David Peace - Tokyo Year Zero

Murota Hideki continues to stir his pale drink –

‘One of them was called Tominaga Noriko…’

Murota Hideki stops stirring his drink –

‘We have reason to believe that she might well be the second unidentified body we found in Shiba Park on the same day that the body of Midorikawa Ryuko was discovered…’

Murota Hideki begins to stir his drink again. ‘And what reason is that, then, detective?’

‘The second body found at Shiba was approximately the same age and height as Tominaga. The autopsy of the second body found at Shiba puts the time of death as sometime between the twentieth and the twenty-seventh of July. Tominaga went missing sometime between the ninth and the fifteenth of July. The second body was clothed in a yellow and dark-blue striped pinafore dress, a white half-sleeved chemise, dyed-pink socks and white canvas shoes with red rubber soles. Earlier this morning, Tominaga Noriko’s former landlady identified these clothes as having belonged to Tominaga –

I think about her all the time, I think about her all the time …

‘Tominaga Noriko knew Abe Yoshiko; Abe Yoshiko was murdered by Kodaira Yoshio; Kodaira Yoshio also murdered Midorikawa Ryuko; according to the autopsy reports on both bodies, Midorikawa Ryuko and the second body found at Shiba Park were both murdered by the same man; that man is Kodaira Yoshio —’

‘Never heard of a Tominaga Noriko, soldier …’

‘I believe the second body is that of Tominaga Noriko and that Kodaira Yoshio was her killer…’

Murota Hideki drains his glass. Murota Hideki claps his hands. ‘So what do you need me for, then?’

‘You knew Abe Yoshiko,’ I tell him. ‘So you might also have known Tominaga Noriko and might then be able to assist us…’

Murota Hideki shakes his head. Murota Hideki says, ‘No.’

‘No, you didn’t know her or no, you won’t assist us?’

Murota Hideki pours himself another drink. ‘Both.’

‘You knew Masaoka, another of Abe’s friends?’

Murota Hideki shakes his head again. ‘No.’

‘You’ve admitted you were fucking Abe,’ I tell him. ‘All I’m asking is if you knew any of the other girls in the same group…’

‘He wasn’t fucking Abe Yoshiko,’ says a woman’s voice from out of the shadows, from out of the shadows behind the shabby curtain, behind the shabby curtain that partitions this shabby room –

Another shabby curtain in another shabby room …

Murota Hideki is on his feet. ‘Shut up! Idiot! Shut up! Idiot!’

‘He was fucking me,’ says the woman, who now steps from out of the shadows and through the shabby curtain, from out of the shadows dressed in a yellow and dark-blue striped pinafore dress –

In another shabby yellow and dark-blue striped pinafore …

Murota Hideki grabbing hold of her bare thin white arms. Murota Hideki pushing her back through the curtain. Murota Hideki shouting, ‘No! No! Shut up! You don’t know what you’re doing!’

Back through the curtain. Back into the shadows –

He is pleading with her now. He is begging her –

‘Please shut up! Please, please shut up…’

Behind the curtain, in the shadows …

‘But I won’t pretend to be dead,’ she says. ‘I’m not a ghost.’

Murota whispering, ‘But they’ll come for you again…’

I stand up. I walk over to the curtain. ‘Listen to me…’

I can hear Murota groaning, cursing and sobbing –

‘I won’t say anything to anyone,’ I tell them –

Now Murota Hideki pushes the woman out of the shadows, through the curtains and says, ‘Here you are, then, detective. Here —’

He pushes her chin and her face up, up towards the light –

Her chin and her face squeezed between his fingers –

‘This is Tominaga Noriko,’ hisses Murota Hideki. ‘Are you satisfied now, detective? Are you happy now? Are you…?’

I shake my head. I say nothing. I wait for him –

For him to let go of her face and her chin –

For him to sit down. To pull her down –

To pour himself another drink –

For her to look up at me –

Tominaga Noriko …

‘It was never Abe Yoshiko,’ whispers Murota Hideki now. ‘It was always her, always Noriko, but it was always a secret and it always would have been had my luck not run out. But then again, my luck had already begun to run out before I even met Noriko…’

‘It was always a secret … It was always a secret …’

‘I suppose it’s funny, really, in a way, I survived the whole of the war and then, on the very morning of the surrender, the very last day of the whole of the war, my luck finally ran out…’

‘My luck finally ran out… finally ran out …’

‘Towards the end of the war, that very month in fact, I had been transferred to the Shinagawa police station and so that was where I was working when, early that morning of the fifteenth of August last year, some boiler-man comes in saying he’s discovered the naked body of a woman in an air-raid shelter…’

Miyazaki Mitsuko. Miyazaki Mitsuko …

‘And so that was my first piece of bad luck, being at Shinagawa that morning when this man comes in, because now I and an Officer Uchida are sent up there to get the details and to wait for your mob to arrive from Headquarters…’

I have seen this man before …

‘But it turns out the air-raid shelter is on naval property and so the case belongs to the Kempeitai. It’s not your business. Not our business. The Kempeitai take the case…’

Eyes I have met before …

‘Me and Officer Uchida were sent back down to Shinagawa police station to request an ambulance and that was that. Finished. Never heard anything more about it and never expected to. Case closed, as far as I was concerned…’

Now Murota Hideki points at Tominaga Noriko and says, ‘Then I met her this last winter, on my beat. She’s got no one and she’s got nothing. I feel sorry for her and yes, I fancy her. I find her a place in Ōimachi. I give her money and I give her food –

‘I take care of her and yes, I sleep with her…’

Murota Hideki looks over at Tominaga Noriko now and says, ‘We both had nothing and now we have something.’

She haunts me here. She haunts me now …

Now Murota Hideki shakes his head. Murota Hideki sighs, ‘But then two months ago, when this friend of hers, this Abe Yoshiko, was murdered, and in a similar manner and in a similar place to that body in Shinagawa last year, that was when I made my first mistake and that was when my luck finally ran out for good…’

‘My luck finally ran out for good … finally…’

‘I tried to be a policeman. I tried to help. I was at the Mita police station by then but I went across to Takanawa, where the Abe team was based, and I asked to see the officer in charge…’

‘Who is unfortunately no longer with us …’

‘I met this officer, man called Chief Inspector Mori, and I told him about the body in the air-raid shelter at Shinagawa. Chief Inspector Mori thanked me and, again, I thought that was that. I’d done what I could. I’d tried to help. Finished. And I never expected to hear anything more about it. Case closed again for me…’

Case closed … case closed … case closed …

‘But then, the very next day, this Chief Inspector Mori is down at the Mita police station, to question me …’

I don’t want to remember …

‘Can I remember any further details? Can I remember who was working with me at Shinagawa on that day? Can I remember the two detectives who were sent out from Headquarters? Can I remember the names of the officers from the Kempeitai? The witnesses? And so on and so on and so on…’