“In any case don't worry. As long as what you say doesn't have to do with a crime I don'tâ”
“It does have to do with a crime,” Ayumi said.
“What did you say?”
“It does have to do with a crime.”
“What do you mean?”
“The police report clearly indicates a criminal.”
“What?”
Shizue stopped Kunugi from coming forward.
“Not just that, but the police distorted the information on the criminal,” Ayumi said.
“Th-that's ridiculous.”
“Please, Mr. Kunugi.” Shizue had to speak harshly to Kunugi. This was probably not just childish fancy.
“Do you have proof?”
Ayumi didn't respond but instead swallowed Shizue's look.
She was not the kind of child to play a joke like this.
No child would play this kind of prank at a time like this.
Besides.
Her gaze was totally fixed. Uncomfortably so.
Shizue pressed a button on her monitor. “All right. The security is turned off now. If you come in now, the sensor won't go off, so you won't be recorded. Just say you forgot your ID card.”
“I had to use it to get into the center.”
“Oh, right. Then⦔
“This is fine,” Ayumi said.
“I understand. So what did you want to tell me?”
Ayumi looked up and down the hall and, having confirmed no one was around, began to speak.
“It's about Yuko Yabe's murder.”
“Is there information about her murder already out in public?”
Ayumi didn't respond to Shizue's question.
“Yuko Yabe was being threatened by Nakamura and Kawabata. They lured her out and beat her up. Did the police know that?”
“That Nakamura and Kawabata were after Yabe? Well⦔
“Lieutenant Ishida had said there was no record of communication from them in Yabe's monitor,” Kunugi said.
“I heard from the victim
herself
,” Ayumi said.
“The victimâ¦you were in contact with Yabe?”
“If there is no record of the messages, then they were erased from her monitor.”
“You're saying the murderer was also erasing personal information?”
“Did you also know that Yabe trespassed into Representative Makino's home on Saturday night and that the area patrol apprehended her?”
“Makino⦔
Shizue looked to Kunugi for a sign. Kunugi was petrified.
“S-Saturday night?”
“An emergency call was placed, the area patrol came to secure her, and the patrol car took her away. That much is certain. But then the car was attacked by two men, and Yabe was abducted.”
“Hey! Stop talking nonsense. This is ridiculous. The police would have⦔
Overcome with emotion Kunugi blurted all this out but then suddenly exhaled.
“Did you see something, kid?”
“Is that true, Miss Kono?” Shizue asked.
“Did you see someone?”
“I can't say,” Ayumi said. “That undocumented resident saw it.”
“So
that's
what this is,” Shizue said, emphatically.
Ayumi didn't respond.
Shizue's imagination ran with a new ferocity. “Did this undocumented resident happen to kill Kawabata while rescuing Yabe from him?”
“That's
false
,” Ayumi said. “The undocumented resident has not killed anyone. Your suspicions are misdirected. There is another killer.”
“You know who? The killer?”
“I don't know who killed Yabe,” Ayumi said. “But I do know that the information the police have is all useless. That much is certain.”
Shizue looked at Kunugi anew. Kunugi's brow creased even more deeply and his face expressed discouragement. “You're saying that there's been tampering with evidence regarding the crime.”
“
Ms. Fuwa
,” Ayumi said. She was almost never called that by her children. “I have a favor to ask. You need to keep Mio Tsuzuki and Hazuki Makino in a safe place.”
“Tsuzuki and Makino?”
“Both of them know everything I know. Makino knows that the trespasser at her home was Yabe. So she knows that there is something wrong with the information about this case. Through her father she is making this statement to the area patrol shortly. Butâ¦
“We can no longer trust the area patrol,” Ayumi finished.
“If there is an information leak, there's a possibility that we may have disadvantageous information going out to the murderer.”
“But, no, if information is in fact being falsified, the police will still only depend on the information on record. They won't simply trust anything they're told.”
“Not even if it's from a prefectural assemblyman?”
No, that wouldn't be ignored.
Still, there was no way to know for certain if recorded information was being falsified. In which case all they had to depend on was the informant's memory. Obviouslyâ¦
That's why she would be threatened.
“Miss Kono⦔ Shizue stared straight at Ayumi's face.
“We don't know who killed Yabe. All we know is that she was attacked by Kawabata and Nakamura, that she was at one point secured by the area patrol on Saturday, and that she was then abducted. But neither Tsuzuki or Makino are suspicious of the cops.”
“And you are, missy?” Kunugi asked. Ayumi looked back at him.
“It is not that I suspect the police. I just don't trust anyone right now.”
“But you trust this counselor?”
“I do.”
“Miss Konoâ¦why would you say that?” Shizue asked.
“It's not a good thing to murder people, right?”
“Huh?”
How cavalier
. That was what Shizue thought before she could think of a response for Ayumi. Ayumi Kono struck Shizue as a cavalier girl for some reason. Her short haircut, her thin neck, the way she stood completely still in the same posture, all of it meant to be exactly that way. Totally different from the diminished face Shizue saw in the mirror.
Shizue was made up entirely of useless parts.
“It's not good,” Shizue answered.
“Why isn't it?”
“Because the law has determined it so.”
She would leave it at that. Kunugi looked perplexed, but Ayumi let out a little laugh.
“I think it would be bad for any more dead bodies to surface. But I can't do anything about it. I don't know Makino or Tsuzuki very well. But you know them better. Plus you're an adult. Slightly better for thisâ¦than me.”
“But I'm with the police,” Kunugi said. “Remember, you don't trust us?”
“I think the kind of bodyguard that doesn't even have indoor shoes and has to hold his dirty outside shoes while waiting in a hallway is probably not trusted by the police. Whether I trust you isn't an issue anymore.”
The young girl's smart comment caught Kunugi a little off guard. He brought out his shoes from behind him. “All right, you have a point. You got me.”
“Please.” Ayumi lowered her head.
“All right. I'll see what I can do.”
“What should I do?”
Kunugi said, “
Don't worry
. We won't let them kill any more people.
But adults are cunning. They may betray you. You're not safe.”
“I'm fine.”
What a girl.
Shizue was a little scared of this purposeful girl with nothing out of place.
Was she always this way?
She was definitely one of her original kids. They'd had several meetings. Countless communications. But she'd never seen this face before. She'd never received this straight visual line.
It was as if she were a wild animal setting her sights on prey.
There was a sound behind them.
What was it?
A slight noise.
This soundâ¦
She'd heard it before. What was it? It wasn't out of place. She'd even gotten used to hearing it day to day. But it stood out. It was a sound she shouldn't have been hearing here. Not now.
No, it wasâ¦
Shizue, thinking only of what the sound was, pushed Kunugi to the side.
Did they see her?
As soon as Shizue moved her body to push Kunugi, there appeared on the glass wall of the hallway a pinpoint red dot. There was no mistaking it. The
tally lamp
was reflected off that wall.
That sound was of the surveillance camera turning on. Security was in motion. Noâ¦
“Oh. Really, you don't say. Okay. I understand,” Shizue said aloud and purposefully, and motioned to Ayumi to walk back toward the entrance. “I'll send her out, so don't worry,” Shizue said into her office in a loud voice again and closed the door.
She swiped her ID card.
The room signal indicated vacancy.
“What's going on!” Kunugi said. “What are you trying to pull? Hey!”
“Some of those cunning adultsâ¦seems they've already betrayed us.”
“What?”
“The surveillance cameras.”
“What?!”
“The surveillance cameras on the ceiling⦔
“Did they move? Are we being recorded?”
“The security was turned off, so the recording system wasn't supposed to activate till the door closed and the room was in counseling mode. I can't believe it was recording.”
“The conversation in your room was recorded then⦔
No, it couldn't have been.
“At the very least it wouldn't activate till the door was opened. It's not made to operate at all times. So⦔
Even if it weren't recordingâ¦
“Was the camera trying to
observe
you?” Kunugi asked.
“That must be what it was doing.”
Why did Shizue need to be surveilled? Or did they suspect Ayumi?
Maybe they knew to expect she would have some information related to the murders.
“I've said this several times now, but the space inside the counseling room is very strictly protected. Barring only the extreme cases, there is no outside observation into the room allowed. It's forbidden. As long as the central control system program itself isn't altered, it's unthinkable.”
“This is the work of the police.”
“Even if the request came from the police, if the director of the center doesn't acquiesceâ¦no, not even a police order would do it. It's what your lieutenant likes to refer to as a situation that supersedes the lawâ center consent would be needed to conduct such surveillance.”
Why. Why did everything have to get so messy?
“Did I get caught in the surveillance?”
“Who knows?”
“I'm sure they couldn't have known I would be here.”
“In any case we can't stay here. Let's go.”
“Goâ¦go where?” Kunugi said.
“I'm the one being sought. You don't have to⦔
“I'm the one who was illegally surveilled.”
Right. Because superseding the law was the same as breaking it.
The line that separated good from bad was not ethics or morality or common good, but the law. Just as there were crimes that could be forgiven by human empathy, there were noble acts that could not be justified by ethics. The data collection performed last week was an example of those charged with upholding the law instead ignoring it. It was as Ayumi had said.
The police couldn't be trusted.
Shizue pushed Ayumi down the hall.
Frustrating didn't begin to describe it.
The walls zigzagged but were designed to look straight. What was with this clean, flat, functionless wall?
Shizue struck the wall with all her might.
Her hand hurt. It was neither soft nor warm.
“Hey, slow down,” Kunugi said. “You were given explicit orders, weren't you? Not to leave this center?
“There's no reason for the police to restrain someone who's not even a suspect,” he said.
“If I can't wait for my chance then I can't not cooperate either. There's no logical reason for my being held here. I have a monitor and a GPS if they need me.
“I can't stay here!”
“That's not what I mean. I meant your job here⦔
“My job here was crushed this morning.”
“Butâ¦where are you going to go?” Kunugi asked.
“Like you, I'm not sure,” Shizue said. “We need to get out of here. As soon as the attendants realize there are three people in here they'll send someone. Then you won't have time to worry about me anymore.”
The sound of her feet running reverberated in her head.
Things like discretion and prudence all shattered one after the other.
She pulled Ayumi by the hand into the entrance hall.
“Miss Kono, at this point you're in danger too,” Shizue said without looking at her. “I noticed when the surveillance camera went on, but I don't know when the audio surveillance started. I don't even know where they could have been listening from. If it's as you said, that the police fabricated information on the murderer, you're in danger too.”
Now.
What do we do?
Shizue passed her ID card through the reader that opened the entrance hall to the front gate. She took Ayumi and went into the entrance.
Shizue stopped Kunugi in the middle of passing the gate. As long as someone was standing in the doorway the gate wouldn't close. There, nothing would be recorded.
Shizue went forward to the entrance camera with Ayumi.
“Surveillance team.” As she spoke the lamp on the camera went on, and the female attendant from earlier appeared on the screen directly under the camera.
“This is Fuwa.”
“Oh, uh⦔
“I have Ayumi Kono here. I'm seeing her home.”
“But as I mentioned, she's to be escorted by the area patrol,” said the attendant.
“I told you already. This child cannot be around unfamiliar people.”
“Butâ”
“I know what they said. There's no need to get in touch with them.”