I ask, ‘What do you want from me?’
Chief Inspector Adachi steps closer. Chief Inspector Adachi whispers, ‘I don’t want anything from you, inspector, except your gratitude that it was me who pulled this case and not anyone else. But when you do see your Detective Fujita, please send him to me…’
I nod then I ask, ‘But why do you want to see Fujita?’
‘Because Detective Fujita was the first policeman to have visited the Minpo offices in the last three days, that’s why…’
I curse him. I swallow. I curse myself. I ask –
‘And so who was the second policeman?’
Ishida. Ishida. Ishida. Ishida. Ishida …
‘You tell me, corporal,’ says Adachi. ‘You tell me.’
*
I need answers; I need to find Fujita and I need to see Ishida: I want to know how Adachi got this case; I want to know who identified Hayashi’s body. But today is not the day to ask the chief these questions. Today is not a day for talk; today there is no talk of fresh purges; today there is no talk of the Tokyo trials; today there is no talk of SCAP reforms; no talk of better guns; no talk of new uniforms. Because the chief has heard about last night’s party; the good food; their glasses raised; the songs sung; their songs of victory –
‘The suspect Kodaira Yoshio has confessed to the murder of Midorikawa Ryuko and I know many of you think that this means that the case is now closed,’ says the chief. ‘But that is not true. The statements in the confession need to be verified. The addresses of the places the suspect Kodaira claims to have lived and worked need to be checked. And we still have one unidentified body –
‘Inspector Minami, if you would please…’
‘The suspect Kodaira denies any knowledge of the second body found at Shiba. Dr. Nakadate, however, believes this crime to be the work of the same person responsible for the murder of Midorikawa Ryuko, that is to say that Dr. Nakadate believes Kodaira to have been responsible for both crimes…’
‘And you, Inspector Minami?’ asks Chief Inspector Adachi. ‘Do you agree with Dr. Nakadate?’
‘Yes,’ I tell him. ‘I believe that if we can find the evidence or, better still, if we can identify the body and then find witnesses or circumstances that can connect Kodaira to the victim or even to the time we know she was murdered then, faced with the evidence, I believe he will again confess.’
‘And if not?’
‘The murders and rapes of two young women would bring Kodaira the death sentence,’ I say. ‘And he knows it. But only one, in the circumstances in which he has confessed, probably not…’
‘Kodaira murdered his father-in-law,’ says Kai. ‘Midorikawa will be his second murder conviction. Kodaira will hang this time.’
‘Kodaira is an old hand at this,’ I say. ‘If he thinks he can still escape the rope, he has no reason to confess to anything else.’
The chief asks, ‘Do you have any new leads at all on the identity of the second body, Inspector Minami?’
‘A newspaper advertisement seeking staff for a Salon Matsu in Kanda was found in one of the pockets of her dress,’ I tell them. ‘It was clipped from the Asahi of the nineteenth of July and this obviously led us to visit this Salon Matsu in Kanda. Unfortunately, because we had only her clothing to describe, the staff were unable to identify her or confirm whether or not she had been to the salon. However, they suggested we go out to the International Palace…’
Better off dead. Better off dead. Better off dead …
‘The International Palace?’ repeats the chief. ‘Out near Funabashi? Why did they suggest that you ask after her out there?’
‘Ninety per cent of their applicants used to work there.’
‘But that doesn’t mean that this one did,’ says Kai.
I shrug. ‘And it doesn’t mean that she didn’t.’
‘Haven’t the Shinchū Gun placed it off-limits?’ asks Chief Inspector Adachi. ‘Won’t we need clearance…?’
The chief nods. The chief looks at his watch. The chief says, ‘Report back here in three hours, inspector.’
*
I need answers; I need to find Fujita and I need to see Ishida. Chiku-taku. I have to go back to Atago. Chiku-taku. I have to find Fujita. Chiku-taku. I have to see Ishida. Chiku-taku. I have three hours before I have to go out to the International Palace. Chiku-taku. But I need to find Fujita. Chiku-taku. I need to speak to Ishida. Chiku-taku. But first I have to have a drink. Chiku-taku. First I need a drink –
Chiku-taku. Chiku-taku. Chiku-taku. Chiku-taku …
The bar is in the basement of a three-storey reinforced concrete shell. Chiku-taku. Each room above the bar has been blown out so now only exposed steel girders dangle where once there were walls and floors. Chiku-taku. The bar itself was once one of the government-run People’s Bars; bars that opened just once or twice a week during the war to sell cheap domestic whisky, bottles of beer and the low-grade sake known as bakudan; bars where people queued for hours and hours; bars that were meant to lift our morale –
Chiku-taku. Chiku-taku. Chiku-taku …
This bar is now back in private hands, now open twenty-four hours a day but it still sells only cheap domestic whisky, bottles of beer and bakudan sake and people still queue for hours to have their morale lifted. Chiku-taku. But this morning there are only two other customers at the counter; a middle-aged woman dressed in red, smelling of strong perfume and smoking Lucky Strikes and an old man in a shabby dark suit who keeps taking out his pocket watch and winding it up and putting it away again, then taking it out and winding it up and putting it away again, taking it out –
Chiku-taku. Chiku-taku …
There are ugly sores on the skin of the old man’s hands. Chiku-taku. He has had no vitamins and now he has beriberi. Chiku-taku. I down my glass of clouded bakudan. Chiku-taku. I feel it explode in my throat and in my belly. Chiku-taku. I cough and now I ask the old man, ‘Is your watch broken, sir?’
‘I was on the train,’ he says. ‘On the day of the surrender, when a woman standing in the aisle ahead of me lost her balance and the large box tied to her back hit me right here in my chest and stopped this watch in my pocket dead…’
Now he shows me the watch –
It says twelve o’clock.
*
I need to find Fujita. I need to see Ishida. I need to speak to Ishida. Detectives Nishi and Kimura are back at their borrowed desks. Detectives Nishi and Kimura are writing up statements –
I ask them, ‘Did you get anything at all?’
They shake their heads. They bow –
‘Have you seen Detective Ishida?’
They shake their heads again –
‘Right then,’ I tell them. ‘Nishi, I want you to come with me out to the International Palace and Kimura, I want you to find Ishida and, when you do, bring him back here and keep him here but don’t let him speak to Chief Inspector Adachi until I’ve spoken to him first. And the same goes for Detective Fujita if he comes back at all…’
*
On the fifteenth of August last year, minutes after the Emperor had surrendered, the Metropolitan Police Board summoned the presidents of the seven major entertainment guilds in Tokyo. These included the heads of the restaurant, cabaret, geisha and brothel associations. The chief of the Metropolitan Police Board feared the Victors would soon be upon Japan, here to rape our wives and our daughters, our mothers and our sisters. The chief wanted a ‘shock absorber’ and so the chief had a proposal. The chief suggested that the heads of the restaurant, cabaret, geisha and brothel associations form one central association to cater for all the needs and amusement of the Victors. The chief promised this new association that it would not lack for funds –