‘That must be it,’ Minako agreed, encouraging him, but the look of surprise was still there.
Mikami felt sure that Amamiya had been moved by his reaction. He thought the tears had probably fallen because he’d seen Ayumi in the photographs; he was certain of it. Amamiya had lost his daughter; he would have sensed something was wrong in the way Mikami had acted.
Still . . .
Was it that he’d seen Ayumi? Mikami had asked the question several times during his drive back home, but he hadn’t been able to find a satisfactory answer.
‘I need to make a short call for work,’ he called to Minako, who had just started on the dishes. He picked up the phone and headed into the bedroom.
Amamiya’s feelings on the matter aside, the hurdle of the commissioner’s visit had been cleared. As of tomorrow, Mikami could go back to working on the press – he would be involved in tough negotiations right up to the visit itself.
He would return to his post.
Mikami switched on the heater and settled heavily on to the floor, crossing his legs. He checked the alarm clock. Exactly half past seven. Ishii was probably still fuming, having not called back since. He would be lying if he said the next day’s round-table meeting didn’t weigh on his thoughts, but the first call he made was to Suwa at home.
Suwa’s home line was busy.
Feeling slightly out of the loop, Mikami lay back on the floor and stretched, the phone still in his hand. He pictured Suwa, busy canvassing the various reporters. Suwa understood his ‘post’ perfectly. He would complain, but it was clear he loved what he did.
Getting restless, Mikami sat back up and pressed redial. This time the phone rang at the other end. Suwa’s wife picked up and told him her husband was out on a job. Mikami decided to call Suwa’s mobile directly. As he listened to the ringtone, he could feel a growing anticipation.
‘Suwa speaking.’
The background blare of karaoke accompanied his voice.
‘It’s Mikami. Where are you?’
‘Sir. I’m in Amigos, with a few of the reporters.’
Manning his post, of course. Even at the weekend. Anonymous reporting. The written protest. The boycott. Mikami felt each of the issues come back into focus.
‘Is Kuramae there with you?’
‘Yes, he’s here, too.’ It sounded as though Suwa had already had a fair amount to drink.
‘Who’s there from the press?’
‘Just give me a moment.’ Suwa seemed to be making his way out of the bar. The karaoke in the background was replaced with the sound of cars going by. ‘Sorry. I forgot to ask, how did it go with Amamiya?’
‘Yeah, good. He gave us permission to go ahead.’
‘Wow, that’s great! Fantastic.’
‘How about things on your side?’
‘Ah, right, well, I’d put out a call for everyone to come out and celebrate the owner’s birthday, although it’s actually next month – sorry, beside the point – anyway, the way it’s ended up it’s more of a “strengthen our defences” thing.’
Strengthen our defences? He meant the only people who had shown up were the moderates, the ones still sitting on the fence.
‘Who have you got?’
‘Let’s see. There’s the Kyodo News, the Jiji Press, NHK, Tokyo. As far as the local press goes, I’ve got the D Daily, the Zenken Times, D Television and the FM Kenmin.’
‘So no one from the Asahi, the Mainichi or the Yomiuri . . .?’
‘Sorry to say it, but yeah, that’s right.’
‘What about the Sankei and the Toyo . . .?’
‘The Sankei turned me down flat. Said they couldn’t come out drinking until the whole thing was behind us. As for the Toyo . . . well, Akikawa did look like he intended to come. He definitely sounded interested when I told him Mikumo would be here.’
Mikami almost shouted. Only barely managing to restrain himself, he asked the question in a whisper.
‘Is Mikumo there with you now?’
‘Yes, but of her own accord. I only brought her along because she insisted,’ he said defiantly.
‘We’ll talk about that afterwards. What else do you have to report first?’
‘Right – so, Akikawa made it sound like he’d be coming, but he hasn’t shown up. I just tried his office again but they said he was out covering a story. I get the feeling he’s going to run something in the morning edition. I wonder if it’s related to the bid-rigging charges?’
It was a regular occurrence for one of the papers to release a story the morning after the others had been out drinking.
‘What’s the atmosphere like?’
‘Hmm? How do you mean?’
‘Does it seem like the boycott’s going ahead? What are the fence-sitters telling you?’
‘Ah, right. Well . . . that’s the . . . problem.’ Suwa’s skill in forming whole sentences seemed to be suffering, along with his ability to think logically. ‘Basically, they all think the boycott is going too far. The commissioner’s Six Four inspection is big news, so of course they want to cover it. It seems the original idea – in their last GM – was to boycott the entire visit, but now they’re saying the boycott only applies to the interview outside Amamiya’s house.’
‘So they want the best of both worlds . . .’
‘Yes. What it boils down to is that they’re planning to boycott the walking interview as a kind of sanction, even as they sneak out coverage of the rest of the visit. I think it’s just posturing. That interview is clearly the highlight of the inspection – they all want to be there, they all want full coverage. I’m certain they’re all agreed on that. It’s just . . .’ His voice tapered off. ‘They’re just unwilling to cooperate unless something changes.’
‘What would it take to bring them around?’
‘Well . . .’ Suwa hesitated.
Mikami guessed the mood in Amigos was riding against him.
‘It’s fine – just say it.’
‘First, they want you to make an official apology. Verbally and in writing . . . Then – and they don’t mind if this is unofficial – they want a verbal apology from Captain Tsujiuchi or Director Akama. I think if we can meet those demands . . . There’s also—’
‘There’s more?’
‘Someone is apparently pushing for your replacement rather than an apology. I don’t know who it is, but it’s someone aligned with the hard-liners. My guess is that it’s the Toyo.’ He gave his conclusion without hesitation, despite his earlier wavering.
‘Someone’s after my head?’
‘Just a small fraction among the hard-liners.’
‘And what do you think?’ Mikami wanted Suwa’s honest opinion of things.