Read the Excerpt: A Game of Cat and Killer by Kiro Akagawa
PROLOGUE
“Come on in.”
With a click, the door gave way. Yumiko stepped inside first,
flicked on the light, and beckoned to the man standing outside. He
entered hesitantly, like an astronaut setting foot on the moon for
the first time, glancing around the room with open curiosity.
“The bedroom’s in the back.”
Yumiko secured the door before leading him through the eat-
in kitchen.
“Come on, hurry up.”
While the man was busy taking off his shoes, Yumiko marched
straight into the bedroom. She knew her way around.
She sat on the bed, took out a cigarette, lit it, and waited for
the man to follow. Seems like a pretty normal type, she thought.
A middle- aged businessman who looks honest enough. No, not just
looks— he’s probably a model employee at work and a decent husband
at home. He’s got that face— like he’s never considered paying for a
night with a younger woman before.
“Come on, don’t just stand there,” she called, seeing him rooted in the doorway. “This is a friend’s place. If we don’t hurry, she might
come home and catch us. Come in. And close the door.”
Poor guy. From the look of him, he wasn’t going to get much
enjoyment for his thirty thousand yen. A flicker of worry passed
through her mind. Does he even have that much on him? Then again,
his coat was expensive. He didn’t look like the type to try to swin-
dle a girl.
“Come on, let’s get started. It’d be super awkward if my friend
comes home and catches us in the middle of things, right? She
doesn’t have a boyfriend yet. It’d be cruel to shock her like that,”
Yumiko joked, trying to loosen him up, then stubbed out her ciga-
rette in the ashtray.
With that, she stood, turned her back to him, and began to
undress. Once I get tonight’s thirty thousand, I’ll finally have enough
for a plane ticket to Guam. It had taken serious effort to save up this
much, but still— as a student working a boring part- time job, it
would have taken a year to make what she needed. This was faster.
Might as well get it over with.
For a moment, she wondered if he would want to undress her
himself, but impatience won out. She stripped everything off, spun
around, and faced him.
“Your turn now. Go on, take them off.”
The man stood there like a mannequin, his hands still buried
in his coat pockets. His face was just as lifeless— blank, unreadable.
“What’s wrong?”
She felt her frustration bubbling to the surface. What’s he stall-
ing for?
“Hurry up already. I’ll catch a cold standing here like this. Do
you want to do this or—
”
She broke off mid- sentence. Her eyes went wide, fixed on the
glint of something silver in his hand, just drawn from his pocket.
From the street below, Hiroko frowned up at the window where the
light was still on. Yumiko’s not done yet? She checked her watch—
it was already one in the morning. I told her she could use the place
until midnight. I can’t believe her!
She climbed the stairs and stopped in front of the door, hes-
itating for a moment. Once before, she had barged in and come
face- to- face with a naked man. She eased the door open carefully.
Unbelievable. She didn’t even lock it. She strained to listen, but she
couldn’t hear any sounds— no voices, no movement. They must’ve
fallen asleep.
There weren’t any men’s shoes at the entrance, so she relaxed,
stepped inside, put the carton of milk she had bought from a vend-
ing machine into the fridge, and headed for the bedroom.
“Wake up, Yumiko,” she called, pushing the door open.
She couldn’t even manage a scream. Her eyes flew wide open as
she clamped a hand over her mouth, stumbling backward and col-
lapsing onto the floor. She crawled toward the entrance on hands
and knees, but halfway there, her body convulsed and she vomited,
again and again, until nothing was left.
At last, trembling, she rose to her feet and staggered down the
hallway in search of help.
Introducing an iconic investigative duo—a hapless detective and his capable cat—in this must-read by one of Japan’s most beloved novelists of crime fiction.
Detective Yoshitaro Katayama is afraid of many things: heights, dark spaces, blood and … women. When a young female student is found murdered, he’s given two choices—review the harrowing crime-scene photographs or head to Hagoromo Women’s College to investigate—and reluctantly opts for the latter.
But the threat escalates with additional murders, and soon Katayama has a different surprise on his hands: a calico cat named Holmes, orphaned when the dean himself falls victim.
Surely that’s the last thing Katayama needs. Until Holmes begins to display some uncanny investigative instincts of her own …
