by David Peace
Lead your men! Lead your men! Lead your men!
Now Hattori moves and then they all move –
I am the boss! I am the boss! I am the boss!
‘Detective Nishi, you wait here,’ I say –
Detective Nishi nods. Nishi waits –
‘Detective Takeda! Detective Kimura!’ I shout after them. ‘What time will Tominaga’s landlady be at Keiō Hospital?’
‘I said I’d take her,’ says Takeda. ‘An hour ago.’
I am the boss! I am the boss! I am the boss!
‘What are you standing around here for then?’ I shout at him. ‘You two go and pick her up and meet me up at Keiō with her…’
They are mumbling as they leave, muttering again.
Lead your men! Lead your men! Lead your men!
I turn to Detective Nishi. I take Detective Nishi off to one side. I ask him, ‘Did you hear back from the Kanuma police?’
Detective Nishi nods. Detective Nishi takes a piece of paper from his jacket. Detective Nishi hands it to me –
‘Good work, detective,’ I tell him.
Nishi bows. Nishi thanks me –
I am the boss! I am the boss!
Nishi says it was nothing –
I am the boss! The boss!
I shake my head and I thank him. Now I write down a name on a piece of paper for him and tell him, ‘Get me an address for this man and then meet me at Keiō with it as soon as you can…’
Nishi nods again. Nishi bows. Now Nishi leaves –
He leaves me alone with Detective Ishida.
*
My skin is red. Ishida on his knees. My skin is raw. Where is the file? My hand aches. What file? My body sweats. The Miyazaki Mitsuko file. The city stinks of shit. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Of shit and dirt and dust. The Miyazaki Mitsuko file. The dirt and the dust that coats my clothes and coats my skin. I’ve never heard of it. That scars my nostrils and burns my throat. Liar! Liar! Liar! With every passing jeep and with every passing truck. No, no, no. I take out my handkerchief. The file Fujita asked you to sign out. I take off my hat. No, no, no. I wipe my face. The file you signed out under Nishi’s name. I wipe my neck. I didn’t. I stare up at the bleached-white sky. The file you were to give to Fujita. The clouds of typhus. No, no, no. The clouds of dust. The Miyazaki Mitsuko file. The clouds of dirt. I don’t know what file you mean. The clouds of shit. The Miyazaki Mitsuko file! My skin is red. I don’t know what you’re talking about. My skin is raw. Tell me where it is! My hand aches. I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know. My body sweats. I’m sorry, then. The city stinks of shit. But I really don’t know. The city stinks of defeat. Because you’re on your own now. This city on its knees –
And I curse him. I curse Fujita. I curse Adachi. I curse Hattori. I curse Takeda. I curse Sanada. I curse Shimoda. I curse Nishi. I curse Kimura. I curse Kai. I curse Kanehara. I curse Kita. I curse them all but most of all, I curse myself, I curse myself, I curse myself –
‘Get off your knees!’ I shout. ‘Get off your knees!’
*
The air is still thick with screams and sobs. I hate hospitals. I try not to breathe in. I don’t want to remember. The gurneys still lined up against the walls. I hate hospitals. I try not to stare. I don’t want to remember. Through the waiting rooms, down the long corridors to the service elevator. I hate hospitals. I watch the elevator doors close. I don’t want to remember. I ride the dark elevator down. I hate hospitals. I watch the elevator doors open. I don’t want to remember. I watch them open again onto the light. In the half-light. I watch them open onto Dr. Nakadate; blood on his gown, blood on his mask and blood on his gloves. I can’t forget. Nakadate waiting for me. ‘You’ve not spoken to Chief Kita, have you? About Miyazaki Mitsuko?’
‘I’m sorry,’ I tell him. ‘But the file is missing…’
‘So what? You could still go to Chief Kita.’
‘Please give me a few more days…’
‘A few more days? Why?’
Just a few more days …
‘Please doctor, I need to find the file. I need to read it…’
‘Why?’ asks Nakadate. ‘We all know what it must say.’
‘But I wasn’t even the senior officer,’ I say. ‘I need to find the file. I need to read it. And I need to speak to him…’
‘And you think he’d do the same for you?’
‘I really don’t know any more.’
‘A few more days,’ says Nakadate now. ‘But then I’ll go to Chief Kita myself, inspector…’
‘Thank you.’
‘And you really need to get that hand dressed too…’
‘Thank you,’ I say again. ‘I know I do.’
‘Then what are you waiting for?’
Not you. Not you. Not you …
I bow to the doctor. I thank the doctor. I turn and I walk away. Down the basement corridor. Past the walls of sinks and drains. Past the warnings and the signs. Past Detective Takeda and Detective Kimura now sat waiting in the corridor with Tominaga Noriko’s landlady. Down to the glass doors. Into the autopsy room –
The clothing has already been laid out on one of the autopsy tables, the two white canvas shoes with their red rubber soles placed at its foot, and the ladies’ undergarments found near the scene placed again on one of the smaller separate dissecting tables –
I wipe my face. I wipe my neck. I step back out into the corridor. I ask Tominaga Noriko’s landlady to please step into the autopsy room. Tominaga Noriko’s landlady follows me back inside. Now the landlady glances up at the autopsy table –
She is here. She is here. She is here …
The landlady collapses into tears –
She is here. She is here …
The landlady nods –
She is here …
‘Yes,’ whispers Tominaga Noriko’s landlady and I turn, then I walk and now I run back down the corridor, past the walls of sinks and drains, past the warnings and the signs, into the elevator and into the dark, into the dark then back out into the light, out into the light –
Nishi waiting for me. Nishi with an address.
*
My skin is not red. Nishi can’t wait to ask. My skin is not raw. What happened? My hand does not ache. She identified the clothes. My body does not sweat. The yellow and dark-blue striped pinafore dress? The city smells of flowers. Yes. Of flowers and blossom and perfume. The white half-sleeved chemise? The blossom and the perfume that coats my clothes and coats my skin. Yes. That tickles my nostrils and that caresses my throat. The dyed-pink socks? With every disappearing jeep and with every disappearing truck. Yes. I take out my handkerchief. The white canvas shoes with red rubber soles? I take off my hat. Yes, yes, yes. I wipe my face. She identified all the clothing as belonging to Tominaga Noriko? I wipe my neck. Yes. I stare up at the hint of blue in the sky. Really? The breeze in the air. Yes. The perfume on the breeze. Then our body has a name? The blossoms on the breeze. Yes. The flowers on the breeze. Our body is Tominaga Noriko? My skin is not red. Yes. My skin is not raw. And her killer is Kodaira Yoshio? My hand does not ache. Yes. My body does not sweat. And you think he will confess? The city smells of flowers. Yes. The city smells of garlands. And then the case is closed? The city smells of victory. Yes. My victory! My victory! My victory!
Not his victory. Not Fujita’s victory. Not Adachi’s victory. Not Kai’s victory. Not Kanehara’s victory. Not Kita’s victory –
‘This is my victory!’ I shout. ‘Mine! Mine! Mine!’
*
Murota Hideki is originally from Yamanashi Prefecture. But after he was fired from the police for his inappropriate behaviour, after he was left without a job, Murota Hideki did not go back to his family’s home in Yamanashi. Murota Hideki stayed on in Tokyo. And so Murota Hideki still lives in an old wooden row house in Kitazawa, not far from the Shimo-Kitazawa station, the same old wooden row house that Detective Nishi found listed as his address in his personal records, the same old wooden row hou
se before us now –
The knock, the bow and the introductions …
Murota Hideki comes to his doorway in his underwear. Murota Hideki is red faced. Murota Hideki looks at my identification. Murota Hideki is sweating heavily. Murota Hideki wipes his thick neck with a grey towel. Murota Hideki looks up into my eyes –
Eyes he has met somewhere before …
Murota Hideki stinks of alcohol. Murota Hideki knows he has no choice. Murota Hideki listens to what I have to say. Then Murota Hideki looks at Nishi and then back at me and now he says, ‘I know I’ve no choice, but only one of you is coming inside.’
The spit and then the curse …
Murota Hideki turns back inside his house. Murota Hideki pads back across his old worn tatami. Murota Hideki sits back down at his low wooden table to wait for me –
In another shabby room …
For me to close the door on Nishi. To follow him inside his house. To pad across his tatami. To sit down at his table. To watch him pour himself another drink from the tall glass jug on the table –
Murota Hideki stirs the pale white mixture with a chopstick. Murota Hideki raises his glass. Murota Hideki takes a long drink. Now Murota Hideki asks, ‘Come on, what do you want this time?’
‘I want to talk to you about Abe Yoshiko,’ I tell him –
‘Not again,’ he groans. ‘What more is there to say?’
‘Only you know that,’ I say. ‘Is there any more?’
‘I fucked her just the once but I did not kill her,’ he says. ‘That’s all I know. I fucked her but I did not kill her…’
‘I know,’ I tell him. ‘We caught her killer.’
Now Murota Hideki looks up. ‘Really?’
‘You heard about the two bodies we found in Shiba Park last week? Well, one of the bodies was identified as a seventeen-year-old girl named Midorikawa Ryuko. Her family told us she was going to meet a man called Kodaira Yoshio on the day she went missing –
‘We pulled this Kodaira in and now he’s coughed…
‘The Midorikawa girl had been raped and strangled and so now we’re looking into any similar unsolved cases…’
‘Abe Yoshiko,’ says Murota Hideki –
‘I fucked her but I did not kill her …’
‘It’s the first case we’ve reopened,’ I tell him. ‘And we’ve already been back through the statements, back to the witnesses and one of Abe’s friends, a girl called Masaoka Hisae, she recognized this Kodaira and told us Abe knew him…’
‘How did she know him?’
In another shabby room …
‘The suspect Kodaira works in the laundry of a Shinchū Gun barracks in Shinagawa. As you know, Abe was part of a fūten group and they did their business with Americans at the same barracks. But not only Yankees; Kodaira would take them to a room he had there where they’d fuck him for food.’
‘As you know …’
‘And this Kodaira has confessed to killing Abe?’ asks Murota.
‘Yes,’ I nod. ‘When he was presented with this girl Masaoka’s statement, Kodaira confessed to killing Abe Yoshiko…’
‘What exactly did he say?’ asks Murota. ‘I want to know everything he said. I want to hear Kodaira’s confession.’
‘Everything he said… everything he said…’
‘Why?’ I ask him. ‘What difference does it make to you?’
‘What difference does it make to me?’ he laughs. ‘I only lost my job because of her, because of him, because he murdered her.’
‘Because of him … because of her …’
I put up my hand to stop him. I nod. I take out my notebook. I flick through the pages of coarse paper. The pencil marks. And I say, ‘It’s not verbatim, but Kodaira confessed that on the ninth of June this year, he met Abe Yoshiko who had been coming to the barracks regularly for zanpan. That day, Kodaira felt a strong sexual urge and so he told Abe that if she came with him, he knew where he could get her some bread. Kodaira says he then took her to the scrapyard of the Shiba Transport Company, about two hundred metres from the barracks. Kodaira gave her some bread and then asked her to have sex with him. Abe refused and tried to run away. Kodaira caught her and throttled her. Kodaira then strangled her with her own neckerchief and fled. So far he has denied raping Abe and denied hiding the body under the burnt-out truck where it was found…’
‘I fucked her but I did not kill her … I fucked her …’
Murota Hideki nods. Murota Hideki thanks me. Murota Hideki drains his glass. Murota Hideki pours himself another drink. Murota Hideki begins to stir it and stir it and stir it and stir it –
‘I fucked her … I fucked her … I fucked her …’
‘There were other girls in the fūten group,’ I tell him.
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 shado
ws …
‘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…’