by David Peace
I have seen this man before …
‘But it turns out the air-raid shelter is on naval property and so the case belongs to the Kempeitai. It’s not your business. Not our business. The Kempeitai take the case…’
Eyes I have met before …
‘Me and Officer Uchida were sent back down to Shinagawa police station to request an ambulance and that was that. Finished. Never heard anything more about it and never expected to. Case closed, as far as I was concerned…’
Now Murota Hideki points at Tominaga Noriko and says, ‘Then I met her this last winter, on my beat. She’s got no one and she’s got nothing. I feel sorry for her and yes, I fancy her. I find her a place in Ōimachi. I give her money and I give her food –
‘I take care of her and yes, I sleep with her…’
Murota Hideki looks over at Tominaga Noriko now and says, ‘We both had nothing and now we have something.’
She haunts me here. She haunts me now …
Now Murota Hideki shakes his head. Murota Hideki sighs, ‘But then two months ago, when this friend of hers, this Abe Yoshiko, was murdered, and in a similar manner and in a similar place to that body in Shinagawa last year, that was when I made my first mistake and that was when my luck finally ran out for good…’
‘My luck finally ran out for good … finally…’
‘I tried to be a policeman. I tried to help. I was at the Mita police station by then but I went across to Takanawa, where the Abe team was based, and I asked to see the officer in charge…’
‘Who is unfortunately no longer with us …’
‘I met this officer, man called Chief Inspector Mori, and I told him about the body in the air-raid shelter at Shinagawa. Chief Inspector Mori thanked me and, again, I thought that was that. I’d done what I could. I’d tried to help. Finished. And I never expected to hear anything more about it. Case closed again for me…’
Case closed … case closed … case closed …
‘But then, the very next day, this Chief Inspector Mori is down at the Mita police station, to question me …’
I don’t want to remember …
‘Can I remember any further details? Can I remember who was working with me at Shinagawa on that day? Can I remember the two detectives who were sent out from Headquarters? Can I remember the names of the officers from the Kempeitai? The witnesses? And so on and so on and so on…’
But in the half-light …
‘All I can tell him though is what I told him the day before, same as I just told you, but that’s when I should have known, that’s when I should have guessed…’
I can’t forget…
‘Because no sooner is Mori gone than some other Metro detective is down at Mita to see me, hauling me back up to HQ, telling me I’ve been a bad cop, that he’s heard all about me, screwing pan-pan girls on my beat, like I’m the only cop in the city who’s ever had a whore on his beat, like he hasn’t got better things to do than chase after me, but he’s relentless, this detective, he never gives up, asking me to confess to this, to confess to that, asking me for the name of my girl, for Noriko’s name, and now I get the picture –
‘He is here to punish me. He is here to warn me –
‘And I don’t know why I ever thought it would work, or why I ever thought it was a good idea, but there’s no way I’m ever going to give him Noriko’s name, so I tell him I was seeing Abe, that I fucked her but I never killed her, and guess what… ?
‘He bought it, believed it was Abe –
‘And so they fired me –
‘For conduct unbecoming a police officer, but I didn’t care because they didn’t know about Noriko and that meant she was safe. Safe. Ten days later, I read that this Chief Inspector Mori has been purged by the SCAP and gone insane. Mad. Then I knew I’d made the right decision, knew I’d made the right choice…’
The Matsuzawa Hospital for the Insane …
‘Until today. Until you turned up…’
‘My luck finally ran out…’
‘I knew we should have run, we should have gone as far away as we could from here …,’ and now Murota Hideki’s words trail off, trail off back into the shadows, back into the shadows behind the shabby curtain, behind the shabby curtain that partitions this shabby room, the shadows from the light and the light from the shadows –
The voices from the echoes and the truth from the lies …
This shabby curtain, this shabby country –
‘Are you satisfied now, detective?’ asks Murota Hideki. ‘Are you happy now? Have you heard and seen enough now? Heard enough about me and seen enough of her, have you now, officer?’
‘No,’ I tell him. ‘I want the name of the detective.’
‘Why do you want that?’ he laughs. ‘What for?’
‘Tell me his name,’ I say. ‘And then I’m gone.’
Murota spits, ‘Said his name was Adachi…’
‘Are you satisfied now, detective?’
‘For what that’s worth,’ laughs Murota now. ‘Because no one is ever who they say they are…’
Here in the half-light …
‘Not these days…’
I have nothing more to ask them. My skin is red. Nothing more to say to them. My skin is raw. I pick up my hat. My hand aches. I get up from their low table in their shabby room. My body sweats. In this shabby house, in this shabby city, in this shabby country –
In this place of defeat. In this place of capitulation …
‘You be careful out there, detective,’ Murota Hideki tells me. ‘And you remember my face and remember what happened to me. And remember the name of Chief Inspector Mori and you remember what happened to him. You remember us both now, detective…’
This place of surrender. This place of occupation …
‘I’ll remember you,’ I say. I turn to Tominaga –
In this place of ghosts, this place of ghosts …
I turn to Tominaga Noriko and I say, ‘Thank you, miss.’
And she thanks me back and then she bows her head –
In her yellow and dark-blue striped pinafore dress …
‘And you remember this as well then,’ says Murota Hideki. ‘If you ever tell anyone about her, you ever tell anyone where she is, that she’s here with me, then I will find you and I will kill you…’
In this place of death. In this place of silence …
I turn back to Murota. I bow to him –
In this place of no resistance.
*
My skin is red. Nishi can’t wait. My skin is raw. Nishi wants to know what happened. My hand aches. I say nothing. My body sweats. What did Murota say? The city stinks of shit. I say nothing. Of shit and dirt and dust. Did he know Tominaga Noriko? The dirt and the dust that coats my clothes and coats my skin. I say nothing. That scratches my nostrils and burns my throat. Did he remember her? With every passing jeep and with every passing truck. Nothing, nothing, nothing. I take out my handkerchief. It isn’t her, is it? I take off my hat. No. I wipe my face. The body in the park? I wipe my neck. I’m sorry. I stare up at the bleached-white sky. It isn’t Tominaga Noriko, is it? The clouds of typhus. I’m sorry. The clouds of dust. The case isn’t closed, is it? The clouds of dirt. I’m sorry. The clouds of shit. This isn’t victory, is it? My skin is red. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. My skin is raw. This is defeat again. My hand aches. Yes. My body sweats. We haven’t won. The city stinks of shit. No. The city stinks of defeat. We have lost again. This city on its knees. Yes. Nishi on his knees. We always lose. Always, always lose …
‘No! No! No!’ I shout. ‘Get off your knees!’
*
I walk up the stairs to Police Arcade. To the smells and the stains. Chief Inspector Adachi is standing in the corridor. There is no escape. Chief Inspector Adachi is looking for me. We should turn him over to Chief Inspector Adachi. Chief Inspector Adachi is waiting for me. The Chief Inspector was here looking for him. Chief Inspector Adachi walks me to the end of the corridor. Looking
for Ishida, asking about Detective Fujita. Chief Inspector Adachi pulls me into the bathroom. Said his name was Adachi. Chief Inspector Adachi pushes me into a cubicle. No escape from the smells and the stains …
Chief Inspector Adachi puts me up against the wall –
The smells of ammonia and the stains of shit …
Chief Inspector Adachi stares into my face and then he says, ‘You haven’t been to see Senju yet, have you, detective?’
The smells of amnesia, the stains of blood …
‘You’ve been following me, sir?’
The stains on his hands …
‘I’m not the only one.’
The stains on mine …
‘Then you’ll know I’ve been busy,’ I tell him. ‘Busy searching for the Miyazaki Mitsuko file, chief inspector, sir.’
Now he takes his hands off me. Now he steps back. Now he asks, ‘And which Miyazaki Mitsuko file would that be?’
‘The Tokyo MPD file on the murder of Miyazaki Mitsuko. The file that was signed out just four days ago –’
‘Signed out by whom?’ asks Adachi –
‘Detective Nishi,’ I say. ‘But he denies it and I believe him.’
‘So who do you believe signed it out, detective?’
‘I think Fujita got Ishida to sign it out under Nishi’s name.’
‘Why?’ asks Adachi, but Adachi already knows –
‘Insurance,’ I say. ‘Extortion. Blackmail…’
‘Blackmail?’ he asks, but he knows –
‘You.’
‘And what about you, corporal? Mine won’t be the only name in that file, will it?’
‘I don’t know,’ I tell him. ‘I haven’t read it, have I?’
‘But I wasn’t even the senior officer,’ I say. ‘I need to find the file. I need to read it. And I need to speak to him…’
‘Then go to Senju and go soon,’ hisses Adachi. ‘Ask him where Fujita is. If Senju says he doesn’t know, you tell him about Fujita and Nodera Tomiji. You tell him about the plot.’
‘And you think he’d do the same for you?’
‘But then Senju will rip Tokyo apart looking for Fujita,’ I say. ‘He’ll find him and he’ll kill him before we…’
‘I really don’t know any more.’
‘Exactly,’ smiles Adachi.
*
Adachi and Kanehara are sat on his right, Kai and I on his left, the chief telling us, ‘As you all know, we had a quick success yesterday in attaining Kodaira Yoshio’s confession to the murder of Abe Yoshiko. And I think we should all thank Chief Inspector Kanehara for his legwork and Chief Inspector Adachi for his interrogation…’
Inspector Kai and I nodding our heads –
‘As we said, there are similarities with other cases and, after this early success with the Abe case, I feel there is every reason to go ahead and wash these other cases, manpower permitting. And so Inspector Kai, I believe you have the next one…’
Inspector Kai stands up now. Kai nods. ‘Shinokawa Tatsue; seventeen years old; raped and strangled…
‘Her body was found on the sixteenth of January this year in the basement of the annex of the former Toyoko Department Store at 20 Namiki-chō, Shibuya Ward, next to Shibuya station This basement formerly housed the employee canteen of the Toyoko Department Store but, since it was badly damaged during the air raids, it is now used only for storage…
‘On the sixteenth of January this year, a guard checking the storage area in the basement, removed some shelves and found the body of Shinokawa…
‘The body was in a state of some decay and the autopsy, which was conducted by Dr. Nakadate at the Keiō University Hospital, concluded that Shinokawa had probably died between the last week of October and the first week of November last year. However, the autopsy also revealed that Shinokawa Tatsue had most probably been raped before being strangled to death…’
‘Probably?’ asks Chief Inspector Adachi. ‘Why probably?’
Kai says, ‘Presumably because of the state of the body.’
‘Where was the investigation headquarters?’
Kai says, ‘The Shibuya precinct station.’
‘And who was in charge?’
Kai says, ‘Mori.’
‘Chief Inspector Mori,’ says Chief Kita. ‘Former Chief Inspector Mori was in charge.’
Kai blushes now. Kai bows. ‘Former Chief Inspector Mori.’
‘But that’s strange, don’t you think?’ asks Adachi. ‘I’ve read the entirety of the Abe Yoshiko case file, every single scrap of paperwork, and former Chief Inspector Mori never once mentions the Shinokawa case in his notes on the Abe case, never once…’
Inspector Kai shakes his head. Kai says, ‘No.’
‘And yet, both victims were of a similar age,’ continues Adachi. ‘Both had been raped and strangled. Both were his cases…’
‘But let us not forget the particular and peculiar circumstances of our times, Chief Inspector Adachi,’ interrupts Chief Kita. ‘Former Chief Inspector Mori was a very competent and a very diligent police officer but, and as you are well aware, there has been a marked rise in crimes and lawlessness in Tokyo over the past year and, equally, there has been a marked fall in the number of police officers and the resources and equipment available to us –
‘Now Chief Inspector Mori and I discussed this particular case at length and we both felt that, because of the state of the body, because of the shortage of manpower, the shortage of resources, our efforts were better directed towards other cases…
‘And so, ultimately, it was my decision to roll the banner back up again and close this case.’
Chief Inspector Adachi has his head bowed. Inspector Adachi does not look up. Adachi says, ‘I am sorry. Please excuse my rudeness and my presumption. I am sorry. It was not my intention to cast aspersions or make insinuations about the competence of Chief Inspector Mori. We all worked with him and we all learned from him. We all valued him and we all miss him…’
‘Thank you, chief inspector,’ says Chief Kita. ‘Inspector Kai, is there anything else you would like to add about the case?’
Inspector Kai closes his mouth. Kai nods. He says, ‘Her umbrella and twenty yen in cash were also reported missing.’
‘Kodaira Yoshio always had gifts on him … Proper gifts for ladies like jewellery, watches, umbrellas, you know …?’
‘Thank you, inspector,’ says the chief. ‘Right, as you all know, at the time of Shinokawa’s murder, Kodaira was living in Wakagi-chō in Shibuya Ward. And, as Chief Inspector Adachi stated, the age of the victim and the cause of death are the same as both those of Midorikawa Ryuko and Abe Yoshiko. So I want Inspector Kai and his Room to reopen this case, to reinterview the original witnesses from the original investigation as well as Kodaira’s wife and his immediate family living here in Tokyo…
‘Unfortunately, we will also have to make use of the Shibuya police station again as Inspector Kai will need officers from the Shibuya precinct to question local residents about Kodaira and Shinokawa. Hopefully a lead or a witness will quickly turn up that will again prompt Kodaira Yoshio to make another confession…’
More legwork. More questions. More reports …
‘Finally,’ says the chief. ‘Inspector Minami…’
There are things to say. Things not to say …
I wipe my neck. I stand up. I tell them about Kodaira Yoshio’s mistress, Okayama Hisayo. I tell them about the rumours of a murder in Kanuma in Tochigi Prefecture –
There are things to say …
‘Baba Hiroko, aged nineteen, found raped and strangled with her own scarf on the third of January this year, in Nishi Katamura, Tochigi. This fell in the jurisdiction of the Kanuma police, Tochigi. As you all know, Kodaira is originally from Nikkō in Tochigi Prefecture. His mistress, the widow Okayama Hisayo, has told us that Kodaira accompanied her on a visit to her mother’s house which is located one mountain away from Kanuma station. Okayama also told us that Kodaira has been back to the area on num
erous occasions ostensibly for kaidashi and supplies and so on…
‘I think there is a strong possibility, given the age of the victim, the cause and circumstances of her death, the proximity to Kodaira Yoshio’s known haunts and the timeframe, that Kodaira should be questioned about this murder…’
There’s no applause here either …
I do not tell them about Tominaga Noriko’s landlady and the clothing. I do not tell them about visiting Murota Hideki. I do not tell them about seeing Tominaga Noriko –
Things not to say …
But Adachi is waiting for me. Adachi is always waiting –
‘But are you any nearer identifying the second Shiba body? What about this missing friend of Abe Yoshiko? What about the statement by her landlady? You said there was a possibility that the body might be this missing girl? This friend of Abe?’
But I told you nothing. I told you nothing…
‘I am very sorry,’ I tell him now. ‘But we no longer believe that to be the case, Chief Inspector Adachi, sir.’
‘Is that right?’ asks Adachi. ‘And yet only yesterday you seemed so very, very sure…’
‘And I’m very, very sorry,’ I tell him again. ‘And we are equally disappointed, sir.’
‘So are you now saying this friend of Abe is alive?’ he asks. ‘You’ve actually found her? Eliminated her?’
Tell him nothing …
‘No, sir,’ I lie. ‘I just mean that her landlady failed to identify the clothing as hers…’
Nothing …
‘So she is still missing, then? This friend of Abe Yoshiko?’
I nod. I say, ‘She may be missing, but she’s not our body.’
But Adachi doesn’t give up. Adachi never gives up …
‘And what about all the other girls?’ he asks me –
I shake my head. I ask, ‘What other girls?’
‘All the other girls aged fifteen to twenty years old reported missing in the past two months. These other girls that you have had your own men combing the streets of Tokyo for…’
I curse him. I curse him. I curse him …
‘The enquiries are still ongoing, sir.’
I curse him and I curse myself…
‘So are you then any nearer actually identifying the body?’
