Free Malice by Keigo Higashino Page B

you as far as the front door. How do I explain this contradiction?”
    â€œI wouldn’t go so far as to call it a contradiction! One of us remembered events differently, that’s all.”
    â€œReally? I don’t think so. I think you purposely wrote a false account of what happened. You did this in order to camouflage the fact that you never went to the corner. You never even left the front gate.”
    I scoffed. “Ridiculous. You’re dreaming this stuff up and trying to make it all fit. It’s amazing what you can accomplish once you’ve drawn your conclusion in advance.”
    â€œPersonally, I feel I’m approaching this case very objectively.”
    The look in his eyes made me flinch, even though my brain was off wondering about completely unrelated things, such as why this man loved saying personally all the time.
    â€œFine, whatever. You’re free to make whatever conjectures you like. But while you’re at it, I’d like you to paint the whole picture for me. What happened next? I was crouched beneath the window, and what then? Did I sneak in through the window and whack Hidaka?”
    â€œDid you?” Detective Kaga looked directly at me.
    â€œHey, I’m asking you.”
    Kaga shook his head slightly. “I’m afraid only the one who did it knows all the details of the crime.”
    â€œWhat? Are you asking me to confess? Believe me, I’d be happy to—if I’d actually done it. But I didn’t do it. Sorry to rain on your parade. Let’s get back to the phone call, shall we? Remember, the one I got from Hidaka after you claim that he was killed? If that wasn’t from Hidaka, who was it from? My story has been reported widely in the press. If someone else happened to have called me around then, wouldn’t they have gone to the police by now?” I stuck up a finger as though I’d just had a thought. “Wait, you think I had a conspirator, don’t you! You think I had someone call me on purpose.”
    Kaga looked around the room without answering. His eyes eventually came to rest on the cordless phone sitting on the dining-room table. He went over, picked it up, and then came back to the sofa.
    â€œYou didn’t need a conspirator. All you needed was for this phone to ring.”
    â€œBut how does the phone ring if no one’s calling?” I clapped my hands. “Wait! I see what you’re getting at. You think I was carrying a cell phone in my pocket. Then, when Oshima wasn’t looking, I called my own home phone. Right?”
    â€œThat would be one way to do it.”
    â€œFine, but that’s impossible. I don’t have a cell phone, and I don’t know anyone I could have borrowed one from. Besides, couldn’t you just check the records? I’m sure the telephone company would be able to see if I’d called my own phone number.”
    â€œActually, it turns out to be very difficult to run a reverse trace and look up where a phone call came from.”
    â€œAh, is that what it’s called—a reverse trace?”
    â€œHowever, that isn’t necessary, since it’s very easy to tell who a particular phone call was made to. All we need to do in this case is check and see where Mr. Hidaka called that day.”
    â€œAnd did you?”
    â€œWe did.” Kaga nodded.
    â€œI already know the answer, but tell me, what did you find?”
    â€œWe found a record of a call from his house to your apartment at six thirteen.”
    â€œOf course you did. Because he called me and we spoke.” I tried to appear confident even though my fear was growing by the moment. If the phone company record hadn’t been enough to dispel Kaga’s suspicions, then he was onto my trick.
    Kaga stood and returned the cordless phone to the table. This time, however, he didn’t come back to the sofa. “Hidaka was supposed to send his finished manuscript by fax. However,