Points And Lines

7 Only a Coincidence

"I must apologize for taking up your time. I've come to ask you a strange question," Mihara began.

"Yes, of course. Please feel free to ask." Yasuda offered him a cigarette from a box on the table. Taking one himself, he then lit both from his lighter. He seemed completely at ease.

"I've been assigned to investigate the case of double suicide involving Kenichi Sayama of the X Ministry. It was in the papers; you may have heard about it."

Puffing on his cigarette, Yasuda nodded. "Yes, indeed! I've more than heard about it. I knew Mr. Sayama. In fact, he did me a few favors. This was in connection with the ministry, which we supply with some of our machinery."

This was news to Mihara. He had not known that the Yasuda Company was doing business with the government.

"I feel very sorry for Mr. Sayama," Yasuda continued. "He was a good man. I didn't think he was the type that would commit suicide." There was a note of genuine feeling in his voice.

"It is about Mr. Sayama that I've come to see you." Mihara put his hand in his pocket, then withdrew it, undecided whether to consult his notebook. "I understand that you saw him, accompanied by a woman, board a train at Tokyo Station. I have this information from a waitress at the Koyuki Restaurant."

"That's correct." Yasuda leaned forward. "It was late one afternoon. I had to go to Kamakura and the waitresses from the Koyuki saw me off at the station. There, I saw Mr. Sayama and Otoki on another platform, about to board the the super-express. I called the girls' attention to them. I knew them both but had never seen them together so I was rather surprised. I didn't suspect a romance. I decided this was just another one of life's surprises." Yasuda's eyes narrowed as if troubled by the smoke. "I never dreamed that they would meet death at the end of that journey. I feel very sorry for them indeed. It all goes to show that one should not get that deeply involved." He smiled, and there was charm in his smile.

"Had Mr. Sayama ever been to the Koyuki?" Mihara asked.

"I don't believe so. I often use the restaurant for my business contacts but Mr. Sayama was never one of my guests. People become suspicious if you entertain government officials. I'm not saying this just because you are from the Metropolitan Police Board. But the X Ministry happens to be involved in a scandal."

"It's believed that Mr. Sayama committed suicide in order to protect his superiors. Do you think it possible that Otoki died with him because she felt sorry for him?"

"I don't know." Yasuda's blunt answer seemed to say that speculation was none of his business. "What surprised me was the fact of their relationship. I hadn't the slightest idea they were intimate."

"Did you know Otoki well?"

"She was often in charge of the parties I gave at the restaurant. I knew her quite well. I don't mean that there was anything between us. Our friendship was restricted to the Koyuki; it didn't extend beyond. So one could say either that I knew her or that I didn't know her. In any event, I was not aware that she was Sayama's mistress."

Mihara asked one more question. It was an important one. "Do you go often to Kamakura?"

Yasuda smiled, baring his teeth slightly. "My wife lives in Kamakura."

"Your wife?"

"She has tuberculosis. We've been living apart for a long time. I rented a small house for her near Gokuraku-ji. She lives there with an old servant. I visit her once a week."

"You must be concerned about her."

Yasuda bowed his head slightly, as if to thank Mihara for his sympathy. Mihara had yet other questions to ask but did not find the moment opportune.

He got up to leave. "Again I apologize for taking up your time."

"Don't mention it." Yasuda also rose from his seat. "I fear I've not been of much help. Please come again, anytime, if you have further questions to ask." He spoke politely, narrowing his eyes and smiling at his visitor.

As he walked down the street Mihara was thinking: Yasuda knows about the four-minute interval. He goes to Kamakura often so he must have noticed it. Well, anyway, it could be…

Returning to the office, Mihara went to see his supervisor, Inspector Kasai. It was not to report. He wanted to see him to talk about the four-minute interval. He mentioned the interview with Tatsuo Yasuda almost as an afterthought.

Inspector Kasai showed immediate interest. "Why, that's most interesting," he exclaimed. "Can it be possible? It hadn't occurred to me."

Mihara took from his pocket the diagram he had made of the arrival and departure of trains from platforms 13, 14 and 15 between 5:57 and 6:01. Kasai studied it intently.

"I see. I see it quite clearly. How very clever!"

The inspector looked up at Mihara and congratulated him. Mihara accepted the praise, but in his heart he knew he owed the discovery to the hint he had received from Torigai. The credit really belonged to that little old man.

"The real question is whether Yasuda and the other eyewitnesses on the platform during those four minutes were there by accident or by prearrangement." He asked Mihara to restate the facts and while he spoke Kasai quickly jotted down the important points:

Yasuda had invited the two waitresses from the Koyuki to dinner the day before. This was in order to have them accompany him to Tokyo Station;

He kept looking at his watch even while they were still at dinner;

He arrived at platform 13 in time for the four minutes in question;

It was Yasuda who saw Sayama and Otoki board the Asakaze and who pointed them out to the waitresses.

When the inspector finished writing he tapped his cheek with the pencil like a schoolboy and looked at the paper. "Good!" he exclaimed after studying it a while. "It could not be accidental. It was definitely planned."

Mihara caught his alert glance. "If it was planned, then the case is very serious."

"Very serious." Kasai was thinking, his eyes closed. Suddenly, he called loudly for one of the detectives. "Tatsuo Yasuda is a manufacturer of machinery. I want you to find how deeply involved he is with the X Ministry." The detective took down the name and other details in his notebook and left.

"Let's see, now." The inspector looked over what he had written as if to study it once again. "If Yasuda did plan this, then the next question is for what reason." He took out a cigarette and lit it. "When there's a plot, it's generally for the purpose of gain. Now what would Yasuda gain by having witnesses present when Sayama and Otoki boarded the super-express to Hakata?"

"He needed a third person to witness the scene," Mihara suggested after some thought.

"A third person?"

"Yes. It wouldn't do for Yasuda to witness the scene alone. He had to have someone else see it too."

"Then Yasuda himself was not the third person?"

"That's right." Mihara wanted to add, "Isn't it obvious?"

The inspector was deep in thought. "Good. Let's work on it," he said finally. "Sayama and Otoki committed suicide near Hakata. They left Tokyo together on the super-express. Yasuda had the two girls watch them board the train together in order to have some other witnesses. Strange!"

Mihara knew what the inspector meant by strange. There was no apparent point in producing witnesses to the departure of two people bound on a suicidal journey. As for Yasuda, what part had he played in the love suicide? It was a puzzling question for Mihara also.

"Yes, there is something very suspect here."

"There is indeed." The inspector nodded in agreement.

"When we put together all the facts they add up to a plot by Yasuda. Yet there is no apparent purpose. There can't be a plot without a purpose and for the moment we don't know of any. But I'm sure if we pursue the case we'll be able to find one."

Inspector Kasai kept nodding his approval. Both men were aroused.

"Can you understand why Yasuda purposely chose those four minutes that would let the girls see the super-express on platform 15 from platform 13? If it were merely to have them observe the scene, why couldn't they have gone directly to platform 15?" The inspector posed the questions as though he were giving Mihara a test.

"That I can understand. Platform 15 is exclusively for long-distance trains; it would look too deliberate. It would be more natural to say that he had to go to Kamakura and have them witness the scene from platform 13. The reason why he took such pains over those particular four minutes was to make it look natural."

The inspector smiled. It meant that he was in agreement. "By the way, we've received a report from the conductor who was on the Asakaze on January 14."

"What?" Mihara leaned forward in his seat.

"Unfortunately, the conductor doesn't recall the vacant seat. He says he can't remember; it happened so long ago. A stupid young man! If he had remembered, we would know where Otoki left the train."