David Peace - Tokyo Year Zero

‘Not like yours, inspector.’

*

There are thirty men on the slopes of Shiba Park. Thirty men with their towels and their sticks. To search in the long grass . Thirty men in three teams of ten. Three teams of ten sweating in their plainclothes and sweating in their uniforms, swatting at mosquitoes and swatting at flies. For the secrets of the dead . They stare up at the sun. They look back down at the ground. In the long grass . They take out their handkerchiefs. They take off their hats. Their skulls to the sun . They wipe their heads. They wipe their necks. In the long grass . They put their hats back on. Their handkerchiefs away. That strangles and binds . They reach for their sticks. They start to search. In the long grass . To search again. To try to find. The long grass …

Chiku-taku. Chiku-taku. Chiku-taku. Chiku-taku …

From eleven in the morning till six in the evening –

But there are no clocks in the land of the dead …

In these forgotten graves. By these fallen trees –

Just the sound of the crows, the many crows …

There is only resignation, no enthusiasm –

In this place of assignation …

I am searching too –

For Fujita …

‘Looking for someone?’ asks Chief Inspector Adachi –

‘Aren’t we all?’ I say and I turn away, again.

*

I find Ishida alone in our borrowed upstairs room at Atago. Ishida is smeared in the dirt and the sweat from the search. He is wiping down the chairs and the tables, sweeping up the floor and the doorway, straightening our banner. Ishida senses my shadow. He looks up –

Ishida stands to attention. He bows. He apologizes –

I smile at him and I tell him, ‘Stand at ease.’

Ishida bows again. He apologizes again –

‘Your apologies are always insincere.’

‘You’ve worked hard today,’ I tell him. ‘Thank you.’

Again, he bows. Again, he apologizes –

‘How was yesterday?’ I ask him. ‘With Detective Fujita?’

Ishida turns his face to the floor now, his back slightly bent. He is unwilling to look up, to look me in the eye –

‘Yesterday?’ I ask him again. ‘Were you and Detective Fujita able to get some rice and some supplies?’

Ishida turns his head slightly to his left, his back still bent –

‘You went out into the country, didn’t you?’ I ask him –

Ishida nods his head once, back still bent –

‘And so where did you go?’

Ishida turns his head again and now he says, ‘I went with Detective Fujita at his request, sir.’

‘I know that,’ I tell him. ‘Now I am asking you where it was you went with Detective Fujita.’

Ishida sucks the air in between his teeth but does not answer –

I smack the top of his head. I shout, ‘Answer me!’

Ishida starts to bow again, to apologize again –

I smack him again. I shout again, ‘Quickly! Answer me!’

But Ishida does not answer, he only apologizes –

‘Your apologies are always insincere.’

‘Idiot!’ I shout and I turn to leave –

Nishi and Kimura stood there –

‘Chief Kita is here, sir,’ says Nishi. ‘In the reception room with Chief Inspector Adachi.’

*

The head of the entire First Investigative Division has come to Atago police station. Chief Kita is here for the results of the initial search. I stand outside the reception room. I wait until Chief Kita and Adachi have finished their meeting, until Adachi comes out of the room and walks past me without a word, without even a glance in my direction, and then I knock on the door of the reception room and enter –

I bow to Chief Kita. I apologize to Chief Kita. I take the seat the chief offers me. I tell him what we have done today, what we have found and what we will do next, tomorrow –

Chief Kita listens and then Chief Kita says, ‘But I hear you want to leave Room #2. To transfer…?’

I have told no one this. But I ask nothing and I say nothing. I bow deeply to the chief. I apologize for asking for a transfer –

‘It’s interesting you don’t deny it,’ smiles Chief Kita. ‘And apparently it’s a transfer to Room #6 you want?’

I ask nothing and I say nothing …

I bow. I apologize again.

The chief asks, ‘Why?’

‘I have been in Room #2 for almost a year now,’ I tell him. ‘Maybe they need a new leader.’

‘But why do you want Room #6?’ the chief asks me again. ‘It’s the gangs and the markets. You’d know nothing…’

‘I knew nothing when you put me in Room #2.’

Chief Kita smiles and asks, ‘And now?’

‘One can never know enough…’

Chief Kita inhales deeply, closes his eyes and then he says, ‘You identify that girl’s body. You find out how she died. If she was murdered, you find out who killed her and why –

‘Then you can have your transfer.’

I bow. I apologize. I repeat –

‘Thank you. Thank you.’

*

Up the stairs again, back to the same hot, dark second-floor room and the last meeting of the first full day of the two investigations –

‘Attention!’ shouts the same uniformed sergeant –

‘Bow!’ shouts the sergeant –

‘At ease!’ he shouts.

Chief Inspector Adachi and I stay standing at the front of the room, in front of the table on which are lain out the things that have been found today on the slopes of Shiba Park, the many things –

The wicker basket containing a set of carpenter’s tools, found fifteen metres from the first body; the child’s undershirt and material found near the basket; the soiled women’s underwear; the soldier’s shoulder bag in the bushes on the Northern Path; the long Chinese-style pipe and the empty lunchbox; the Asahi Shimbun from the eleventh of August this year; the old man’s glasses, broken in two; the rusted Western-style razor and the red haramaki with five darned holes found on the Eastern Path, five darned holes for identification –

‘It would seem that the material from the haramaki,’ reports Adachi, ‘matches the material found around the neck of the first body. However, we will have to wait until the results of the autopsy tomorrow before we can be certain. Inspector Minami…’

‘The military shoulder bag,’ I continue, ‘was found to contain a statement of employment for a Takahashi of Zōshigaya, Toshima Ward. Detectives have already left for the Toshima ward office to follow up on this information…’

‘Scientific tests will also be conducted,’ states Adachi, ‘on the various items of clothing found during the search. The underwear may aid in identification.’

Chief Inspector Adachi and I sit down. Chief Inspector Kanehara stands up now –

‘Tomorrow morning,’ he says, ‘we resume the search.’

*

The chief has reserved a room in a recently reopened restaurant near Daimon, near one of the kitchens of the Victors. The chief is treating the whole of the First Investigative Division to a meal. The whole of the First Investigative Division sitting sleeve against sleeve, knee against knee on new tatami mats. There is no menu. No choice. But there is beer and there is food; we are eating leftovers, zanpan , from the Victors’ dustbins, just grateful not to have to eat zōsui again –

Dogs starved at their masters’ feet, beneath their tables …

Everyone still talking about this former naval commander who murdered his wife, his eleven-year-old son, his nine-year-old daughter and who then shot himself and the message he left:

‘Dispose of our bodies as you would a dog’s…’