“Thanks, Mom.” I would take all the faith I could get.
Chapter Twenty-One
I woke up to the sound of snowplows scraping up and down the street. That was a sound I hadn’t heard in a long time! Rolling over in bed, I yawned and stretched, my aching body protesting any movement. At least my head and back didn’t hurt, but my right hand still throbbed.
I pulled Yasahiro’s covers up to my chin and stared at the ceiling. What could possibly happen today? I certainly hadn’t started out the day before thinking I would be mugged. It was just my own luck that had gotten me into that mess. And despite telling Yasahiro he didn’t have to come home, I missed him enough to want him to return. I hadn’t thought our first separation would be so tough, but if the time had been uneventful, it would have been easier.
Throwing my legs off the bed, I jammed my feet into house slippers, grabbed a robe, and headed out into the main area. The morning light was cold, bright white, and fluffy snowflakes floated past the windows. It had finally decided to snow. I wrapped the robe tighter around my body and stood at the window so I could look down at the street. The sidewalks had accumulated a significant amount overnight, at least ten centimeters, and I was going to have to shovel before I left for Yamida’s house. It was her morning to go to the physical therapist at 10:00. It was 07:30, so I had a little bit of time to eat before I got moving on the snow removal.
I took a long moment to prop my hip on the window ledge and watch the snow fall. I was a summer gal, through and through, but there was something magical about the first snowfall of the season. The world seemed new and quiet, in a way only a blanket of fluffy ice crystals could provide. The clouds hovered low and morphed from white to gray and back again. Looking up the street towards Izakaya Jūshi, I spotted several neighbors already outside shoveling. Plenty of people woke up early around here, so I had better get moving. I didn’t want to look like a slacker.
I managed to cook up two eggs and toast without burning anything (score!), and I ate them at the table with a hot cup of coffee and my usual morning ritual of rejections. Sigh. Maybe it was the time of year? This was not the best time to be without a job. Most companies were dealing with year-end parties and the upcoming holidays, and they weren’t hiring anybody. I may have had more luck in January, but it felt like failure to give up now. I opened my notebook, ran through my list, and realized I had no one new to apply to. I was either going to have to come up with something totally new or make my way through the list again, and I couldn’t do that without waiting a few weeks. Well, that solved that. I’d take time off from submitting resumes and come back to the search later when I’d hopefully have more places to apply to. In the meantime, I had plenty of work to do.
I dressed in several layers, leggings under yoga pants under jeans, and I bundled up with both a hat and scarf and my boots. Putting on my gloves was difficult. My right hand was scraped up enough to be hot to the touch, and my bandage wouldn’t stay on for long. Akiko would be at Murata’s apartment later today, so I’d ask her to dress the wound for me. Remembering the conversation I had with Kumi the night before, I needed to be a better friend to Akiko. Letting her be a nurse to me, which she loved to do, was a good place to start.
I grabbed the shovel from outside the door and headed down the stairs. Pulling the door open, a small wall of snow fell into the vestibule, so I had to brush it back outside. I pushed the shovel against the sidewalk and cleared a section of walking space, one meter at a time. I hadn’t done this much physical exercise since the fall harvest, and my shoulders and back ached from the exertion. It felt good, though, to be out and active. As I slowly made my way down the front of Yasahiro’s retail space, I stared at the metal shutters over the windows and door, wondering what it looked like inside. What had been in there before he purchased the building?
“Do you need help, young lady?” A middle-aged man from the building next door waved to me with a shovel. I didn’t recognize him.
“No, thank you. I’ll be fine.” I smiled and bowed to him, getting back to the shoveling. Push, lift, turn, repeat. This repetitive motion reminded me of the way Murata kneaded dough. I still hadn’t tried to bake bread of my own yet, and I wanted to try that tomorrow.
The man ignored me anyway and came to my section of the sidewalk with the shovel. “I can help. I’m already done with my shoveling, and this one is twice as long as mine.” He walked to the other end of Yasahiro’s property and began to shovel. “I don’t know you,” he said, lifting his voice above the scrape of our shovels. “Are you Yasahiro’s sister?”
Here we go. “No. I’m his girlfriend, and I’m staying in his apartment for the next month or so. He’s in Paris right now or he would be out here doing this instead of me.” I pushed a shovelful of snow into the pile near the curb.
“Ah! He mentioned he was dating somebody new. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Koshiro Hase. This is my cobbler’s business right next door.” He waved to the small building next to Yasahiro’s, and I tilted back my hat so I could read the sign. His store was only open a few days a week when I was never around, so I hadn’t noticed it.
“You fix shoes?”
“Yep. My father taught me, and I took over the business five years ago.”
“How long has your business been here?”
He ceased shoveling and scratched at his beard. Several snowflakes were caught in his hair and he brushed them off. “Twenty-five years?”
I shoveled some more snow and edged closer to him. “You’ve been here a long time then. Do you know what used to be in this space?” I waved at Yasahiro’s building.
“Yes, yes. A store for brushes! The man who owned this building used to be a brush maker. He made brushes for calligraphy and for makeup. He was bought out about five years ago by a bigger manufacturer up north that was looking to lessen competition. They made him a sizable offer, and he was happy to retire. Moved his family and sold the whole building. I hear he’s doing well now. Became a fisherman or something, just to pass the time, you know? They made more than enough to live off of until they die.”
A brush shop? I would’ve never have guessed. But the metal shutters didn’t have any windows, so I hadn’t ever seen inside. It could have been a butcher shop or a salon for all I knew.
My phone in my pocket vibrated and rang. I set my shovel against the building, pulled off my gloves, and answered it. It was Yamida.
“Are you coming today?” she asked, her voice shaky. “There’s a lot of snow outside, and I’m worried about making it to my appointment on time.”
“No worries, Yamida-san. I’m on top of it. I’m shoveling my own walkway right now, and I plan to be there thirty minutes early so I can shovel your walk before taking you to the physical therapist.”
She sighed into the phone, and I could feel her smile on the other end. “Oh good. I was worried.”
“That’s why you hired me! I’ll make sure you make it to your appointment on time. I’ll see you soon. Feel free to call me if you need anything else.“
I hung up and dropped my phone into my pocket. “Thank you so much for helping me, Hase-san,” I said to the man from next door. “I have to go help my elderly client now. She needs to have her walkway shoveled before I take her to her physical therapy appointment.” I bowed and smiled to him, and he bowed back.
“What is it that you do? Are you a nurse?” He leaned on the handle of his shovel and tilted his head to the side.
I pulled one of the business cards Kumi made for me from my pocket and presented it to him with both hands. “No. I’m not a nurse, I’m just an elderly helper. It’s a part-time job for me. I charge an hourly rate, and I help them with whatever they need help with. I can shop or help them get to appointments, or I can clean. Whatever they need except cooking. I’m a horrible cook,“ I said, laughing and covering my mouth.
He examined both sides of my business card. “My parents live around the block, and I don’t always have time to go over and help them.
They sometimes need little things done like changing a light bulb in the ceiling or carrying something heavy. I feel bad that I can’t drop everything to be there for them.“
I smiled and bowed, nodding my head in sympathy. “If you ever need assistance, my information is on the card. I charge 900 yen an hour, and I’m available most days. I can do all those things and more. Thank you again for your help! I really have to go!”
We waved to each other, and I headed back inside, only to change and return to the snow outside of Yamida’s house.
“Here, Mei-san!” She waved to me from the doorway, and I stomped through the snow to get to her. “The shovel is right here.”
“Okay.” I cleared off her porch. “This should take me about twenty minutes. Why don’t you get ready to go while I take care of this?”
“Are the busses running?” She wrung her hands together in worry. I loved Yamida because she was sweet and generous, but she worried over everything.
“The busses are running on time. I got here super fast. Can you take my bag?” I handed her my bag that contained my book and some snacks for while I waited at her appointment. Later, I would go to the bathhouse, too. A good soak after all the hard labor would be perfect.
Thirty minutes and a hundred shovels full of snow later, we were on and off the bus and at her physical therapist. I cleaned off my boots and left them at the door, jamming my wet, socked feet into provided plastic slippers and slumping into a chair in the waiting area while Yamida was ushered to the weight room to exercise. The physical therapist was a Swedish woman who spoke perfect Japanese. Her voice never ceased to amaze me. I needed to get out more.
I texted with Yasahiro who should have been asleep but, due to the jet lag, was up at an early hour.
“You’re missing all the snow!” I texted to him.
“I’m missing you. How are you today?”
“Sore, but I’ll be even more sore tomorrow with all the shoveling I’ve done.”
“No. No. How are you doing with the whole being mugged thing?”
“I’m okay. Really. It was a freak occurrence, and Goro is on the case. No need to worry.”
“Okay. I’ll take your word for it. I have a busy day ahead of me. Classes this morning, then a restaurant opening this afternoon and evening. I’ll text you later when I can.”
“Have a great day!”
“You too.”
I stared at his last text, ended with a heart emoticon. I missed him too and I hadn’t even said so. I brought my thumbs over the screen of my phone to text him back, sighed, turned it off and put it away. No need to get too mushy because I’d just start crying, and crying was the last thing I needed to do while on the job.
I relaxed into the chair and recalled the prior evening. Jun had known who I was. He said we had someone in common. He was visibly upset and bolted when he heard Etsuko had died. This coupled with Etsuko’s strange phone call the night we went out together, her on-time bill payments and international travel, and on-the-side boyfriends meant that something shady had been going on, but I was missing a piece, or even a few pieces, to tie everything together. Still, I was unhappy to report everything to Goro and Kumi last night at the bathhouse. They had loved Etsuko and had a hard time believing she was involved in anything improper.
I pulled my book from my bag and settled into the fictional world from where I left off last night when Jun interrupted me. I loved a good historical romance, and I was immediately swept into a scene of fighting on the battlefield, swords swinging, and the consort of a high prince was being held by the enemy.
“I told you I love girls that read, right?”
For a moment, I thought I might be imagining his voice, but I looked up, and Jun stood over me with a wad of cash in his hand. I opened my mouth to scream and stopped as he lunged at me.
“No! No, stop.” Jun waved his hands in my face, and I clamped my mouth shut over my scream. Looking past him to the woman at the front desk, her head bopped to music pumped directly to her ears via headphones, and her head was bent over her smartphone. She hadn’t noticed my squeal.
“What the…?” I tried to scramble backwards but only knocked my head against the wall behind me. “Ouch!”
“Wow. You’re awfully touchy.”
I stared at him for a moment to make sure he wasn’t about to kill me, but his face was compassionate, not murderous.
“Considering you mugged me last night, I’m sure I’m not overreacting.”
Jun shoved the money at my hands and sat down next to me. “Here’s your money minus some train fare. I had to pay to get back out here again.”
I counted the money and I was short 1000 yen. Great. I was paying for my own mugger to travel back and forth from the comfort of his home in Tokyo. That seemed entirely unfair. I stuffed the money in my wallet and clutched my purse to my chest.
“You hurt me pretty badly yesterday. I bumped my head on the sidewalk and scraped up my hand too. What do you want?” I asked him, keeping my voice down. I wasn’t negotiating with him if he was going to continue to harass me.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you, and I’m sorry I freaked out on you. I had no idea Etsuko was dead.” He stared out the window, his eyes unfocused and sad. “I loved her, you know? In my own way. She was one of my first clients, and I always felt bad that her boyfriend lived so far away. She loved him so much. She missed him. Being apart from him was the hardest thing she ever did.” Jun sighed and hung his head. “I never meant for things to get out of control.”
I held my breath, unable to believe what I was hearing. Jun loved Etsuko. Etsuko loved Hisashi. Hisashi loved Etsuko. When you looked at the triangle, Jun was the one left out. What role did he play in all of this?
“So… Did Etsuko cheat on her boyfriend with you?” I sat forward in my seat and turned to him, looking him in the eyes, determined to catch him in a lie.
“No. If anything, the love was only one-sided. I cared about her, but she only saw me as someone to sleep next to. After a while, I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to be with her, but she wanted to be with her boyfriend.”
Roaring in my ears turned my vision black. Couldn’t take it anymore? I jumped up from my seat and pointed at him. “You killed her!” I whirled away from him and dug in my bag for my phone.
“No!” He lunged for me but this time I was quicker. I sidestepped him, and he crashed into the line of seats across from us. He groaned but straightened up quickly. The receptionist didn’t move; she was absorbed in her music. “No. I never hurt her,” he said, clutching his hand to his chest. “I loved her, but I had to let her go. There was no use trying to tell myself not to get attached. I was attached and there was nothing I could do except to stop seeing her.”
He was probably lying, but the pain and anguish on his face made me believe him. This had happened to me once. I had fallen in love with a guy in one of my college classes. We studied together all the time, and I even slept in his bed when we were up too late cramming for a test. But he hadn’t loved me in return, and eventually, I had to stop being his friend because it hurt too much.
I stretched out my hand to Jun and pulled him to our seats, stroking his back as he cried into his hands.
“I told her I couldn’t do this anymore, so I would recommend somebody else from the agency for her. He’s gay, so I figured there would be no attachment. It was better for all of us this way.” He pulled a handkerchief from his bag and wiped up his face.
“Maybe it wasn’t so great for Etsuko.” I considered their situation. If she hadn’t been seeing Jun anymore, she must have fallen into a bad deal with somebody else. “Who was the next person she started sleeping with?”
“Look. You have to promise me I’m not to get in any trouble…”
The hair on my head stood up. “Why? What do you think happened?”
“Remember how I said we had a friend in common? You and me?”
“Yes?”
“He’ll kill me if he finds out I’ve
been speaking to you. He’s a very powerful man with a lot of secrets, and I can’t say anything or else I’m dead. I got involved with them once when Etsuko called me for help, and it was enough for me to tell her to leave me alone for good. I called her one evening a few weeks ago, and we had an argument over him. I think that may have been the day before she died.” More tears fell down his cheeks.
My brain ran through every possible man I could think of, but besides Goro and Yasahiro and Hisashi, I couldn’t think of anybody. Who was this powerful man? I hadn’t lived in Chikata long enough to know many other people.
I grabbed his shirt and shook him. “You need to tell me. Etsuko’s boyfriend is the main suspect. And if he didn’t kill her, we can’t let him sit in jail. We need to put the right person behind bars.”
Jun’s face whitened. “He follows me around. It’s a miracle I made it here today without being caught. But the snow was on my side today.” He stood up, ready to leave. “I said that I stopped sleeping with Etsuko, but I still saw her. I kept getting dragged into things, and she was desperate for help. She was in the middle of one triangle after another. There was no escaping.” He headed to the door, and I followed him as he put on his boots.
“If you won’t help me, what can I do?” I was ready to sink to my knees and beg because I didn’t understand what was going on. It sounded like Etsuko was in a whole lot more trouble than I had thought she was.
Jun leaned in my direction, lowering his voice. “She was paid, a lot, for what she did. Cash. And sometimes the meetings were hurried and ill-timed. If you find the money, you may be able to trace it back to him.” Jun zipped up, threw his scarf around his neck, and tromped out the door without looking back.
Find the money. Find the money, I repeated in my head. It was the only clue I had. I checked my phone and only ten minutes remained until Yamida was done. Perfect.
The Daydreamer Detective Braves the Winter Page 17
