by David Peace
‘What do you want?’
‘The police have arrested a man in Otaru,’ I tell her. ‘The police believe this is the man. The train bringing him to Tokyo will arrive at Ueno at 5 a.m. I’ve got a car to take you to Ueno.’
‘Why?’ she asks.
‘Well, I thought you’d want to see him,’ I say. ‘To see if it really is him, really is the man you saw that day …’
‘Wait then,’ she says now and I wait, I wait in the street outside her house. Is she afraid? Her house still dark. Or is she excited? The lights still off. Hoping? The curtains still closed–
Praying it is that man, that man again?
The door opens now. Miss Murata Masako stares at me. Murata Masako says, ‘Are you here as a reporter or as a friend?’
‘Both,’ I say. ‘But mainly as a friend, I hope.’
‘I hope so, too,’ says Murata Masako. ‘Come on, then.’
In the Fictional City, we sit in silence in the back of the Yomiuri car, in silence as she stares out of the window at the city, the city rising, in silence as we are driven through the heat, the heat rising, in silence until we arrive at Ueno Station, at Ueno Station where she turns to me and whispers, ‘In due time, in due time …’
‘Pardon?’ I ask. ‘What did you say?’
‘Nothing,’ she says and now she gets out of the car in front of the station, out of the car and into the crowds, the crowds that have come in their thousands, in their thousands to see this man, this man who the crowds believe murdered her co-workers and her friends –
This man who tried to murder her, to kill her –
Now she grabs my hand suddenly and she holds my hand tightly as I push and I shove through the crowds, the crowds in their thousands who are pushing and shoving to catch a glimpse, a glimpse of this man, this man called Hirasawa Sadamichi –
This man who tried to murder her –
But the train is late, the train delayed, and the crowd is growing and growing, pushing and shoving, and now the train has arrived, the train is here, and the crowd are pushing and shoving, harder and harder, and I am holding her in front of me, my hands on her waist, tighter and tighter, pushing her forward, raising her up, higher and higher, hoping and praying she’ll see him, hoping and praying she’ll see him and say that this is the man, this is the man who murdered her co-workers –
This man who –
‘I can’t see,’ she whispers. ‘I can’t see him …’
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, in the dancehall on the Ginza, with its sticky suits and sweaty faces, its jungle rhythms and deafening shoes, in this Fictional City, I am shouting, shouting over the drums and the feet, ‘I thought you were my man-on-the-inside, my man-in-the-know, but I’m the last-man-to-know, I’ve been scooped …’
He shrugs. He says, ‘Everyone’s in the dark. Not just me, not just you. They kept the rest of us chasing suspects with military backgrounds, with medical backgrounds, telling us to forget about the name-cards, giving it to Robbery, moving Robbery out of HQ …’
‘But they told us not to write about the military men, the medical men; told us to keep it out of our papers,’ I say. ‘And look where that’s got us? Duped and scooped …’
He laughs, ‘You think you guys, your paper, are the only ones who get censored? Wake up! This is an Occupied Country. They can do what they want. It’s a set-up …’
‘He’s innocent?’
He sighs, ‘Course he is. But they’re desperate. They followed the name-cards and this is where it’s led them. But there are seventeen name-cards which have not been traced, that are unaccounted for. This guy is just one of seventeen and the moment the survivors set eyes on him, that’ll be that…’
‘That’ll be what?’
He laughs again, ‘The end of their case. The survivors won’t be able to identify him and then they’ll have to let him go …’
‘You think so?’
He winks at me now and says, ‘I know so. All of us do, all of us except Ikki and his name-card team. It’s all circumstantial…’
‘But off-the-record, they’re telling us they’re 100 per cent certain. That’s why they’ve gone so public with his arrest…’
‘And, of course, you believe everything you hear,’ he laughs. ‘Everything they tell you. Well, you just watch …’
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, I write a story, half-a-story:
Well-Known Artist Held As Poison Holdup Suspect
The latest Teikoku Bank ‘mass murder’ suspect arrested in Otaru, Hokkaido, arrived at Heno Station yesterday morning under the custody of seven policemen.
The suspect, Hirasawa Sadamichi, 57, spent most of the trip from Hokkaido hiding under a blanket as crowds gathered at every major railway station along the route to get a glimpse of the man suspected of the ‘poison holdup’ which resulted in the death of 12 bank employees.
Metropolitan police authorities, however, warned that it was too early to jump to premature conclusions and said that Hirasawa’s connection with the case would most likely be cleared up within 48 hours.
Hirasawa is a well-known water-colour artist and left for Hokkaido soon after the Teigin mass murder.
Police said there was only circumstantial evidence against him. He was slated to be interviewed by the survivors of the mass murder.
Bearing a close resemblance to the murderer, Hirasawa had been under suspicion before but was released for lack of evidence. His testimony concerning the name-card he admitted receiving from Dr Matsui Shigeru differed from that given by the latter.
Mrs Hirasawa Masako, wife of the suspect, yesterday denied as ‘ridiculous’ the reports that her husband was the long-sought mass murderer. While the general description may fit that of the wanted man, she said that it was unbelievable that he should commit such a diabolic crime.
In the Fictional City, this city of millions, millions will read my newspaper, millions will half-read my half-a-story, and then some of these people will form mobs and these mobs will attack the house of Mrs Hirasawa and her daughters, with sticks and with stones, Mrs Hirasawa and her daughters in hiding now, now and for ever in the Fictional City.
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, in a restaurant far from Shiinamachi, far from the scene of the crime, I look up from the table, the glass jar of toothpicks, the white bottle of soy sauce, and I ask her, ‘So what happened? Did you see Hirasawa? Was Hirasawa the man who …’
‘They took me to the Sakuradamon Police Station,’ she says. ‘And they took me into an interrogation room, and this man, this Hirasawa Sadamichi looked up from the table at me and I stared back at him, looked him in his face, hoping and praying that I had seen his face before, that this was the man who had murdered my colleagues and my friends, the man who had tried to kill me …’
‘And was it?’ I ask her. ‘Was it him?’
‘When the killer began to distribute the poison,’ she whispers, ‘I looked him in his face. I will never forget that face.’
‘I know,’ I say.
‘I would know it anywhere.’
‘I know,’ I say again. ‘And was his face that face?’
‘No,’ she says, shaking her head. ‘It was not the face I saw that day. The face I saw that day was round. Very round, like an egg. This man Hirasawa has a square face. Very square, like a box. He’s also too old. He’s not that man. Hirasawa is not the killer.’
I look back down at the table, the glass jar of toothpicks, the white bottle of soy sauce, and I say, ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Me too,’ she says. ‘Me too.’
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, a telephone rings again, a voice speaks, along the wires again, down the cables, with a time and with a place –
Down an alley, in a room, another room of shadows, another room of stares, a man I know is sitting with a man I don’t –
The man I know gestures at the man I don’t and he says, ‘This gentleman here works for the Free People’s Rights League and this gentleman has something for you, don’t you?’
T
he man hands me an envelope.
I open it. I start to read –
The man I know says, ‘You don’t need to read it all now. It’s for you. You can keep it. But, as you can see, the document details the many ways in which the arrest of Hirasawa violated his civil rights under our new constitution …’
I put the document back in its envelope. I take out my wallet. I take out my cash. The man I know points to the man I don’t –
He smiles and he says, ‘Give it to him. Not me.’
The man I don’t know, this man from the Free People’s Rights League, counts my cash. The man puts it in his jacket pocket. This man smiles now and says, ‘Thank you.’
In this Fictional City, this city of inclement weather, this city of demonstrations, the man I know says, ‘But don’t forget, everything’s a set-up …’
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, I write a new story for a new day:
Mass Murder Suspect Cleared; Police Baffled; Suspect’s Arrest Raises Civil Rights Issue
Horizaki Shigeki of the First Criminal Investigative Section of the Metropolitan Police Board yesterday expressed the hope of releasing Hirasawa Sadamichi from custody sometime the same evening. Officials of the Tokyo Procurators Office said after cross-examining Hirasawa that two major points still need to be cleared up relative to Hirasawa’s action at the time of the crime and subsequently. The first was said to be Hirasawa’s alibi as to what he was doing on January 26, the date of the crime. The other puzzling point, they said, was the suspect’s construction of a new home and the fact that he possessed ¥45,000 in cash at home, which he alleges to have borrowed from a friend.
—
The seven-month-old question as to who perpetrated the diabolic Teikoku Bank ‘poison holdup case’ remained a baffling mystery today following the clearance of Hirasawa Sadamichi from suspicion as being the long-sought criminal.
Hopes entertained by police authorities, especially Inspector Ikki, who made the arrest and went so far as saying that Hirasawa’s guilt was ‘100 per cent certain’, fell dismally flat Monday evening when 11 persons who saw the Teigin criminal could find no resemblance in the much-publicized latest suspect.
Although the ‘screening’ was conducted under a tense atmosphere and all who saw Hirasawa were given ample time to make up their minds, not a single person charged the water-colour artist as being the Teikoku Bank criminal.
Six of them, in fact, were certain that he was not the man who committed the diabolic crime.
Hirasawa was the fourth important suspect directly questioned by the Metropolitan Police Board in connection with the Teikoku Bank ‘poison holdup case’.
—
Meanwhile, Government and police authorities appear destined to face sharp criticism from numerous public organizations on the charge of failing to safeguard basic civil rights in the event investigations should clear latest Teigin suspect Hirasawa Sadamichi of all association with the Teikoku Bank ‘poison holdup case’.
Lessening of suspicion against Hirasawa has switched public attention to the issue of basic civil rights concerning police action and the indignities to which the latest suspect was subjected.
Already, two civic organizations – the Tokyo Bar Association and the Free People’s Rights League – are reported to be preparing a campaign of protest against Government authorities for their action against Hirasawa in the event the latter should be freed of all suspicion.
Both of these bodies favour the institution of legal action against the Government on behalf of Hirasawa to obtain payment of damages or a formal apology from authorities for their failure to uphold basic civil rights in the latest case.
In this connection, Attorney General Suzuki Yoshio admitted that the incident involving Hirasawa’s arrest may enmesh the Government in a suit for payment of damages on the charge of failure to safeguard basic civil rights.
The Attorney General said he personally felt that officials associated in the manhunt possessed ample suspicion for carrying out the arrest but it had been ‘imprudent’ for them to have prematurely disclosed their action.
He said, moreover, that there appeared justification in criticism levelled against the remark by Police Inspector Ikki that he was ‘100 per cent certain’ that Hirasawa was the criminal who perpetrated the Teikoku Bank case. Authorities of the Metropolitan Police Board, on the other hand, defended their action relative to Hirasawa. They stressed that they had secured enough incriminating information to arrest Hirasawa, although they felt that Police Inspector Ikki had gone ‘a bit too far’ in making a flat personal statement of his view. But Tanaka Eiichi, Inspector-General of the Police, also pointed out that police had done no wrong in handcuffing Hirasawa in the course of bringing him to Tokyo from Otaru. He said that such a measure was duly provided in police regulations in such instances.
I look up from the paper. I turn around from my desk, my editor standing over my shoulder, and I say, ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Hirasawa’s just tried to kill himself …’
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, in the genkan to her house, she takes her hand from her mouth and she asks, ‘Why? What happened?’
‘Apparently Hirasawa had a piece of glass on him,’ I tell her. ‘And sometime this afternoon he tried to sever the artery of his left wrist with the piece of glass and with the point of a pen …’
‘Is he all right?’ she asks. ‘Will he survive?’
‘Yes,’ I tell her. ‘Luckily, Hirasawa wasn’t alone at the time. There were other prisoners in the cell with him and so they raised the alarm. Doctors were quickly in the cell and they were able to bandage his artery before there was any great loss of blood. So he’ll live.’
‘Why?’ she asks again. ‘It’s not him. He’s innocent?’
‘I don’t know,’ I say. ‘But I’m going to find out…’
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, down an alley off the main street, on the sofa at the back of the room, I say, ‘I thought Hirasawa was in the clear. I thought they were going to release him …’
‘I told you it was a set-up.’
‘And so this is all part of the set-up, is it?’ I ask. ‘The suicide attempt, keeping him locked up like this?’
‘They won’t give up,’ he says. ‘Especially not now, not now there’s all this talk of his civil rights, of suits and of damages. They’ll find other crimes, other crimes to investigate, other crimes to detain him on. They’ll never give up …’
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, they don’t give up, they never give up:
4 FRAUD VICTIMS IDENTIFY ARTIST
Police to Indict Suspect in Teikoku Bank Case on Four Charges
TOKYO, Sept. 2 – Hirasawa Sadamichi, 56, well-known water-colour artist, who is now held at the Metropolitan Police Board as a suspect in the Teikoku Bank mass poisoning murders, is expected to be indicted in a few days on charges of absconding with a deposit book issued by the Marunouchi branch of the Mitsubishi Bank and committing three abortive attempts fraudulently to secure money with it.
The discovery that the latest Teigin suspect had been engaged in such unlawful practices was bared by Prosecutor Takagi of the Tokyo district prosecutor’s office as a sequel to further intensive police investigations into Hirasawa’s past activities.
The four persons said to be victims of his acts have identified him and this has brought hope to the long-harassed police that these cases may lead to the murder case. For it appears that there was some extremely pressing need for Hirasawa to obtain at least ¥100,000 and thus might have made him desperate enough not to stop at murder. Another point about these charges is that they invariably have to do with banks.
The police still cannot say as yet whether they believe Hirasawa to be the Teikoku Bank murderer but the attempted swindles, with one connected with a branch of the Teikoku Bank, place him under the case will be continued with heavy suspicion. Investigation on Hirasawa held on the four charges.
HIRASAWA HELD ON FRAUD CHARGE
Authorities Still Pinning High Hopes of L
inking Artist with Bank Case
TOKYO, Sept. 5 – The Tokyo District Public Procurator’s Office Friday prosecuted Hirasawa Sadamichi, water-colour artist and the latest suspect in the Teikoku Bank holdup-murder case, for falsification of private documents and fraud to which he has confessed, as the period for its investigation of the man as a Teigin murder suspect expired.
The procuratorial authorities, who are said to be 80 per cent confident that Hirasawa is the Teigin murderer, will continue to investigate his suspected crime after his prosecution for other crimes, it was learned.
The Yomiuri has also learned that the procuratorial authorities have decided to have the handwriting endorsing a cheque, the only clue to the bank murderer, studied by experts to determine whether the handwriting is not that of Hirasawa.
A number of people who saw the bank murderer have had a look at Hirasawa but most of them are not sure that he is the murderer.
On Friday Hirasawa had his hair cropped before a photograph was taken of him. Three officers in charge of the case were dumb-struck at the sight of Hirasawa with his hair cut. They said that the man now answered the description of the murderer.
Is Hirasawa Culprit In Teigin Murder Case?
Is Hirasawa Sadamichi the actual culprit who perpetrated the diabolic Teikoku Bank mass poisoning murder?
On the left is the hypothetical drawing of the murderer made immediately after the murders on the basis of the description given by the eye-witness survivors.
On the right is a photo just taken at the special investigation room of the Metropolitan Police Board of Hirasawa with his hair cropped close.
PAST ACTIVITIES OF ARTIST BARED
Teigin Suspect Found to Have Made Big Deposits Under Assumed Names
TOKYO, Sept. 9 – Police efforts to trace the source of a large amount of questionable money acquired by Hirasawa Sadamichi have led to a fresh exposure that the latest Teigin suspect deposited a sum of ¥80,000 with the Hongoku-cho branch of the Bank of Tokyo three days after the Teikoku Bank ‘poison holdup case’.
