“Gomennasai,” I apologized. “I didn’t mean to step on you.”
The man flicked his cigarette lighter. In its flame, his craggy face appeared baffled. I had done something weird again. One wasn’t supposed to talk to vagrants.
“Please take this.” A sudden impulse made me thrust the dinner I’d bought at Family Mart into his hands. The homeless never begged; what I was doing was radical and might be unwelcome. Nervous about his reaction, I sidestepped him and quickly ran into my building.
I had forgotten it was kanji study night. Richard, Simone, and Karen were clustered around my low kotatsu table, their toes pressed against the electric heater underneath. A neat stack of flash cards waited on the low table’s center, ready for the contest.
“It’s about time you got home,” Richard complained as if I were some kind of reckless gadabout.
“I forgot about the time. I had a lot on my mind.” Since I’d given up my dinner, I needed to make something. On the stove, I surveyed the leftovers of a pasta dinner made from the last of my shiitake mushrooms and some linguine my mother had mailed last month.
“We saved you the work of cooking for us,” Karen said sweetly.
“Rei, I cannot believe about this Shiroyama. We must make a group trip there next time,” Simone said between puffs on a Galoise.
The phone rang, and Richard rolled across the tatami to pick it up. “Moshi-moshi. Yes, I speak English. But not with an accent like yours.” He listened for a minute. “My name is Richard. And I have a feeling I know yours, babe.”
It could only be one person. I grabbed the phone away and said a breathless hello.
“You didn’t tell me you live with a guy!” As I’d suspected, Hugh Glendinning was on the other end.
“It wasn’t any of your business,” I said, watching Richard stick out his tongue, which now had a gold ball in it. “Ooh, that’s awful!”
“See what you missed at the New Year’s Eve party?” Simone lifted her sweater to show off a gold-ringed navel. “You also could have gotten pierced.”
“What’s going on, some kind of party?” Hugh sounded furious.
“No, it’s just my study group. Maybe you could call back later…how did you even get this number?” I demanded. It was only listed under Richard Randall.
“I squeezed it out of your chum Yuki, and I’m not ringing off until you tell me why you left.”
“You ask too many questions.” It was out before I recalled having said the same thing between our first kisses in the car. There was a long silence, and I supposed Hugh was remembering as well.
“Did you leave because of the necklace?” he asked.
“Yes. It was interesting how something so precious wound up in your closet.”
“I don’t suppose you’d believe me if I told you it was planted.”
“No, I wouldn’t.” When he didn’t respond I said, “Tell me about Yamamoto.”
“Still missing. I’ve been searching the slopes since yesterday. Today I wiped out on one of the tougher courses and sprained my ankle. I was in hospital all after noon.”
“How miserable for you. Could you communicate with the doctors?”
“Not really. It would have been helpful to have you translate.” He paused. “At least I didn’t fall the way Yamamoto did. They spotted his skis sticking out of a ravine but are unable to go down.”
“So they believe he is—” I couldn’t say dead, that was too terrible. “Do you think this accident might be connected to anything that happened earlier? Maybe someone chucked him over the mountain because he knows too much?”
“Of course it could, which brings me back to the autopsy! You’ll need to translate it pronto, all right?”
“I’ll mail it to your office so you can get it done professionally. There’s no connection between us, Hugh.” His casual orders irritated me enough that I didn’t mention how I’d thought of asking my cousin Tom for help.
“Split personality time, hmm? I remember you becoming rather connected to me in the early hours yesterday. In fact, you made me promise to do something again and again—”
“Watch it. I presume you’re talking in the hallway?” Not that I was any better off, as my friends had completely stopped their conversation to listen.
“Actually, I’m on my cell phone standing on crutches in a foot of snow because I don’t trust a damn person inside the inn!” Hugh had lost all control and was shouting in the receiver. “Because I’ve lost two friends and the only person who can help me won’t. Think about that, Miss Prim!”