“So that means they didn't even get their hands on the money, right?”
“Apparently all they got was 200,000 yen that the family had in cash. They left the bankbook and cash card behind─they wouldn't be able to use them, so there was no point in taking them.”
“But they'd killed three people!”
“It's just too pathetic for words, isn't it? Extraordinary. For such brutal methods, they showed remarkably little persistence. I don't think there's ever been another case quite like it before.”
The son had arrived home after the gang fled, completely unaware of what was awaiting him. Shigeko felt a chill in the pit of her stomach. What had the poor boy seen when he first opened the door? Bloodstains? Or something worse?
Itagaki continued heavily, “Words can't begin to describe what that poor boy went through.”
“The only survivor …”
“The lucky one.” But the look on his face showed that he wouldn't have thought himself lucky in that position. The boy probably hadn't either, thought Shigeko.
“I remember reading that it only took a couple of weeks to find the killers … I can't remember how they were caught, though. Did someone see them?”
“That was a result of their own incompetence, too.” Itagaki gave a wry laugh. “They'd visited the condominium a few times to check it out before carrying out their plan. Each time they'd come by car─in their own cars, although they used a rental for the real thing.”
And they'd always parked in a no-parking zone inside the condominium grounds.
“Naturally, the resident janitor was unhappy about this and wondered who these cars belonged to. Some of the residents complained about it, too. But there wasn't much the janitor could actually do about it, other than ask them not to do it again. But he did always make a note of the car number plates.”
After the murders, he gave his records to the police, who identified the cars and put A and B together to get C, so to speak, and presto, they had their three-man gang. Shigeko gave an involuntary sigh. It was such a tragic case, and so stupid.
“It was all over the news at the time, but you don't hear any more about it now,” Itagaki said.
“I wonder what that boy is doing now?” muttered Shigeko.
Itagaki leaned forward again. “Exactly. Where do you think he is?”
Shigeko looked at him blankly. His eyes were glittering.
“Oh come on, try harder! Why do you think I started talking about this case in the first place?”
True, this story had been a preamble to something. “You said something about a coincidence …”
“Yep. Don't be too shocked, now.” Itagaki lowered his voice dramatically. “This boy was the very one who found that arm in Okawa Park. Can you believe it?”
Shigeko felt as though she'd lost the thread. “You mean …”
“He was the first on the scene in the case that you're investigating, Shige-chan. He's a minor and not directly involved, so his identity hasn't been released to the media. Although it's only a matter of time before they sniff it out.”
Itagaki paused expectantly, then smiled. “But that's not the only coincidence. I only just heard about all this yesterday─just yesterday─right here in this café, from a writer I worked with on that crime-prevention feature for Silver Life. How 'bout that?”
Shigeko stared at him. “Really?”
“Yes, really. I wouldn't lie about that,” he said, looking at her closely.
Shigeko returned his gaze. “Do I know this writer?”
“I don't think so. He's a veteran journalist by the name of Narita. Silver Life was the first time I'd worked with him.”
“So is this Mr. Narita still investigating that story?”
“No, he isn't. It was only for that one issue of Silver Life.”
“And what about the Okawa Park case?”
“He doesn't seem to be interested in it─not as a writer, anyway. He's not that type. He was just shocked about the chances of that happening to that poor boy.”
Relieved, Shigeko leaned back in her chair.
“Actually, he met the boy at the time of the Sawa murders,” Itagaki went on. “For the Silver Life issue, of course. Apparently he couldn't get anything out of him at all, but anyway, he did get to meet him. More than once.”
Shigeko nodded. She took her cigarettes out of her bag and lit one.
“Let me have one, too,” Itagaki said.
They both smoked in silence for a while.
Eventually, Shigeko said, “I see what you mean─hearing about the same case twice in two days is quite a coincidence.”
“Yep.”
“But back to me ...”
“Hmm,” Itagaki said absently.
Shigeko sneaked a look at him.
“Shigeko, how determined are you to do this?”
“Determined?”
“Yes, determined. The media scrum investigating the Okawa Park case is going to be huge. Given these latest developments, this case is going to be unprecedented, one of a kind. If I'm really frank with you, Shige-chan, I can't see you keeping up.”
Shigeko looked up. But I've got the story I've been working on about those women─
“A half-written story isn't worth a damn,” he said flatly, reading her mind. “What matters is what you do from now on. What angle you take, and the story you make from it. Without seeing that draft, I can't make any promises.”
“I know.”
“You'll come up against a whole bunch of rivals. First of all, reporters from the daily and weekly newspapers will be closest to the scene. They're on the front line. If you're thinking of getting your story in the same way as those guys, you're light-years behind.”
He had a point.
“Your only hope is to find another path─and it sure ain't the half-finished story you've been working on. There might be some use for that story somewhere down the line, but not now. First you have to find a different way in.”
Shigeko looked down again. But this time her eyes were wide open, glaring at the table. Her mind was made up and she was bursting with excitement, but she simply didn't have a clue what to do.
“I gave you a hint just now,” Itagaki said. She looked up abruptly. This used to happen a lot when she was working for Sabrina, too. Whenever she was stuck, Itagaki had always played the role of navigator for her. “That boy is your key.”
“Really?”
“Really. The boy who was left all on his own after his family was murdered, and who happened to find the remains of a woman murdered by some evil force at work in the metropolis. What a combination! Isn't it just perfect? It really shows a cruel side of life facing youth in today's society, don't you think?”
It sounded like a cheap lead in a tabloid, but Itagaki wasn't laughing, and Shigeko didn't laugh either.
“Shige-chan, go after him. He'll bring a new angle in, one that will bring your story to life. If you write about the boy who survived, there's bound to be elements that coincide with the missing women you wanted to write about. His loneliness and fear─it's sure to resonate with the fear you yourself felt when Mariko Furukawa's name came up this time. And that's an angle that won't be covered in the regular papers. Your keywords should be, ‘the sudden destruction of life.’”
Shigeko was nodding. At last she had an answer. But … “How should I approach this boy?”
Itagaki laughed. “Go up to him and say hello, for starters!”
“Yeah, right! I mean, how can I find him?”
“I'll find out for you,” Itagaki said simply. “You might have forgotten, but we put out weekly magazines. I'll dig up everything there is to know about that boy, as well as about the current case and the Sawa case. I've got plenty of connections, so use me. What I'm saying is that I'll do all the legwork for you and get the details the
seasoned crime reporters go after. In return …”
“In return?”
“I'm expecting you to write a damn good story,” he said gravely. “Write a good story, and give it to me. We can consider various media, but ultimately I'm aiming for a book. That would be a fantastic result, don't you think?”
The corners of Shigeko's mouth relaxed into a smile. “It's what I said, isn't it? There could also be a lot of work for you in this!”
“There could indeed. Give me a chance to really prove myself as a chief editor, for once. All right?”
They both laughed. Shigeko suddenly felt lighthearted.
“Oh right, first of all, let me give you the name of that boy. His name is Shinichi. Shinichi Tsukada. Shige-chan, latch onto him and don't let go.
Chapter 10
Detective Shinozaki's attempt at deciphering the name in the photograph had been correct. The firm's full name was Kawashige Heavy Machinery Tokyo, Inc., and it was located in a four-story building four blocks south of Okawa Park.
“They have factories in Sakura, Chiba, and Kawasaki, and their Tokyo HQ is planning to move to Sakura too, once a new building on the factory grounds is ready. It's lucky we found them before they move.”
Upon visiting Kawashige Heavy Machinery, Detective Akitsu had immediately been able to identify the woman employee in the photograph as a twenty-two-year-old office assistant in the accounts department by the name of Akie Sato. She confirmed that she had cut through Okawa Park on her way to the bank the day before the arm was found. Takegami was reading a copy of Akitsu's report. Next to him, Shinozaki was going through the forensics report from NRIPS on their results of their analysis of the photograph. He was looking rather glum. Takegami, too, was in a somewhat somber frame of mind.
Sato was a highly reliable witness, articulate with a good memory. “She's pretty trustworthy. And cute, too,” was the way Akitsu had put it. She generally walked through the park every two or three days on her way to the Sumidagawa branch of Tobu Credit Union on its north side. “It's quicker that way because you don't have to wait at any lights.” She'd said that she always saw a lot of homeless people in the park. This was an issue that had come up repeatedly when questioning people in the vicinity, and the Sumida Ward council often received complaints about them sleeping in the public toilets, or erecting cardboard shelters around the covered seating areas. “I only ever go through the park in the early afternoon, so I don't know about the morning or evening.”
Takegami looked at the map of the park spread out in front of him. Then he ran his eyes over the reports again. Shinichi Tsukada and Kumi Mizuno, the pair that had found the arm, had made no reference to homeless people. Perhaps it depended on the time of day? “Whenever I go to Tobu Credit Union, it's almost always just before closing time. I never go until all our accounts work is ready─otherwise I'd have to go out every time something needed to be done there, which would be too much trouble. So I think this photograph must have been taken at about two-thirty, or thereabouts. Maybe closer to three.” This fit with the investigation team's own estimate based on the length of the shadows in the photo. They hadn't had any help from the cantankerous photographer, who had told them testily that he always took a lot of photos and couldn't possibly remember what time he'd snapped each one.
When asked about the blurred outline of another person in the photo, Akie had said, “I remember there was a homeless guy hanging around me that day. He was near the trash can. I can't be sure, but I think that might be him.” Homeless people didn't necessarily pose any danger, but it was hardly surprising that a young woman might walk a bit faster to get past them, thought Takegami. In any case, Akie hadn't paid much attention to what the guy had been doing. “I don't know whether he was throwing something away, or taking something out of the garbage. I didn't see.” Neither had she registered anything about his appearance. “I don't know. Just, he was obviously homeless.”
Shinozaki sighed. Takegami gave a wry smile. “Don't be so disappointed,” he told him.
“Yeah.”
The report from NRIPS had also stated that the shadowy figure in the background was likely the kind of person generally referred to as “homeless,” judging from the clothing and length of hair. They had conducted a computer analysis of the photo down to the last pixel, screening out superfluous details and intensifying the color of important elements, so that parts of the photograph were more distinct than the original. The person's age was estimated at thirty to fifty, height 160 to 170 centimeters. Unfortunately, the face was not visible. The investigation team thought this person had probably been tasked by the culprit with throwing the paper bag into the trash can. If they could just find him, they could get at least some kind of description of the culprit. The problem was, there was no longer any sign of homeless people in Okawa Park. This was why Shinozaki was looking so despondent.
“Well, the park has been crawling with police ever since the arm was found,” he said. “It's hardly surprising they've all split.”
Once homeless people find somewhere they like, they don't readily move─and when something does make them go away, they hardly ever return. It would be virtually impossible to find out where they had gone. If it had been just one homeless person disappearing from the area, there were bound to have been others nearby who would know where he'd gone. But they had all vanished. The investigation team's only hope was that once things died down again, one or more might start to come back─but they didn't have that sort of time on their hands.
Takegami recalled Yoshio Arima's grief-torn face. After having been questioned at length by the police, the old man had said that if he was requested to prostrate himself live on national TV in exchange for having Mariko returned to him, then he would do it. Takegami had warned him that even if he did as the caller said, there was no guarantee he would keep his promise, but the old man had simply replied that he would never know until he had tried─and if he insisted on doing it, they couldn't stop him. He had now been placed under police protection with recording and tracking devices installed in the telephones at his shop in Koto Ward's Fukagawa 4-chome district and in the Furukawa home in Higashi-Nakano. Takegami wanted to catch the bastard before he could bully him again, but at this stage it looked like a miracle was needed.
“Seems like the Shinjuku high-school girl could be our only hope for a lead,” Shinozaki said. He was referring to the one who had delivered the message to the Plaza Hotel. There was a strong possibility she had come into direct contact with the culprit.
“I wonder if they'll locate her?” Takegami replied. “We'll just have to pray that she'll be as reliable a witness as that Sato.”
“Who knows?” Shinozaki said pessimistically.
Takegami went over the report about Sato once more, this time following her route on the map as he checked her statement. Looking at the photo again, something suddenly dawned on him. He must have made a mistake. Hurriedly he took out the file of police crime-scene photographs and turned the pages until he reached the series showing the garbage can from every possible angle. It only took one look to know he wasn't mistaken. Just to be sure, though, he looked once again, checked on the map, and this time took down the file containing the oral statement taken from an employee in the Okawa Park Management Office.
The park was open twenty-four hours, and its schedule for cleaning and refuse collection was based on the workers' shifts. Their duties and hours were clearly stipulated, and included sweeping and garbage collection twice a day, at 9 AM and 2 PM. The employee on duty had a handcart that he pushed around the park as he removed used trash bags and replaced them with new ones. Takegami already knew this without having to look it up. He knew that after the 2 PM collection, the trash remained in the can until 9 AM the next morning, and that was why he had been focused on the fact that the homeless man in the photo appeared to be throwing something away. But it had been a distraction that had caused him to mis
s something else, he realized.
“Hey, Shinozaki,” he said loudly. Shinozaki looked up in surprise. “The positions of the trash cans are marked on the map, aren't they?”
Shinozaki nodded. “Yes, they are. All of them are marked.”
“That's the positions as they were on the day the arm was discovered, right?”
“Yes,” Shinozaki stared at him. “That's right.”
“Look at this.” Takegami slid the open file of photos over to him. “Can you see any difference between this and the map?” It was the same photo the pair had been poring over as they tried to decipher the company name, showing the bed of cosmos flowers, their witness Sato, the homeless guy, and the trash can in question. “Look here. On the day of the discovery, the trash can wasn't close by the cosmos flowers. But in the photograph taken the day before, it's right behind them. In other words, it's not where it should be according to the map. If it were, it shouldn't be in this photo. Or at least, it shouldn't be so clear from this angle.”
Shinozaki studied the photo and the map carefully, looking repeatedly from one to the other, and finally looked up. “You're right,” he said nodding. He stood up briskly, and said, “Let's request confirmation of the positions of the cans once again.”
“We can write it up and ask them to look into it. I'll take care of that.”
By that evening it was confirmed that Takegami's intuition had been right, the trash can had indeed changed location. The one in the photo taken the day before had been about two meters closer to the flowerbed than usual, and the parks management worker who had changed the bag and swept the paths at 2 PM denied having moved it. “It's not easy to move those things, you know. They're really heavy. If you're determined, well it's not impossible, but I'd never bother.” On the day of the discovery, the trash can had been in its set position, which meant that after the refuse collection at 2 PM the day before, somebody had moved it and then put it back again by the time of the discovery.