A Quiet Place Read Online Free PDF Page B

but she just stood there in silence. I think she was trying so hard to control the pain from the heart attack that her mouth just wouldn’t move. She’d been walking along the street —”
    â€œI’m sorry, but which direction did she come from?”
    Asai’s unexpected interruption appeared to throw Ms Takahashi for a moment, but she quickly recovered.
    â€œShe came from the left,” she said, pointing out towards the street. It was the same direction from which Asai and Miyako had come. It was an uphill climb, but not a particularly steep one. Steep hills were doubtlessly not good for people with weak hearts, Asai thought, but this slope couldn’t possibly have been the cause. Eiko had just happened to be walking up this street when she was taken ill.
    â€œI see. I’m so sorry I interrupted you.” Asai nodded at Chiyoko Takahashi to encourage her to continue.
    â€œAs your wife was walking up the hill, she suddenly began to feel ill. However, any woman would feel awkward collapsing outside in the street; it would be undignified to end up lying out there on the ground. So I think she desperately tried to control the pain until she could somehow make her way into a shop, and mine was the first she saw. Asyou probably noticed, most of the buildings around here are rather fine family homes. Mine is the only business. And I suppose the fact that it was a cosmetics boutique made it a little easier for your wife to enter. She probably just hurried in as fast as she could.”
    That was true. In a crisis, any shop would have done, but Asai was sure that one that catered exclusively to women would have been more comfortable for Eiko.
    â€œI noticed there was something wrong with your wife, and I asked her what the matter was. I went over to her, and she held up her handbag as if she were trying to get me to take it. I realized she wanted me to open it up and find her ID so I could call someone for her. And when I eventually did, I came across her appointment book. Her name and address were written in it.”
    That was Eiko’s haiku notebook. Ever since taking up haiku, she never left home without it in her handbag. When they’d brought her body home, her father had passed the handbag over to Asai and he’d seen the book inside.
    â€œBut I’m afraid I didn’t realize what she meant right away. I was too worried about her. She suddenly crouched down with both hands pressed to her chest. I was busy trying to support her from behind. I guess I was in kind of a panic.”
    Miyako had her handkerchief out, and was dabbing at her eyes.
    â€œI saw your wife’s face was deathly pale, so I did my best to support her weight and get her into the back of the boutique. My sitting room is through there – it’s a tatami mat room – so I took her in there, but by then she hadcompletely collapsed and seemed to be in great distress. I was all alone, and I had no idea what to do. And right at that moment, a young university student who lives in the neighbourhood turned up to buy some make-up. Doctor Ohama has a clinic about five doors up, off to the right – I got her to run over and ask him for help.”
    The rest of the story was just as Asai had heard from Miyako. Doctor Ohama had rushed straight over, but by the time he got there Eiko had already stopped breathing. Looking for something to identify the woman who had stumbled into her shop, Chiyoko Takahashi had opened Eiko’s handbag and found her appointment book. Her name and address were written there, but unfortunately no telephone number. Nor was there any entry in the telephone directory under “Eiko Asai”; the entry would of course have been under her husband’s name.
    One way to find the number would have been to go through all the many Asais in the phone book one by one, checking the addresses, but in her distress it hadn’t occurred to the cosmetics shop owner to