A Midsummer's Equation

TWENTY-NINE

At the Hari Cove police station, the investigative task force was meeting. An investigator from the local prefectural headquarters stood and opened his notebook. “We visited Mrs. Tsukahara last night at her home to ask if she’d noticed anything unusual about her husband’s behavior in the past few months. She repeated what we already have on file about movies he likes, books, and his occasional travel. She also mentioned that she couldn’t be entirely sure how he spent most of his days, because her job as a dressmaker kept her out of the house. We did confirm that there hadn’t been any altercations with anyone from his past or present, nor was the couple experiencing any financial difficulties. She also claims there was never any possibility of an affair.”

Section Chief Hozumi butted in with a chuckle. “Well, if his wife says so, it must be true.”

“Er, right,” the investigator continued, “we’re going to be checking on that with his former colleagues, of course. Regarding Hidetoshi Senba, she again confirmed what we already know, that Tsukahara tended to remember everyone he had ever caught, but rarely talked about them. Senba was no exception. We also checked the study, with the widow’s permission, but didn’t find any materials relating to past cases, Senba’s included. It’s worth noting that detectives from the Tokyo PD had spoken to her before we arrived, but she said she told them nothing she hadn’t told us, nor did they take any evidence with them.” The investigator gave a sort of half-bow to the room and took a seat.

The conference room was lined with desks. In the middle, with their backs to the wall, sat the detectives from the prefectural homicide division. Commissioner Tomita and Chief Okamoto from Hari sat near Hozumi. Neither man looked particularly comfortable surrounded by detectives from the prefectural police.

Facing them sat several dozen investigators, their desks neatly arranged side by side—the official task force for what they were calling the “Hari Cove abandoned body case.”

Nishiguchi sat toward the back of the room, listening to the proceedings and occasionally taking notes. It was his first time being involved in such a large-scale operation, and he hadn’t quite grasped yet how all the parts were supposed to work.

Sitting next to Hozumi, Isobe leaned forward in his chair and scanned the faces in the room. “Any results from East Hari?”

An investigator from prefectural homicide sitting next to Hashigami stood and related what Hashigami had told Nishiguchi the day before—that Senba’s late wife’s old neighbors didn’t have a bad word to say about the man. He also noted for the record that, though Senba’s sentence had been served, no one had seen him in East Hari after his arrest.

Isobe turned to Hozumi. “Well? Is Senba still important to our case?”

Hozumi made a sour face. “It’s hard to say. No one’s been able to track him down, right?”

“Not yet. He had some relatives down in Aichi, but they say they haven’t heard from him since he went to prison.”

“No doubt they want to keep it that way, too.” Hozumi tugged at his mustache. “From looking at the report, it doesn’t seem likely Senba bore a grudge against the victim. Still, just in case, we should probably do some questioning around Hari Cove in case anyone has seen someone matching Senba’s description.”

“Will do,” Isobe said, turning back to the room. “Any suspicious vehicles?”

Another investigator stood, but the report he gave was largely unhelpful. No one had spotted any unusual activity in the area, vehicular or otherwise. They’d compiled a list of people who said they had seen cars parked that evening, but nothing to link any of them to the murder.

Isobe groaned and turned back to Hozumi. “Well?”

Hozumi folded his arms across his chest. “Well, I suppose there’s not much to do but see if we can verify who all those cars belong to, one by one. If someone put him to sleep and poisoned him in a car, that could’ve been done a considerable distance away from where the body was found. We should probably widen the area of our search.”

“Got it,” Isobe said quickly.

Nishiguchi sighed and sunk lower in his chair. He had no idea which way the investigation was going to go, but it was a sure bet it wouldn’t involve him. At least he had something to show for the whole thing: his reunion with Narumi Kawahata. Once things settled down, he planned to invite her out to dinner. He’d already started wondering what restaurant he should pick.