“Whatever I knew, it’s there in the report. I get fifteen to twenty cases a month, so I don’t remember any specifics.”
This stopped me short. “A month?”
“Some months are drier than others, but yeah. That equates to” — she typed into her phone — “about 1800 cases in the last ten years. My brain is fraying around the edges, and I don’t hold on to any details in my head from previous cases. That’s why reports exist.”
She sipped her drink again, and I sighed looking at the report. There wasn’t much here I didn’t already know.
“Well, it appears that the last few months before her disappearance are a complete mystery. She dated someone after Itsuki Kato, but no one remembers who.” I thought of that crowd she hung out with, Tama and his friends. There was no way I was going to speak to Tama about this. He was in jail far away. I could pump Akiko for more information, but it was doubtful she knew anything more. Then there was this information that Kohei Watanabe had been a part of their group at some point. I don’t remember him around, and I doubt he would be receptive to me if I questioned him.
This had been my only shot.
I stood up and bowed to her. “Thank you for your time. I appreciate you telling me what you know.”
She seemed shocked by my kindness. “Please. It’s no problem. Fukuda-san is dead, right? So, even if he did do something to his daughter, it’s not like me telling you this information will hurt anything.”
“He died a few weeks ago.”
She nodded, a frown pulling creases into the corners of her mouth. “What’s done is done.”
“Thank you,” I said, bowing again and turning to go.
“Wait, Suga-san.”
I stopped at the divider.
“If you ever want to pick up private investigation, let me know. It’s a good job. Makes plenty of cash.” She raised her eyebrows. “I think it’s something you’d be good at. I’m going to retire soon, and…”
“And what?” I was surprised at this turn of events. What was she getting at?
“Nothing,” she said, waving and pulling a new cigarette from her pack. “Just call me if you’re ever thinking about it.”
Out in the hallway, I ambled down the stairs to the exit, pulling my phone from my purse and dialing up Akai.
“Hey, Mei-san. What’s up?”
“I just talked with the private investigator who handled Ria’s case for her father after she went missing.”
“You did? How did that happen?” Akai’s voice was hopeful on the other end.
“A stroke of good fortune brought me to her. Anyway, she didn’t have many notes on the case.” I braced myself. “She did say, though, that she thought Ria’s dad was extra strict and angry with Ria-chan for going on dates in high school when she should’ve been studying.”
“Hmmm, yes. And? Most parents don’t want their kids dating in high school.”
“That was it. She said that if she suspected anyone of wrongdoing in the case, it was the father.”
Akai was silent on the other end of the line, then she sighed.
“Mei-san, he would never have hurt Ria. He searched for her for years after she disappeared. I can’t imagine the psychotic break that would have to happen for him to hurt her, murder her, bury her, and then pretend she was still alive for over ten years.”
Yeah, that did sound far-fetched.
“You’re right,” I conceded, though I wished it had been a clue we could continue to investigate. “One more thing. I noticed marks on Ria’s door, at the house. Marks that looked like there had once been screws there. Do you think there was ever a lock on her door?”
Akai was silent again, and I wondered how much more of this she could take.
“Hmmm, I don’t know. As long as I knew her, her door never had a lock on it.”
That was good enough for me. “Okay. I just thought I should mention it.” Maybe Yoshida had those details mixed up with another case.
“Oh, I was wondering if you could stop by tomorrow? I’ve found a ton of photos on random memory cards and even found a few in Ria’s house. I’ve been downloading them and sticking them on my server for the past two days. I could use help identifying some of these people.”
I approached the door to the outside of the building and paused. “Sure. I might be able to come by in the afternoon.”
“Great. See you then.”
I hung up the phone and threw it into my bag. My husband waited for me in the car, and we had a life to live, property to buy, and a family to raise. But something about Yoshida the Private Investigator fascinated me. She was independent and had made a career for herself from solving these tiny mysteries. I wondered if being a private investigator was something I could do. Something I could be good at.
I sighed as I pushed open the door to the outside. I had enough problems right now. This was something I’d have to think about later.
A lot later.
Chapter Twenty-One
The sky opened, and rain poured down on me as I snagged the last of the tomatoes from the row.
“Yuna, you head inside. I’ll put these in the barn!”
Yuna nodded and ran for the house. She was slowly getting the hang of taking care of the fields, but I could tell her heart wasn’t in it, much like my heart growing up. Her face wore a frown the majority of the time we spent together, and I wondered if she was on the verge of depression. Our mental health wasn’t something we usually discussed, but I didn’t want to neglect her. My mom would gloss over any problems Yuna would have, and with Hirata overseas, she’d need someone to confide in. She probably left behind friends in Chiba she wouldn’t see all that often anymore, so who was left here for her?
What a mess.
I made it into the barn before I was soaked, and once again, Minato was there, completing an oil change on the tractor.
“We need to stop meeting like this,” I joked with him, and he laughed from under the tractor.
“But I’ve heard clandestine rendezvouses are the best kind.” He winked at me as I added the tomatoes to the shallow crates in the corner. “By the way, I’ve been looking for the name of the private investigator, but I’m not having any luck finding her.”
“Does the name Sakiko Yoshida sound familiar?”
He raised one eyebrow. “I think so, why?”
“I got a tip from someone else that she was the one who handled the case. I saw her yesterday.”
“You did?” He hauled himself out from under the tractor. “Did you find out anything new?”
“Same information we all know. Ria-chan was sweet, good at school, etcetera. I still can’t figure out who she was dating after she broke up with Itsuki Kato.”
“Oh, I remember him. He runs the taiyaki shop in town now, right?”
“He does.” I looked past Minato to the pouring rain outside. It was coming down hard, in waves of rain, and the puddles were growing.
“Are you sure she dated someone after Itsuki?”
No, I wasn’t sure. There was only a small amount of evidence Ria had dated someone else after Itsuki. Akai remembered a young man she only met once, and a big change in Ria after that, one Akai didn’t approve of.
“I don’t know. Finding people who spent time with her during that time period is hard. Akiko-chan’s older brother and his crowd did, but I can’t really go talk to him.”
“No, you can’t.” His expression turned dark, and I was thankful for his countenance. He knew the whole story. Mom had told him everything when he was brought into the family business. Only a few people knew all the circumstances surrounding the barn fire and what happened with Tama. We were keeping it quiet until the big trial to be held in the years ahead.
He thought for a few more moments, and we watched the rain come down outside together.
“What about all the clubs she was in at school? It’s possible she was dating someone from there. Or maybe someone from the clubs would know more about who she was seeing?”
>
“Hmmm, yes, her school clubs. Between her manga artwork and looking into Itsuki Kato, I hadn’t gotten to those yet, but I suppose I’ll have to soon. Akai-san is still going through all her old photos, and knowing her, she’s sitting at home and spiraling through years’ worth of memories. I was hoping she’d have something for me first.” I imagined Akai, bleary-eyed and staring at the photos on her computer screen, slipping back in time in her memories and forgetting about her work. I would need to check up on her later in the day.
“Well, if she doesn’t come up with anything, you could always go to the school and request to see photos from that year. It would give you a good idea of where to start with more questions.”
I sighed, realizing I was in for the long haul on this case. A missing persons case could go on for years or even a whole lifetime as I was seeing first hand. Would I be tracking down witnesses or old friends of Ria’s for the rest of my life? The more that time slipped away, the fuzzier memories of Ria would be. I could assume that after another ten years, no one would remember anything helpful.
“I’ll keep this idea in mind. Maybe later this week, I’ll head on over to the school and see what they can tell me. I went there last fall, so I’m sure the people in the office still remember me.”
Minato shrugged. “It’s worth a shot.” He moved to return to work, but I was reminded of my conversation with Sakiko Yoshida.
“Wait a moment. Do you remember much about Ria’s father? Did you know him at all?”
He paused and stroked his goatee. “Just from around town. When his wife was alive, he spent most of his time at home with her. But when I saw him out at the grocery store or during festivals, he was always polite and easy to talk to. Otherwise, no. I didn’t know him well at all. Sorry.”
“Do you remember Ria-chan ever complaining about the way he treated her?”
He narrowed his eyes, that protective fatherly quality coming out in full force. “What do you mean?”
“The PI felt that if anyone had caused Ria-chan’s disappearance, it was her father. That he prevented her from going out with her friends or meeting up with her boyfriend.”
“How so?”
I shrugged and shook my head at the same time. “I’m unsure. He may have tried to lock her in her bedroom or tried to keep her in the house some other way, but I’m only guessing.”
If there had been a lock on her door, it could’ve been there for a million reasons. They may have used the room for something else before Ria was born. The house had been theirs for generations.
I wanted to scrape my hands through my hair and tug in frustration, but with the rain coming down in sheets, I tried not to touch it. My hair was already a frizzy mess as it was.
“I don’t know. Her father didn’t seem like the controlling type, but so many people have secret lives at home. The happy and helpful man on the street could be a drunk at home who beats his wife. You just don’t know.”
And that’s the way most people wanted it. They tried to keep their private lives private and put on a mask for the public, quite literally sometimes with all the surgical masks we wore. I hadn’t worn mine since allergy season was over.
“That’s true. It makes solving mysteries difficult though.”
“I can imagine.”
The sound of a motor and gravel crunching pulled my attention to the driveway and Yasahiro drove up to the house. I’d taken the bus and walked this morning, leaving the car to him, but I thought it was a little early to be picking me up for the day. I glanced at the clock in the barn. Only 10:00 and another hour till he opened the tea shop.
He exited the car with his messenger bag, opened his umbrella, and looked out in our direction. I waved from the barn door, and he ran across the grass to me.
“Hi! What are you doing here so early?” I asked as he stepped into the shelter of the barn and closed his umbrella. He and Minato bowed to each other in greeting.
“You must’ve left your phone inside because I texted you. I don’t need to take Yamida to her physical therapy appointment, so I figured it was time to come out to the house and have that talk with your mom.” He patted his bag, and I pulled back in surprise.
“Right now? We haven’t even discussed your idea.” I looked over my shoulder at Minato, but he was quiet and rubbing his hands with a towel after having rinsed them off.
“I’m sure you’ll love it, so I thought it would be a surprise.”
Oh boy. I didn’t know whether to cheer or cringe. Yasahiro was creative and sure of himself, but Mom had become touchy in ways we both weren’t used to. Things around the farm hadn’t been normal for a while and throwing more gas on the fire probably wasn’t the best idea.
But I looked into his face and knew I could trust him. Besides everything that had happened with Amanda, when had he ever been wrong about anything like this? His skill set was worth millions of yen and people from far and wide clamored to get his opinion on business matters.
I summoned up a smile though apprehension clawed at my stomach.
“Great. Mom’s inside. Let’s go.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“It seems that our original ideas of how we would handle the farm have changed,” Yasahiro said, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and laying his hands on the folders in front of him. Mom sat across the table from us, Yuna by her side. Mom’s face was a hard slab of stone. “So I’d like to propose a new business idea I have. One that I believe will be advantageous to both of us.”
He opened the folder, took out a sheet of paper, and turned it towards Mom.
“Teikei, Community Supported Agriculture.” Both Mom and Yuna leaned over the paper to stare at Yasahiro’s texts and graphs. My heart raced in my chest, uncertain about what would come next. “This is a community farming concept that has been around in Japan since the 1960s, and I’ve seen it benefit farms both in the US and in France. With volunteer workers, upfront investments, and delivering straight to the consumer, you can improve your farm output and save for retirement or less-fruitful seasons. Since you’ve started to grow your offerings and Hirata will now invest in the farm, this model will give you the highest margin for profit and sustainability for the coming decade or more.”
My scalp prickled as I watched Mom squint down at the paper and then concentrate on Yasahiro. This was unexpected! I figured he would propose some sort of investment in the business in return for my freedom.
“We can set up a system for next year pretty easily. We’ll recruit locally and from the surrounding towns, both through word of mouth and advertising. The whole process can start in June with payment, and then we can set up work shifts to last through the summer and harvest time. You won’t have to haul produce to the markets anymore, except for a few local farm stands. Mei-chan and I can recruit the volunteers, and we can use Oshabe-cha as a pickup location. Yuna-san can handle the work shifts and bookkeeping. Mom, you can handle all the plans for what to farm and when. Not only will this cut back on manual labor for everyone, but the system will also cut back on having to hire part-time workers for harvest season. I estimate it’ll bring in an extra 500,000 to 800,000 yen per month next year.”
Yuna’s eyes widened as she looked at a spreadsheet Yasahiro handed to her across the table.
“Really?” she asked, running her finger down the rows of numbers. “I’ve never heard of this before. This can make that much more money?”
“It’s more work to set the whole system up and to find all the volunteers who become investors in the farm. But once that’s up and running, the rest of the work is minimal.”
Pride caused my chest to swell as Yuna handed each paper across to me. This was awesome and inspiring, and I could see why Yasahiro hadn’t told me any of it ahead of time. My imagination was already running away with the possibilities. I saw down the path ahead, and it was glorious. People I knew, friends working in the fields to help pick vegetables that they would eat themselves. The enormous sense of accompli
shment we would feel watching bags of produce disappear into warm and happy kitchens.
This was the future, right in front of us.
But Mom sighed and rubbed her eyes, her mouth set in a deep frown.
“I don’t know about this, Yasa-kun. This whole new paradigm sounds like a lot of work.”
“It will be, up front. I won’t lie about that. But once the system is in place, each year after will get easier and easier. I’m certain that this is a good step for us. I’ve been asking questions around town and in the tea shop. People are open to the idea. It’s not something that’s been done here in Chikata in at least twenty years, and with the new Midori Sankaku open in town, people are looking for ways to support local farms.”
“I love this idea,” Yuna said, and for once, I saw a glimmer of happiness in her eyes. “I did volunteer organization for my sons’ schools back in Chiba. I know of a few websites we could use to handle a lot of the scheduling.”
“No,” Mom said, placing her hands on the table and standing up. “No, this won’t work. I need to keep everything the same as much as possible. The house is already in chaos with Yuna-ko and the boys living here. This… this would be too much.”
Yasahiro’s eyes dulled, and he met Mom’s stare. “I think you should sit down and hear this through to the end, Tsukiko-san.” I cringed at his use of her full name. He had called her Mom for months since we were married. “The plain truth of the matter is that if you want our financial investment and our personal time and efforts, then you will have to go with this plan.”
“Or what?”
Yasahiro sighed. “Or we won’t be investing our time and money in the family farm. I was clear about that the other day.”
The back of my neck began to sweat, and I turned my eyes to the table.
“Already, you’re going to have to hire someone to replace Mei-chan here for the rest of the season. Neither of us wants to jeopardize the pregnancy with hard manual labor.” Yasahiro’s hand closed over mine on the table and squeezed. “And we won’t be working here if there’s nothing in it for us.”
The Daydreamer Detective Returns a Favor Page 14
