The Inugami Curse (Detective Kosuke Kindaichi, #2)

by Seishi Yokomizo

The prosperity of Nasu depended entirely on the fate of the Inugami clan.

Nasu had grown to its present population of more than one hundred thousand only because the Inugami Group, with the power of its vast capital, had sown its seeds there.

Holding the fate of the Inugami clan in his hands was Matsuko’s only son, Kiyo, whose homecoming, as everyone knew, would finally allow Sahei’s will to be read.

The more the case reeked of the unnatural, the more strongly Kindaichi’s professional appetite was whetted.

Yokikotokiku. That auspicious motto indeed had watched over the Inugami clan while Sahei had been alive. Did it still protect them with its power now that the old man was dead? No, looking back on all that was to occur, we can say it no longer protected, but in fact now cursed the Inugami clan.

A single bird, propelled by the wind, darted diagonally across the lake like a spirit.

Picturing the striking contrast between the elegant beauty and the ugly giant, Kindaichi felt a nameless fear that made his flesh creep.

This woman was Kokin Miyakawa, a koto master of the Ikuta school, who visited the villa once every quarter-year or half-year from Tokyo.

“An unbelievable number of documents, enough to fill up the whole chest. Letters, account books, diaries, notebooks—everything on washi paper, since it was a long time ago.

No, the anger wasn’t just mine; it was also the bitterness and anger my mother had passed on to me. And the same fire was burning in the hearts of Takeko and Umeko as well.”

The stillness of the night penetrated the soul. As if that stillness had been gathered within the Inugami villa, Kindaichi, Chief Tachibana, and Furudate the lawyer sat in the drawing room, each lost in silence before the English-style fireplace. For a long time they had sat like that, without saying a word, staring at the blazing fireplace, from which they occasionally heard the thud of a piece of coal falling.