Содзи Симада - Murder in the Crooked House

“Got it. And then?”

“The daughter used to work at a bar called Himiko in Asakusabashi in Taito Ward, Tokyo. In August of this year, she came up here for a visit. Kikuoka probably showed an interest in her—apparently, he was an infamous womanizer. Everyone says that about him.”

“Was Kikuoka still single?”

“Far from it. He has a wife and two children—a high school-aged son and a daughter in middle school.”

“Really? He had plenty of energy, then, that one.”

“Kikuoka, although he seemed an open-minded, generous type, also had a rather underhand side to him. It seems that if anyone ever showed him ingratitude at work, he would seem to laugh it off, but later he’d always be sure to get his revenge.”

“Again, the hard life of the lowly employee.”

“With Yoshie, the Hayakawas’ daughter, the same kind of thing happened. Here in front of her parents he didn’t show even a hint of interest, but when he got back to Tokyo, seems he kept showing up at her bar.

“Himiko is one of those places that young people like to hang out. Kind of modern but not too expensive. There are just two people working there—the mama-san and Yoshie. So it was this kind of place that the president of Kikuoka Bearings began to turn up at daily. Was a bit awkward, really.”

“Old lechers with money and status are the worst.”

“That one believed deeply in spending money on women, they say.”

“Quite a philosophy.”

“So it seems. He was kind of a reckless spender. That relationship with Yoshie went on for quite some time, until Kikuoka suddenly stopped coming to the bar.”

“Hmm.”

“By the way, according to the mama-san of Himiko, he’d promised to buy Yoshie an apartment and a sports car but he never did. She was pretty pissed off with him.”

“Very interesting.”

“The mama-san says that Yoshie used to get excited about all the presents he was going to buy her, and so after he disappeared she got very depressed. Anyway, Yoshie got dumped, and her phone calls to Kikuoka were never answered. If she ever did manage to get a hold of him, he claimed that he had never made her any promises.”

“So what did she do?”

“She attempted suicide.”

“What? She died?”

“No. She didn’t succeed. She took sleeping pills, but she was found and had her stomach pumped. I think there was a strong element of revenge against Kikuoka in it. And, according to the mama-san, she probably felt ashamed of having talked about everything so openly too.”

“Well, you could say they’re both at fault in their own way, I suppose. And how are things now?”

“She had recovered quite well, and was getting out and about again, but then at the beginning of last month she was killed in a traffic accident.”

“So she did die!”

“It really was just a traffic accident and had absolutely nothing to do with Eikichi Kikuoka, but the Hayakawas blame Kikuoka for it. They say he killed her.”

“Well, they would… She was their only child… And does Mr Hamamoto know about all this?”

“I’m pretty sure he does. Well, he must know that the Hayakawas’ only daughter died in a traffic accident, surely.”

“So, Kikuoka just nonchalantly decides to turn up at the house where Kohei and Chikako Hayakawa live?”

“He was personally invited by the esteemed president of Hama Diesel. He couldn’t refuse.”

“How terribly unfortunate for him!” said Ushikoshi with heavy sarcasm. “I get it. Kohei and Chikako Hayakawa had a motive for murdering Eikichi Kikuoka. Yesterday they kept it quiet, didn’t they? But what about Ueda?”

“Now that’s still as strange as ever. The Hayakawas had absolutely no reason to kill Kazuya Ueda. The only contact they ever had with him was the couple of times he came to the house.”

“Hmm. So they had a motive to kill Kikuoka, but none to kill Ueda. That is strange… And to make matters worse, the only two people with a motive to kill Kikuoka have an ironclad alibi.

“Well, never mind that for now. How about the next married couple? Is there any news about a possible motive for Michio and Hatsue Kanai to kill Kikuoka?”

“Actually there is. And it’s straight out of a gossip magazine.”

“Oh?”

“It seems to be true that Michio Kanai was a huge supporter and member of Kikuoka’s faction at work. He’s been sucking up to Kikuoka for just shy of the past twenty years. And it worked. He’s really come up in the world. It’s all exactly as Kanai said himself in his big speech just now. Everything’s pretty much confirmed to be true. The problem is his wife.”

“The wife?…”

Ozaki was enjoying leaving the others hanging on his words. He paused to take a cigarette and light it.

“It was Kikuoka who set Kanai up with Hatsue around twenty years ago. But before that, Hatsue Kanai used to be Kikuoka’s lover.”

“Again!”

“The playboy!” said Okuma, with a hint of grudging admiration.

“He’s just that type, I guess.”

“I take my hat off to him,” added Ushikoshi, rather sarcastically. “Well, did Kanai have any idea about this?”

“That’s still unclear. On the surface it seems that he knew nothing, but he might have had his suspicions.”

“But even if he did suspect something, would that be a strong enough reason to murder someone?”

“Difficult to say for sure, but probably not. As far as Kanai is concerned, losing his employer means he’s nothing any more. Company Executive Kanai only existed because of President Kikuoka. So I’m saying that even if Kanai had realized about his wife’s past with Kikuoka, it was something that happened a long time ago. If he’d ever attacked Kikuoka, it’d be fair to say he’d lose everything.

“If for some reason, he had been desperate to kill him, if there had been something festering in him that was forcing him to do it, how would he have gone about it? Well, it would be more sensible for him to have got in first with members of the opposing faction or factions at the company. He’d need to protect his position after the death of his patron. But there’s no evidence at all that he did anything like that.”

“So he was Kikuoka’s bootlicker right to the end?”

“Seems so.”

“I see.”

“To me it makes no sense to think of Kanai having a motive to kill Kikuoka.”

“How about his wife?”

“Ah, the wife… I don’t think she could have done something like that.”

“How about Kanai’s relationship with Ueda?”

“Just as we discovered from the earlier investigation, there was no particular relationship between the two. As for motive, I think it’s impossible to find one.”

“Then let’s take a look at Kumi Aikura.”

“It’s no secret at the company that she was Kikuoka’s lover. But as far as Kumi’s concerned, she relied on his being there… It really wouldn’t be a great idea to kill him. Even if she had some kind of motive that we don’t know about, it would make sense to squeeze as much out of him as she possibly could for now, then pick the moment right when he was about to leave her. But at the time he was murdered, Kikuoka was still totally infatuated with her.”

“So this thing with Yoshie Hayakawa, he was two-timing her with Kumi?”

“Yeah. It looks like it.”

“Nice behaviour.”

“What a charmer!”

“And yet, let’s imagine there were some particular circumstances that we don’t know about, and Kumi managed to get herself hired as Kikuoka’s secretary with the sole purpose of murdering him?”

“I don’t think it’s possible. She’s from Akita Prefecture. Growing up, neither she nor her parents ever left the area. Kikuoka never visited Akita in his life.”