Spiral. Koji Suzuki
you have a look?”
A look? At what? Ryuji’s cells, of course. Regardless, Ando thought Mai’s question had an odd nuance.
“I gave it a quick peek before sending it off to the lab, yes.”
“How was it?” She was leaning forward now.
“There was a blockage in his left coronary artery, just prior to the left circumflex branch. The blood couldn’t get past it, and Ryuji’s heart stopped. As I think I explained, we took circular sections of the tissue in question and examined them under a microscope. I was surprised by what I found. You see, usually, when there’s a heart attack, what’s happened is that the arteries have hardened: cholesterol or other lipids have built up, narrowing the passageway, until one of these atheromas breaks off, clogging the artery. But in Ryuji’s case, while there was blockage, it wasn’t due to hardening of the arteries. That much was clear.”
“So what was it?” Mai’s question was short and to the point.
Ando’s answer was just as concise. “A sarcoma.”
“A sarcoma?”
“That’s right. We haven’t determined yet if the cells belong to a specific tissue or if it’s an undifferentiated tumor, but at the very least, we’ve never seen it before in the tunica intima or tunica media. Simply put, he developed a strange lump that blocked his blood flow.”
“So these were like cancer cells?”
“It’s probably safe to think of it in those terms. But normally, sarcomas don’t occur inside blood vessels. It’s impossible.”
“But when the test results come back, you’ll know what caused the sarcoma, right?”
Ando shook his head, laughing. “Unless there are other symptoms, we probably won’t. I’m sure I don’t even have to mention AIDS as an example …”
Even in today’s world, in which science, seemingly, is omnipotent, there are still a whole host of illnesses whose causes are unknown. There was no way to tell whether the symptom in question would prove to be part of a larger, identifiable syndrome or not.
Ando continued. “There is one more possibility. Ryuji might have had a congenital defect in his coronary artery.”
A layperson could figure out what that meant. If Ryuji had been born with that lump in his artery, it would have seriously impaired his ability to live an active life.
“But Professor Takayama …”
“I know. He was a track star in high school. His event was the shot-put, I believe.”
“Yes.”
“So it’s hard to imagine it had been there since birth. Which is why I want to ask you if Ryuji ever complained about pains in his chest, that sort of thing.”
Ando’s relationship with Ryuji had basically ended upon graduation. They said “hi” if they passed each other in the hall at the university, but that was about it. Ando certainly wouldn’t have noticed any change in Ryuji’s physical condition.
“We were together for less than two years.”
“That’s fine. Did he ever mention anything to you during that period?”
“He was tougher than other people. I can’t even remember him catching a cold. He wasn’t the type to whine, though, so even if he had a problem he might not have mentioned it. I certainly never noticed anything.”
“Nothing? Nothing at all?”
“Well … that’s just it, you see.”
Ando remembered suddenly that he hadn’t called Mai here to give her a report on the autopsy. She had summoned him, to tell him about something that had happened when she’d been going over Ryuji’s papers the night of the wake.
“Right. Well, let’s hear it.”
“I’m not sure if it has any connection with the professor’s death, though.” Mai was maddeningly cute as she dithered. Ando fixed her with an intense gaze, trying to urge her onward.
“Please tell me.”
“Well, ten nights ago, I slipped out of the wake early. I went to the professor’s apartment to put in order an unpublished article of his. While I was doing that, the phone rang. I didn’t know what to do, but in the end I picked up the receiver. It was ‘Asakawa’, a friend of the professor’s from high school.”
“Do you know this person?”
“We’d met once. We ran into each other at the professor’s apartment four or five days before he died.”
“A man?”
“Of course.”
“Right. And?”
“He didn’t seem to know that the professor had died. So I told him, briefly, about what had happened the night before. Mr Asakawa seemed really shocked. He said he’d be right over.”
“Meaning …”
“To Professor Takayama’s apartment.”
“Did he show up?”
“Yes, much sooner than I’d expected. He came in and glanced all around the apartment as if he were searching for something. And he asked me over and over if I had noticed anything. He looked like a man driven into a corner. He kept asking me if I’d noticed anything strange about the place immediately after the professor’s death. But what really struck me as odd was what he said next.”
She paused and sipped some water.
“So … what did he say?”
“I remember it exactly. He said: ‘He didn’t tell you anything there at the end? No last words? Nothing, say, about a videotape?’”
“A videotape?”
“Yes. Strange, isn’t it?”
What an unexpected, inappropriate 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.