After ringing the doorbell several times, Kyoko started banging her fist on the heavy, metal door. The intercom beside the bell suddenly came to life. It was Fukui’s voice and he sounded scared. That gave Kyoko a kind of satisfaction.
“This is Kyoko Nakamura, we spoke the other day about Akane Suzuki.”
Silent hesitation.
“What do you want now?”
“Open the damn door, I have to talk to you.”
“I don’t have to do anything. If you don’t leave right now, I’ll call the police.”
“Call them. I’m sure they’d love to know that you had sex with the victim the night of her death. And about those stalking charges in Nagasaki a few years ago.”
Another pause. More silence. Then, Kyoko heard the lock turn. Fukui opened the door just a little, staring at Kyoko with fear in his eyes.
“I didn’t do anything to her, I swear,” he said.
Kyoko pushed her way into the apartment, forcing the door open and shoving Fukui from the genkan. She pointed to the table on the tatami flooring in front of the TV. “Sit.”
Fukui backed away from her and nodded, doing as he was ordered. Kyoko removed her shoes and walked over, staring down at him with her hands resting on her hips.
“I want to know everything about your relationship with Akane Suzuki,” she said. “And don’t give me any of that crap about how you barely saw her.”
“You can’t do this,” he said, staring up at her. “You don’t have any right.”
Kyoko drew in a sharp breath. She crouched down in front of Fukui and stared right into his beady eyes. Her face hardened and the intensity of her glare would make one think her capable of incinerating Fukui with a simple look.
“I’m not here to play games with you, old man. I’m not some young hostess who will just put up with your bullshit while wearing a pretty smile. I can think of half a dozen ways to destroy your life, and that’s just off the top of my head. And if you cross me, if you don’t tell me exactly what I want to know, then I will not hesitate.”
Fukui swallowed hard. There was a mix of fear and anger in his face. It was clear to Kyoko that he wasn’t used to dealing with a woman standing up to him.
“Akane Suzuki. What did you not tell me about her before?”
“She worked at Idol, it’s a—”
“A hostess club. Yes, I know all this. Now tell me something new.”
Fukui took a deep breath. He reached for the can of beer on the table and drank a healthy amount. “Not long after she moved in, I went there. Recognized her immediately, so I requested her. We got to talking. I went back there again and again, about once a week for a couple of months. Always requesting her every single time.”
“Did you ever see her outside the club?” asked Kyoko.
Fukui looked down at the beer can. He took another sip. Then sighed. “A few times.”
“What did you do on these dates?”
“Went to dinner, karaoke, bowling, that sort of thing.”
“I’m told she slept with some of her customers in exchange for money. Did that happen with you?”
“No.”
“You’re lying,” said Kyoko. “When I came here, I warned you I’d tell the police you slept with her the day she died. That’s what got you to open the door. Now you’re telling me you two never had sex?”
“I didn’t say we never had sex, I said I never paid her for it.”
Kyoko blinked a few times. “You don’t exactly seem like her type.”
“That first date. We were at this izakaya, several drinks in. Akane was sitting next to me and she puts her hand on…” He paused, then gestured to his crotch. “She whispers into my ear, asks if I want her. I tell her I do. Then she says for five man, we can go find a love hotel.”
Man, the unit in Japanese that meant ten thousand, and five man was roughly around five hundred US dollars.
“So you went.”
Fukui shook his head. “No, I couldn’t afford it.”
“What did she do?”
“She moved her hand and went to the bathroom. When she came back, she sat across the table from me and barely said another word.”
Kyoko felt the rage beginning to boil up in her again. She grabbed Fukui by his undershirt and pulled him close to her.
“She wasn’t interested in doing you for free. So what happened after that? Did you get sick of her ‘teasing’ at the club and decide to just take what you wanted?”
“Wh-what?”
“Her boyfriend said the day she died, he came to her apartment and found her crying her eyes out. He said there was a condom in her wastebasket. Did you rape her that day?”
“Of course not!”
Fukui’s voice spiked. Kyoko looked into his face and she could see he was on the verge of panic. Wasn’t an easy thing to fake. If he was lying, he was very good at it. He was a pathetic creep, but when he said he didn’t rape Akane, Kyoko thought there was a pretty good chance he was telling the truth.
“I told you she paid rent on the first of the month by leaving it in my mail slot? Well, one day, the first of the month comes around. No rent. I decide I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. Everyone slips up now and then. So the next day comes. Again, no rent. Still, I don’t say anything. After a week passes, I go to her and tell her she needs to pay. She says she can’t, says she’s running low on money. So I…offered her a deal.”
Kyoko released her grip on his shirt, allowing him to pull back. “She fucks you in exchange for living rent-free.”
Fukui nodded. “Every month. Always here or in her place.” He scoffed. “I didn’t want to waste money on a love hotel.”
“When did you have sex that day?”
“Around eleven. I went upstairs, told her it was time to pay the rent. She took me inside, we had sex, and then I left. Had lunch, ran some errands, went to dinner with some friends, and then came home.”
It didn’t seem likely Fukui would kill her when she was giving him exactly what he wanted. Her death had no benefit for him. And that would explain why she was upset when Yuki said he saw her. The idea of sleeping with a guy like Fukui would disgust anyone.
“Do you believe me?” he asked.
“Fortunately for you, I do,” said Kyoko. “You said you never saw Akane with anyone else. Were you telling the truth?”
He nodded. “She didn’t want her boyfriend to know what she was doing. So she did her best to avoid me, except when I came by to collect.”
“What about other men? Do you know if she ever took any of her…clients up to her room?”
“She didn’t exactly confide in me. But when she agreed to the deal, she thought we were going to go to a love hotel. So I’m guessing that was pretty standard for her. She even seemed a little surprised when I said I wanted to do it here.”
That posed an interesting question. Now Kyoko had two of the three condoms accounted for. Both Ichikawa and Fukui had reasons for sleeping with her in her apartment. That left a third man unaccounted for. And if he was a customer, what was he doing at her apartment? If he wasn’t, just exactly who was he?