Free The Devotion Of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino Page B

prefer you didn’t call it anything,” Kusanagi said with a scowl.
    “Sorry, sir.”
    “Why apologize?” Yukawa asked, clearly starting to enjoy himself. “You follow orders, yet you have your own opinion—sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Proper, even. Without people to question the status quo, how can we ever hope to arrive at truly rational decisions?”
    “Nah, that’s not why he’s against the investigation,” Kusanagi said with a sigh. “He just wants to be a knight in shining armor.”
    “What? That’s not why—” Kishitani began.
    “It’s okay, you can admit it. You sympathize with the single mother and her daughter. Truth be told, I wish they weren’t suspects myself.”
    “Sounds complicated,” Yukawa said, smirking as watched the two detectives’ faces.
    “Nothing complicated about it. The man who was killed used to be married, and apparently he’d been searching for his ex-wife just before it happened. So, we had to check out her alibi, that’s all.”
    “And she has an alibi?”
    “That’s the rub.” Kusanagi scratched his head.
    “Oh? You’re not sounding so sure yourself, anymore,” Yukawa laughed as he headed for the kettle. Steam was rising from its spout. “Can I interest you gentlemen in some coffee?”
    “Please,” Kishitani said, nodding eagerly.
    “I’ll pass,” Kusanagi frowned. “See, there’s something about the alibi that doesn’t feel right.”
    “Well,
I
don’t think they’re lying.”
    “On the basis of what? We haven’t finished checking out their story yet.”
    “But didn’t you just tell the chief that it was impossible to confirm alibis at ramen shops and movie theaters?”
    “I didn’t say it was impossible. I just said it was
almost
impossible.”
    “Ah,” Yukawa joined in as he arrived with two coffees in hand. “So these women, the suspects, claim they were seeing a movie at the time of the crime?” He handed one of the cups to Kishitani.
    “Thanks,” Kishitani said, nodding. Then his eyes went wide as he noticed the layers of grime on the cup’s rim. Kusanagi stifled a laugh.
    “If the movie’s their alibi, that would seem hard to corroborate.” Yukawa seated himself in a chair.
    “But they went out to karaoke afterward. And we have an affidavit from one of the staff there,” Kishitani said, a bit too stridently.
    “Which doesn’t mean we can just ignore the movie theater. They could have committed the crime and then gone out for karaoke,” Kusanagi pointed out.
    “But the Hanaokas went to the movies at seven or eight o’clock. I can’t imagine any place so deserted at that time of night that they could have just killed someone there. And they didn’t just kill him, they stripped him bare.”
    “I agree, but you have to consider all the possibilities before you go writing them off as innocent.”
Not to mention you have to satisfy that stickler Mamiya,
Kusanagi added to himself.
    “So, I gather from your discussion that you were able to ascertain the time of the murder?” Yukawa asked.
    “The autopsy put the estimated time of death after six P.M. on the tenth,” Kishitani said.
    “Great. Why not go ahead and divulge every last detail about the case?” Kusanagi grumbled.
    “But I thought Professor Yukawa was assisting the department?”
    “Only when there’s some bizarre mystery in need of unraveling. There’s no need to go outside our people for help with this case.”
    “I am a mere civilian, yes. But please don’t forget my ongoing contribution to the effort. I provide you with a place to shoot the breeze.” Yukawa took a long sip of his instant coffee.
    “I hear you. You want us to leave.” Kusanagi stood up from his chair.
    “No, wait,” Yukawa said. “About these suspects … Could they
prove
they had been to the movies?”
    “They seemed to know the story well enough. Of course, that doesn’t tell us when they went.”
    “Did they have ticket stubs?”
    Kusanagi looked back at Yukawa. Their