Nocturne of Remembrance (28 page)

It struck Mikoshiba then that he, too, was trying to protect something in lieu of what he’d lost. Maybe such a notion lurked somewhere beneath his conscious decision to defend Akiko.

The usual solemn quietude reigned in the courtroom. Hushed voices sometimes came from the gallery but dissipated just as soon.

Before long, the three judges entered. Everybody stood up.

The final round
—the bell rang in Mikoshiba’s mind.

In the presiding judge’s seat, Sanjo looked his typical mild-mannered self. Would he continue to wear that gentle expression until the end, or would it change into dejection? It all depended on how Mikoshiba argued his case.

“The court is now in session. At the previous session, the defense said that it would submit new evidence … Defense attorney, it seems
not to have been submitted beforehand this time, either.”

“I am very sorry, your honor. It took a while to prepare. I was planning to present it to the court today.”

“In that case, the prosecution has already submitted a request to call a new witness. May we proceed with that first?”

“By all means.”

“Then, the witness for the prosecution, please.”

As expected, it was Yozo that a court attendant ushered to the witness stand. Misaki coughed once and stood up.

“Witness, please state your name and vocation.”

“Yozo Tsuda. I am a district welfare worker.”

“You are the father of the victim, Shingo Tsuda, and also testified previously, yes?”

“Yes.”

“First, please look at Evidence B-23 in front of you: the debt-receivables management table in the name of the victim submitted by Tokyo Mortgage. What we should pay attention to are the entries during the two months before the incident, from March 8th on.”

This “Evidence B-23” indicated by Misaki was identical to what Aoyagi had showed Mikoshiba the other day.

“March 8th and 18th, April 11th and 28th. Each time, a thousand shares of Sekiwa Ceramics were pledged as additional collateral. Sekiwa Ceramics, a low-price stock, cost about a hundred yen at the time. In other words, including the fees, the value of each additional collateral pledge was about 100,000 yen.”

Mikoshiba was already familiar with the brand’s summary info as well. Though Sekiwa Ceramics shares had depreciated after a series of scandals, this was still a firm listed in the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. If its performance recovered, or if there were other positive factors, the price might rise sharply. It was precisely the kind of long shot that Shingo went for.

“Now, I would like to ask the witness. At the time, the victim had no income, so it is hard to imagine that he could purchase new shares
with his own funds. Regarding the four additional collateral pledges, was it you who provided the money?”

“I did provide cash to him at around the dates you mentioned—”

“Your honor,” Mikoshiba intervened without a moment’s delay. “The prosecution is prompting the witness in a misleading way. Nobody but the victim knows how the money that the witness provided was spent.”

“The uses for a sum on the order of 100,000 yen were quite limited for the victim, who tended to shut himself up in his room,” Misaki went on as if he had fully expected the interruption. “Moreover, the prosecution will be calling upon another witness to this point.”

“Please continue,” ruled Sanjo.

“Now, I will ask the witness again. You said that you provided money to the victim four times, but did you do so on your own initiative?”

“No, uh …” mumbled Yozo. “I know he was a bad son, but please allow me not to go into those details.”

Mikoshiba thought that the phrasing was classic Yozo, but it still assented to the prosecution’s narrative.

Indeed satisfied, Misaki nodded and said, “Then let me ask you instead. Did you hand the money to him directly?”

“No. I had it transmitted to his bank account.”

“Why go through the hassle? You live nearby, so handing it to him would seem faster and easier.”

“He said that his dealings with the securities brokerage occurred via his bank account. A transfer would be more convenient for him.”

“Securities brokerage. So the victim pretty much confessed at that point that he was going to purchase stock with your monetary assistance.”

“That would seem to be the case.”

“Hearing that, why did you still provide money to him? ‘Throwing cash at a fleeing thief’ might be going too far, but it was like pouring it down the drain.”

“Shingo said that without the money he would have to part with his house. I certainly never hated my son, but, more than that, I pitied his wife and daughters.”

Nice
, thought Mikoshiba, observing the exchange. Contrary to Misaki’s intentions, Yozo’s testimony was merely worsening the court’s impression of the victim.

“The house where my daughter-in-law and grandchildren lived would change hands, and as a parent—”

But Misaki handled his reins better than that. “Um, witness, that will be enough. I well understand the situation. I have no further questions for you,” he cut off Yozo, who seemed to want to say more. Then, turning to Sanjo, the prosecutor said, “I request that the accused testify upon the matter.”

“Proceed.”

“I ask the defendant. Were you aware of this funding for the victim that was testified to just now?”

Akiko kept her head down and didn’t reply. She seemed like an empty shell.

“Defendant?”

“… I was,” she spoke in an oddly hoarse voice for the first time that day.

“How did you become aware of it?”

“When I looked at the bankbook, I saw a transfer in my father-in-law’s name … I posted our bankbook regularly to confirm auto-payment of utilities.”

“I see. Then, was the next destination of the sum recorded there, too?”

“Yes. On the day the money was transferred, almost the same amount was conveyed to a securities brokerage. Because it was also in my husband’s name, I realized that it was his doing.”

Misaki’s “other witness to the point” had meant this. The wife being on top of the household account was no surprise. And if she had become aware of the cash flow, how things unfolded next wasn’t hard
to imagine.

“Did you ever ask Yozo, himself, or the victim about the transfer from Yozo?”

“I asked my father-in-law. He said that he sent the money because my husband had begged that he was in desperate need.”

“Hearing the reason, what did you think about your husband?”

Don’t!
Mikoshiba nearly shouted, but it was already too late.

“I felt hatred for him.”

She could not have put it more decisively.

Use your head a little before you open your damn mouth!

Mikoshiba almost mistook who his adversary was at this court. He’d told the woman several times not to offer any testimony that would imply any intention to kill Shingo, and now this.

But no, rather than blame Akiko for being a pushover, he needed to give Misaki’s wiliness its due. Having Yozo testify about the funding first had made Akiko feel guilty and ashamed. Misaki had taken advantage of that to get through her guard.

Next, Misaki uttered just the words that Mikoshiba would have in the prosecution’s position. “Why did you feel hatred for him?”

“He couldn’t have not known how tight our budget had become. If he’d begged Father-in-Law for money to help the family, I would have felt ashamed and sorry, but understood. Yet using the money for his own amusement …”

Describing it not as offsetting debt but “his own amusement” reflected Akiko’s mindset all too well. And it, too, was the result of Misaki priming the pump. Only someone versed in the dark and ugly murmurings of the heart could have pulled it off, and Mikoshiba felt like he was bearing witness to Misaki’s endless manipulations of suspects past.

“In short, you came to feel strong hatred for the victim for not considering his family even under such circumstances?”

He was moving in for the kill.

“Your honor. That is a leading question. Not once during her
testimony has the defendant described the intensity of her feelings.”

“Acknowledged. The prosecution should be accurate in citing the defendant’s testimony.”

Misaki bowed toward Sanjo, but it was obviously
pro forma
. The judge, too, had anticipated Mikoshiba’s objection but not interrupted Misaki. The ship was gliding toward a total victory for the prosecution.

“Then, I will pose a different question. In your previous testimony, you said that you felt anger as a result of repeated demands by a financial firm. Now, you said that you hated the victim for wasting the money that his father kindly handed over to him on his own amusement. Anger and hatred. Had these emotions become constant? Before the incident, in particular?”

“… I’m not sure.”

“Not sure? These were your own feelings.”

“For a whole week before the day we quarreled, I hadn’t spoken a word to him. My struggles to support my daughters and myself occupied me more than my husband … Putting aside specific moments, I mostly cared about my children’s future.”

“This ends my questioning.”

Well done
, Mikoshiba felt like praising Akiko a bit the moment he saw the sour look on Misaki’s face. Regardless of how Sanjo had received this, at least she’d avoided giving the worst possible impression. In fact, she’d even set up a counterstrike.

“Your honor, my cross-examination.”

“Proceed.”

Mikoshiba slowly stood up, a signal fire for his own counterstrike. “First of all, I wish to warn the presiding judge of a certain issue.”

Addressed in this manner all of a sudden, Sanjo narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

“In the preparatory stage for the oral proceedings, the defendant and the defense attorney coordinate the defense policy and confirm the contents of the testimony to be delivered. Sometimes, however, misconceptions that the defendant suffered at the time are passed on
to the attorney. Would you agree, your honor?”

“It’s not unthinkable.”

“Then, I submit that previously recorded testimony based on such misconceptions should be treated as mistaken recollections.”

“If it is obviously a mistaken recollection, the court will accept your request.”

“Thank you very much, your honor.”

Mikoshiba turned once again to Akiko, who looked perplexed, the last exchange having gone over her head.

“Now, defendant. You testified just now, in response to the prosecution’s questioning: ‘For a whole week before the day we quarreled, I hadn’t spoken a word to him.’ Are you sure about this?”

“I am.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“If you hadn’t even spoken with him, then naturally there must have been no sexual relations between you two during that period.”

The air in the courtroom froze for a moment. Sanjo and Misaki both blinked their eyes, not having seen this coming, and Akiko stood motionless.

“Defendant, please answer. For the week prior to the incident, there were no sexual relations between you two?”

“Um, is this relevant?”

“Defendant, I will be asking the questions. Now, was there any, or not?”

“Th-There wasn’t any,” Akiko replied, cowed by her own attorney’s ferocity.

Mikoshiba turned to Sanjo again. “It was as you just heard, your honor.”

“What was?”

“Please recall that my initial questioning of the defendant, during the first session, concerned the defendant and the victim’s continued conjugal relations or lack thereof around the time of the incident.”

Scanning the record on his desk, Sanjo answered, “Yes … Right.”

“The victim and the defendant continued their conjugal relations consensually, I argued, because they were in a mood to heal their relationship. However, that contradicts the testimony we just heard. In the defense’s consultations with the defendant, too, the point had been misremembered. So, I hereby correct the record. There had been no sexual relations between the victim and the defendant during the week before the incident. Accordingly, the statement the defendant made in the session before last was a mistaken recollection.”

An increasingly confused mood descended on the courtroom.

“Defense. I’m having trouble discerning the point of your claim.”

“Please look at page 3 of Evidence A-7. As I said in the first argument, an empty contraceptive package was found among the garbage thrown in the kitchen trash box. Yet its contents were for the three days before the incident. Weighing the defendant’s revised testimony, I cannot conclude that she used the contraceptive.”

Mikoshiba turned toward the defendant’s seat.

Akiko was obviously shaken. She wasn’t the only one. Sanjo and Misaki were staring at Mikoshiba as if they’d just been slapped.

“There is another thing about Evidence A-7 that is puzzling. There was only an empty contraceptive package, but no used contraceptive. Although the forensics unit of the Setagaya Police Station that rushed to the scene obtained residual materials from throughout the house including the victim’s room, there is no such description in the document. The lack of said description means that it was not present. Furthermore, we should take note of the defendant’s failure to take issue when the package’s presence was disclosed in the first hearing. Despite knowing of its existence, the defendant has not said a word about the contraceptive that it held. To add, the very fact that it was thrown in the kitchen trash box is highly unnatural.”

“What do you mean by that?” asked Misaki, unable to hold back.

“Please remember the testimony from the last two sessions. Setting aside the charge brought against her, the defendant was mindful of her
daughters’ upbringing as their mother. Now, would a strict mother discard a contraceptive package in a trash box in the kitchen, which her daughters visited too? No, that’s impossible. Normally, such things are used in the bedroom and disposed of in the bedroom. And I cannot see why something discarded there needed to be brought into the kitchen. It means the contraceptive wasn’t used by the defendant. In other words …”

Mikoshiba paused again. He could sense the court’s mood. No one had caught on to the point that he was about to make.