Points And Lines

5 Torigai and Mihara

The stranger who stood up to greet Jūtarō Torigai was a man in his early thirties. He was short and sturdily built-so solid, in fact, he made the old detective think of a tree stump. Round eyes looked out at him from under heavy eyebrows, and an unusually clear complexion gave him a youthful appearance.

"You're Detective Torigai? I'm Kiichi Mihara, Assistant Inspector, 2nd Detective Section of the Metropolitan Police Board. I'm very glad to meet you." He bared a row of even white teeth as he smiled and presented his card.

At the mention of the 2nd Detective Section, Torigai knew at once that the inspector had come to investigate the Sayama suicide. The 1st Detective Section dealt with crimes of violence, the 2nd Section was responsible for cases of deception and fraud.

The Tokyo papers were playing up the scandal that had been uncovered in government circles. Kenichi Sayama's section in the X Ministry was the principal target. In fact, a colleague of Sayama's, an assistant section chief, was already under arrest. Only a week before, two leading members of a private organization closely connected with this same ministry had also been arrested. It looked as though the scandal would spread further. The 2nd Detective Section of the Metropolitan Police Board was in charge of the case.

"I've come to check on Kenichi Sayama, assistant section chief in the X Ministry, who committed suicide here," Inspector Mihara said as he settled back in his chair. "The chief has given me the outlines of the incident. He also gave me these materials which are most useful." On the desk were photographs of the scene of the suicides, the report of the autopsies and other documents. "I understand, Detective Torigai, that you have your suspicions about this love suicide."

"You remember giving me your opinion of the case the other day, Torigai?" the chief interjected, drawing nervously on his cigarette. "I repeated it to Inspector Mihara and he was very interested. Please explain it to him in detail." The chief detective's face betrayed his skepticism.

"That's right. I'm interested to hear that you have a different opinion of the Sayama case. I've been waiting to talk to you about it." Mihara's manner had charm.

"Well, it's not really a different opinion. It's hardly more than an idea." Torigai, aware of the presence of his chief, spoke with diffidence.

Mihara's eyes brightened. "Ideas are fine. Please let me hear yours."

Hesitantly, Torigai told him about the dining car receipt, made out for one person. As he spoke, his daughter's remark about love and appetite came to his mind but he refrained from repeating it.

"That's certainly an interesting fact," Mihara remarked in a tone intended as flattery. "Is the receipt on file?"

"Although the deaths were from an unnatural cause, since no crime was involved all the private effects were returned to the families of the deceased," the chief explained.

"Is that so!" Mihara showed his disappointment. "Are you sure the date on the receipt was January 14?" he asked Torigai.

"Yes."

"That's the day Sayama and Otoki left Tokyo Station on the Asakaze. Let me see…" Mihara took a notebook from his pocket. "I have the time schedule of the Asakaze. It leaves Tokyo at 6:30; Atami at 8:00; Shizuoka, 9:01; Nagoya, 11:21 and Osaka, 2 A.M. That would be the following morning, the fifteenth. Therefore, on the fourteenth, the date on the receipt, the last stop would have been Nagoya at 11:21."

Torigai began to grasp what Mihara was trying to say. He realized that this man shared his views of the case. Despite the fact that Mihara had the manner and the appearance of an insurance salesman, it was evident that he came from the prestigious Metropolitan Police Board.

Mihara addressed the chief detective. "I would like to visit the scene of the suicides. I know he's busy, but could I trouble Mr. Torigai to take me there?" The chief reluctantly agreed.

They took the streetcar. Assistant Inspector Mihara, standing next to Jūtarō Torigai and holding on to a strap, leaned over and said to him in a low voice. "The chief doesn't seem to be in very good humor." Torigai smiled, little creases appearing around his eyes. "It happens in every office. I am very interested in your ideas. I thought you might find it difficult to talk in front of the chief so I asked you to come with me."

"We can talk when we get to the beach," Torigai said. He was grateful for Mihara's thoughtfulness, unusual in a man of his age, he felt.

They changed to the Nishitetsu line at Keirinjo-mae and soon arrived at the Kashii station. Less than ten minutes later they were on the beach.

Mihara looked about him with interest. It was a clear day and the sea was sparkling. Mist obscured the distant islands and the horizon.

"Is this the famous Sea of Genkai? I was able to get a glimpse of it from the train window but this view from the beach is much better."

Torigai showed him the spot where the bodies were found. He related the scene at the time of the discovery, describing the position of the bodies, their appearance, their clothes. While he spoke, Mihara studied the photographs he had brought along, nodding his head from time to time.

"The beach here is quite rocky," Mihara presently remarked as he looked around.

"As you can see, nothing but rocks, almost to the water's edge."

"Not the sort of place to find any traces," Mihara commented.

Later, when they were seated side by side on a big rock, away from the scene of the suicides, Mihara said, "Now let me hear what you have on your mind." Wrapped in their overcoats and warmed by the late afternoon sun, they could have been taken for two men quietly basking in the sun.

"The first thing that struck me was the dining car receipt, which was made out to one person," Torigai began. He gave the reason for his suspicion, this time adding his daughter's comment on the matter of love and appetite. "That's why I believe Sayama was alone on that train," he concluded.

Mihara listened attentively. "That is interesting. I'm inclined to agree with you." His eyes were alert. "But aren't there witnesses who saw him board the train with a woman at Tokyo Station?"

"Certainly. But can't we assume that the woman-Otoki I mean-got off the train at some station along the way?"

"Yes, that can be assumed. If she did get off…" Mihara took the notebook from his pocket. "The date on the receipt is the fourteenth, so it would have to be before the Nagoya station where the train arrived at 11:21. Of course, Sayama must have gone to the dining car before it closed at 10:00. So if Otoki did get off, it was either at Atami, which the train left at 8:00, or at Shizuoka, at 9:01."

"Yes, that could be." Torigai nodded soberly. Mihara was putting his own vague thoughts into words.

"Good. Since a great deal of time has passed it's hard to say what we'll be able to find at this point. In any event, I'll have the station and inns checked at Atami and Shizuoka. The movements of a woman alone are sometimes surprisingly easy to follow." Mihara then asked: "Do you have anything else on your mind?"

"Sayama stayed by himself at an inn called Tambaya in Hakata from the fifteenth to the twentieth. The fifteenth is the day he arrived at Hakata from Tokyo." Torigai then related how Sayama had waited at the inn for a telephone call, and how the call had come through at eight o'clock on the night of the twentieth, a woman's voice asking for Sugawara, the name under which Sayama had registered at the inn, and how Sayama had left immediately afterward, and how it was assumed he had committed suicide that same night.

Mihara listened intently. "The fact that the woman knew Sayama's assumed name proves that it was Otoki," he remarked. "The matter of the inn and the false name must have been arranged beforehand."

"I believe so. That clears up one mystery."

"How's that?"

"Till now I had assumed that Sayama and Otoki had arrived together at Hakata and that Otoki had then gone off somewhere alone. After this talk with you, however, I think we are right in believing that Otoki got off somewhere along the way and only showed up later. Otoki must have left the train at Atami or Shizuoka on the fourteenth, letting Sayama proceed by himself, and only arrived at Hakata on the twentieth. Then she telephoned the inn, and since Sayama was awaiting the call, it was undoubtedly prearranged. There was one thing, however, that was not settled beforehand," Torigai added.

"What was that?"

"The time of Otoki's arrival at Hakata. We know that Sayama waited impatiently at the inn day after day for the phone call, so I'm sure the date of her arrival was not set."

Mihara was making an entry in his notebook. When he finished, he showed it to Torigai. "It would look something like this," he explained.

"That's it! That's it exactly!" Torigai exclaimed as he studied the diagram.

"But why did Otoki get off the train at a way station?" Mihara wondered out loud.

That was the question. Torigai had no answer. He had been asking himself the same thing and had come to no conclusion. "I don't understand," he admitted, rubbing his cheek. Mihara folded his arms and stared at the sea, as if trying to find the answer there. Shika Island was barely visible in the distance.

"Mr. Mihara!" Torigai quietly attracted his attention. He had decided to ask the question that had been uppermost in his mind for some time. "Why is the Metropolitan Police Board suddenly interested in this double suicide case?"

Mihara hesitated a moment before replying. He took his cigarettes and silently offered one to Torigai. He flicked open his lighter, lit the cigarette for him, then his own.

"Mr. Torigai, since you've been so helpful I'll tell you," Mihara began. "Kenichi Sayama was an important witness in the X Ministry investigation. Although only an assistant section chief, he was actually in charge and thoroughly familiar with the administrative work of the section. He was therefore an important figure in the case. As a matter of fact, he was closer to being a suspect than a witness. Since the case was still young, we foolishly failed to have him closely watched. Because of this, we let him die." Mihara flicked the ash of his cigarette. "Many people were no doubt greatly relieved when they heard of his death. The further we investigate, the more we find that we would have liked to question him. We really lost a valuable witness. I can't tell you how much we regret it. His death is a serious blow. On the other hand, there are people who are probably dancing with joy at the news. He may have died meaning to protect them, but recently I've become suspicious of his suicide."

"Suspicious?"

"Yes, I'm beginning to suspect that he did not choose to die, that death was forced upon him by someone."

Torigai looked sharply at Mihara. "Is there any evidence of this?"

"Nothing definite. He left no letter and the same is true, I believe, of the woman."

Mihara was right; his suspicions were justified. Torigai had reached the same conclusion and had mentioned these doubts earlier to his chief.

"Moreover," Mihara continued, "in Tokyo we investigated Sayama's private life and could find no connection at all with Otoki."

"What? What did you say?"

"We did learn that Sayama probably had a mistress, but there is no evidence that Otoki was the mistress. As for Otoki, I myself went to the Koyuki Restaurant to talk to the waitresses and I checked her apartment. I found that there was a man in her life. She received phone calls at her home from a man, and she often spent the night away, but I can't identify him. He never came to her apartment, apparently. We are presuming it was Sayama but there is no proof at all that it was."

Torigai found this very strange. Hadn't Sayama and Otoki committed suicide together? "But Mr. Mihara, the waitresses at the Koyuki saw Sayama and Otoki get on the Asakaze. No, there was another person with them, a guest at the Koyuki. Three people therefore saw them. And they died here, together. I saw the scene with my own eyes and there is the evidence of the photographs and the police reports you were shown."

"That's the point!" Mihara looked perplexed for the first time. "Since coming here and seeing the evidence I've accepted the fact of the double suicide. There's no doubt about that. I'm disturbed now to find that the suspicions I have disagree completely with the actual facts."

Torigai was aware that he fully shared Mihara's confusion.

"Shall we go back?" Mihara suggested. They stood up, and walking side by side, returned by the same road.

At the Nishitetsu station Torigai had a sudden thought. "The other Kashii railway station is about five hundred meters from here. I think I have a piece of information that may be worthwhile." He told Mihara about the couples at the two stations on the night of the twentieth and explained how he had paced the distance between the stations and checked the time.

"That is most interesting," Mihara said, his eyes lighting up. "Let me check it myself." The two men walked from one station to the other, at three different speeds, as Torigai had done two days earlier.

"You're right. It takes not more than eight minutes, no matter how slowly you walk," said Mihara, looking at his watch. "Eleven minutes is too long, unless you stop along the way."

"Of course it could have been two different couples."

"That is possible, but…" Mihara was thinking, his eyes staring into space. "I believe it was the same couple. I believe they got off the train at the national railway station, walked past the other station, and went to the beach."

Torigai related in detail the information he had received from the station employee of the private railway line on duty at the time, and he repeated the stories he had gathered from the passengers. Mihara took notes while he spoke. "All of this leads to no conclusion," he said, "but it is interesting. Our job is really no sinecure," he added, looking sympathetically at his thin, elderly companion.

The following evening Torigai was on the platform at Hakata Station to see Assistant Inspector Mihara off to Tokyo. It was the express Unzen, leaving at 6:02.

"What time do you arrive in Tokyo?"

"Tomorrow afternoon at 3:40."

"You'll be very tired."

"Thank you again for all your kindness." Mihara bowed, his face wreathed in smiles.

"I'm afraid I wasn't of much help."

"On the contrary. This trip has been most profitable, thanks to you, Mr. Torigai." It was said with real sincerity.

They still had a few minutes before the Unzen, coming from Nagasaki, pulled into the station. They continued to stand side by side, chatting. In front of them trains arrived and departed. A line of freight cars stood on a track nearby. All around them was the noise and bustle of a big railway station.

"Tokyo Station, too, must be very crowded with trains," Torigai remarked as he tried to imagine the scene at the central station in the nation's capital.

"Indeed. It's frantic at times. Trains are continually arriving and departing," Mihara replied. He made the comment in an offhand manner but suddenly he gave a start, as if electrified. He had hit upon an important fact.

At Tokyo Station some people had seen Sayama and Otoki board the Asakaze. These eyewitnesses said that they were standing on platform 13 and saw the couple leave from platform 15. But what about tracks 13 and 14? At Tokyo Station, where trains depart and arrive incessantly, could a person on platform 13 see a train at platform 15 without having some train pull up and obstruct the view?