The Informer

by Akimitsu Takagi

  “But to do that he would’ve had to have at least some idea about your assignment. If it had been only the matter of your relationship with Eiko Ogino, then perhaps a wild guess would’ve been possible. But to hit on the spying bit without any prompting—that’d require a leap of imagination, I’d say.”

  “But if that person happened to be preoccupied with the dan­gers of industrial spying for some reason, then surely he could’ve thought of it without any prompting?”

  Segawa looked at Kirishima hopefully, and then the phone rang.

  It was Inspector Ishida. He spoke in a high-pitched, emo­tional voice and seemed to be very upset. “Mr. Prosecutor, Eiko Ogino has tried to commit suicide.”

  “What?”

  “I’m not sure if she’s been saved—I’m going over to the house now . . . Are you coming?”

  “Yes. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Kirishima slowly re­placed the receiver and looked at Segawa with a wooden face. “Well, that’ll be all for today . . . And I might as well tell you now—Eiko Ogino has tried to kill herself.”

  For a moment Segawa didn’t react at all, as if the words hadn’t sunk in. The blood drained from his face until it became a deadly grey. Then he began to tremble, slowly muttering Eiko’s name a few times. Suddenly he jumped to his feet and pointed a shaking finger at Kirishima. “You’re the one—you’re the one who killed her!” he yelled. “What the hell, it’s time you learnt your lesson, you bastard!”

  The police guard in the room flew out of his chair to grab him from the back, but there was no need for it. Segawa folded and slowly sank to the floor. A painful, continuous groan was the only sign of life left in him.

  During the journey to the Ogino house Kirishima was looking at some jottings in his notebook. His clerk was driving the car.

  (1) Is the so-called informer also the killer?

  (2) How did the informer learn about Segawa’s spying? What could have been the source of his information other than direct evidence?

  (3) What was the informer’s purpose in telling Ogino about Segawa’s spying?

  (4) Did the killer know about the relationship between Segawa and Kazumi Yamaguchi? If so, did he know Yamaguchi was helping Segawa with his false alibi?

  (5) Did Yamaguchi know the killer well?

  (6) If she didn’t, how did the killer manage to get so close to her without arousing her suspicion?

  (7) Did the killer set a trap for Segawa only to divert suspicion from himself, or is he determined to have him convicted and de­stroyed? In the latter case, what’s the reason for this?

  He had jotted down these questions during the day as he thought of them. And he still couldn’t produce a definite an­swer to any of them.

  So far as (1) was concerned, there was no evidence at all, though he had a vague feeling the answer might be yes. If the killer had set a trap for Segawa, then the likelihood of the in­former and the killer being the same person became stronger.

  He thought if the killer was the informer, this would explain (3) to some extent. It might’ve been a hit-and-miss operation on his part. He might’ve thought Ogino would reveal the in­formation about Segawa to somebody before his death. This somebody would then have probably passed it on to the police, thereby strengthening the suspicion against Segawa.

  He had no clues at all on questions (2), (4), (5) and (6) at this stage.

  Question (7) was also a hard one—there seemed to be no one nursing a violent hatred against Segawa. And apart from this, the only feasible reason he could think of for the killer’s desire to have Segawa out of the way was that he himself was in love with Eiko Ogino and wanted her for himself. And now she could be dead. Where would that leave the killer? He would’ve successfully murdered two people and had a third one falsely convicted of the crime, for what? For absolutely nothing.

  Of course, if Segawa had been lying, then none of these seven questions would have any meaning at all—it’d be just an open-and-shut case against Segawa.

  Kirishima decided he still hadn’t reached the point where he could make up his mind, one way or the other.

  There were a few vehicles parked in front of the Ogino house, including a police car.

  Kirishima met Ishida at the front door. A glance at the in­spector’s face was enough for him to realise that Eiko Ogino was dead.

  “By the time the doctor got here, it was too late to do any­thing for her,” Ishida mumbled.

  “What’s the cause of death?”

  “After taking an overdose of sleeping tablets, she turned on the gas to make sure. She left a suicide note—there’s no doubt at all she killed herself.”

  Kirishima nodded. Everybody knew she’d suffered a double shock, and her decision to die was there in her own handwrit­ing. There was no question of murder.

  The upstairs windows were wide open, but the smell of gas was still oozing from the upholstery and the carpet. A white sheet had been placed over the body on the bed, and Kirishima didn’t feel like lifting it to take a look at the dead face. She must have been in agony at the moment she swallowed the pills and then turned on the taps, he thought.

  “Where’s the suicide note?”

  Ishida gave him a sheet of paper.

  Dear Toshi,

  I’ve given you a bt of trouble, haven’t I? I’m sorry.

  How can I thank you for your love and kindness, caring for a helpless sister like me? I’ll never be able to repay you for it now.

  I’ve lost my will to live. At times I thought I might be able to carry on somewhere far away from here, but it was only a dream.

  Until now I managed to struggle on. I thought I couldn’t die peacefully before the conclusion of this case. I was going to stay alive till then, clenching my teeth.

  But now that I’ve been accused of conspiring with him to murder Shoichi, and told that I should give myself up or she’ll bring a com­plaint against me, I feel I can’t go on. I’ve lost my faith in human be­ings, and my willpower is gone.

  Dear Toshi, I do hope you marry a man you love and have a happy life. But whatever you do, don’t get involved the way I have. Please be careful. This is the only thing I ask.

  And don’t feel sorry for me. Just forget about me, please. Be the bright and happy Toshi again, as soon as you can.

  Goodbye now. Goodbye forever.

  Kirishima handed the note back to Ishida without a word. He was afraid his voice might give him away. A prosecutor wasn’t supposed to become emotional.

  In those simple sentences were locked in forever the heart­breaking feelings of a young woman who had decided to take her own life to find release.

  A policeman ushered Toshiko into the room. She had a vague look on her face, and her eyes were completely dry. There was a large stain across the front of her dress, but she didn’t seem to be aware of it. It must have got there when she embraced her dead sister.

  Kirishima waited until she hesitantly sat down on a chair.

  “Miss Murozaki,” he began awkwardly, “I realise how you must feel right now. I really would like to leave you alone if it were at all possible. But we must clarify things before and after the incident. I know it’s going to be painful for you, but would you please try to answer my questions?”

  “I will,” she muttered, almost inaudibly.

  “Well then, when did you notice there was something wrong?”

  “When I returned home. I could smell gas and ran upstairs in a panic. The door of her bedroom wasn’t locked, and I rushed in, opened the windows, and turned off the gas. The room must’ve been saturated—it was choking.” She covered her mouth with her handkerchief and coughed a couple of times. “I ran outside to open the windows in the passageway, and then went back into the bedroom and saw that my sister was already dead. It was obvious even to me that she was be­yond help, so I rang the police on the emergency lin
e.” She hid her face in her hands.

  “That means you weren’t home when she committed suicide?”

  “No. I was out shopping at Shinjuku. We needed various things for the home.”

  “And while you were out, your sister was alone in the house?”

  “Yes. Her condition was mental, not physical, and because of that, I thought there wasn’t much point in engaging a nurse to look after her. I decided to care for her myself for a while. I have a job as a dress designer, but the chief is a very sympa­thetic person, and I knew he’d agree to my request.”

  “You mean, he gave you leave of absence to look after your sister?”

  “Yes.”

  “And did you always have sleeping tablets in the house?”

  “Yes. Since my brother-in-law’s death my sister couldn’t go to sleep without them. I was often worried something like this might happen, but I never thought she’d turn on the gas . . .”

  “About what time did you leave home?”

  “I think it was a little after two. The shopping took longer than I expected, and when I came home I found this . . .” She covered her face again and began to sob soundlessly.

  “You shouldn’t blame yourself,” Kirishima said, trying to soothe her. “You’re not responsible for her death. Once a per­son decides to kill herself, she becomes very determined—she’ll wait for her chance. If she can’t do it today because she’s being watched, she’ll try again tomorrow. Even husband and wife can’t stay together for twenty-four hours a day, so how could this be expected from a third person? She must have some little time to herself every now and then . . .”

  Comforting her, Kirishima thought the shopping trip had probably been an excuse for her to get a much needed break. She didn’t seem to be a woman to whom staying at home and looking after other people came naturally. Even if the person in her care was her own sister, she must’ve got fed up with it at times. So she had gone out on the pretext of shopping, and if instead she’d been flapping her wings a bit, so what?

  “And how did your sister look just before you went out?”

  “Since last night her spirit had sunk even lower.” Toshiko threw a spiteful glance at Inspector Ishida, who was biting his lip and had an almost guilty expression on his face. “And then on top of this came Mrs. Nishiwaki. It was about half past ten in the morning. She bustled in here with a threatening look on her face and insisted she had something important to discuss with my sister. Well, I listened to it all, and it was really awful. I’m sure her vicious words were the last straw for my sister. They finally drove her to her death.”

  “Did she refer to your sister’s alleged conspiracy in her hus­band’s murder—the thing mentioned in the suicide note?”

  “Yes, that was it. Mrs. Nishiwaki said it was clear my sister and Mr. Segawa had conspired to murder her brother. A Mr. Yumida had conclusive proof of this, and he was going to make an official complaint against her tomorrow. That’s what she said, adding that if my sister gave herself up now, she wouldn’t be punished so severely. She kept yelling at her in the most in­human way imaginable.” Toshiko’s face was dark with anger. Tears were glittering in her eyes. “After she’d left, I got the doctor and he gave my sister an injection. She looked much calmer then, and I felt I just had to get out of the house for a while to cool off.”

  Kirishima thought that in the circumstances she couldn’t be blamed for leaving her sister alone for a little while. “And did you lock the door when you went out?”

  “Yes, I did. My sister told me she didn’t want to see anybody—she wouldn’t answer the door, or the phone—she’d just stay up­stairs in bed.”

  “Where did you find the note?”

  “Beside her pillow.” She started crying again, her shoulders shaking with every sob.

  Kirishima realised she couldn’t take much more and decided to end the interview. Having looking at it from every angle, he was satisfied this was a clear case of premeditated suicide. It was the case of a woman whose husband had been murdered, whose lover had been arrested for the murder, and who finally had been accused of complicity and threatened with prosecution. Perhaps there’d been no other choice for her.

  Inspector Ishida gave instructions for the body to be taken to the morgue for the post mortem. He also ordered an identifi­cation test of the handwriting, just to make sure. He had no doubt at all about the suicide, but so many unexpected things had happened in the past twenty-four hours—he was begin­ning to lose his assurance.

  On the way back to the office Ishida sat beside Kirishima in the car.

  Kirishima recalled Toshiko’s spiteful glance at the inspec­tor during the interview. “Did you go to see Eiko Ogino last night?” he asked.

  Ishida nodded grimly. “Yes. To be thorough investigating the informer, I couldn’t avoid questioning her. Knowing her condi­tion, I tried to be very tactful—I made my questions as indirect as I could. But even so, the truth could’ve seeped through to her somehow, for all I know.”

  “You mean, the fact that her lover was a spy, deceiving her husband?”

  “Yes.”

  Kirishima lit a cigarette and looked out the car window. He said nothing until he finished the smoke, then turned to Ishida again. “Inspector, I’m going to investigate this case once more—thoroughly, from beginning to end.” His voice was cold and determined. “Can I count on your co-operation?”

  “Of course, Mr. Prosecutor.” Ishida looked at Kirishima with his mouth open. “But is it Eiko Ogino’s suicide that made up your mind to re-investigate?”

  “Yes.” Kirishima lit another cigarette. “I told you on the phone about Yumida’s intention to prefer a charge against her, didn’t I? Well, I was going to decide what to do about this after I’ve received the formal complaint from him. But now that she’s dead, I can say definitely that, assuming she had nothing to do with her husband’s death, Yumida’s and Mrs. Nishiwaki’s action amounts to a diabolical crime. By threatening her with prosecution, they’ve succeeded in pushing her over the edge. They mightn’t have broken the law, but they’ve murdered her, just the same. And personally, I’ve never for a moment doubted her innocence.”

  Ishida made a painful face. “But looking at it quite objec­tively, wouldn’t it be rather difficult to establish whether or not there was a conspiracy as suggested by Yumida?”

  “As I said before, I’m convinced she was completely inno­cent. My doubts relate to Segawa—I’m not at all convinced he’s the killer. Certainly I’m not confident enough to go ahead with the prosecution.”

  “But what’s your reason for that?”

  “I was in the middle of questioning him when you rang me about Eiko Ogino’s suicide, and I deliberately told him—I wanted to watch his reaction.”

  “And?”

  “And I firmly believe his reaction wasn’t an act. It was then that I felt instinctively Segawa wasn’t the killer.”

  Ishida was starting to say something, but when he looked at Kirishima’s face, he shut up.

  “Segawa abused me and said it was I who killed Eiko Ogino. He knew nothing about the pending complaint against her, therefore his reaction indicates to me that he, too, is inno­cent. That’s why I’ve made up my mind to re-investigate the whole case. I feel this is my duty, if only to do justice to Eiko Ogino’s memory.”

  Inspector Ishida lowered his head and remained silent for a while. Then he said, slowly, “I understand, Mr. Prosecutor.”

  Kirishima got home in a grim frame of mind. Kyoko was wait­ing for him, her face also clouded with anxiety.

  “What happened? You look so miserable,” she said, frowning.

  “Eiko Ogino committed suicide.”

  “I know. I learnt about it a little while ago through Toshiko. She left me a message at home. I was quite stunned. She didn’t give much detail, but I understand her sister took an overdose of sl
eeping tablets and turned on the gas as well.”

  “That’s right. She had a strong motive for suicide, too. It’s a straight-forward case, complete with suicide note. I’ve already done the inspection. I wouldn’t have gone out there at all if it didn’t have a bearing on the Ogino murder . . . It made me re­alise what cruel animals humans are.”

  “Are you referring to Mrs. Nishiwaki?”

  “How do you know?”

  “I went out there this morning, following your suggestion that I should visit Toshiko. And quite by chance, I witnessed a terrible scene. Want to hear about it?”

  “Of course—as much detail as possible. Things that may not appear important to you, could help me.”

  “Okay—I’ll try to tell you all I remember.”

  Kyoko gave a detailed description of her morning from the moment she had entered the Ogino house.

  Kirishima looked quite disgusted by the time she had fin­ished. “Women are cruel creatures all right,” he said. “She obviously had the inheritance in mind. I don’t think a man would’ve been capable of pushing his way in there and putting on an act like that.”

  “I can understand Toshiko’s reaction. Once things had come to this, she didn’t know what to do on her own, so she rang her lawyer friend for advice.”

  “Yes, this was the natural thing for her to do. When one side starts falling back on a lawyer, it’s only common sense for the other side to engage one, too . . . What’s the lawyer’s name?”

  “Mr. Kitano. I’d say he’s two or three years older than you. Seems to be a very competent man.”

  “What—have you met him?” He raised his eyebrows. “Was he an acquaintance of your late father?”

  “No, I saw him with Toshiko at Shinjuku this afternoon—perhaps I shouldn’t say by accident. I was curious, and I knew about their meeting place, and the time, because of the phone mixup I’ve told you about. And while we were there, Eiko Ogino took her life . . . When you think of it, humans can’t see an inch ahead of them.”