Still, it did sound a little like he was more worried about Maki than me, so as he was taking off his shoes in the doorway I kicked him—my patented Aiko whip kick, a roundhouse to the upper body that I learned from my brother. My bare foot struck his arm—chiban!—and he bent double, letting out a little yelp. Humpf. Drop dead. No, on second thought that might cause trouble.
“Thug,” he muttered.
“You deserved it.”
“Dear God, please grant me the patience to teach the ways of peace and nonviolence to this foolish, violent girl.”
“Say your prayers, you lousy monk. Didn’t you hear? God is dead.”
“Where’d you learn to kick like that?”
“My brother taught me.”
“Figures. Anyway, are your mom and dad around?”
“No…”
“Then let’s go!”
“Okay, but why not come in for a minute?”
“No, I think we should go out.”
“Okay, but what about Kita and Shiba and the others?”
“Gone.”
So…he didn’t want to come in because he was alone. Didn’t want to be alone with me—when it would have been such a perfect chance. Perfect for me, anyway.
“Uhhh,” I murmured.
“What?”
What? “There’s something I need to get first. Come in for just a second.”
“I’ll just wait here,” he said.
“But it may take a minute, even longer.”
“No problem. Take your time.”
“But we’ve got these great cookies you can eat while you wait.”
“No thanks. Don’t bother.”
Ooooh, what a dummy. “Okay, hold on a minute,” I said, and ran up the stairs to pretend to get something I had pretended to need. I stood at the top of the stairs, conscious of him waiting below at the door. He’s here! In my house! What to do? What to do? This might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I had to get him up the stairs and, if possible, into my room. But how? I’d bought some time with the bit about needing to come up to get something. But how was I going to get him up here? And how was I going to get him to fall into my bed? I went into my room, plans spinning in my head, and closed the door behind me. Then I started picking up all the stuff I had flung everywhere. All those magazines, empty cans, half-empty bottles, shirts and sweatpants I’d stripped off and thrown on the bed—but holy crap! It would take forever to pick it all up. No good. I couldn’t bring Yoji in here. Looks like today was a no-go. Maybe a love hotel?
I should have six thousand yen or so in my wallet—just about enough for a love hotel with the daytime discount. It would probably seem weird for the girl to pay for the room, but I was willing to do anything for Yoji.
Okay. I climbed out of my jeans and changed into some really pretty Triumph panties I’d just bought. And the matching bra. Quick check of the pits and pubs, adjust the eyebrows, comb through my hair, then back into the jeans and a shirt. Perfect. But…why was I so totally nervous? I guess because the idea of doing it with Yoji was suddenly getting real. I could tell I was already a little wet down there.
Wait a minute! Don’t get ahead of yourself. Calm down, Aiko. Nothing was decided yet. Too soon for those love juices.
But try telling that to the juices. Did I need to change panties again?
No point really. And these were the cutest anyway.
I stuffed my wallet, cell phone, a mirror, and a hankie into my purse and slung it over my shoulder. Then I left my room and went back downstairs. No sign of Yoji. I put on my shoes and went outside. There he was—standing on the other side of the street by a telephone pole—not even looking this way.
I locked the door behind me and crossed the street to where he was standing. But in the few seconds it took me to get there, my heart started pounding and fluttering and bending all out of shape and just about jumping out of my chest. Scary stuff.
“Sorry I took so long,” I managed to say.
“No worries. Is there a park somewhere around here?”
“Not exactly, but there’s this little playground just down the street.”
“Why don’t we go there?”
We set off together, shoulder to shoulder. I couldn’t believe I was walking along through my neighborhood with Yoji. It was like a dream. I could barely talk.
“What were you doing?” he asked suddenly.
What was I doing? I was changing my panties. “What was I doing when?” I said.
“Just now,” he said. “You said you needed to get something?”
“I did? Uh, I’ve been thinking about a lot of stuff today, and I guess I’m a little dazed.”
“Are you okay?” he asked. “You shouldn’t let yourself get so worked up about everything.”
“Everything?” I was only worked up about one thing.
“You know, Sano and Maki and everything.”
Was he kidding? “I’m not worried about any of that.” I really wasn’t. Yoji was the only thing on my mind.
“Okay, forget it.”
“Well, I suppose I was thinking about Sano being kidnapped.”
“Who wouldn’t be?”
“So,” I said, “what do you think happened?”
“What do I think? I think somebody grabbed him and took him someplace. I’ve been trying to figure it out myself. Who’d have the motive?”
Motive? The only reason you kidnap somebody is for money. And there were lots of people who wanted money. In fact, just about all of us did—including me. Not an hour ago I’d been thinking I would cut off my own toe if the price were good enough.
I started to tell Yoji about my idea. How Sano had probably faked the whole thing himself. Yoji walked along beside me, listening but not saying anything. I was just explaining how he could have managed it when we got to the playground.
“Makes sense, doesn’t it?” Yoji looked a little skeptical.
“Maybe,” he said. “But a few things in your theory don’t quite add up.”
Huh? “Like what?”
“Well, for one thing, they said the toe
