The Isle of South Kamui and Other Stories (22 page)

One more to me
, he thought as he left the kindergarten. One step at a time, he would track down the proof of murder: he repeated this over and over to himself as he walked through the slushy streets.

Later that night, however, on his way back to the home that lay empty with nobody waiting for him, his fervor gave way to a profound weariness. He himself did not know why. As he climbed the dark concrete staircase to his apartment, he even began to feel there was no point in hounding down Kyoko Igarashi. He shook his head lightly in confusion. Wouldn't it be just as futile as chasing after his own wife when she had left him?

Get a grip!
Tasaka grimaced at himself. He already had the door key ready in his hand when he noticed with a start that there was a light on inside.

The door was unlocked, too. It was no laughing matter for a detective's home to be burgled. Bracing himself, he took a deep breath and opened the door, then stood rooted to the spot, stunned.

There, in the small room, was Misako, the wife who had walked out on him two years earlier.

She looked up at Tasaka with a tearful smile. “Welcome home,” she said hoarsely.

Tasaka hastily shut the door. A savage feeling welled up in his chest. He wanted to hit her, hard. But instead he stared at her, his eyes cold. He did not restrain himself out of any kindness to her, but because he was scared that if he did hit her, he might end up forgiving her.

“Why are you here?” he asked still standing there, his voice emotionless. Misako wore heavy makeup, but beneath it he could see she was looking haggard.

“I want to apologize to you,” she said. “Please forgive me.”

“You're saying it to the wrong person, aren't you? What about that TV star beau of yours?”

“Don't talk about that man—”

“He dumped you, then?”

Tears welled up in Misako's trademark huge eyes. It was no exaggeration to say that Tasaka had been charmed by those beautiful eyes and had married her for them. He felt himself vacillate and chewed his lip.

“Do you think it serves me right?”

“Yeah,” he said curtly. “Any reason I shouldn't?”

“No. Everyone thinks so,” she said meekly, then looked around the room. “Where is she? Let me see Mika.”

“Mika's not here.”

“Not here?”

“She's dead.”

“Dead?”

“Yes, dead.” Tasaka felt the rage building up inside him all over again, and his voice turned rough. “Mika died the same day you ran off. By the time I got home from work, she was already dead. She went after you and fell in a gutter, and couldn't climb out again. She was only two! When I pulled her out, she was curled up like a fetus, dead.
You
killed her.”

For a moment Misako stared into space, her eyes hollow. Then, all of a sudden, she collapsed in tears. Tasaka watched her back quivering, before abruptly storming out of the apartment and into the night.

He had no clear memory of where or how he had walked. When he returned to his apartment, still not in charge of himself, his legs were covered with mud up to his knees.

The light was still on inside. But there was no sign of Misako.

Ono was taken aback at Tasaka's appearance. His eyes were red and bloodshot, and he clearly had not had enough sleep.

“You're looking rough,” he commented, worried. “Is the investigation going badly?”

“Not at all. I'll have conclusive evidence of murder within two or three days,” Tasaka responded, his expression grim. Ono felt the defensive hunch of his shoulders belied his confidence.

“Hey, take it easy,” he said, but Tasaka rushed out the door without replying.

Ono felt uneasy. Tasaka's attitude to this case had been abnormal from the start, and today it was excessively so. Had something happened last night?

This is looking bad
, he thought. Just the fact that Tasaka was not pursuing Kyoko Igarashi purely out of a sense of justice was dangerous. If he went too far, it could prove fatal to him.
Wouldn't it be best to go after Tasaka and take him off the case?

Ono was in two minds about it. He started to get up, but just then the telephone rang beside him. He picked it up.

“This is K—— Hospital. May I speak to Detective Tasaka?” A woman spoke urgently, her voice dry.

“Hospital?” echoed Ono, then added, “Detective Tasaka is out at present. May I ask what it's about?”

“Well, when he comes back, please tell him that his wife is in hospital. She attempted suicide.”

“Attempted suicide?” Ono instantly recalled what he had heard from Detective Yokoi at Ueno police station. It must be the wife who had run off with that TV celebrity. But why on earth would she have tried to kill herself?

After hanging up, Ono tried to think where Tasaka might have gone, but he had no idea. Waiting impatiently for him to return, Ono began fretting about going to the hospital himself. He wanted to know what sort of woman Tasaka's wife was.

The hospital was in Aoyama. On the door of the third-floor room, there was a brand new name tag “Misako Tasaka.”

When he opened the door and went in, a middle-aged nurse warned “Quietly!” in a low voice. “Are you her husband?”

“No, a friend,” replied Ono.

Misako Tasaka lay with her eyes closed, asleep. It occurred to Ono that her pale face actually resembled that of Kyoko Igarashi.

According to the nurse, Misako had been found under a tree in the outer gardens of Meiji Jingu shrine, having taken an overdose of sleeping pills. She had been found quickly, so they had pumped her stomach and managed to save her life.

“A while ago she came to, and kept calling out her husband's name,” added the nurse.

Ono sat with his arms folded, watching Misako sleep. There was no way that he, an outsider, could know why she had tried to kill herself. But he imagined that if things between Tasaka and her had gone well, then Tasaka would not be behaving like he was now. According to what Detective Yokoi had told him, she had left her husband and daughter, but to Ono's eyes she didn't look like that sort of woman at all. She looked very ordinary. Maybe it was because she was so ordinary that she had become infatuated?

Suddenly Misako opened her eyes wide. For a while she gazed at the ceiling, her eyes unfocused, but eventually she noticed Ono at her bedside and absently turned her gaze to him.

“Tasaka will be here soon,” said Ono, looking closely at her. “My name is Ono, I work with him.”

Misako just looked at Ono with her vacant eyes, apparently not yet completely recovered from the effect of the drug. From her expression he could tell that her consciousness was gradually becoming clearer.

“Did you meet Tasaka last night?” Ono said what was on his mind. It was the only reason he could think of to explain Tasaka's unnatural appearance this morning.

“Tasaka…” Her voice caught in her throat. “He won't forgive me!”

“You know, he's a kind man at heart,” Ono smiled at her. He hoped he was right. Not for her sake, but for Tasaka's own sake. If Tasaka could forgive his wife, he would also probably be able to take a more tolerant, reasonable attitude towards Kyoko Igarashi. “I'll bring him here,” he added, trying to set her mind at rest.

Meanwhile, Tasaka had at last caught up with Kyoko Igarashi in a restaurant in Ginza. She was with an overweight, middle-aged man, but as soon as Tasaka approached, the man rose slowly to his feet and left the restaurant.

Kyoko glared at Tasaka, her eyes fierce. “What do you want now?” Her voice shook. Her face was a blend of fury and scorn, but Tasaka also detected a note of fear. She was frightened. Indeed, having the truth exposed was scary.

“I just want you to tell me the truth,” said Tasaka slowly, deliberately needling her. He lit up a cigarette.

“But I've already told you the truth!” Kyoko's voice became shrill.

Tasaka shook his head. “A six-year-old's suicide? Whoever would believe such a thing!”

“But it's true. You saw his suicide note yourself, didn't you?”

“Do you really expect the police to credit something like that?” Tasaka gave a snort of laughter. “I know what you did. That child had become a nuisance to you. A child of six is extremely gullible, especially with someone as close to him as his mother. No doubt you used that. If you just kept telling him that if he ate these pellets, he would be able to go to join his father in Heaven, a child of six would believe you, wouldn't he? Small children don't have any clear image of death. He would just believe that if he ate those pellets, he'd be able to meet his father.”

“Are you saying that I killed my son?” Kyoko's lip quivered.

Tasaka slowly stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray before asking, “Didn't you?”

“I shall instruct my lawyer to file a complaint against you. I will not tolerate you treating me like a murderer.”

“Be my guest,” said Tasaka curtly.

Kyoko rose to her feet with a clatter and ran out of the restaurant. The other customers and the waitresses stared after her in astonishment.

Instead of following her, Tasaka instead caught one of the waitresses and quizzed her about the man who had been with Kyoko.

“Actually, he's the boss of a real estate agency,” the waitress told him. She could not say what kind of relationship Kyoko had with him, but Tasaka felt it would probably be worth meeting him.

Saijo Real Estate in Yotsuya was easy to find. It was not one of the usual small neighborhood offices plastered with ads, but a fine three-storied building.

Mr. Saijo looked at Tasaka, then commented with a smile, “We met a while ago in that restaurant in Ginza, didn't we?” When Tasaka mentioned Kyoko Igarashi's name, he said simply, “Yes, I know her well. A friend introduced me to her in a nightclub. I'm still single despite my age, so I was keen to get to know her.”

“How close are you?”

“She asked me to marry her,” he grinned. He seemed part proud, part bashful.

“Oh!” said Taguchi, his eyes wide. “And when was that?”

“A couple of weeks ago. She was more enamored of my fortune than of me personally, for sure. She's pretty hard up, it seems.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“She told me herself. She didn't have much work, and with no money coming in, things were pretty tough.”

“So what happened with the marriage talk?”

“I liked her, but the catch was that she had a child. I'm afraid I'm just not fond of kids. It's just the way I am, I guess.”

“So you turned her down?”

“Well, not in so many words, but…”

“What was her reaction?”

“It seems it came as quite a shock to her. I think she'd expected me to jump at the chance.”

“You know about her son's death, right?”

“Of course I do. It's all over the papers, for one thing.”

“What did you think when you found out about it?”

“Well, it was right after I turned her down, so I did wonder whether she might have killed him because of me. But of course, I'm sure she couldn't have done that.”

Tasaka was satisfied with Mr. Saijo's answer. He had found the motive for murder. Kyoko Igarashi had been in financial trouble and had wanted to marry the realtor Mr. Saijo, but her child stood in the way. Furthermore, the child in question had been more attached to his father, who had died in an accident, than he had been to her, his mother. This being so, she would not have felt such trauma at the idea of killing him. Parents are not always full of affection for their child. They can also be cruel to them.

Lost in thought, Tasaka recalled his own wife and grimaced. Misako had also abandoned her own two-year-old daughter, who was in the way, in order to shack up with some TV star, and because of that Mika had died. She and Kyoko Igarashi were really similar. No, they were the same, he decided.

Ono caught Tasaka on his return to Akasaka police station.

“Go straight to K—— Hospital,” he told him. “Your wife attempted suicide.”

“Misako?” Tasaka paled.

“That's right,” Ono spoke forcefully. “She wants to see you. Go there now—the hospital in Aoyama.”

“No, I won't.”

“What do you mean, you won't?” Ono's voice was unusually sharp. “Why not?”

“I haven't got time. I have to go and see Kyoko Igarashi right away. I found the motive. She had a man interested in her and her son was in the way of them getting married. So she killed him. That's proof of murder,” Tasaka replied without pausing for breath. His eyes shone. Ono felt it was more than the usual excitement at cornering a criminal. It was as if Tasaka was whipping himself into a frenzy.

“May I give you bit of advice?” asked Ono. Tasaka didn't say anything. “You should leave this case. Look, I'm worried about you. You're going to end up hurt. Forget about Kyoko Igarashi, and instead go along to the hospital. Your wife needs you.”