Evil and the Mask

by Fuminori Nakamura

  “Are you just pretending? Pretending to have built a loving family? That’s how it seems to me. While you pretend to love your wife and your daughter, you’re simply going through the motions.”

  “You’re quite talkative today. But perhaps you’re right.”

  His lips twisted and he lit a menthol cigarette.

  “I like to watch people who are starting their lives over. A thorough villain—what sort of life will he lead afterwards, thanks to me breaking the rules? Because some lives aren’t governed by the normal rules, but by a separate set.”

  “Do you really believe that?”

  “Partly,” he said, and smiled again.

  Leaving the cunningly disguised clinic, I caught a cab, made a phone call and headed for the Imperial Hotel. Circular Route 7 was very crowded and the inside of the car was too warm. The taxi crawled forward at walking speed, a meter at a time. I gazed at my reflection in the window.

  I’ve disappeared, I thought. Other people recognized me by my face, and it was gone. My outward appearance had vanished from the world. All that remained was my inside, clinging to its memories, but no one could see that. My real self was invisible. That assumed, however, that my real self would continue to exist.

  When I entered the lounge, the man was already there. He was dressed in an unremarkable suit and unremarkable shoes, but his eyes were piercing. I approached him, smiling, and he bowed slightly. It felt strange, another person responding to this face that wasn’t mine.

  I ordered an iced coffee and he asked for the same. Until the drinks arrived I observed him silently, but the silence didn’t bother him. I waited until the waitress had gone and then spoke.

  “There’s something I’d like you to do for me. I believe you know an elderly gentleman called Shozo Kuki. He was the head of the Kuki family.”

  The man’s expression didn’t change. He looked to be in his forties but was probably older.

  “I don’t know him, I’m afraid.”

  “That’s not true,” I said, and lit a cigarette. “What did Shozo Kuki get you to investigate? That’s what I’d like to know. Sorry to speak so bluntly, but your business is going downhill.”

  Outside the window a fine rain had started to fall.

  “That’s because nobody knows where he is and you’ve lost your connection to the Kukis. His children don’t know you at all, so they aren’t giving you any work. Also, your rates are too high. You’re ignoring the competition. A private eye’s main work is spying on unfaithful spouses, right? The average housewife can’t afford your fees. That’s why you can’t keep your business going.”

  I brought out a silver briefcase.

  “There’s fifty million yen in here. I want to know what you were doing for Shozo Kuki and I want all your material.”

  “I don’t know him,” he replied flatly. “Really, I don’t. As far as I know I’ve never heard the name Kuki. If I knew, for that much money of course I’d tell you.”

  He grinned.

  “That’s perfect,” I said, taking the case off the table. “I was just testing you, because I can’t trust someone who will sell information for money. For various reasons, I know that you worked for Shozo Kuki and were heavily involved with him. I also know that you’re an excellent investigator. Now I’ve got a real commission for you. I’ll pay you three times your normal rate.”

  He looked at me. Smiling, I reached into my pocket and took out a driver’s license.

  “This man, Koichi Shintani, I want you to find out what sort of person he was. His background, what he was good at, his personality, everything.”

  His face gave nothing away, even when he realized that the photo on the license was me.

  “That’s right. I want you to investigate me. Depending on how this job goes, I plan to ask you to do some regular work for me. Looking for a woman, and once you find her, reporting on her life. The fee will be big enough so you won’t need to take on any other clients. Alongside that, I may also ask you to look into various other matters.”

  “I understand.”

  The man looked directly at me, but his face was still unreadable.

  “I like you,” I said, as I rose from my seat.

  Name: Koichi Shintani

  Date of Birth: 2 August 1979

  Blood Type: A

  Family: Father – Takashi Shintani (dec. 1992)

  Mother – Kanami (dec. 2008)

  Paternal grandfather – Kenjiro (dec. 1985)

  Paternal grandmother – Sanae (dec. 1986)

  Maternal grandfather – Yoji (dec. 1990)

  Maternal grandmother – Chihiro (dec. 1978)

  Academic Background:

  Kakurabashi Nursery School

  Minagawa South Elementary School

  Minagawa South Junior High School

  Kogurazaka Senior High School

  Economics Department, Hosei University

  Employment History:

  2002 Joined Shintaka Shibaura Realty Co., Ltd.

  2005 Resigned

  2005 Established Earthnic Corporation

  2008 Resigned

  Qualifications: Standard Driver’s License

  Practical English Proficiency Test Level 1

  Real Estate Appraiser’s License

  Residential History:

  Setagaya 8-61-17, Setagaya Ward, Tokyo (at high school graduation)

  Menzell’s Mansion 201, Shimotakaido 9-1-23-20, Suginami Ward, Tokyo (at university graduation)

  Taurus Condominium 703, Misono 6-15-31, Itabashi Ward, Tokyo (at resignation from Shintaka Shibaura Realty)

  Klim Ciel 1102, Roppongi 12-13-40, Minato Ward, Tokyo (at time of disappearance)

  Report (in progress)

  [Koichi Shintani]

  Real parents unknown. Adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Shintani from Sakurazaka Orphanage at approximately one year of age. For the same reason his actual date of birth is also unknown. Entered in the family register as August 2 for the sake of convenience. Class leader in 4th grade and 5th grade at elementary school. Belonged to basketball club in junior and senior high school.

  Personality cheerful but somewhat suspicious, tends to have a limited circle of friends. Apparently cried at mother’s funeral but was composed at father’s. Hobbies include film (especially French and Italian movies; at university belonged to film society for approximately two years), bicycles, to a lesser extent collecting cigarette lighters. No particular favorite food, but likes Chinese noodles, often chews gum. Smoker.

  In high school started dating classmate Mie Arakawa, broke up when entered university.

  At university dated Sae Suzuki (died in a traffic accident after they split up), Sakiko Nitta, Ayano Togawa. Stayed with Togawa until one year before his resignation from Shintaka Shibaura Realty, but separated without getting married. The speculation (from his work colleagues) is that Shintani was afraid of commitment.

  It appears that after establishing Earthnic Corporation Shintani had no lasting female relationships (needs further investigation).

  People seem to die around him, but there has been nothing to indicate foul play.

  As well as his university girlfriend mentioned above, he also lost a high school friend (Masao Yaeda), a university friend (Takayuki Isoi), both parents, and his direct supervisor at Shintaka Shibaura Realty (Mikio Suzuki).

  The reason he left Shintaka Shibaura Realty was to set up Earthnic Corporation with some acquaintances. It was started as a venture company investing mainly in stocks and land. Two years after Shintani’s resignation it was acquired in a friendly takeover by the Clarunal Corporation and ceased to exist.

  Shintani’s resignation from Earthnic is believed to have been due to exhaustion. Then he travelled abroad.

  Went to Mexico via the USA, then further south. After that information about him stops.

  He was probably abducted for ransom and killed by a crime syndicate based in Chile. Then his identity seems to have been sold on the black market. Since his relationship wi
th his family was always weak, and most of them were dead, he was never listed as missing.

  One year after Earthnic Corporation was founded, he was already having constant problems with other employees (for names, see separate sheet), and none of them kept in contact with him.

  LOOKING AT THE report on Koichi Shintani, I found it mildly refreshing that a person’s whole life could be summed up on two A4 pages.

  In our room at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel, the investigator was sitting upright on the sofa, watching me read through the document. On the table were Shintani’s graduation albums from elementary, junior high and senior high school, the class registers for his university tutorials, the membership list for the film society and the employee register for Earthnic Corporation. I looked at the detective and forced a smile, then put the papers in my briefcase. Almost all the information I needed about the man I was becoming was in there.

  “We’re still not certain about his relationships after he set up Earthnic Corporation, but my guess is that he didn’t have any lasting girlfriends.”

  “This is enough.”

  I drank my coffee. As before, the other man’s suit was plain, and I thought that he could easily get lost in a crowd.

  “For such a short time, this is very impressive. At first I said I’d pay you three times your normal rate, but let’s make it five. I’d like to ask you to do something else for me. It’s a long-term job, a job with no end. Actually, maybe it would be a good thing for me if it did have an end.”

  I showed him a photograph.

  “I’d like you to find this woman. Her name is Kaori Kuki. She’s the adopted daughter of Shozo Kuki, your former employer.”

  The investigator glanced at me briefly.

  “Born April 8, 1982. She took the name Kuki when she was adopted, and no one knows her original surname, or if her parents are alive or dead. She was left outside an orphanage called Kusunoki Nursery in Nagoya. Then she was transferred to the Kusunoki Children’s Home next door, and when she was eleven she was adopted by the Kuki family. All I know at the moment is that she’s working in a club in Tokyo. I don’t know where, nor whether it’s a high-class club or a floor show or what. This photo’s very old.”

  He studied the picture closely.

  “I want you to find her, and then give me regular reports on her life. I don’t care how trivial it seems. Her day-to-day life. What she eats, what she wears, where she goes, any insignificant details. If you can get photos or video, that would be great. Also whether she’s married, or if there’s a man in her life.”

  I felt a bit jittery. I could still get rattled, I realized.

  “Then I want you to find out her dreams. What she wants to do with her life. What job she wants to do. What vague visions she has for herself ten years from now. Her hopes for her life. That will need care and discretion. Have you got a woman you can ask to get close to her, become her friend? I’d like her to get close to Kaori and find out her secrets. Is that possible?”

  He nodded slowly.

  “Maybe you think I’m crazy,” I added.

  He was observing me calmly. The ceiling fan continued silently slicing the air. He paused a beat before answering.

  “Is there anyone who isn’t?”

  “That’s a tricky question.”

  Finally he picked up his coffee.

  “Our job involves looking at things that people usually can’t see.”

  His voice was slightly hoarse.

  “People ask us to find out things which can’t be detected in daily life. In other words, we break the rules.”

  “I heard that same expression, breaking the rules, from someone else just the other day.”

  His face relaxed a little.

  “If there’s anyone apart from us who breaks the rules, I think it’s God. That is, if there is a God. Of course we do it on a much smaller scale.”

  Outside the thick hotel windows a train made its way quietly past. Its distant lights stood out vividly in the darkness.

  “I’ve put myself right in the middle of those violations, of my own free will. If you’re crazy, then so am I.”

  When I stood up from the sofa, he rose as well.

  “Steer clear of Kaori’s past, please. What I want to know about is the present. Boyfriends too, just stick to her current ones.”

  I could feel that my face was gradually losing its composure. The television, its sound turned down low, was reporting a dull story of rocks being placed on railway lines all over the country at the same time. I watched him leave and then went back inside.

  WHEN I LEFT my room and followed my father down to the cellar, my insides were churning violently. It felt as though something was dragging me. I was conscious of the backpack on my shoulders, and the knowledge that if I didn’t pull this off I had no future echoed through my head. In a disordered state of mind I stalked him, thinking that if I hesitated it would be all over, if I faltered even for a second I’d find some convenient excuse, like waiting for a better opportunity.

  If my plan to lock him in the underground room failed, I’d hit him with a metal pipe or whatever came to hand. I would do whatever it took to end his life. I was still only thirteen, but I was tall for my age and his body had shrunk. If it came to a hand-to-hand struggle, I knew I could overpower him. The fact that as a minor the law couldn’t punish me, despite my superior strength and murderous intent, gave me a modicum of courage.

  Father went down the stairs, opened the door and entered the cellar. I waited for the light to peek through the gap, waited for him to move away from the entrance. Then I cautiously opened the door. I had oiled it in advance so it would make as little noise as possible. In the last year Father had grown extremely deaf, so he probably wouldn’t have heard it anyway. He walked slowly through the area used as a storeroom, past old furniture and timber. I watched from the shadow of an enormous wardrobe, its decoration peeling and faded. My breath disturbed the dust that clung to the woodwork like threads. Scratches on the drawers flickered in the corner of my eye like bare skin, as though they were trying to tell me something.

  Even in my distracted state, I wondered why he ventured to that hidden basement room. In the past he’d hardly ever gone there, but in the last couple of years he’d started visiting almost every month. What was he doing there? Returning to the matter at hand, I followed him with my eyes. What he did there wasn’t important. What mattered, I told myself, was destroying the life force that was driving his thoughts and actions. He shifted the cloth and lifted the boards leading to the lower level. My vision grew blurry, as though I’d been hit over the head with something. Before me was the opportunity to kill a person. I was face to face with murder. I dug my nails into my knees, trying to convince myself that it wasn’t murder. I was just confining him, and the decision to die would be entirely his own. All I was doing was blocking the path by which he would take Kaori and me to hell. He went down the stairs to the secret chamber. I edged closer, my heart beating painfully, taking care to muffle my footsteps.

  The boards of the hatch had no soundproofing, so even if I closed it and covered it with furniture, if he kept pounding on it from underneath someone might hear. No one came here usually, but it wasn’t completely beyond the bounds of possibility. I held my breath and strained to listen, but all I could hear was my own heartbeat. From the bottom of the stairs came the faint sound of the door opening and then closing. My hands were growing numb, but I forced them to move and took a few deep breaths.

  Now I had to go down the stairs myself, take the case containing the death caps out of my bag, open the door for an instant, throw them in and slam it shut again. Then fasten the handle with the bar I’d brought with me to lock him inside. After that I’d replace the bar with the broken air conditioner, sliding it tightly under the lever to block the door. The unit was exactly the right height, as if it had been made for that purpose, and fit with curious precision in the gap between the handle and the stairs. Finally I’d race back up the
steps, close the hatch, move some heavy furniture on top of it and it would all be over. All I had to do now was do it. It wasn’t murder, I told myself over and over. I was just stopping his access to me and Kaori. For the first time in my life, there was something that I absolutely had to do. He was like a massive stone blocking my way, and if I didn’t remove it my future would be ruined. I took the fungi from my backpack and crept quietly down the steps. My legs were shaking, but that couldn’t be helped. My throat was dry and sore, and for some reason I knew I’d remember that pain. Deep cracks ran along the concrete wall beside the stairs, and I knew I’d remember how deep they were as well. I could dimly make out the door handle. Just as I was about to jerk it open, however, it opened by itself and my eyes were struck by a blinding light. Father was standing there, his back to the light. Heart racing painfully, I cried out and shoved him with both hands.

  I don’t know why I was able to push him then, why I was able to knock him back into the room. Two steps led down from the door, so the floor was slightly lower. Stunned, I wondered foolishly how long it had been since I touched him. Perhaps not since my earliest memory, when he had brushed me aside with his foot just after I’d learned to walk. Probably I’d been able to lay hands on him, to push him, because with the light behind him he was merely a shadow and I couldn’t see him clearly. He lay sprawled on the floor, looking up at me standing in the doorway. I was frozen in place.

  He was holding his foot in his hands as though he’d hurt it. I continued to stand there, with the two steps between us. The white bed in the center of the room seemed to bulge slightly. I could faintly see something that looked like a body, but I couldn’t worry about that now. I knew I had to toss in the death caps and shut the door, but I felt like I was going to pass out. My brain couldn’t communicate with my limbs, my arms had no strength, I couldn’t even move my fingertips. I just stood there, staring at him, unsure how to handle this new situation.

  “So that’s how it is,” he said softly.

  When I heard his voice, a sharp pain shot through my heart. His eyes fastened on the bag over my shoulders.