“What do you think the solution is for Riku?”
“The solution?”
“Is there a psychologist he could see?”
She shook her head. “I wouldn’t know who to trust with him. Anyway, there aren’t many psychologists he could see around here.”
Sedge suspected that if they were in a larger city like Tokyo or Osaka, it would be different. But he’d often heard that the need outstripped demand. “I realize he’s only sixteen, but he can’t live with you forever. It was me he went after last week, but who’s to say he won’t attack you one day, too? If he does to you what he tried to do to me, he’ll kill you.”
“But he hasn’t hurt me before. I don’t think he’d ever lift a finger against me.”
“That’s a dangerous attitude to have—possibly a fatal one if he doesn’t learn to control himself. Frankly, I’m not sure he can.”
“He’s not used to you. You have to give him a chance to trust you. You may not believe it, but he’s much calmer now than when Kōichi was around.”
“He threatened to kill me. Did you believe him when he said that?”
“Until you came to live with us, he made the same threats to other people.”
“I knew about the fights,” Sedge said, “but not the threats to kill anyone.”
“Don’t you think he does it out of fear?”
“Of course. Which is why he has to learn to control his feelings. Who else has he threatened to kill?”
She began to name them: the students and teachers who bullied him; local craftsmen who he thought unfairly disciplined him; the men in town he caught flirting with her; anyone who, either as a joke or to show their dominance, tried to humiliate him somehow. His father. And now Sedge.
“It’s true he’s hurt people,” she said. “But he knows when to pull back. And I’m sure he won’t be like that forever.”
“But if he is, he’ll ruin your life and the life of whoever tries to get close to you. How are you supposed to have a life if he’s circling around it all the time?”
“He’s my stepson! I have a mother’s responsibility to him. What kind of life do you think he has knowing his father left him and his mother refuses to see him? I’m all he has. And you . . .”
He didn’t ask her to finish what she started to say.
“I don’t know,” he said. “But I worry you’ll find out at the expense of your life.”
They were silent until they approached the turnoff that would bring them back to Yamanaka Onsen.
21
Riku fell back in the rear seat of Mariko’s car and spoke slowly, his fingers drumming each word on the suitcase beside him. “Father. Is. In. Prison.”
Mariko nearly lost control of the car as she pulled out of Kaga Onsen Station, where she and Sedge had picked up Riku. She turned to him in the back seat. “How do you know that?”
“The police called Grandma and Grandpa and told them.”
“But why? What did he do?”
“I’m sure the police will contact you soon. They said they came to the house already but saw you were away.”
“If you know, tell me, Riku. This isn’t a game.”
“I know it’s not a game.” He yanked his backpack off his lap and it ricocheted off the door. Sedge looked back at him with a warning in his eyes, but the boy only glared at him.
“Was it a fight?” Sedge said.
“A kind of fight. But I guess it got out of control.”
“Please tell me he didn’t kill anyone,” Mariko said, swerving slightly again even though there were no other cars in the road.
“Do you go to prison for that?” The exaggerated confusion in Riku’s voice showed he was still having fun with this.
Sedge leaned toward Mariko and whispered, “Just ignore him.”
“He killed an old man,” Riku said, his voice sounding almost triumphant.
This time it was Sedge who spun around to face him.
He made Mariko pull to the side of the road and flip on her hazards. They both turned toward Riku and he went on without them asking him to.
“Father says he didn’t do it. The story the police told was that he wouldn’t admit to killing the man because he couldn’t remember doing it. He was drunk when they brought him in, his clothes all splattered with blood. I’m surprised the police didn’t call you.”
“My god, what am I going to do?” she said.
“Who was the man?” Sedge asked.
“A bar owner somewhere. In Nagoya, I think.”
