The news had made headlines across the country.

No matter which channel Nakamura switched to, everywhere, it was the same news, the same grisly spectacle and the same pain of having lost someone important assaulted her.

She shouldn’t have been surprised. He had tried to end his life once. It shouldn’t have been surprising that he would try to do the same. What was surprising was how short the interval between his attempted suicide and death was. She had expected the authorities to take some action to prevent that from happening and they did take action and kept him under surveillance but he had somehow managed to escape and end his life.

She turned off the TV and sat on the floor facing the veranda.

A cold wind blew and sent her hair flying. She looked to her right. There was no one.

If he had been alive, he would probably be outside on the veranda.

If he had been alive. But the fact was that he wasn’t.

Nakamura knew that Kageyama had wanted to end his life. She always had thought tha