Hidden Nexus (20 page)

‘Right, right… I’m just trying to get more of a feel for our victim, that’s all.' Saito scratched his chin. 'Presently I have precious little. Up to now I'd assumed her to be a fairly unremarkable Office Lady, but now you’re telling me she was a privileged player in important merger talks.’

Takeda just looked back impassively.

‘So!' Inspector Saito leant back in his seat. 'How would you describe her?’

Takeda paused for a moment. ‘Would you like a coffee, tea?’ he suddenly asked standing up. ‘I’ve been rude not to offer this before.’ He nodded to a member of the reception staff who came over and bowed to the three gentlemen.

‘Yuki, can you get us some coffees? Black for me - Inspector Saito, Sergeant Mori, what would you like?’

Saito played along with this little side show wondering if it was an avoidance strategy or just the action of someone who was remiss at not having offered refreshments before. His question had seemed innocent enough. There was no need for evasion as far as he could see.

‘She was a hard worker,’ Takeda eventually said. ‘Dedicated to her field and a great asset to the company. I think it’s fair to say that she had energy and drive. She was ambitious, I think, but not so much that she was pushy or worked beyond her limits. She was a good team player. I was actually quite proud of her. She was employed at my suggestion.’

Mori, like Saito listened intently. He was becoming quite interested in the exact nature of the relationship between Takeda and his ‘protégé’, as he now seemed to be billing her.

‘What about her personality? Was she serious, vivacious, steady… what?’ he asked.

‘She had confidence, that’s true. She had an attractive figure and a pretty face.’

‘I wasn’t really asking about how attractive she was physically,’ interrupted Mori.

‘No, no, you weren’t, were you?’ apologised Takeda once again wiping his hands on his trousers. ‘She was pleasant to work with,’ he finally added.

Saito looked across to Mori and they exchanged a knowing look. ‘Okay, what about her movements on her last day. What do you know?’

‘Like I said before, from what I can recall she was in her office most of the day. I’ve obviously thought about it a lot since she died. I still find it completely unbelievable. She was just so…’ He trailed off to silence, lost in his own thoughts.

‘Can anyone else confirm this? – that she was in her office all day,’ Saito continued.

‘I’m sure any of the staff can. It’s a busy office.
 
There are usually lots of people around. Not much can go unnoticed.’

‘And what time did she leave?’

Takeda hesitated for a second. ‘I’m not sure, I’d have to check, but we all normally pack up around seven.’

‘I’m not asking about normally,’ said Saito sharply. ‘I’m specifically asking about Thursday night. I’ll ask you an easier question. What time did you leave here on Thursday night?’

‘Me?’

‘It’s an easy question.’

‘I left at, let me see, yes, I left at about seven thirty.’

‘And was Yamada Eri with you?’

‘Yes! Yes, she was. We all left together.’

‘You all?’

‘Well, her and me.’

He wiped his hands on his trousers for a fourth time.

‘How did she usually travel home? There’s not exactly a handy train station near here, is there?’

‘The buses come quite regularly. They go to the station.’

‘And you both took the train together?’

‘We actually go in opposite directions, so we, er-’

‘So what was the last time you saw her.’

‘If we leave here at half past I can usually get the ten past eight train, so I guess that’s the last time I saw her. Her train comes after mine.’

Saito made a quick calculation, about the times and the distances. On the surface everything seemed to connect. From what he was being told it would have Eri Yamada arriving at Kamioka around eight-thirty. He looked across to Mori as if to invite him to ask his own questions. Mori had nothing to say but was quite certain the man was lying.

‘You know that obstruction is an offence, don’t you sir?’

‘What do you mean by that?’

Just as I said it sir, that’s all!’

‘Well thank you for your time,’ interrupted Saito standing up and bowing. 'You’ve been a great help. We may, however need to talk to you again and if it’s all right with the company we might want to send
someone round just to look around her office and check on her PC
– if that’s okay?’

Takeda stood up and also bowed, his ruddy and ever reddening face failing to hide the discomfort he was feeling.

*

Back in the car Mori looked across to Saito. ‘Well what do you make of that?’

‘I make the same as you, judging by your question at the end.’

‘But you didn’t want to confront him with his obvious lies.’

‘No. It’s enough that both of us know he’s lying. It’s also enough that he knows that we know he’s lying and as you are all too familiar, it’s when the pressure starts to build that he might lead us somewhere unexpected but I think for that we might need an extra pair of eyes and ears.’

‘Sakamoto has Deguchi all tied up. I’m sure he’ll start to notice if all his team are suddenly following you around like dogs on heat.’

‘No, I was thinking of someone else. Like you said we don’t really want to rub Sakamoto’s nose in it, however much we might want to. No, I was thinking of young Saito, you know, the young
Junsa
who worked with us on the Takamura case. See if she’s available. Meanwhile I’ve another thought which might make things interesting.’

Mori was used to this. It was precisely the way that Inspector Saito worked – leaping from thought to thought, sometimes connected sometimes inspirational, but also sometimes completely wide of the mark. ‘Okay, I’m waiting.’

‘Don’t you think it odd that two people who were working on a merger, a failed merger, are now both dead?’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Mori looking puzzled. ‘Both dead?’

‘Don’t you ever watch the news? Didn’t you know that the Chief Executive of YBP also died on Thursday? There was a gas explosion at their head office late Wednesday night.’

Mori ruffled his hair.

‘And another thing - when do you suppose Yamada Eri san found time to indulge in her sexual activity on her final day if she was supposedly locked away in her office on her own. When did that happen and who did it happen with?'

Monday 3rd January 11:30am

Two men sat facing each other across the table, quietly and inwardly fuming - or at least one of them was. The other remained resolute if not slightly on the defensive.

This little contretemps had come about courtesy of a vein-throbbing Sakamoto, who on hearing the news that Saito was, in effect, working against him on the Yamada case had wasted no opportunity in confronting his superior. In true deference to the system however, he had not done this in full tub-thumping force – throbbing vein or not, but instead had spent the best part of ten minutes moving the disingenuous conversation in the direction that he had most wanted to steer it. The Chief Super had been complicit in this game, after all he’d been expecting a visit from Sakamoto ever since he'd sanctioned Inspector Saito’s involvement in the Yamada case, but he waited until he deemed Sakamoto’s gentle needling to have reached a point that he could no longer tolerate after which he’d quite simply barked that Saito was on the case and that was an end of it.

Obviously Sakamoto remained unhappy about this state of affairs.

‘You’ve completely undermined me! Don’t you see that, sir?’

‘I’ve done nothing of the kind.’ The Chief Super arranged his pens neatly on his desk so that they lay in parallel lines. ‘I’m simply allowing Inspector Saito to dig his own grave.’

‘Dig… You mean-’

‘You know exactly what I mean.’

Sakamoto began to feel the muscles in his shoulders relax – slightly. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘Look! Saito was this far from being slung out of the service this winter.’ The Chief Super placed his thumb and fore-finger within a centimetre of each other. ‘We all know what trouble he has been over recent years - the way in which he works pretty much on his own, to his own agenda and the Takamura case was just about the last straw. Don’t you see? It’s Saito that’s undermining this team and this station and the only way we can get him out of our hair is to supply him with more rope.’

‘But I don’t understand how setting him up against me will help in any way at all.’ Sakamoto was still struggling to hide his dissatisfaction and shuffled uncomfortably in his seat.

The Chief Super stood up and moved around his desk so that he was perched on the arm rest of Sakamoto’s chair and patted him patronisingly on the shoulder. ‘He’ll fail in his endeavours. He’ll concoct wild theories and speculate on incongruous connections. He’ll occupy his time on irrelevant details, while you, Sakamoto, sit with the real culprit in the cells, with his confession in your hot little hands. We can afford to wait – if nothing else it helps you to be completely secure in your belief that Yamada really is your man. You
are
absolutely sure, of course?’

‘Of course!’

‘And there is no further update?’

‘Only the full pathology report that’s come through.’

‘Okay – and has Takahashi got anything interesting to say for herself?’

‘Only that there was more than one type of bruising on our victim’s neck - one set caused by the ligature, but also others caused by grasping fingers. My interpretation is that Yamada first tried to strangle his wife with his hands, but after failing in this approach then used a ligature.’

‘Plausible. Do the hand spans match – Yamada’s and the marks on the woman?’

‘It’s difficult to say.’

‘Have you checked?’

Sakamoto looked up with a feeling that he was being professionally insulted. ‘Of course we have.’

‘And of course you have the incriminating ligature-’

‘Not yet, sir?’ Sakamoto this time looked down at his shoes.

‘What do you mean, not yet? I thought you said-’

‘I said that we had one tie that matched the description given to us by Yamada himself and that it also looks like the one we can see on the CCTV images but sadly, I’m certain that this tie was
not
the murder weapon. Forensics have also confirmed this.’

‘This leaves you pretty naked, doesn’t it?’ said the Chief Super irritably, standing up again and returning to his position behind his own desk.

‘Not necessarily. I believe that either he had two ties of the same type or he had a spare in his pocket.’

‘Is either scenario possible? I mean, do
you
have two identical ties hanging on
your
tie rack?’

‘I don’t have identical ones, but I do have some with the same pattern,’ replied Sakamoto calmly. ‘Just different colour schemes. What I think, is that he disposed of the actual one leaving the ‘twin’ still hanging in the cupboard. In any case the images on the CCTV aren’t conclusive. He was wearing an overcoat so there wasn’t much of the tie to see. We only have his word that he was wearing a green and yellow tie and we can always check and re-check that part of his statement – if you get my meaning.’

‘Hmm… I still think you need that tie. Find it and your case is wrapped up.’

‘It’s what Deguchi is working on at the moment.’ Sakamoto paused for a second. ‘And Saito? You’re still happy to have him competing against me?’

‘There’s no competition.’

Sakamoto still didn’t look convinced.

‘I’m happy to leave him thrashing around on his own.’ confirmed the Chief Super, ‘Look! Sakamoto, be clear on this. I’m coming to see you as the senior man in the department now. You are the efficient one, the team player – the reliable one. I don’t mind telling you that I don’t entirely trust Inspector Saito - especially after the last fiasco. It’s important to me that we have an effective, smooth working team and you are the right man to lead it. Don’t forget that. This thing with Saito, believe me, it’ll see him stumble and fall. Then we’ll never have to worry about him again!’

Sakamoto bowed, rose to his feet and then bowed again. As he exited the office he was still not entirely won-over about the Chief Super’s machinations and was also left intrigued by his final statement that they’d never have to worry about Saito – again. It almost implied that the Chief Super had something genuinely, and permanently to be worried about concerning Inspector Saito. He had never liked Saito but didn't think he was that bad. For a few moments it got Sakamoto thinking, but only for a few moments. He had little time for the Chief Super and even less for Inspector Saito. Despite this little blip in proceedings he was quite clear where he was headed and that direction didn’t involve the presence of either man.