by Yasuo Uchida
It did not seem to be merely that she enjoyed revealing her husband's evils. She must have had a genuine, heartfelt antipathy for him. If so, it was natural that he should have been drawn to another woman. The Takedas' marriage must have been one strictly of convenience.
"I have one more question. Where was your husband from?"
"Togakushi."
"Really?"
"That's right. A place called Hoko Shrine. His family name was Tokuoka. The place used to have houses that lodged pilgrims to the shrine—though they've all been turned into inns now—and Kisuke gave himself out to my father as the second son of a family that owned one of the houses. But I found out long after that they were nothing but peasants."
"So he was from Togakushi?" mumbled Takemura, still trying to absorb the information.
"Yes, Togakushi. That's why Shishido made him help with the golf course. He figured Kisuke would be a good persuader in his own hometown. But Kisuke didn't like the idea. For some reason, he hated going to Togakushi. He never used to go back there before. Anyway, his family doesn't live there anymore. There was a big fire the year the war ended, and they were burned out and had to leave. Maybe it was that memory which made him not like to go back. But Shishido had him over a barrel, and from the beginning of this spring, he had been going there almost every day. Now we've seen the upshot."
"You have suffered a grievous loss."
"Not really. Anyway, he died in his hometown. Maybe he died happy."
What a terrible thing to say, thought Takemura.
* * *
Though Takemura had gotten tired of Sachie Takeda's disagreeable tongue, he could not deny that she had helped him to understand a lot of things. Back at headquarters, he called the Ishihara home in Nagoya. The phone was answered by Shizu Kasai, whose guarded voice relaxed and warmed up as soon as he identified himself. With his help, Hisako Hirai had eased up in her determination to treat Shizu badly, and Shizu was full of endless thank yous.
"I'd like to ask you something," interrupted Takemura, as soon as he could get a word in. "That villa in Togakushi, I believe I remember being told that Mr. Ishihara bought it this spring. Am I right about that?"
"That's right. It was this spring."
"Okay. Now, I'm afraid this may seem like a prying question, but he bought it because Kayo—Mrs. Ishihara— wanted it so badly, right?"
"Yes, that's right."
"And Mr. Ishihara himself was strongly against it, right?"
"Yes."
"You do know why she wanted to buy it, don't you?"
"Pardon? Well, uh, I. . ."
"Wasn't it exactly because she knew Mr. Ishihara didn't like Togakushi?"
Takemura could almost see her hesitating at the other end of the line. He continued, "Isn't it true that after all the trouble and expense of buying the villa, he never once visited it? He must really have hated Togakushi, don't you think?"
"Yes, he did. He had no objection to a villa; he just didn't want it there. But she insisted, and since he wouldn't tell her what it was he had against the place, he wasn't in a good position to refuse."
"But isn't it true that she wanted that villa in Togakushi exactly because she knew he objected to it?"
Shizu did not reply.
"Now, look, this is very important, and I need an honest answer. Didn't Kayo figure that if the villa was in Togakushi, Mr. Ishihara probably wouldn't visit it?"
"Yes, I think that was her idea."
"And of course, it was because she wanted to meet Mr. Takeda there, wasn't it?"
"Yes. I tried my best to stop her, but. .."
"Okay. Now, that villa wasn't new. They must have bought it from someone. Do you know who? I mean, do you know who brought it to their attention?"
"Yes."
"His name was Shishido, wasn't it? Hirofumi Shishido, the Diet representative?"
"Yes, it was Representative Shishido. If that man hadn't meddled, none of this would ever have happened."
"What was Shishido's connection with Kayo?"
"It wasn't with her. He was an old acquaintance of Mr. Ishihara's. And nobody asked him, either. He just popped up with an offer to sell the villa cheap, and forced it on them. If he hadn't..."
"I see. Well, thank you very much. I'll be in touch with you." She was starting to grumble, and he hung up a little abruptly.
"Sergeant Yoshii," he called, choosing a man more suited than Kinoshita for the job he had in mind, "there's something I'd like you to check out for me at the Legal Affairs Bureau. You know the Ishihara villa on the Koshimizu Plateau in Togakushi? Well, I want you to find out from whom Mr. Ishihara bought it, when, and for how much, and then find out when and from whom the former owner bought it."
Yoshii came back with pretty much what Takemura had expected. The previous owner had been Hirofumi Shishido, but he had purchased it only a month before selling it to Ishihara. Considering the time necessary for negotiations and registering the sale, the villa could not have been in Shishido's hands for more than two weeks or so. Moreover, he had sold it for about half of its true value, according to the real estate agent that Yoshii spoke to. Of course, he had bought it for approximately the same amount, so it must have been the owner before him who took the loss.
"Shishido bought it from one of the directors of a big construction company in Tokyo," said Yoshii. "The lot had been purchased ten years before and the villa put up almost immediately. The whole cost in those days would have been about twenty percent less than what he sold it to Shishido for, so I suppose you could say he didn't take any loss, but on the other hand, considering today's prices, he sold it for a lot less than he could have gotten for it. The real estate agent I talked to thinks Shishido must have put some kind of pressure on the guy."
With Shishido's reputation, Takemura would not have put that past him. Still, he had not profited financially, so why the big hurry to buy and sell the villa? Of course, he might have found himself suddenly strapped for funds just after buying it, though that was not likely. Much more likely was that he had been using Kayo as bait to lure Takeda to Togakushi. He had probably first mentioned the villa to the Ishiharas, and Kayo, for love of Takeda, had jumped at the offer. That was how the love-nest had come into being. The villa had made it possible for Takeda to escape the prying eyes of his secretary Izawa, who might have told Mrs. Takeda. Thus, Takeda had finally agreed to go to Togakushi to help Shishido with the golf course project.
With that as his theory, Takemura paid another visit to Fukami, the head of Investigative Section Two.
"I'd like to ask you about something, just for my information," said Takemura, "but first, I guess you already know that Kisuke Takeda was one of the original sponsors of the Togakushi golf course project, don't you?"
"Oh yes, I know that," replied Fukami. "But I believe we already agreed that his murder doesn't seem to have had anything to do with the project."
"Yes, I know, but what I'd like to ask you is this: if a project like that is carried out, the sponsors stand to profit considerably, don't they?"
"That depends on the circumstances, but in the case of Togakushi, I think you might say that the circumstances would seem quite attractive. What I mean is that most of the land around there is government owned, so whether it's sold off or only leased out, the concessions would be worth an awful lot. That in itself would turn the heads of a lot of entrepreneurs."
"In the selling off of government land, isn't there a strong likelihood of meddling by politicians?"
"Yes, it's possible."
"Like for instance, Hirofumi Shishido?"
"Now hold on there, Takemura! Let's not mention any names! I was only talking generalities."
"Okay, then I'll ask generalities," said Takemura, quickly reminded that he couldn't talk to the head of Section Two as easily as he might chat with a detective in his own section. "Isn't there an awfully good chance that there's a politician somewhere behind the project?"
"Since you put it that way, I
can't say that there isn't. But you could only find out for sure by coming up with some likely information," said Fukami, hinting that the answer was affirmative.
"Can we assume that such a politician would try to avoid publicity, perhaps by using a businessman that he could trust as front man?"
"Yes, of course. That's a common way of doing things."
"By the way, I hear it was quite some time after the talk about the golf course got started that Takeda moved in on Togakushi. Do you have any idea why a shrewd fellow like him would have waited so long to get moving?"
"Well, I'll have to admit that bothered me a little, but it's possible he might have considered it some sort of a matter of timing."
Takemura realized that Section Two had not learned of Takeda's aversion to Togakushi. But it seemed evident, at least, that he had been strangely slow to get into the project. Apparently, he had wanted to avoid Togakushi so much that it was not until Shishido waved Kayo in front of him as bait that he reluctantly let himself be lured there. What could it have been that had made him dislike the place so much?
Leaving Section Two, Takemura fell into thought. In addition to Kisuke Takeda, there was Ryuji Ishihara, who had wanted so much to avoid Togakushi that he would not even visit the villa he had taken all the trouble of buying there. Something more than just the scenery of Togakushi must have disagreed with both men. The proof was that they had both ended up murdered as soon as they overcame their aversion to visiting the place. There must have been something in Togakushi that both of them were afraid of.
"Summer didn't really seem like summer at all this year, did it? It was autumn before a person even turned on an air conditioner," said Fusae Nakayama, as she put the mail down on the table. "My son says the earth is cooling off. He says there's an Ice Age or something coming. I told him that at that rate we'd be having to keep our winter things ready in summertime, and he laughed at me."
Tachibana had been stretched out on the sofa in the living room, absentmindedly gazing out the window, but with Fusae making such a commotion, he decided he might as well get up and look at his mail. Among the routine notices from various academic societies and late-summer greeting cards was a postcard from Yuko Noya, who wrote how happy it had made her mother to meet him, and how disappointed she herself had been to find him gone when she arrived at the hotel looking forward to taking him to Kinasa.
He scrutinized her card with complex feelings. How would she react if she learned she was his granddaughter? A child of modern times, she might accept it more easily than he thought. But it was not likely that her mother would take it so easily. And Tachibana was not at all sure that he could handle it himself. It was that uncertainty that had made him flee in such a panic, afraid to face mother and daughter.
Flee as he might from Togakushi and Yuko, though, he could not flee from himself. His thoughts of Yuko and Katsura—and beyond them of Taki—were getting stronger every day, depressing him more and more. Guilt tormented him with the feeling that he was the one who had destroyed Taki and driven her to madness. How miserable and lonely she must be! To think that she did not even know she had a daughter still alive and a granddaughter as well gave him unbearable pain.
Should he leave well enough alone, or not? He went over and over that question in his mind, finally deciding that he at least had to see Taki once. He would even settle for a secret glimpse, to avoid giving her the emotional shock that Haru Kusumoto feared. He felt that if he did not get that much, he would never again have any peace of mind.
* * *
On August 17, Takemura and Kinoshita paid another visit to Tachibana. Although the chance meeting in Togakushi had created a certain intimacy, making their preliminaries much less reserved than on their first visit, neither side had forgotten their relationship.
"Well, what can I do for you today?" said Tachibana, smiling, but obviously on guard.
"Actually, I'm afraid we're here about pretty much the same thing again," replied Takemura, somewhat embarrassed. "We asked you last time about Kisuke Takeda, but then we learned he had married into the Takeda family and changed his name from Tokuoka. So now we'd like to ask you whether the name Tokuoka rings a bell."
"Tokuoka?... Let's see... It does sound vaguely familiar, but I can't remember just where I've heard it before."
"He was from the Hoko Shrine village in Togakushi."
"The Hoko Shrine?"
Takemura did not miss the shadow that crossed Tachibana's face. "You knew him then?"
"I know the Hoko Shrine, of course, but I don't remember whether anybody named Tokuoka lived around it or not."
"Er, you sound like you must have spent some time there, Professor. Did you?"
"Oh yes."
"When?"
"A long time ago. 'Way back during the war. Before either of you were born, I imagine. I spent almost two years there, recuperating from tuberculosis. Of course, even before that, when I was a little boy, my family used to spend the summer there, the way people visit the seashore nowadays, you know."
"Could you have met Mr. Tokuoka then?"
"I suppose so, but I'm afraid I have no recollection of it. It was such a long time ago, and besides, I really didn't have too much to do with the villagers."
"But it seems rather hard to believe that he was having you investigated, while you say you don't even know him."
"Be that as it may, I still don't remember him," said Tachibana, with a sour smile.
"Could it be he remembered something you don't?"
"That could very well be. It was rare for the local people to have anyone from out of town like that. Why, just the other day, I ran into an old woman there who remembered me. I didn't remember her until she told me her name, but she said she had recognized me immediately."
"Really? Well then, I guess it's quite possible that Mr. Takeda could have remembered your being in Togakushi. And then when he saw you at the party on July 3 rd, he recognized you. Sounds reasonable enough up to that point, but I'm damned if I can understand what he did after that. I mean, why in the world would he have wanted to have you investigated?"
"Yes, that certainly is strange, isn't it?"
Takemura could not tell whether he was lying or not.
"By the way, Professor Tachibana, do you know anything about a man named Ryuji Ishihara?"
"Oh yes. Wasn't he murdered in Togakushi too? I read about him in the newspaper. I've never been in the habit of reading the crime news and such very carefully, but I have been keeping up with that case. An awfully strange case, isn't it, what with those arrows sticking out of the bodies and all."
"That it is. Not only that, but the bodies were left at a shrine called Arrowstand Hachiman, in a place called West Arrow."
"West Arrow? Arrowstand Hachiman? I say, those are places associated with the Demoness Legend."
"You must know the legend well."
"Oh, that well, anyway. Hah! Maybe the murders are a manifestation of the Curse of the Demoness."
Tachibana's own words gave him a start, reminding him of Haru Kusumoto saying Taki had become a demoness. He recovered almost instantly. Though Takemura had not missed it, he had no way of knowing what had caused it.
"So it brings the Curse of the Demoness to your mind, too, Professor? Actually, some of the local people said the same thing."
"I would imagine so. Togakushi is that kind of place."
"But I'm afraid the police can't write the murders off as a curse," said Takemura, looking as serious as he could. "So I'm terribly sorry about this, but I'm afraid I do have to ask where you were on the night of July 10th."
"What? Me? You want an alibi?"
"No, no. I wouldn't want you to take it so formally as that."
"Still, it isn't something that wouldn't bother a person," rejoined Tachibana, though still smiling.
"So how about it? July 10th," insisted Takemura.
"Well, let's see. July 10th was a Saturday, wasn't it? I believe I stayed home all day. If I rememb
er correctly, it was a sunny day, and awfully hot. I don't usually go out on days like that."
"You didn't go out in the evening either?"
"No, I hate even more to go out at night."
"Were you alone all the time?"
"You mean, is there anyone who can support my alibi? No, I'm afraid not, except for a neighborhood woman who stopped in during the day to do some housekeeping."
"Do you drive?"
"No."
"Okay, thank you. By the way, I started to ask you before, but do you have any recollection of personally ever having had anything to do with Ryuji Ishihara?"
"No, none at all. He was from Nagoya, wasn't he?"
"Yes, but he owned a villa in Togakushi."
"Oh did he? Nevertheless, I'm afraid I really didn't know him."
"Then how about a man named Shishido, Hirofumi Shishido?"
"Has he been murdered too?"
"No."
"Wait a minute! Hirofumi Shishido? Isn't there a member of the Diet by that name?"
"Yes, that's right. That's who I mean. Then you know him?"
"Not me. I hate politicians!"
"Not as a politician. I mean personally."
"Oh. No, that would be even less likely. Why? Does he know me too?"
"Well, he does seem to know something about you."
"Well, well! That's quite an honor! I must be getting famous. But I confess it bewilders me to find myself known by so many people. And if it makes me the target of a police investigation besides, then frankly, it's rather hard to take." For the first time that day, Tachibana frowned.
"I'm terribly sorry. But I can tell you at least that we have no particular reason to suspect you. This is merely a procedural matter."
"I should hope so, because if you do suspect me, I can tell you that you're way off the track. But if you're having to go around talking to people like me, I guess you must be having a pretty hard time with your case."
"You are right about that," said Takemura with a smile, scratching his head. "A case as bad as this one, and we still haven't got the slightest idea who we might be looking for. I'm not kidding! I'm almost ready to believe that it is the Curse of the Demoness!"