about the years before the Five Great Villages were founded." He looked at her with eyes too calm for a child his age. "But one chapter is missing. Pages forty-seven to sixty-three. Who tore them out?"
She did not answer.
He turned his gaze back to the horizon.
"That's fine. I'll find the answer somewhere else."
Sato was silent.
Then she said softly, almost to herself,
"Your mother used to say the same thing."
Kaito turned to her.
But she had already stood up and begun climbing back down the ladder.
He did not follow.
But this time, he did not open the book again.