Page 40

“Yeah, I suppose.”

Misora put the photographs away and turned toward Ryuzaki. He wasn’t facing her. They’d known each other five days and had met three times, and it was becoming clear that Ryuzaki was not aware that it was customary to face the person you were speaking with. But by this point, she was hardly going to dwell on something so insignificant.

“It’s such a simple matter it almost seems like a waste of breath. The third murder happened on August

13th, right?”

“Yes, you don’t even need to check.”

“There were Roman numerals on the first victim’s body, but this time we have Arabic numerals. Thirteen... 13. If you write a one and a three next to each other... they look like a B.”

“Yes,” Ryuzaki nodded.

This was so simple she had worried that he would laugh at her but he seemed to be taking it surprisingly seriously.

“Come to think of it, I once saw a children’s game show where they asked what one plus three equaled, and the answer was B...”

“Exactly. B.”

“B.B.? But Misora, that works for the third murder, since it took place on August 13th, but what about the other dates? The cross word puzzle reached the LAPD on July 22nd, the first murder wis on July 3

1st, the second on August 4th. and you’ve predicted ilu fourth on August 22nd.. .none of which form the letter B.”

“Not at first glance. But apply the same principle following a different pattern. The easiest is the first murder...July 31st. Three and one. Reverse the two and you get thirteen.”

“Okay, I’ll grant you the 3 1st. That seems reasonable enough

But what about the fourth and the two 22nds?”

“Same thing. Just change the pattern. Take the problem you mentioned from the children’s game show one plus three. August 4th four is the normal answer to that equation. And August 22nd if you take one from the tens place and put it in the ones place you end up back at thirteen,”

B. Thirteen.

“In other words, every day the killer takes action, the 22nd, the 31st, the 4th, the 13th...the tens place

and the ones place add tip to four. In each month there are only those four dates that do that. Only four. And something happens on every one of those. Also, the Wara Ningyo started out at four. One plus three equals four. And this might just be a coincidence, but worth putting on the pile the gaps between the cases, four days and nine days, if you add four and nine, you get thirteen... B.”

“I see. Not bad,” Ryuzaki said, nodding. Misora beamed.

“Picking up on the similarity between thirteen and B is a pretty good idea.”

“Isn’t it? So the fourth murder will happen nine days after the 13th, on the 22nd. Nine, four, nine... I considered the possibility of another four, and the murder happening on the 17th, but it seemed far more likely that it would be the 22nd. After all, something already happened on that day last month. And there’s absolutely no way to get from seventeen to B, no matter how hard you try. So the fourth murder can only take place on the 22nd.”

The 17th had already passed, and there had been no related murders in Los Angeles on that day. She had been a little worried, but the strength of L’s declaration had kept her calm. She had told herself that four days and nine days adding up to thirteen had been pure chance, an irrelevant coincidence that the killer could afford to ignore.

“If I could add one thing,” Ryuzaki said. “That particular method of transforming twenty-two to thirteen is a little forced. Bending the argument to suit your purpose—there’s no reason to move the one from the tens place like that. It’s not like switching the numbers from thirty-one to thirteen. That explanation was clearly created after the fact.”

“Eh... but, Ryuzaki..

<< PREV           NEXT >>