Fuminori Nakamura - The Thief

A young man in a suit entered the tunnel, muttering to himself. When he saw us he shut up, quickened his pace and disappeared out the other side. In his wake he left a strong smell of alcohol.

“Can’t you do a runner?”

“Not easily. They say a couple of people have run away from him and ended up dead. He’s relentless, I hear. He’s like the yakuza in that way at least.”

“You can’t trust him.”

A train passed over our heads, a freighter by the sound of it. I was nervous and I felt a throbbing warmth deep inside me. I knew that soon I would feel nothing but that heat. When the tower appeared in front of me, the dirty black plastic moved into clearer focus. I stared at the pathetic, flesh-like trash.

“But armed robbery means killing, doesn’t it? I don’t like—”

“No, it won’t.”

“Why not?”

“They want to avoid getting the cops involved. Even if he’s robbed, the old man can’t go to the police. The money comes from tax evasion and they’d be very interested in his papers as well. But if they kill him then it’ll have to become a police matter.”

“There’s still something fishy about it,” I said, but I decided to go along with it anyway.

I definitely had that pulsating heat in my gut. I was driven less by concern over what would happen to Ishikawa if I took off than by the presentiment that things were heading in a strange direction. In those days, whenever I was faced with a choice I favored action over inaction, the path which would lead me away from the world. As I walked behind Ishikawa, time hung densely around me. I felt as though I were being squeezed by something lukewarm and springy. Saeko’s face drifted into my mind and when we emerged from the underpass I saw an iron tower that I’d never noticed before. It stood there in the dark, its tip exposed to the cold sky.

AT THE AGREED time Ishikawa brought Tachibana to the station. I didn’t know what their original relationship was but sometimes he’d go pickpocketing with us and he often watched us with a grin on his face. Without a word we went into the office where Ishikawa always worked on his own.

The desks and chairs were already gone and the room was bare. We sat on the floor and immediately three men entered. That made me even more nervous, because the timing suggested that they’d been following us. Ishikawa didn’t seem to know them. They were carrying three large cases, which they put carelessly in a corner as if they were furniture movers.

“So you’re the ones, are you?” said the tallest man in a gruff voice as he sat down.

He appeared to be in his mid-forties, but his face was covered in strange lines so it was hard to tell.

“Right, you guys look like you won’t screw up. You all look thoroughly dishonest.”

He tossed us some bottles of water. I hesitated to open mine but Tachibana started to drink, watching their faces. The other two guys were in their thirties, of medium build. Like the tall man, their faces were marked with lines. One had a buzzcut, the other a flattop, and both were wearing dirty windbreakers.

“We’re going to tell you the plan right now, and then we go through with it tonight. I know it’s short notice, but we can’t have anyone chickening out and mentioning it somewhere. Get yourselves ready. You get five million yen each. Any objections?”

The amount was inexplicably large. I glanced at Ishikawa but he showed no reaction, and neither did Tachibana. Looking at the man who was doing the talking, I decided to keep my mouth shut.

“Niimi’s probably told you most of it, but the most important thing is that during the job no one says a word except for him.”

While the tall guy was speaking the door opened and Kizaki himself came in. I was taken by surprise, but the other three men seemed to be shocked as well. He was wearing a black suit, a brand I didn’t recognize, sunglasses, and a watch on his left wrist. I couldn’t identify the watch either. On his neck was a striking purple scar. The tall man started to say something but he cut him off.

“I’ve got nothing to do today,” he said, face twisting in what might have been a smile.

The men fell silent. In the hush that followed I could hear the sound of my breathing. Their nervousness seemed to be catching, and I stared at the man moving around in the stillness. He appeared to stand out from his surroundings, to draw people’s attention somehow. My skin tingled where it was exposed to the air, as if he was emitting something. He watched us with amusement.

“So we meet at last,” he said, curling his lip at Tachibana.

He seemed cheerful, a completely different person from the one I’d met before in the same office. Tachibana smiled back, trying to look cool, but he was sweating.

“All right, this is important.” Kizaki turned to his subordinates. “It doesn’t mean I don’t trust you. So far you’ve done everything I’ve asked of you perfectly. But I’m going to talk to them now, because I’m at a loose end.”

The three men nodded and he flopped himself down in the space between us. My throat was dry and I sipped from my bottle. He was a little too close for comfort.

“The most important thing about carrying out a crime is planning. People who commit crimes without planning are idiots.”

For some reason he looked at me when he said this.

“But because they’re idiots in the first place they still commit the crime. They can’t help it. On the other hand, really brilliant people don’t care about the law either. In fact, without the law crime would be boring. Get it?”

He still didn’t take his eyes off me. I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing.

“After that, it’s all about courage. Do you know the book Crime and Punishment ? Probably not. Raskolnikov, he had no courage.”

Without turning around, he shifted position slightly and gave the flattop guy behind him a violent blow. I was shocked but tried not to show it. Flattop keeled over and as he lay on his side the man continued to beat him around the ear as though pounding his head into the floor. The harsh sound echoed. I kept my breathing shallow. My instincts told me not to move.

“That means that even if you see something unexpected like this you don’t panic.”

The guy who had been beaten picked himself up slowly and returned to a sitting position, his face swollen. When Kizaki turned back towards me his expression was unchanged but his breathing was somewhat ragged. I got the feeling this was caused less by physical exertion than by excitement. I looked away.

“OK, I’ll put it simply. Maybe they told you already, but first of all, you two keep your mouths shut. We’re going to the house of this old man, an investor. He’s a perfect example of one of those pigs that the world spews out all the time.”

I glanced at Flattop again. Our eyes almost met and I didn’t know where to look.

In the aftermath of the violence Kizaki’s low voice rang out clearly. He was wearing a business shirt of some kind under his jacket.

“You’ll go by car, so you don’t need to know the address, but you do need to memorize the layout of the house. It’s really big.”

The tall man brought out a plan. His hands were shaking slightly. None of the men seemed to have quite come to terms with the fact that Kizaki was there. Neither the guy who had been attacked nor Buzzcut moved a muscle, as though they had been turned to stone. They just stared at the man’s back, sweating.

“There’s the old man and a woman living in the house. She’s his housekeeper and his mistress or something. His wife isn’t there. That means there are only two people. There used to be two other women like that, but they both got pregnant and quit. There’s a secretary as well, but she’s on holiday overseas this week. Your job is to intimidate the woman and tie her up so that she doesn’t get in the way. To assist, in other words. Only Niimi will threaten her, talking like he’s Chinese. You’ve been told how to do that, right? Because you’re used to armed robbery as well.”