A Quiet Place Read online

  He couldn’t ask for a favour over a single cup of coffee, so Asai took his guest to a nearby restaurant that specialized in the cuisine of Northeast Japan. It was a simple place; the type with stools instead of chairs. The counter was completely empty, but Asai chose the table in the far corner. They ordered sake and a regional speciality, a Shottsuru-style hotpot made with salted, fermented fish. This simple fare was all the rules allowed a public employee to treat a visiting businessman to, but the hot broth turned out to be just the thing for Yagishita with his cold.

  As they drank and chatted, Asai wondered when the best moment would be to broach the topic. He couldn’t bring it up right away. He’d thought over what to say, but the content was very different from the usual stuff he talked about with Yagishita, so he was very conscious that he’d have to be careful with his wording to avoid arousing the other man’s suspicions.

  About an hour passed. Yagishita also seemed to be preoccupied with whatever this “bit of a favour” was that Asai wanted from him. It would be best not to wait too long; it’d be more difficult to talk when the restaurant filled up with customers.

  “So, Mr Yagishita, you mentioned the other day that you were on good terms with the managing director of Kurosaki Machinery.”

  Asai took care to make the question sound like the natural progression of their conversation. Yagishita nodded and put down his sake cup.

  “Yes, that’s right. I know him. In fact, he’s a friend of mine. He’s the younger brother of the president’s wife, and a shrewd businessman.”

  “I have something I need to ask him, but it’s a bit delicate, and I wonder if you could do it for me?”

  “What kind of thing?”

  “Well, you see, it’s a request that was passed to me by someone else – someone I’m connected to at work. It’s not something I can refuse, unfortunately. You can see what kind of a position I’m in?”

  He left his friend to imagine for a moment.

  “Yes, I get it,” said Yagishita, with a nod. “You’re an old hand at this, so everyone is asking you to do stuff for them. It must be coming at you from all sides.”

  He clearly had in mind one of Asai’s bosses or someone very prominent in the business world.

  “Yes, that’s pretty much it. But it’s hard being an old hand when you’re still just a petty functionary.”

  “No, that’s not what I’m saying,” said Yagishita hurriedly, conscious that he might have committed a faux pas. “I’m talking about how you’ve been an influential power for quite a while now. Don’t take it the wrong way.”

  “Never mind about all that,” replied Asai good-humouredly. He poured Yagishita another cupful of sake. “Anyway, we all have our obligations.”

  “I understand. Thank you. Anyway, what is it I can ask Yada about for you? Yada – that’s Kurosaki’s managing director.”

  “Right, well… This is the situation. For various reasons, I can’t reveal the name of the person who passed on this request to me. Anyway, this is what it’s about. Do you remember when you told me how Kurosaki Machinery had invited some of the influential names in the cooperative to go on a tour of Southeast Asia at the end of March? I suppose the participants have already been chosen?”

  “Yes, they must have been if they’re going that soon. It’s overseas travel, so there are passports and things that need to be prepared.”

  “Yes, I suppose there are.”

  “So what about it?”

  Asai took a deep breath. “Well, the person in question wants to know whether the names Akiharu Kido and Jiro Haruta from Nagano are on the list of participants or not.”

  “I can’t tell you that off the top of my head, but I can ask Yada. He’ll tell me right away. If you like, I can call him right now.” Yagishita straightened up and checked his watch. “Oh no – sorry. It’s too late. He’ll have gone home by now.”

  “Don’t worry. It’s not that urgent.”

  “Really? All right then. Will tomorrow be okay?”

  “Tomorrow’s fine. But I’m sorry to say I’ve one more request. This one isn’t quite so easy.”

  “What is it?”

  Asai needed a moment to summon his courage. He took a long sip from his sake cup.

  “Right, well, it’s very annoying to have been asked this, but I may as well just come out with it. If Kido and Haruta aren’t already on the list, is there any way you can get Kurosaki to add them to it?”

  “Add them?” Yagishita coughed in surprise. He looked very reluctant, but Asai had been prepared for this.

  “Of course, that person – I mean the man who asked me this favour – is prepared to pay the full cost of travel for these two individuals,” he explained hurriedly. “He doesn’t want to inconvenience Kurosaki Machinery, but he would be very grateful if they could be included in the group tour.”

  “If he pays the costs himself, then it might be possible,” Yagishita conceded. “But what the heck is all this about? I mean, what is this person thinking?”

  “Yes, obviously I asked him the same thing, and it appears to be as simple as wanting them to enjoy an overseas trip. There may be some sort of obligation involved, but I really don’t know much about it. Individual travel is rather expensive, but it only costs about half the amount to join a tour group. He must have realized that.”

  “Yes, I see. To save on costs the best thing is to get them on a tour. I get that.” Yagishita’s roots as a Kansai businessman meant that economy was something he understood very well.

  “Kurosaki Machinery’s tour is going to be six nights and seven days and take in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.”

  Asai had got this information by calling the headquarters of the National Union of Agricultural Cooperatives and using a false name. The tour would leave Haneda Airport on 31 March and return the night of 6 April. The two men wouldn’t get back to Nagano until the seventh, after Asai’s lecture tour would have finished.

  “About the expenses: I believe it’ll come to around 170,000 or 180,000 yen per person – 350,000 or 360,000 for the two of them. If the plan gets the go-ahead from Kurosaki Machinery, I’ve been authorized to hand over the cash in full right away.”

  “Hey, hey – just a minute. I can’t tell you anything until I’ve had the chance to talk to Mr Yada.”

  “Of course not.”

  “And if this Mr Kido and Mr Haruta are already on the list then we don’t need to worry about all this, do we?”

  “Sure.”

  Asai thought how perfect it would be if they did happen to be on the tour: 350,000 or 360,000 yen was quite a sum of money. But he was willing to pay it in order to save his own life. He’d backed himself into such a corner that he was willing to dig into his savings and come up with close to 400,000 yen. On the other hand, if the two men were already participating in the tour, he’d get away without paying a penny. When he put it like that, coughing up so much money was a totally crazy thing to do. It was a ridiculously convoluted scheme just to get these two men out of the way for the week of his lecture series.

  “But one thing, Mr Asai. Kurosaki Machinery went through a very strict selection process among the Koshinetsu region cooperatives in order to pick the participants. The people they chose in the end must be some pretty big names.”

  Asai considered this point. Neither of the men who’d given him a lift had looked like they’d be influential in the politics of farming. The younger one in particular, this Jiro Haruta, wouldn’t be on the list of invitees. Asai knew he was going to have to pay up. If he was lucky, Akiharu Kido might be on the list, and then it’d only cost him half.

  Back then, what on earth had possessed him to get into their car? If he’d just refused, he wouldn’t be in this predicament now. More to the point, why did that damned car have to be travelling on that particular stretch of road at that time in the evening?

  Asai surprised himself by squeezing his sake cup so hard that it almost shattered in his grip. He felt very agitated all of a sudden
.

  Yagishita promised to visit Kurosaki Machinery’s Tokyo headquarters the next day to find out whether the two men were signed up for the tour. If they weren’t, he promised to find some pretext to get them added to the list by the managing director.

  “Thank you for understanding. I hope I can count on you to be discreet. It’s vital that no one knows the request came from me, otherwise I’ll be put in a very awkward position at work. If anyone goes digging around, it could cause all kinds of trouble for the person in question. I know it might sound like I’m exaggerating, but I really need you to keep it all hush-hush.”

  Yagishita coughed again, and patted Asai reassuringly on the shoulder.

  “Consider it done. I know you’re in a difficult position. I’m already in your debt, and I know I’ll need your support in the future too. You have my word – I won’t tell a soul it was you. You can count on me – Yada’s my friend, and he’ll understand the situation.”

  Asai was a little disturbed to see that Yagishita was rather drunk already.

  Yagishita called the following afternoon.

  “Mr Asai, what we talked about last night… I went to see my friend and it turns out neither of the two people we discussed were on the list.”

  His voice sounded nasal. Apparently his cold hadn’t got any better.

  “I thought that might be the case.”

  Asai was very conscious of his colleagues sitting nearby, but he still couldn’t completely hide his shock. It was like a sword to his heart. He had been hoping for better news. Now he had to compose himself and wait for the response to his next request. It didn’t matter whether this would cost him 400,000 or even 500,000 yen. He didn’t need to borrow it; he had the money there in his account. It was almost as if he had saved up in expectation of this very eventuality. He felt the heat rise in his body; his back was burning. He needed to hear the result of Yagishita’s negotiations as soon as possible.

  “Are you ready? I’m just going to keep it simple,” continued Yagishita, apparently conscious of his friend’s surroundings. “Mr Yada agreed.”

  Asai was unable to speak. The division chief was away from his desk, and he wasn’t too afraid that the other managers and junior employees nearby might overhear, so it must have been the overwhelming relief that had taken his voice.

  “Yada said that it was all fixed, but – without mentioning you, Mr Asai – I managed to invent some pretext for getting them included. Yada said that seeing as it was me, he’d make sure to get them on the tour.”

  “Thank you very much for that.”

  “Yada checked the rosters of all the agricultural cooperatives in Nagano Prefecture. It looks as if Akiharu Kido and Jiro Haruta are members of the Fujimi branch. Does that sound right?”

  “Yes, that’s correct. They are.”

  Asai felt his forehead break out in sweat. There was a throbbing in the back of his head.

  “Okay, he’s working on getting them on the trip. About the money – I paid him for now. It came to about 180,000 each. You can take your time paying me back. I’ll stop by and get it one of these days.”

  “But—”

  “It’s complicated. Let’s leave it at that for now. We’ll sort it out next time we meet. Is there anything else you need to know for now?”

  “Nothing in particular.”

  “Just to be completely clear: I can assure you that I never once mentioned your name. You can rest easy. The two men and everyone around them will think that it’s Kurosaki Machinery that sent the invitation. If that’s everything, then I’ll let you go.”

  Perhaps Yagishita’s cold had somehow changed his tone, but the other man’s voice left a pleasant echo in Asai’s ear.

  That night, Asai felt more at peace than he had for a long while. The crisis had been averted; now he could depart for Nagano Prefecture on his lecture tour without any fear. If he completed this task, then he’d never be obliged to go there again. Or if he had to return, it would be at least ten years from now. Which meant never. No one would think it strange if he turned down a request that many years from now.

  The 360,000 yen that Yagishita had paid Kurosaki Machinery on his behalf Asai intended to pay back in full the next time he came to Tokyo. There was a chance that the other man would tell him it was fine and not to bother returning the money, but he was normally the type to expect a return on his investments. Asai began once again to see 360,000 yen as a huge expense, but he was determined to pay it all back, no matter what Yagishita said. If you weren’t meticulous with your finances, then who knew what might befall you later down the road?

  Asai fell asleep, then woke up abruptly in the middle of the night. He’d got used to sleeping alone, so that wasn’t the reason. Perhaps it was nerves, but even when he was asleep these days a malaise festered in his mind, which sometimes manifested itself in terrifying images. His eyes would pop open, and he wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep.

  If Akiharu Kido and Jiro Haruta were suddenly included in the Southeast Asia trip, wouldn’t everyone back in Fujimi wonder why? Imaginations would run wild trying to guess what circumstances would have persuaded Kurosaki to add these two men to the rigorously preselected list of names. And wouldn’t someone eventually suspect that it had something to do with the night of the murder, when these very men had picked up a mysterious stranger on the prefectural highway?

  Damn! What if it became the topic du jour again in Fujimi, prompting yet another police investigation?

  Asai had believed he’d come up with a brilliant plan, but now he realized how stupid it was. He’d been so obsessed with getting those two out of the way so he could give his Nagano lectures that he’d failed entirely to consider what the reaction of the local people might be. His stomach in knots, he sat up in his futon.

  Should he call Yagishita first thing in the morning and cancel the whole thing? If he hurried, Kido and Haruta wouldn’t have been told yet. There was still time to abort the plan.

  But no sooner had he decided on this course of action, than he realized it would be even more dangerous. Making a request, cancelling it again… both Yagishita and Kurosaki Machinery were going to wonder what was going on. He hadn’t ever explained properly why he was making the request, so a sudden cancellation now was going to look even more suspicious.

  Asai couldn’t sit still. His mind was in such turmoil, he thought he would go mad.

  20

  Worrying over nothing; making a mountain out of a molehill: Asai was soon to realize that this was what he’d been doing.

  Akiharu Kido and Jiro Haruta were lucky enough to be chosen to participate in Kurosaki Machinery’s tour of Southeast Asia. Asai received a letter from Yagishita in Kobe to tell him that they would be joining the group and leaving from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on 31 March.

  Thanks to the special care taken by the managing director, Mr Yada, their inclusion didn’t look like a last-minute addition. Their friends and acquaintances back home have been led to believe that they were included in the group from the beginning. Everything went very smoothly and naturally.

  For the time being, Asai was relieved. There was no one left wondering why Kido and Haruta had received special treatment. There was no danger they would attract the attention of gossips who might put two and two together and associate their free trip with the suspect they had given a lift to the night of the Fujimi murder case. They were no longer special cases – they were no more than two lucky members of the original group. They’d draw no extra attention, and therefore arouse nobody’s suspicion.

  It was a good thing that he’d stopped his scheming when he did. If he’d got the two men included on the trip only to ask for them to be removed again right away it would just have created doubts in the minds of Yagishita and Yada. They’d have examined his motives far too closely for comfort. Too many precautions would, ironically, have put him in even more danger.

  He was having a nervous breakdown, Asai decided. So many unnecessary fears and concerns,
one after the other. He hadn’t slept at all for four or five days while he anxiously awaited the arrival of Yagishita’s letter. Every time he’d been about to drift off to sleep his heart had suddenly started to palpitate and he had woken with a start. He’d try to sit up to calm himself, but the wild beating in his chest wouldn’t stop and fear would stalk him under cover of darkness. Destructive thoughts would swirl round his head, and he would be seized by the urge to scream. All symptoms of neurosis.

  Now that the danger had passed once more, Asai was going to have to take care of his fragile nerves. The source of his anxiety may have been removed, but the other symptoms didn’t disappear so easily. They probably still lurked in the folds of his brain. There was no knowing when they might pop up and cause him to do or say something irrational. That could be serious. He would have to be extremely careful. Prudent, cautious, yet at the same time try to relax, take it easy.

  Between the first and fifth of April, Asai toured around the southern part of Nagano. All of his lectures went extremely well.

  The sources of his angst had now flown away, to visit Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. There was absolutely no chance of running into them. In his lecturer’s role, he was able to talk and behave freely. He experienced a sense of liberation: his neurosis was disappearing.

  After spending time at the agricultural cooperative in Chino he headed to Fujimi. The Yatsugatake mountain ridge was there in front of him. This time it was broad daylight, and he could see the line of the ridge and each fold of the range quite clearly. It was early spring, but winter still lingered up there. There was still snow on the peaks, and the slopes were tinged with brown. Under cover of night they’d seemed like a mighty barrier, dark and imposing; now the daylight exposed the desolate and rather forlorn landscape.

  Whereabouts had Konosuke Kubo’s corpse lain? He saw a forest in the distance, right at the opening of a valley. There must be a river over there. He’d read in the newspapers that the body had been found not far from the bank of a river, and the forest looked vaguely familiar. He could be wrong, but the shape corresponded with the image of a black mass that had stayed in his mind.