Seichō Matsumoto - Points And Lines

"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?

Kiichi Mihara arrived at Tokyo Station right on schedule. He felt the need of a good cup of coffee after the long train ride from Kyushu. He took a taxi and headed for his favorite coffee shop.

The waitress greeted him with a smile. "You've been away a long time," she said as she took his order.

Mihara came to this shop for coffee almost every other day. The girl has made the remark because he had been absent five or six days; she knew nothing of his trip to Kyushu, of course. He noted several familiar faces in the shop. Nothing had changed while he away; for the waitresses and the customers the days seemed to have passed uneventfully. And not for them only: on the Ginza itself, which he could glimpse through the window, everything looked unchanged. Mihara felt as if he alone had stepped out of the picture for a while. Nobody knew how he had spent those blank days. They appeared to be little interested in Mihara, despite what he had seen or done. This was natural, but the thought left him a little depressed.

The coffee was good. This was one thing he had missed in the country. He emptied his cup, picked up his bag and, ignoring the extravagance, hailed a taxi and drove to the Metropolitan Police Board.

He opened the door marked with the name of Inspector Kasai of the 2nd Detective Section and entered the room. His boss was at his desk. "I've just returned, sir."

The inspector turned his head to greet him. "Welcome back. Must have been a bit strenuous." He smiled. They were alone except for a new recruit who brought Mihara a cup of tea.

"How was it?"

Mihara opened his bag and took out the materials concerning the suicides of Sayama and Otoki which he had borrowed from the Hakata Police Station. "Here are the exhibits. The Fukuoka police have concluded it is a simple case of double suicide and are treating it accordingly."

"Hmm." The inspector looked at the photographs and read the results of the autopsies and the report. "I see. A case of love suicide, eh?" he muttered as he put aside the document that he had been studying. He sounded as if he were ready to accept the verdict.

"I'm sorry to have sent you on a futile assignment."

"No, not entirely futile."

Inspector Kasai looked up at Mihara, surprise in his glance. "What do you mean?"

"I learned some interesting facts."

"Hmm, let me hear them."

"What I have to say is not the official opinion of the Fukuoka police. Torigai, one of their veterans, gave me some interesting details." Mihara then told him about the dining car receipt and the walking time between the two Kashii stations.

"Hmm, the assumption regarding the dining car receipt is certainly interesting," said the inspector. "Otoki is believed to have left the train at Atami or Shizuoka; is that right? Then, after four or five days, spent no one knows where, she is presumed to have appeared in Fukuoka and telephoned Sayama who had arrived earlier. Is that the way you see it?"