He is making a sandwich when he realizes, and it hits him hard enough to send the butter knife clattering to the floor and Antoinette scurrying in to lap up the mayonnaise. He steps around the dog and calls loudly for his wife to hand him the phone. He sounds desperate enough that she gives it up in surprise mid-conversation.
He feels like he calls hundreds of numbers, even though it is only four. The well-aged voices he hasn't heard in years echo distantly in his ears, but it is only the last call that yields results.
Kaoru sighs often and speaks to him in a weary tone. "I can give you my brother's number, but I don't know if she'll be home…"
He sits staring for so long that his wife hovers over him and anxiously asks what's wrong. He shakes his head, partly to assure her, partly to clear it. He smiles at her and says, "Nothing. Just a passing fancy," and he crumbles the number for the Hitachiin residence in his hand.