The Devotion Of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino Read Free Book Online Page A

they have dumped it on the other side?
Kusanagi wondered as he lifted up the collar of his coat against the cold.
    The body had been left on the side of the sloping embankment, wrapped in a blue plastic tarp of the kind often used in factory yards.
    An elderly man out for a jog along the river had called it in. He’d seen something that looked like a foot protruding from the tarp and had lifted the plastic for a peek.
    “How old was the guy who found it, seventy-five? He sure picked a frigid day to go for a run. Poor guy probably didn’t expect to see something like this around here. My heart goes out to him.”
    The junior detective, Kishitani, had arrived at the scene first; he’d explained the circumstances to Kusanagi. Now the older man frowned. The trailing edge of his long coat fluttered in the wind.
    “So, Kishi, you see the body?”
    “I did,” Kishitani said with a grimace. “The chief wanted me to take a good long look at it.”
    “That’s because he doesn’t want to look at it himself.”
    “You want to peek, Kusanagi?”
    “Nope. I’ll take your word for it on this one.”
    According to Kishitani’s report, the body had been left in a sorry state. It had been stripped of clothes, shoes, even socks. The face had been smashed—like a split melon, the young detective had said, which was more than enough to make Kusanagi queasy. The fingers had been burned, too, completely destroying any fingerprints.
    The corpse was male. Marks around the neck indicated he had been strangled. There were no other wounds apparent on the rest of the body.
    “I hope forensics finds something,” Kusanagi said, pacing in a circle. With people watching, he thought it best to make a show of looking for clues—some lucky hint, something that might have belonged to the killer. The truth of the matter was that he left most of the crime-scene examination to the specialists. He was unlikely to find anything of much importance himself.
    “There was a bicycle nearby. Some people from the local station in Edogawa already came to pick it up.”
    “A bicycle? Probably trash somebody threw out.”
    “It was a little new for that. And both of the tires were flat. Someone put a hole in them with a nail or something.”
    “Hmph. The victim’s, then?”
    “Hard to say. It had a registration number on it, so we might be able to find out who owned it.”
    “Well, I hope it was the victim’s,” Kusanagi said. “Or else this is going to be a real tricky one. Heaven or hell.”
    “How’s that?”
    “This your first John Doe, Kishi?”
    Kishitani nodded.
    “Think about it. The face and fingerprints were destroyed, which means that the killer didn’t want anyone to know who the victim was. Of course, that also means, if we find out who the victim was, it should be easy to identify the killer. The question is how long it’ll take us to figure out the poor bastard’s identity. That right there’s what determines our fate.”
    Just then, Kishitani’s cell phone rang. He took the call, talked briefly, then turned to Kusanagi. “They want us down at the Edogawa station.”
    “Well, then, things are looking up,” Kusanagi said. He stretched and straightened, massaging his lower back with clenched fists.
----

    When they reached the Edogawa police station, Mamiya was standing by the heater, warming his hands. Mamiya was their division chief in criminal affairs. Several men—probably local homicide—were scurrying around him, prepping the room to serve as investigation headquarters.
    “You come in your own car today?” Mamiya asked when he saw Kusanagi walk in.
    “Sure did. Train station’s too far away.”
    “You familiar with this part of town, then?”
    “I wouldn’t say familiar, but I’ve been here a few times.”
    “So you don’t need a guide. Good. Take Kishitani with you and go—here.” He held out a piece of paper.
    It was a memo with an address in Shinozaki, Edogawa Ward, beneath which was written a