Seichō Matsumoto - Points And Lines

Yasuda's trip to Hokkaido by train was thus completely disproved. Next was the matter of the passengers on the planes. Here we had the reverse of the problem of the passenger list on the ferry.

We had the 143 passengers rechecked. We investigated their professions, as indicated on the passenger lists. We did this with a definite purpose in mind. Eventually the total narrowed down to five or six suspects. These turned out to be businessmen with close connections with X Ministry. We questioned them thoroughly and finally three of the men broke down and confessed. Between Tokyo and Fukuoka a Mr. A, from Fukuoka to Tokyo a Mr. B, and from Tokyo to Sapporo a Mr. C were not passengers on those planes. All three admitted that Ishida had asked them, under the seal of secrecy, to let him use their names. "One of our men has to travel on very discreet business so if the police should ask, please say that you were on the plane. It will not get you into trouble." This is what Ishida told them. The scandal at the ministry was breaking at the time and they believed an official was making the trip to hush it up. That sort of thing is not uncommon. As you may suppose, they were offered business opportunities by Ishida in return for the favor.

Tatsuo Yasuda flew to Fukuoka, Tokyo, Sapporo and back using the names of A, B and C. He used these different names in order to make it more difficult in the event of an investigation. Yasuda always had in mind the possibility of such an investigation and he laid his plans very carefully.

With the Hokkaido alibi broken and his presence in Hakata established, we were still left with one more problem, the matter of the witnesses. It was clear that Yasuda had planted these witnesses, the two girls from the Koyuki who had watched Sayama and Otoki board the Asakaze at Tokyo Station on January 14. Now, the real relations between Sayama and Otoki are not known, nor have we been able to learn anything about them. Otoki was an unusually discreet young woman and, according to the waitresses at the Koyuki, although she seemed to have a lover no one was certain. They were not trying to protect her; they seemed really not to know. We had been told that Otoki used to get telephone calls from a man but she never brought him to her home. In other words, she seemed to have had a secret lover but he had yet to be identified. Of course, after the double suicide at Kashii everyone assumed that Sayama was the lover.

However, there was something strange about this aspect of the case.

Why did Yasuda need to have someone observe the couple leaving together? Did he merely want a witness to prove that they had boarded the Asakaze? And why did it have to be the Asakaze? Wouldn't any train going to Kyushu have served as well? Since they committed double suicide in Kyushu there was no mistaking where they went. Then what was the reason?

Yasuda had to have someone see Sayama and Otoki boarding the train together. He went to a great deal of trouble to have the witnesses on the platform at the right time. What he really wanted was someone to observe Sayama and Otoki together and to conclude that they were lovers.

Why was this necessary? It is a strange story. After giving the facts much thought I reached the startling conclusion that Sayama and Otoki were not lovers. This had to be so, I decided. Precisely because they were not lovers, Yasuda had to have someone witness their departure and conclude that they were.

I greatly admire your skill in deducing from the dining car receipt that Sayama had traveled to Hakata alone. Your suspicion was aroused by the fact that the receipt was made out for one person, and your daughter's observations on the subject of love and appetite were very enlightening. Otoki got off the train somewhere along the way and Sayama continued alone to Hakata. I came to the conclusion that Sayama and Otoki were only vaguely connected and that they were certainly not lovers.

Yasuda was a good client at the Koyuki, often entertaining his business friends there. Sayama did not frequent the Koyuki but he must have known Otoki. It is even possible that Yasuda, Sayama and Otoki met together at times, unknown to anyone. Sayama and Otoki were certainly acquainted and would naturally talk to each other as they boarded the Asakaze. To a third person they could well have looked like lovers departing on a trip together. That was Yasuda's intention.

Therefore, it must have been Yasuda who arranged for them to travel on the same train. He was probably in a position to do so.

Now, here was Yasuda's problem: It was all very well to plan to have the two waitresses see the couple, but since he had no reason to go to platform 15 he could not take them directly to the Asakaze. They had to come upon the scene naturally. Platform 15 is the one reserved for the departure of the long-distance trains. To take the girls there deliberately would look suspicious. He had to let them observe the scene from another platform. The most natural way to do this would be to use platform 13, the one he always left from when visiting his wife in Kamakura. This would not arouse suspicion. But he was perplexed. From platform 13 one cannot see the trains on platform 15. Trains keep arriving and departing on the intervening tracks and obstruct the view. I believe I mentioned this before. After careful search, however, Yasuda discovered that prior to the Asakaze's departure, for exactly four minutes, from 5:57 to 6:01, the train could be clearly seen from platform 13. These were four valuable minutes. Yes, most precious minutes.

I said earlier that the couple could have taken any train to Kyushu but it was clear now that it had to be the Asakaze, leaving at 6:30. Yasuda had to get them aboard the Asakaze. Other trains bound for Kyushu could not be seen from platform 13. It was brilliant of Yasuda to have discovered this four-minute interval. There can be few, if any, railroad men at Tokyo Station aware of this brief interval.

Thus it became clear that Yasuda had planned the departure of Sayama and Otoki. But this did not solve the greater mystery: the double suicide on Kashii Beach six days later, the undeniable fact that Sayama and Otoki drank fruit juice containing cyanide and died, almost in each other's arms. Both the medical report and the photographs of the scene pointed unmistakably to a case of double suicide.

Here was something I could not understand. Why should these two, who were not lovers, commit suicide together? Surely Sayama and Otoki, who were barely acquainted, would not be so insane as to obey Yasuda's order (if his order it was) to kill themselves. Yet the stark fact of the double suicide destroyed the assumption that they were not lovers, no matter how convinced one was to the contrary. You were obliged to believe that they were intimate since they committed suicide together. I could find no answer to this contradiction.

However, since it was Yasuda's plan to have the two depart together, I could not fail to be suspicious of those suicides on Kashii Beach. Yet there was no denying that they had died there together. No matter how much I thought about it, I could not get past that obvious fact.

But since the beginning had been plotted by Yasuda, I thought I could discern Yasuda's presence at the end also, the tragic end in suicide. I could not dismiss this suspicion from my mind. All the while I was in Hokkaido investigating I could almost see Yasuda standing like a ghost on Kashii Beach the night of the tragedy. I had no idea what part he played. He could not have used hypnotism to make them commit suicide. Yet, as normal human beings, they would not have taken their own lives simply because he ordered them to do so. I didn't understand; nevertheless, I had to have Yasuda on that spot and on that night.

Fortunately, we broke Yasuda's Hokkaido alibi, and we proved that he had left Tokyo by Japan Airlines for Hakata at 3 P.M. on January 20, arriving at Itazuke Airport in Fukuoka at 7:20. Thus, he could have been on Kashii Beach at 9:00, about the time the deaths took place. But when it came to trying to connect Yasuda with the actual suicides, I soon reached a dead end, as if confronted by a wall. I could think of no solution. I was completely baffled and I held my head in my hands.