Malice: A Mystery
Page 21
“First, you procured some unused, but old—and old-looking—spiral notebooks. I’m sure you were able to find them stashed somewhere in the school where you taught. Then, you began copying Kunihiko Hidaka’s published works. Not exact copies, because you adjusted them to give the impression that these were the originals upon which those published works had been based. I’d guess it took you something on the order of a full month to rewrite each novel. That must’ve been quite a chore. For the newer works, of course, you simply used your word processor. The stories written on composition paper that were without counterparts in Hidaka’s published works were things that you actually did write back in your college days.
“As for The Gates of Ice, this is where we really see the hand of the master planner. Anticipating events, you realized you needed story memos for the detectives to find, and you needed to have written the next installment to use as your alibi when you killed Hidaka.
“Then comes the video. As I said, you probably took this toward the end of last year. Then, in the new year, you obtained Hatsumi’s apron and photograph. No doubt you also filled out those travel forms and bought the necklace around the same time. Did you already have blank travel forms lying around? Maybe you found those at your school, too. Also, you claimed that the paisley necktie in your dresser was from Hatsumi, and the teacup in the cupboard was one you had purchased together. You probably picked up both of these items rather recently and by yourself.
“Next we come to a very important final step. I hear that it took the Hidakas about a week to prepare all of their things to send to Canada, during which time you visited their house once. I believe your main goal for this visit was to conceal two items in their luggage: the knife and the videotape. The tape you placed inside a hollowed-out copy of Hidaka’s book in order to create the impression that it was something he’d been hiding.
“Then you waited until April sixteenth, the day you murdered Kunihiko Hidaka.
“Clearly this wasn’t a momentary loss of control or an act carried out ‘in the heat of the moment.’ It was a terrifyingly premeditated execution, the result of a great deal of planning. While you put an impressive amount of thought and energy into it, this alone doesn’t distinguish your crime from all the other murders. I have to admit, the twist you put on it was genius. Typically, much of the planning that goes into a premeditated murder involves schemes to establish an alibi, avoid arrest, or, at the very least, avoid blame.
“But your plan was unique. You had an entirely different goal in mind. You wanted to get arrested. You didn’t care about committing the perfect crime. You wanted to establish the perfect motive.
“I know. It’s a rather startling idea. You may be the first murderer that decided to fabricate a motive before committing the crime. Believe me, I almost couldn’t bring myself to accept the truth. During the long hours it took me to reach the point where I was confident I’d uncovered the truth, I doubted myself every step of the way. In fact, I refused to believe what the facts were telling me.
“Of course, had we questioned any of the evidence earlier—say, the videotape—then we might well have resolved this much more quickly. Yet who would suspect a killer of forging a vital piece of evidence indicating his own guilt of a crime? Truly, that was a brilliant stroke.
“The same goes for the fake manuscripts you prepared and the clues you planted suggesting that you had had a relationship with Hatsumi Hidaka. If any of those had been evidence that exonerated you, we would have certainly put them under a microscope. Yet we did nothing of the sort because every bit of it seemed to only confirm your motive. It is an unfortunate fact that the police tend to turn a stern eye toward evidence that benefits a suspect, but tend to be rather easygoing when it comes to evidence that implicates our suspect. A tendency you deftly took advantage of.
“You led our investigation down the exact wrong path with a series of carefully laid traps. The first was the notebooks you prepared. The second was the apron, the necklace, the travel documents, and the photograph of Hatsumi Hidaka. Thinking back on it, I suspect you were getting nervous when it took us so long to find that photograph. That’s probably why you felt the need to drop that hint about the ‘important books.’ How relieved you must have been when I took the bait.
“I required a little guidance to fall into the third trap as well. If you hadn’t gone out of your way to ask Rie about the tapes Hidaka sent to Canada, I might never have keyed in to their importance. You must have been so pleased with your idea to hide the tape inside a copy of Sea Ghost—the novel that inspired your false motive in the first place. You even made sure I was aware of that particular novel by recommending it to me the first night we met. That was all part of your plan, too, wasn’t it? I have to say, I’m impressed.
“Now let’s turn back the hands of the clock just a touch further to the day you killed Kunihiko Hidaka.
“The murder was planned quite thoroughly, yet you couldn’t have anyone catching on to that fact. It had to seem like a rash act done out of desperation, in the ‘heat of the moment.’ Anything else would undermine your false motive. A knife or poison wouldn’t work, those would be too obviously premeditated. What about strangulation? Considering your relative physical strengths, that might be difficult for you to accomplish.
“No, your best bet was blunt trauma: striking him with a dull instrument from behind. Once he’d fallen to the floor you could easily strangle him. But you’d still need a suitable murder weapon—one that you could have found at the scene. Hidaka’s paperweight would do the trick nicely. How to strangle him? A telephone cord! I can just picture you checking off each item on your mental checklist.
“Here, however, was a potential problem. The movers having already packed up most of the house, what if the paperweight was no longer there? Unlike the phone cord, the paperweight wasn’t an absolute necessity. It could already be packed in some cardboard box.
“So you prepared a backup: the Dom Pérignon. The bottle was intended as your backup murder weapon, which is why you didn’t offer the gift upon your arrival. If you did, they might store it somewhere out of easy reach. No, first you had to check the office. Relieved to see that the paperweight was still there, you were then free to give them the champagne bottle as a gift to celebrate their big move.
“When I first heard about the champagne, I wondered if it had been poisoned. I even asked the manager of the hotel who ended up with it how it tasted. He said it was quite good. Of course, now I know that you never would’ve used poison in the first place.
“The trick you used to establish your alibi—using the fax software on the computer—was brilliant. Smart enough to fool an older detective—I’m pretty sure the chief still hasn’t figured it out, by the way—and yet flawed enough, with the monitor left on and the wrong redial number on the house phone, that someone was sure to see through it.
“I wonder what you would have done if we hadn’t figured it out, though. What if you were never even a suspect? I see you’re hesitant to respond. Well, don’t worry about it. We did see through your trick, as intended, and you were arrested.
“You look tired. I’m sorry to have talked for so long. But bear with me just a little longer. After all, you put me through quite a lot to reach this point. It seems only fair that you suffer a little yourself.
“Let’s get down to the big question here: Why go through all that trouble to construct a false motive with the express intent of being arrested? It flies in the face of common sense.
“Of course you had a motive, a different motive, for killing Kunihiko Hidaka. And you were more frightened that your true motive would be revealed than you were of being found guilty for the murder of Kunihiko Hidaka.
“As for what that motive was, I know what it is, but I’d really like to hear it from you. Well? Why not tell me? I can’t see that there’s any point in you remaining silent.
“No? Very well. As you seem to have no intention of talking, let me tell you instead.
“Why did I think to look through all of Hidaka’s reference photos? It was because, in the course of sorting through the past—his past, and your past—a particular photograph came to my attention. If that photograph showed what I thought it might, then something I hadn’t been paying much attention to would suddenly become extremely important, and several unrelated facts would line up quite nicely.
“It turns out that the original photograph had already been thrown away. But I knew that Mr. Hidaka had had it in his possession and had plenty of time to make a copy. Thus, this CD. Sorry, I know I’m being overly dramatic, building up to this; but there really isn’t any need, is there? You already know what photo I mean. It’s an old Polaroid of Masaya Fujio assaulting a middle-school girl.
“The photograph’s quite clear. I was going to print it out and bring it with me but there really wasn’t any point. You know what I saw in that photograph. It was exactly what I’d anticipated. You were the one holding her down, Mr. Nonoguchi. You helped Masaya Fujio rape that girl.
“I looked into your days in middle school and I heard a lot of different things from a lot of different people. The subject of bullying came up quite a bit. Some said you were a victim. Others said you were one of the bullies yourself. I think both statements are correct. You were bullied and continued to be bullied even when you joined Fujio’s circle. Only the form that the bullying took changed as you went along.
“From your experience as a teacher, you know as well as I do that bullying never ends. As long as the people involved are at the same school, it keeps going on. When a teacher says, ‘There’s no more bullying in my class,’ what they’re really saying is ‘I’d like to believe there’s no more bullying in my class.’
“I realize what happened to that girl left a very deep scar on you. I don’t believe you did what you did willingly, or that you took any joy in it. You simply knew that if you turned against Masaya Fujio, you’d be back in hell. When I think about the guilt you must have felt, the self-loathing, I feel physical pain, Mr. Nonoguchi, and I wasn’t even there. That day was the last time you were bullied, and probably the worst.
“You wanted more than anything to bury that dark memory in the past. You wanted it so much, you were willing to kill for it.
“But wait.
“Why did this secret start bothering you now? Hidaka had obtained the photograph before he wrote Forbidden Hunting Grounds, and there was no sign that he had shown it to anyone afterward. Why couldn’t you assume that your secret was safe with him?
“Please don’t try to tell me that Hidaka was using that photograph to blackmail you. The same lie won’t work twice; and besides, it’s simply beneath the architect of such a masterful crime.
“I suspect Miyako Fujio threw a wrench into everything. She was ready to take Kunihiko Hidaka to court over what he wrote in his book, specifically the thinly disguised portrait of her brother. Hidaka, meanwhile, had begun to realize it might be inevitable. That got you worrying. What would you do if that photograph was submitted as evidence in court?
“I imagine your worries began when Hidaka wrote that novel. When Ms. Fujio started pressing Hidaka, your fear built until, finally, you were ready to commit murder.
“That sounds plausible. Except, I’ve left out the most important piece of the puzzle: the true nature of your relationship with Kunihiko Hidaka. Why did you feel the need to kill Hidaka to keep your secret? This was a man who you were on friendly terms with in recent years. He never even alluded to you or what you did in his novel about Fujio. Why couldn’t you expect Hidaka to continue to keep your secret safe even if things got drawn out between him and Miyako Fujio?
“In your confession, you portrayed the relationship between Hidaka and Ms. Fujio as one of mutual antagonism. Yet we owe it to ourselves to question everything you’ve written, don’t you agree? Let’s look at some facts we were able to independently corroborate. One, you weren’t friends with Hidaka in middle school, yet you actively sought out his friendship and indeed established a relationship with him years later. He even helped introduce you to a publisher so you could become a full-time writer, writing children’s books. Furthermore, in his repeated talks with Miyako Fujio, your name and your involvement in the events described in Forbidden Hunting Grounds remained a secret, again due to Hidaka’s discretion.
“If we try to reconstruct who Hidaka was from just these facts, we find he closely resembles himself as a child. ‘A boy who was kind to everyone around him,’ as he’s been described. In fact, I think it’s possible that, regardless of your intentions, Hidaka honestly thought of you as a friend.
“It took me some time to arrive at this realization because this image of Hidaka was so different than the one I had as I began the investigation. In fact, that image tugged at the back of my mind the entire time I was gathering information about Hidaka’s childhood days.
“Was this disjuncture between what I was hearing and what I felt the result of what I read in your false confession? No. The negative image of Hidaka had been planted in my head much earlier than that—before your arrest. Ultimately I realized where it came from: your original account of the day of the murder.
“When I first read that account, I paid attention only to the details about the discovery of the body itself. Yet there was a very deeply laid trap in the last place I thought to look for one.
“From the look on your face, I can tell I’ve hit the mark. That’s right, I’m talking about the cat. The one you killed.
We found the pesticide mixed into the dirt in the planters at your apartment. You would have been better off flushing the extra down the drain. The pesticide in your apartment matched the one we found in the cat. The owner had it in a box and buried it in her garden. Yes, we exhumed the cat and tested the body.
“Maybe you read about Hidaka’s trouble with that cat in his article? Or since you two were getting along so well, maybe he told you himself? So you made the poisoned meatballs, snuck into the garden, and killed that woman’s cat, all to support an image of Hidaka you intended to craft in my mind.
“You know, once I realized I’d be spending time in the literary world while on this case, I decided to do a little background reading. That’s when I came across the concept of establishing character. Apparently, it won’t do just to tell the reader what a particular character is like. The author needs to show their habits or their words and let the reader form an image on their own.
“So, when you started writing your first account, you already knew you’d need to establish your main character, Kunihiko Hidaka, as early as possible. What better way to show his cruelty than to have him kill a cat? What a happy coincidence you ran into the cat’s owner in the garden that day. Throwing that in at the beginning of your account just made the revelation of Hidaka’s wrongdoing all the more believable.
“I fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. Even after I’d arrested you and realized that your account wasn’t to be trusted, it never occurred to me that the episode with the cat might be a lie, and I never attempted to adjust my initial impression of Hidaka.
“I believe that of all the traps you laid for me, that was your finest.
“When I realized it was you who killed the cat, a lightbulb went on. What if the reason you killed the cat was the same reason for the entire crime? In other words, what if your real objective was not just to kill Hidaka, but to ruin him? Now, I thought, we’re getting somewhere.
“Just a moment ago I suggested that you wanted to cover up your own past by killing the only one who knew about it. You made no attempt to deny this, and I think there’s some truth to this. But it wasn’t the reason for your elaborate plan, it was just the
final push you needed.
“Once you decided Hidaka had to die, what were your next steps? The first thing you realized was that you’d need a proper motive. It would have to be one that would, once revealed, not only defame the actual victim but would also turn public sympathy in your favor. The solution you came up started with his wife Hatsumi’s infidelity and ended with your enforced ghostwriting. If everything went according to plan, not only would you destroy Hatsumi’s reputation and Hidaka’s character, but you’d forever blacken his professional reputation and steal the credit for his writing to boot.
“This, of course, was the prize you were working for as you wrote out all of those manuscripts and spent those hours under the cold winter sky making your video. I doubt you’d have gone to such lengths merely to hide your own past. That was worth a little effort, sure, but murder was just another step in your plan to destroy everything Hidaka ever built and taint everything he ever had.
“I wondered for a long time what it would take to drive someone to do that. To devote what little time remained to them to destroying another person’s character. To be honest, I couldn’t find any logical explanation for such behavior. I wonder if you’d even be able to explain it yourself, Mr. Nonoguchi.
“It reminds me of something that happened ten years ago. Perhaps you remember—that time when one of my students stabbed the ringleader of a group of bullies right after graduation. When the police asked those bullies why they’d abused my student so severely, all they were able to come up with was that they ‘just didn’t like him.’ It was just hate. Pure, simple malice.
“I wonder if you aren’t operating on the same level. I wonder if, deep inside you, it wasn’t just malice toward Hidaka, incomprehensible even to yourself, that led to his death.
“But where could such malice have come from? I looked into your past and his in great detail, but I couldn’t find any reason why Hidaka earned your hatred. He was a good boy … no, an exceptional boy. You should have thanked him, not killed him. Even after you’d spent all that time egging on Masaya Fujio, goading him to torture Hidaka, years later he was there to help you.