KtyL's blog

"Oh, I... I see. Thank you, Bob."

*

It took me no more than 15 minutes to drive home and rush up to the shallow apartment of mine. The old wooden stairs squeaked under my steps. Matt, my roommate, was snoring loudly on the floor when I entered the room. His laptop lay beside him, with its power still on.

"Matt, wake up." I kicked him on the leg. "Get up, we're leaving now."

"Huh…? Now? “Matt rubbed his eyes, trying to sober himself up." But I thought we planned to leave on the day after tomorrow? And what about the money?"

I showed him the jewelry I just bought this evening. “It’s all here. Come on, we have to leave here right away. I think somebody may have suspected us."

Matt nodded, and didn't ask a single word until we packed all the necessary things, jumped into his old Ford, and drove blocks away from our shabby apartment.

*

"So, what's the problem?" Matt asked when we passed the Sixth Avenue. "The police have come to you?"

"No, I mean, they didn't come to me directly. But they send a 'detective' to ask Bob about my whereabouts on that day."

I told Matt all the things that Bob had told me. The photo that saved me and the portrait that nearly turned me into the suspect. Matt listened carefully, and sank into deep thoughts after I finished my words. We fell into a silence.

I was lucky. I thought so when we drove out of the city. I couldn't figure out how that guy found me only by a portrait drawn by pencil, and how they could be sure the man in it was me. But those weren't important. We made sure that no tracks of us were left on the scene. Maybe the man just happened to go to the same restaurant as I did and saw me. Have it not been for the photo I might be arrested right away, but it may as well disclosed the fact that my alibi was a made-up one.

I did have dinner with Bob, Tom, and Richard. But it was not on March 22nd - it was on March 21st. I had noticed long ago that the calendar in "Emily" mistakenly marked March 21st as the Vernal Equinox Day. In fact, it was on March 20th this year. Bob, or Bob Morisaki, was a Japanese immigrant. Vernal Equinox Day is an official holiday in Japan, and although we didn't celebrate it here, this day still meant a lot to him. However, even as the owner of a restaurant, Bob lost track of time easily, and so were Tom and Richard. When Richard took out his camera, it was me who told him to check the date again, and it was also me who reminded Bob, "Yesterday was Equinox, right?" That was why the date on the photo shows March 22nd, and all three of them think we met on 22nd, instead of 21st. And where was I on March 22nd, 8:30 pm? On the driving seat of this car, with Matt on my right side, and the unconscious Janet Cole lying on the backseat.

I didn't plan to use the photo as evidence beforehand. It just flashed into my mind when the four of us decided to take a picture together. I did it just for fun, and I never thought it would become of help one day. I hoped that the detective hadn't noticed that the calendar marked the wrong day, but I still left the city earlier than expected, just in case.

I explained all these to Matt when he admitted that he couldn't figure out how I made all three of them believe the dinner was on the wrong date. He pondered for a while, and said that he might get the point.

"But," Matt added. “I still don't understand one thing. It's clear that the girl had a glimpse of you during the time in the car, maybe because this old thing jolted every a few blocks and finally woke her up for a second, even when we used ether to make her unconscious. But how come she remembered your face so well, even a stranger can tell that you are the person in the drawing, and still get your mole on the opposite side?"

I laughed. This question was far easier than that one of the date on the photo. I thought he could figure it out by himself.

"Mate, I'm surprised you can't solve it alone. It's as simple as ABC. As our hostage only woke up for a second or two, she barely remembers how she saw the strange man who kidnapped her. Janet Cole was on the backseat, and as the driver I never turned back to check on her. So whenever she woke up and saw my face, she must have seen my reflection in the rearview mirror."