Togakushi Legend Murders (Tuttle Classics)

by Yasuo Uchida

  Both men clammed up.

  "Now look, I'll see to it that no trouble comes to either of you for any of this. This isn't just idle gossip I'm asking you for. All right, I'll make it easier for you. I'll tick them off one by one." Takemura bent one finger. "First, what about Mr. Ishihara?"

  They shook their heads grudgingly, like naughty children.

  "Then what about his wife, Kayo?"

  They shook their heads again.

  "Hisako?"

  They nodded at each other, in agreement that there was no help for it. Iwata spoke. "It is possible that she might have disliked Mr. Takeda to some extent. It was he who got her father and Kayo together."

  "Oh really? Okay, then what about Hisako's husband, Koichi Hirai?"

  "No, I think he rather sympathized with Kayo. He thought his wife was much too hard on her. Hisako hated Kayo so much that it even bothered us."

  "So he would have had no reason for any bad feelings toward Mr. Takeda?"

  "I don't think he even knew very much about Mr. Takeda at all."

  "Well, thank you very much. I guess that's about it for now."

  Takemura dropped his questioning of the two men for the time being. He had neglected to press them hard enough, however, about one person's relationship with Takeda, and this oversight was to delay his solution of the case.

  Afterwards, he spoke individually with Shizu Kasai and Koichi Hirai again.

  Shizu Kasai was so distracted as to be almost incapable of answering his questions. She seemed almost physically ill. He always found it most difficult to question such a person.

  "Now, I'm going to make my questions easy, and I want you to take your time answering them," he said. "On Saturday, July 3rd—oh yes, that was the day Mr. Ishihara stayed overnight in Takarazuka for a golf tournament—on that day, did Mrs. Ishihara—your mistress, Kayo—go to the villa in Togakushi?"

  "No, she didn't," answered Shizu, without changing her expression or looking at Takemura.

  "Then she was in Nagoya all the time, at home?"

  "Yes, she was."

  "What was she doing?"

  "I don't know."

  "But, you must know something about what she was doing. For instance, was she watching television, or..."

  "Yes, that's it. She was watching television."

  Takemura could see he would get nowhere with her. He gave up and called in Hirai.

  Koichi Hirai, as an employee of one of Ishihara's client companies, had been in Takarazuka at the golf tournament.

  "Was your wife with you?" asked Takemura.

  "No, she wasn't," answered Hirai.

  "Then did she stay home to take care of the house?"

  "Yes, you could say that."

  "Do you know if she was home all the time?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean, Mr. Ishihara owned a villa in Togakushi, didn't he? Do you think she might have gone there by herself?"

  "Are you kidding?" laughed Hirai. "My wife doesn't have the courage to go to a lonesome place like that by herself. She may act fierce, but when it comes right down to it, she's still a woman."

  Hirai's timid manner of shortly before had undergone a complete change. He was now spirited with a vengeance. Takemura couldn't tell whether it was mere bravado in the absence of his wife, or whether he had simply remained silent earlier out of respect for her feelings.

  "Besides," added Hirai, "she had the boy to take care of. We have a son going on four."

  "Oh, then she wouldn't have been all by herself, right?"

  "Yes, that's right. But may I ask what you're getting at?"

  "Nothing in particular. By the way, does your wife drive?"

  "Oh yes. As a matter of fact, she drove us here today."

  "What about Kayo?"

  "You mean, did she drive? Yes, of course. But my father-in-law didn't."

  "Okay. I've got one more question. Where were you and your wife last night?"

  "Where were we? What do you mean by that? Do you suspect us?"

  "No, I don't. This is merely for reference."

  "Good. I was out playing mahjong with friends. I must have gotten home around 11:30. My wife was at home all evening. Of course, if you asked me, I wouldn't be able to prove that, but then, there's no end to the things one can't prove. Besides, Inspector," said Hirai, with an expression of undisguised displeasure, "and this is a private matter that I'd rather not talk about, except that you'd probably get it out of me anyway—as far as that villa goes, the fact is that my wife and I have never once been there. My mother-in-law, Kayo, had practically appropriated the place for herself. I don't imagine even my father-in-law had ever been there."

  "What? Not even Mr. Ishihara?"

  "That's right. He didn't like Togakushi, and he had never wanted that villa. Anyway, that should tell you you'd be wasting your time suspecting us." Hirai looked like he would resent any further questions.

  * * *

  That day at noon, the sign "Togakushi Serial-Murder Investigation Headquarters" was put up at Nagano Central. This recognition of the murders as connected—by authorities who had been reluctant even to declare the death of Kisuke Takeda a case of murder at all—was owing to the argument of Inspector Takemura.

  "We've got to be on guard against another murder," said Takemura, pressing his superior, Miyazaki.

  "You're not just trying to frighten me, are you?" said Miyazaki.

  "Hardly. I had a hunch after the first one that there would be more, and after this, I'm absolutely sure. Any way you look at it, our murderer is sending somebody a warning."

  "A warning?"

  "Well look. First he leaves a poisoned body on Poison Plain, then he sticks arrows in a couple of bodies at Arrowstand. Anyone who would run risks like that has got to be abnormal, of course, but he must also have some very strong motive. We can only assume that he wants somebody else to know that he intends to kill him. In killing Takeda, he must have been sending a message to let someone know why, and he did the same thing with the Ishiharas at Arrowstand. We've got to believe he was sending a message to his next victim. So it will hardly be surprising if there is one."

  "So you really think we've got to take these weird killings as notice that another is in the making?"

  "That's exactly what I think. If we don't treat these two cases as connected, we don't stand much chance of solving either, or even of preventing another murder."

  "Then you mean that Takeda and the Ishiharas must have had something in common that gave the murderer a motive for killing all three of them?"

  "Yes, that's what I mean."

  Takemura was sure of that much, but he had not the slightest idea what that common factor might be. The only relations turned up so far between the two men seemed perfectly businesslike: Takeda had supplied capital for the establishment of Ishihara's company, and Ishihara had gotten some of his clients through Takeda's enterprises and connections. That had been twenty-odd years ago. It could be assumed that the two men had known each other since some time before that, but Takemura could find nobody who went back that far with them. Even Ishihara's daughter Hisako, Takemura learned, had only become aware of Takeda's existence two years ago, when her father had married Kayo through Takeda's introduction. And even that could have arisen out of everyday business dealings— and those not especially secret.

  It did not seem likely either that Takeda and Ishihara could have had a common business enemy. According to both Iwata and Sueyasu, any favors that Takeda ever did for Ishihara's advertising agency were insignificant, and aside from Takeda's assistance in the establishment of the company itself, they had never cooperated in any joint venture. In other words, there had never been any dealings between them of a sort that could have earned them a common enemy.

  That was confirmed by Takeda's secretary, Izawa, who said that since he had joined the firm, there had been no contacts between Takeda and either Ishihara's agency or Ishihara himself that had not been straightforward business. Even the marr
iage arrangements for Ishihara and Kayo had been entrusted to Izawa and completed without Takeda's attention.

  "All Mr. Takeda did was ask me if I could handle it. Apparently he hadn't even considered using an intermediary," said Izawa. "If I had told him I didn't have time, I think that would have been the end of it. I had the feeling that neither he nor Mr. Ishihara wanted to have too much to do with each other."

  His boss dead, Izawa was speaking frankly, and it all seemed perfectly credible. But he was painting a picture of quite a distant connection between Takeda and Ishihara, so it seemed at this point that there was nothing whatsoever to suggest any possible reason why the same person would want both men dead.

  Having declared the two cases related, and even that another murder could be expected, Takemura was really out on a limb, but he still trusted his intuition. The cases were similar in that both presented a lot of riddles, at least. For instance, the police had been able to pick up nothing at all about the Ishiharas' whereabouts or actions between the time they left Nagoya and the time their bodies were found at Arrowstand in Togakushi, just as detectives had not managed to trace Takeda's whereabouts and doings between the Koshimizu Plateau Hotel and Poison Plain. The deaths of the Ishiharas were estimated to have occurred sometime between 8 P.M. and 11 P.M. the night before their bodies were discovered, so they must have been poisoned while Takemura and his men were fighting off mosquitos at their stakeout of the Ishihara villa. Where could the Ishiharas have gone after they left Nagoya? Had they been lying when they told Shizu they were going to their villa in Togakushi?

  Yuko Noya had shaken Tomohiro Tachibana to the core. He couldn't imagine how she could have known about his past. That the heads of the Tachibana family had in the old days held the title of viscount could not have been known to anyone outside an extremely limited number of people. He himself had never told anyone. The fact was that he hated the very word "viscount," because even the mention of it was sufficient to bring back to him the memory of the tragedy with Taki in Togakushi.

  Yuko's satanic whisper about his being the son of a viscount still rang in his ears. He could see her classic oval face and her large eyes. And then the face would fade as in a movie scene, changing to the face that try as he might he could never forget, Taki's face. Taki had been just Yuko's age when he lost her—his life's treasure. Was he simply trying to find her again in Yuko? No, he thought, there was more to it than that.

  Yuko, with her eyes glittering as she talked, had looked to Tachibana just like Taki used to look when she was in a trance, speaking of the wonders of heaven and earth as she foretold the future. And it gave him an even more eerie feeling that Yuko should have been telling the Demoness Legend of Togakushi.

  He telephoned the office of the dean of students. The college was on vacation, but the dean, a good friend of his, was still at work. "I'm awfully sorry to trouble you," apologized Tachibana, "but I wonder if you could get me the home address of a girl named Yuko Noya, who just entered this year. She requested an early report, and I gave it to her. Now I find there's a correction I need to make, but she's apparently already gone home for the holidays, and I'm afraid I can't get in touch with her." He was going to feel guilty about this, thought Tachibana, the lecherous old man.

  "Sure," said the dean lightly.

  It seemed an absurdly long time—someone must be having a lot of trouble finding the information—before the dean called him back to tell him that Yuko was from Yashiro, Koshoku City, Nagano Prefecture.

  Having unconsciously expected to hear that she was from Togakushi, he felt a pang of disappointment. "Yashiro, you say? Pretty far away, isn't she? Oh well, no help for it, I guess. Let's see, I believe her Tokyo address was in Takehaya, wasn't it?"

  "No, it's in Sengoku, Bunkyo Ward."

  "It is? I must have written it down wrong, then. No wonder I couldn't get in touch with her. Would you mind letting me have that address?" Now he was adding fraud to his lechery, thought Tachibana with a wry smile.

  The unsuspecting dean immediately gave him the address and even the telephone number. Tachibana thanked him, hung up, and dialed her number right away.

  "Hello, this is Yuko Noya," she answered.

  Not expecting her to answer the phone herself, he was caught off guard. He had guessed from the name of her apartment house that it was the type of place where the manager would answer the phone and summon the tenant the call was for. He had been so sure of that, that for an instant, he was speechless.

  Finally he managed to say, "Oh, uh, Miss Noya? Tachibana here."

  "Oh! Professor? What a surprise! Thank you so much for the other day, and I'm very sorry I said so many rude things. I've been thinking of paying you a visit to apologize," she said without a pause, ending breathlessly.

  "Oh no, you don't have to worry about that. But there is something I would like to ask you."

  "Yes, I know. About my saying your father was a viscount, isn't it? I'm so sorry about that. It came out sounding like I was making fun of you. That's really been bothering me. But I'm so happy to be able to talk to you about it."

  "But I don't understand how you could have known a thing like that."

  "That's a very long story. If I won't be causing you too much trouble, could I come visit you now and tell you all about it?"

  "You mean right now? Today?"

  "Yes, I'm afraid I'm leaving for home tomorrow."

  He told her to come, then just sat there at the phone in blank amazement at the whole new situation that faced him. She had said she could be there in thirty minutes. He looked at his watch. It was nearly eleven-thirty. Fusae Nakayama was there cleaning house and preparing to make lunch. The usually calm Tachibana fidgeted around the room and kept going to check the already perfectly tidy entryway.

  Finally the doorbell rang, and he heard Fusae's footsteps as she went from the kitchen to answer it. There was the sound of the door, and the voice of a female visitor saying a few words. After a pause, Fusae looked into the room he was in without knocking. "You have a visitor," she whispered. "A girl who says her name is Noya or something." Fusae looked sulky. It dawned on him that this was probably the first time he had had a female visitor since she had started coming to do his housekeeping.

  "Oh, must be one of my students. I wonder what she wants," said Tachibana apologetically, feigning ignorance. Then he brushed past Fusae and hurried to the entryway.

  "I'm sorry to drop in on you so suddenly," said Yuko, sizing up the situation with a look at Tachibana's face and greeting him as though the telephone call had never taken place.

  She was neatly dressed in a white linen blouse and a light wool maroon skirt, but her glossy black hair was dancing around her fair-complexioned face as she looked straight at him with a slightly mischievous smile. With a dizzying shock, the image yanked him back forty years. She looked just like Taki, he thought, but quickly forced the thought out of his mind.

  "Uh, am I intruding on something?" said Yuko uneasily.

  "Hmh? Oh, no, no, not at all," said Tachibana, dazzled by her eyes, barely managing a smile. "Well, come on in," he said.

  He turned and went into the parlor without looking back at her. To Fusae, who was watching the proceedings from inside the study door, he said, "Could you bring us some tea?" He could not calm himself, and even before Yuko was seated, he had lit a cigarette and was puffing out clouds of smoke.

  Yuko entered nervously, sat down on the edge of the sofa, small and quiet, and glanced curiously around the room. Tachibana watched her, considering the shock he had just received. He must have considered it for much longer than he thought.

  "Professor, the ashes!" said Yuko suddenly.

  Bewildered, he did not react fast enough. All of the long ash fell into his lap. His exclamation did not become his position, as he pounded his lap on a reflex, sending a powder of disintegrating ash flying everywhere. As he tried to wave it away from his face, Yuko sat primly, handkerchief pressed to her lips, trying not to giggle.
/>   With a quick knock, Fusae re-entered. Yuko jumped up from the sofa, stepped a little away from it, and made a respectful bow. "Oh, you must be Mrs. Tachibana! I'm afraid I was rude when I came in. My name is Yuko Noya."

  Fusae's sulky look dissolved immediately into a toothy smile. "Me? Oh dear me, no! I'm not Mrs. Tachibana!" she said, with an unusually ladylike air. The mistake had put her in a very good mood.

  "This lady is a neighbor of mine, Fusae Nakayama," said Tachibana. "She has been kind enough to take care of me."

  "Oh, I'm sorry! I've done it again! But you look so well together," said Yuko.

  "I'm honored that you should say so," said Fusae, giggling as she put the tea on the table.

  Tachibana was not terribly happy about the error, but he was pleased enough for Yuko that she had managed to charm the somewhat bothersome Fusae.

  After Fusae went out, Tachibana, teacup in hand, said softly, "My wife died this spring."

  "Yes, I know."

  "You do?" Tachibana almost spilled his tea. "What do you mean?"

  "I checked into a few things about you, Professor."

  "But you just..."

  "That was because she didn't look very pleased to see me," Yuko said with a shrug, briefly showing her pink tongue.

  "You mean you did that just to make her pleased with you?" said Tachibana in amazement, wondering about her. He didn't know whether to take the act as clever or disagreeable, but whichever it was, there was no denying that it had worked.

  "That's not a very nice habit you have, playing with people like that," he said, but he couldn't help smiling.

  "Are you talking about my saying that you were the son of a viscount, too?"

  "No, that was different."

  Looking straight at Tachibana, her lips pursed, she said, "I wanted so very much to meet you, Professor, that I've been doing everything I could to get you to notice me. That's why I took the seat next to yours when the class went to see Noh."

  "Well, I must say I'm greatly honored, but why in the world would you want to meet an old fogey like me?"