Togakushi Legend Murders (Tuttle Classics)

by Yasuo Uchida

  "You mean, you came all the way from Nagano just for that?"

  "No, no, that was just incidental. I happened to be in Tokyo for some sightseeing."

  "You came to Tokyo today?"

  "Yes."

  "What train did you take?"

  "Uh, let's see. . . . It left Nagano a few minutes after eight, I think."

  "Oh, that must have been the next train after the one we took. You must have gotten to Ueno Station at just twelve o'clock."

  "Yes, you're right."

  "Then did you give up the idea of sightseeing?"

  "Pardon?" Keiichi looked dismayed for an instant, then chuckled. "You're on the ball, aren't you? Well, I guess you've got me. I confess, I did come to Tokyo today just to see Professor Tachibana. It's true that my granddaughter is a student of his, a freshman, and I was worried because he's been paying too much attention to her. I went there to warn him. You get all kinds these days, you know."

  Takemura recalled the girl he had run into in Togakushi with Tachibana. "You wouldn't by any chance be connected with the Hokushin Laundry, would you?"

  This time Keiichi really looked dismayed. "How did you know that?"

  "We happened to see your station wagon in Togakushi. There was a young woman driving it, and Professor Tachibana was sitting beside her."

  "Hah! That must have been my granddaughter! So she was with him!"

  "Yes, but I didn't get the feeling there was anything you need to be worrying about."

  "You never can tell."

  "Excuse me," said Takemura, picking his time, "but may I ask your name, please?"

  "I'm Keiichi Noya, from Yashiro, Koshoku City," said Keiichi. "I own the Hokushin Laundry," he added, rather proudly.

  "So this is the best you can do, Superintendent? This puny report that you 'can find no substantial basis for suspecting Tomohiro Tachibana'?" said Hirofumi Shishido sarcastically, tapping the report on the desk with his finger.

  The man he was addressing as "Superintendent" was Chief Nagakura of the prefectural police. Shishido, just arrived this morning from Tokyo for a visit to his constituency, had dropped in at headquarters without warning. Although the Chief had known Shishido would soon be beginning his reelection campaign, he had hardly expected the first step would be to get the endorsement of the prefectural police, so he was flustered by this untimely visit from an important Diet representative.

  "You told me you were putting your best man in charge of the case, Superintendent," continued Shishido, "so I had great expectations for the results. But if this is all you can come up with—well, I don't see how any good citizen can stand for it!"

  The use of "Superintendent" instead of the less formal "Chief" was intentional, to put Nagakura in his place as a mere civil servant in a long line of others.

  "But Inspector Takemura is one of our most reliable men," said Nagakura. "The media call him a master detective."

  "I don't give a damn what they call him! All I see in the media is that the investigation is going poorly and that they're already referring to it as an unsolved mystery. He doesn't sound so reliable to me! Why don't you replace him, or better yet, get the help of the metropolitan police in Tokyo?"

  "The situation has not come to that," said Nagakura, somewhat embarrassed, giving the obvious answer with exaggerated politeness. "Inspector Takemura reached his conclusion after a most thorough investigation, and I can assure you that Tomohiro Tachibana has nothing to do with the case."

  "You see what I mean? There must be something wrong with this Takemura fellow! What do you think I am, a crackpot? I have damned good reasons for suspecting Tachibana. I can't tell you what they are right now, but that I should put you onto him and you not be able to pick up a thing—that's totally incredible! There've already been two victims—no, three. You've got to prevent a fourth murder. I'm warning you!"

  "Oh? Then you think there's going to be another murder, too, Representative Shishido?"

  "Pardon? Well, er, I'm just afraid there might be, that's all. But what do you mean, 'too'? Is there someone else who thinks so?"

  "Exactly."

  "Well he must be a clever fellow. Who is he?"

  "Takemura."

  Shishido gave Nagakura a funny look. "What makes him think so?"

  "We really don't know. Miyazaki, his superior, says he's just got kind of a sixth sense. By the way, he keeps insisting that he needs to see the person who wants Tachibana investigated."

  "You didn't tell him it was...?"

  "No, of course we didn't tell him it was you. But with his powers of deduction, I would bet he's guessed," said Nagakura, rather sarcastically.

  With a sharp glance at him, Shishido got up and went over to the window. He stood looking out at the Zenko Temple, backed by mountains covered with evergreen trees, their green especially fresh at this season. The scene, however, did nothing to calm him. He had his hands clasped behind him and Nagakura could see that his fingers were moving restlessly.

  "I suppose I should see him," Shishido finally mumbled.

  "I beg your pardon?"

  "I said, I guess I should see this Takemura or whatever his name is. Tell him I want a private meeting, with him alone. Let's see... why don't we make it at the Moon-Viewing Pavilion?"

  Hirofumi Shishido had named the restaurant with the finest cuisine anywhere in the vicinity.

  * * *

  Inspector Takemura's customary attire was not suited to the formalities of the place. The girl who received him was heard to whisper to her comrades that she had almost taken him for a tramp. With his poorly knotted tie, dark blue trousers with no crease, and wrinkled jacket, it was indeed hard to believe that he was the ace inspector of the powerful prefectural police.

  When the bodyguard showed Takemura into the private room, Shishido could not hide a slight frown. The rustic countenance was hardly the bright, talented face that he appreciated.

  Takemura remained standing as he introduced himself. Shishido had a cushion placed on the other side of the low Japanese table and invited him to sit down.

  "I'm Hirofumi Shishido. Terribly sorry to have dragged you out like this." Shishido was absurdly poor at first meetings such as this one. "Well, how about a drink?"

  He nodded to the girl who had brought the sake holders. She picked up Takemura's cup, which had been placed upside down on the table, and offered the sake in a sugary voice.

  "No thank you, I'm on duty."

  "Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," said Shishido.

  "Regulations, I'm afraid. Besides, my wife is expecting me home," said Takemura, flatly refusing.

  There was no mistaking Shishido's displeasure.

  "But we have a feast prepared for you," said the girl, trying to save the situation.

  "Never mind! Leave us alone!" snarled Shishido.

  His secretary and bodyguard left with the waitress. Shishido and Takemura were alone in the big room looking out on a garden. Shishido helped himself to several cups of sake, one after another, wondering whether or not he should talk, however briefly, to this low-life.

  "Nagakura told me," he finally began, intentionally omitting the chiefs title, just to be sure Takemura understood the difference in their social positions, "that you are expecting a third—I mean, a fourth—victim in the Togakushi case."

  "That's right, I am."

  "On what basis?"

  "My intuition, mainly."

  "Your intuition?"

  "Yes. My intuition just tells me it's going to happen."

  With a forced smile, Shishido concealed his indiscreet desire to explode. "Well, intuition aside, I'd like to hear your reasoning."

  "I'm afraid I rely more on my intuition in a case like this," said Takemura reluctantly, "but if I've got to be logical, it's the unusual way the victims were killed. I mean rather, the way their bodies were left on display. If the object had been only to kill them, then why take the time and trouble and risk for the rest of it? I think the displays were a warning to the next v
ictim."

  "Hmm. Then the displays must mean something in particular, right?"

  "I'm sure they do. Maybe you already know that everything in them has been taken from the legend of the demoness Maple. I'd say the motive for the murders must be some deep grudge connected with the legend itself, or with Togakushi or Kinasa. Unfortunately, we can't put our finger on anything concrete. All we've found out so far is that Kisuke Takeda's original family name was Tokuoka, and he's from the Hoko Shrine village in Togakushi. As for the Ishiharas—especially Mr. Ishihara—we can't find any connection with Togakushi, except that he seems to have had a peculiar dislike for the place. A negative connection, you might say. Oh yes, for that matter, there are indications that Kisuke Takeda disliked Togakushi, too. Pretty strange, since he was born there. I hear he was quite reluctant to get involved in that golf course project. In fact, the information I have is that somebody got him into it only by dangling a certain woman in front of him."

  Takemura had been speaking with his impertinent detective's eyes fixed on Shishido. Shishido averted his own eyes in annoyance and looked through the glass doors at the darkness outside.

  "That doesn't particularly interest me," he said. "Tell me, just how much of an investigation did you do on Tomohiro Tachibana before you decided he was innocent?"

  "We did everything we thought we should."

  "That's what Nagakura said. May I ask, you checked for any connection he might have with Togakushi, didn't you?"

  "Of course. We learned that he spent some time in the Hoko Shrine village during the war, recuperating from an illness."

  "So doesn't that point to a connection with Takeda? Besides, Tachibana was staying at the Koshimizu Plateau Hotel the night Takeda was murdered, right?"

  "So you're suggesting that the two of them must have had some kind of fight nearly forty years ago, and Tachibana decided to take that opportunity for revenge?"

  "I'm saying it's possible."

  "Are you going on any particular knowledge, sir?"

  "Hmh? Er, no, of course not. But in view of the murder, it seems like a natural assumption."

  "Well, of course, if Tachibana should prove to be the murderer, that might be a good place to look for the motive, but at present, I can only say that we have no reason at all to suspect him. I'm sorry if I sound rude, sir, but your own suspicions do seem quite unusual to me. Are you sure you don't have any concrete basis for them?"

  "I told you I didn't! Look, weren't you just talking about intuition? Are you trying to tell me that the intuition of a police officer is something great, but the intuition of a member of the Diet is useless?"

  "Of course not," said Takemura, forcing a smile. "With all your experience, sir, I'm sure you must be many times more capable than I. Besides, since you yourself were once a military policeman..."

  "Where did you hear that?" interrupted Shishido, changing color. "Oh yes, you've been talking to that old Takeda bitch, haven't you? Well let me tell you, if you're trying to threaten me..."

  "Threaten you, sir?"

  "Don't you know what will happen if you raise ghosts like that just before an election?"

  "I'm not trying to do anything of the sort."

  "You'd damn well better not be! Not for my sake, for your own!"

  Diet member and police inspector sat glaring at each other across the table. This time, however, it was Takemura who looked away first.

  "All right, sir," he said. "I'll be careful."

  "You'd better be! Okay, now that we understand each other, you can get back to work. And see to it that you do a good job!"

  "You mean, continue investigating Tachibana?"

  "Yes, of course. Without mentioning the reason, I can tell you at least that the man did have quite enough motive for murder. Look, Takeda was killed right after he employed a detective agency to investigate Tachibana. Doesn't that alone make him thoroughly suspicious? Why, in the old days, I'd have had your head for dropping him like you did!" Shishido did a powerful imitation of chopping off a head.

  "All right," said Takemura, almost feeling his head fall, "I'll go back and really get down to work again on Tachibana. But you must understand, sir, that I'll have to go wherever the investigation leads me."

  "Certainly. But I don't see what that has to do with me."

  "For instance, I'll have to ask you what part you played in the purchase of that villa for the Ishiharas."

  This Takemura was a hard case. Leaning forward on the arms of his backrest, chest thrown out, Shishido looked at him sharply. "What do you want to stick your nose into that for? Who the hell do you think you're investigating, anyway? If you're not careful, you know, your head really will roll!"

  "All right then, would you at least tell me this? How did the connection get started between you, Mr. Takeda, and Ryuji Ishihara?"

  "That does it!" Shishido sprang to his feet with a speed that belied his age. Kicking the backrest out of his way, he stormed out of the room yelling, "Hey, we're leaving!" His secretary and bodyguard came running up to protect him front and back.

  Takemura, still seated, bowed to Shishido's receding back. As the noise faded from the entryway, one of the waitresses looked into the room.

  "Oh, you're alone! Why, it doesn't look like you've touched a thing. Please, you must have a drink!" She sat down, picked up a sake holder, and held out a cup.

  "You won't catch me touching his sake!" said Takemura. "Pardon?" She looked at him in wonder.

  * * *

  The next morning, Hirofumi Shishido paid another visit to prefectural police headquarters.

  "I want Takemura off the case," he said bluntly, to Nagakura and his chief of detectives, Tsukamoto.

  "You want me to replace Takemura?" The request seemed so absurd that Nagakura had to repeat it for confirmation.

  "That's right," scowled Shishido. "He's an ill-mannered son-of-a-bitch."

  "Oh?" Nagakura looked with concern at Shishido, then exchanged glances with Tsukamoto. "Was he rude to you?"

  "You're damned right! He's got no manners at all. And he obviously has something against our governing party."

  "What happened, exactly?"

  Shishido moved his eyes restlessly back and forth from end to end of the table in front of him. "Let's just say that he has lost sight of what he's supposed to be investigating."

  "I'm not sure I understand. Do you mean that he wouldn't take your suggestion that he further investigate Tachibana?"

  "Yes, that's about it. An investigating officer with his obsessions will never solve this case."

  "Oh really? I always thought he was quite flexible."

  "Then maybe he's taking me for an amateur."

  "Oh, I hardly think he could be doing that," said Nagakura, appalled at the realization that he was dealing with a spoiled child, though unsure how serious Shishido was, because the man was so cunning.

  But Shishido was totally serious. Annoyed at Nagakura for trying to defend Takemura, he said with an angry glare, "Well? Will you do it or not?"

  "Since you feel so strongly about it," said Nagakura, realizing it was a serious ultimatum, "I will of course honor your request."

  "Good," said Shishido, straightening up and taking from his inner jacket pocket a folded sheet of paper. "Actually, I'm a little nervous, because of this."

  Shishido unfolded the paper on the table for Nagakura and Tsukamoto to see. It contained one line in blue ink, in a poor hand obviously disguised to avoid identification.

  "THE GENERAL DIES LAST."

  "What is this?" asked Nagakura, staring at Shishido in amazement.

  "I don't know. Anyway, there it is, and under the circumstances, it seems natural to take it as a death threat."

  "A death threat? Then you think the word 'general' means you?"

  "Well, 'general' sounds a little silly, but taken in relation to Takeda and Ishihara, it may be stretching things a little, but I was a low-ranking commissioned officer during the war. That's probably why the murderer use
s 'general.'"

  "But why use anything at all?"

  "Don't you know? In the Demoness Legend, the last person to die is the general."

  "Oh?"

  "Where are you from?"

  "Chiba Prefecture."

  "Ah, then I guess you wouldn't know. But I suppose you do know at least that these Togakushi murders have all had something in them to suggest the legend, don't you?"

  "Yes, Tsukamoto here told me that. I believe he heard it from Takemura. Is that right?"

  "Yes, that's right," replied Tsukamoto.

  In disgust, Shishido waved his hand in front of his eyes. "I'm sick and tired of hearing about Takemura! I guess you just haven't got anybody with any talent around here."

  "We damned well do!" blurted Tsukamoto, knowing he should have let that pass, but unable to help it.

  "Oh, you do? Well, then, I offer my humble apology. With that assurance, I can rest easy that you'll put a good man on the case." Shishido returned Tsukamoto's scowl with a sweet smile.

  As soon as Shishido left, Nagakura called in Miyazaki. On hearing the request, Miyazaki became as indignant as if it were his own replacement being requested. Nagakura left the work of persuasion to Tsukamoto, while he himself merely looked on. In the end, Tsukamoto lost his temper and shouted, "Takemura, Takemura, all I ever hear is Takemura! Are you trying to tell me that in the whole damned force, there's nobody with any talent besides Takemura?"

  Nagakura was appalled to hear him repeating Shishido's words, while Miyazaki was silent, knowing nothing of what had passed earlier.

  Back in his office, Miyazaki called in Takemura right away, and with a transparent smile, offered him a cigarette, saying, "It sounds like you had a rough time of it last night."

  "No, it wasn't so bad," replied Takemura. "Why? Have you seen Representative Shishido?"

  "No, but I heard about it from the chief," said Miyazaki with an awkward look. Then, stubbing out the cigarette he had just lit, he continued. "It's difficult for me to say this, but I want you to take a little rest."

  He stared at the ceiling, with a great frown.

  Takemura was not especially surprised. After last night's incident, he had expected something like this. But he wasn't going to take it calmly. "Pressure, is it?" He practically spit the words out.