They decide not to go down the mountain. Kazuo and company return to the lodge village. Asako discovers an important clue. This will give you enough data to solve the case.
They decide not to go down the mountain.
Kazuo and company return to the lodge village.
Asako discovers an important clue.
This will give you enough data to solve the case.
When they reentered the administration building, Sagashima was reading his foreign book in the parlor.
“Hey. You're back early.”
His face was completely inexpressive. They couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or was just like that.
Yumi and Mikiko immediately ran for the stove.
“Uwah~, warmth at last...”
Yumi smiled. Goddamned brats... Kazuo was the one who felt like his legs were about to fall out from under him.
Since the stove in the parlor was apparently claimed, Kazuo and Hoshizono went to the dining room.
Asako, who was flipping through a binder notebook, looked up at them with clear surprise.
“You're back already?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
Hoshizono gave a rare sarcastic grin. Kazuo ran to the stove and took off his gloves.
“We were just following the young mistresses' orders.”
“I figured as much.”
Asako giggled a bit.
“Ah, you can have this back. Thank you, it was a lot of help.”
He took off the wool hat, brushed off the snow, and returned it to Asako. He felt a bit silly that he'd been so dramatic with it, acting like he was making a final promise. Asako accepted it with another laugh.
“Ah, more importantly, please look here. I wanted to show you and Mr. Hoshizono this.”
She pointed to the tabletop.
“Earlier, Ms. Akane and I did a quick search of the staff room, and we found this. I don't know if it's related to the incident or not.”
On the table was the kettle, a small attache case, and the binder notebook Asako had been looking at.
“Where is Ms. Kusabuki?” asked Hoshizono.
“As soon as she has a moment of free time, she heads back to her lodge to work on her word processor.”
That sounded like her.
“First off, we have...”
Asako opened the black leather case. A calculator, a ballpoint pen, a pencil, some note paper, and what appeared to be receipts tied with a rubber band.
“Where did you find this?” Hoshizono asked with clear interest.
“Under the mattress of the bed closest to the door. It was shoved under there like it was hidden on purpose.”
Then she opened the binder.
“This was there, too. I didn't understand it at first, but now it's starting to make sense.”
When Kazuo and Hoshizono looked in, they saw rows of small numbers.
“Look here.”
Asako traced the numbers with a slender finger.
“On September 11th, a payment of 1,588,000 yen was made from Yamakanmuri Co. to Yamabe Metal Works for materials, and on the same day, Wada Transport received 443,700 yen for transportation of materials, also from Yamakanmuri. Then, on September 18th, 368,200 yen was paid to Wada Transport, not for Yamabe Metal Works, but for Saegusa Ironworks. However, over the next 21 days, even though Yamakanmuri paid for Yamabe to transport the materials themselves, they still made a payment for 'transportation costs' to Wada Transport of 456,700 yen. Then here, on the next page, material costs to Saegusa Ironworks are paid on the 28th. The same day, Wada Transport is paid 354,200 yen to transport the materials. On July 14th, material transportation costs...”
Asako turned the pages rapidly, pointing out numbers one after another. By now, Kazuo was totally lost.
“And here, there's a payment of 436,300 yen for transport costs. That was only the day after the order, so the period from order to delivery is unusually short whenever Yamabe Metal Works is involved, and the money always goes through Wada Transport.”
“I see.”
Hoshizono snapped his fingers above the pages.
“It's a shell company. They've created a fictitious transport company to manipulate the books to keep more money for themselves.”
“Right. Maybe they write it differently on the tax records, but still, they should be more careful with things like this.”
Asako nodded sagely.
“Um, sorry, what are you talking about? I'm not good with things like this,” Kazuo mumbled.
Hoshizono raised a finger.
“In short, Yamakanmuri is recording more expenses than they're actually spending – this notebook is a so-called 'secret ledger' for tax evasion.”
“Tax evasion... by Iwagishi's company?”
He couldn't help but cry out. This was an unbelievable find. Asako frowned.
“I didn't want to believe it either, but when I looked it over, I couldn't read it any other way.”
“Wow... So the old man's company was evading its taxes.”
Kazuo was in shock. Come to think of it, Zaino had been bragging about how great he was, but was this the secret to his success? Was he such a “great” guy because he was in charge of evading taxes for a major real estate company with his knowledge of the true circumstances behind the scenes? She'd made a major discovery. Asako, who'd seen the truth with just a glance at the book, was truly amazing. She'd said earlier that she did Akane's accounting work. She must have been very useful.
“But, even if we did find something like this, does it have any relation to the incident?”
But it seemed she wasn't that confident.
“In terms of evidence for the case, I think this might be more important.”
What she picked up off the table was a thread. It was wrapped around a paper core, forming a black bundle.
“That's the thread from the alarm device,” said Kazuo. Hoshizono nodded.
“Where did you find this?”
“Inside the desk. There was an office desk in the back of the staff room, right? There was a sewing kit in the drawer.”
“So Mr. Zaino took it out and used it,” said Hoshizono.
“And then there's...”
Asako picked up the rugged kettle. In Asako's delicate hands, it looked especially large and rough.
“I just brought it over from where we found it, it still has the string attached.”
The black thread was still hanging from the kettle's handle. It was definitely the same one they'd seen this morning.
“And this is the other string, which was tied to the nail in the wall.”
Asako picked up the other thread from the table. It was probably about 30 centimeters long, one end ending in a loop. That appeared to be the part tied to the nail.
“There, I found something strange. It's only natural this thread is cut in two...”
Asako held the ends of the two threads together.
“Right, Ms. Kusabuki broke it it this morning.”
When Hoshizono said that, Asako replied:
“Yes, but this is the weird part. Look here.”
She brought the thread connected to the kettle to the tips of Kazuo and Hoshizono's noses.
“There's a knot here. It looks like this wasn't originally a single thread.”
There was a knot about 40 centimeters from the kettle's handle. It was a bow knot, so small it was almost impossible to see without close inspection.
“You're right, it is tied.”
Hoshizono murmured to himself and plucked the thread from Asako's hand. Then, when he pulled the knot with his fingertips, it came unraveled and the thread fell to the table. [See Fig. 8: Kettle and Thread] That meant that the thread was now in three parts: The one tied to the kettle, the one tied to the nail, and the one in the middle. Kazuo angled his head to look down at the fallen thread. Why did Zaino do that? What was the point? Asako appeared to have similar doubts. She looked confused.
“It's weird, right? I'm curious what it means. But I don't know if it's important to the case or not, so I thought I'd let you and Mr. Hoshizono take a look.”
Hoshizono stared at the thread, kettle in hand. It looked as though he were afraid the thread would vanish into the ether the moment he looked away. Then, slowly, he looked up at her.
“No, Miss Asako. You've made a wonderful discovery. This is an important clue.”
Hoshizono's eyes were shining like stars. Normally, he would have expressed something like that by grabbing Asako by the hand and showering her with poetic words, but he saw so absorbed in something else that he forgot all about his usual salesmanship.
However, Kazuo had no idea what he was so excited about. Asako was also looking uncomprehendingly at Hoshizono's marble statue face.
Honestly, he was a bit disappointed. He knew that Asako was a talented writer's secretary, but it seemed she was also steps ahead of him as a detective's assistant. Somehow, he felt like he'd been abandoned.
After their talk, Kazuo found himself with some free time.
It appeared the women had all locked themselves in their lodges and were nowhere to be found. Sagashima was leafing through his foreign book in the dining room with a serious expression, but talking to that old man would accomplish nothing but making him tired, so Kazuo sought to avoid him as much as possible. More importantly, Hoshizono appeared to be lost in thought and aimlessly wandered the halls of the administration building. He went out in the wind and walked from the right path to the left. Then he went out the front door, only to peek in the back... Kazuo had no idea what he was doing. He didn't speak and had a complex expression on his face, making it hard for Kazuo to approach him. Once, as he passed by the parlor, he spoke.
“Kazuo, don't be surprised by what happens next. No matter what I say, please try to remain calm in front of the others. Alright?”
He whispered those incomprehensible words and went back to wandering. Even when Kazuo called after him, he got a dismissive response. Kazuo finally got bored and stopped following him.
After killing some time in the mattress room, that evening he decided to watch TV in the parlor. The weather hadn't improved, but he wanted to know what was going on outside. Who knows? He might have seen some news about a search and rescue team being sent to look for a group of cultural figures stranded on Mt. Togaridake.
There was already someone there. Yumi stood with a placid face, adjusting the antenna. When Kazuo approached, she turned to him.
“Ah, Mr. Sugishita, the TV isn't showing anything. I can't believe this crappy old thing.”
She complained in a soft, sweet voice.
“I guess with this wind, we can't even get a signal. Will you please help me?”
Kazuo took a turn pointing the antenna in various directions, but it didn't help. They could make out some audio, though it cut out frequently, but the image was totally incomprehensible. Colorful abstract patterns like manga screentones covered the screen.
It seemed the channel was tuned to a local station. The crackly audio described disaster after disaster.
“...you can see... collapsed house... desperately trying to rescue... fallen snow... tragic accident...”
“Things are pretty tragic here, too.”
Yumi kept complaining over the sound of the TV.
“Seriously, how much longer do we have to wait before help comes. Hey, Mr. Sugishita, how long will it be?”
“I don't know, ask theJapan Meteorological Agency.”
Dismissing Yumi's whining, Kazuo was about to sit down on the sofa when the news caught his ear.
“...However, this abnormal weather is expected to continue until the middle of tonight... atmospheric pressure will pass over the pacific ocean... The high pressure system from the mainland... expected to be gone by midnight... recover by tomorrow morning. The weather will clear and it will be possible to send... to disaster-affected sites.”
He couldn't help but look at Yumi. Her eyes had gone wide with surprise.
“Mr. Sugishita, did I really just hear that?”
“They said things would recover by tomorrow morning.”
“They said it would be a sunny day!”
“They did, they did say that!”
“There's no mistake, right? 'Sunny day' means sunny day?”
Yumi's voice was rising with excitement. Her chubby face was glowing with joy.
“There's no doubt, I heard it too, it'll be clear.”
“They we can definitely leave tomorrow!”
“Yeah, if it's clear out, the fire department and the SDF can send helicopters, so it'll be easy to get off a mountain like this. No, if the weather is good, we can just walk.”
“Really?”
“Really!”
When Kazuo gave her a firm nod, Yumi jumped off the sofa.
“I'm going to go tell everyone!”
“I'll go too.”
They ran out of the administration building, Kazuo racing ahead of Yumi.
After the news was disseminated, everyone gathered in the parlor. Once the good news was reconfirmed by the television, an unexpected cheer erupted forth.
“Hooray!”
Mikiko raised her arms and jumped up.
“Well that's a relief.”
Akane took a deep breath and sat cross-legged on the sofa. Yumi was jumping around her.
“Just one more day, then. We just have to hold out for tonight, and we can go back to Tokyo tomorrow morning.”
“That appears to be the case,” said Hoshizono, sounding content.
“Tonight, we should spend the night all together in the same place, as Mr. Zaino originally proposed.”
“I don't want to follow in that guy's footsteps.”
Sagashima smiled as he said something insensitive, but nobody took offense.
“Ah, I'm so hungry. I haven't eaten much since yesterday.”
Mikiko sounded relaxed. Hoshizono gave her a wry smile.
I see your stomach is straightforward enough, Miss Mikiko.”
“Well, anyone would let themselves get hungry if they knew it was safe.”
The parlor was filled with an atmosphere of peace. Everyone wore a smile on their face.
“It's a bit early, but I'll go start on dinner.”
Asako sounded cheery. Yumi clapped for her.
“Wah, Miss Hayasawa, you're the best!”
“So this is our Last Supper.”
Sagashima's joke made Akane laugh out loud.
They were running out of flour, so their last supper was instant ramen. Asako threw several blocks of dehydrated pasta into a single large pot.
Everyone chattered away throughout the meal. They talked about what they planned to do when they returned to Tokyo. Perhaps because they were so happy to have survived and been given the chance to return to normal life, they ate well, talked well, and laughed often. Even Sagashima looked cheerful as he discussed his plans to spend New Year's doing fieldwork in Australia.
After they'd drank every last drop of their salty ramen broth, Asako made coffee.
“We're out of fresh beans, but thank goodness, we had plenty of freeze-dried beans left.”
Asako handed out the cups. Her scent made Kazuo relax even deeper.
They sipped their coffee, enjoying a drowsy, mellow atmosphere.
Then, as everyone took refills of their coffee, Hoshizono slowly opened his mouth.
“Everyone, may I ask a question?”
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