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If it appeared that Fuka-Eri’s disappearance was going to drag on, however, it was
probably just a matter of time until investigations would begin to probe into broader
areas. Then things might get sticky. If anyone decided to look into Fuka-Eri’s
schooling, for example, they might discover that she was dyslexic and, possibly for
that reason, hardly went to school at all. Her grades in Japanese or her compositions
(assuming she wrote any) might come out, and that might naturally lead to the
question of how a dyslexic girl had managed to produce such sterling prose. It didn’t
take a genius to imagine how, at that point, people might start wondering if she had
had help.
Such doubts would be brought to Komatsu first. He was the editor in charge of the
story and had overseen everything regarding its publication. Komatsu would surely
insist that he knew nothing about the matter. With a cool look on his face, he would
maintain that his only role had been to pass the author’s manuscript on to the selection
committee, that he had had nothing to do with the process of its creation. Komatsu
was good at keeping a straight face when saying things he didn’t believe, though this
was a skill mastered by all experienced editors to some degree. No sooner had he
denied any knowledge of the deception than he would call Tengo and dramatically
say something like, “Hey, Tengo, it’s starting: the heat is on,” as if he himself were
enjoying the mess.
And maybe he was. Tengo sometimes felt that Komatsu had a certain desire for
self-destruction. Maybe deep down he was hoping to see the whole plan exposed, a
big juicy scandal blow up, and all connected parties blasted into the sky. And yet, at
the same time, Komatsu could be a hardheaded realist. He would be more likely to
cast his desire aside than to sail over the edge toward destruction.
Komatsu probably had it all figured out so that no matter what happened, he at
least would survive. Just how he would manage it in this case, Tengo did not know,
but Komatsu probably had his own clever ways of exploiting anything, be it a scandal
or even total destruction. He was a shrewd player who was in no position to be
criticizing Professor Ebisuno in that regard. But Tengo told himself with some
confidence that Komatsu would be sure to contact him if clouds of suspicion began to
appear on the horizon concerning the authorship of
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