Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino Read Free Book Online Page A

then turned to Mamiya. ‘What do we know about the poison?’
    Mamiya nodded. ‘There were traces of arsenous acid in the coffee.’
    Kusanagi’s eyes opened wide. ‘Arsenous acid? Like in that school curry poisoning case?’
    ‘Forensics thinks the particular compound used here was sodium arsenite. From the concentration in the coffee, Mr Mashiba drank well over a lethal dose. We should have more accurate autopsy results by the afternoon, but arsenous acid poisoning fits with the condition that the body was found in.’
    Kusanagi nodded, sighing. The possibility of this being an accidental death was rapidly approaching zero.
    ‘But if it’s true that Mr Mashiba never made his own coffee, who made that cup?’ Mamiya said, half to himself, but loud enough that everyone could hear.
    Utsumi suddenly spoke up: ‘I think he did make his own coffee.’
    ‘How do you know that?’ Mamiya asked.
    ‘Because we have a witness who says he did,’ Utsumi continued, after a glance in Kusanagi’s direction. ‘Ms Waka yama.’
    ‘Oh yeah, what was she saying about the coffee?’ Kusan -agi thought back on their conversation the day before.
    ‘Remember the saucers? I asked her if Mr Mashiba wasn’t in the habit of using a saucer when he drank coffee. Ms Wakayama indicated that she didn’t think he did use a saucer when he was drinking alone.’
    ‘Now that you mention it, I overheard that conversation myself,’ Mamiya said, nodding. ‘The question now becomes, assuming Ms Wakayama wasn’t making things up, how does the wife’s apprentice know something about the husband that the wife does not?’
    ‘There’s probably something I should tell you,’ Kusanagi said, leaning over to whisper to him about their hunch that Hiromi Wakayama and Yoshitaka Mashiba had more than a passing acquaintance.
    Mamiya’s glance flicked back and forth between his two subordinates, and he grinned. ‘You both think so, too?’
    ‘What, you knew about it, Chief?’ Kusanagi raised an eyebrow.
    ‘When you’ve been doing this as many years as I have, you notice things. I was pretty sure something was up yesterday.’ Mamiya tapped the side of his head with a finger.
    ‘Um, would someone mind explaining what’s going on?’ Kishitani asked.
    ‘I’ll tell you later,’ Mamiya said, turning back to Kusanagi. ‘Nobody says anything in front of the wife, agreed?’
    Kusanagi and Utsumi nodded.
    ‘So the poison was in the coffee on the floor?’ Kusanagi asked.
    ‘And one other place as well.’
    ‘Do tell.’
    ‘The paper filter still in the dripper. Specifically, in the used coffee grounds.’
    ‘So they mixed the poison in with the coffee while they were making it?’ Kishitani asked.
    ‘That’s one possibility. There is one other possibility to consider, however,’ Mamiya said, raising a finger.
    ‘They could have mixed the poison in with the ground coffee beans ahead of time,’ Utsumi said.
    Mamiya beamed at her. ‘Exactly. The ground coffee was in the refrigerator. Forensics couldn’t find anything in the bag, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. There could have been just enough poison on the top layer for him to scoop out with the coffee.’
    ‘So, when was the coffee poisoned?’ Kusanagi asked.
    ‘Don’t know. Forensics snagged a bunch of used filters out of the trash, but there wasn’t any poison in them. Not that I would expect to find any in them, because that would mean someone had already used a poisoned filter, and we’d have another body.’
    ‘There was an unwashed coffee cup in the sink,’ Utsumi said. ‘I’d like to know when
that
coffee was drunk. And who drank it, for that matter.’
    Mamiya wet his lips. ‘We already know. Fingerprints gottwo matches. One was Yoshitaka Mashiba, the other was exactly who you think it was.’
    Kusanagi and Utsumi exchanged glances. Apparently, their theory already had back-up evidence.
    ‘Chief, I should mention that we’re expecting Ms Wakayama to come