Togakushi Legend Murders (Tuttle Classics)

by Yasuo Uchida

  "You can leave that end of it to Section Two. But you're my ace detective, and I've been keeping you on hold for this, because I need somebody who can hustle."

  Now that he thought about it, Takemura realized that he and his men would normally have been assigned to the couple of cases that had come up in the last day or two, but instead they had been twiddling their thumbs over a little desk work on some old cases. He could tell by Miyazaki's tone that he did not want Section Two to solve this one first. To be beaten out by Section Two on a murder case would put Miyazaki in an awkward position. An administrator had to worry about a lot of things, and Takemura could sympathize with him.

  "Okay, I'll do my best," said Takemura, this time with a little enthusiasm.

  * * *

  The river which flows south along the west side of Nagano City to its confluence with the Sai near Kawanakajima has the beautiful name of Susobana, and the river itself is still beautiful too, with fantastic crags jutting out everywhere along its course, and seasonal changes still visible in the folds of mountains along its western shore. This is in spite of the arched dam completed across its upper reaches in 1969 and the large-scale housing developments appearing in the mountains along its western shore, resulting in a decreased flow and poorer quality water.

  At the northern edge of Nagano City, the river makes a sharp turn to the west and extends in a practically straight line toward the Togakushi Mountains, where lies its source.

  The police car with Miyazaki and Takemura followed the national highway upstream from this bend for about fifteen kilometers, the river flowing faster and the valley getting deeper all the way, to the confluence with the Kusu River flowing in from the north. From this point, scattered farmhouses were visible on the surrounding hills. Now called Tochihara and located in Togakushi Township, it was once known as Shigarami Village, supposedly taking its name from the shigarami, or weir, that legend has it the demoness Maple built there to keep out the enemy forces.

  Leaving the national highway at Tochihara and heading north for about two kilometers to the village of Imai, they reached the scene at 11 A.M. The path up the mountain had been closed, and a crowd of investigators, early-bird reporters, and curious spectators were gathered at the barricade.

  The reporters peered into their car as it pulled up, amidst such comments as "Hey, the head of Section One is here himself!" "And Inspector Takemura too!" "Must be somebody important dead up there!" Takemura had to give them credit for their intuition.

  An area of radius fifty meters from the site had been roped off, and uniformed and plain-clothes police were waiting outside it. From among them, Chief of Detectives Tsuneda of Nagano Central Station approached.

  "You got here fast," said Tsuneda. "We just arrived ourselves. Do you want the CID men to begin right away?"

  "Yes, but could you have them first open a path to the body, so we can get over there to identify it?" requested Miyazaki.

  "Sure."

  Tsuneda set his men immediately to checking a path to the body for footprints and such. The work went unexpectedly fast, because there was practically nothing worth looking at. The whole area was forest, with weeds covering the ground, and there were signs of trampling, but nothing like an identifiable footprint.

  "It's no good," said Inspector Kojima of CID, going in and motioning to them to follow. Kojima was a veteran, referred to by the venerable title of "old," and with his white hair and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, he did indeed look like he had quite a few years on him, but the truth was that he was in his middle forties. Takemura had known him since the case of the dismembered corpse three years ago, and in spite of the difference in their ages, the two were quite congenial.

  Avoiding the plaster that had been poured here and there, the group walked over to the body. Miyazaki kneeled down beside it for a good look.

  "There's no mistake," he said with a sigh.

  "It's Takeda?" asked Takemura.

  "That's right. Kisuke Takeda," replied Miyazaki without turning around.

  "Kisuke Takeda? You mean, the Takeda!" said Tsuneda and Kojima practically as one, looking at each other. Now they understood why Miyazaki was there in person.

  "Okay, get started with your inspection. I've got to report in," said Miyazaki, rushing down the slope.

  Shortly thereafter, the medical examiner arrived. "He's been dead for three or four days," judged the experienced doctor right off, after pressing the purple-spotted skin.

  "That would mean he was dead by July 4th, right?" said Takemura.

  "Mhm. Taking into consideration the temperature and humidity in these parts, that should be about right, but we won't know any more until after the autopsy."

  "I don't see any external injuries. What did he die of?"

  "Poison," said the doctor without hesitation. "It's a little hard to tell because he's so wet, but I'm pretty sure it must have been cyanide."

  Suicide or murder, the body could hardly have been there for three or four days, so someone must have left it there. Wondering why anyone would have taken that trouble, Takemura looked around. The only building nearby was the campground office. The older of the two men who worked there was waiting beside the rope, probably at police request. Moving a little away from the body, Takemura beckoned to him.

  This man was a permanent employee of the Togakushi Township government, and the other was a college student working for the summer. Both were natives of Togakushi, and the younger man was expecting eventually to fill a permanent position, too, when one became vacant.

  Naturally, the man waiting was nervous, but he looked to Takemura like a normally outgoing person. Giving him a cigarette and lighting it for him with a match, Takemura opened with, "Is this campground always so quiet?"

  "Oh no, it's usually very crowded in season, but we haven't had any campers since the day before yesterday because of all the rain."

  "Have the two of you been in the office all the time?"

  "Yes, we live there. We're on duty around the clock."

  "And you didn't know there was a dead body over there?"

  "No, we had no idea, until the girls told us."

  "But that place is on the trail up the mountain, isn't it? I should think anyone climbing the mountain would have seen the body right off."

  "Probably so. In fact, it wouldn't have had to be someone going up the mountain. We take a look around the campground from time to time ourselves, and if the body had been there when we did, we couldn't have missed it."

  "When's the last time you took a look around?"

  "I think it was around two yesterday afternoon. We only checked to make sure no campers had come in, and then we went right back to the office. But if that body had been there, I'm sure we'd have seen it."

  "Since the road passes right in front of the office, I guess you would have noticed if anyone had gone by, wouldn't you?"

  "Well, when there are a lot of campers and mountain climbers, we don't take note of every single one, but on a leisurely day like yesterday, I think we would have noticed. But I wouldn't guarantee it. Of course, no matter what chance there might be that we could have missed it, I can't believe that anybody who knew this office was here would have wanted to carry something like that past it. I mean, how could he be sure we wouldn't see it?"

  "How about at night?"

  "At night? Well, I guess we might have missed it then. But it gets pitch dark around here, and it was especially dark last night. It could have been done with a flashlight, but we would probably have seen the light."

  "But the fact is, you didn't see anything, so I guess you must have been sound asleep."

  "I guess so. Then you think the body was brought here last night?" said the campground attendant, with an uneasy shake of the head. "But why would anybody have wanted to bring it out here?" The same doubt had occurred to him as to Takemura.

  Miyazaki returned. The chief of detectives at headquarters had ordered another meeting of administrators. "He doesn't wa
nt it let out that we've identified the body until we get back. It sounds like he got that request from above," Miyazaki told Takemura.

  "They're interfering with our investigation!" grumbled Takemura, disgusted. "We have identified him. What's with these financiers and politicians?"

  "Take it easy, now! They must have their reasons. There are probably a lot of things they have to take care of before the information gets around."

  Miyazaki made a very brief, formal announcement to the reporters at the campground office. "The victim has not been identified. The body is that of a male, about sixty, who appears to be of the senior executive type. We believe he has been dead for three or four days. Cause of death was apparently poisoning, but we won't know anything for sure until we get the results of the autopsy."

  He barely had time to take a breath before being swamped with questions.

  "Then is there a strong possibility of murder?"

  "We can't say yet whether it was murder or suicide."

  "But this is a pretty strange place for someone to be found dead."

  "You're right, of course. That's why we're here."

  "Aren't you evading the question, sir? Tell us, is there a strong suspicion of murder, or not?"

  "You can tell your readers that we are investigating the possibilities of suicide and murder both."

  "Our editors will have our heads for an article like that!"

  There was a burst of laughter. Realizing that they were not going to pin Miyazaki down any further, the reporters turned their attention to the girls who had discovered the body, and then went off to send in their articles. Miyazaki relaxed a little, knowing that at this point they would have to treat the case like any other discovery of a body, and it would make no more than a little stuffing for the evening papers.

  After Miyazaki had accompanied the body down the hill, investigation of the vicinity began in earnest. More than one hundred men, some with dogs, went into the bamboo-grass brush still soaked with rain and dew to look for clues. For any case, the initial search was always the most important, and the one to which the most energy was devoted. It was also the most primitive, there being no other way to do it than by using a human sea of investigators.

  Detectives from Section One were dispatched to question residents of the surrounding villages. The road leading to the Arakura Campground was from the village of Imai at the bottom of the hill. There were fields along the way, but the closest house was one kilometer away. The road was unpaved and wide enough for only one car. Since the men in the office had not heard a car, it was assumed that someone must have parked some distance away, then carried the body into the campground on foot. It was estimated that no matter how hard it might have been raining, the car could not have come closer than three hundred meters without being heard. That would mean that someone must have carried the body, already smelling of decay, a considerable distance, which in itself would make the case a bizarre one.

  Nothing important was being found near the scene of the discovery, and neither were the detectives having much luck with their questioning of residents in the surrounding villages. They were unable to find anyone who had heard a car, even though it must have been the middle of the night, and of course there was no such thing as an eyewitness. Leaving the remaining search to his men, Takemura headed for the Koshimizu Plateau Hotel with Kinoshita, his regular driver.

  At about that time, Chief Nagakura was holding a most unusual press conference at the Nagano Central Station. Since press notifications had been carefully prepared and sent around beforehand, practically all of the mass media were there, along with four television cameras.

  With Nagakura were his chief of detectives, Tsukamoto, the head of Investigative Section One, Miyazaki, and Kisuke Takeda's secretary, Izawa. A lot of reporters recognized Izawa, but none of them had any idea why he was there, which created considerable curiosity right from the start. When they finally learned the identity of the body, even hardened reporters were appalled by the news of Kisuke Takeda's unnatural death.

  Takeda was, by title, the president of the Takeda Firm, on the surface a small company of twelve employees with a main office in Nagano City, a branch office in Matsumoto City, and assets worth twenty million yen. It was supposed to be dealing in real estate, metals, and some other business, but even the tax people couldn't keep track of all its dealings. It was affiliated with five other incorporated companies at various locations, each independent, with its own president, but all shadowy. In a word, most were probably ghost companies. Hardly any of them did any regular business of note, but often one would suddenly pop up in some real estate deal worth ten or twenty billion yen. Popular opinion had it that all of them were fronts for the Takeda Firm, but nobody could put his finger on the exact connection, and there were other, even more mysterious companies continually being created and dissolved.

  Kisuke Takeda had done a skillful job of operating an organization whose dealings were impossible to trace. It was said that he could do as he liked anywhere in Nagano Prefecture, but that was about all that anyone not close to him could say. Everyone was aware, however, that he had been a real power behind the political and financial scenes of Nagano Prefecture, and that his death would result in some major changes. One did not have to be particularly knowledgeable to realize that Takeda's murder would break open a beehive.

  Chief Nagakura described the facts of the case to the assembled reporters: Kisuke Takeda had been missing since July 3rd; his body had been found this morning in the Arakura Campground outside Imai in Togakushi; cause of death was cyanide poisoning; there was some suspicion of murder, and so on. The chief made a point of extending his sympathy to the bereaved and promising every possible effort toward a rapid solution of the case. As soon as he finished, he was swamped with questions, but he quickly turned over the floor to Miyazaki, who was to bear the brunt of the questioning.

  Miyazaki was an old fox at this, and if the truth be known, he rather enjoyed it. The reporters were mainly concerned with finding out just how strong was the possibility of murder, and if it was murder, where were the police directing their suspicions, and did they have any particular suspect yet? Also, what sort of motives were they considering? Since Chief Nagakura had so far avoided a clear declaration that the case was being investigated as a murder, however, Miyazaki had a good excuse for avoiding discussion of any theories based on that premise. As a result, there was no real substance to the exchange between him and the reporters. The only juicy information they got was that Inspector Iwao Takemura had been put in charge of the case, and their cheers for the master detective were half in desperation.

  "If you're sending Takemura up against it, doesn't that mean it must be a pretty difficult case?" came the tricky question. Since the case of the dismembered corpse, Takemura had fast been making a reputation for himself. The raincoat that had become his trademark had even led to his being called the "Columbo of the Japanese Alps," a name which fit his appearance perfectly. One of the reasons for his popularity was that he had not tried to improve that appearance even after receiving a double promotion, raising him to the rank of inspector in one leap.

  "Well, no help for it," grumbled one of the reporters. "We'll just have to make tomorrow morning's headline Takemura On The Case.'"

  "Togakushi Shrines" is the collective name given to three independent shrines, the Hoko Shrine, the Middle Shrine, and the Inner Shrine, each dedicated to a different god. The Birdline toll road, which runs out of Nagano City across the Iizuna Plateau, comes out on an ordinary road just short of the Hoko Shrine. About one kilometer further up that road is the Middle Shrine, whose surrounding village used to mark the extent of settlement in Togakushi. The area beyond, as its name Koshimizu-ga-Hara or Water-Crossing Plain implies, used to be covered with bamboo shrubs and swampy areas of skunk cabbage. But backed by craggy West Peak of the Togakushi Mountains, the entire stretch is blessed with beauty all year round, making it not only ideal for sanitoriums and mountain villas, bu
t also giving it potential for large resorts. Thus, in recent years, the stretch of plateau beyond the Middle Shrine and up to the Inner Shrine has been rapidly developed with villas.

  In spite of the nationwide craze for the development of such resorts, however, the Togakushi Plateau—except for its paved roads and ski lift—has not been subjected to any remarkably large-scale development. Thus it retains the strong image of a secluded country place, and that in itself makes it thoroughly attractive to big investors.

  As Takemura and Kinoshita drove by the Middle Shrine, they saw from their cream-colored compact several tour busses and a considerable number of private cars parked in the square in front. The Togakushi Plateau, quiet for a while, would rapidly be getting lively again, and there were a lot of local young people hard at work cutting the bamboo brush beside the road. A little way out of the Middle Shrine village, Kinoshita turned right, shortly after which they passed through the stretch of villas and then saw the white building of the Koshimizu Plateau Hotel at the bottom of the ski slope.

  When Takemura showed his badge, the desk clerk paled. Although it was obvious from his manner that the police had been expected, they were nevertheless kept waiting for nearly an hour in the coffee shop on the first floor. Kinoshita, young and impatient, kept getting up to go press the clerk, but each time the clerk asked them to wait just another moment.

  Around them in the coffee shop were three groups of noisy students. Perhaps it was a feeling of freedom that made them so loud as to spoil the quiet so hard to come by.

  "I wonder where those kids get the money to play around with," said Kinoshita in disgust. "I suppose they must have sponged it off their parents, but I don't see why their parents stand for it."

  "Now, now," laughed Takemura, "you're jealous."

  "No I'm not. I just feel sorry for their parents. They worked hard for that money."

  "Maybe their parents don't mind. They might be happy to have the kids enjoying themselves."

  "You think so? That might be all right if the kids did as much for their parents as the parents do for their kids, but filial piety is out of style nowadays."