A Quiet Place (10 page)

Following her divorce, Chiyoko Takahashi managed a hair salon in Shinagawa, but having no formal training, she didn't cut her customers' hair herself. She seemed to have a talent for management, however, and the salon was popular. Around that time she had an affair with the owner of a wholesale cosmetics business. There was trouble when the trader's wife found out. From time to time she'd turn up at Ms Takahashi's shop, which caused a scandal. It became uncomfortable for Ms Takahashi to stay in the neighbourhood, so three years ago she moved to Sanya in Yoyogi and opened a small shop selling cosmetics. The wholesaler's name is Genkichi Higai, aged 52. He has a store in Kyobashi, and is rather wealthy. It was with Mr Higai's assistance that Ms Takahashi opened her Yoyogi boutique, and it
appears that they are still lovers. This year, she bought a ten-thousand-square-foot plot of land from her next-door neighbour, Konosuke Kubo. She combined this land with the thousand square feet she already had, and built the Hotel Chiyo. It can be assumed that most of the funds for the purchase were provided by Genkichi Higai. The aforementioned Konosuke Kubo is listed as a board member of the corporation, and Ms Takahashi has let slip that he demanded a percentage of the profits of the new hotel in return for agreeing to sell his land. It was supposedly Higai who conducted the negotiations. The hotel is doing very well.

Of course; it was just as he'd guessed. Chiyoko Takahashi was no lonely divorcee. She may not have been a stunning beauty, but she was an attractive, mature woman. He hadn't believed she was completely single, and, sure enough, she'd turned out to have a patron. A hair salon and a cosmetics shop that needed stock; wholesale cosmetics – it all made sense. A relationship that had started out with the provision of goods had turned into a love affair.

The shop that, despite its tiny size, had such a vast and expensive inventory; the purchase of the neighbouring land; the construction of an attractive, European-style hotel – the detective's report made perfect sense.

Konosuke Kubo, 38 years old. Married for ten years to Kazuko (aged 32), no children. The house in Yoyogi was built about fifty years ago by his father, who was a wholesaler of silk goods. Konosuke was born in that house, and lived there up until its sale to the hotel corporation.

Konosuke Kubo graduated from the commerce department at a certain private university, and following his father's death took over the family business. The market went through a depression, and the company went under. Since then, he has been employed as the General Affairs manager at his uncle's textile firm, and lives the typical salaryman's lifestyle. With the failure of the family business, his fortune is not as great as it once was, but he has inherited land in several parts of the city. His reputation at work is reasonably good, and there have been no complaints regarding his conduct. Drinks moderately. Since the sale of his Yoyogi house, he has rented a single-roomed apartment on the third floor of the Keyaki Mansion building in Higashi Nakano.

His wife, Kazuko, has tuberculosis, and has been a patient at a sanatorium in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture for the past year and a half. Mr Kubo goes up to Nagano the last weekend of every month to visit. There are no rumours of any marital infidelities on his part.

Asai's theory – that there had been a sexual relationship between Chiyoko Takahashi and Konosuke Kubo – had been completely demolished by this report.

10

The detective agency's report had said that there was no personal relationship between Ms Takahashi and Mr Kubo, but Asai still had his doubts. Kubo didn't have any financial problems. He owned plots of land inherited from his father at various locations throughout Tokyo. The report didn't specify where exactly, but as the plots had been purchased by his father many years ago they must have been in the old city, or at least close to it. And close to it would mean in one of the newly developed sub-centres; either way, they must be worth a fortune. And he must receive a generous salary at his uncle's company. His father's business may have gone under with him at the helm, but that would have made little difference in the long run. He was still very well off indeed. And he only had his wife and himself to support.

Why would a man who wasn't short of money sell his family home to Chiyoko Takahashi and then move to a tiny apartment in Higashi Nakano? There was no doubt that his Yoyogi house would have been much more comfortable, and in a far pleasanter neighbourhood. At least it
had
been an upmarket, tasteful neighbourhood until all the hotels had invaded their peace. By law, local residents were permitted to block the construction of such places if they
were within a school zone, but neighbourhoods outside school zones were powerless to do anything. Sometimes locals would join together and protest against construction projects, but it was always pretty much a lost cause. It was highly likely that the Yoyogi residents would have launched a protest against the building of the Chiyo right there on their hill, complaining that it was a blemish on their surroundings. He didn't need the money, so what had made Mr Kubo sell his land to a business venture that he should have abhorred and that he knew would scandalize the neighbourhood? And then become one of the executives of that same hotel?

Asai was sure there was more to the story. The agency's investigation had barely scratched the surface. A man not yet forty who'd sent his wife away to a distant sanatorium. A woman in her thirties, divorced and involved with the president of a medium-sized business. Put these two people next door to one another, and something could quite possibly come of it. Chiyoko Takahashi, although not traditionally beautiful, was certainly a charming woman. Well spoken and polite, skilfully applied make-up, a glimpse of flirtatiousness in her movements… It would be so easy for a man whose wife was hospitalized far away to lose his head over Ms Takahashi. He had surrendered his land to her and put his name behind an immoral business enterprise. What was really going on?

But it wasn't simply curiosity that kept Asai ruminating on all this; he knew that his wife had been taken ill right where Mr Kubo's house used to stand. And he had the strangest sense that Eiko herself might be the connection between Konosuke Kubo and Chiyoko Takahashi. The
thought kept nagging at him that around the time of Eiko's death there had been a fairly strong earthquake, but he still didn't know if there was any connection between this earthquake and her death.

Ms Takahashi hadn't mentioned the earthquake, so it had probably happened before Eiko had run into her boutique. If that was the case, then she had no reason to bring it up. If, for instance, the tremor had hit while Eiko was lying down in the back of the shop, then it would surely have stuck in Ms Takahashi's memory, and she would have said something about it. Or was it because the inhabitants of Tokyo are so used to earthquakes that it hadn't even left an impression on her? Asai found he couldn't erase these thoughts from his head.

The other thing bothering him was Eiko's haiku. In her memorial collection there had been the poems about a Somin Shorai amulet, and a Yamaga lantern. Asai had never once heard his wife talk of these things. He was fairly sure she hadn't been into folk art or crafts. There was nothing like that in their home, and he'd never heard her mention buying anything at a department store. They must have been something she'd gone to see in an exhibition somewhere. He couldn't work out what on earth these objects and the haiku could have had to do with her sudden death, but they wouldn't stop playing on his mind.

Asai was dying to call at the Chiyo and take a look around, but he couldn't risk running into Chiyoko Takahashi. It wasn't just that he had no reason to be there, but if she really had been involved in Eiko's death in some way, he didn't want to alert her to his suspicions.

He was sure if he could just get into the hotel and look around there would be some sort of clue. Obviously there wouldn't be anything in full view, but he just might be able to discover something that would give him a hint as to the truth. He clung to this unlikely hope – well, maybe more of a fantasy – while at the same time his suspicions about Ms Takahashi and Mr Kubo kept growing.

He wouldn't get away with turning up at the hotel alone as he'd done the other times. The story about the abandoned husband searching for his estranged wife was not going to work. What if Chiyoko Takahashi appeared when he was in the middle of questioning one of the maids?

If he was going to check out the Hotel Chiyo, then he needed to find a woman to go with him. But he didn't know anyone. This wasn't an easy favour – he didn't know any women who would risk being seen going into a couples' hotel.

He had thought of his sister-in-law. She'd probably be sympathetic if he explained he was trying to find out the truth about her older sister's death, but Miyako was a married woman. Perhaps she'd be okay with it if he told her there was some definite proof on the other side of those walls, but the vague idea that he should go and take a look around wasn't going to convince her. And if he wasn't careful about how he brought it up, she might think he had another motive for inviting her to that sort of hotel. Well, no, he hoped she knew him better than that, but even so, what would they do when they got there? Putting on disguises and visiting the hotel would take some guts. And getting permission from her husband to do something like
that? Not an option. The two of them going there on the quiet? Could lead to a fatal misunderstanding.

No, Asai was going to have to abandon his plan to pay a visit to the Chiyo until he could find himself a suitable companion.

Asai knew very well what Chiyoko Takahashi looked like, but he had never met Konosuke Kubo. What kind of man was he? What did he look like? He was curious to set eyes on him, just one time.

The detective agency had included Mr Kubo's address in Higashi Nakano in the report, right down to the apartment number. He also knew the address and telephone number of his workplace, R-Textiles in Kyobashi. Which would be the better location to get a look at Kubo without being seen?

He could loiter in the hallway in front of Kubo's apartment and watch for him going in or out, but there was no way to predict when he might appear, and if he hung around for too long the other residents or the apartment manager would get suspicious. It'd be like the time he'd been peering through the front window of Takahashi Cosmetics and probably been mistaken for a thief by the tall man standing behind him with his dog. If he hung around an apartment building, he was bound to be asked what he was doing there.

The other possibility was to visit R-Textiles. Unless he was out on business, Kubo should be easy to spot at his workplace, sitting in the General Affairs manager's office. Asai only needed to observe him from a distance. It would
be the same as at Asai's own office – the corridors were always filled with anonymous visitors. It was just like any city street. Asai decided on this option.

Just after one in the afternoon, he let the division chief know he was going out, and set off walking towards the underground at Toranomon. From there, it was only twenty minutes to Kyobashi, and R-Textiles was less than a ten-minute walk from the station.

The company occupied about five rooms on the fourth floor of a tall office building. Asai couldn't make anything out beyond the panes of frosted glass that divided the rooms from the corridor. There was a nameplate on each door indicating the name of the company, but, unlike the ministry, there was nothing to say which section, so Asai couldn't guess which one housed the General Affairs division.

Asai was wearing dark glasses, in the hope that no one would get a good look at his face. Tinted glasses were popular these days, so no one would think it was strange. He'd worn them when he visited the detective agency too.

Asai hung around in the corridor, trying to look as if he were waiting for someone. Behind his glasses it was dark. Just as he was hoping a secretary or someone would come by, the door of the room closest to the lift opened and a young woman in a light-blue smock and miniskirt came out carrying a pile of documents. Asai went up to her.

“Excuse me, do you work for R-Textiles?”

“Yes,” she said, looking up at him.

“Which room is the General Affairs section?”

“General Affairs? It's this one.”

She pointed to the door she had just come through.

“Oh, I see. Er… is the manager, Mr Kubo, in the office right now?” He emphasized Kubo's name to make sure he had the right place.

“Yes, I think he's in.”

“The General Affairs manager is Mr Konosuke Kubo, right?”

“Yes, that's right.”

The young woman glanced once more at Asai's dark glasses.

“You see, I'm due at a meeting in one of the other offices in this building, but afterwards I have a meeting with Mr Kubo. Unfortunately it's the first time we'll have met face to face, so I thought I'd just come over first to check out what he looks like. Then I'll be able to walk straight up to him when I come to meet him later.”

This wasn't the most plausible of excuses, but the woman didn't seem to care.

“Follow me, please,” she said, opening the office door.

“Thank you.”

Asai spoke softly. He took one step inside the door, right behind the young woman. He was a little nervous, expecting all the employees in the office to turn and stare at him, but he needn't have worried. It was a large office, chock-a-block with desks and overflowing with people, both standing and sitting. No one paid Asai any attention. The receptionist's desk, nearest to the doorway, was unoccupied.

“Which one is Mr Kubo?” he whispered to his guide.

“The general manager is over there.”

She raised the pile of documents slightly so that she could discreetly point a finger. In the direction she
indicated, towards the window, there were three large tables lined up together, around which five or six men were sitting or standing. Keeping his eyes on the men, Asai whispered once again to the young woman.

“Which one is he?”

“He's sitting at the far end of those three desks. The tall man. Wearing glasses. Look, he's talking to the deputy manager – the man standing across from him. That's Mr Kubo.”

The woman glanced at Asai to check he was looking in the right direction.

“That man with glasses? The one who just put a cigarette in his mouth?”

Asai's throat seemed to have closed up.

“That's right. That's him.”

“The one just lighting his cigarette now?”

“Yes.”

Asai hurriedly thanked the young woman and got out of the room as fast as he could.

Mr Kubo, General Affairs manager, was the same man he'd seen last spring when he'd been trying to look inside Takahashi Cosmetics. The one standing behind him on the street, staring at him, dressed in a grey sweater and with a German shepherd. The same long face that had watched him beat a hasty retreat.

Asai made his way straight over to the detective agency in Kanda, where he was met by the same detective as before.

“I'd like to request a further investigation, please,” he said, his dark glasses still firmly in place.

The man frowned.

“Oh, was there a problem with the first one?”

“No. Not at all. This time, I'd like you to focus the investigation on Konosuke Kubo.”

“I see. What kind of things do you want to know?”

“His daily routine back when he lived in Yoyogi.”

“His daily routine? Not now, but when he lived in the house in Yoyogi?”

“Well, I'm interested in his current lifestyle too, but for now just when he was in Yoyogi. Before his land was turned into a hotel.”

“It was back at the end of April that his house was knocked down to make room for the hotel. It's going to be very difficult to find out much about his life before that, you know.”

“I'm willing to pay whatever it takes.”

“And you know, people aren't very community-spirited around that neighbourhood. They don't have much to do with one another. We're not going to get much out of interviewing his ex-neighbours. I'm not sure what the best approach would be.” The detective folded his arms.

“I'm counting on you to find a way.”

“All right. ‘His daily routine' is a little vague. What specifically do you want to know?”

“First of all, whether he was home on the afternoon of the seventh of March.”

The detective made a note.

“There was a strong earthquake at 3.25 that afternoon,” Asai continued.

“An earthquake? What has that got to do with Kubo?”

“Maybe nothing. But that day there was a big earthquake, and you might be able to use the fact to jog people's memories.”

“Got it. So you want me to find out whether Kubo was home at the time of the earthquake and what he was doing?”

“Yes. But not just during the earthquake. What he was doing that afternoon, until around four.”

“And is there anything in particular you're interested in about that afternoon? If you could let me know, it might help me find some leads.”

“Yes, I'd like to know if anyone visited Mr Kubo at home at any point in the afternoon.”

“Ah, you mean a woman?”

The detective probably assumed that Asai meant Chiyoko Takahashi.