Fuminori Nakamura - Last Winter We Parted

This was our plan.

Even if the photos of you, Akiko, were delivered to the police, Yudai Kiharazaka wouldn’t be sentenced to die. But if the same thing were to happen again, and if it were clearly a murder, then there was a good chance they’d revisit the first “accident” and it would be ruled a homicide. What’s more, together with the long-shot photographs of you that he actually took — not the composites — it’s likely that the first accident would also be acknowledged as premeditated. Yuriko Kurihara wanted to acquire a new identity. I wanted revenge against Yudai and Akari Kiharazaka. And the lawyer wanted revenge on Akari. And so …

We would burn his sister Akari, right before his eyes, so that Yudai Kiharazaka thought it was Yuriko Kurihara.

By doing this to Yudai Kiharazaka, the exact same fate that befell you would befall his sister, Akari. When it happened to you, his photographs didn’t capture it. If we planted Yuriko Kurihara with him, even had them living together, and if Yuriko Kurihara were set on fire before him, would he just keep taking photos as before, never realizing she was really his sister? Until she were no more than ashes? Acknowledged as having brutally burned two women to death, the media would have a field day covering the murders, and he would get the death penalty. We would create the evidence that proved he was the one who did it. No one would think that two fires in a row both just happened to be accidents. I knew it. He was in a precarious situation, easy to frame. In short, we could get him sentenced to death without his having actually killed anyone .

However, there were obvious objections raised regarding this plan.

The lawyer and I, we weren’t planning simply to kill them. Our intention was to inflict cruelty on them. That was why we devised this plan, yet Yuriko Kurihara was quite opposed to it.

For one thing, what would we do if Yudai Kiharazaka, faced with Yuriko (actually Akari) on fire before him, went and tried to save her?

Another factor was, in this day and age of such scientific forensic investigation, would it really be possible to switch the murder victim?

If he were to save Yuriko (actually Akari), then our plan would come to nothing. He would discover that it was his sister who had been burned, and with Akari’s testimony, everything would be brought to light. The lawyer, Yuriko, and I would be charged with attempted murder. I was certain that Yudai Kiharazaka would just take photos without trying to save his model, and the lawyer — who was pretty familiar with Kiharazaka’s tendencies at this point — was of the same opinion, but Yuriko didn’t know Kiharazaka well and kept up her objections. That was how we decided that if Yudai Kiharazaka tried to save his sister, the lawyer would shoot him with a pistol. Then the lawyer would set his sister on fire again. The course of our plan would fall through but, ultimately, the two of them would both be dead anyhow. As it happened, Kiharazaka did just go on taking photos, so there was no need to kill him with the pistol. The ironic thing is, because he took those photos of his sister burning, he was able to extend his life, at least until his execution. Had we killed him with a gun, it would have been quite an inscrutable crime scene. A burnt corpse, the photographer who had apparently filmed it, yet the photographer had been shot dead … The investigation might have found us out, or we might have been able to get away. But at least for the lawyer and me, it didn’t matter what happened after our plan transpired.

The second factor was the viability of switching the murder victim. But this was comparatively simple. All I had to do was marry Yuriko Kurihara.

She and I were married for appearance’s sake. That’s how she went from being Yuriko Kurihara to Yuriko Kobayashi. If Yudai Kiharazaka was going to take the photos, then accordingly the building would be severely damaged in the fire. Left at the scene would be Kiharazaka, camera in hand, and a completely burned corpse that had been slowly and carefully doused with kerosene and fire accelerant. The woman’s body would be wearing Yuriko Kobayashi’s clothing. The clothing would burn completely but maybe the fragment of a button might remain. Naturally, Yudai Kiharazaka would think the burnt body was Yuriko Kobayashi. That’s what he would tell the police. But they wouldn’t know for sure that it was Yuriko Kobayashi just by someone seeing it firsthand.

In order to officially confirm whether the burnt corpse was Yuriko Kobayashi or not, they would contact Kobayashi’s family. That was me, her husband, since she didn’t have any parents or siblings or relatives. Bawling my eyes out, I’d stoop over her dead body. This was the ring she was wearing, and this button on her clothing, I’d say tearfully. But the police, seeking conclusive evidence, would probably ask if I had something that might contain a strand of her hair or the like. So that, if possible, they could test it for DNA. Without any protest, I would then hand it over to them. A strand from Akari Kiharazaka’s comb. I’d say it was Yuriko’s hair … Of course the DNA would match.

There was one last thing to make sure of. Verification of her dental records.

I thought it would probably be enough for the distraught husband to identify her body, but we needed to make doubly sure.

Dental records are often used as a means of identifying bodies. Although the theory often used is that if the position of the teeth are the same as in the records then it probably is safe to say they are a match, the fact is that dental records are not always treated as incontrovertible evidence at trial. What’s more, dental records in Japan are not compiled in a nationwide database. Each dentist still has their own method of keeping patients’ charts. That means the police have to go to the victim’s dental clinic to see the records.

So I made a point of telling Akari that she would be even more of a beauty if she fixed up her teeth. Then I sent her to get a simple teeth whitening at a small dental clinic run by an acquaintance of the lawyer, and while she was there, even though she didn’t have any cavities, he checked her teeth to make sure. Now they would have Akari’s dental records. All we had to do was change the name on the chart to Yuriko Kobayashi. Then those teeth would be registered as belonging to her. The police would go to the dental clinic. They would see the chart there with Yuriko Kobayashi’s name on it. Those dental records would of course be identical to those of the burnt corpse. I didn’t think it was necessary to go to those lengths and, as it turned out, it wasn’t. But the lawyer and I, we were caught up in our own kind of madness. Sometimes madness gives rise to tenaciousness and an obsession with details. I now applied the same fixation as when I had insistently worried about you to the task of strengthening our plan.

This dentist was a troubled man. Around the time when the lawyer had attempted suicide because of Akari, he had taken on a number of clients who had similar difficulties. He had resolved the dentist’s financial problems through fairly illicit means. The dentist was greatly indebted to the lawyer and vulnerable to him. But since all he had to do was change the name on a chart, this required relatively little effort when compared with such a debt.

One of the reasons the lawyer had chosen Yuriko Kobayashi was that she bore a certain resemblance to Akari. Which was why he was sure that Yudai Kiharazaka would take a liking to her. I’m a fan of yours —that was how Yuriko approached him. I’m working freelance as a model. For my next job, I want you to take photos of me. Well, the job is just an excuse. Really, I only wanted a reason to talk to you. I saw a picture of you in a magazine article about your photograph Butterflies …