A Midsummer's Equation

EIGHTEEN

Narumi was getting the dining room ready for Yukawa’s dinner when Kyohei showed up.

“Can I eat out here too?”

“In the dining room?” Narumi turned to face her cousin. “You want to eat with Mr. Yukawa?”

“He said he didn’t mind. And I’ll carry out my own food.”

“Well, I guess it would be okay.”

She’d heard the two had been out somewhere playing together most of the day, and they both had bad sunburns to prove it.

She’d just finished putting out Yukawa’s trays when he showed up with a plastic bag filled with fireworks.

“Looks delicious,” he said, looking at the cold vegetables with shrimp. He sat down at the table.

“I’m sorry we don’t have more to offer.”

“Don’t be silly. I’m starting to think I might need to go on a diet after this trip.” The physicist smiled.

Kyohei arrived, carrying his own tray with some egg over a ball of rice. He carefully set it down on the table across from Yukawa.

“That looks pretty good too,” the physicist remarked.

The front desk buzzer sounded, so Narumi said, “Enjoy your meal,” and excused herself.

Nishiguchi was in the lobby. He raised a hand in greeting, though he didn’t smile.

“Something more about Mr. Tsukahara?” Narumi asked.

“Something I need your help with, actually,” Nishiguchi said, licking his lips before continuing. “I was hoping I could look inside the building a bit?”

“You want to see Mr. Tsukahara’s room?”

“Er, no, actually, the entire building.”

“What for?” Narumi asked, a wrinkle forming between her eyebrows.

Nishiguchi grimaced and glanced outside. Her eyes followed him out to the front and she stiffened. There was a line of men outside in dark blue police uniforms.

“Who are they?” she asked, her voice a little quieter.

“The forensics team from the prefectural police. I’m sorry, I can’t go into any more detail about this. If now doesn’t work, I can’t force you to let us in, but we’d just be back later with a warrant. But if we could just get this finished with now…”

Nishiguchi was clearly uncomfortable. Narumi gave him another look, then said, “I’ll go talk to my parents. Hang on.” She disappeared into the back.

Shigehiro and Setsuko were just sitting down to dinner in the living room. Their chopsticks stopped in midair when Narumi told them what was going on.

“What’s left to see? Weren’t they all over the place yesterday?” Shigehiro asked, disgruntled.

“He won’t tell me. What should I say?”

Shigehiro looked at his wife, then got to his feet.

“I’ll go too,” Setsuko said, and so the three of them went back out front to talk to the detective.

Back in the lobby, several of the officers had come inside. They were all wearing their hats and carrying bags of various equipment.

Shigehiro asked for an explanation, and Nishiguchi said more or less exactly what he had just told Narumi moments before. The other men were already looking around, scanning every visible inch with their eyes.

“Might you be more specific about where you want to look? I’m just worried about disturbing our guest,” Shigehiro said.

One of the men in the hats took a step forward. “We’d like to see the kitchen first, if possible.”

“The kitchen’s back there,” Shigehiro said, pointing past the counter. The man nodded and began taking off his shoes. Immediately, the others stepped in beside him and took off their shoes. A few went into the kitchen, and Setsuko followed after them.

Another of the men from forensics looked between Shigehiro and Narumi. “Can I see the boiler room?”

“That’s downstairs,” Shigehiro said, walking ahead with his cane. “This way.” He went behind the counter and opened the door to the stairs.

Another man approached Narumi. “Mind showing me the room the victim was staying in?”

Narumi nodded and fetched the key from behind the counter.