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thing to bring into a discussion about Ryuji's sudden death the night before. Why bring up such a matter?
    "Well, had you heard anything about a videotape from Ryuji?"
    "No. Nothing."
    "A videotape, huh?" Ando muttered, leaning back in his chair. He sensed a shadow over the image of this Asakawa who'd visited Ryuji's apartment the night of the autopsy.
    "In any case, I was wondering-I'm not an expert, but is it possible that whatever was recorded on this videotape was so shocking it gave him a heart attack?"
    "Hmm."
    Ando thought he understood what had been troubling Mai. She would have been too embarrassed even to bring the matter up until she'd ascertained the cause of death. It reminded him of a thriller he'd seen on TV two or three days ago. A woman is having an affair with one of her husband's subordinates, but she's been ensnared. Somebody has videotaped the two of them going at it at a love hotel, catching everything, and the tape is mailed to her with an extortion letter. At home, she puts the tape into the VCR and glares at the screen. Snow, and then an image cut its way in. The naked body of a woman pressed up against a young man's. Panting. The instant she realizes that it's her on the screen, she faints. It was such a common and vulgar scene that Ando had felt like a fool watching the drama.
    No doubt it was possible to use a videotape to provide simultaneous visual and aural stimulation and shock somebody's system. If the wrong kind of conditions were met, the possibility of it resulting in death couldn't be ruled out. But Ando had examined Ryuji's body in detail. He'd even taken slices of his coronary artery and made tissue samples.
    "No, that's out of the question. He definitely had a blockage in his left coronary artery. Besides, you know Ryuji. Can you really imagine him dying from shock just from watching a videotape?" He laughed as he said that.
    "No, of course not…" Mai allowed herself to be coaxed into a weak laugh. Their impressions of Ryuji jibed, then. He'd been a man of almost disgusting daring, real steel in his spine. It would have taken something extraordinary to get to him, body or soul.
    "Do you happen to know how I might contact this Asakawa person?"
    "I'm sorry…" Mai started to say she didn't, but then she brought a hand to her mouth. "No, wait, I think I remember the professor introducing him as Kazuyuki Asakawa from the Daily News."
    "Kazuyuki Asakawa from the Daily News." Ando made a note in his planner. If he called the newspaper, he shouldn't have much trouble finding the man's contact info. He might need to talk to the man yet.
    Mai seemed to have caught a glimpse of what he'd written in his planner. She brought her hand to her chin and said, "Huh."
    "What?" Ando looked up at her.
    "So that's how you'd write Kazuyuki."
    Ando looked back down at the page.
    It took him a minute to get what she meant. There were several different combinations of characters that could be used to spell the surname "Asakawa". The same was true for the given name "Kazuyuki". Normally, he would have had to ask which characters were used, or just written the name down phonetically. But instead, he'd written the ideograms without hesitation, as if the name were one he'd known all along.
    Mai's eyes opened wide as she asked, "How did you know it's written that way?"
    Ando couldn't answer. Was this some sort of premonition? He felt he'd be coming into close contact with the man fairly soon.
     
     

5
     
    For the first time in nearly a year and a half, Ando had allowed himself some sake with his dinner. This was the first time since the death of his son that he'd even wanted alcohol. He had liked to drink. It wasn't that he'd given it up out of a sense of guilt for the boy's death. Alcohol tended to amplify whatever mood he was in to begin with. If he was in a good mood, it made him jubilant; if he felt sad, it just made him sadder. For the last year and a half he'd been shrouded in grief, and so naturally he'd