Chapter 11: 11

Chapter 11: The woman with the white parasol

I really hate coming here… Shimizu look at the sky above the mansion.

As usual, it wasn’t cloudy but the mansion surrounding looked dark and gloomy. It was a sunny day but it seemed like there was no sunlight for this area. Shimizu walked through the front yard with a wabi-sabi[1] aesthetic design.

The stepping stones were damp like it was sprinkled with waters. He walked on the stone path and stood in front of the north-facing entrance. He saw a woman holding white parasol next to the pond over the veranda on the east side of the mansion. The woman saw him and gave slight bow so he nodded back at her.

Is this chime still work? He looked at the old-fashioned dull white doorbell. When he pushed it, he heard the weird guu sound. After a while, a woman opened the door. He greeted the woman and introduced himself before entering the mansion.

The woman who opened the door was called Ito Nobuko, one of the housekeepers of this mansion. Like Nobuko, there were a few more local women who helped doing household chores and lived in this mansion. These women remained single for various reasons. It seemed that they stayed here because they wanted to live with everyone rather than to earn money.

The hallway inside the mansion was dark during daytime. Shimizu was walking down the hallway when suddenly someone called him. “Oh. Shimizu, you’re here?”

Hearing the voice, Shimizu felt miserable because he didn’t really like meeting with this person.

The man walked down the wide hallway with a newspaper under his arm. He waved his hand to Shimizu and laughed. Although he seemed like a frivolous person, he had a good-looking face just like most of the members in Sudo family.

Shimizu looked at the man who was a gambling addict and asked, “You’re still here?”

“Of course. It’s not like I have any place else to go,” Toru replied to him. Although he had very defined facial features, he was a pretty good man. However, his disorderly life could be seen on his face.

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“I see…” Shimizu replied before he turned to leave.

Toru immediately put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. “I know you’d come back here. Don’t you still have an unsolved case here?”

Shimizu looked at the hallway and replied, “… Yeah, I know.”

Toru: “By the way, can you bring horse racing betting tickets next time you come? You can ask Ayano for the money- Hey, wait!”

Shimizu walked away without waiting for him to finish his words. He knew Toru was a nice man but his gambling addiction was something that could not be cured for eternity.

When Shimizu arrived at the corridor connecting to the south annex, Tanimoto rushed towards him.

“Ah, Shimizu-san! I was scared here alone,” Tanimoto said with a face that looked like a young soccer player. He turned around and asked, “Who is that person just now? I haven’t interview them[2] yet.”

Shimizu turned around and saw Nobuko looking busy walking around while Toru crossed the hallway while humming. He angrily replied, “Why are you still not finish with the interviews? These people are always walking around the mansion, you must have bumped into them many times before.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll go right away,” Tanimoto said before walking away in a hurry.

[1] wabi-sabi: Traditional Japanese aesthetic, something about the beauty of simplicity. Wiki. 

[2] Subject and indirect object are usually omitted in Japanese sentences, especially dialogues. I’m not sure who he was referring to. 

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