Kojo Suzuki - Spiral

Of course Ando couldn’t. How could he? He brought the liquor to his lips time and again, but intoxication seemed still a long way off. His head was distressingly clear.

It might be true. Ando found himself gradually leaning toward Miyashita’s viewpoint. Ryuji probably meant the word “mutation” as a warning. Ando could almost see Ryuji’s face as he sneered, You think you’re safe. You think it’s extinct. But you won’t get off that easy. It’s mutated, and a new version is rearing its head.

Ando was reminded of the AIDS virus. It was thought that several hundred years ago some preexisting virus mutated and became what is now known as the AIDS virus. The previous virus didn’t infect humans, and may well have been harmless. But through mutation, it took on the power to wreak havoc with the human immune system. What if the same thing happened with this videotape? Ando could only pray that the opposite happened, that a harmful thing was now innocuous. But the facts suggested otherwise. Far from becoming harmless, the mutated videotape had turned into something that killed anybody who watched it regardless of whether or not they made a copy of it. If that was any indication, the thing was getting even nastier. And with Ando unable to form any conclusions yet about Mai’s disappearance, that left Asakawa as the only anomaly.

“Why is Asakawa still alive?” Ando asked Miyashita the same thing he’d asked him the day before.

“That’s the question, isn’t it? He’s the only clue as to what that videotape has turned into.”

“Well, actually… there is one other person.”

Ando gave Miyashita a brief rundown on Mai: how the video had made its way through Ryuji to her, how there was evidence that she’d watched it, and how she’d been missing for nearly three weeks now.

“Which means there are two people who saw the tape and are still alive.”

“Asakawa’s still alive, although just barely. I’m not sure about Mai.”

“I hope she’s alive.”

“Why?”

“Well, why not? We’re better off with two clues than with one.”

He had a point. If Mai was still alive, they might be able to figure out what she and Asakawa had in common. It might give them an answer. But for his part, Ando just hoped she was safe.

Monday afternoon, November 26th Ando had finished an autopsy on a boy who’d drowned in a river, and now he was filling out a report while listening to the boy’s father explain the circumstances.

Ando was trying to ascertain the boy’s date of birth and his movements on the day of the accident, but the man’s answers were vague and confused, making Ando’s job difficult. Sometimes the father would gaze out the window when the conversation flagged, and sometimes Ando caught him stifling a yawn. He looked sapped of strength, drowsy. Ando wanted to finish up as quickly as he could and release the man.

Then the M.E.’s office rang with a sudden commotion. They’d just been notified by the police that another body was coming in, that of an unidentified female. At the moment, they were simultaneously preparing to treat the body and to dissect it. Dr Nakayama, an older colleague of Ando’s, would be in charge of the autopsy. The police had said she’d been discovered in an exhaust shaft on the roof of an office building. This meant the team would have to do two autopsies back to back, so assistants and policemen were running in and out now getting ready.

“The body has arrived, Doctor.”

The autopsy assistant’s voice rang out. Ando jumped involuntarily and looked toward the sound. Ikeda, the assistant, was standing by the half-open door, facing Nakayama. For some reason, though, Ando felt as though he were the one being summoned.

“Alright,” said Nakayama, getting slowly to his feet. “Get it ready, would you?” Nakayama had joined the M.E.’s office two years before Ando; he belonged to the Forensic Medicine Department of Joji University Medical School.

The assistant disappeared, and in his place a policeman came in and approached Nakayama. After a couple of words of greeting, the cop pulled up a chair and sat down next to Nakayama.

Ando looked back down at his own work. But he could overhear the policeman’s conversation with Nakayama behind him, and it interested him. He could only catch fragments, words here and there. The officer seemed to be explaining the circumstances in which the body had been found.

Ando stopped writing and listened. The words “unidentified” and “young female” cropped up again and again.

Nakayama asked, “But why was she on the roof?”

“We don’t know why she went up there. Maybe she was thinking of jumping.”

“Was there a note of any kind?”

“We haven’t found one yet.”

“I imagine, from inside an exhaust shaft nobody would have heard her cries for help.”

“It’s not a residential area.”

“Where is it?”

“East Oi, in Shinagawa Ward. It’s an old fourteen-story building along the Shore Road.”

Ando looked up in shock. He recalled the view from the Keihin Express tracks. Beyond the residential district, one could see the Shore Road where it passed through a district lined with warehouses and office buildings. It was just a stone’s throw from Mai’s apartment. An unidentified young female on the roof of a building on the Shore Road…

“I think that’ll do. If I have any more questions I’ll give you a call.” Ando thanked the boy’s father and wrapped up what he was doing. He was too interested in the conversation behind him to be able to put together a report right now. There were still some things he knew he needed to find out, but he decided he’d take care of them later.

Ando slipped his papers into a folder and got to his feet. Nakayama and the policeman stood up at the same time. Ando went over and clapped a hand on Nakayama’s shoulder. Bowing slightly to the officer, whom he recognized, Ando said, “The female you’re doing next-she hasn’t been identified?”

The three of them left the office and headed down the hall toward the autopsy room.

It was the policeman who answered Ando. “That’s right. She didn’t have anything on her to help us peg her.”

“How old is she?”

“She’s young, twenty or thereabouts. She’d be quite a looker, if she weren’t dead.”

Twenty or thereabouts. Mai was twenty-two, but she could easily pass for a woman in her teens. Ando could feel himself starting to choke.

“Any distinguishing features?”

He’d know immediately if he saw the body. But he needed to prepare himself first. Of course he’d much rather hear something that proved it wasn’t her. Then he could leave without having to check.

“What’s the matter, Dr Ando?” Nakayama grinned. “Are you more interested now that you know she’s a knockout?”

“No, it’s not that,” said Ando, refusing to play along. “There’s just something that bothers me about it.” Seeing his expression, Nakayama quickly wiped the leer off his face.

“Now that you mention it, there was something strange about her. Dr Nakayama should hear this, too.”

“What’s that?”

“She wasn’t wearing any underwear.”

“Really? Top or bottom?”

“She was wearing a bra, but no panties.”

“Were her clothes in disarray when she was found?”

Ando and Nakayama were both thinking the same thing: maybe she’d been raped on the rooftop, and then thrown down the exhaust shaft.

“No disturbance of her clothes, and at least on visual inspection, no evidence of rape.”

“What was she wearing?”

“A skirt, knee socks, blouse, sweatshirt. A normal outfit. You might even say conservative.”