The Tooth Tattoo (18 page)

‘I never heard that she did. Her mother was a professional violinist and maybe that put Mari off, thinking she could never live up to that standard. She could read music, I know that. She’d buy the score and follow it.’

‘She studied maths, her father told me.’

‘Sure, in Yokohama University. There’s some kind of link between music and maths, isn’t there?’

‘Do you know if she had boyfriends?’

‘I expect so. I haven’t seen her for some time.’

‘At school, I mean.’

‘We all went out with boys. Mari was no exception.’

‘Was Mikio a particular friend?’

‘Of Mari’s?’ She blushed a little. ‘You mean Mikio at this university? They were seeing each other at one time. You’d better ask him.’

‘Are you and he …?’ Diamond asked, picking up on the blush.

‘Absolutely not.’ Her voice shook a little. ‘Just because we went through school together it doesn’t mean a thing. We happen to be studying in the same department in the same university, that’s all.’

The charged quality in her response alerted Diamond. ‘Is something the matter between you?’

‘This has nothing to do with Mari.’

‘But …?’

‘We don’t get on now.’

‘Is that why he wasn’t sitting outside when we arrived? To avoid you?’

‘It could be.’

‘Have you spoken to him at all about Mari’s death?’

‘We don’t speak.’

‘But after her father phoned and was so distressed, didn’t you ask Mikio if he’d heard from her?’

‘No.’ She was increasingly tight-lipped. And this interview had started so well.

‘It’s as serious as that, the rift between you? What’s behind it, Taki?’

She dipped her head.

Diamond, at a loss, glanced to his left for assistance.

Ingeborg said to Taki in little more than a whisper, ‘We need to know. It may seem personal to you, Taki, but we don’t ask questions without a good reason.’

Without looking up, she said, ‘My trouble with him has nothing to do with Mari.’

‘You don’t know,’ Ingeborg said. ‘It could be important. Did he try it on with you?’

After another long pause, Taki lifted her head and faced them, her eyes red-lidded and tearful. ‘At the end of the summer term, he got me drunk. He wasn’t dating me, or anything. We were with other students in a pub in the town and everyone was drinking. He kept filling my glass with cider. When I got up to go I was unsteady. I’ve never been drunk before. I couldn’t stand up properly. Everyone except me seemed to think it was funny. Mikio said he’d take me back to my lodgings. He had to hold me up. I remember him at the house helping me upstairs. After that, it’s a blank.’

‘Do you think he took advantage?’

‘I woke up at some time in the night feeling ill. I was alone in my bed and my head was hurting. I managed to get to the bathroom and threw up. Then I realised I was naked.’ She
twisted her fingers in an agitated way. ‘I have no memory of undressing.’

‘He stripped you,’ Ingeborg said, making it more of a statement than a question. She was always alert to abuse of any sort.

‘What else can I think?’

‘Were you bruised? Sore? Do you think he raped you?’

‘If he did, it wasn’t obvious. I was too drunk to know. It’s so humiliating. I can’t believe I encouraged him, but even that is possible. You’d think I would have some memory of it, only I don’t.’

‘He could have added something to your drink.’

‘I’ve thought about that. I simply don’t know.’

‘It happens. If it was just drink, you’d probably have some recollection. Is there any talk of guys here using the date-rape drug?’

‘I haven’t heard it mentioned.’

‘As you say, you could be mistaken,’ Ingeborg said, appearing to sense that her outrage was adding to Taki’s distress. ‘Maybe you undressed yourself. Where were your clothes?’

‘On a chair.’

‘That doesn’t sound like a man intent on rape.’

Taki made a small movement with her shoulders that suggested she’d like to be persuaded, but wasn’t. ‘I didn’t see him again until the new term started and then I was too embarrassed to speak to him. In fact, we haven’t spoken since. What makes it worse is that some of the others who were with us in the pub still treat it as a joke.’

‘How does he react when they tease you?’

‘He doesn’t say anything.’

‘Does he have a reputation for sleeping around?’

‘No. I’ve heard nothing like that.’

Diamond joined in again. ‘Back in Japan, before you came here, what did the girls think of him?’

‘Nothing special. He was just another guy.’

‘Did you ever go out with him?’

‘I don’t think he was interested in me.’

‘But you said he was interested in Mari.’

‘I said they dated a few times. I doubt if it ever got serious.’

‘When she spoke to you on the phone about coming to Exeter, did she speak about seeing Mikio as well?’

She gave a nod. ‘It was kind of awkward. She asked if I saw him and I said yes because I do in lectures and she said it would be good for the three of us to meet and would I like to tell him she was coming. I didn’t want to tell her what happened with Mikio, so I said a better idea was to wait until she arrived and maybe we could fix something then.’

‘What did she say to that?’

‘She misunderstood me. I must have sounded really cool about her plan, because she jumped to the idea I was dating him and didn’t want her to come between us. I insisted that wasn’t the case, but I don’t know if she believed me.’

‘So how did you leave the arrangement?’

‘Like I said, we’d keep it loose. She was going to let me know by text when she was coming.’

‘Is it possible she called Mikio herself?’

‘I don’t know.’ Taki frowned. Then her eyes became huge behind the glasses as if an appalling scenario was surfacing in her brain. ‘I guess it’s possible.’

‘Did she have his mobile number?’

‘We all had contact numbers.’

‘We’ll ask him,’ Diamond said. ‘If you didn’t tell him Mari was coming, how else would he have known?’

She still looked deeply troubled. ‘What I said to you just now – about what happened to me last term – doesn’t have to go any further, does it? I’m not accusing him.’

Ingeborg said, ‘That’s not up for investigation and even if it was, proving anything happened would be impossible so long after.’

‘You won’t mention it when you interview him?’

Diamond had let the exchange between the two women run on for long enough. Sympathy could only go so far. ‘Mari was murdered. Nothing is off limits.’

Ingeborg softened the statement by adding, ‘If it comes up, we’ll be as discreet as possible.’

After Taki had left the room, Diamond said, ‘What did I tell you about the quiet ones?’

‘How do we know she’s the quiet one?’ Ingeborg said.

‘We’ll get his story presently. Did you believe her?’

‘Why shouldn’t I?’

‘She was quick to tell us she doesn’t drive and doesn’t speak to the guy. We came here to find out if they combined to murder Mari. Everything this one said absolved her from any part in a possible crime. She told us in effect that if Mikio killed Mari and drove her to Bath, he acted alone.’

Ingeborg’s eyes narrowed. ‘Are you saying she made all this up?’

‘I’m saying she’s well and truly stitched up her old school buddy Mikio. Could be true, though. If he’s a date rape specialist it’s not impossible he drugged Mari and things didn’t go to plan. Some of these drugs like ketamine are potentially lethal. He could have given her too much and had a body to dispose of.’

‘Manslaughter. I hadn’t thought of that.’

‘The question is, had Taki?’

The department secretary arrived with tea and biscuits. Switching quickly to his amiable self, Diamond told her he could get used to the academic life. Nobody ever brought tea and biscuits to his office in CID.

‘Perhaps you don’t treat them right,’ the secretary said with a smile.

‘I’m like a favourite uncle to them all,’ he said, ‘but it makes no difference.’

‘Try getting tough, then.’

‘Now there’s an idea.’

Ingeborg was open-mouthed.

‘Mr. Nambu is here now,’ the secretary said.

‘We’ll see him.’

By student standards, Mikio Nambu was improbably well-groomed, in a navy polo shirt and white jeans. He looked as if he couldn’t kill a fly, but so did many of the notorious rapists and killers in criminal history, Diamond reflected. As
an investigator, you had to accept that wrongdoers aren’t necessarily uglier or larger or less presentable than the rest of humanity. Juries were always disarmed by the ordinariness of the people put up before them.

‘Sit down, Mr. Nambu. Sorry to take you from your studies. This shouldn’t be long. We’ll call you Mikio if you don’t mind. Is that the way you say it?’

‘Mickey will do.’

‘We won’t get too chummy.’ He introduced himself and Ingeborg by rank and surname. ‘Do you know why we’re here?’

‘It’s about Mari Hitomi.’ His English was at least the equal of Taki’s.

‘A friend from Yokohama, is that right?’

‘She was, yes. I saw the TV news. It’s difficult to believe.’

‘Always is for the nearest and dearest. Would you call yourself one of Mari’s nearest and dearest?’

He shifted in the chair. ‘I don’t know about that.’

‘I’m trying to get a sense of your relationship. You must have dated her. Did you ever sleep with her?’

‘We were schoolkids.’

‘Is that a no?’

‘A definite no.’ He leaned back in the chair and said, ‘I hope you’re not trying to connect me with her murder.’

‘You’re a witness – or I think you are. She arrived in London and stayed for a short time with her father, who thought she was coming directly here to catch up with old friends from Yokohama – you and Taki Kihara. Did you hear from her?’

He paused. ‘There was a text to say she was coming and would get in touch when she knew the date.’

‘Is it still on your phone, this text?’

‘Deleted. I don’t keep everything.’

‘When did you receive it?’

‘At least two months ago, possibly longer.’ He was hesitating before each response, as if expecting a trap.

‘And I suppose there’s no way of telling if it was sent from London or Bath?’

‘It’s a mobile phone.’

‘Right. So did you see her after the text arrived?’

‘She didn’t get here.’

‘Let’s not take anything for granted, Mikio. You don’t know if she got here. You’re telling me you didn’t see her here, is that more accurate?’

‘I suppose. I thought she was killed in Bath.’

‘Her body was found there. It isn’t certain she was killed there, unless you know something we don’t.’

He blinked rapidly. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘Do you drive?’

‘Yes.’

‘Got a car, have you?’

‘A Nissan Micra.’

Diamond exchanged a glance with Ingeborg. ‘It crossed my mind that you could have arranged to meet her in Bath, in which case you could tell us what she was doing there.’

Mikio shook his head. ‘I’ve never been to Bath.’

‘Or some place nearby?’

The words came rapidly now. ‘I didn’t see her. I didn’t speak to her on the phone. I received one text and that’s all.’

‘She could have come to Exeter as she promised,’ Diamond said.

‘If she did, I didn’t see her.’

‘Okay, don’t panic, Mikio. Where do you keep your car?’

If anything was likely to panic him, it was more interest in his car. He swallowed hard. ‘On the street outside my lodgings.’

‘Is it there now?’

‘Now? It’s here on the campus.’

‘So would you show it to us?’

They didn’t have far to go. The physics department had its own parking area behind one of the labs. Mikio’s Nissan Micra, a small, blue hatchback, stood only a few spaces from where Ingeborg had parked.

‘I haven’t washed it lately,’ he said.

‘It’s all right,’ Diamond told him. ‘We’re not thinking of buying it.’

They walked around the mud-spattered car. The back seat was covered with textbooks and file covers.

‘There isn’t much room for books where I live,’ Mikio said.

‘Open up, please.’

A sharp odour was apparent as soon as he unlocked the front door.

‘What’s that – disinfectant?’

‘There was a smell I was trying to get rid of. Maybe I should have used something else.’

‘What sort of smell?’

‘Vomit.’

‘Here in the front?’

‘That’s where it was.’

An insight into student life. Diamond glanced around the interior, which hadn’t been cleaned for a considerable time. Forensics would have a field day here if they were ever asked to check it. ‘Is the back open?’

Mikio took them around to the rear door. More books, up to a hundred probably, filled the boot space. Diamond sniffed and got the smell of books. Nothing else. This end of the car hadn’t been disinfected.

‘You can close it. We’re done.’

Back in the office, Diamond resumed in a disarming way. ‘Tell us what Mari was like when you were going out with her in Yokohama.’

Mikio frowned, still wary of being trapped. ‘I already told you we were just schoolkids. Nothing happened.’

‘You’re on about sex, are you?’ Diamond said. ‘I’m interested more in her personality, but if you want to tell us what you got up to – or didn’t – go ahead.’

A sharp breath. ‘No. It’s okay. There’s nothing to say. Personality. What do you want to know? She was popular, good at her studies, especially maths. She lived with her mother in an apartment in one of the best buildings in Yokohama. It was big, well furnished.’

‘You’ve seen inside, then?’

‘Only the hallway and living room.’

‘I believe her bedroom was quite a sight, filled with posters,’ Diamond said.

More nervous blinking. ‘I wouldn’t know about that.’

‘When you took her out, where did you go?’

‘The movies, a couple of times. She didn’t like clubs. They had the wrong sort of music. She was into serious stuff.’

‘So we are finding out. Did you go to any concerts with her?’

‘No, she liked to go alone. She spent all her pocket money travelling around to catch her favourite players. She had all the gigs on her iPad calendar and if I wanted a date I had to fit around them.’