Seichō Matsumoto - Points And Lines

Jūtarō Torigai closed his eyes. After a moment of thought he decided against returning immediately to Hakata. Instead, he walked over to the shop across the square. He had a question to ask. His heart beat a little faster as he tried to anticipate the answer.

Jūtarō Torigai stood in front of the fruit store across the square from the railway station. "May I ask you a question?" The middle-aged storekeeper put down the apple he was polishing and turned to greet him. Shopkeepers are generally surly if addressed in this manner but when Torigai said he was from the police the man became attentive.

"How late do you keep the store open at night?" Torigai asked.

"I stay open until about 11."

"From here would you be able to see the passengers coming out of the station, say at 9:30 at night?"

"Nine-thirty? Oh, yes. There's a train from Hakata that arrives at 9:24 and I watch the people as they come out. The shop is quiet at that hour and I look for a possible customer."

"I see. On the night of the twentieth did you happen to notice a man about thirty years old, dressed in Western clothes, and a woman of about twenty-five, in kimono, coming out of the station at that time?"

"The night of the twentieth? That's some time ago. Hmm."

The storekeeper bent his head as if in thought. Torigai was aware that the question was difficult; the event had occurred four or five days before. The man would probably not remember the date. He thought of a better way of putting the question. "Have you heard of the recent suicides, here on the beach?"

"You mean the two bodies that were found on the beach the other morning? Yes, I heard about them and read about them in the papers."

"That's right. That was the morning of the twenty-first. The twentieth was therefore the night before. Now do you recall anything?"

The storekeeper slapped his thigh. He was wearing a heavy apron that carried the store's name in big letters. "You mean the night before the suicides. Now I remember. I saw them."

Torigai's eyes lighted up. "What, you saw them both?"

"Yes, I saw them. I remember it because of what happened the following morning. Let me see, that night there were only about ten passengers from the 9:24 train. There are never many, anyway, at that time of night. Among them I noticed a man and a woman who answer your description. I hoped they would stop to buy some fruit so I kept watching them from here."

"Did they buy anything?"

"No. They walked in the direction of the Nishitetsu station and disappeared. I was disappointed. Then there was the excitement the following morning and I wondered if that was the couple who had committed suicide. That's why I remember them."

"Did you see their faces?" Torigai looked intently at the storekeeper as he asked the question.

The man rubbed his chin with one hand. "As you can see, the station is rather far away. Besides, the station lights are behind the people as they come out. From here they are little more than black shadows. I can't see their faces. I know these two only from their pictures in the papers."

"Hmm." Torigai's shoulders sagged a little. "What about their clothes?"

"I don't know about that either. I saw them walk away, and I vaguely recall that the man was wearing an overcoat and the woman was in kimono."

"Could you see the pattern of the kimono?"

"Impossible." The storekeeper smiled apologetically.

A customer was in the shop, selecting oranges. He appeared to be listening to the conversation.

"You say the couple seemed to be heading for the private railway station. Is that in the direction of the beach?" Torigai asked.

"Yes, yes. If you go past that station you'll come to the beach."

Torigai thanked the storekeeper and left. I've found out a good deal, he thought as he walked away. His intuition was correct. While waiting at the station entrance he had had a hunch that perhaps someone in the shop had noticed them, and he was right. It was unfortunate that the shopkeeper had not seen their faces, but Torigai was certain that the two passengers were Kenichi Sayama and Otoki. They had come by train from Hakata, arriving at Kashii railway station at 9:24 on the night of the twentieth. This meant that they had left Hakata station about 9:10 since it was only a fifteen-minute journey.

Assuming Sayama had left the inn at about eight o'clock, after receiving the phone call from the woman, where did they meet and what did they do for that one hour before getting on the train at Hakata? This would be difficult to ascertain, probably impossible. There was no place from which to start checking in a city the size of Hakata.

Torigai was walking slowly towards the Nishitetsu station, pondering the problem, when someone called to him from behind.

"Excuse me!" Torigai turned around. A young man was approaching. "Are you from the police?" His manner was diffident.

"Yes," Torigai answered. The man was carrying a paper bag full of oranges. Torigai remembered seeing him make the purchase at the fruit store he had just left.

"I overheard your conversation while I was buying these oranges," the young man explained as he came up to Torigai. "I want to tell you that I also saw the couple you were inquiring about. It was around 9:30, the night of the twentieth."

"Oh," exclaimed Torigai, his voice betraying his surprise. Looking around, he saw a small shop at the side of the road that looked like a coffee shop and invited the rather shy young man to enter with him. Over a cup of something black and steaming that was said to be coffee he studied the young stranger. "Please tell me what you know."

"I really have little to tell," said the young man, scratching his head. "But when I overheard your conversation, I thought the few facts I have might be of use to you."

"That's kind of you. Please tell me what you know."

"I live here but I commute to Hakata where I work," the young stranger began. "The night before the bodies were found, therefore the night of the twentieth, I too saw a couple who resembled the pictures in the papers of the two who committed suicide. They arrived at Nishitetsu Kashii Station at 9:35."

"Wait a moment." Torigai held up his hand. "You say the Nishitetsu line?"

"Yes. That train leaves Keirinjo-mae at 9:27. It takes only eight minutes to get here." Keirinjo-mae is in Hakozaki, on the extreme eastern edge of Hakata.

"I see. Was it in the train that you saw the couple?"

"No, not in the train. The train had two coaches and I was in the second coach. There were only a few passengers so if they had been in my coach I would have noticed them. They must have been in the first coach."

"Then where did you see them?"

"After I came through the gate and was walking home. I had had a few drinks at Hakata that night and was a bit drunk so I was walking slowly. Two or three passengers who followed me through the gate soon passed me by. They were local people I know by sight. There was also a couple I did not recognize. They came from behind and walked past me quickly. The man wore an overcoat; the woman had a Japanese coat over her kimono. They took the deserted road that leads to the beach. I didn't think anything of it at the time. But then there was the incident the next morning! According to the papers they died around ten o'clock that night, so I wondered if they were not the couple I had noticed."

"Did you see their faces?"

"As I said before, they came from behind and hurried past me so I saw them only from the back."

"How about the color of the overcoat or the pattern of the kimono?"

"I didn't notice that either. The road was dark and I was a bit under the weather. But I did hear something the woman said."

Torigai's eyes brightened. "What did she say?"