According to this theory, then, Mariko's colleague had become Chiaki's client. But this still didn't provide any obvious motive for killing, and then there was the question of the third, as yet unidentified, victim─the woman whose arm had been found. Another colleague or prostitute? As far as Takegami was concerned, this theory seemed too contrived. It was more likely that all three had been random victims and the perpetrator had got them to talk about themselves before he killed them.
But they couldn't discount the possibility that Chiaki knew her murderer. It was possible he'd picked her off the street at random to deliver the letter to the hotel, or perhaps he'd already met her through the telephone club and called her again that day. If he'd been a regular customer, it might even be possible to get some kind of clue from scanning her diary, notebooks, address book, pager records and so forth. One thing was clear though: Chiaki had taken a fancy to him. She had let her guard down with him, and had even shared her childhood memories with him.
Chiaki's body had been found two days after she delivered the letter to the Plaza Hotel. Surprisingly, however, the autopsy showed that no more than twenty-four hours had passed since she died. So during the two days between delivering the letter and her body being found, where had she been and what had she been doing? Had she been with her killer? If so, had she stayed with him of her own free will, or had she been his prisoner? Maybe she had stayed of her own free will the first night, but the next day had been kept prisoner after seeing the news about the Plaza Hotel and realizing what the letter meant. This was the most likely theory, Takegami thought. In any case, the killer couldn't allow her to go free since she knew what he looked like.
It was unlikely Chiaki had been his accomplice from the start. Following the Okawa Park discovery, Chiaki's mother had tried to stop her going out at night, but she'd just retorted, “I'm not so stupid as to get myself killed,” and carried on as usual without showing any especial interest in the news about the case. If she had been an accomplice, surely she wouldn't have been able to be so calm about it; however sly she might have become, she was still a seventeen-year-old girl. So Chiaki had been drawn in, and she'd probably liked and trusted the guy until he showed his true colors. More than anything, the fact that she'd told him about the elephant slide in the park spoke volumes of her feelings toward him.
According to the autopsy report, her last meal had been just before she died. It was a hamburger, or something like it─junk food, but probably a favorite treat for a teenager. In other words, she had been properly fed. No residual semen had been found inside her body, so it wasn't clear whether or not there had been a sexual relationship between them, but there were no signs that she'd suffered any violence. Other than the mark of the rope around her neck, her body's skin was smooth and clear. Traces of shampoo were left in her hair, and mineral scale was found between her toes, suggesting that she might have had a bath or shower.
The cause of death was asphyxiation by means of a rope pulled tight around the neck. However, the rope had not been pulled tight by hand. In other words, she had been made to hang herself─it was suicide by hanging. The media had generally mistaken this point, frequently calling it strangulation, but this was not correct. The ligature marks left on the neck from strangulation and hanging were quite distinctive and could be immediately identified.
This was a first for Takegami. About ten years earlier, he had seen a case where a wife who had a terminal illness affixed a rope over a doorframe and put it around her neck then stood on a footstool, but she had lost her nerve and was dithering when her husband came home. In tears she had begged her husband to do it for her, and he had closed his eyes and kicked the stool away. But in that case the wife had left a suicide note, and there were other witness statements saying how she had talked of suicide daily, plus the medical team testified to how the husband had been driven into a corner both financially and emotionally through nursing her, so the final judgment was one of assisted suicide. It was a crime, but it wasn't murder.
Come to think of it, at the time of that case one of the other detectives on the investigation had said, “If I was ever put in the same position, I think I'd kick the stool away too. But I'm also pretty sure I'd catch her before she fell. The fact he didn't do that shows that he meant her to die.” At the time, Takegami and his wife were going through a rough patch in their relationship, and he'd been quite shaken by his colleague's words. If it had been me, he thought in all seriousness, I'd have kicked out the stool and then gone on the run. Of course, he never told his wife anything of the sort.
The ligature marks on Chiaki's neck clearly indicated hanging, but abrasion on the skin on the back of her neck showed that she had apparently struggled quite violently while still conscious. There were also rope fibers under the nails on both hands, and the nail on the middle finger of her right hand was broken, showing that she had desperately tried to loosen the rope. This would not be the case in a suicide: there was no doubt that she'd been forced by her killer to hang herself. How had he induced her to do it? Had he persuaded her it was just a bit of fun? Maybe he'd told her that guys sometimes strangle themselves and masturbate just before losing consciousness to get one hell of an organism, why didn't she give it a try? In fact quite a lot of people became addicted to this fetish and ended up killing themselves accidentally. However, these were all men─it didn't apply to Chiaki.
And then there was the fact that when Chiaki's body was found, she was wearing her school uniform, right down to the matching socks. However, her underwear and socks were new items that her mother had never seen before, probably bought by the killer. It was hard to believe that Chiaki had worn her uniform all the time she had been with him. Hadn't she been wearing something more comfortable, easier to move in? Her school bag and possessions hadn't been found, so they hadn't been able to confirm anything, but it wouldn't have been at all unusual for Chiaki to have a change of clothes with her. In which case, he had made her change back into her uniform before getting her to hang herself. Certainly, there was greater shock value in returning to her to her mother dressed in her uniform. It had an element of drama that must have appealed to him.
However, once Chiaki had realized the implications of the letter she'd delivered to the Plaza Hotel, she must have started feeling more than a little scared. It can't have been easy for the killer to induce her to do what he wanted in that state. Forcing her to do something wasn't as easy as it might sound, either, especially if she had been crying and pleading for her life. So how had he managed it? Even when the rope was around her neck, hadn't she still trusted him enough to believe that he wouldn't really go through with it, that if she just talked to him he would listen, or that it was all just an elaborate joke? Even knowing that he'd done terrible things to Mariko Furukawa and the other woman, hadn't she still believed he would never do that to her?
This was why, running all of these scenarios through his head, Takegami believed that the killer was a charming, likable type of man. Taking things further, he might be college age─an exciting, good-looking young man. But then again, that sort of guy would be lacking financially. Maybe around Akitsu's age, then —midthirties, at the prime of his working life. Then Takegami remembered Chiaki's father, a corporate warrior posted away from home, his company life more important to him than his family─perhaps Chiaki had been attracted to a guy his age, a father figure? When he mentioned this to Captain Kanzaki over lunch, the captain listened gravely, and then decided to borrow a photo of Chiaki's father from her mother.
With the focus on numbers 6 and 11 on the list of convicted felons, Takegami had scrutinized their files paying particular attention to their outward appearance, demeanor, and financial standing. He had studied their photos minutely from every angle: if he were a teenage girl, would he want to be involved with them? Would he be willing to sleep with them? Would he have been relaxed and friendly enough with them to open up to them about childhood memories?
&nbs
p; It just so happened that rivals Akitsu and Torii were on the team looking into these two, Akitsu in charge of number 6 and Torii number 11, and Takegami asked them for their opinions, too. Akitsu was doubtful about number 6. “He's too old,” he said. “Even to us he looks like a dirty old man, so I doubt a young girl would go anywhere near him. Plus he's out of a job because of his history, so he's broke. Last time he was in prison his wife divorced him and he's been living on his own since he got out. From that point of view, he's free to act, but … well, he doesn't even have a car now.” The investigators thought the killer very likely had his own car, given the mobility he'd shown at the time of the Plaza Hotel incident and transporting Chiaki's body.
So what about number 11? Torii agreed with Takegami on many points of the criminal profile he'd described. “It's possible,” he'd said. This young man had stalked his girlfriend after she split up with him, but she'd been too vigilant for him so he'd changed his target to her younger sister, at that time in her first year of high school, and had snatched her on her way home from school, kept her prisoner in a hotel, and violently assaulted her. He had been a college junior at the time of the offense, five years earlier. The girl had grabbed an opportunity to escape and had run to a nearby police box. The police on duty had rushed to the hotel to find him fast asleep on the bed.
When they'd taken his written statement after his arrest, the lead interrogator had doubts about the guy's mental state since he often confused the two sisters, his sense of time and days was mixed up, and he showed signs of disorientation. There had been a number of assaults on young women in the area he was living in at the time, and it turned out that he was responsible for these, too. One of the women testified that he had also called her by some woman's name during the attack, and this turned out to be the name of his former girlfriend. Somehow in his eyes all young women looked like the hateful one who had jilted him.
The prosecution had requested a psychiatric evaluation, but in the end he hadn't been deemed either mentally incapacitated or suffering from diminished responsibility. He was judged legally competent and sentenced to five years in prison. He hadn't appealed, and had served his time. “Of course it wasn't mentioned at trial that he'd also committed a string of similar offenses as a minor,” Torii said. “The fact that his lawyer didn't appeal probably meant that he thought it better he admitted his crime and got treatment. Opinion is divided over whether five years was lenient or harsh, but the prosecutor in charge was a woman.”
Torii wasn't exactly likable, but he was nothing if not efficient. If anything it was because he was too efficient that he tended to rub people up the wrong way, but Takegami valued his meticulous approach.
“The offenses he committed as a minor were all of a similar nature, too. He would stalk any girls who were cold to him or rejected him, calling them a hundred or so times a day, trying to force his way into their homes─that sort of thing. He wasn't the type to make friends─a loner, I suppose you could say.”
“But violent with it.”
“Yes. Inside he was a model prisoner, and was let out on parole after three years. He met regularly with his probation officer, and also went to counseling with a doctor the probation officer introduced him to. He's now living with his parents, working part-time at a family restaurant within walking distance from home, and is hoping to go back to college to finish his degree.”
“What subject?”
“Law,” replied Torii without even a hint of a smile.
“So he's behaved himself since getting out?” Takegami looked Torii in the face. “But you think there's a possibility he might be our guy in the Okawa Park case. Why is that?”
“First, his outward appearance. He fits with your criminal profile for the killer.”
“I have to say that, judging from his photo, he's good-looking.”
“His complexion isn't very good, but he's tall with a good physique and quite handsome. I wonder why he's always getting dumped,” Torii added, almost to himself.
Come to think of it, Torii was still single, too, thought Takegami.
“He's also well-educated. He got good grades in college, and according to his former high-school classmates, was always at the top of his class. He was president of the student council─that's an elected post.”
Takegami nodded slowly. “It must have taken some strength to carry Chiaki's body onto the slide. That point fits. He's got his own car, too, even if it is a small one.”
It was a red two-seater that looked more like a toy. The investigators were currently looking into whether any suspicious cars had been noted in the vicinity of the four places connected to the case: Okawa Park around the time of the discovery of the severed arm, Mariko Furukawa's house in Higashi-Nakano around the time her wristwatch had been delivered, the Plaza Hotel, and the children's park where Chiaki Hidaka's body had been found. Red cars were relatively rare and would have stuck in witnesses' memories more easily, but so far there were no reports of a red two-seater having been spotted.
“That particular point is still open. But I think the guy is definitely fishy.” Just recently, there had been talk of number 11 getting married. “We found out about this through our questioning. He'd had a girlfriend at the restaurant where he works, an older woman. She was thinking about marriage, so she hired a private eye to look into him a bit. He went sniffing around his neighborhood. The residents there don't know anything about his record, and all said he was a well-mannered young man. But the PI managed to dig up his background, and the girlfriend fled. Unfortunately for him, his past became all the gossip at work.”
“When was this?”
“The middle of April this year,” Torii said then, looking around, said, “It was at the beginning of June when Mariko Furukawa went missing, wasn't it?”
“June seventh.”
“All of his previous offenses were triggered by problems with a girlfriend. The girlfriend runs away, dumps him, whatever. That's what happened again this time. It triggered his intense hatred for women, which escalated from there. It's possible.”
“What about that girlfriend now?”
“She changed jobs and got away from him. I found out where she is now, so I'm planning on going to see her. She might know more. And one more thing─the family restaurant where he works is a chain, with the headquarters in Shinjuku. That's where everyone has to go for their hiring interview and initial training.”
“Where in Shinjuku?”
“The west side. Shinjuku Central Building─right next to the Plaza Hotel.”
Takegami folded his arms. “You're keeping tabs on him, I suppose?”
“Twenty-four hours a day.”
“When are you taking it to the investigation meeting?”
“Not sure yet. The Captain told me to get more evidence. The alibi's a problem.”
“Gotcha. I'll get everything ready so we can get all the documents together at any time. Just one more thing─”
“What's that?”
“What's this number 11 doing now? Is he still working the same job?”
“Yes. He wasn't dismissed when his previous record came to light, and he didn't leave of his own accord. It's a bit difficult to know what his mentality is on this. According to one of his colleagues, he claims that he was falsely convicted.”
“So he hasn't taken time off sick or anything?”
“Nothing like that.”
After Torii had gone, Takegami sat with his elbows on his desk, thinking. The probability of number 11 being their culprit was, in his opinion, fifty-fifty. True, he did fit some of the conditions of their criminal profile, but if he was the killer that wouldn't explain the current silence. Unless that was just part of his game, too?
Captain Kanzaki was particularly cautious about having his officers investigating convicted felons, especially since they were now focusing on just two people. He was wary of
any information being leaked to the beat reporters, so he refused to allow them to report their progress in full to the rest of the investigation team. As a young rookie he'd experienced a case of wrongful arrest on a three-hundred-million-yen case, which had harmed not only the person concerned but also the investigating authorities. It had made a lasting impression on him. At the same time, it had left him with a deep distrust of the media, and he was well-known among the beat reporters for not bending to their pressure. It just so happened that also on the special investigation team was Takemoto, head of the First Criminal Investigation Division, who was also critical of the press, so very little was being made public for such a high-profile case.
This naturally provoked a strong backlash from the media. When half a month had passed without any leads from the police, the coverage was scathing. Takegami kept clippings and videos of it all. He didn't have enough manpower to make the videos, which wasn't really in their remit anyway, so he mostly put his wife in charge of these. In any case she knew far more about the news programs and gossip shows than he did. He didn't always have time to go through the videos right away and usually had to watch them later─and anyway didn't learn anything new about the case from them. Still, his wife knew very well that he liked to have a record of everything, and so she kept meticulously recording them.
Today, as usual, she came to the station just after noon with a change of clothes for him. Takegami was in a meeting and couldn't talk with her, but when he opened the bag later, along with some underwear and a shirt he found a videotape accompanied by a note in his wife's handwriting, saying that one particular news show had run a special on nuisance calls using a voice changer that she thought might be of interest. Since the investigation team wasn't giving them anything, the media had taken to exploring the case from various angles. That night, before going to take a nap, Takegami watched it in the meeting room, along with Shinozaki. According to his wife's note, it only lasted twenty minutes including the commercial breaks, so Takegami just sat back to watch. However, he was gratified to note that Shinozaki was jotting down the main points.