The Lying Counselor’s Eloquent Reasoning - Chapter 40
The next day, Uroma and Tomomi visited Sayuri’s house again. Of course, they brought James’ laptop with them. It was late afternoon on a Sunday.
“Ms. Kiyokawa, I have found out the cause of Mr. Hirose’s death.”
No sooner had they entered the house than Uroma said confidently to Sayuri.
“Is that true! Please tell me, what was going on!” Sayuri naturally reacted violently to Uma’s words.
“Well, please calm down. For now, I’m going to reenact what he did that day. Then I’ll explain.” Uroma put the laptop on the low table in the living room and wandered off to the bedroom. Sayuri and Tomomi rushed after him.
Once they were in the bedroom, they noticed that Uroma was already sprawled out on the bed. He was still in his white coat.
“Doctor, what are you doing?”
“Right now, I’m playing the role of Mr. Hirose from that morning. After arguing with Ms. Kiyokawa, I’ve just laid down in a daze.”
“Ha?” Sayuri and Tomomi tilted their heads. Is it necessary to start from that point to explain the cause of James’ death?
“Ah, what a terrible thing I’ve said to Sayuri. I’ll have to apologize when she gets home from work. Dozing off…” Uroma closed his eyes as he deliberately said it in a monotone manner. He seemed to be performing as if he was asleep.
Then, somewhat later, he suddenly jumped out of bed.
“Shut up! What is all this noise! I can hardly sleep at all!”
Uroma got up from the bed, opened the bedroom window and stepped out onto the veranda. Right in front of him was the same building under construction as yesterday. Today was Sunday though, so no construction seemed to be in progress.
“What a nuisance to the neighbors to be causing so much noise in the middle of the day! I’m going to complain!”
On that day, a Monday morning, Uroma’s ears seemed to register the noise of construction as he became James. He put his hands on the veranda rail and leaned over it.
And right after.
“Ugh! What’s going on here! My hands! My hands!”
When he said it deliberately, Uroma suddenly started to squirm.
“M-My hands are trembling! This can’t be the… seizure! Oh no, no, no, no, no, no!” Uroma shouted and leaned all the way over the veranda rail, flapping his hands and gesturing as if he had fallen down.
“… Doctor, enough with the petty theatrics. Please explain quickly. What is this seizure you’re talking about?” Having trouble reacting, she sought a swift explanation for the moment.
“Don’t you understand after all my passionate performance, Tomomi? He had a myoclonic seizure here that day.” Uroma replied as he lifted himself up from the rail. He was no longer in the James impersonation mode.
“Myoclonic? What’s that?”
“That, of course, refers to his chronic epileptic seizures.”
“Eh? Jimmy had that disease?” Sayuri exclaimed in surprise, unaware of what she had just learned.
“I-I am clueless about that…”
“Perhaps he didn’t want you, his girlfriend, to discover his disease. That’s presumably why he kept it from you.”
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“… This is a sensitive subject, you see.” Uroma’s answer was vague.
“But, doctor. How did you know Mr. Hirose had that disease? You didn’t find any clues as far as I checked yesterday.”
“Yes, there were. There are many ways to reduce the risk of epileptic seizures in his life.”
That was all Uroma said, and he walked off the veranda and back into the house. Following him, he exited the bedroom and went into James’ room. There, he opened the top drawer of his desk. A pair of blue sunglasses were neatly lined up within.
“The first one would be this.” Uroma took one of the sunglasses and put it on without permission. Of course, it didn’t suit him very well. There’s a lot to be said for a man in a gloomy white coat and sunglasses.
“Ms. Kiyokawa, I believe that Mr. Hirose almost always wore these sunglasses when he went out, is that correct?”
“Yes. He said the sunlight was too dazzling.”
“Well, it’s true that Westerners with light colored eyes usually wear sunglasses for that reason, but…”
“But in Jimmy’s case, it was more than that, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. The truth is that people with epilepsy can suffer from photosensitive seizures, which occur when their eyes are exposed to intense light. Therefore, it is advisable to wear sunglasses when going out in the daytime. Especially blue ones, like this one.”
Uroma lightly lifted the sunglasses on his nose with his fingers. His two eyes, visible through the blue lenses, were as puffy as ever.
“But doctor, from what you’ve just said, we don’t know whether Mr. Hirose was wearing sunglasses simply because he had pale eyes or because he had epilepsy.”
“Yes, of course. I am not assuming that he has a pre-existing condition solely based on these blue sunglasses.”
Uroma replied to Tomomi, then removed the sunglasses, placed them back in their original drawer, and left James’ room.