By the time I get home, it's late. Iola is waiting for me and we sit at the dining room table, taking the advantage of this opportunity to talk through the day, the children having gone to bed. Melshu is also asleep, deeply asleep and snoring.
        "What happened to Atakana?" says Iola. "Did he fall or was he pushed?"
        "It seems he was pushed," I say. "Someone tried to kill him. But I can't think why."
        "Valencia was at home with him, right?" says Iola. "What does she say happened?"
        "She's saying there were two men," I say. "Egishi was one. That's what she says. The other was a guy, maybe you remember him, Harburton Spice. He was at university with me."
        "He was killed at the university," says Iola.
        "No," I say. "He graduated with a degree in marine biology."
        "Last month," says Iola. "He was killed."
        "What do you mean, killed?" I ask.
        "He was at an alumni conference at Noyamasho University when he was hit on the head by a tile."
        "A tile?"
        "The library, when it was built ten years ago these decorative ceramic tiles were used on the concrete walls. Well, now the glue's starting to fail. Harburton was just walking along when he got hit on the head and killed. Obi told me about it. Maybe Valencia doesn't know."
        From the way Iola says this, I get the impression that she thinks that possibly Valencia was the guilty party. Well, that's not unthinkable. With the prospect of a new life looming, Valencia might have decided that it's time to get rid of her alcoholic husband.
        Which brings me to my next question: Atakana had plainly been drinking before he fell, but why? Did he start spontaneously or did Valencia offer him alcohol and get him drunk? And if Valencia is not the guilty party then who is? Atakana has no enemies, not that I can think of. He has spent the last few years marking time, growing his beard and staying sober.
        Anomalously, a memory drifts into my mind. Tanto, sweating in the body bag that he borrowed from his schoolmate Uhito. The comic book term "threat meat" lights up somewhere in my mind. The attack on my brother has made me anxious about my son. About my children.
        "But there's no threat against the twins," I say to myself.
        None at the moment. But someone has attacked Atakana. That is plain. Hooded intruders, if Valencia can be believed. Or Valencia herself, if she is lying. And the undeniably fact that there has been an attack makes me think of my entire family as being vulnerable. My children especially.
        "Sell the land, do the deal, hand out the money," I say.
        Yes, that makes sense. The sooner this business is settled the sooner the threat will be over. That, at least, is my analysis.