“And what you should be doing is opposing undersea resource development?”
“I’m not against development per se. But I want to protect the environment, particularly the ocean.”
Yukawa rattled his ice in his glass and took a slow drink of his shochu. “What exactly does it mean to protect the ocean? Is the ocean such a fragile thing that it requires our protection?”
“It wasn’t, but we’ve made it fragile. In the name of science, and progress.”
“Science?” Yukawa set down his glass. “You sure you want to go there?”
“The ocean is the source of all life. Over millions of years it’s given birth to all kinds of species. But did you know that in just the last thirty years, the ocean has lost more than thirty percent of those species? Coral reefs are a prime example,” she said, the words spilling out with practiced ease. She’d been saying the same thing in a lot of places recently.
“And this is somehow science’s fault?”
“Scientists are the one who conducted that hydrogen bomb testing over the Pacific.”
Yukawa lifted up his glass, but before he drank, he looked up at Narumi. “It sounds like you’ve decided that this plan to develop the hydrothermal ore deposits off your shores is another example of us scientists making the same mistake we’ve made in the past. In other words, destroying the seabed without concern for the resulting devastation of the environment.”
“No, I think there is concern for protecting the environment. But how can you say what will happen for sure? No one predicted when we started using oil that it would raise global temperatures, did they?”
“Which is why surveys and research are so important. DESMEC isn’t saying they’re going to start digging up the seabed and commercialize those resources right this moment. It’s precisely because they don’t know what will happen that they’re trying to find out as much as they can before they start mining.”
“But as much as they can won’t be everything, will it,” Narumi pressed on. “Isn’t that exactly what you said at the hearing today?”
“I believe I said we had a choice. If getting those rare metals isn’t important enough to warrant digging holes in the seabed, then there’s no point to this operation.”
That was the question here: how much did they really need this undersea mining operation, and what sacrifices were they willing to make for it? That would be the central point in the debate tomorrow.
“Well,” Narumi said, “I suppose we should save the rest of this discussion for the community center tomorrow.”
Yukawa smiled. “Playing your cards close to your chest? Very well,” he said, ordering another round before looking back at Narumi. “But you should know, I’m not technically a supporter of the mining proposal.”
“You’re not?” Narumi asked. “Then why were you on stage today?”
“Because DESMEC asked me to be there. They thought they might need someone to explain electromagnetic surveying.”
“Electromagnetic surveying?”
“It’s where you use a large coil to measure magnetic fields in the seabed and analyze them. It allows you to determine the composition of the substrate for about a hundred meters beneath the seabed. In other words, you can find out how metallic deposits are distributed without digging holes.”
“Which is environmentally friendly? Is that your point?”
“That’s the largest merit of the technology, yes.”
Yukawa’s shochu on the rocks arrived. He glanced at the menu and ordered the squid shiokara. The pickled saltiness of the dish was a popular choice to offset the sweetness of the shochu.
“Doesn’t your involvement in that kind of research make you a supporter?”
“How does that follow? It’s true that I proposed a new method of electromagnetic surveying to DESMEC, who is clearly a supporter of the mining. But only because it seems to me to be the most logical choice both financially and environmentally, should the plan be approved. It makes little difference to me, however, if the plan doesn’t go ahead.”
“But won’t your research have gone to waste, then?”
“No research ever goes to waste.”
His shiokara arrived. “Now, this looks delicious,” Yukawa said, peering through his glasses at the dish just as the front door to the bar rattled open.
Sawamura walked in and took a look around the place. He hesitated when he saw Narumi sitting apart from the others, and with the physicist, no less.
He walked over to them, a perplexed look still on his face. “Well, what do we have here?”
“I believe you know Professor Yukawa from Imperial University? I might not have mentioned that he’s staying at our place,” Narumi explained.
Sawamura’s mouth opened in an “ah” of understanding, and he nodded. “That explains why your mother was talking about bringing Mr. Yukawa to the bar.”
“Care to join us?” Yukawa asked, indicating the chair next to Narumi.
“Why not?” Sawamura sat down and ordered a beer.
“You were gone longer than I expected,” Narumi said once he had settled in.
“Yeah, well, there was a bit of excitement at the inn.”
“What kind of excitement?” Narumi frowned. Excitement and the Green Rock Inn were not things she normally associated with each other.
“Well, calling it ‘excitement’ might be a bit of an overstatement. It sounded like one of your guests went out and didn’t come back when he was expected, so your father was worried. Anyway, I had my pickup there, so I drove around a little bit to help look.”
“Did you find him?”
“No, actually,” Sawamura said. His beer arrived, and he took a swig before continuing. “He wasn’t anywhere near the inn. I was going to look a little longer, but your parents said not to bother. They told me he’d show up sooner or later, and I should get back down here or else I’d miss the party.”
“Maybe he’s out night fishing,” Yukawa suggested.
“I don’t think so,” Narumi said. “I saw his luggage when he arrived, and he didn’t come prepared for anything like that. I don’t think he’s a tourist.”
Narumi explained that she’d seen him at the community center earlier that day. This confused Sawamura even further.
They drank a bit longer before leaving the bar. Narumi and Yukawa decided they’d walk back to the Green Rock Inn together.
“Well, I drank too much, but that was a good place. I might end up there every night,” Yukawa said as they walked.
“How long will you be in town?”
“I’m not sure. I was supposed to go out on the DESMEC survey boat and instruct them in how to test the electromagnetic survey equipment. Which would be fine, except the survey boat has yet to arrive. Apparently there’s some red tape holding it up. But I suppose if you work with a government agency, you have to expect to deal with a little bureaucracy,” Yukawa said.
Not the words of a strong DESMEC supporter, Narumi thought.
The front light at the inn was still blazing. Inside, they found Shigehiro and Setsuko in the lobby, both looking distraught.
“Still no sign of him?” Narumi asked
“Nothing,” her mother replied. “We were just talking about what to do.”
“Well, we could call the police,” Shigehiro said, “but I doubt they’d do much about it at this time of night. Let’s wait till morning, and if he’s still not back yet, we’ll give the station a ring.”
“Sorry to hear about the trouble,” Yukawa said. “Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”
“No need to worry yourself,” Shigehiro said. “He’ll turn up any moment now, I’m sure.”
“Right, well, good night,” the physicist said, heading for the elevator.
SEVEN
The scene was about two hundred meters south along the coast from the main harbor in Hari Cove. A uniformed officer was standing in front of the seawall, next to a parked police van. Probably forensics,
Tsuyoshi Nishiguchi thought. It was still too early in the morning for onlookers.
Nishiguchi stopped his patrol car and waited for his supervising officer and the captain to get out before opening his own door and catching up with them. The uniformed officer greeted them as they arrived.
Captain Motoyama was standing on tiptoes, peering over the seawall at the other side. A frown spread across his round face. “Well, he couldn’t have picked a more inconvenient spot,” he said.
Hashigami walked over to take a look for himself. Hashigami was five years Nishiguchi’s elder, but much taller. “Yeah,” he said, agreeing with the captain. “No kidding.”
Nishiguchi gingerly approached the seawall, fearing the worst. The worst, in this case, was a drowned corpse. He’d seen plenty of them since transferring to his current post, but something about the way they looked got to him every time.
He swallowed and looked down four or five meters to some rocks by the water where a few guys from forensics were already milling around.
The body, a man’s, was lying atop a large boulder, facing upward. He was wearing a bath yukata and a quilted vest over that, except wearing might not have been the right word. It was more like the clothes were wrapped around him. He was a little on the overweight side, but there was none of the distinctive swelling of a drowning victim. Instead, his head had been split open, spilling blackish-red blood over the nearby rocks.
“Hey down there,” Motoyama called out. “How’s it look?”
An older forensics officer looked up, putting a hand to the rim of his glasses in greeting. “Can’t say just yet. He probably fell.”
“You find a wallet or anything?”
“Nope. Some clogs though.”
“You know what inn he was staying at?”
“No. There’s nothing written on either the clogs or the yukata.”
Motoyama turned to the uniformed officer behind them. “Who found the body?”
“A local resident, sir. She rents parasols down at the beach during the summer and was on the way to work. She should be at the beach now, but I have her number if you want to talk to her.”
“No thanks,” Motoyama said, waving his hand dismissively. He pulled out his cell phone, punched buttons with his fat fingers, and put it to his ear. “That you, Chief?” he said. “This is Motoyama. I’m down here at the scene. It’s not a drowning—looks like he fell from the seawall. We think he’s staying at one of the inns around here. Still got his yukata on.” He paused, listening to the chief on the other end of the line. “Right, we’ll pay them a visit,” he said. “The what Rock Inn? Green? Got it.”
Nishiguchi stepped over to the captain and gestured to get his attention.
“Hang on a second, Chief,” Motoyama said, putting a hand over the phone. “Yeah?”
“I know that place. The Green Rock Inn,” Nishiguchi said.
“Right,” Motoyama said, bringing the cell phone back to his ear. “Nishiguchi says he knows the place. Right, I’ll get him on it.”
Motoyama hung up and looked between the other two. “Turns out the inn phoned in a report that one of their guests went missing after he went out for a walk last night. Go check on it.”
“Mind if we take the cruiser?” Hashigami asked.
“It’s walking distance from here,” Nishiguchi said. “Which means it probably was their guest.”
“Right, that settles it,” Motoyama said, looking back over the seawall. “You get a picture yet?” he called down. “Just the face. Nothing too gruesome, if you can. Thanks.”
One of the younger forensics officers climbed up a ladder to the top of the seawall and handed a Polaroid to Motoyama, who held it out to Nishiguchi. “Take this.”
The face in the photo was a little pinkish and expressionless as a mask. He didn’t look too bad from the front. The gaping hole in his skull was on the back of his head, which meant they could show it around without anyone fainting on them.
The Green Rock Inn was less than a kilometer away. The two detectives walked up a winding slope, which got much steeper about halfway along. Hashigami started muttering that they should’ve taken the cruiser.
“So what’s the deal with this inn? You said you know it?” he asked Nishiguchi.
“Yeah. One of my old classmates’ parents run the place.”
“Great, you can do the talking.”
“Sure, but I doubt they’ll remember me. I haven’t seen the family since I graduated high school.”
Nishiguchi remembered the daughter’s name: Narumi Kawahata. Most of the kids in his high school had known each other since middle school, but not her. She had transferred from a school in Tokyo just before high school started.
Narumi was a quiet girl at first, spending most of her time alone. There was a small observation deck near the school where you could look out over the sea, and he spotted her there often. She would just stand and gaze out at the water, seemingly lost in thought. She always got good grades, and Nishiguchi always imagined that she was going to be a writer or something like that.
But eventually, an entirely different side of her came to light. In the summer, she would help out at the inn and work down at the beach. Not at one of the vending stalls or cafeterias, but picking up garbage. The money wasn’t very good; it was practically volunteer work. Nishiguchi worked for some of the beachside stalls, so he saw her quite a lot. He asked her once why she chose that particular job. “What’s the point of having a beautiful ocean if you don’t keep it clean?” she asked, her face tanned a deep brown. “You locals don’t appreciate what you’ve got.”
She wasn’t exactly mad at him, but her comment made it sound like he wasn’t doing his part. It left a bad taste in his mouth.
His reverie was interrupted by their arrival at the Green Rock Inn. They’d both taken off their jackets on the climb up, and the underarms of their dress shirts were stained with sweat.
Nishiguchi slid open the front door and called in. “Hello?” He was greeted by a welcome blast of air-conditioned air.
“Come in,” a woman responded, and the curtain behind the front counter moved. He immediately recognized the woman, who came out wearing a T-shirt and jeans, as Narumi, but he hesitated a moment. He wasn’t used to seeing her as a grown woman.
“Wait, is that you?” Narumi’s eyes went a little wider, and she smiled. “Nishiguchi, right? Long time no see. How’ve you been?” Even her voice sounded grown-up. Which was obvious, given that she would be thirty, like him.
“Hey, I’ve been well, thanks. You look good.”
Narumi smiled, then her eyes went over to Hashigami, and she bowed a little, not entirely sure what to make of him.
“Actually,” Nishiguchi said, “I’m here on work. I’m with the Hari Police Department now.” He showed her his badge.
Narumi blinked. “Police? You?”
“Yeah, I know, it’s funny how things turn out.” Nishiguchi held out his business card to her.
“Wow, a detective,” she said.
“We got a call from your inn this morning saying that one of your guests had gone missing.”
“That’s right. Oh, so that’s why you’re here?”
“Yeah. Actually, this morning a body was found down near the harbor.”
A look of shock came over Narumi’s face.
“He was still wearing a yukata, which is why we thought he might be your missing guest.”
“Wait, I should probably get my parents out here,” Narumi said, disappearing behind the counter.
Hashigami stepped up and gave Nishiguchi a jab in the ribs with his elbow. “She’s not bad. When you said ‘classmate,’ I was thinking a guy.”
“She’s your type, is she?” Nishiguchi asked quietly.
“Oh, she’ll do. Put a little makeup on her and she’ll be a real beauty.”
“If you say so.” Nishiguchi didn’t know about the makeup, but he had to agree that Narumi had grown into an attractive woman.
A short while
later she reappeared with her parents, whom she introduced as Shigehiro and Setsuko Kawahata. From the looks on their faces, Nishiguchi could tell that she’d already told them about the body.
Shigehiro had filed the report that morning, so Nishiguchi showed him the photograph first. He took one look and grimaced, then passed the photograph to his wife. She grew a little pale, and put a hand to her mouth. Narumi looked away.
“Well?” Nishiguchi asked.
“That’s him, no doubt about it,” Shigehiro answered. “Was it an accident?”
“We’re not sure yet. It looks like he fell onto some rocks and hit his head.”
Setsuko pulled out the guest book and register, identifying the deceased as Masatsugu Tsukahara, 61, from Saitama Prefecture.
“Around what time did he leave the inn last night?” Nishiguchi asked.
“I’m not really sure,” Shigehiro told him. He explained that he had been out in the back garden with his nephew setting off some fireworks from around eight o’clock the night before. It had been about eight thirty when he realized that their guest hadn’t signed up for breakfast the next morning. He went back to the inn and phoned the man’s room from the front desk, but there was no answer. Thinking he was probably either in the bathroom or down in the bath on the first floor, he went back out and lit a few more fireworks. They finished a little before nine, so he tried calling the man again, but there was still no answer. He went to check the big bath on the first floor, but he wasn’t there either. So, he went up to the man’s room on the fourth floor. There was no answer when he knocked, and the door was unlocked, so he went in and found the man’s things, but their guest himself was nowhere in sight.
Around that time, Setsuko had come back from town, having shown one of their other guests to a local bar.
Narumi explained about Sawamura and about running into their mother in front of the bar.
“Mr. Sawamura said he wanted to say hello to my husband, so he came in, but when he found my husband worrying about his missing guest, he offered to help look,” Setsuko said, continuing the story. “While he and Mr. Sawamura were driving around in the pickup, I took a look around the inn.”