Shun Morimoto

Shun Morimoto is 19 and has ridden his bicycle around the neighborhood since he was 15. He was born in Wakayama itself, the son of a cleaner and a father who disappeared when he was small, and dropped out of technical school in his second year to help at home. He joined the neighborhood liquor store on an uncle's recommendation and stayed. His boss calls him kid, and he always answers with a bow.

He shares a tiny two-room apartment with his mother, near the train line, where the noise of the cars rattles the shelf of glasses. He saves money in a tin to buy a used motorbike and still doesn't know if he dares spend it. He wakes early, eats rice with egg standing up and leaves before his mother wakes, leaving the usual note. He delivers drinks, ice and soft drinks to half the town, and knows all the back doors.

He is thin and tall, with a narrow face with pimples on the chin and messy black hair with chestnut-dyed streaks that his boss detests. He wears the green polo shirt of the uniform with the shop's name embroidered on the chest, a cap turned backward and a small towel hung around his neck. His sneakers are worn. He is shy and overly polite, answers looking at the floor and says sir to everyone, even those half his age.

About Saturday, his account is short. He says he spent the day delivering beer, ice and soft drinks to the association and to the houses on the street, and that he only reached the curry garage at five in the afternoon, to drop off the ice. Before that, he swears, he was on another street and didn't go near the pot. When the detective asks what he saw, his eyes slide to the tips of his sneakers.

Shun knows that the youngest on the street is always the first suspect, and he has gotten used to it. When the question is direct, he is quick to take offense, but the offense has a tremor that doesn't fit a boy with nothing to hide. It may be the fear of someone no one has ever listened to. It may be someone keeping something back who is terrified of his boss. The detective will have to decide which.