Evil and the Mask (7 page)

Outside the window a fine rain had started to fall.

“That’s because nobody knows where he is and you’ve lost your connection to the Kukis. His children don’t know you at all, so they aren’t giving you any work. Also, your rates are too high. You’re ignoring the competition. A private eye’s main work is spying on unfaithful spouses, right? The average housewife can’t afford your fees. That’s why you can’t keep your business going.”

I brought out a silver briefcase.

“There’s fifty million yen in here. I want to know what you were doing for Shozo Kuki and I want all your material.”

“I don’t know him,” he replied flatly. “Really, I don’t. As far as I know I’ve never heard the name Kuki. If I knew, for that much money of course I’d tell you.”

He grinned.

“That’s perfect,” I said, taking the case off the table. “I was just testing you, because I can’t trust someone who will sell information for money. For various reasons, I know that you worked for Shozo Kuki and were heavily involved with him. I also know that you’re an excellent investigator. Now I’ve got a real commission for you. I’ll pay you three times your normal rate.”

He looked at me. Smiling, I reached into my pocket and took out a driver’s license.

“This man, Koichi Shintani, I want you to find out what sort of person he was. His background, what he was good at, his personality, everything.”

His face gave nothing away, even when he realized that the photo on the license was me.

“That’s right. I want you to investigate me. Depending on how this job goes, I plan to ask you to do some regular work for me. Looking for a woman, and once you find her, reporting on her life. The fee will be big enough so you won’t need to take on any other clients. Alongside that, I may also ask you to look into various other matters.”

“I understand.”

The man looked directly at me, but his face was still unreadable.

“I like you,” I said, as I rose from my seat.

LOOKING AT THE report on Koichi Shintani, I found it mildly refreshing that a person’s whole life could be summed up on two A4 pages.

In our room at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel, the investigator was sitting upright on the sofa, watching me read through the document. On the table were Shintani’s graduation albums from elementary, junior high and senior high school, the class registers for his university tutorials, the membership list for the film society and the employee register for Earthnic Corporation. I looked at the detective and forced a smile, then put the papers in my briefcase. Almost all the information I needed about the man I was becoming was in there.

“We’re still not certain about his relationships after he set up Earthnic Corporation, but my guess is that he didn’t have any lasting girlfriends.”

“This is enough.”

I drank my coffee. As before, the other man’s suit was plain, and I thought that he could easily get lost in a crowd.

“For such a short time, this is very impressive. At first I said I’d pay you three times your normal rate, but let’s make it five. I’d like to ask you to do something else for me. It’s a long-term job, a job with no end. Actually, maybe it would be a good thing for me if it did have an end.”

I showed him a photograph.

“I’d like you to find this woman. Her name is Kaori Kuki. She’s the adopted daughter of Shozo Kuki, your former employer.”

The investigator glanced at me briefly.

“Born April 8, 1982. She took the name Kuki when she was adopted, and no one knows her original surname, or if her parents are alive or dead. She was left outside an orphanage called Kusunoki Nursery in Nagoya. Then she was transferred to the Kusunoki Children’s Home next door, and when she was eleven she was adopted by the Kuki family. All I know at the moment is that she’s working in a club in Tokyo. I don’t know where, nor whether it’s a high-class club or a floor show or what. This photo’s very old.”

He studied the picture closely.

“I want you to find her, and then give me regular reports on her life. I don’t care how trivial it seems. Her day-to-day life. What she eats, what she wears, where she goes, any
insignificant details. If you can get photos or video, that would be great. Also whether she’s married, or if there’s a man in her life.”

I felt a bit jittery. I could still get rattled, I realized.

“Then I want you to find out her dreams. What she wants to do with her life. What job she wants to do. What vague visions she has for herself ten years from now. Her hopes for her life. That will need care and discretion. Have you got a woman you can ask to get close to her, become her friend? I’d like her to get close to Kaori and find out her secrets. Is that possible?”

He nodded slowly.

“Maybe you think I’m crazy,” I added.

He was observing me calmly. The ceiling fan continued silently slicing the air. He paused a beat before answering.

“Is there anyone who isn’t?”

“That’s a tricky question.”

Finally he picked up his coffee.

“Our job involves looking at things that people usually can’t see.”

His voice was slightly hoarse.

“People ask us to find out things which can’t be detected in daily life. In other words, we break the rules.”

“I heard that same expression, breaking the rules, from someone else just the other day.”

His face relaxed a little.

“If there’s anyone apart from us who breaks the rules, I think it’s God. That is, if there is a God. Of course we do it on a much smaller scale.”

Outside the thick hotel windows a train made its way quietly past. Its distant lights stood out vividly in the darkness.

“I’ve put myself right in the middle of those violations, of my own free will. If you’re crazy, then so am I.”

When I stood up from the sofa, he rose as well.

“Steer clear of Kaori’s past, please. What I want to know about is the present. Boyfriends too, just stick to her current ones.”

I could feel that my face was gradually losing its composure. The television, its sound turned down low, was reporting a dull story of rocks being placed on railway lines all over the country at the same time. I watched him leave and then went back inside.

WHEN I LEFT my room and followed my father down to the cellar, my insides were churning violently. It felt as though something was dragging me. I was conscious of the backpack on my shoulders, and the knowledge that if I didn’t pull this off I had no future echoed through my head. In a disordered state of mind I stalked him, thinking that if I hesitated it would be all over, if I faltered even for a second I’d find some convenient excuse, like waiting for a better opportunity.

If my plan to lock him in the underground room failed, I’d hit him with a metal pipe or whatever came to hand. I would do whatever it took to end his life. I was still only thirteen, but I was tall for my age and his body had shrunk. If it came to
a hand-to-hand struggle, I knew I could overpower him. The fact that as a minor the law couldn’t punish me, despite my superior strength and murderous intent, gave me a modicum of courage.

Father went down the stairs, opened the door and entered the cellar. I waited for the light to peek through the gap, waited for him to move away from the entrance. Then I cautiously opened the door. I had oiled it in advance so it would make as little noise as possible. In the last year Father had grown extremely deaf, so he probably wouldn’t have heard it anyway. He walked slowly through the area used as a storeroom, past old furniture and timber. I watched from the shadow of an enormous wardrobe, its decoration peeling and faded. My breath disturbed the dust that clung to the woodwork like threads. Scratches on the drawers flickered in the corner of my eye like bare skin, as though they were trying to tell me something.

Even in my distracted state, I wondered why he ventured to that hidden basement room. In the past he’d hardly ever gone there, but in the last couple of years he’d started visiting almost every month. What was he doing there? Returning to the matter at hand, I followed him with my eyes. What he did there wasn’t important. What mattered, I told myself, was destroying the life force that was driving his thoughts and actions. He shifted the cloth and lifted the boards leading to the lower level. My vision grew blurry, as though I’d been hit over the head with something. Before me was the opportunity to kill a person. I was face to face with murder. I dug my nails into my knees, trying to convince myself that it wasn’t murder.
I was just confining him, and the decision to die would be entirely his own. All I was doing was blocking the path by which he would take Kaori and me to hell. He went down the stairs to the secret chamber. I edged closer, my heart beating painfully, taking care to muffle my footsteps.