Her father led her out of the room. In the corridor, some of the girls had retreated into their rooms, though most of the doors were open at least a fraction. Police and EMTs crowded the third floor, along with teachers and several school administrators. Ume had closed her door.
Kara followed her father to the landing, but voices from the common room off to her left drew her attention and she looked over to see Sakura seated in a wooden chair, being questioned by two policemen. The girl wore torn pajama pants and a T-shirt upon which she had painted some kind of calligraphic message. One of the cops stood, arms folded, glaring down at her and the other sat in a chair opposite Sakura, sleeves rolled up, leaning forward and speaking to her quietly. To Kara, they looked absurdly cliché, the living embodiment of every movie’s good-cop/bad-cop routine. But if she’d been sitting in that chair, she suspected she’d have fallen for it completely. Under the intense gaze of the cross-armed detective, the kind tones of the other would have been welcome.
Sakura seemed unfazed. She sat rigidly, back straight, chin up, studiously ignoring them both. As Kara paused to stare into the room, Sakura spoke quietly, a perfunctory reply to one of the questions that Kara couldn’t hear.
“Kara, come on,” her father said, in curt Japanese.
Hearing this, the detectives both turned toward them. The intimidating one scowled, strode over, and shut the door with a bang.
“Kara,” her father said, taking her by the arm.
“Dad, they don’t really think Sakura could have killed Chouku, do they?”
“I couldn’t begin to tell you what they think. I just know I need to get my daughter out of here and home safe.”
His tone made her look up at his face. He brushed the hair away from Kara’s eyes and cupped her cheek in his hand. She wanted to ask him what he meant by “home” but knew that was a conversation for later.
“All right. Let’s go.”
They started toward the top of the steps, only to be halted by Miss Aritomo, who came down the corridor after them. Kara assumed she’d been in Chouku’s room talking to the police.
The dynamic chemistry between her father and the art teacher crackled in the air, an unmistakable energy. As Miss Aritomo closed the distance between them, both of them wearing looks of profound concern, Kara had the impression they were about to embrace. But then Miss Aritomo brought herself up short.
“Harper-sensei, Yamato-san would like to speak with you for a moment before you leave,” she said.
Kara felt her father hesitate; he glanced at her.
“Go ahead,” she said.
“Are you sure? I really just want you to get home.”
“I could go—”
“No. I want you with me,” he interrupted. “Would you mind waiting just a few minutes? I promise I’ll be right back.”
“It’s fine,” Kara said. “But I don’t want to stand around here. Can I wait out front?”
Her father frowned, weighing the request. But with so many cops and teachers going in and out of the building, there wasn’t much chance of anything happening to her.
“Stay by the stairs,” he said, then threaded back down the jammed corridor with Miss Aritomo.
The second floor buzzed with chattering students, some of whom were visibly upset, even weeping, but others who seemed only morbidly curious. A trio of boys stood on the steps, daring one another to go up. Kara passed them without meeting their eyes and hurried down to the lobby, longing for the sun’s warmth and a breath of fresh air.
As she strode across the foyer, someone called her name and she turned to see Hachiro coming down the steps after her.
Kara waited for him. “Hi.”
The sadness in his eyes broke her heart. He had known Chouku well, and his face showed all of his pain. Jiro had been his best friend, and now this. Today the sweetness that usually lit up his face had been replaced by a grim expression that made him seem far older.
“Hello, bonsai,” he said, trying to keep a light tone between them.
Kara reached for his hand. “I told my father I would wait outside. And I feel so cold, I need the sun. Would you walk with me?”
Hachiro nodded, clutching her hand, and accompanied her, holding the door for her. When they stepped into the sun, Kara felt some of the tightness in her shoulders relax and the ice in her gut began to thaw.
Side by side, they looked out across the green field that separated the dorm from the school. Though the air was very chilly, the vivid blue sky spoke of another perfect spring day.
“I can’t believe it,” Hachiro said.
Kara looked at him, squeezing his hand. “It’s true. I . . . I saw her.”
Without warning, her hands began to tremble. She took a long, quavering breath and tried to say more, but no words would come. Hachiro looked at her, his eyes very old suddenly, and instead of asking the questions that he must have had, he took her into his arms and held her while she shook.
“Something awful is here,” Kara whispered against his broad, strong chest. “Something evil. I know that sounds crazy—”
“No,” Hachiro said flatly. “It doesn’t. Not at all. I think you may be right.”
On a huge wicker chair in the corner of her father’s bedroom, Kara curled up and delved into the pages of
Sense and Sensibility
, desperate to lose herself. The era conjured by Jane Austen’s writing had always been the most effective retreat from thoughts she wanted to avoid and emotions she hoped would go away. The words lulled her, wrapped her in cleverness and longing and the concerns of another age.
Her father had been back to the school twice that day and on the phone half a dozen times in between. Even now he was in his office with the door closed, and though she could hear the occasional muted tones from the other room, she could not make out any specifics.
When he came out of the office and down the hall, pausing to regard her from the open doorway to his bedroom, Kara kept reading to the end of the paragraph before she looked up. The real world—and the surreal world that had begun to intrude upon it—was not welcome. She tried to communicate that to him silently, to let him know that for just a while she wanted to pretend that nothing was wrong. But he was too preoccupied with the panic at school to notice her wordless pleading.
“The board of directors has closed the school until further notice,” he said.
Kara held her page with a finger. “Good. I don’t know if . . . I mean, hopefully they’ll catch whoever did it. But it’s all just too much now. They can’t expect the students to be able to focus.”
“I’d like to think that was part of the decision,” her father said, “but I’m sure it was mostly pressure from the parents. The day students won’t be coming in tomorrow, and a lot of the boarding students are going home, at least for now. Some parents have apparently already begun to take their children out of here.”
“Already?” Kara said, glancing quickly at her clock. An hour or so to go before dinner. If Miho’s or Sakura’s parents came to get them, would they even stop to tell her they were leaving?
“People are afraid.”
They have reason to be
, she thought.
Or some of them do
.
“What about us? What are we going to do?” Kara asked, curious but grateful that she had her father. She could survive just about anything as long as he was around. Her mother’s death had shattered her, but she still felt fortunate to have one parent who loved her instead of two living parents who barely remembered she was alive, like Sakura’s and Miho’s parents.
“I’m not sure yet. Tomorrow I’m going to talk to Mr. Yamato and find out how long he thinks the school will be closed. If it’s more than a couple of days, I thought I’d take you down to Kyoto, get us both out of here for a while.”
“That sounds nice.”
But her father’s eyes were troubled. “I don’t want you over at the school after dark.”
Kara frowned. “What about the other kids, the ones whose parents won’t come for them right away?”
“The other kids aren’t my daughter.”
They both recognized how grim the conversation had become. Kara could see that her father wished he could take it back, or at least lighten his words with some humor.
“I didn’t mean that as harsh as it sounded,” he started.
Kara shook her head. “No, Dad. It’s okay. You don’t have to worry about whether or not I’ll take all this seriously. I take it wicked seriously. I’m not going to be hanging around the school much, even during the day. At least not on my own.”
This time, he really did smile.
“What?”
“You said ‘wicked.’ Speaking Japanese so much, it’s been a while since I’ve heard that. Makes me a little homesick.”
“Right now, what wouldn’t make you homesick? But Harpers aren’t the type to run away, are we? You always say that.”
Her father came to crouch by the chair, one hand on her knee, locking her gaze with his own. “If it means keeping you safe, I’ll run as fast and far as our legs can carry us.”
Kara smiled and her father kissed her forehead before he rose and left the room. She dipped back into Jane Austen but had only read a couple of pages when she heard someone knocking at the front door.
“I’ve got it!” Kara called, unfolding herself from the wicker chair and hurrying out through the living room,
She opened the door to find Miho, alone, on the stoop. In black pants and a dark gray jacket, she seemed almost swallowed by the dark. She’d pulled her hair back into a hasty ponytail and carried a backpack, which Kara figured contained her pajamas and a change of clothes for tomorrow. Night had fallen, and Miho cast a nervous glance over her shoulder at the darkness behind her.
“Hey, where’s Sakura?” Kara asked, switching back to Japanese.
Miho flinched, brows knitting, and Kara felt an immediate flush of guilt. The question had to have made it sound like she was less interested in Miho’s presence than Sakura’s absence.
“Sorry. Come in,” she said, stepping aside. “I’m just worried about her, you know?”
“You should be,” Miho said, entering the house and immediately removing her shoes, setting them by the door.
Professor Harper came out of his office, summoning up a welcoming smile. “Miho. I’m pleased you could make it.”
The girl bowed stiffly. “I am honored to be invited, sensei,” she said in English. “And I hope you will speak English with me. I would like more practice.”
“You seem to be doing very well, but as you wish.” Kara’s father frowned and looked first at the shoes Miho had just left by the door and then at the door itself. “What happened to your roommate? You didn’t walk here alone, did you?”
Miho gave a slight bow. “I did, sensei. Sakura is”—she paused to find the right phrasing—“not in the mood.”
Kara started to ask for an elaboration, but Miho gave her a look that suggested she might want to hold off until they were alone. Her father waited a moment, but when it became plain their greetings were over, he put his hands up.
“Well, I wish you hadn’t come by yourself after dark, but I’m glad to have you here. Why don’t you girls go talk about boys or whatever it is you do while I make dinner?”
Miho blushed, but Kara laughed.
“Are you sure you don’t want help, Dad?”
“No. Go ahead, honey.”
With a look of quiet conspiracy, Kara and Miho went into Kara’s bedroom. Any other time, what ensued would have been exactly as her father predicted, yet another conversation about boys. But Miho’s obsession with American boys seemed to have waned in the shadow of murder and the terrifying notion that something inhuman might be lurking in the dark.
An awful feeling had been brewing inside Kara from the moment she opened the door to find Miho alone. As soon as she closed the door, she turned to the other girl.
“What’s going on?”
“The police take Sakura . . . ,” Miho began, then shook her head in frustration and switched once more to Japanese.
“The police talked to her for over an hour, and then took her to Miyazu City, to the police station. They brought her back only a little while ago, and she won’t talk to me about what happened there. I’m sure they must have accused her, but—”
“If they can’t explain how Chouku died, they can’t charge Sakura with anything,” Kara interrupted.
“Exactly. And now she is acting so strangely.”
Kara raised her eyebrows. “More strangely than this morning?”
“Yes. She barely spoke to me. She wanted the lights off in our room and stood by the window, like she was waiting for something. I wish we hadn’t told her about seeing the cat last night.”
Kara thought about that. If Sakura really thought the cat was Akane, or had anything to do with her, it seemed all too plausible that she was waiting for her sister to come back.
“I was afraid to stay there tonight, but also afraid to leave her alone,” Miho went on. “But then she told me I should go.
It . . . hurt me. She’s my best friend, Kara, and she doesn’t want my help. It’s as if some other girl who looks just like Sakura has moved in and is sleeping in her bed. She is so cold now.”
Kara went to her window. The chill of the spring night made her shiver and she closed the window all but an inch or two. She stared out at the night. Off to the left, across the street, lights burned in a small house where there lived an old couple who always smiled when they saw her. It made her feel a little better knowing they were awake and alive in there, living their lives.
Which led her mind down a narrow lane to a hidden corner, where there lurked a terrible thought.
“What if it’s just a cat?” she asked without turning.
“How could it be?” Miho said.
Now Kara did turn. She lifted her hands to her mouth and chewed on the tip of her left thumbnail, thinking. Then she dropped her hands.
“There’s a little ledge out there. Not much, but I guess it could be possible that the thing came from another room, or another part of the building. I’m not sure I believe it, but let’s just say that’s all it is. If we’re going to believe something crazy, wouldn’t you rather believe that a cat could walk around out there than that there’s something . . . that it isn’t a cat at all?”
Miho stared at her, eyes hard behind her glasses. “I believe in ghosts, Kara. I always have. But I never even considered that there might really be evil spirits or demons or anything like that. I wish I’d never seen that cat. I wish I’d stayed asleep. I wish Chouku and the others were still alive. But let me ask you this, if that thing is just a cat, then who killed Chouku?”