the cart," he said. Right beside them was a crude staircase for employees only. Takano started down it at a rather rapid pace.
"Wouldn't it be easier just to ride down with it?" suggested Takemura.
"That's against the law. I hear somebody once got killed in Chiba Prefecture or somewhere, riding on a food-service dumbwaiter."
When they reached the first floor, the laundry cart was already waiting for them behind the open dumbwaiter door.
"Gee, that's convenient!" exclaimed Takemura, impressed, turning to Kinoshita for agreement. "Don't you think so?"
"Yeah," mumbled Kinoshita.
* * *
When they left the hotel, the sun was already low, and the evening breeze felt almost chilly. The mysterious West Peak looked purple in the remaining light, towering over the plateau that seemed like an expanse of sea. One could imagine that gods, or more likely evil spirits lived there.
"Drive down that road, will you?" Takemura told Kinoshita after they got into the car. He was pointing to the gravel road that headed west, the one someone resembling Kisuke Takeda had been seen walking down. "Take it slowly."
Takemura looked all around him as the car moved slowly along, with the sound of gravel shooting out from under the tires. "There's nothing at all out here, is there?" he said.
Ahead of them to the right was a wasteland covered with bamboo brush, out of which grew an occasional low tree. To the left was a luxuriant forest of beech, oak, and larch, through which could be seen flickering lights that Takemura guessed must be coming from the villas. As the desk clerk had told them, they soon came to an intersection with another gravel road like the one they were on.
"This must be the old road," said Takemura.
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