Salvation of a Saint

TWENTY-NINE

Utsumi was going through paperwork at the Meguro station when Mamiya came in from outside and shot her a look. She stood and went over to his desk.

‘I was just talking to the section chief about that case,’ Mamiya said, sitting down. He had a glum look on his face.

‘Did we get a warrant?’

Mamiya gave her a shake of his head. ‘No, we didn’t, and we won’t unless there’s some significant development. We don’t have enough material to identify our killer. I’m impressed as always with Galileo’s detective work, but without proof, we can’t go to trial.’

‘That’s what I was afraid of,’ Utsumi said, her head hanging. This was playing out just as Yukawa said it would.

‘Everyone in administration is pulling their hair out. Who the hell arranges everything for someone to poison themselves, then watches carefully for a year to keep them from doing it? No one believed me at first. Not even I believed me at first. It’s clearly the only answer here, but that doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. It just sounds so … impossible.’

‘I didn’t believe it myself when Professor Yukawa first laid it out.’

‘There’s no accounting for what some people are capable of, clearly. That goes for this woman, Ayane, as well as the professor. You have to wonder what’s going on in those heads of theirs, sometimes,’ Mamiya said, a bitter look on his face. ‘We still don’t even know if he was actually right. And as long as we can’t say for sure, we can’t touch Ayane Mashiba.’

‘What about the Junko Tsukui angle? I hear Forensics checked out her mother’s house in Hiroshima?’

Mamiya nodded. ‘They sent that can that had the arsenous acid in it down to Spring-8. The problem is, even if they do find traces, and those happen to match the arsenous acid used in this case, it’s still not conclusive evidence. It may not even be circumstantial evidence. After all, if Junko Tsukui was Yoshitaka Mashiba’s former lover, it could’ve been him carting around the poison all that time.’

Utsumi breathed a deep sigh. ‘So how do we get proof? Tell me what we need and I’ll find it. I don’t care what it takes! I can’t believe that Yukawa’s right and that this is the perfect crime!’

Mamiya’s face twisted into a scowl. ‘Don’t start barking at me,’ he said. ‘Believe me, if I knew how to get proof, we wouldn’t be in this mess. About the only evidence we have worth anything right now is that water filter with the traces of arsenous acid in it. Section thinks we need to focus on that and get everything out of it we can.’

Utsumi bit her lip. What the chief was saying sounded suspiciously like an admission of defeat.

‘Don’t give me that face, I haven’t given up yet. We’ll find something. It’s not easy to pull off the perfect crime.’

Utsumi nodded in silence, bowed, and left. You’re right, she thought, it’s not easy. But what Ayane Mashiba did would have been nearly impossible for an average person. What if that’s all it takes? What if she pulled it off?

Back at her desk, Utsumi pulled out her mobile and checked voice mail, hoping that Kusanagi had found something, but the only message was from her mum.