Shoji thought for a moment. ‘But if you could track Yoko down, wouldn’t it have been easy for you to find me? I wasn’t exactly hiding.’

‘That’s true, but …’ Mizuki appeared to be hesitating. ‘According to the report I received, it seemed like you were trying to rebuild your life with a new girlfriend, and I didn’t want to interfere.’

‘I see.’ The detective must have seen him with Liyun and mistaken the nature of their relationship. Anyway, that was irrelevant now. Pointing out otherwise would only make Mizuki felt bad.

Shoji turned his attention back to the printouts. Behind the photographs, there was a photocopy of Yoko’s passport. She had short, cropped hair and gave off a slightly different vibe to what he remembered, but the woman in the photograph was unmistakably her.

‘Yoko Sasaki,’ he mumbled her name. But something wasn’t right.

‘We don’t know if she went overseas, but we can’t discount the possibility,’ Mizuki said.

Shoji continued to stare at Yoko’s passport. Should he tell Mizuki? No, he would only confuse her further. ‘Is there anything else I need to know?’

She shook her head. ‘That’s about it.’

He closed the folder. There were so many questions in his mind.

‘Are you okay?’

Shoji nodded. ‘Yeah,’ he said, trying to dissipate the tension that had been building between them. ‘I’m glad you trusted me with your real name. Mizuki is your real name, isn’t it?’

‘It is. I didn’t expect you to suggest it.’ Mizuki gave him a feeble smile. ‘I guess I can’t run away from who I am, no matter how much I detest it.’

‘Why don’t you like your name?’

Instead of answering, Mizuki went quiet. She looked into the distance.

‘I used to have a twin sister,’ she eventually said. ‘Her name was Umi. She was named after the character for sea, and I was named after the character for water. Our mother chose them because she loves swimming. My sister was one minute younger than me.’

Why was she talking about her sister? But Shoji decided to play along. ‘Where is she now?’

‘She’s dead, drowned in a pool,’ Mizuki said. ‘And I was the one who killed her.’

27 The Water and the Sea

CHAPTER 27

THE WATER AND THE SEA

Mizuki and Umi had been inseparable since they were small. Their parents were busy running the family businesses, so they spent all their time in each other’s company.

‘Even after we entered high school, we were close,’ Mizuki said. ‘Our boyfriends were good friends. The four of us always hung out after school.’

Shoji reached for his coffee and took his first sip.