Salvation of a Saint Read Online Free PDF Page A

how to use her make-up.
    Hiromi Wakayama, I presume.
    ‘You were saying that you discovered the body as soon as you walked into the room, correct?’ Mamiya was asking her. ‘So you would have been standing right about where you are now?’
    The woman stopped looking at the floor long enough to glance in the direction of the sofa, remembering the moment of the discovery.
    ‘Yes,’ she answered in a thin voice. ‘Right around here.’
    Maybe it was the fact that she was skinny, or the paleness of her face, but to Kusanagi it looked as though the woman was having trouble just standing.
She’s still in shock,
he thought,
and no wonder.
    ‘And the last time you were in this room before then was the night before last?’ Mamiya asked, for confirmation.
    Hiromi nodded.
    ‘Is anything different about the room now from how you saw it then? Anything at all? Even little details are fine.’
    She looked almost fearfully around the room for a moment, then quickly shook her head. ‘I’m not sure. There were a lot of other people here the night before, and we’d just eaten dinner …’ Her voice was trembling.
    Mamiya nodded, his eyebrows drawing sympathetically closer together as if to say,
It’s all right, of course you don’t remember.
    ‘Well, we won’t keep you here any longer tonight. You should go home and get some rest. We’ll most likely need to talk with you again tomorrow, if that’s all right?’
    ‘That’s fine,’ she said, ‘but I’m afraid there’s really not much I can tell you.’
    ‘I know, but we have to be sure we have as much information as possible. I hope you will be able to help us.’
    ‘Okay,’ Hiromi said, without looking up.
    ‘I’ll have one of my men take you home,’ Mamiya said, looking over at Kusanagi. ‘How’d you get here tonight? Did you bring your car?’
    ‘Taxi, sorry.’
    ‘Figures you would choose today to leave your car behind.’
    ‘I haven’t been driving much recently.’
    Mamiya was clucking his tongue in disapproval when Utsumi said, ‘I brought mine.’
    Kusanagi turned. ‘You drive? In Tokyo? On your salary?’
    ‘I was out at a restaurant when the call came in. Sorry.’
    ‘No need to apologize,’ Mamiya said. ‘Maybe you can drive Ms Wakayama home?’
    ‘Certainly. If I might ask her a question first, though?’
    ‘What question?’ Mamiya asked, shocked at the abrupt request from the new recruit.
    Hiromi visibly tensed.
    ‘I understand Mr Mashiba was drinking coffee when he fell, and I was wondering if he was in the habit of not using a saucer with his cup?’
    Hiromi’s eyes widened slightly and her gaze wandered off to one side. ‘Well, I suppose he wouldn’t, maybe, if he was drinking alone.’
    ‘That would mean that he had a visitor either yesterday or today,’ Utsumi said with confidence. ‘Any idea who that might have been?’
    Kusanagi looked up at her. ‘How do you know he had a visitor?’
    ‘There’s an unwashed coffee cup and two saucers still in the kitchen sink. If Mr Mashiba had been drinking coffee alone, it doesn’t make sense that there would be one saucer out, let alone two.’
    Kishitani went into the kitchen and came right back out. ‘She’s right. One cup, and two saucers.’
    Kusanagi exchanged glances with Mamiya before turning again to the young Hiromi Wakayama.
    ‘Any ideas?’ he asked her.
    She shook her head. ‘I … I don’t know.’ There was anxiety in her voice. ‘I mean, I haven’t been here since the party the other night. How would I know if he’d had any visitors?’
    Kusanagi glanced at the chief again. Mamiya nodded, a troubled look on his face. ‘Right, well, we’ve kept you here long enough. You’ll see her home, Utsumi? Kusanagi, you can go with them.’
    ‘Yes sir,’ Kusanagi said, understanding instinctively what Mamiya wanted. The young Ms Wakayama was clearly hiding something, and it would be his job to get her to spill the beans.
    The three left the house together, and Utsumi