He chuckled and wouldn’t say. After buzzing, he led her up to a small flat where an old woman met them. Koji gave her a bag of clams, which made her beam and pat his arm. Wondering if she was Koji’s girlfriend, June looked around for clues. The woman made them stay so she could fix them noodles with the clams. She gave Koji a tall can of beer, and then another when he’d finished. She hovered to wait on him, smiling coquettishly, while June felt like she was about to perish from fatigue.

To top the day off, when they got home he shoved the bags of clams at her and said, ‘Do something with these, girl.’

‘Do what?’ she protested.

‘Don’t you know anything? What did your parents teach you? Nothing.’ He banged around through his tirade. ‘Have you even told them you’re here? No.’ The beer seemed to have loosened his tongue. ‘You have no respect. Just like your father. Where was he when his mother died? Not here, I can tell you that. Poor Mrs Kuriyama had to ring the police. She was the one who noticed when Sister stopped going to bathe.’

He was really angry now. This time she understood his anger, which was mixed up with his grief. Dumping the clams out in the sink, he rounded on her. ‘No respect, no duty. And what about your sister? Where is she while you’re having fun, larking about with your so-called friends?’

But June could do anger too. ‘I’ll go back for her!’

‘And do what? Bring her here? Your parents won’t let you.’

She stared at him. So he knew about the Family. He clearly knew a lot more than he’d been letting on.

‘Your father’s covered for you so far, keeping your little secret. Watch how long that lasts if you bring Naomi here.’

June froze, her mind reeling. Her father knew where she was?

‘What did you think, that he wouldn’t guess? It wasn’t me who told him,’ Koji continued. ‘You know that this house has gone to him? Sister left it to him. Beats me why! Hah-hah. The way he ran off with your mother, that terrible fox-faced woman.’ He peered at her in the dim. ‘And you’re no different,’ he added, then all but spat the accusation: ‘Kitsune.’

‘You’re just a crazy old man!’

‘I know,’ he said. ‘I know. Don’t worry about that.’

He turned abruptly to the sink and started running the tap over the clams. Of course he’d leave again in the morning, she had no doubt of that. Go off again, who knew where – roaming over Kyushu, going from place to place as if the war had never ended. Yet there was something in his manner, a touch of sheepishness, she thought, and perhaps he already regretted what he’d said.