Chapter 17: Narimoto Shows His Hand

The invitation arrived on a Wednesday, which was the sort of detail Hana would not have noticed before this summer but noticed now, because she had started cataloguing everything.

It came as a phone call to her home at seven in the evening, while she was standing at the stove reheating rice she would not eat much of. She heard the phone ring and let it ring twice, which was what she did now before answering anything, giving herself two seconds to arrange her face into someone who was not always braced for bad news. She picked up on the third ring.

"Tsurumi-san." Narimoto's voice was warm and professionally unhurried, the voice of a man with abundant time. "I hope I am not disturbing your evening."