A Quiet Place Read online

  Asai, in his role as assistant division chief, began to talk them through it. Food processing was his field of expertise. He’d visited many, many factories and had become an authority on the subject. For the most part, his knowledge had been acquired through his work with Yagishita Ham.

  Even as he was speaking, though, Asai’s mind wandered back to the Hotel Chiyo.

  How on earth could Konosuke Kubo be satisfied with his position as a regular board member? Perhaps he was simply the quiet, self-effacing type when it came to business matters. On the other hand, was he purposely trying to hide his connection but secretly had a great deal of power and influence? Either could be possible.

  What was the relationship between Chiyoko Takahashi and Konosuke Kubo? Were they no more than neighbours? Or were they neighbours who saw an opportunity to make money and became business partners? Or was it something else?

  Asai realized he’d come to the end of his spiel when the voice of one of his visitors broke into his thoughts.

  “We’d like to observe a meat-processing plant – ham and sausages, if possible. Could you suggest somewhere we could go?”

  Asai had been thinking about the new hotel the whole time he’d been speaking. In fact, he was so familiar with the ins and outs of administrative guidance that he could have made the whole speech in his sleep.

  “I’d recommend the Yagishita Ham Corporation in Kobe. They’re very experienced in the field and equipped with state-of-the-art machinery. They’ve recently opened their second branch, here in Higashi Murayama.”

  Of course, he didn’t mention his special relationship with Mr Yagishita.

  “This is the current size of our pig-farming operations. How much would we need to expand?”

  Asai listened to the details of their current operation and replied with the appropriate figure.

  The director then decided to slip in a few words of flattery. “We are aware that most local farming communities are currently experiencing rather a negative response to the recent government policy regarding diversion of farmland, so I respect your forward-thinking approach.”

  “Forward-thinking approach” was the kind of empty phrase beloved of politicians. The director loved to use it every time agricultural cooperative officials paid the ministry a visit.

  Unimpressed by his boss’s choice of words, Asai let his mind wander once again.

  What if Konosuke Kubo was Chiyoko Takahashi’s secret patron? They lived right next door to one another so it was definitely possible. If that was the case, then they must have built the hotel together, Kubo deliberately keeping a low profile as far as the paper trail was concerned. The man lived in that huge mansion. Asai had no idea what his line of work might be, but there was no doubt that he was wealthy.

  But, then, what a brazen act for Ms Takahashi to have a boutique next to Mr Kubo’s home. What man would be so shameless as to set his mistress up in business right next door? Perhaps he’d got it all wrong after all…

  He was suddenly jolted out of his reverie.

  “Would it be at all possible in the near future for you to pay a visit to our neck of the woods?”

  Asai realized the chairman of the cooperative was addressing him.

  “Pardon?”

  “We would very much like you to visit our prefecture, Mr Asai. We’re all pretty much novices in the field, so we’d appreciate any kind of guidance you can offer us.”

  The director turned to face Asai.

  “I think you can probably make the time, can’t you?”

  It appeared the director was anxious to lend his support to the politician named by the men from Yamagata.

  By the time Asai got back from his business trip, the background check he had ordered on Chiyoko Takahashi and Konosuke Kubo was finished and the report ready for him to pick up. A week before his departure, he had requested the help of a detective agency.

  Out of a sense of self-preservation, Asai had decided not to reveal himself to be an assistant division chief at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. He had visited the detective agency under a false name, explained what he needed to be investigated, and paid the necessary deposit. He gave a made-up address and told them he didn’t have a phone line. He arranged to call them to find out when the report was ready and go to pick it up in person, at which time he would pay the balance of the fee.

  He called the agency the day of his return from Yamagata, and was told that the investigation was complete. He took a taxi over right away, kept his promise to pay the balance, and left with a large envelope. This way, he believed, no one would have an inkling who it was who had requested the investigation into Ms Takahashi and Mr Kubo.

  The report read as follows:

  Chiyoko Takahashi, 36 years old, married Fumitaro Ozawa, a trader from Yokohama, twelve years ago. They were divorced five years ago. The reason for the divorce was her husband’s extramarital affair. She received a very generous amount of money as a settlement, but the exact amount cannot be verified. Mr Ozawa immediately remarried.

  Following her divorce, Chiyoko Takahashi managed a hair salon in Shinagawa, but having no formal training, she didn’t cut her customers’ hair herself. She seemed to have a talent for management, however, and the salon was popular. Around that time she had an affair with the owner of a wholesale cosmetics business. There was trouble when the trader’s wife found out. From time to time she’d turn up at Ms Takahashi’s shop, which caused a scandal. It became uncomfortable for Ms Takahashi to stay in the neighbourhood, so three years ago she moved to Sanya in Yoyogi and opened a small shop selling cosmetics. The wholesaler’s name is Genkichi Higai, aged 52. He has a store in Kyobashi, and is rather wealthy. It was with Mr Higai’s assistance that Ms Takahashi opened her Yoyogi boutique, and it appears that they are still lovers. This year, she bought a ten-thousand-square-foot plot of land from her next-door neighbour, Konosuke Kubo. She combined this land with the thousand square feet she already had, and built the Hotel Chiyo. It can be assumed that most of the funds for the purchase were provided by Genkichi Higai. The aforementioned Konosuke Kubo is listed as a board member of the corporation, and Ms Takahashi has let slip that he demanded a percentage of the profits of the new hotel in return for agreeing to sell his land. It was supposedly Higai who conducted the negotiations. The hotel is doing very well.

  Of course; it was just as he’d guessed. Chiyoko Takahashi was no lonely divorcee. She may not have been a stunning beauty, but she was an attractive, mature woman. He hadn’t believed she was completely single, and, sure enough, she’d turned out to have a patron. A hair salon and a cosmetics shop that needed stock; wholesale cosmetics – it all made sense. A relationship that had started out with the provision of goods had turned into a love affair.

  The shop that, despite its tiny size, had such a vast and expensive inventory; the purchase of the neighbouring land; the construction of an attractive, European-style hotel – the detective’s report made perfect sense.

  Konosuke Kubo, 38 years old. Married for ten years to Kazuko (aged 32), no children. The house in Yoyogi was built about fifty years ago by his father, who was a wholesaler of silk goods. Konosuke was born in that house, and lived there up until its sale to the hotel corporation.

  Konosuke Kubo graduated from the commerce department at a certain private university, and following his father’s death took over the family business. The market went through a depression, and the company went under. Since then, he has been employed as the General Affairs manager at his uncle’s textile firm, and lives the typical salaryman’s lifestyle. With the failure of the family business, his fortune is not as great as it once was, but he has inherited land in several parts of the city. His reputation at work is reasonably good, and there have been no complaints regarding his conduct. Drinks moderately. Since the sale of his Yoyogi house, he has rented a single-roomed apartment on the third floor of the Keyaki Mansion building in Higashi Nakano.

  His wife, Kazuko, has tuberculosis, and has been a p
atient at a sanatorium in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture for the past year and a half. Mr Kubo goes up to Nagano the last weekend of every month to visit. There are no rumours of any marital infidelities on his part.

  Asai’s theory – that there had been a sexual relationship between Chiyoko Takahashi and Konosuke Kubo – had been completely demolished by this report.

  10

  The detective agency’s report had said that there was no personal relationship between Ms Takahashi and Mr Kubo, but Asai still had his doubts. Kubo didn’t have any financial problems. He owned plots of land inherited from his father at various locations throughout Tokyo. The report didn’t specify where exactly, but as the plots had been purchased by his father many years ago they must have been in the old city, or at least close to it. And close to it would mean in one of the newly developed sub-centres; either way, they must be worth a fortune. And he must receive a generous salary at his uncle’s company. His father’s business may have gone under with him at the helm, but that would have made little difference in the long run. He was still very well off indeed. And he only had his wife and himself to support.

  Why would a man who wasn’t short of money sell his family home to Chiyoko Takahashi and then move to a tiny apartment in Higashi Nakano? There was no doubt that his Yoyogi house would have been much more comfortable, and in a far pleasanter neighbourhood. At least it had been an upmarket, tasteful neighbourhood until all the hotels had invaded their peace. By law, local residents were permitted to block the construction of such places if they were within a school zone, but neighbourhoods outside school zones were powerless to do anything. Sometimes locals would join together and protest against construction projects, but it was always pretty much a lost cause. It was highly likely that the Yoyogi residents would have launched a protest against the building of the Chiyo right there on their hill, complaining that it was a blemish on their surroundings. He didn’t need the money, so what had made Mr Kubo sell his land to a business venture that he should have abhorred and that he knew would scandalize the neighbourhood? And then become one of the executives of that same hotel?

  Asai was sure there was more to the story. The agency’s investigation had barely scratched the surface. A man not yet forty who’d sent his wife away to a distant sanatorium. A woman in her thirties, divorced and involved with the president of a medium-sized business. Put these two people next door to one another, and something could quite possibly come of it. Chiyoko Takahashi, although not traditionally beautiful, was certainly a charming woman. Well spoken and polite, skilfully applied make-up, a glimpse of flirtatiousness in her movements… It would be so easy for a man whose wife was hospitalized far away to lose his head over Ms Takahashi. He had surrendered his land to her and put his name behind an immoral business enterprise. What was really going on?

  But it wasn’t simply curiosity that kept Asai ruminating on all this; he knew that his wife had been taken ill right where Mr Kubo’s house used to stand. And he had the strangest sense that Eiko herself might be the connection between Konosuke Kubo and Chiyoko Takahashi. The thought kept nagging at him that around the time of Eiko’s death there had been a fairly strong earthquake, but he still didn’t know if there was any connection between this earthquake and her death.

  Ms Takahashi hadn’t mentioned the earthquake, so it had probably happened before Eiko had run into her boutique. If that was the case, then she had no reason to bring it up. If, for instance, the tremor had hit while Eiko was lying down in the back of the shop, then it would surely have stuck in Ms Takahashi’s memory, and she would have said something about it. Or was it because the inhabitants of Tokyo are so used to earthquakes that it hadn’t even left an impression on her? Asai found he couldn’t erase these thoughts from his head.

  The other thing bothering him was Eiko’s haiku. In her memorial collection there had been the poems about a Somin Shorai amulet, and a Yamaga lantern. Asai had never once heard his wife talk of these things. He was fairly sure she hadn’t been into folk art or crafts. There was nothing like that in their home, and he’d never heard her mention buying anything at a department store. They must have been something she’d gone to see in an exhibition somewhere. He couldn’t work out what on earth these objects and the haiku could have had to do with her sudden death, but they wouldn’t stop playing on his mind.

  Asai was dying to call at the Chiyo and take a look around, but he couldn’t risk running into Chiyoko Takahashi. It wasn’t just that he had no reason to be there, but if she really had been involved in Eiko’s death in some way, he didn’t want to alert her to his suspicions.

  He was sure if he could just get into the hotel and look around there would be some sort of clue. Obviously there wouldn’t be anything in full view, but he just might be able to discover something that would give him a hint as to the truth. He clung to this unlikely hope – well, maybe more of a fantasy – while at the same time his suspicions about Ms Takahashi and Mr Kubo kept growing.

  He wouldn’t get away with turning up at the hotel alone as he’d done the other times. The story about the abandoned husband searching for his estranged wife was not going to work. What if Chiyoko Takahashi appeared when he was in the middle of questioning one of the maids?

  If he was going to check out the Hotel Chiyo, then he needed to find a woman to go with him. But he didn’t know anyone. This wasn’t an easy favour – he didn’t know any women who would risk being seen going into a couples’ hotel.

  He had thought of his sister-in-law. She’d probably be sympathetic if he explained he was trying to find out the truth about her older sister’s death, but Miyako was a married woman. Perhaps she’d be okay with it if he told her there was some definite proof on the other side of those walls, but the vague idea that he should go and take a look around wasn’t going to convince her. And if he wasn’t careful about how he brought it up, she might think he had another motive for inviting her to that sort of hotel. Well, no, he hoped she knew him better than that, but even so, what would they do when they got there? Putting on disguises and visiting the hotel would take some guts. And getting permission from her husband to do something like that? Not an option. The two of them going there on the quiet? Could lead to a fatal misunderstanding.

  No, Asai was going to have to abandon his plan to pay a visit to the Chiyo until he could find himself a suitable companion.

  Asai knew very well what Chiyoko Takahashi looked like, but he had never met Konosuke Kubo. What kind of man was he? What did he look like? He was curious to set eyes on him, just one time.

  The detective agency had included Mr Kubo’s address in Higashi Nakano in the report, right down to the apartment number. He also knew the address and telephone number of his workplace, R-Textiles in Kyobashi. Which would be the better location to get a look at Kubo without being seen?

  He could loiter in the hallway in front of Kubo’s apartment and watch for him going in or out, but there was no way to predict when he might appear, and if he hung around for too long the other residents or the apartment manager would get suspicious. It’d be like the time he’d been peering through the front window of Takahashi Cosmetics and probably been mistaken for a thief by the tall man standing behind him with his dog. If he hung around an apartment building, he was bound to be asked what he was doing there.

  The other possibility was to visit R-Textiles. Unless he was out on business, Kubo should be easy to spot at his workplace, sitting in the General Affairs manager’s office. Asai only needed to observe him from a distance. It would be the same as at Asai’s own office – the corridors were always filled with anonymous visitors. It was just like any city street. Asai decided on this option.

  Just after one in the afternoon, he let the division chief know he was going out, and set off walking towards the underground at Toranomon. From there, it was only twenty minutes to Kyobashi, and R-Textiles was less than a ten-minute walk from the station.

  The company occupied about five rooms on the fourt
h floor of a tall office building. Asai couldn’t make anything out beyond the panes of frosted glass that divided the rooms from the corridor. There was a nameplate on each door indicating the name of the company, but, unlike the ministry, there was nothing to say which section, so Asai couldn’t guess which one housed the General Affairs division.

  Asai was wearing dark glasses, in the hope that no one would get a good look at his face. Tinted glasses were popular these days, so no one would think it was strange. He’d worn them when he visited the detective agency too.

  Asai hung around in the corridor, trying to look as if he were waiting for someone. Behind his glasses it was dark. Just as he was hoping a secretary or someone would come by, the door of the room closest to the lift opened and a young woman in a light-blue smock and miniskirt came out carrying a pile of documents. Asai went up to her.

  “Excuse me, do you work for R-Textiles?”

  “Yes,” she said, looking up at him.

  “Which room is the General Affairs section?”

  “General Affairs? It’s this one.”

  She pointed to the door she had just come through.

  “Oh, I see. Er… is the manager, Mr Kubo, in the office right now?” He emphasized Kubo’s name to make sure he had the right place.

  “Yes, I think he’s in.”

  “The General Affairs manager is Mr Konosuke Kubo, right?”

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  The young woman glanced once more at Asai’s dark glasses.

  “You see, I’m due at a meeting in one of the other offices in this building, but afterwards I have a meeting with Mr Kubo. Unfortunately it’s the first time we’ll have met face to face, so I thought I’d just come over first to check out what he looks like. Then I’ll be able to walk straight up to him when I come to meet him later.”

  This wasn’t the most plausible of excuses, but the woman didn’t seem to care.