David Peace - Tokyo Year Zero

‘But you’d been down there before, you’d had your fingers up her skirt and in her cunt…’

‘Then after I’d finished, she just wouldn’t stop crying and crying so I strangled her.’

‘She’d never been upset before, had she? She’d still come to meet you, hadn’t she?’

‘I strangled her with her own haramaki.’

‘You’d not planned it that way…’

‘Then I stripped the body and…’

‘You were afraid…’

‘I ran away.’

*

In the corridor outside the interrogation room, Chief Inspector Kanehara and Inspector Kai congratulate Chief Inspector Adachi. Case closed . Chief Inspector Kanehara and Inspector Kai tell Chief Inspector Adachi what a great job he did. Case closed . In the corridor outside the interrogation room, Chief Inspector Adachi congratulates Chief Inspector Kanehara and Inspector Kai. Case closed . Chief Inspector Adachi tells Chief Inspector Kanehara and Inspector Kai what a great job they did. Case closed. Case closed. Case closed…

They will eat good food tonight, their glasses raised –

They will sing old songs, their songs of victory –

‘You saw how it was done,’ Kai tells me. ‘Good luck.’

*

They have switched on the light. They have brought back the table. They have given Kodaira Yoshio back his chair. They have given Kodaira Yoshio back his clothes. They have given Kodaira Yoshio tea to drink. They have given Kodaira Yoshio cigarettes to smoke –

Kodaira smiling. Kodaira grinning. Kodaira laughing…

I ask him, ‘Is there anything else you want to tell me?’

‘Like what?’ he asks. ‘Like about Midorikawa?’

‘That’s not the first time you’ve killed, is it?’

‘You know that,’ he says. ‘I told you.’

‘Then please tell me again…’

‘Why?’ he laughs.

‘Tell me!’

He shrugs his shoulders. He says, ‘I killed my father-in-law.’

‘And?’

He says, ‘And I’ve just told you I killed Midorikawa.’

‘And?’

He smiles now. ‘And I killed six Chinese soldiers.’

‘And?’

He shakes his head. He asks me, ‘And what?’

‘And how many more have you killed?’

He asks, ‘Killed where? In China?’

‘Just tell me about the others…’

Kodaira asks, ‘Were you a soldier, detective? Did you fight?’

‘I’m not talking about China,’ I say. ‘What about here?’

But he asks me again, ‘Did you fight, detective?’

‘Yes,’ I tell him. ‘In the army. In China.’

He says, ‘Then you saw what I saw. You did what I did.’

Half-thoughts form. In the half-light. Half-things move…

‘I’m not talking about China,’ I tell him. ‘There was another body found in Shiba Park. There was another murdered girl.’

Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton…

Kodaira shrugs his shoulders again. He shakes his head –

‘Another dead girl aged seventeen or eighteen…’

Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton…

Kodaira shakes his head. He bows his head –

‘In a yellow and dark-blue striped pinafore dress,’ I tell him. ‘A white half-sleeved chemise, dyed-pink socks and white canvas shoes with red rubber soles…’

Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton…

Kodaira shrugs his shoulders. Kodaira shakes his head. Kodaira bows his head. Kodaira says, ‘It wasn’t me, detective…’

Ton-ton. Ton-ton…

I get up to go –

Ton-ton…

‘I’m very sorry,’ says Kodaira. ‘But it wasn’t me, soldier.’

*

I stay away from Headquarters. They will have found his name . They will be having their parties to celebrate. They will have talked to his family . They will be eating good food. They will have found his office . They will be raising their glasses. They will have talked to his colleagues . They will be taking off their ties. They will have found his stories . They will be tying their ties round their foreheads. They will have talked to his contacts . They will be singing their songs. They will have found his notes . Their songs of endeavour. They will have talked to his snitches . Their songs of courage. They will have found my name . Their songs of battle. They will be coming for me …

Case closed. Case closed. Case closed…

Be singing their songs of victory –

Chiku-taku. Chiku-taku…

The night is heavy; the heat is dark; the Shimbashi New Life Market deserted except for a few stall-holders here and there, standing in small groups, watching the reed screens being torn down, drinking mechiru-arukōru and reading the signs while they still can:

Closed for the time being. Efforts being made to reopen …

No pots. No pans. No sardines or second-hand suits –

No tinned fruit or soldiers’ boots –

No Victors on the stairs tonight –

No red apple to my lips…

‘The boss has been waiting for you,’ says the goon in the new suit as two other goons in two other new suits take an arm each and march me past the empty mats and broken stalls, down the alleys and the lanes, through the shadows and the arches to the old wooden stairs and the wide-open door at the top of those stairs –

I wipe my face. Then I wipe my neck –

Now I walk up the stairs –

Into the light –

Senju Akira is sat cross-legged before the long low polished table, bare-chested with his trousers unbuttoned at the waist and a clean white haramaki belt around his belly –

Senju calmer than before –

Before the storm…

‘I attended a very interesting meeting today,’ he tells me –

There are ten police revolvers laid out on the long table…

‘All of the gang bosses and all of the police chiefs…’

There is ammunition for them. There are short swords…

‘I impressed upon them all that the traditional friendship between the bosses and the followers should remain untouched, but I agreed that the system itself should be completely altered otherwise it will not survive in this age of democracy…’

He picks up a gun. He picks up a cloth. He begins to clean…

‘I advocated that all of the gangs should abandon the practice of living upon protection money and other such outdated and parasitic practices…’

Bit by bit, piece by piece, he wipes, he polishes, he oils…

‘I advocated that the markets be drastically democratized and reorganized into modern business corporations with even their own labour unions…’

He sorts through the ammunition, he sifts…

‘I told the gang bosses and the police chiefs that the old Shimbashi Black Market has already been transformed into the Shimbashi New Life Market and that the old Matsuda gang has now been reorganized into the Kantō Matsuda Group, a modern commercial organization under my presidency…’

He chooses. He loads…

‘That all our members have doffed their traditional clothes for sack coats like all other white-collar workers. That unemployment insurance is being introduced…’

One bullet, two bullets, three bullets, four…

‘Relief money for workers who are sick…’

Four bullets, five bullets, six more…

‘And help for the families of the dead…’

He closes the chamber of the gun…

‘I told them that we were here to work with the police, shoulder to shoulder, brother to brother, Japanese to Japanese. I told them we were here to help the police…’

Now he cocks the gun …