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

Aoyama gazed into space. The other senior officials also mulled this over.

But Yamanouchi, the Criminal Investigation Department Head, responded differently.

“Mischief or harassment... Why would someone in the police do that?”

“That would be...” Kaise couldn’t avoid saying it. He braced himself. “The aim may be to upset the agency, or to bring down a certain person...”

“Who do you mean?” Yamanouchi shouted. He had sniffed out the scent of Kaise’s reference to the feud between the Criminal Investigation Department and the Police Affairs Department. “Who’s bringing down who? Just say it!”

Kaise turned silent. It was not because he feared this tirade. Yamanouchi’s reaction had raised Kaise’s suspicions to another level. A crime committed by someone in the Criminal Investigation Department. It might be that Yamanouchi was concerned about this in a corner of his mind. The collective storage of notebooks was not the only seed of discord between the Police Affairs Department and the Criminal Investigation Department. Last spring’s personnel change was a case in point. The previous Police Affairs Department Chief had sidelined Yamanouchi’s right-hand man, the chief of the First Criminal Investigation Section, to the post of Counselor of the Traffic Department. The official reason given was “to allow a rest” for the section chief, who was in poor health and prone to taking days off. But the department chief’s intent was elsewhere. His own change of posting to Headquarters had been decided and he had, to use his words, “slammed the swollen-headed Criminal Investigation Department with a parting gift.”

J Prefectural Police historically had a strong Criminal Investigation Department. The head of the First Criminal Investigation Section, the core of the department, had been removed. It was not hard to imagine that there were many in the investigation field who harbored feelings of humiliation and anger. With this background of resentment toward the Police Affairs Department, the further antagonism caused by the collective storage system may have triggered this case. The theory made sense. It was suspicious that the incident had occurred during the test phase. The time to crush the effort was now, its opponents would think.

But perhaps it wasn’t a concerted effort. What if it was just one individual? There were all manner of types in the organization. If someone had expanded without limit his hatred toward the Police Affairs Department or had been fired up with righteous indignation and acted out his anger, then...

“Why are you keeping silent? Say something!” Pushing his hooked nose forward, Yamanouchi yelled, “Or are you making irresponsible comments because you want to evade your responsibility?”

“No, that is not it.”

“Then make it clear. What makes you think it’s an inside job? Who’s bringing down who? Just say it.”

“I don’t know,” Kaise said, sensing he was walking a tightrope. “I am saying that if it is an internal matter, then there is the possibility that the IDs will be returned. That is what I am saying.”

“Don’t play around—”

As Yamanouchi suddenly stood up, Headquarters Department Head Aoyama motioned to restrain him.

“It’s worth considering. If the IDs are returned, everything will turn out all right...”

Aoyama crossed his arms across his chest. There was a thin sheen of perspiration on his forehead, which looked like a plastic doll’s, but it must have been in full motion inside. Was it disadvantageous or advantageous to do as Kaise said?

The conference room became steeped in silence. Every man was waiting for the next word from the Headquarters department head.

The plastic forehead turned around.

“How long will it take to do the internal investigation?”

The Internal Investigations Head pushed back his chair and stood up. “We need at least two days.”

Feeling Yamanouchi’s fierce gaze, Kaise stood up straighter. I beg of you, he thought to himself.

“We’ll delay the press announcement until the day after tomorrow,” Aoyama said.

Kaise put in a call to his home in the police housing unit to say that he would be late getting home and left the prefectural police headquarters by car.

It was about a fifteen-minute trip to U Station. It was after 4:30, and already the sky was turning dusky. Early Christmas decorations highlighted the desolation of the local shopping street, whose customers had been lured away by the large-scale shops.

Kaise let out a heavy breath.

A two-day suspended sentence—

He had spoken with bravado. He had gained some time. But there were only two days to find the culprit and retrieve the IDs. Was that even possible?

Next to him on the passenger seat was a file. Masukawa Takashi, U Station, First Criminal Investigation Section, Chief of Burglary. Assistant Police Inspector. Age 45. Commendations received: 21. Residence: family dormitory, with wife and two daughters.

It was hard to feel the reality of this. He was suspecting a man he had never even talked to. A feud. Righteous indignation. Retaliation. Those words wouldn’t string together in one line now that the excitement had died down. It just so happened that someone in the Criminal Investigation Section was the duty officer in charge last night. Wasn’t he just trying to force this coincidence into a result?

Stop it!

For Kaise, now, there was only Masukawa. He had thrown out the possibility of it being an outside crime. Work like that — like finding a needle on the beach — was best left to the tactics of the Criminal Investigation and Security departments. Even for Internal Investigations, it was going to be a major task to investigate the thirteen night-duty staff in merely two days. For the time being, he would fix on Masukawa. He had to believe that Masukawa had a motive.

But it was doubtful if he could approach Masukawa. Internal investigations were under the sole authority of the Internal Investigations office. Even if he asserted that he was the original proponent of the collective storage of IDs, he would not be permitted to supercede the investigators and question anyone. Neither could he hope for backup from the Police Affairs Department. “Write up a text for the news conference.” This was the only directive given Kaise by Department Head Kamoike after the meeting.

I’ll just have to use guerilla tactics...

Kaise turned the steering wheel and drove into the U Station parking lot. Lights were on in the fifth-floor exercise room. It appeared that the questioning by the investigators was still in progress.

He had expected the station to be in a tumult, but instead, it was quiet. There were only a few people in the Traffic Section just inside the door; and in the Police Affairs Section farther in, he saw only Yamazaki Tomoyo, a civil-service staff member, and one young officer of the section.

I’m in luck, Kaise thought.

Tomoyo was an old-timer at U Station. She had been there for over thirty years, and during that time had given birth to three children, two of whom were now adults. Kaise himself had been posted to U Station for two years while he was a policeman. He might be able to get quite of bit of information out of Tomoyo.

“Hello, it’s been quite awhile.”

“Oh, hello, Mr. Kaise.” Tomoyo clapped her hands in joy. But realizing immediately why his nostalgic face had appeared before her, she furrowed her brow. “It’s a terrible situation.”

“Yes.”

“Who could have done it?”

Her way of saying “who” troubled him. “Who do you think it could be, Mrs. Yamazaki?”

“I don’t know... The only certain thing is that it wasn’t me.” Tomoyo’s expression had switched back to a smile.