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Air Chrysalis
is selling well.”
“That’s great.”
“Like hotcakes. They can’t keep up. The poor guys at the printer are working
through the night. Anyhow, I figured the numbers would be pretty good, of course.
The author is a beautiful seventeen-year-old girl. People are talking about it. All the
elements are in place for a bestseller.”
“Unlike novels written by a thirty-year-old cram school teacher who looks like a
bear, you mean.”
“Exactly. But still, you couldn’t call this a commercial novel. It’s got no sex
scenes, it’s not a tearjerker. Not even I imagined it would sell so spectacularly.”
Komatsu paused as if he expected a response from Tengo. When Tengo said
nothing, he went on:
“It’s not just selling a lot, either. The critical reception is wonderful, too. This is no
lightweight drama slapped together on a whim by some youngster. The story itself is
outstanding. Of course your superb revision made this possible, Tengo. That was an
absolutely perfect piece of work you did.”
Made this possible
. Ignoring Komatsu’s praise, Tengo pressed his fingertips
against his temples. Whenever Komatsu openly praised Tengo, it was bound to be
followed by something unpleasant.
Tengo asked Komatsu, “So tell me, what’s the bad news?”
“How do you know there’s bad news?”
“Look what time you’re phoning me! There has to be some bad news.”
“True,” Komatsu said, in apparent admiration. “You’ve got that special sensitivity,
Tengo. I should have known.”
Sensitivity’s got nothing to do with it
, Tengo thought.
It’s just plain old experience
.
But he said nothing and waited to see what Komatsu was getting at.
“Unfortunately, you’re right, I do have a piece of unpleasant news,” Komatsu said.
He paused meaningfully. Tengo imagined Komatsu at the other end, his eyes
gleaming like a mongoose’s in the dark.
“It probably has something to do with the author of
Air Chrysalis
, am I right?”
“Exactly. It is about Fuka-Eri. And it’s not good. She’s been missing for a while.”
Tengo’s fingers kept pressing against his temples. “ ‘A while’? Since when?”
249
“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
250
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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