Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino

Author:Keigo Higashino
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: Mystery, Fiction
ISBN: 9781405518529
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: 2008-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

The tea shop and café ‘Kuzay’ was located on the first floor of an office building in Odenmacho, a corner of the Nihonbashi district in eastern Tokyo. Not far from Suitengu Avenue and its rows of bustling financial institutions, it was the perfect spot for an office lady’s lunchtime outing.

Kusanagi walked in through the glass doors and up to the sales counter. He had heard that the store stocked over fifty varieties of tea, and sure enough, there they were, all individually labelled and sorted into neat rows. Behind the counter was a little tea room. Even at the relatively quiet hour of four in the afternoon, he saw a few customers scattered around the café, sipping tea and reading newspapers. One or two were dressed in company uniforms. Male customers were definitely in the minority.

A diminutive waitress in white approached. ‘Just one of you?’ she asked with a plainly artificial smile. Kusanagi guessed he didn’t have the look of the regular clientele.

He nodded and the waitress showed him to a table against the wall, her smile still intact.

The menu was a long list of teas, none of which Kusanagi had even heard of before yesterday. He now had a passing familiarity with several of the varieties and had even sampled a few. This was his fourth tea shop so far.

He called over the waitress and ordered a chai. He knew from a conversation at one of the previous cafés that it was made by steeping Assam tea leaves in milk, and had decided that he rather liked this combination. He could stand having another cup.

‘I was wondering,’ Kusanagi said to the waitress, pulling out his business card and showing it to her, ‘if it might be possible for me to speak with the manager briefly?’

One look at the card and the waitress’s smile evaporated. Kusanagi hastily waved his hand. ‘Don’t worry, it’s nothing serious,’ he said. ‘I just need to ask about one of your customers.’

‘I’ll go and ask.’

‘Thanks.’ Kusanagi was about to ask whether it was all right for him to smoke when he spotted the no smoking sign on the opposite wall.

He took another look around the tea room. The atmosphere was quiet and pleasantly relaxed. There was enough space between the tables that two people on a date wouldn’t have to worry about other patrons overhearing a conversation. He could picture Yoshitaka Mashiba coming to a place like this. Nonetheless, Kusanagi kept his expectations low. The other three tea rooms he’d already visited were practically carbon-copy versions of this one.

Moments later, a woman wearing a black vest over a white shirt was standing by the detective’s table, a nervous look on her face. She wasn’t wearing much make-up, and her hair was tied in a knot at the back of her head. Kusanagi guessed she was in her mid-thirties.

‘Can I help you?’

‘Hi.’ Kusanagi smiled. ‘Detective Kusanagi with the Metropolitan Police. I’m sorry, your name was?’

‘Hamada.’

‘Thanks for coming out to talk with me. I promise not to take up too much of your time.

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