Lisa Atkinson - Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 131, No. 5. Whole No. 801, May 2008

Kaise was the one who had proposed this plan.

After he had overcome the opposition of the Criminal Investigation Department, a test of his plan was begun by the administrative section as well as by three police stations, including U Station. Zero missing identification documents. That was supposed to be the result. But now...

This measure which was to have eliminated the loss of the valuable IDs had resulted in an unprecedented large-scale burglary.

“Your plan seems to have backfired.”

Kosuga’s comment stung anew. It fit with the atmosphere swirling around at police headquarters at the moment.

Kaise headed toward the door, his pace quickening. He felt a searing pain at his temple.

Akane was at the stairway landing. She stared at Kaise reproachfully, her chin buried in the mountain of sheets she carried.

“I’ll come again.” It was all he could do to mutter the words.

Passing through the doors, his cheeks slapped by the wind off the pale ocean, Kaise’s only thought was of his route back to headquarters.

The seacoast road was empty, but the national highway leading to the city was congested. He escaped onto back roads, but even so it took nearly an hour for him to reach the Headquarters building in the government-offices area of town. It was nearly noon.

“Use the stairs to go up or down one or two floors.” These words posted on the wall in past days of energy conservation had at some point transformed into a slogan urging the staff to exercise more. Kaise, who had no problem with excess weight, adhered to this sign because the indicator lights for the elevators were hovering around the seventh and eighth floors.

Third floor. Police Affairs Department. Calming his breathing, Kaise pushed the door open. All of the staff turned toward him, but most quickly averted their eyes or looked down. Even his direct subordinate, Subsection Chief Ioka, behaved so. Handing Kaise a three-page document outlining the case, Ioka told him, “To the conference room,” in a low voice. He then fled back to his desk and buried his face in a pile of papers. Was he being considerate of Kaise’s feelings? Or was he trying to avoid being implicated? No, his posture suggested something else. There was a difference in the heat that would be felt by Kaise, who had proposed the collective storage of the IDs, and Ioka, who had merely prepared the paperwork as ordered.

Kaise left the section office.

The conference room was on the eighth floor. Though the elevator had just arrived, Kaise once again chose the stairs. He couldn’t go into a meeting of the top-level department heads with a blank mind. He wanted a bit of time to think about the situation, to deliberate and consider remedial measures... As he moved his feet, relying on the handrail of the stairs, Kaise’s eyes and brain pored over the document Ioka had given him.

“Location of incident: U Station, first floor.”

U Station had been collecting and storing the IDs by floor. The first floor housed the Police Affairs Section and the Traffic Section. It was those IDs that had been taken.

“Case summary.”

Yesterday, just after five p.m., the officer in charge of storing the IDs on the first floor began gathering the thirty documents belonging to the staff of the Police Affairs Section and the Traffic Section. He placed them in the safe and locked it. The precinct went into night-shift mode, during which time there was no suspicious occurrence. At 7:45 the following morning, when the officer in charge of storage reported to duty and opened the safe, all the IDs had disappeared.

What the hell? Kaise was irritated. He felt as if he were reading a newspaper account of office vandalism. It was too simple. Why wasn’t there more precise documentation? Was this really something that had occurred in a police station?

He turned the page.

“The Criminal Investigation Department and Security Department begin secret investigation... Three investigators enter U Station to take statements from those connected to the station in the fifth-floor physical training room.”

As a matter of course, they were pursuing the possibility of an inside job.

Here was the reality: The large-scale theft of police IDs — this unprecedented scandal — would shake the organization to its core. Kaise was treading up the stairs to the conference room as if he were about to be tried as a war criminal.

He envisioned the inside of U Station in his increasingly throbbing head. The ground level had an open floor plan. To the left of the entry was the Traffic Section, with the Police Affairs Section beyond. There were no walls or doors between the two sections, allowing for free access. The storage safe was in the wall behind the Police Affairs Section.

Could an outsider have done it?

Under normal circumstances, that would be difficult. The station went into night-duty mode at 5:15 p.m. The office for the night-duty staff was in a corner of the Traffic Section. There were two entrances to the station: the front entrance and the back door. Anyone entering from either doorway would be seen by the night-duty officers. Moreover, the key to the storage safe in question was hung on the wall directly facing the duty staff. To steal the key brazenly and pass through the night-duty office and enter the Police Affairs Section — that would be impossible. There was no way it could be done.

No, don’t make simplistic assumptions.

U Station’s night-duty officers numbered thirteen. By shortly after 10 p.m. nearly half of them, the “early sleep group,” would be asleep. If the theft had occurred during that time, the station would have been short-handed. The night-duty chief and the radio operator would have been at their seats, but even that wasn’t absolute. Should a drunken brawl cause several people to be taken into custody, the officers might leave their seats to assist in their detainment. If the thief chose that time...

If it was an outside job, who might it be?

Extremists. Cultists. Those were the types that first came to mind. A deranged police buff was also someone to watch out for. There had been cases in the past in which police boxes had been targeted for the theft of guns and police IDs. Disgruntled former police officers also needed to be kept in mind. If the thief had worked at U Station, he would be familiar with internal procedure. It was also necessary to investigate people who could enter the station without raising suspicions. Someone in an extra-governmental agency. Newspaper reporters. Restaurant delivery staff. Town drunks...

Kaise pressed a finger to the bridge of his nose. An infinite number of possibilities came to his mind.

As he passed the landing on the sixth floor, he forced himself to shift his thinking.

What about an inside job?

There was no question that the situation allowed for this. Anyone who worked at U Station could have done it. Most obviously, it could be last night’s night-duty staff.

Kaise returned his eyes to the report. The names of the thirteen night-duty officers were listed. The officer in charge of the night-duty staff was Masukawa Takashi, Assistant Police Inspector, First Criminal Investigation Section, Burglary Section Chief.

Masukawa...

His rugged face loomed up in Kaise’s mind. He had entered the force one year ahead of Kaise. Kaise had never spoken to Masukawa, but according to rumor, he was quite the tough guy. He was known as a member of the judo team when he was young. About five years ago, his rough handling of suspects had nearly led to a lawsuit.

What disturbed Kaise more than Masukawa’s reputation was finding out that the officer in charge of last night’s night duty was from the Criminal Investigation side. He couldn’t help but recall the furor of six months ago. The opposition of the Criminal Investigation Department to his proposal to store the IDs all together had been virulent.