start his own family, would he be able to treasure it like Naoko?

Shinichi had never been in love. Or rather, he always gave up on love. Even if he did come to like and date someone, how she might respond to his past when she found out scared him. And if he ended up marrying a woman he loved and had kids, he didn't know whether he'd be able to shower them with love, and that scared him.

To protect your dear ones—

He recalled what Natsume had said to him at the coffee shop.

Was he ever going to meet someone that dear to him? Would he ever start a family he'd protect no matter what?

On the next day too, Shinichi made calls throughout the morning, job magazine in hand. Every time he was turned down, he crossed out the wanted with a red pen. By lunch, the pages were very red. Even so, he was able to schedule interviews with two firms. One was a restaurant in Shinjuku, and the other was a construction-related business in Nippori. He was heading out to Shinjuku where the restaurant was; his visit to the company in Nippori was arranged for the next day.

The restaurant interview, as expected, did not go well. This time too, when he honestly told them about his reformatory past, they chose their words carefully to avoid incurring a grudge, and rejected him.

It was understandable. But he couldn't give up. The other
company interviewing him tomorrow might hire him, he kept on encouraging himself on his train ride home.

By the time he got off at Otsuka station, however, he was feeling as worthless as a pebble.

When he glanced toward the gaming arcade by the station, his legs froze. Natsume was playing a crane game at the storefront.

The man had taken on the machine next to the one he'd tried the day before. Absorbed, he was glaring at the case's contents.

Shinichi decided to move along so Natsume wouldn't notice, but as he passed by the man's back, the crane's movement caught his attention, and he looked. The arms picked up a doll and dropped it in the chute. At that moment, Natsume cheered and leapt for joy.

The man turned Shinichi's way, and their eyes met.

“O-Oh. Hello,” Natsume said with an embarrassed laugh.

“What sort of grownup …” Shinichi muttered, and almost laughed too.

“I'm ashamed.” In Natsume's hand was a different doll from the day before, a bear.

“Did your daughter like the Momo-chan you won yesterday?” Shinichi asked.

“When I put it at her bedside, her eyes responded a bit. Well, I thought they did. So I wanted to get more kinds.”

Natsume smiled. Shinichi thought it was a smile that betrayed loneliness.

“Is your daughter's condition that bad?”

“A head injury left her in a vegetative state. Although as her family, I don't like her being called a vegetable. My daughter is my daughter.”

Maybe that had something to do with Natsume becoming a police officer, because his gaze, which had been calm, seemed to take on fire for a moment. But Shinichi chose not to dig deeper.

“Great timing. I had something I wanted to ask a local resident such as yourself. Walk with me for a bit,” Natsume said and sauntered ahead.

“Like what?” Shinichi asked, following him.

“Were you close to Mai?”

“Not really. She's my niece Haruna's classmate, so when I see her I at least say hi.”

“Interacting with Mai, did you notice something?”

“Nah … just that she's quiet or maybe a little gloomy for a kid. Why?”

“Apparently, there'd been anonymous calls to child services from several months ago that Mai was being abused by her father.”

“Abused?” The word cast a dark shadow across Shinichi's heart.

“It wasn't just one or two calls, but frequent. Each time, a staff member from child services met and talked to her father, but he adamantly claimed that there was no such fact and chased them off.”

“Are you saying it has a bearing on the case?”

“No, I'm not sure. But looking into things that might not falls on us the police, too.”

“Why not just ask Mai?”

“She isn't talking. Maybe the shock of seeing her father dead was too intense, but she won't talk to us no matter what we ask her,” Natsume said, looking straight into Shinichi's eyes.

“Mr. Koide, it says here you graduated from middle school in 2000, but what have you been doing from then until now?” a man in overalls who'd introduced himself as the chief asked, his eyes on Shinichi's resume.

Shinichi, sitting across the man for the interview, clenched his fists. When the chief stared at him, he felt an urge to look
away, and his head began to bow. His gaze fixed on a spot on the desktop right in front of him.

“Were you what they call a ‘freeter'? No set occupation, as a lifestyle choice?” the chief asked.

Shinichi made up his mind and looked into the chief's eyes. “When I was in my third year of middle school, I killed someone and spent two years in a reformatory …”

He went on to lay bare his personal history. That he'd finished middle school while so detained. That after leaving the reformatory, he'd worked many jobs but never for long. That he had a sister and a niece who were his dear family and wanted more than anything to work. That he hoped to acquire specialized skills that would keep him employed.

The chief spent some time alternating between looking at Shinichi's face and his resume. “Are you healthy?” he asked.

“Yes …”

“We do very hard labor. Early mornings good with you?”

“Yes, I am fine with them,” Shinichi answered.

“Then could you come by at seven the day after tomorrow?”

“Mom, what's going on?” Haruna said, surprised at the dishes lining the dining table.

No wonder—compared to their usual fare, this parade was mindbogglingly luxurious.

After the interview today, Shinichi had emailed Naoko that he'd landed a job. Immediately, he'd gotten a call from her.

Congratulations
—she'd sounded like she was crying.

As they surrounded the table as a family, Haruna said with her cheeks stuffed with sushi, “It'd be nice if every day could be like this.”

“Today is special,” Naoko nipped it in the bud, laughing.

“It seems to be tough work, but the salary isn't bad. So maybe not every day, but we could have a meal like this once a month,”
Shinichi declared with some pride.

“Thank you,” Naoko and Haruna politely bowed, then spurt out giggling.

The doorbell rang.

“Coming!” Naoko called out and made to stand up, but Shinichi said, “I'll go,” and headed to the front door and opened it.

When he saw Natsume standing outside in the hallway, a sigh escaped him.

He didn't want to see this man's face now. For once, they were sitting together happily, and he felt aggrieved that the mood was being spoiled.

“What do you want?” he lashed out.

“I apologize about the late hour. I was hoping to speak to your older sister and Haruna a bit.”

“Concerning?”

Hearing Natsume's words, Naoko came to the front door with Haruna.

“It's about Mai …” Crouching there at the front door, Natsume looked into Haruna's eyes. “Listen, Haruna … Did Mai ever tell you anything about her father?”

Perhaps feeling nervous in face of a stranger, the girl remained silent.

“For instance, that she was picked on by him?”

Haruna looked up to Naoko.

“Haruna, did you hear about anything like that from Mai?”

The girl shook her head in response to her mother's question and said, “Nope, nothing.”

“How about you, ma'am, did Mai ever share anything of the sort?”

“Nothing that comes to mind …” Naoko replied, sounding worried. “Why do you ask?”

“It seems Mai had been abused by her father. There had been
anonymous accusations phoned in to child services, so I thought you might have heard about it from Haruna and made the reports …”

“It wasn't me. Why did you think it was me?”

“You spoke to Mai fairly often at the park according to one of your neighbors.”

“She's Haruna's friend, so I do when I see her, but I didn't notice anything like that.”

“You mentioned that you work, ma'am, but on a few occasions you were seen with her on weekday afternoons.”

“Yes. My shop does bike deliveries, so I often pass by here, too.”

“I see. Sorry for disturbing you so late.” Natsume looked at Shinichi. “Did you decide on a job, Shinichi?” he asked.

Shinichi nodded glumly.

“Ah. Good luck. Well, if you happen to notice anything, please contact me.” With a light bow, Natsume started to leave.

“Excuse me,” Naoko called out. “How is Mai?”

“She's in the protection of child services.”

“I see …”

With Natsume gone they returned to the dining table, but all three of them had lost their appetites for the rare feast.

“Shin, is there anyone you like?” Naoko asked abruptly while he was in bed staring at the dim ceiling.

“Wh-Why, that's … sudden.”

It was the first time Naoko had addressed the issue, so Shinichi was flustered.

“No reason. I just wanted to ask.”

“Unfortunately, no. I'm not interested anyway.”

It was a lie. He couldn't tell her that he was afraid of loving someone because of his record.

“I'll think about it if you find someone good for you, sis.”

“Thanks, but I'm okay … as long as I have Haruna,” Naoko said, a hint of loneliness creeping into her voice.

Was her truncated married life with Isobe making her say that? Why had she broken up with him anyway?

“Hey, sis … Why did you break up with Isobe? Don't tell me it was because of that case …” Shinichi made bold and asked what he hadn't been able to until now.

“It wasn't related. He just wasn't the type who could love a child with all his heart. Until we married he was nice, but after Haruna was born, he changed. He used to hit her and call it discipline … That's why …”

So something like that had happened.

“I have Haruna. I'm happy with that. That's why I want you to hurry and find your own happiness.”

Shinichi turned his eyes to Haruna, who was sleeping next to him.

“Oh, I'm happy,” he said. He was more than happy with just Naoko and Haruna.

The three of them, getting along and living together—that was Shinichi's one and only wish and happiness. He believed that the time to relinquish that happiness was when Haruna had a new father.

“I'll be her father,” Shinichi muttered.

“Thanks …”

Hearing Naoko's tearful voice, Shinichi closed his eyes.

He woke to Haruna's crying.

When he looked next to him, she and Naoko weren't there. Haruna seemed to be blubbering behind the sliding door.

The clock said it was still before six.

What was it, so early in the morning? Was Naoko scolding her again?

Rubbing his drowsy eyes, Shinichi got up. When he slid open
the door, he found Haruna crying with her head on the table.

“What's the matter? Did you get in trouble with sis again?”

He looked around the kitchen, but there was no sign of Naoko.

“Mom is … Mom is …”

Haruna was still crying as he handed him a piece of paper. Shinichi, bewildered, followed the writing on it.

“To Haruna. Mom needs to go to someplace far away for a while. Listen well to what Shin says and be a good girl. Your Mom.”

“What the …” Shinichi had no idea what the note meant.

“Was it my fault? Was it because I said something weird that mom left?”

“Weird? What did you say to sis?” Shinichi asked. When Haruna didn't reply, he pressed, “Haruna—this is important. Tell me exactly what you said to sis.”

“Last week … on the way home from cram school, Mai told me that her dad was videoing her these days … He'd take off her clothes and get her naked and touch her all over and she didn't like it, but if she did it, he got in a good mood and stopped hitting her and gave her yummy food and bought her any toy she wanted … So she was letting him.”

Listening to Haruna, Shinichi's chest had tightened. Rage simmered up from deep inside him, but he asked in as calm a tone as he could, “And you told sis?”

“Yeah. Then mom said I couldn't tell anyone.”

Shinichi felt certain.

It was Naoko who'd murdered Yokose. No, rather than murder—she must have ended up accidentally killing him. If she'd meant to kill him, she'd have brought along a knife or some other weapon.

Through talking to Mai, Naoko must have caught on to Yokose's abuse a while ago, from the traces, the bruises and scars
that most people would miss.

The anonymous caller who'd continued to contact child services was probably also Naoko. But they never even got close to solving the problem. Then Haruna told her all that.

She must have ransacked the Yokoses' living room to steal a DVD or some other recording of Mai naked. She probably intended to hand the decisive evidence to child services or the police. But while she was going through the room, Yokose came home—

Tears welled up in Shinichi's eyes.

At the same time, that repulsive memory revived in him.