Kayo dropped me off in the driveway at home, and I took a deep breath of cool, spring air before cringing. I smelled of campfire. Most people thought the smell of a campfire was pleasant, even happy or joyful, but not me. Maybe someday I would love it again, but not any time soon.
I stopped at the side of the house to watch the men rebuilding Mom’s barn. Today, they were snaking in electricity, burying cables in the lawn, and installing electrical boxes and lights. In another week or so, they’d be done, and Mom would be back in business.
Speaking of which, Mom appeared out of the shed, her gloves in her hands and her second apron covered in dirt.
“Got the rest of the field ready for shiso,” she said, gesturing to the South fields. They looked freshly turned and prepped for planting.
“Great. Want some help after lunch?”
She smiled at me before waving me to the house. “I love that you’re around now to help out. I’m still very glad you came home to Chikata. The house is a much happier place.”
This must’ve been her way of apologizing for last night, and my hardened heart eased a bit.
I waved her off with a small smile. “Please, Mom. It’s the least I can do.”
I followed her into the house, and we left our shoes by the front door. Mimoji came running, looking for love and attention. Mom scooped him up and carried him on her shoulder into the kitchen.
Sitting at the island, I groaned. My legs ached from climbing the hills this morning. “What’s for lunch?” Please say noodles. Please say noodles, I chanted in my head. I would’ve given anything for a big bowl of carbs right then.
“Leftovers.” Mom pointed to the refrigerator, and I deflated. I knew what was in there. Tofu and vegetables for lunch. I glanced over my shoulder in the direction of Akiko’s house. If she’d been home, I’d be eating ramen with her.
“Did you speak with Yasahiro this morning while you were gone?” Mom tried to sound innocent, but she was fishing to find out if we’d broken up.
“No. Kayo said the police have him under house arrest, so I wanted to let him be. I’ll talk to him soon.” Her face dropped, and my stomach knotted. Great. She would really press this issue. “I’m going to change out of my clothes first. I smell.”
Mom crinkled her nose in my direction. “You smell like the outside. Why change if we’re going back out later?”
I sniffed my shirt and shrugged my shoulders. “Really. I’ll be right back.” I ran to my room, tossing my shirt and pants into the laundry bin and glancing at the photo of Yasahiro. Every moment I didn’t spend looking for Amanda’s killer was another moment he went on worried about his future, our future. I wasn’t going to break up with him. I was going to save him.
Over tofu, rice, and vegetables in the dining room, I filled Mom in on everything that had happened that morning.
Mom hummed while she pushed the rice around her bowl. “And this assistant of Kimura’s?”
“Hiroshi. What about him?”
“You don’t think it’s strange the way he hurried off when you were questioning him?”
“Maybe he’s just the nervous type?” I grabbed the bowl of miso soup and sipped. The broth warmed me from the inside out.
“But if he likes his boss, he would stick around, answer Kayo’s questions, and be as helpful as possible.”
“Instead, he ran away from me.” His swift departure, the way he sprinted for the tent and zipped himself in, reminded me of a guilty toddler, hiding from his mom. “Huh.”
Mom raised her eyebrows at me, and I set my bowl down and attempted not to curse. Could he be a suspect too?
“I feel so lost in this mess right now.” I sighed and pushed away the last remnants of my lunch. “The way Amanda treated everyone around her, there could be a million different people who would want her dead.”
Mom shrugged her shoulders and sat back to let Mimoji onto her lap. He purred and circled twice before lying down.
“You won’t know until you get more information. Right now, it’s like searching for a pebble in the dark. You won’t find much.”
I grabbed my phone from the other side of the table and looked at the screen. No recent texts or phone calls. Even Kumi was lying low, but she could’ve been busy or resting because she was pregnant. This was such a mess, anyway. I didn’t want to involve her if I didn’t have to.
“I’m actually waiting on someone to get back to me with more information, but I only spoke to her yesterday. She probably needs at least twenty-four hours to work her magic.”
“Do I want to know what you’re referring to?” Mom asked, gathering up the plates.
“No.” I frowned, gathering mine. “It’s best if you don’t get too involved. I can’t let anything happen to this house or you again. We’ve already been through enough.”
We deposited everything in the kitchen and joined the workers outside to take a look at the barn. While Mom spoke to the foreman, I walked the length of newly planted fields. Inhaling deeply to calm my nerves, I smelled smoke again. I looked left and right and then smelled myself. It wasn’t coming from me. Akiko’s house across the street was cold and dark, and Senahara’s house even further along was also vacant for the day.
I turned around and tested the wind. The smoke was coming from the opposite side of our field, in the woods, about half a kilometer away. I squinted my eyes in that direction but didn’t see anything out of place.
Mom joined me as I turned back to the barn. “Time to plant shiso?” she asked, but I shook my head.
“Actually, let’s go for a walk.”
I led Mom along the back edge of the property, remembering when Yasahiro and I walked there together after we first started dating. That felt like a lifetime ago.
“Do you smell that?” Mom whispered at me, and I nodded.
“I didn’t tell you I saw a boy out by the shed last night.”
“You didn’t tell me?” Mom’s voice rose, and I shushed her.
“I thought it was some boy from town out exploring. Sorry,” I whispered. I wanted to remind her that she was too busy telling me to break up with Yasahiro, but I thought I should let that be. “So, I’m wondering if… Maybe…”
I calmed my voice as I followed a beaten trail into the woods. Someone had been this way a few times, sidestepping the long grass near the entrance so no one in the fields would recognize the path. As we tip-toed farther into the trees, more sounds filtered to us. A crackling fire and the rhythmic thump of a ball being kicked over and over made me pause. Someone was definitely in the woods.
Mom and I rounded a bend on the path and the area opened into a small clearing, one I remembered playing in as a kid, back before I was burned. A minivan sat nearby, through the woods, and closer to the road. They had flattened the long grass and chopped down a few trees to wedge the van into the forest and camouflage it.
A campfire burned near two tents, and a little boy, the same one I’d seen the previous night, kicked a soccer ball in the air with his back to us.
Whoever they were had been camping for some time. Laundry hung on makeshift lines between trees, and a separate camping stove was on the opposite side of camp next to a washing bin. To the right of the washing bin, Mom’s apron and knife were laid on an old tree stump.
“Hello?” Mom called out, and I jumped, unprepared for her voice.
The boy whipped around, fear making his facial features run slack, and a woman about my age, maybe a little older, ran out of the woods.
“Ichiro!” she called to him, and he ran to her. They turned to run away, so I threw my hands up in the air.
“Whoa! It’s okay! We’re not here to give you any problems.”
Along the forest’s edge, in the sunlight, a small plot of land had been dug up and turned into a vegetable patch, Mom’s missing gardening tools sitting on the border of it. These people had intended to stay.
The mother picked up and clutched her son to her, though he was too old to be held. Mom and I edged around the campfire and came a little closer.
“Sorry, we didn’t mean to scare you, but I smelled the fire, and… Well, I had a feeling someone would be in here.”
The mother cringed and dropped her eyes. “Ichiro said a woman at the house had seen him yesterday. Do you live there?”
“Yeah,” I said, gesturing to Mom, “it’s our family’s house and land.”
Her face hardened into straight lines. “Are you going to call the police?”
Mom uttered a quick chuckle, and I shook my head. “Uh no. The police are really busy right now, anyway.” I looked around their campsite. “Is your husband or anyone else with you?”
She let Ichiro down, and he picked up his soccer ball, keeping an eye on Mom and me.
“No. I don’t have a husband.” I waited for a moment to see if she would elaborate, but she clamped her mouth shut.
I sighed. “Where are you from?”
“Kumamoto. We lost our house in the earthquake.”
“Oh no.” My heart ached for her as she relaxed, seeing our concern.
“I was living paycheck to paycheck, and we only had enough money for one tank of gas. My family was supposed to send money for me to an aunt north of here. I thought we could make it, but we didn’t.”
“Mom’s phone died, too,” Ichiro said, butting in. His mom laid her hand on his head and leaned over to kiss his hair.
“Not the best getaway plan I’ve ever come up with, right?” she asked him, and he shrugged his shoulders.
“Okay,” Mom said, taking a deep breath and letting it out. “Where are you heading to? I’m sure we can help.”
“No! No, I couldn’t possibly intrude on your kindness. I’ve already” — she gulped and averted her eyes — “stolen several things from you I shouldn’t have.”
“Mom.” Ichiro dragged out her name into three long syllables. “I want to go back to school.”
“I know, sweetheart.” She was close to crying, so I stepped forward and put my hand on her shoulder.
“No, really. We can help. Where do you need to go? Your car is dead?”
After a few more words, we sat near her campfire, and her story unraveled. Aya had been driving north to Hokkaido when she ran out of gas on the road right here. They had been in the woods for two weeks. She was a single mom and had ended up far away from Hokkaido and her family after school. She tried to make a life for herself after she got pregnant, but it was tough for her to get ahead. And after going through a period of estrangement from her parents, they now wanted her back.
“What were you planning to do?” Mom asked, waving at their camp.
“We hoped to camp for a month or two, and I could find a few odd jobs. Enough to buy gas to make it to my aunt. From there we would be okay. I didn’t want to steal from you, but I asked for help in town, and no one even looked at me.” She threw a small branch into the fire, and I turned my face from the licking flames. “I was afraid the police would arrest me for trespassing if I went to them.”
I knew this feeling of hopelessness and destitution all too well, though I had ten times more than they did on the days I was at my worst. Peeking at my phone, I saw we were approaching early afternoon. I doubted they had had anything to eat.
I glanced at Mom, and she nodded. We didn’t even need to discuss it.
“It’s not safe for you to stay out here, Aya. Why don’t you and Ichiro come stay with us for a few days? Mei or I will be happy to drive you to your aunt’s house to collect your money, and then we’ll help you get on your way, too, okay?”
Aya burst into tears, and Ichiro threw his arms around her.
“Thank you. Thank you so much,” she said, bowing over and over.
Well, at least one mystery had been solved. I just needed to work on all the other ones.
We were walking back to the house along the property edge, Mom and I helping Aya and Ichiro to carry their suitcases, when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I fell behind for a moment as I let go of the suitcase handle and answered a call from Akiko.
“Hey, you! How’s —”
“Mei, what the hell is going on there?” Akiko yelled at me, and I had to pull the phone away from my ear to avoid becoming deaf.
“What do you mean?” I laughed, but I heard her growl in anger.
“Why, why, why didn’t you call me when Amanda showed up there?”
Oh, this. I started walking again, dragging the suitcase behind me.
“I didn’t want to bother you. You were in sessions all day every day, and the situation got complicated really fast.”
“You could say that again. Mei, she’s dead.”
“Yes, I know.” It was something I was painfully aware of. “Are you watching the news?”
“I’m watching Yasahiro, your boyfriend, give a press briefing in which he is saying he didn’t kill her, and he’s prepared to go into police custody until he’s cleared of all charges.”
I froze on the spot, and Mom and our new house guests blurred in front of me as I tried to wrap my brain around what she just said.
“What?”
“Mei!” she screamed at me again, and I jumped. “I’m packing up, and I’m coming home right now. Why are you not by Yasahiro’s side?”
I dropped the suitcase and ran. Pumping my legs hard, I called on all the hours I’d run as I built up strength and body mass to recover from the months of low-calorie diets.
Mom called after me, yelling at me about Aya’s suitcase, but I kept going. I rounded the corner of the barn, and the workers’ eyes followed me to the house where I ripped open the door and sprinted to the living room. Trying to locate the remote for the TV, I threw blankets and magazines around until I found it on the floor next to a houseplant. Damned cats. They play with everything.
I switched on the TV and flipped through the channels, trying to find something, anything, that looked like Yasahiro or Chikata, until I landed on his face.
“… Regret that this incident has tarnished the good name of this wonderful town I’ve called home for so long. I love living here and servicing the people of Chikata. I can only hope I’m cleared of this charge as soon as possible. Thank you.” He bowed, and the camera pulled out from him, standing in front of his apartment building, Oshabe-cha’s shuttered window in the background and his lawyer and the police chief next to him.
“I told you not to talk to anybody!” I screamed at the TV. I reeled back my arm with the remote in my hand, ready to chuck it straight at the TV, when Mom’s sharp voice called my name.
“Mei! Are you insane? What are you doing?”
My face heated with blinding rage, vision swimming as I turned to her, the remote clutched in my hand. “I told him not to talk to anybody! No one! Is he stupid?” My voice cracked, my throat already sore from screaming. Aya and Ichiro huddled together by the door.
“Mei,” Mom admonished me, hitting me upside the head. I cried out and rubbed the spot but was surprised to find her turning to watch the TV, her mouth slack in horror.
Amanda’s parents were addressing a crowd of reporters in front of the police station, their names printed along the bottom of the screen. Amanda’s father cried, but her mother was as strong as a samurai.
“Amanda had no reason to be in Chikata except to see her ex-fiancé, Yasahiro. He was enraged when she broke off their engagement and had even threatened to come after her when she left him. I see no need to bother anyone else in this matter. He has obviously sought his revenge for being dumped two years ago. My baby…” Her voice broke off and her eyes watered. I ground my teeth, stopping a string of swear words before they left my lips. “My baby only wanted to make things right by seeing him again. She came to make peace, and he took her life. I will not leave Japan until he’s in jail.”
No. This couldn’t be happening.
“Is everything okay?” Aya asked.
Anger grew swiftly, but when I turned to her, the scream died in my throat. These people had suffered enough, and I needed to control my temper.
“Please excuse me,” I said, bowing, turning on my heel, grabbing my computer, and stalking to my bedroom. I closed the door without slamming it, something I felt good about the moment I was done. But that dissolved quickly as I opened my computer and hunted for the original statement from Yasahiro. While I did that, I swiped on my phone and dialed Goro.
He didn’t answer. “You’ve reached Goro Hokichi. Please leave a message.” I hung up and texted instead. “Why why why did you let Yasahiro speak to the press? Are you crazy?”
I watched the screen for a full minute before turning off my phone and throwing it on the bed.
Surfing through various news sites and looking at the time and date stamps, Amanda’s parents had given their statement to the press late in the morning, and Yasahiro gave his about an hour later. I was in Nikko with Kayo, and no one called me to let me know. I didn’t remember Kayo taking any phone calls either. Maybe the police had kept us both in the dark.
I watched Yasahiro’s statement, growing nauseated by the second. I hadn’t missed much. He started by looking at the cameras and stating his innocence, then explained Amanda had been buying up his properties and threatening him before she was killed. He gave no alternative suspects to the media, just proclaimed his innocence.
I was relieved he didn’t mention me at all, but then again, he wouldn’t. My heart clenched knowing he would keep me out of all of this to protect me.
“I told you not to talk to anyone,” I whispered at the screen. I wanted to wrap my arms around him and hold him, let him know he could count on me to help.
A tear rolled down my nose and plopped onto the computer. I trusted Yasahiro. In the beginning, it was hard to know what he wanted and what I could rely on, but now I trusted him. I wanted to trust him implicitly, forever.
“He was enraged when she broke off their engagement and had even threatened to come after her when she left him.” There was just no way that was true. He was happy to be rid of her, and she came after him! Amanda’s parents were blinded by their love for their dead daughter. Her mother was grasping at whatever she could find. She wanted revenge, not justice.
But she was looking in the wrong place.
I sat up straighter on the bed. There were other suspects. He didn’t kill her, and I had plenty of evidence to point to a few other people. Besides, his attorney vouched for his whereabouts and the taxi cameras captured his journey to and from the attorney’s office. There was no way they could pin the murder on him.
My phone rang, and I lunged for it. Was it Yasahiro? Goro? But I didn’t recognize the number. Should I answer the call? It could be the media, and I didn’t want to talk to them.
“Hello?” I asked, cringing and hoping for the best.
“Your boyfriend appears to be in a lot of trouble.” It was Akai, my brand-new hacker friend.
“Akai, I didn’t think I’d hear from you today.”
She sighed on the other end, and I heard a bubble pop. “Well, seeing as you paid me so swiftly and Goro said to let you have whatever I found, I got to work last night.”
“And?” I sniffed up and reached for a box of tissues at the end of the bed.
“Her phone and computer are unlocked and heading back to the police now.”
“That’s good,” I said, perking up.
“And I have a whole thumb drive worth of information for you to look at. When can you come get it?”
Yay! I pumped my fist in the air. This was good news!
“I can come now. It’s better that I don’t sit at home and watch the news.”
“It’s always better to not watch the news,” she replied, popping a gum bubble again. “Any chance you can pick up something for me on the way here?”
“Like what?” I glanced around the room, locating my purse. I would ask Mom to borrow the car.
“I’m hungry. I’ve been working ten hours straight. Curry?”
I laughed into the phone.
“I swear it’s not a date or anything. Just bring me some curry, and I’ll pay you back. I can’t go anywhere right now.” She laughed, too, and I felt bad for her because she sounded tired. “I have at least five hours of work to do on my other project, and I’m fading fast.”
“Sure. I’ll pick it up on my way. Pork or beef?”
“Pork, please.” She dragged out the “please” like a little kid, and I laughed again. Wow, I needed that laugh. Nothing today had gone well.
“Okay. So, did you look at the data?” I closed my computer and set it aside as I picked up the photo of Yasahiro and me and kissed it.
“I did a little, but I think you’ll be pleased. Very pleased.”