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“Three days ago, on Wednesday morning, she left her house in Okutama for
Tokyo. Professor Ebisuno saw her off. She didn’t say where she was going. Later in
the day she phoned to say she wouldn’t be coming back to the house in the hills, that
she was going to spend the night in their Shinano-machi condo. Professor Ebisuno’s
daughter was also supposed to spend the night there, but Fuka-Eri never showed up.
They haven’t heard from her since.”
Tengo traced his
memory back three days, but could think of nothing relevant.
“They have absolutely no idea where she is. I thought she might have contacted
you.”
“I haven’t heard a thing,” Tengo said. More than four weeks must have gone by
since she spent the night in his apartment.
Tengo momentarily wondered whether he ought to tell Komatsu what she had said
back then—that she had better not go back to the Shinano-machi condo. She might
have been sensing something ominous about the place. But he decided not to mention
it. He didn’t want to have to tell Komatsu that Fuka-Eri had stayed at his apartment.
“She’s an odd girl,” Tengo said. “She might have just gone off somewhere by
herself without telling anybody”
“No, I don’t think so. She may not look it, but Fuka-Eri is a
very conscientious
person. She’s always very clear about her whereabouts, always phoning to say where
she is or where she’s going and when. That’s what Professor Ebisuno tells me. For her
to be out of touch for three full days is not at all usual for her. Something bad might
have happened.”
“Something bad,” Tengo growled.
“The Professor and his daughter are both very worried,” Komatsu said.
“In any case, if she stays missing like this, it’ll put you
in a difficult position, I’m
sure,” Tengo said to Komatsu.
“True, especially if the police get involved. I mean, think about it: beautiful
teenage writer of runaway bestseller disappears! You know the media would go crazy
over that one. Then they’re going to drag me out for comments as her editor. No good
can come of that. I’m strictly a shadow figure, I don’t do well in the sunlight. Once
something like that gets going the truth could come out at any point.”
“What does Professor Ebisuno say?”
“That he’s going to file a search request with the police, maybe as soon as
tomorrow,” Komatsu said. “I got him to hold off for a few days, but it’s not
something that can be postponed for very long.”
“If the media
get wind of the search request, they’ll be all over this.”
“I don’t know how the police are going to respond, but Fuka-Eri is the girl of the
moment, not just some teenage runaway. Keeping this out of the public eye will likely
be impossible.”
That might have been exactly what Professor Ebisuno was hoping for, Tengo
thought: to cause a sensation using Fuka-Eri as bait, exploit it to clarify the
relationship of Sakigake to Fuka-Eri’s parents, and learn the couple’s whereabouts. If
so, then the Professor’s plan was working as he had imagined it would. But had the
Professor fully grasped how dangerous this might prove to be? He certainly should
have: Professor Ebisuno was not a thoughtless person. Indeed, deep
thinking was
exactly what he did for a living. And besides, there seemed to be a number of
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important facts surrounding Fuka-Eri’s situation of which Tengo was unaware, as
though he were trying to assemble a jigsaw puzzle without having been given all the
pieces. A wise person would have avoided getting involved from the beginning.
“Do you have any idea where she might be, Tengo?” Komatsu asked.
“Not at the moment.”
“No?” Komatsu said with a perceptible note of fatigue in his voice. He was not a
man who often let such human failings show. “Sorry I woke you in the middle of the
night.”
To hear words of apology coming from Komatsu’s mouth was also a rare
occurrence.
“That’s okay,” Tengo said. “Given the situation.”
“You know, Tengo, if I had my way I would have preferred not
to involve you in
these real-world complications. Your only job was to do the writing, and you carried
that off splendidly. But things never work out as smoothly as we want them to. And,
as I said to you once before, we’re all shooting the rapids—”
“In the same boat,” Tengo mechanically finished the sentence.
“Exactly.”
“But come to think of it,” Tengo added, “won’t
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