David Peace - Occupied City

Slayer Believed Familiar With Medicines; Assisted By Several Accomplices?

WANTED!

Description of culprit in Teikoku Bank Shiinamachi branch

mass poison murder case:

Sex: Male. Age: From 45 to 56. Height: 5 ft. 2 or 3 in.

Thin, long-faced, pale, high-nose,

crop-haired with a sprinkling of grey hair.

Brown blemish on left cheek.

Was wearing brown overcoat at time of crime.

TOKYO, Jan. 28 — With the above description of the culprit given by the four survivors as the chief clue, the Metropolitan Police Board, mobilizing its most experienced criminal investigators, is on the search for the perpetrators of one of the coldest-blooded crimes of modern times .

The search is on for the man who, as reported yesterday, posed as a health inspector and induced 16 persons at the Shiinamachi branch of the Teikoku Bank to take poison, killing 12 of them .

The police base their belief (a) that the culprit was familiar with medicine and epidemic prevention and (b) that he was someone who knew the district and the bank well on the following two factors:

Dysentery cases had been reported in the district recently .

The criminal wore the armband of the Tokyo Metropolitan sanitation bureau and did not arouse any suspicion among the 16 who drank the poison .

Investigation headquarters have been established at the Mejiro police station .

The names of the victims of the mass poison slaughter have been ascertained as follows:

Dead — Watanabe Yoshiyasu, 43, chief treasurer; Shirai Shoichi, 28; Kato Teruko, 16; Uchida Yuko, 22; Takeuchi Sutejiro, 48, messenger; Nishimura Hidehiko , 38; Akiyama Miyako, 22; Takizawa Tatsuo, 46, messenger; his wife, Takizawa Ryuko, 51; Takizawa’s son, Yoshihiro , 7; Takizawa’s daughter, Takako, 18; and Sawada Yoshio, 21 .

Those in critical condition: — Yoshida Takejiro, 42, assistant manager; Akusawa Yoshiko, 18; Murata Masako, 21; and Tanaka Norikazu, 28 .

The first of the two bottles that the culprit induced his victims to drink is ascertained to have contained potassium cyanide .

The armband he wore is believed to have been one issued at the time of the recent flood disaster to students, hospitals, ward offices, and volunteer workers .

The crime is believed to have been planned by several persons in conjunction with the culprit who appeared at the bank .

Four persons who figured in a similar attempt made previously at the Nakai branch of the Mitsubishi Bank are believed to have some connection with the Teikoku Bank case .

The latest check shows that from ¥110,000 to ¥120,000 of the bank’s money are missing .

Doctor Suspected

TOKYO, Jan. 28 — Police suspicion in the Teikoku Bank mass murder case has fallen on a certain middle-aged doctor living within the jurisdiction of the Mejiro police station who fits the description given by Miss Murata Masako, one of the survivors, it is learned .

Linked With Case?

TOKYO, Jan. 28 — A man committed suicide with potassium cyanide at a hotel not far from the Shiinamachi branch of the Teikoku Bank early this morning .

As the poison taken by the suicide is the same as that which killed the bank employees, the Mejiro police station is investigating whether he is connected with the mass murder case .

The suicide, who registered as Yokobe Kunio, a company official at Komagawa-mura, Iruma-gun, Saitama prefecture, put up at the Kiraku Inn at 2156 Shiina-machi 5-chōme, Toshima-ku, yesterday at about 9.30 p.m. and took the potassium cyanide today at about 6 a.m .

He was wearing a grey sweater, khaki coat, black serge trousers and black overcoat. In his wallet was only about ¥100 .

His hair was not cropped .

In the Fictional City, this city of millions, millions will buy my newspaper, millions will buy my stories.

IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, I am back in the Seibo Hospital, back wearing a stolen white coat, back pretending to be a doctor –

Pretending, impersonating, deceiving…

Back beside her bed, her eyes closed, her hand in mine, I am whispering, ‘Can you hear me, Miss Murata…?’

There is sweat on her brow, in her hair, shadows on her cheeks, round her eyes. Her mouth opens and then closes, her fingers tighten and then loosen. She is dreaming, dreaming bad dreams –

‘Miss Murata, I can help you. Please believe me …’

Her eyes are open now but still not close, she is struggling to get back, back to this room, this white room in this hospital –

‘I can help you,’ I tell her. ‘You can trust me …’

Her fingers turn in my hand, tighten around my own, as she looks at me now and asks, ‘Who are you? Are you a doctor?’

‘No, this white coat is just so I could talk to you. That’s all. I just want to talk to you. I just want to help you …’

‘But why?’ she says. ‘Who are you?’

In the Fictional City, in the Seibo Hospital, in my stolen coat, I say, ‘My name is Takeuchi Riichi. I’m a journalist.’

‘You’re a journalist?’ she laughs. ‘Not a doctor?’

‘No,’ I smile. ‘A journalist, with the Yomiuri.’

She turns her face away from me now, not laughing any more. I let go of her hand. I want to apologize . She stares at the white wall, tears on her pillow. I stand up. I want to explain …

‘Get away from me!’ she cries.

IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, a telephone rings, a voice whispers, along wires, down cables, with another time, another place –

Down another alley, in another room, through the shadows, past the stares, in another chair, another man –

A man with an envelope.

I open the envelope. I read the letter. I take out my wallet. I hand him the cash and I say, ‘I hope you didn’t write it yourself.’

The man counts the cash. The man puts it in his jacket pocket. The man smiles and says, ‘What difference would it make?’

IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, with an envelope and a letter on my desk, an editor and a deadline on my back, I write another story:

SINISTER NOTE RECEIVED IN PUZZLING BANK CASE

Reward for Capture Now ¥80,000; Police Still Baffled

Painfully slow progress was being made in the Teikoku Bank ‘Poison Holdup’ case as police officers continued to be enmeshed in difficulties because of the lack of tangible evidence .

Rewards for the capture of the diabolical killer of 12 bank employees rose to ¥80,000 and one silver cup .

A sinister letter was received on January 29 by the manager of the Shiina branch of the Teikoku Bank. Signed ‘Yamaguchi Jiro’, the alias used on the day of the diabolical crime, the letter said in part: ‘I am sorry I caused quite a disturbance the other day. I let Murata Masako (the girl who crawled into the streets to seek help) live because I have some use for her later. In due time, I shall pay her a visit… At first I had an unpleasant feeling watching so many people writhe and squirm in agony but later I didn’t mind at all…’

Police are investigating to see whether it really came from the poisoner or from some callous citizen with a dubious sense of humour .

Meanwhile, the description of the man who claimed the cheque stolen from the scene of the crime failed to tally with that of the poisoner .

Police officials, however, expressed gratification for public cooperation in the manhunt and said that scores of letters and phone calls are being received daily at the search headquarters .