The Case of the Sharaku Murders (34 page)

“But I wonder how they knew Yosuke was on to them?” puzzled Ryohei.

This seemed to stump Onodera.

“Is one of you Mr. Tsuda?” asked a nurse, hurrying up to them. Noticing the tense look on her face, Ryohei stood up.

“Has something happened to Yosuke?”

“Please come quickly.”

Ryohei and Onodera turned and started toward Yosuke's room

The door to the room was open and from the corridor they could see inside. Saeko clung to Yosuke, crying. For some time, Ryohei stood frozen near the threshold, too astonished to speak.

Just then a young doctor, having given some instructions to the nurse, came out of the room. “I'm very sorry…” he said in a low voice, bowing his head as he passed Ryohei. Onodera turned to follow him and headed off down the corridor. Ryohei could still not bring himself to enter the room.

Suddenly everything seemed to close in on him.

This is a dream—this is all a bad dream
.

Yosuke appeared to be asleep. Gazing at his profile from a distance, Ryohei felt his body stiffen.

The calm, slow movements of the nurse as she removed the intravenous needles from Yosuke's arm gave Ryohei a sense of unreality.

He no longer noticed the coldness of the corridor.

Outside the window, in the darkness of the night, it was snowing steadily, white flakes glistening in the light as they drifted to the ground.

February 4

TOWARD NOON, when Yosuke and Saeko's parents arrived from Okayama, Saeko at last seemed to regain her composure. “I've got to try to be strong… for them,” she said to Ryohei, forcing a little smile. It made Ryohei incredibly sad. After greeting the parents he left the hospital so Saeko could be alone with them.

Putting in a call to the Sendai Police Department, Ryohei asked Onodera if he had found out anything since he last saw him. They arranged to meet in a café near the hospital.

“No doubt about it. I put in a call to Tokyo this morning to see if I could turn up anything new on the Nishijima case. Turns out one of Mizuno's professional acquaintances happened to see someone he thought was him hanging around in the vicinity of the professor's house on the day of the incident. The Tokyo police hadn't taken much notice of it since he wasn't on their list of suspects, but this clinches it,” said Onodera. He was so excited he hadn't even touched his coffee yet.

“They've got his home and office staked out right now,” the detective continued. “So far he hasn't shown up at either. As it turns out, he
wasn't
in Tokyo last night after all—I called his house this morning and was told he'd gone to Fukushima. So that seals it.”

“If it
was
Mizuno who set fire to the professor's house, maybe he saw Yosuke there that day. That must be what drew his attention to Yosuke's activities,” said Ryohei.

“Yeah. Knowing he and the professor had had a falling out, Mizuno would've found it strange that Yosuke was coming to see Nishijima. So while Yosuke thought he was pursuing Fujimura, Mizuno was actually pursuing
him
.
When you consider that the attack on Yosuke occurred just two days after he left Tokyo, that much seems almost certain.”

Nodding to himself, Onodera reached out for his cup of coffee, which by now had become cold.

“They're a clever bunch, I'll give them that,” he continued. “If Minegishi hadn't stumbled on that sketchbook by Kiyochika we wouldn't have known Sato's catalogue was a fake. And it wasn't until we'd figured out it was a fake that we realized their motive for setting fire to Nishijima's house. We never could have solved this on our own.”

“We never suspected them because it seemed that Mizuno had no known connection whatsoever to Professor Nishijima,” added Ryohei. “That goes for Fujimura and Kato, too.”

“The same is true of Saga's death,” replied Onodera. “Mizuno owed his business success to his brother-in-law. If not for the catalogue we'd never have thought to pin the murder on him. And to think that at the funeral he looked like he'd lost his best friend!”

A look of anger crossed the detective's face.

“The more I think about it, all this is my fault,” said Ryohei. “If I hadn't been taken in by that catalogue, Yosuke would still—”

“That's not true. Look, Professor Nishijima and lots of other scholars were fooled as well. It could have happened to anyone,” said Onodera consolingly. “What we need to do now is break down Mizuno's alibi. Now we know he's the culprit it shouldn't be hard. I'll do whatever it takes. Never underestimate the power of the police; we're not like those bumbling cops on TV. Oh, I almost forgot… I've figured out a way Mizuno could have gone to Hachinohe Station in the morning and gotten back to Tokyo by three in the afternoon.”

Onodera took out his notebook and showed Ryohei a timeline of events:

Going
(TDA flight 221)

Tokyo	-----------------------	Misawa
7:45	Â	9:00

(Hatsukari No. 6)

Misawa	-----------------------	Hachinohe
10:11	Â	10:28

At Hachinohe Station
10:40 M. places call to Fuchu Library
10:46 M. leaves parcel on train bound for Fudai
(Buys box lunch from Ko'uta Sushi and newspaper)

Return
(TDA flight 224)

Misawa	-----------------------	Tokyo
11:55	Â	1:10

“We've confirmed that Mizuno was out drinking with some business associates until after two in the morning of the ninth, so he couldn't have taken an overnight train,” the detective explained. “Well, I'm sure he did that on purpose to give himself an alibi. As far as I can tell, that makes this the only possibility—time-wise, it works out perfectly. The 10:46 train to Fudai would have been packed with young sightseers since the following day was the start of a two-day holiday. It's unlikely anyone would have noticed Mizuno leaving the parcel containing the Koetsu book on the train's overhead luggage rack. That enabled him to two birds with one stone: making it look like Saga had been on the train and creating a motive for his suicide. Also, Hachinohe and Misawa are close enough that he could have taken a taxi and had plenty of time to catch his flight back to Tokyo.”

“I see,” said Ryohei. “If he landed at Haneda Airport at 1:10 in the afternoon he could definitely have gotten to the library in Tokyo by four.”

“With time to spare. He probably used the time in between to get Saga to eat the sushi he'd bought from Hachinohe—what we don't know is Saga's exact condition at the time.”

Ryohei was silent.

“Right now,” Onodera continued, “I'm having someone check the airplane passenger list and call all the taxi companies operating around Hachinohe Station. No doubt Mizuno gave a fake name when he checked in, but since we know exactly how many people were on the flight I'm sure we can track down everyone in less than ten days. As long as something turns up, he won't be able to wriggle out of this one. Don't worry,” the detective said emphatically, stubbing out his cigarette. “I won't let Yosuke's death go unpunished.”

February 10

THE PAST WEEK had been hectic.

Yesterday Ryohei had returned to his apartment in Kunitachi after a long absence. Instead of returning to Morioka he had decided to stay in Tokyo on his way back from Okayama after attending Yosuke's funeral.

Inspector Onodera also happened to be in Tokyo.

Saeko, having gone to Yosuke's apartment on the evening of the seventh to retrieve his address book, found that his room had been ransacked. She reported it to Onodera.

Ryohei went in to the university for the first time in nearly three weeks and gave notice at the personnel office that he would be quitting at the end of March. Then he put in a call to Onodera at the Fuchu Police Department.

“Any word yet?” he asked the detective.

“It's just a matter of time. We haven't heard back from the taxi companies yet, but as for the airplane passenger list, we've narrowed it down to three names. It hasn't been easy though—you'd be surprised how many people don't write down their addresses properly when they check in. By the way, how was the funeral? I'm sorry I couldn't go.”

“Everything went off well. Saeko said to send you her regards. Speaking of which, any leads yet on who ransacked Yosuke's apartment?” asked Ryohei.

“We figure Mizuno did it on his way back from Sendai. But as to the reason… When Saeko gets back to Tokyo we'll have ask her if she notices anything missing. So far we haven't found any fingerprints that match Mizuno's.”

“Well, those guys don't seem to make many mistakes.”

“Tell me about it—it's driving me crazy,” said the detective. “I'd be able to haul them in if only we had proof they forged the catalogue. Anyway, I don't suppose you've got any ideas?” the policeman asked, turning the question around.

“How about leaning on Kato a bit? After all, he lied to me about that supposed dealer in Yokote,” suggested Ryohei.

“On suspicion of what? It's not like lying is a crime.”

“Fujimura then?”

“He has a rock-solid alibi for all three murders; the postcard alone isn't enough to link him to the crime.”

“How about Sotheby's? Fujimura gave them the painting to sell.”

“That's true, but we'd need proof it was a forgery.”

Ryohei said nothing.

“We can't do anything until we've got proof they were in cahoots with Mizuno,” said Onodera.

Resignedly, Ryohei hung up the phone.

We've come this far, and yet we don't have any proof
.

Of course, the story that Mizuno had been in Fukushima on the night of the third was a complete fabrication. Be that as it may, without proof their hands were tied. Mizuno had no idea they knew as much as they did. That was why they had to leave him alone until they had solid proof. If Mizuno flew the coop at this point everything would be ruined.

If we could just find those paintings
.

Ryohei was sure that Mizuno had the other fifty Shoei paintings pictured in Sato's catalogue stashed away somewhere. If they could just find them, that would be all the proof they needed.

Ryohei couldn't wait to get started.

February 12

SAEKO CALLED Ryohei at his apartment early in the morning. Since he had no telephone in his room, he rushed downstairs to the building manager's office to take the call outside in the corridor.

Saeko seemed almost her normal self again.

When he heard what she was calling about, he couldn't believe his ears. Saeko said a letter had turned up that Yosuke had written before he died.

“A letter? You mean like a suicide note?”

“Something like that. I haven't read it yet. I thought it might be best if you went and had a look at it first.”

“Wait a minute. Go where? Who has it?”

“Someone at the company where my brother worked. I saw him at the funeral and we got talking about what to do with his personal effects which he'd left at the office. Then he asked me what I wanted to do about the private files my brother had been keeping on his work computer.”

“Private files?”

“It seems my brother sometimes used his computer at the office for typing up notes and stuff to do with outside research he'd been working on.”

“Is that so?”

“Each file has a name, so apparently that's how the man knew what they were. I said I'd be willing to pay if he'd send me the… What was it he called them—floppies? Apparently they're a bit like little LP records or something. Anyway, he said he couldn't do that because there was work-related stuff on them too. Plus he said I wouldn't be able to read them unless I had the right sort of computer and software. But apparently if I just want the documents themselves he can print them out and send them to me.”

“I see.”

“So he asked me if it was okay to print them out and erase the files afterward, and I said that was fine. Then last night he calls and says he found something that looks like a suicide note.”

“Hmm… strange.”

“It is strange, isn't it? He seemed quite concerned… said your name was mentioned in it. As a matter of fact, it seems to be addressed to you.”

“What! Really?”