The Lying Counselor’s Eloquent Reasoning - Chapter 36
“Ms. Kiyokawa, before he passed away, was there any change in him?”
“No. At least to me, he appeared to be normal. He didn’t give any indication that he was troubled in any way.”
“So what was the reason for the argument you had with him on the morning of his death?”
“… It was a really small, common quarrel, only that.” Sayuri sighed grimly. “The day before was Sunday, and Jimmy was away at work, leaving me to clean the house by myself. So I wiped down the shelves in the living room that stored his collection of videotapes, but I forgot to put back one of the tapes. The following morning, he stepped on it without noticing that it had fallen near the couch in the living room, and became angry with me, questioning why it was there. Initially, I apologized to him, but he became increasingly emotional and eventually snapped at me… In the end, I ended up going to work that day, leaving Jimmy at home.”
“He passed away after that, didn’t he?”
“Yes. The people downstairs were the first to recognize the noise, but around 11 o’clock that day, Jimmy apparently fell off the balcony and passed away. He was still in his pajamas. When the police informed me of this during my lunch break at work, my mind went blank. I never expected that to be my last interaction with him…”
Sayuri seemed to regret badly that they had argued.
“I see. Thinking about it under normal circumstances, it’s hard to believe that that could be the cause of suicide. Have you informed the police of what you have just told me?”
“Of course. But they didn’t take it seriously saying that it depends on each person what causes suicide, or that he might have been deeply hurt by your words when we argued. I don’t remember saying such horrible things to him.”
“Well, the police have a lot of work to handle. If they can treat it as a suicide, so be it.”
“Indeed, that may be the case, but…”
Sayuri had an expression as if she was not convinced.
“Other than the fact that there was an argument, was there anything that would suggest suicide? Such as a suicide note?”
“Not that I could find.”
“So, did he owe a lot of money or have a large life insurance policy just before he died?”
“Neither.”
“What about any major problems at work or in relationships?”
“None, I suppose. On the day of the funeral, I met with some of Jimmy’s friends and business associates, and they all seemed to be devastated by his death. They couldn’t believe that he committed suicide.”
“I see. Not only you, but other people also think that Mr. Hirose’s suicide is inconceivable, don’t they?”
The more she listened to the story, the more it seemed strange to Tomomi that the case was declared a suicide. Is that really okay with the Japanese police?
“Well, doctor. I’ve already told you this much, but is this the right place for this kind of consultation? Should I contact a lawyer or an information agency after all?”
“Haha, don’t worry about it. The fact that you’ve come here is a sign that this is a case for me.”
“H-Hah?”
“Well, I’m only a counselor, therefore I can’t provide you with much help. The most I can do is to investigate whether Mr. Hirose was really in a suicidal state of mind shortly before his death.”
“Can you do such a thing? Please, please do it!”
Sayuri seemed to be grasping at straws.
“Then, is there anything that he wrote in the period before his death? I’d like to see more of it if possible.”
“Oh, in that case, the exchange of messages with me.”
Sayuri pulled out her phone from her bag and started to fiddle with it. When Tomomi stretched her neck to peek at the screen, it seemed that it was displaying the chat history of a messaging application. The log was a chaotic mixture of English and Japanese hiragana.
“Do I have permission to see your private correspondence?”
“Yes. The contents are trivial.”
Sayuri handed her phone directly to Uroma. He immediately slid its screen over and proceeded to read the logs.
“Reading these, it seems that Mr. Hirose was on a social networking site, can I view that as well?”
Once he asked Sayuri and she replied “yes”, he accessed James’ social networking site from his browser bookmarks. It was not a tweeting type of social network, but a photo-showing type. What was posted were simply ordinary scenes of daily life, including a picture of a tall, lean, blond-haired, blue-eyed white man, who appeared to be James himself, joyfully having dinner with several Japanese men.
“… I see. I certainly doubt that Mr. Hirose was in a state of mind to commit suicide.”
Eventually, Uroma remarked as he passed the phone back to Sayuri.