Togakushi Legend Murders (Tuttle Classics)

by Yasuo Uchida

  "That's a lie!"

  "No it's not. Apparently he'd done it two or three times, at least. So you didn't know anything about it, Mr. Izawa?"

  "Of course not! It's impossible, I tell you!"

  "But it's a fact that he did go out on the evening of the 3rd, isn't it? So how can you be so sure that he hadn't done it before?"

  Izawa was silent. Apparently he really had not known anything about it.

  "How many times had Mr. Takeda been to Togakushi this year?" continued Takemura.

  "Five or six, since the beginning of May."

  "For what purpose?"

  "To meet with people handling the golf course project."

  "Did he always stay overnight?"

  "Yes."

  "Togakushi isn't so far from Nagano. Did he really need to do that?"

  "Oh, he could have returned of course, if he had wanted to. But after he finished dinner with the local people, it was always late. Besides, frankly, I think he just wanted to relax."

  "If it were me and I wanted to relax, I think I'd rather go home. Or is it that Mr. Takeda didn't feel at home with his wife? What about that?"

  "Er, no, I wouldn't think that was it," answered Izawa vaguely.

  "By the way, may I assume that Mr. Takeda used a private car to go to Togakushi?"

  "Yes, that's right."

  "Did you drive it?"

  "Sometimes I did, and sometimes somebody else did. I was the one who was driving last time."

  "Did he always stay at the Koshimizu Plateau Hotel?"

  "Yes. He owned part of it."

  "So the manager told me. Then, did you always stay there with him?"

  "Yes, I always stayed in the same place with him wherever we went. In different rooms, of course."

  "What time did Mr. Takeda usually retire?"

  "Pretty late, usually. Even when he wasn't doing anything special, he didn't go to his bedroom before ten or eleven, and he once told me he was in the habit of reading for a while before going to sleep, so I imagine he must have gone to sleep around midnight. Except of course, when he had work to do, or visitors."

  "What about when he was at the Koshimizu Plateau Hotel?"

  "Oh, he used to go to his room early when he was there, so I don't know what time he would actually go to sleep."

  "How early?"

  "Well, he almost always went up right after dinner, so I guess it must have been around seven."

  "Really? That certainly is early, isn't it? Then it does sound like his trips to Togakushi must have meant some breathing space for him, doesn't it?"

  "Perhaps so," said Izawa, without much confidence. "I'm afraid I'm really not sure."

  "By the way, I don't know anything about politics or finance, so I'm just going to ask you this straight out, and I'd appreciate a frank answer. I'm sure that Kisuke Takeda must have had enemies of all sorts, but do you know of any person or any group who might have wanted to get rid of him badly enough to kill him?" Takemura kept his eyes fixed on Izawa as he spoke.

  Izawa's eyes wandered for a while, then he shook his head weakly. "I can't think of any, but the fact is he was killed, so I guess there must have been some such enemy that I didn't know about."

  "Who would benefit from his death?"

  "That's a difficult question, too. He had plenty of business rivals. Or maybe there was somebody whose head he was holding something over. I wouldn't have known about something like that."

  "If we were to mention some names, what about his wife?"

  "That's absurd!" said Izawa, with a hasty look around him. "How would she benefit from his death? He's the one who's brought her family, the Takedas, to its present prosperity with all of his work."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Oh, didn't you know? He was adopted into his wife's family. The story is that in the period of confusion after the war, when the Takeda family was beginning to fail, he helped the last head of the company out of a pinch. I was only a baby then, of course, but I've heard the story."

  "I see. So he won their confidence and got adopted," nodded Takemura. "Okay, what about Representative Shishido?"

  "Oof, you do pick some names! But I can tell you this: Representative Shishido was a sworn friend of Mr. Takeda's. The plan to build this Togakushi Golf Course was originally his. Mr. Takeda wasn't interested and tried to refuse, but Representative Shishido kept after him till he finally went along with it. So I think you could say that the person most hurt by Mr. Takeda's death is Representative Shishido."

  "Was there any local opposition to the building of the golf course?"

  "Some. But the golf course was only in the planning stages, and there wasn't any strong protest movement against it."

  "Then what about Mr. Takeda's employees, beginning with you, Mr. Izawa? Is there anyone among them who had a grudge against him? For example, the man whose place you were given as head secretary? I shouldn't think he would have been too pleased by that."

  "No such thing! Being head secretary isn't all that great. There's a lot to it that's inconvenient for a married man, so it's more suited to a bachelor like me. Besides, the man I replaced didn't take any loss in salary."

  "Then what about his relations with women? I don't think it would have been strange if a man in his position had had a mistress or a lover."

  "Well he didn't, nobody at all. Oh, he was fawned over by geishas, and he may have had an occasional fling with a club hostess, but I'm sure at least that there was no woman who could have felt strongly enough to kill him."

  "I see." Arms folded, Takemura fell into thought.

  Izawa kept glancing at his watch. "Inspector, if you have further questions, I wonder if you'd mind saving them for some other day? I would appreciate it if we could stop here for today."

  "Okay, I suppose we can do that. Now, if I could see Mrs. Takeda for just a moment?"

  "Do you really have to?"

  "Yes, I'm afraid I do. She was the person closest to the victim, you know. Actually, she should have been questioned yesterday, but we were asked to put it off for a day because she has some kind of heart trouble. I know it must be awfully hard on her, but it's just got to be done."

  "I see. All right, I'll ask her if it's convenient."

  "Convenient or not, I'm afraid I do have to see her now. I can save detailed questions for later, but I at least have to talk to her for a minute today."

  "Do you? Then wait here please," said Izawa with a long face, getting up and walking off.

  Gathering the man was afraid of Mrs. Takeda, Takemura grew irritated. If even the police tried to stay away from her, that wasn't surprising, but Takemura always got mad when he saw political influence interfering with an investigation. Take the case of the politician who had committed suicide in Hokkaido. At first the doctor and even the Hokkaido police had yielded to pressure from members of the Diet and announced that he had died of illness. When Takemura thought about how much that kind of kowtowing to authority spoiled the police organization and its individual officers, and how much distrust it caused among the public, he could not help feeling resentful.

  It must have taken Izawa quite some time to persuade Mrs. Takeda, but finally he reappeared, looking exhausted. "She says she'll see you. Follow me."

  He led them along a winding path farther into the garden to the left, to a broad veranda facing a small artificial hill. There the old lady was seated on a rattan chair, in a neat mourning dress, looking very stately. Her face showed no sign of the misfortune she had suffered, and her silver hair was splendidly curled. Her silver-rimmed glasses suited her perfectly.

  "I've brought them," said Izawa, leading them to the edge of the veranda.

  Standing there, Takemura could not help feeling like a criminal dragged before the judge. "I'm Takemura, prefec-tural police," he said, "and this is Officer Kinoshita."

  She bowed her head slightly. "Ah, yes, thank you for coming. Superintendent Nagakura told me he would be sending a superior detective. He must have meant
you. I do hope you will do a good job."

  "Thank you. We will make every effort to find your husband's killer as quickly as possible. Toward that end, there are a number of questions I must ask you, and I do hope I may count on your full cooperation."

  "Of course. But I leave everything to Mr. Izawa, so I'm sure he can tell you everything you need to know."

  "But as Mr. Takeda's wife, you must have known of some private aspects of his life that Mr. Izawa wouldn't be able to tell me about."

  "No," declared Mrs. Takeda, with considerable tension in her voice, "there is nothing special that I can tell you about my husband."

  "How about this: would your husband have had any reason to commit suicide?"

  "How dare you!" said the old lady, rising abruptly to her feet and glaring at this police inspector invading her garden. "My husband could have had no reason for suicide, and I suggest that you stop wasting time and get down to the business of finding his killer."

  She took two or three steps away, then turned and pointed to the table. "Izawa, there's a letter from the detective agency there. It doesn't seem to be anything important, but if it will be of any help to the inspector, you may show it to him. Now, if you will excuse me." With a glance at Takemura out of the corner of her eye, she disappeared into the house without giving him a chance to say a word.

  Takemura looked at Kinoshita with a wry smile.

  "That's quite a woman!" said Kinoshita in admiration.

  "I'm terribly sorry," said Izawa, embarrassed.

  "That's all right. Let's have a look at that letter," said Takemura, impatiently.

  The envelope had already been opened. Takemura and Kinoshita looked on as Izawa removed and spread out the contents. The envelope was addressed to Kisuke Takeda, from a private detective agency in Tokyo. The contents were a very simple personal history of a man named Tomohiro Tachibana: born 1922, birth registered in Tokyo, present address also in Tokyo; a Ph.D. in literature and now a professor at T—University, a private university; eminent in classical literature, particularly in the discovery of and research on books of romantic narrative.

  "What is this?" asked Takemura.

  "I'm afraid I don't know. I've never seen the name Tomohiro Tachibana before," said Izawa, his head inclined. Apparently he was telling the truth. "But I can't imagine he had anything to do with Mr. Takeda's business."

  "When Mr. Takeda used a detective agency for something, was he accustomed to handling the matter himself?"

  "No, he always left it to me. As far as I know, he'd never done it himself before."

  "If the man was born in 1922, Mr. Takeda probably wasn't having him investigated as a prospective marriage partner for anyone. Could Tachibana have been looking for another job after retirement, do you think?"

  "Perhaps. But Mr. Takeda would normally have left a matter like that to me." Izawa thought about it for a while without coming up with any ideas. Finally it was decided that the document should be left for a time in the hands of the police.

  As Izawa was showing Takemura and Kinoshita out, they passed three Buddhist priests coming in. The wake was that night, and the funeral would later be held at the Zenko Temple. It was to be a magnificent service.

  "Kisuke Takeda must've been awfully powerful," said Kinoshita with a deep breath, looking around at the rows of wreaths.

  "Actually, this reflects the prestige of the Takeda family more than it does Mr. Takeda's power," said Izawa, somewhat boastfully. "The family is supposed to have been prominent since the Muromachi period, you know. Mr.

  Takeda may be gone, but Mrs. Takeda holds some considerable power of her own."

  * * *

  When they got back to headquarters, the report was in from CID about the stationery Takemura had found in Kisuke Takeda's room at the Koshimizu Plateau Hotel. The name Tomohiro Tachibana had been written with a ball-point pen on the sheet of paper above the one Takemura had picked up, which would appear to mean that Takeda had contacted the detective agency from the hotel to request an investigation of Tachibana. But why such a hurry, and why had he not left it to Izawa?

  Takemura called the hotel to ask whether there had been a man named Tomohiro Tachibana among the guests at the party on July 3rd.

  "Yes, we did have the honor of accommodating a guest by that name," answered Takano, the manager, with his exaggerated politeness.

  Tachibana had apparently come from Tokyo to attend the party as an endorser of the golf course project. Such an investigation might have been requested if there had been something suspicious about his identity, but the request would most likely have been made by the golf course committee or by Takeda's secretary, Izawa. It would have been strange for Takeda to contact the detective agency himself.

  Had Takeda wanted Tachibana investigated for personal reasons instead? If so, why? Did Tachibana have something to do with Takeda's murder?

  Tomohiro Tachibana's residence in the Nishikata neighborhood of Bunkyo Ward was on a rise in Hongo near Tokyo University, on a quiet street which had been inhabited by scholars and men of culture since the Meiji era.

  The Tachibanas were an old family which had lived on that site ever since the Meiji Restoration of 1868, but not being able to pay the inheritance tax when his father died, Tomohiro had sold part of the land and submissively agreed to let a real estate agency tear down the decrepit old house and replace it with a three-story condominium apartment building, in which—as was the fashion of the times— he had been provided an apartment of supposedly equivalent value. As a result, there were very few people left who knew of the former illustriousness of the Tachibana family.

  Tachibana had celebrated his sixtieth birthday this year. His wife had died without leaving him a child. His one relative in the world, a younger sister, had married into a large family connected with big business, which reeked so much of riches that he did not get along with them. His sister, however, had been fundamentally suited for such a life, and had been so thoroughly assimilated into the family that a considerable distance had developed between her and Tachibana.

  * * *

  After the doorbell rang for the second time, Tachibana finally remembered that his wife was no longer there to answer it. It was already two months since she had passed away, but the habits of a lifetime still caused him sometimes to forget and wait for her to do the things she had always done for him.

  "Coming!" he called, making it sound cheerful as he got up. There was no special hurry about the work spread out on the table, so he wouldn't mind having a guest right now, whoever it might be.

  When he opened the door, two strangers with sullen expressions were standing there.

  "Are you Tomohiro Tachibana?" asked one of them, a man of thirty-five or thirty-six, dark complexioned and of undistinguished mien. He was looking Tachibana straight in the eye. The other man was much younger and seemed rather self-effacing. He appeared to be the older man's subordinate.

  "Yes, I'm Tachibana. What is it?"

  "Police," said the first man, showing his badge and presenting his card at the same time. The card read, "Iwao Takemura, Inspector, Nagano prefectural police headquarters, Investigative Section One." The younger man introduced himself as Kinoshita.

  "Police?" Tachibana stood there at a loss, with Takemura's card in his hand.

  "We'd like to ask you a few questions," said Takemura. "Do you mind if we come in?"

  "Oh, no, please, come in." Tachibana led them into the living room. "I'm a widower, so I'm afraid I can't receive you properly, but can I offer you a beer or something?"

  "No, we're on duty, but thank you anyway," replied Takemura.

  The fact was, however, that they had spent a long time under the burning sky, asking directions at every corner, and something cold to drink would really have hit the spot. Kinoshita inadvertently licked his lips, and Tachibana, sizing up the situation, got two cans each of beer and juice from the refrigerator and set them on the table, so that both men could choose whichever drink they liked. />
  "Then, thank you, I guess we will have something," said Takemura. With a warning look at Kinoshita that he had better choose the same, Takemura picked up a can of juice and began to drink it with relish. Kinoshita did the same, but he was so thirsty that he guzzled his juice in one gulp. It dribbled out of the corners of his mouth, and he hastily got out his handkerchief to wipe his chin.

  "Professor Tachibana, do you know a man named Kisuke Takeda?" Takemura began.

  "Takeda?" Tachibana glanced at Takemura. Takemura was looking at him hard with keen eyes. "Yes, I believe I did meet a man by that name a few days ago at a party in Togakushi. Are you here about him?"

  "Yes, that's right. Then you do know him?"

  "Well, I've met him, at least. He was introduced to me as one of the promoters of that golf course they want to build. We exchanged cards. But we didn't have any conversation to speak of."

  "Was that the first time you had ever met him, in Togakushi?"

  "Yes, that's right. But I'm afraid I find this rather peculiar. What is this Mr. Takeda supposed to have to do with me?"

  "Then apparently you don't know. You see, Kisuke Takeda is dead. I mean, he was murdered."

  "Oh? Murdered?" Tachibana looked at Takemura in surprise. "How horrible! But I'm afraid I still don't see what it has to do with me."

  "The fact is that yesterday a letter was delivered to Mr. Takeda's home from a private detective agency in Tokyo. It contained a personal history of yourself, Professor."

  "Of me?"

  "That's right."

  "Then this Mr. Takeda must have had some need to have me investigated. What need?"

  "That we don't know. Can't you help us, Professor?"

  "No, I'm afraid I can't. My first guess would be that I was being investigated for membership in the golf club, but I was only invited to that party as a last minute replacement, so I was just along for the ride. Nor had I given any indication that I wanted to join the club. Besides, the golf course itself was still no sure thing. They couldn't have been soliciting members yet."

  "No, Mr. Takeda was having you investigated for some personal reason. I mean, it doesn't appear to have had anything to do with the golf course."