The Daydreamer Detective Returns a Favor Read online

  I sighed and closed my eyes. “Mom, we have money.” I gestured between Yasahiro and me. Everything he had was ours now. And though I struggled with that idea, he wanted me to own it. “Why didn’t you come to us?”

  “Why wouldn’t I go to my son for help?”

  I had no answer except for the petty ones that flew through my head. Why wouldn’t she go to her son for help? Because he had no interest in the farm. Because he was never here. Because he had his own successful career. Because I was the one who came every day and never asked for anything from it. Because I wanted to make this place my home.

  “We’re closing on the deal next week. I’m set to inherit the land and the house, but Mom’s business is worth money, which is why I got a loan to cover expenses for the next five years. Mom will continue to live here, and she’ll be paid a salary.” He cleared his throat. “Yuna and the kids are moving here too. Tomorrow. Yuna will take over your role on the farm, and we’re enrolling the boys in school here.”

  I was so stunned I needed to sit down, but the chair at the kitchen island felt like it was a hundred kilometers away.

  “What about your house in Chiba? And why is just Yuna moving here?”

  “We’re selling the house, and I’m moving to Hong Kong for a year.” When my mouth dropped open, he continued hastily. “For work. I’ve been asked to head up a project there. They have a housing crisis in Hong Kong, and the bank is financing new developments. I’ll leave the same day the papers are finalized.”

  When I didn’t acknowledge him, he continued.

  “So this will work out great. Yuna will be here to supervise the investments and have help with the kids while I’m gone. Really, it worked out perfect for us. We’re very happy.”

  Anger buzzed in my chest like a hive of unhappy hornets. Very happy? Was he kidding me? He didn’t once ask if I was okay with any of this!

  I stepped forward to give Hirata a piece of my mind when Yasahiro grabbed my wrist.

  “Hirata-san, please forgive me for saying this, but did it ever occur to you once to talk to Mei-chan and me about this? We had been talking with Mom for months about renovating the house and all living together here as a family.”

  Hirata paled, and Mom dropped her head.

  My rage transferred from him to her.

  “No. It hadn’t.” He turned to Mom. “Mom, is this true? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Mom licked her lips and glanced at us all. Her face went from wide-eyed and scared to pinched and angry. “Mei-chan spent her entire life telling me she didn’t want to be a farmer.”

  I closed my eyes against the slap of truth.

  “She doesn’t really want this farm. She wants a convenient life.”

  I opened my eyes, and everything was blurry with tears. Mom directed her eyes at me.

  “I’m grateful you’ve been here every day, working to make up for the losses I incurred bailing you out last fall. But nothing can make up for all that’s happened in the last year. Between the barn fire, almost starving over the winter, town rumors about our family, and then that horrible murder case, and now me…”

  She stopped, clearing her throat.

  “What about you?” I asked, aware of the change in her demeanor. Was something wrong with her? I just about hated her at that moment, but she was my mom. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her.

  “Nothing. It doesn’t matter now.” She waved my concern away like it was an annoying gnat. “I do feel bad that I’ve kept this from you. But if I have to choose between you and Yasahiro or Hirata and Yuna, then I choose Hirata. I’m sorry.”

  And that was that. My contributions meant nothing. I wasn’t even given a seat at the negotiating table.

  But I had brought most of this on myself. I’d said in the past how much I hated farming. I’d grown to love the house and the farm over the past year, but with my heart set on the tea shop, I’m not sure I’d ever expressed my love of this place to Mom. I thought I’d been communicating it with my actions. Everything I’d done hadn’t been enough.

  Yasahiro flattened his lips and shrugged his shoulders. There was nothing we could do.

  “We’re renting a storage space in town for the furniture in the back room, my old room. We plan to put the boys in there. But we’re going to need your old room for Yuna and me.”

  It was a punch to the gut, and the baby jerked to avoid it.

  “I understand. I’ll go clean it out now.”

  “Will you stay for dinner?” Mom asked, reaching for her knife. She missed the handle, knocked it, and it crashed to the ground, just missing her foot. “Ai! I’m all out of sorts.”

  I eyed her as she carefully lifted the knife from the floor and cleaned it in the sink. She didn’t look out of sorts to me. She was the same Mom she always was. Why had I thought things had gotten better between us?

  “No. We’ll grab my stuff and head out,” I said, bowing to them both. I was a stranger in my own home. “Right?” I asked Yasahiro, hoping he didn’t want to stay.

  “Yeah. Let’s go, Mei-chan. I’ll help you.”

  Chapter Nine

  “I’m so sorry,” I wailed out between sobs on the ride home. The trunk contained two bags worth of the last of my belongings from my mother’s house, and I had cried through every second of packing them away. “I had no idea. Really, I didn’t.”

  Yasahiro glanced over at me at a red light and handed me his handkerchief. “Try to calm down, Mei-chan. I am one-hundred percent positive this is not your fault.”

  I mopped up my face and blew my nose. I was a mess. My life was a mess. Nothing would repair this except going back in time and making different decisions.

  “Remember two months ago, after we returned from Paris, you offered to sit down and go over the finances with your mom?”

  “Yes?”

  “And what happened?”

  “She…” I sucked in a shaky breath around my quivering bottom lip. “She said she hired someone from Tokyo to take care of it.”

  “Then she went on vacation with Chiyo.” He nodded his head. “Classic evasion. I suspected things weren’t right back then, but it wasn’t my place to push her.”

  “That’s when you started calling contractors!” I examined my new husband as he pulled up to our parking spot outside of the apartment. Had he seen this from the beginning? “You knew something was wrong? Why didn’t you say anything to me?”

  He laughed. “I did, though I attributed it to her reticence over us all moving in together.”

  Right. He had said that.

  “I never expected that.” He waved back in the general direction of the house, indicating the brotherly overthrow that just happened. “Especially since your brother took no interest in the farm before now.” He sighed, and the sound was so deep, he must have brought it up from his toes.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Stop apologizing, Mei-chan. There’s nothing to be done.”

  “I feel like it’s all my fault.” I hung my head. “I never told Mom how much the farm means to me now. I should’ve said something.”

  Yasahiro kept the car and the air conditioning running.

  “Look. You’d have to be deaf, dumb, and blind to not know how much that farm means to you. You may not have said it in words, but you said it in actions. You practically starved yourself to save your mom’s reputation. We held our wedding there. You went there every day to help your mom. Without pay. No one does that without love.”

  “Then why did she do this?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “Sounds like these plans have been in motion for almost six months. She probably started going to your brother for money in the winter before she got the insurance check. We were only still dating then. Just think of how much has happened this year.”

  All at once, gratitude washed over me for this man. Yasahiro was full of good sense and practicality. When I let emotions carry me away, like Mt. Fuji on a stormy day, he was the first person to keep me grounde
d.

  “She lied to me. Several times,” I whispered, and he reached over to squeeze my hand.

  “Pride does stupid things to people. Trust me. I’ve seen things my own parents have done that boggle the mind. That generation is caught up in the old ways. Mei-chan,” he stressed, pulling my hand to keep my attention, “she still loves you. She cares. I know she does. Maybe it is time for your brother to take over. We could’ve done the job, and done it well, but he’s first in line.” His lips twisted into an evil grin. “Let’s see what a banker can do with a farm.”

  I tried not to laugh as I imagined my brother as he was in his teens, sully and unhappy in the fields with Mom. If I talked about hating farming while growing up, he was just as bad. I always thought that was why he went into finance and moved two hours away.

  “What about us?” I asked. “We have a baby on the way, and now all of our plans have fallen through.” Tears trickled down my face, and he brushed them away with his thumb.

  “Whatever. We still have our money and investments. There’s loads of open land in this town. We’ll find our spot and build a house. And if you need help, more than what I can provide, I’ll hire someone.” He shrugged his shoulders again. “Try not to worry too much about it. We’ll figure it out. We have time.”

  He leaned over and kissed my salty lips and my forehead. Knowing we would conquer this together made all the difference.

  My bad luck had reared its head again, but I was lucky in love, that was for sure.

  But two things from our conversation struck me as Yasahiro turned off the car and popped the trunk.

  First, there may be trouble on the horizon when Hirata was done with his year in Hong Kong. From Hong Kong, he could just funnel money home and have Yuna take care of things. But if she didn’t like her new life, Hirata would never hear the end of it when he returned. Also, when he returned, he would be expected to help on the farm. It’s possible the whole situation would fall apart in a year’s time.

  Second, Mom’s words, “She wants a convenient life,” struck me hard in the chest. This was certainly true of my life before I moved home last year. I’d been immature and whiny, and I put Mom through tough times after everything that happened with Tama trying to kill me and then Amanda’s death. But I thought I had changed.

  Hadn’t I?

  Worry bounced around my chest, a lost bird trying to find its nest.

  Had I been ungrateful? Unsupportive?

  Had I disgraced or dishonored Mom in some way?

  I checked the mirror and watched Yasahiro lifting the bags of my belongings from the trunk. He was oblivious to the anxiety welling up in me like a newly-discovered hot spring.

  Whatever I had done wrong, I would fix it.

  Somehow.

  Chapter Ten

  “Why are you so quiet?” Murata asked as we drove up to the Fukuda house. Yasahiro gave me the use of the car today since neither of us had to go to the house to help on the farm. Those days were over, at least for the short term, and now I was able to use the car to commute instead of the bus.

  Today, Murata was along so she could make introductions to the next door neighbor before I got on with the continued business of cleaning out the house. Though I longed to take a day off, curl up at home, and be babied by Yasahiro, I had to keep my promise to Akai. Mom thought I wanted a convenient life? Well, I would prove to her my life was anything but.

  “No reason. I was just thinking about real estate, actually. Yasa-kun and I are considering buying some land in town. Maybe a little farm with a spot to put a new house. I was looking at those new Panasonic homes. They’re pretty advanced now. Earthquake and fire proof —”

  “I thought you said you were going to move in with your mom?” Murata narrowed her eyes at me as I parked the car.

  I paused as I considered how many people I told this to. Goro, Kumi... I probably mentioned it to most of my clients and a few others too. Ugh. Great job, Mei. Way to put the cart before the horse.

  “That option is no longer on the table,” I muttered. “It turns out someone else snagged that opportunity before I could.”

  “Hmph,” she huffed while grasping her door handle. “I always thought your mom was a little on the hasty side. Bet she regrets that decision.”

  Murata shut her door, and I had to jolt myself into action. I wondered how many other people felt the same way.

  I hurried from the car to escort her next door. We crossed the pavement between the two houses, past the dead plants in containers that had belonged to Fukuda to the lush greenery of the next door neighbor, his house and front yard impeccably kept. We rang the bell and waited as the sound of the TV inside muted and footsteps approached.

  “Why, Murata-san! What a surprise!” An older graying man stood in the doorway, his face joyous with a big smile. Thank goodness, too, because I had been worried about catching this man off guard without calling ahead of time.

  “Takashi-san, it’s good to see you. I hope you’re well.” Murata bowed to him, and he stepped off the front door threshold to usher us inside before we could even finish greetings.

  “I’m good. Healthy. Can’t complain.”

  “Takashi-san, this is my good friend, Mei Yamagawa.”

  “Actually, it’s Suga now, though I’m still not accustomed to it.” I laughed because I often introduced myself to other people using my old, unmarried name. I wasn’t used to being Mei Suga yet. It seemed like such a short name.

  Takashi blinked at me, his head turned to the side. “Where have I met you before?”

  “You haven’t, I don’t think. But I’ve been helping to clean out the Fukuda house next door, so you’ve probably seen me around the last few days.”

  Murata and I both waited as he digested this information, but it didn’t appear to vex him in any kind of way.

  “That’s it!” He snapped his fingers. “I have seen you around here.”

  “And when Mei-chan told me she was here every day, I insisted she bring me around to visit you.” Murata was excellent at bridging gaps in conversations, and if Takashi felt manipulated, he didn’t show it.

  “Come in, come in! I was just about to make tea, and I have taiyaki from my son’s shop in town. You must try some.”

  Mmmm, taiyaki. My mouth watered as I thought of the sweet treat, and my stomach gurgled right on cue. I could definitely eat one of those this morning.

  Inside, the house was cool and relaxing. I looked around, impressed with the modernity of the place and how clean and clutter free the open space was — a marked contrast to the house I had been in all week.

  “You have a beautiful home, Kato-san,” I said, leaving my shoes at the front door and following them both into a bright living room.

  “Thank you. Just built it two years ago. I’d been thinking of selling, since the town had gone through hard times, but my son convinced me to stay instead. We tore down the old house and constructed this smaller, more efficient one in its place.”

  I helped Murata to sit at the low dining table, close to the air conditioning unit on the wall.

  “Is it a model house?”

  “It is. This is a Tama Home,” he said from the open kitchen. Steam wafted up from a teapot as he poured in hot water from an electric kettle. “I had a hard time choosing which company to go with, but I’m happy with the outcome.”

  I made a mental note of his choice. Now that Yasahiro and I would no longer renovate the family farm home, I could choose land without a house, or with a run-down house that could be knocked down, and have a new model home constructed. Though the awful feeling of dread and betrayal hadn’t abated since yesterday, this new idea lifted my spirits.

  Takashi came to the table and set out tea with a plate of the taiyaki sweets. Taiyaki, sweet, pancake-like breads, shaped like a fish and stuffed with sweet bean paste, were one of my favorite treats. My mouth watered, but I waited for Murata and Takashi to grab theirs first.

  “You said your son makes these now? How
is Itsuki-san?” Murata asked, biting into her cake. I took that as a sign I could eat mine. The cake melted in my mouth, and the bean paste was just the right level of sweetness. I tried to keep my composure, but these were super delicious. I hummed and sighed, much to Takashi’s delight.

  “He’s good, thank you for asking. He and his wife run the taiyaki shop over near the station now. Their son is five already.”

  “How wonderful! You must be so proud.”

  “I am, thank you.”

  “And how is business for you?”

  “Business is good. I can’t complain.”

  Murata turned to me. “Takashi-san inherited his father’s chiropractor and sports therapy business.” She took another bite. “I knew you’d be home this morning. Always took Fridays off,” she said, winking at him.

  He laughed. “That’s right. Just like Dad.”

  Ah, their connection made sense. Murata had most likely been a patient of Takashi’s father back in her younger days. Takashi was maybe around the same age as my mother. I would ask Murata more about him later.

  We all ate the taiyaki while Murata and Takashi caught up on town gossip, and I did my best not to be impatient or rush them through the pleasantries. But I watched the clock tick over to close to ten, and I knew we had to hurry this visit along if I would get anything done that day.

  I cleared my throat before sipping tea.

  “Oh! So, speaking of people moving around in town, Mei-chan here is cleaning out Fukuda-san’s house next door.”

  Takashi nodded as he finished his cup of tea. “I haven’t been here much during the days this week, but I’ve seen the boxes leaving in the evenings. You must be quite tired. I only ever went into that house once since Ria-chan disappeared, and I never wanted to go back in again. Too much stuff.”

  “Indeed it was. Now we have the chaos mostly under control.”

  “That’s good to hear. Do you know if the new owner will sell the place?”

  I finished my tea. “Yes. Akai-san plans to sell the place as soon as we have it all cleared out.”