"Aren't we lucky, Shigeki-kun! It was nothing!"
At the sound of Yano Kanami's voice, Maeda Motoko turned from the window table with a smile. "When I first heard, it was like my insides froze to ice, though. He hasn't had a hint of a fever or any nightmares at night either, so it looks like it really was nothing. How embarrassing, I was such a mess..."
Kanami smiled from the counter. "When it comes to their children, that's what mothers do."
Kanami, the one speaking of children and mothers, left her children with the other party in the divorce. She didn't say much, but Motoko thought: wasn't it as if her children were taken away by her partner?
"I was inexcusable to the Junior Monk. I wonder if I shouldn't go to offer an apology?"
"It'll be all right won't it? I won't stop you from going to speak your gratitude but he's not that hard of a person. He has a gentle temperament, our Junior Monk. Even when you were going at him as if to bite his head off, he didn't seem to have any hard feelings towards you."
She murmured her relief, setting the tableware atop the table when she heard a patrol car siren. She looked up with a start, eyes going to the national highway beyond the wide pane of glass.
From the counter Kanami strained her ears. Kanami's drive-in faced the entrance to the village, and from the counter you could see the national highway that lead towards the town of Mizobe. In the distance, passing beneath the expressway overpass, a patrol car could be seen drawing closer. She knew that Motoko at the window would be stiffening.
"It's all right, Motoko."
She smiled, conveying to Motoko that it surely had nothing to do with Sotoba. Motoko returned a clumsy smile, gathering the utensils on the tray and moved back to the counter but when the car passed by the window and from there took the turn towards the village road along the riverbank, she was surprised.
(Did something happen? ---But, what?)
Motoko let out a small wail. Kanami clapped her hand over that. "It isn't Shigeki-kun. There's nothing to worry about. ---But, I do wonder if something did happen?"
(Is it an accident?)
Of course it went without saying that she hoped it wasn't Motoko's child, on the one-in-a-million chance. So Kanami thought, giving her friend a deliberate pat on the arm. With an uneasiness she couldn't place, they watched the two patrol cars and the paddy-wagon grey van drive on.
At just that moment, at the Takemura Stationary Shop just a little ways north of the Drive-in, the old folks were gathered about the shop front. The elderly were at their usual stools exchanging idle gossip when suddenly the siren blared, the sight of the patrol car racing through causing them to stand at once.
"What's this, an accident, ey?"
Oitarou stood and saw the passing patrol car leave. Keeping watch for its destination, he confirmed that it was headed straight along the riverbank village road. "It's going up. Wonder if something happened, in Kami-Sotoba or maybe Monzen."
"It was probably some accident, I'm sure." Yaeko said, causing Takeko to give a nasal snort.
"I'll bet it's Ohkawa's brat." The Ohkawa Liquor Shop's boy was one they all turned their noses up at. He'd been a bad-tempered hooligan for a long time, and even the way he drove the delivery motorbike was wild. "Perhaps he's run himself into something. I'd always knew it would happen one day."
Takemura Tatsu had no particular words to interject. At most, she wondered, 'would that patrol cars be coming out just for an accident?' but it wasn't a thought worth sharing. Soon enough someone would probably come by to tell them about what happened.
Gotouda Fuki came out of the house, walking with Yano Tae's support, into the police car. There was a call. The manager was the one who picked up. Holding the receiver, the funeral manager went pale, then announced to Fuki her own brother's death.
Since hearing it, Fuki's arms had been covered in goose bumps, ones that didn't fade even in the mid-day summer heat. Bystanders pat her hand seeking to offer her some comfort but none of it warmed her. How her brother died, the manager did not say and so Fuki did not know. She didn't couldn't help thinking that that was because the funeral manager was hiding it. She heard the sound of the patrol car. If the police were called, then there was no mistaking that it was an unnatural death. That sent goose bumps down her spine.
Yano Tae clung to the car.
"Fuki-san, it'd be better to leave it to somebody else! It's hard on you with your age!"
Looking up at the already tearful face of her longtime friend, Fuki remained her seat, fist a hard curl in her lap. The funeral manager seated next to her reached out to hold that hand, but it lacked a sense of visceral reality.
"It's all right.... he's, my brother, after all." As she spoke, she realized how much she was shaking. Her gaze was on Tae, but every nerve in her body was attuned to the police officer in the seat in front of her, and she knew it.
(If I don't calm down...)
The more she tried to clench her fist firmly, the more terribly they shook.
(If they see this, they'll think it's strange....)
"But, Fuki-san."
"....It's all right."
The officer sat wordlessly. She couldn't help thinking he was listening intently. Fuki put on no brave fronts, bowing her head low. At the same time, she closed the door and the car started moving. Fuki couldn't lift her head.
"There was a death, wasn't there? Your son, wasn't it?
When the voice came from the front, she seemed to jump in her seat. She nervously lifted her face, turning her head to look at the middle aged officer in the passenger's seat; his eyes were boring into Fuki.
"Yes,.... Yes, sir. My youngest son."
(Blood was...)
"My condolences, ma'am. That's a real shame. ---How old was he?"
"He was 39."
"Then, where are his wife or your grandchildren?"
"No, he was still single, so."
(Blood was.... his clothes...)
Fuki shook her head. "Is that so," said the officer, holding his tongue after that. From there, an eternity passed. Every hint of sound terrified her. Every time the officer took a breath, she felt he was on the verge of questioning her.
(Had your son gone to Yamairi recently?)
(Was your son acting unusual in any way after he returned?)
(Did he have blood on his clothing or anything like----)
But the officer had nothing more to say, the car didn't seem to be to bring Fuki anywhere for questioning, going to the family home in Yamairi. The officer stepped out of the car, as did Fuki with the funeral manager's support, when two sharp eyed men came up. This time for certain she'd be questioned, she thought, prepared. Prepared though she was, she was still surprised to be brought to her brother's house for questioning.
"Uhm, are you the family?"
"Where are Hidemasa-san and Mieko-san's children? Do you have their contact information?"
"Yes.... They have two. Both have moved a long ways out, but if you'd like their contact information, then at my house, I...."
The two men who seemed to be detectives nodded and took notes. They asked several more questions but nothing in particular regarding blood splotches came out. Relief washed over and wore her out. They brought her to the living room to sit and asked if anything seemed to be missing but still nothing about any blood stains. That he'd met with Mieko, that he'd gone to Yamairi to pay a get-well visit to Hidemasa, and that he'd returned with blood on his clothing never did come out in the open.