by Yasuo Uchida
Shirai, the other secretary, was leaning anxiously out of the restaurant door. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"Is he here?"
"What do you mean? Didn't you just go to get him?"
"Yes, but he wasn't in the room."
"He wasn't? That's strange." Shirai looked at his watch. It was nearly 8:30. Guests were emerging from their rooms up and down the hall and coming over to say good morning to the two secretaries. They greeted the guests one after another with gathering impatience.
"Is something the matter?" asked Izawa, coming over to them.
Suzuki told him.
"Just like it," muttered Izawa, immediately worried.
"Just like what?"
"Just like Mr. Takeda's disappearance."
"That's a hell of a thing to say!" said Suzuki, turning pale and getting angry. "The way I heard it, Mr. Takeda had gone out somewhere the night before. The Representative was right there in his own room all night."
"Sorry, you're right. Still, I'm worried. I do think you'd better find him quick."
The lobby was crowded with people, all of them in a big hurry. With everyone wanting to check out right after breakfast, the front desk looked like a battlefield. The departing guests felt bad about leaving without saying goodbye to Representative Shishido, but they were forced to say their respectful farewells instead to his secretaries and ask that their apologies be conveyed. Forced to take Shishido's place in seeing all the guests off, the secretaries could not begin the work of looking for him.
When they finally got hold of the manager and told him the situation, the manager turned white, apparently thinking of the same thing that had occurred to Izawa. But he had to avoid any hint of commotion. At any rate, he decided at least to have a look around Shishido's room.
It was already after nine. Hardly any guests were left in the hotel. Room doors were standing half open, and the women making the beds looked at the group in considerable surprise as it passed.
Shishido's suite looked much as it had the night before when Izawa was there. The sake bottles and cups were still on the table. But when Suzuki went into the bedroom and opened the wardrobe, he exclaimed, "His suit's still here!" He turned to look at the bed. Shishido's bathrobe was gone. He must have left the room in it.
"Then he must be somewhere in the hotel!" said Shirai, a simple man, with some relief.
"All the same, though, we don't know where he is," said Izawa, "and if he's still in the hotel, then I'd say we have even more to worry about. He may have gotten sick and collapsed somewhere."
"His key's not here," put in the manager.
"But when I went in, the door wasn't locked," said Suzuki. "Why would he take the key and not lock the room?"
"Anyway, let's split up and look around the building," decided Shirai, rushing out of the room ahead of everyone.
Finally the manager summoned the desk clerks, who were no longer busy, and instructed them to search the building on the chance that Representative Shishido had been taken ill and collapsed somewhere inside. Before long, one of them found Shishido's room key on the floor beneath a ladder positioned to reach a small hatch to the roof.
Everyone rushed to the ladder. The desk clerk climbed it and opened the hatch, letting in a breath of fresh air.
"But I hardly think he would have gone out that way," commented someone.
"Then why was his key here?" Shirai lashed out.
"Who knows?" said Izawa bluntly. "Anyway, we have to assume he was here."
"But what could he have been doing?" said the manager, looking around uncomfortably at the others. Nobody had any answer to that.
"And where did he go from here?" Shirai began to shake nervously. They were only wasting time, and nobody knew what to do.
"What was next on his schedule?" asked Izawa.
"A luncheon meeting at twelve in Nagano," replied Suzuki without looking at his memo book.
"That's in less than two hours," said Izawa, glancing at his watch. "I hate to say it again, but this certainly does remind me of Mr. Takeda's disappearance. We weren't able to do anything ourselves then, and I really do think that the sooner we report this to the police, the better."
Suzuki and Shirai looked at each other, unwilling to admit the worst possibility.
"I know Inspector Takemura, who is handling the murders of Mr. Takeda and the Ishiharas," said Izawa. "Why don't we get his advice?"
"No, no, we can't do that!" said Suzuki hastily.
"But it would certainly be better than just calling the police emergency number. He might think of something."
"No. We can't do it."
"Why not?"
"Because he's off the case."
"Off the case? Why?"
"He wouldn't do what the Representative wanted, so the Representative asked that he be replaced."
"Oh? Such a good detective, too," mused Izawa.
* * *
Large numbers of men from several departments were dispatched to Togakushi. Moreover, though the report had just been received, Superintendent Tsukamoto, the chief of detectives, rushed to the scene as well. That was something rare for a mere disappearance, and there was fear it would alert the press. But Chief Nagakura had decided they must assume the worst and take the chance. After all, it was a Diet representative who had disappeared, and the police had to do all they could.
"I suppose Takemura is already on his way?" Tsukamoto asked Miyazaki, who was riding with him.
"No."
"What? How could you not send him?"
"He's on vacation."
"Vacation!" said Tsukamoto, with a look of disgust.
Miyazaki pretended to be enjoying the scenery. After all, it was Tsukamoto who had ordered him to replace Takemura.
"So where is he now?" asked Tsukamoto.
"I'm afraid I don't know. I told him to do whatever he wanted for a week."
"That wasn't very smart."
"I should think it would be even less so to use him in a search for Shishido."
"Only if we were to find Shishido alive."
"What?" exclaimed Miyazaki, turning to look at Tsukamoto. This was the first official prediction he had heard that the representative was dead. "You think he isn't?"
"You ought to know that," said Tsukamoto, turning away with a scowl.
Miyazaki reached for the transmitter microphone.
* * *
As soon as Takemura turned the corner off the main street, he noticed. At the corner of the same alley where he and Kinoshita had concealed themselves to watch Keiichi Noya, there was a man standing in the shade of a telephone pole, watching Tachibana's apartment. Takemura walked straight up behind him, tapped him on the back, and said, "Hey, what are you doing?"
The man jumped and spun around, instantly on guard. "Oh! Inspector!"
"What are you doing in a place like this?" asked Takemura, recognizing him as a detective named Hirayama, from the same section, but on a different team.
"We're staking out Tachibana. Motomura is over there on the other side."
"Oh." Shishido certainly was afraid of Tachibana, thought Takemura, a little bewildered. "Well, do a good job."
"Where are you going, Inspector?"
"To visit Tachibana."
"What?" With a funny look, Hirayama watched Takemura move on.
As Takemura approached the apartment, he caught a glimpse of the other man, in a sport shirt, moving slightly in the distance on the other side of the building. Mischievously, Takemura waved to him.
Tomohiro Tachibana welcomed the Inspector almost like an old friend. Interested in learning how the investigation had developed, he cheerfully began to prepare coffee with a siphon.
"I've been kicked off the case," said Takemura, in the casual tone of polite conversation.
Tachibana turned toward him in surprise, the match he had just used to light the alcohol lamp still burning in his hand. "That doesn't sound very pleasant. Exactly what do you mean?"
"Watch out
! The match!" warned Takemura.
Tachibana quickly blew it out. "You mean you've been relieved of your position in charge of the investigation?"
"If that were all, it wouldn't be so bad. No, I mean somebody just had to have his own way. Outside pressure, that is. A certain person found it inconvenient to have me on the case."
"Why, that's outrageous! Who? Some politician?"
"Hirofumi Shishido."
"The Diet representative?"
"That's right. But the strange thing is that he seems terribly worried about you, Professor. He seems to have gotten it into his head that you're the murderer we're looking for, and he's been pressuring the police to investigate you."
"What a nuisance! What's his basis for that kind of slander?"
"He says it's because Kisuke Takeda was having you investigated, but I don't believe that's all, because as soon as I started digging into the connection between Shishido, Takeda, Ishihara, and yourself, I got canned." Takemura managed a smile.
Tachibana did not. "I don't understand," he said, dubiously. "Did you find some scandalous connection that would hurt Shishido if it were known?"
"That," said Takemura, "is why I'm here. I'd like to ask you a few questions along those lines."
"Me? But I don't..."
"I don't know whether you know anything or not, but if Shishido won't tell us anything, the only one left to ask is you."
"That's all very well to say, but as I told you before, I know nothing about any of them."
"Are you sure?" Takemura looked deep into Tachibana's eyes.
The look disconcerted Tachibana. "Well, er, Takeda, I mean Tokuoka—I can't say I didn't know him at all, but I've already told you about that. As for Shishido and Ishihara, though, I've never even met them."
"That's strange. From the way Representative Shishido has been behaving, it's pretty hard to believe."
"Look, what are you trying to say? First of all, have you found out how the three of them were connected?"
"Pretty much."
"Oh? I suppose they're all from Togakushi?"
"No, but it was Shishido who introduced Kisuke Tokuoka to the Takeda family, so they must have known each other since the war. I also learned that Shishido and Ryuji Ishihara were in the military police, Nagano division headquarters."
"The military police?" Tachibana caught his breath.
"How about it? Does anything come back to you now?"
Tachibana was silent.
"I already know what happened to the young master, son of Viscount Tachibana," pressed Takemura, but Tachibana remained speechless with surprise, which Takemura was quite sure was genuine. "Then you really didn't know?"
"So help me, I didn't. Then Shishido was one of those military policemen?" The fierce anger suppressed in Tachibana's tone came through. "That such a man should not only go unpunished, but even become a brazen political power... . What do you think of that, Inspector?"
Takemura could only remain silent.
"Ah yes, you're on the side that has to protect people like that. Too bad." Suddenly it came to Tachibana. "Oh! So that's who Tokuoka was!"
"Pardon? You remember him?"
"Oh yes, I do remember him. He must have been the informer. Yes, I believe I saw him once or twice in the Tendoh garden. But he had changed so much that I never would have recognized him. So that's who he was!"
"I see. So Takeda informed on you. Then the motive becomes clear, doesn't it?"
"The motive? Oh, you mean the motive for murder! It does indeed! They were my mortal enemies. I believe if I had had the courage and the strength, I would have done it. Unfortunately, I didn't. Of course, I'm sure the police must already know quite well that it would have been physically impossible for me to have done it, right? Callous of me, but if it were within my power, I would at least thank the person who wielded the devil-quelling sword in my place."
"I don't think you would have been able to do it by yourself, anyway, Professor. But you probably weren't the only one with a motive."
"Oh?"
"Isn't there someone else, who would want revenge even more than you do?"
Tachibana was silent.
"Why did you conceal the matter of the Hall of Heavenly Wisdom, Professor?"
"The Hall of Heavenly Wisdom?"
"Surprised, are you? Don't try to tell me you didn't know about that either."
"What are you talking about? What about the Hall of Heavenly Wisdom?"
It was Takemura's turn to be surprised. "Then you really didn't know? You're on the level? The Hall of Heavenly Wisdom is Taki Tendoh's place."
"Taki's place?" Tachibana stared at him, pupils dilated, wondering why he hadn't realized it before. The Chinese character for "heavenly" was the first character in Taki's family name, and the character for "wisdom" was the first character in his own given name! He was greatly stirred at the depth of her feeling for him revealed in the name she had given her home.
Keiichi Noya had told him that her heart had ceased to change or mature from that time on, her feelings never taking a step away from the Togakushi of that day at the end of 1944. She had simply been waiting all this time. Just waiting, thought Tachibana. But waiting for what? With a shiver, he remembered Haru Kusumoto's words that Taki had become a demoness, recalling at the same time the terrible wild dance of the Demoness Maple in the Noh drama.
The loud ring of the telephone brought him back. The caller was a woman whose voice he did not know. She asked for Takemura.
"It's for you," he told Takemura. "Your wife, I guess."
"My wife?" Takemura took the receiver with foreboding. He had told Yoko not to let anyone know where he was, and she would not be calling him herself unless there were some extreme emergency.
It was Yoko. "Oh good, you're there," she said. "Will you hang up and wait just a minute? You'll be getting a call from your boss."
In a moment, he was listening to Miyazaki telling him tensely about Shishido, before ordering him in a hoarse, subdued voice to get back to Nagano as fast as he could. After Miyazaki hung up, Takemura stood there for a while, the receiver still pressed to his ear.
"What's wrong?" asked Tachibana, concerned.
"Something quite serious," said Takemura, and he meant not only the probable death of Hirofumi Shishido, but also the loss of an important clue to the case.
"What?" asked Tachibana.
"Representative Shishido has disappeared."
"Disappeared? Like Takeda?"
Both detective and professor were upset, each for his own reasons.
"Professor Tachibana, please tell me just one thing. There was an elderly couple taking care of the Tendoh house when you were attacked by the military police. What were their names?"
"Oh, that was Keijiro and his wife. Mr. and Mrs. Noya."
"What?" exclaimed Takemura, looking at him sharply.
With a gasp, Tachibana realized the implications. For a moment, both men remained frozen. Then Takemura excused himself, got up slowly and departed, leaving Tachibana sitting there.
Outside again, Takemura beckoned to the detectives on the stake-out. With looks of displeasure, they came over to him.
"Tell me, how long have you been watching Tachibana?" asked Takemura.
"Since yesterday," replied one of them.
"I don't suppose he's gone anywhere, has he?
"No."
"Then you can stop watching him. Why don't we go back together?"
"Huh?" The two men looked at each other.
"It looks like the big boss who had you sent here is dead," said Takemura, walking off at a brisk pace.
* * *
For a while after the Inspector left, Tachibana remained slumped in his chair, incapable of motion, choked by the fear that something terrible was happening. Again he heard the voice of Keiichi Noya, telling him not to go near Togakushi until September.
September began tomorrow.
Bessho Hot Springs of Nagano Prefecture has a history so long
that legend has it it was first used by the god Yamato-Takeru on the first emperor's Eastern Expedition. In any case, the evidence that it has been used for a very long time is indisputable. On the southwestern edge of the Ueda Basin, it is reached in about half an hour by a rustic two-car train from Ueda Station on the JR Shin'etsu Line. Just below the station, the Aizome River flows from the confluence of two tributaries, and the road from Ueda forks to follow both of them. Both forks are lined with hot-spring inns and souvenir shops. The surrounding mountainsides are dotted with so many old temples that the place is called the Kamakura of the Japan Alps.
Bessho is most famous for the Kitamuki Kuan-yin Temple, on whose grounds is the Aizome cinnamon tree. It is known also, however, for another historic site: the burial mound of General Taira no Koremochi. After winning fame by subduing the Demoness of Togakushi, the General spent his last days here and is buried in a pyramid-shaped mound covered with ancient cherry trees, on a plot of ground contained in the V formed by the fork of the road from Ueda.
At about 6:30 on the morning of September 1st, an elderly couple taking the hot-spring cure were passing the General's Mound on a stroll. Almost everyone in the rows of inns being still asleep, there were few cars on the street, and no other pedestrians. Steam rising from the many hot springs dissolved quickly in the morning air, and it was so quiet that they were aware of the sound of their wooden clogs.
They paused in front of the sign giving the history of the mound, the elderly husband beginning to read it aloud for the benefit of his wife. Suddenly, he stopped, having seen an old man in a bathrobe collapsed across the exposed roots of a cherry tree, in a position suggesting he had tripped while walking from the side of the road onto the mound. Going up to him, the elderly couple realized he was dead. It was easy to imagine that he had had a stroke or a heart attack and died on the spot. Since he was wearing a bathrobe, they assumed he had been a guest at one of the inns. That was too close to home for them.
They flagged down a passing car and explained the situation. In a short while, two patrolmen from the police station in the center of town reached the scene. Neither of them had been around long enough to be accustomed to handling dead bodies, otherwise they would have known at a glance that the man had been dead for some time.