Now I step back out into the corridor –
The four other mothers with their other daughters or their sisters or neighbours are waiting. Four other mothers who have lost daughters aged fifteen to twenty years old. Four mothers who lost their daughters over three weeks ago. Mothers who are wringing their hands and praying they do not find their daughters here at the end of this corridor, beyond these glass doors –
Praying and praying …
I ask Mrs. Tamba of Ōmori Ward to please step into the autopsy room. Mrs. Tamba and her two sisters follow me inside –
Mrs. Tamba and her sisters stare at the yellow and dark-blue striped pinafore dress, the white half-sleeved chemise, the dyed-pink socks and the white canvas shoes with red rubber soles lain out on the autopsy table and they shake their heads. I ask them to look at the undergarments on the other table. They stare again and then they shake their heads again. I thank them and they leave –
I lick the tip of my pencil. I make a note –
Mrs. Nakahara of Yodobashi Ward and her other daughter stare at the yellow and dark-blue striped pinafore dress, the white half-sleeved chemise, the dyed-pink socks and the white canvas shoes with red rubber soles. They dab their eyes but shake their heads. I ask them to look at the undergarments on the other table. They shake their heads again. I thank them and they leave –
I turn the page. I make another note –
Mrs. Hidari of Ebara Ward and her sister stare at the yellow and dark-blue striped pinafore dress, the white half-sleeved chemise, the dyed-pink socks and the white canvas shoes with red rubber soles and finally, after five minutes, they shake their heads. I ask them to look at the undergarments. They look at each other and then shake their heads. I thank them and they leave –
I lick the tip of my pencil –
Mrs. Mitani of Jōtō Ward has no daughter or sister or neighbour with her today. Mrs. Mitani stands alone before the autopsy table and stares at the yellow and dark-blue striped pinafore dress, the white half-sleeved chemise, the dyed-pink socks and the white canvas shoes with red rubber soles. Mrs. Mitani shakes her head. I ask her to look at the undergarments. Mrs. Mitani shakes her head again. I thank her but she does not move. Mrs. Mitani continues to stare at the undergarments lain out on the dissecting table. I thank her again. She still does not move but asks, ‘What happens now?’
‘We will continue to try to identify these clothes so…’
‘Not about that,’ she says. ‘About my daughter…’
‘I’m sure the Jōtō police are trying to find her…’
‘How can they?’ she asks me. ‘Have you been to Jōtō Ward? There’s nothing left there. The police have nothing. No buildings. No telephones. No bicycles. How can they find her?’
‘I’m sorry,’ I say. ‘I’m really sorry…’
‘She was all I had,’ she says. ‘I have nothing now. No family. No house. No job. No money. Nothing…’
‘I’m sorry,’ I say again. ‘But I promise I will make sure that the description of your daughter is sent to every police station in Tokyo and I hope we will find her…’
Now Mrs. Mitani of Jōtō Ward looks up from the ladies undergarments and the dissecting table. Now Mrs. Mitani wipes her eyes. Mrs. Mitani bows and thanks me –
Now Mrs. Mitani leaves –
I make my final note –
I need a cigarette …
I walk back down the basement corridor past the walls of sinks and drains, the written warnings of cuts and punctures, the orderlies washing and rinsing their hands and their forearms and I push the elevator button and I watch the doors open and I am about to step inside the elevator when Dr. Nakadate catches my arm and asks, ‘Did you find that file, inspector? The Miyazaki file…’
*
I don’t want to remember. In the half-light, I can’t forget…
The cars have gone back to HQ. The streetcar full again –
Kai has a name. Kai has a suspect. Kai will get an address …
I walk back to Sakuradamon, through Moto-Akasaka –
Kai will make an arrest. Kai will get a confession …
By the river, behind the parliament building –
Kai can close the case. Both our cases …
Past the imperial moat to HQ –
Both our cases closed …
Miyazaki Mitsuko forgotten again.
*
I knock on the door of the interview room. I open it. I bow. I take a seat next to the stenographer at the side. Inspector Kai does not look up. Mrs. Midorikawa does not look up; Mrs. Midorikawa sat next to one of her older daughters, twisting and wringing that same piece of cloth in her lap as Inspector Kai confirms again, again and again, the things she has told him during their initial two interviews –
‘So you last saw your daughter on the sixth?’
‘Yes,’ whispers Mrs. Midorikawa. ‘Ryuko left the house at about nine on the morning of the sixth of August.’
‘And this is the house in Meguro Ward?’
‘Yes,’ she says. ‘But it’s not our house, it’s the Yamamotos’ house. We’ve been staying with them since our house was pulled down for fire defences at the end of last March.’
‘And Ryuko was living there too?’
‘Yes,’ she says again. ‘Always.’
Now Inspector Kai asks, ‘And so can you tell me again what was she wearing when she left the house in Meguro on the sixth?’
‘A white summer dress and white canvas shoes.’
‘And did she have any money with her?’
‘She would have had about ten yen,’ says Mrs. Midorikawa. ‘Just for the streetcar or the train fare.’
Inspector Kai turns the page of his notebook. ‘And she told you she was going for a job interview?’
‘Yes,’ agrees Mrs. Midorikawa. ‘Ryuko didn’t really like the job she had as a waitress in Ginza.’
‘And this was as a waitress at a café in the fourth cho me?’
‘Yes,’ she agrees again. ‘But there were not many tips.’
‘And the interview for this new job was in Shibaura?’
‘Yes,’ she says again. ‘With the Occupation Army.’
‘And this job interview had all come about through this man called Kodaira?’ asks Inspector Kai. ‘Kodaira Yoshio?’
Mrs. Midorikawa pauses here. Mrs. Midorikawa swallows. Now Mrs. Midorikawa says, ‘Through that man, yes.’
‘Please tell me again then, in as much detail as you can, how your daughter Ryuko came to meet this man called Kodaira?’
Mrs. Midorikawa sighs. Mrs. Midorikawa shakes her head. Mrs. Midorikawa says, ‘By chance at Shinagawa station.’
‘How was it by chance that Ryuko met this man Kodaira?’ asks Inspector Kai. ‘And what was the date they met?’
Mrs. Midorikawa looks at her other daughter. Mrs. Midorikawa asks her, ‘You said the tenth of July?’
‘Yes,’ says her other daughter. ‘There was an accident at Shinagawa and all the trains were delayed.’