He is fighting for his rights, fighting for his freedoms…
‘Either open war,’ says the chief. ‘Or open markets.’
*
They will find Hayashi’s name. They will visit Hayashi’s address. They will talk to Hayashi’s family. They will visit Hayashi’s office. They will talk to Hayashi’s colleagues. They will find Hayashi’s stories. They will read Hayashi’s stories. They will talk to Hayashi’s contacts. They will find Hayashi’s notes. They will read Hayashi’s notes. They will talk to Hayashi’s snitches and they will tell them –
They will tell them my name and they will come for me –
Just like we have come today for Kodaira Yoshio –
Nothing moves on the streets of Shibuya. It is almost noon on the hottest day of the year. Nothing moves outside the house in Hanezawamachi. Ninety-one degrees in the shade now. Room #2 are here as back-up for Room #1. Pairs of men on every corner. Down every alleyway. In every doorway. Inspector Kai is in command. Inspector Kai has his whistle in his hand. Inspector Kai looks at his watch again. Chiku-taku. Inspector Kai puts his whistle to his lips –
Through the front door. Up the steps. Into the second floor room where Kodaira Yoshio is sleeping naked beneath a mosquito net, his wife covering her breasts, reaching for their child –
Kodaira Yoshio dragged out from under the net by his feet onto the mats and back down the stairs –
Kodaira pulling on his trousers. Kodaira pulling on his shirt. Kodaira buttoning up his trousers. Buttoning up his shirt as he goes, putting on his army boots –
In the back of the car. Another middle-aged man. Kodaira rubs the top of his skull. Kodaira scratches his balls. In the back of the car. Face gaunt. Kodaira blinks. Kodaira rubs his eyes. In the back of the car. Hair thinning. Kodaira grins. Kodaira laughs. In the back of the car. Kodaira looks like Kai, Kodaira looks like Kanehara and he looks like me…
Like me…
There are press all over the road and the steps outside the Atago police station. Kodaira accepts a cigarette. The car turns back onto Sakurada-dōri and then right onto Meguro-dori. Kodaira chats about the weather. The car turns right again onto Yamate-dōri and then follows the Meguro River along to the Meguro police station –
Kodaira speaks with maturity. He speaks with authority —
This is where Kodaira Yoshio will be interrogated –
Kodaira is grinning now. Kodaira laughing —
This is where Kodaira will confess.
But the Meguro police are angry. The Meguro police have been used for legwork since the two bodies were found in Shiba Park. Now the Meguro police are being kicked out of their own offices. In the dark and out of the loop, the Meguro police sulk and sweat –
Two men from Room #1 take Kodaira up the stairs –
They give him tea. They give him a cigarette –
Then they leave him to drink and to smoke –
They leave him to wait and to think.
Chief Inspector Kanehara, Inspector Kai and the rest of Room #1 take over another office down the corridor, clearing desks and emptying drawers, moving files and stealing pencils –
The Meguro police just watching and cursing, left sulking and sweating, in the dark and out of the loop –
I take an empty chair at the back by the window as Kanehara and Kai outline the strategy for the interview, the questions they will ask and the questions they won’t –
Then Adachi is back, back with a telegram in his hand and a smile on his lips. ‘This just got here from Nikkō. He’s killed before.’
‘And we’ve both seen this before, detective. Remember…?’
Kai is on his feet now. Kai saying, ‘Come on! Let’s go!’
‘Did you find that file, inspector? The Miyazaki file…’
‘Slowly, slowly,’ smiles Kanehara. ‘Step by step.’
*
I follow Adachi, Kanehara and Kai. Down the corridor. Into the interrogation room. No one invites me. No one refuses me. I sit by the door. I say nothing. The room is bright. Bare but for a table and six chairs. Adachi, Kanehara and Kai sit across the table from Kodaira, the stenographer to one side with a pen and some paper –
Kodaira Yoshio with his hands on the table, smiling –
Inspector Kai asks him, ‘When were you born?’
‘In the thirty-eighth year of the reign of the Emperor Meiji,’ says Kodaira. ‘In the first month, on the twenty-eighth day.’
That is the twenty-eighth of January, 1905 …
Kai asks, ‘And where were you born?’
‘Tochigi Prefecture,’ says Kodaira.
‘Where in Tochigi Prefecture?’
‘Kami Tsuga-gun, Nikkō-chō, Ōaza-Hosō.’
‘Are you the eldest son of your family?’
‘No,’ he says. ‘I’m the sixth son.’
‘Is your father still alive?’
‘No.’
‘How did your father die?’
‘Brain haemorrhage.’
‘And when did he die?’
‘Ten years ago.’
Kai nods. Kai asks, ‘What kind of work did your father do?’
‘Well, he used to have land, a farm and an inn,’ says Kodaira. ‘But he drank heavily, bought women and gambled and lost it all.’
‘So he was a bankrupt?’ asks Kai. ‘Unemployed?’
‘No,’ says Kodaira. ‘He always worked. His last job was working as an oil-feeder at an iron-railings factory…’
Kai asks, ‘What about your eldest brother?’
‘He’s dead too,’ says Kodaira.
‘When did he die?’
‘This year.’
‘And what was his job?’
‘Nothing steady,’ laughs Kodaira. ‘He used to work in the copper-smelting factory in Nikkō. Then he left that and came to Tokyo but I don’t know what he did here. I never saw him in Tokyo.’
Kai asks, ‘So who is the head of your family now?’
‘It’ll be my other elder brother, I suppose,’ shrugs Kodaira. ‘But I never see them. I never really go back there now.’
‘But you still have family in Nikkō-chō?’
Kodaira nods. Kodaira says, ‘Yes.’
‘Let’s talk a little bit about you,’ says Inspector Kai now. ‘You were born in Nikkō—chō? Is that where you went to school?’
‘I graduated from school in Nikkō,’ says Kodaira. ‘Yes.’
‘And then what did you do?’ asks Kai. ‘After school?’
‘I left home and I moved down here to Tokyo.’
‘And so when was that? How old were you?’
‘I was about fourteen years old, I think.’
‘So that would be when?’ calculates Inspector Kai. ‘About the seventh year of Taishō. Does that sound about right?’
‘It sounds right,’ agrees Kodaira. ‘But I can’t remember exactly. I know I was about fourteen though.’
‘And so where did you work?’
‘At a steel works in Ikebukuro,’ he says. ‘The Toyo Metals Corporation. But I didn’t work there for very long…’
‘Why was that?’ asks Kai. ‘Were you fired?’
‘No,’ he laughs. ‘I’d found a better job.’
‘Which was what? Where?’
‘The Kameya Grocery.’
‘The one in Ginza?’
‘Yes.’
‘That’s a very famous store,’ says Inspector Kai. ‘And so how long did you work there?’
‘Just two years.’
‘Why?’
‘I just got bored of working at the Grocery,’ says Kodaira. ‘The hours were too long, the pay was too poor and the work itself was just fetching and carrying, lifting boxes and so on…’