by Nick Tanner
‘It looks different.’ Saito still seemed intent on discussing the state of the office.
‘Oh – you mean the new monitors.’ Mori pointed at the new flat screens. ‘I’d forgotten about them. They installed them about six weeks back and the hard drives have also been removed. It’s all ‘cloud technology’ now and remote access…’
‘Hmm…’ Saito appeared not to be listening any more.
‘Don’t you like it - the office?’
‘It’s fine, fine…’ Saito paused and still stood uneasily at the door as if he was afraid to enter such completely unfamiliar territory. ‘So how are you, anyway?’ He finally moved inside and towards his old desk.
‘Actually, sir, I’m glad you’re back. It’s good to see you.’ Mori stood up and bowed a long deep bow. Saito bowed in turn.
They settled back into their chairs and looked at each other over the top of their PC screens.
‘Busy then?’ asked Inspector Saito.
‘We’re busy alright, but I suppose you'd expect nothing less. You may have heard we're on the Yamada case – strangulation.’
‘Yes – I read about it. No real leads yet, it said, except maybe the husband.’
‘We’re holding him.’
‘You don’t sound too sure.’
‘If I’m honest, I don’t seem to be seeing eye-to-eye with Sakamoto. He’s convinced of his guilt.’
‘Sakamoto!’
‘Yes, he’s taken over what would have been your case-work in your absence.’
‘I pity you.’ Saito banged his hands on the arm rest of his old, black leather chair as if to reaffirm his authority – over the chair, at least. ‘Not that you were exactly seeing eye to eye with me a couple of months back.’
Mori grimaced. ‘I know, sir, but well…’ He gave Saito a look of embarrassed apology. ‘That’s all water under the bridge now and you know how it is, you never know what you’ve missed until it’s too late.’
‘Hmm… and Narase Ren, how is she? I hope you two are still an item.’
‘Still an item, sir, as you put it. In fact I’ve all but moved in with her. She’s got a much bigger place, not far from the station, too.’
‘Glad to hear it.’ Saito let slip a rare smile. ‘I always knew you needed a good woman behind you. She’s not got you shaving, though, I note.’
Mori passed a hand over his stubble. ‘Oh this! I’ve got a heavy cold, that’s all. I couldn’t be bothered to shave this morning and anyway she’s down in Osaka at the moment.’
‘Now you mention it you don’t look so well – shaving apart. Sakamoto working you too hard?'
‘You know, I don’t know what feeling is worse – the cold or the medicine I’m taking. My mother gave me some Chinese stuff last night again. Both just seem to knock me out completely.’
They fell into a slight silence neither knowing how to proceed.
‘And you, sir, how are you?’
‘Fine, fine. You know.’
‘Not really, sir. That’s why I’m asking.’
‘I’m fine. It took me a while to adjust to not working, to get into a different pace of life, whilst at the same time having to account for my every action on that night in September. But I’m glad that’s all behind me now.’
‘I should have done more at the time-’
‘No, no. You were just doing your job. Don’t worry about it.’ Another silence quickly followed on the tail of the last. It was apparent that Saito wasn’t prepared to talk about it.
‘And Miyazawa Naoko?’ asked Mori.
‘Don’t ask.’
Inspector Saito didn’t want to talk about much, it appeared.
‘Okay, sir. I won’t.’
Mori returned to his typing wondering at what point his relationship with Saito had become so awkward. Early days though he consoled himself. The man was barely through the door.
‘So tell me more about this Yamada case? I take it that you don’t agree with our friend Sakamoto.’
Mori proceeded to tell Saito about his thoughts on the case or more particularly Inspector Sakamoto’s thoughts on the case.
‘I thought that was your style,’ said Saito when he'd finished. ‘Bringing in any old odd and sod and unrelentingly questioning them before you even have any evidence. Don’t tell me that my views are beginning to rub off on you.’
Mori ignored the comment. It was a constant cause of disagreement between the two men. ‘So what do you think?’ He was keen to get them into areas of agreement.
With men, and particularly husbands Saito usually appeared surprisingly sympathetic, especially if they were the kind of husband who worked all hours to earn a pittance. He was less forgiving for the powerful and the arrogant.
If the suspect was a woman, if youngish and moderately attractive then it wasn’t beyond the bounds of possibility that Saito would find himself becoming moderately attracted – at least for a few weeks until his latent melancholy found a way from out beneath the stone - it was never far away.
‘I think you're right,’ said Inspector Saito eventually. ‘There’s neither motive nor evidence for detaining Yamada. Not even his inability to recall his visit to the convenience store really adds up to much. I think you can discount that. No, from what you say I don’t think you need to be holding Yamada, at all. It’s quite clear to me from what you’ve told me that he had nothing to do with it.’
Any further thought or explanations were interrupted by Deguchi knocking on the door. He bowed when he saw Inspector Saito back in his usual seat
‘Welcome back sir.’
‘I’m glad to be back.’
‘I need a word with Mori, if you don’t mind, sir.’
‘Come on Deguchi. Spit it out man. What is it?’ interrupted Mori.
‘It’s Yamada, sir.’
‘Yes?’
‘He’s just confessed, sir.’
25 - Inspector Saito casts doubt on the veracity of confession
Monday 3rd January 9:00am
Sergeant Mori hastily left the office leaving Inspector Saito alone to his thoughts. It felt strange to be back and Saito experienced a mix of emotions similar to when he’d first been a freshman just one day out of training - alone and lost in a mysterious building. It seemed strange to see other people rushing off and leaving him superfluous in the case and it was peculiar not to be thinking about anything - anything at all. The view out of the door through to the outer office was familiar and yet one he no longer recognised. Officers hurried past the door, some noting that he was present and bowing, others not noticing at all. Saito felt quite redundant and quite abandoned.
He had half an hour till he was due to report to the Chief Super and so with nothing else to do, to fill the time, he opted to read through Mori’s report on The Yamada case. Together with what Mori had already told him it didn’t take too long till he felt as if he was fairly quickly up to speed with things. Mori had returned, only briefly, leaving a copy of Yamada's statement for Saito to, unofficially, browse through. He was pleased that Mori had taken the time out to include him – it touched him more than he expected.
Despite Hideki Yamada’s willingness to confess Inspector Saito had severe doubts as to the veracity of his statement. Like Mori he struggled to locate a suitable motive and there were a number of things that, quite simply, didn’t add up – most notably the fact that Yamada’s green suit was impeccably clean and the fact that his tie was also in pristine condition. This was definitely not the murder weapon that Yamada had insisted on saying it was. He’d also stated that he’d murdered his wife on account of his discovery of her affair with Kubota. Well that was all a load of nonsense for a start - albeit it was quite possible that she was indeed having an affair with someone as yet unknown.
Saito was all too aware of several reasons why Yamada might have been prone to confess, the most common of which was that he had capitulated in order to escape the stresses of confinement. His confession would have been given in the belief that an implie
d reward such as being allowed to sleep, eat or go home would soon be given. Linked to this were some classic forms of psychology relating to conformity, compliance, and obedience where despite Yamada knowing that he was innocent his perception had been that the short-term benefits of confession outweighed the long-term costs - a loss of reputation, conviction, and incarceration. A skilled interrogator could dangle this kind of incentive in exchange for compliance and confession and Saito knew all too well that Sakamoto was highly accomplished in these approaches. Although Yamada had been detained for just three days he’d been submitted to some pretty intensive questioning and although this couldn’t amount to anything approaching coercive interrogation it was still cause enough for someone to desire release.
Secondly there was a growing amount of evidence that suspects came to believe they committed a crime through a state of confusion where they developed a profound distrust of their own memory that rendered them vulnerable to manipulation from external cues, usually a fingerprint, blood or hair sample, eyewitness identification, or failed polygraph - even if that presentation was false. Many actual suspects had stated that the reason they had confessed was that they perceived themselves to be trapped by the weight of evidence against them. In such a situation, an authority figure would claim a privileged insight into the individual’s past, and with the individual being isolated from others they would be in a heightened state of malleability and Saito had noted the classic use of the false affidavit relating to the affair which, put together with actual, incontrovertible evidence of semen could conceivably have lead Yamada to become confused, to doubt himself and to therefore make a false confession.
A third factor concerned the use of minimization where interrogators trained in the skill minimized the crime through a process of providing moral justification or face-saving excuses for the crime, making a confession seem like an expedient means of escape. Interrogators were trained to suggest to suspects that their actions were spontaneous, accidental, provoked, peer pressured or otherwise justifiable by external factors.
Saito had to smile at the accuracy of Mori’s report where he had been quite careful to note Sakamoto's approach. In most cases he knew Mori would have applauded this approach, typically in cases where there was a weight of circumstantial evidence but nothing actually conclusive. On these occasions, Mori too, had employed every trick in the book. It was clear to Saito however, that Mori felt utterly uncomfortable in the present situation with Yamada and he was increasingly coming to agree with him.
Undoubtedly the intensity of time spent in custody, the suggestion of a lover, the supposition that it was understandable, that a crime of passion was somehow excusable, that he had time and motive - all this had been done to manoeuvre Yamada into a state of being that was no longer based on reality and Saito increasingly began to suspect that Yamada had indeed been coerced in some way.
It was not, after all, surprising that he'd confessed.
26 - In which Inspector Saito receives his first duties much to his chagrin
Monday 3rd January 9:30am
‘Filing! You’re putting me onto filing!’ groaned Inspector Saito looking unbelievingly into the eyes of the Chief Superintendant.
‘It’s either that or foot-slogging under Sakamoto and Mori and I know which one I’d rather choose and if I’m any judge of you, I know which one you would rather choose as well. And anyway, it’s an important task and will bring you up to speed with what we’ve been doing these past few months.’
‘Well, yes, you’re right there.’ Saito was barely appeased and allowed his darkened expression to reveal his inner feelings.
‘I never get this trouble with Sakamoto, you know,’ grumbled the Chief Super. ‘I instruct him what to do, he bows, and he's quickly on his way. There’s no back-chat with him and he plays it entirely by the book. Need I remind you that I expect the same from you!’
Saito allowed the Chief Super to lecture him some more before he girded himself to respond. It was difficult for him to conceal his severe disappointment at the involvement of Sakamoto in his absence even though it was largely inevitable and completely beyond his control. ‘I can’t believe you’ve let Sakamoto have the run of the place,’ he eventually muttered, thinking that his words had fallen harmlessly to the floor.
The Chief Super looked up quizzically. ‘He’s not exactly having the run of place, as you put it, and anyway, why? What have you got against Sakamoto?’
But Saito didn’t really know. All he did know was that he felt deeply uncomfortable.
‘He gets results!’ continued the Chief Super.
‘Confessions, don’t you mean!’
‘Yes, well… But rather that, than have you running around on wild goose-chases, not logging your destination and becoming a suspect in your own murder case!’
‘But Sakamoto, sir, he’s a-’
‘He’s a what?’
‘I don’t know, sir.’
Saito looked down glumly at his fingers.
‘Look Saito. I want a team approach here, don’t forget that. We all work together. I shouldn’t need to remind you. I don’t need any more bad press for the section. The whole episode was embarrassing for everyone. Not just you, you know. We had Tokyo all over us for weeks thanks to you.’
‘I’m sorry, sir. I do apologise for all that.’ He bowed once more to the Chief Super.
‘Look.’ The Chief Superintendant ever so slightly changed his tone to one that was a few degrees milder. ‘Are you sure you really want to come back? Retirement is only round the corner, you know. I’ve been checking up on my own pension. It’s a good time to get out.’
‘Really, sir? Are you trying to get rid of me?’
‘No, no, not at all - you’re a very good Inspector-’
‘It’s just that you don’t want me putting my head above the parapet.’
‘Exactly!’
‘You want me to be an asset not a liability and a team player, part of the group, part-’
‘-I couldn’t have put it better myself.’
The Chief Super was pleased at the reaction he was getting from Inspector Saito noting, with relief, that a stake that stuck out of the ground eventually had to get hammered down whatever its stubborn resistance. Like everyone else over the past few months he’d had plenty of time to consider the actions and general approach of one of his most senior men. It had been well-noted that Saito was a loner, unorthodox and some said contaminated by his sabbatical year taken ten years ago when he’d been in America. That experience had altered Saito’s perceptions completely. Since that time he was even less of a team player, even more likely to challenge the cosy, unspoken, democracy of the group and certainly quite clear that he no longer wanted to resort to physical threats or forced confessions.
He’d become even odder after the disappearance of his wife and children – perhaps understandably.
Not that the Chief Super was fooled for one minute that a few ingratiating comments could mask over the real Inspector Saito. Still, it was pleasing, at least, to hear him say the right things even if these words would only be fleeting, before they disappeared into the ether.
Saito also sat thinking to himself. It was clear what the real subtext to all this was. ‘So you think you’re in line for promotion then, sir. Is that it?’ he guessed.
‘Pardon?’
‘Promotion, sir! There must be a promotion in the offing if you are even more bothered than usual about things in the section.’
‘Don’t be so damned impertinent. It’s none of your business, Saito. You attend to yours, and I’ll attend to mine.’
Silence fell across the room once more, but Saito was glad to have said his piece. Before his suspension he’d become increasingly frustrated with his Chief Super and even though it was going against the grain to be so forthright and to criticise not only colleagues but also superiors as well, Saito had considered it well worth the risk. But perhaps the Chief Super was right. Perhaps it was time to pick up his pen
sion and leave the service. He’d attempted his own crack at reform. He’d tried to plough a righteous furrow even if his colleagues merely saw him as being a bit odd and a bit out of touch. Quite often Mori had accused him of not being Japanese. Occasionally this rebuke made him laugh, occasionally it gave him inner strength but deep down it disturbed him. At the end of the day he was Japanese whether he liked it or not and the deep groove of his upbringing dictated that it was unpleasant and shameful to be rejected by your peers. It was important to be in step with the group. It was important to be accepted.
He recalled the stick floating down the Azusa river underneath the Kappabashi. The simplicity of freedom! He considered asking about the details of retirement.