The Case of the Sharaku Murders (9 page)

“You mean you'd be willing to come with me? If so, I could go a bit later if that's better for you,” suggested Ryohei hopefully.

“Thanks a lot… but on second thought, it's impossible. As much as I'd like to go, there's no point going up for just one day.

“In that case, maybe I could go,” said Saeko, who had just come in carrying two steaming cups of coffee. She spoke as though the idea had just popped into her head.

“Don't be ridiculous,” retorted Yosuke, flustered. “You'd just get in Ryohei's way. Anyway, don't you have work to do?”

“That's no problem. Unlike you, I've got plenty of vacation time saved up.”

“Yeah, but… You see what I'm up against, Ryohei?” said Yosuke, giving him a pained look. “This is what I have to deal with all the time.” Then, to Saeko he said: “You need to get your priorities straight. This is not a game, you know.”

Taken aback by the unexpected turn the conversation had taken, Ryohei sat lost for words.

“But I
do
understand. You want to go but you can't, right? Well, I can go in your place and report back to you every day. That's okay with you, isn't it, Ryohei?”

“It's fine with me,” Ryohei blurted out before he could stop himself.

“There. See? Ryohei says it's okay with him. Don't worry, I won't get in his way.”

“Yeah, but… He doesn't have much of a choice, did he? You're so damned persistent.”

“That's not so.”

“What's not so? You just never give up… I don't know where you get it from,” said Yosuke, crossing his arms and heaving a deep sigh.

“Ryohei, I won't be in your way, will I?” Saeko asked again.

“Not at all,” replied Ryohei, less than thrilled about the idea. “As long as it's okay with you, Saeko, I—”

“There, it's settled!” she said, snapping her fingers as she looked at the two men.

Yosuke grudgingly relented.

3

The Sharaku Enigma

O
ctober
31
      IT WAS SUNDAY. Ryohei was waiting for Saeko at the exit to Morioka Station. She was due to arrive on the 11:02 a.m. Shinkansen from Sendai. As the minutes ticked by, Ryohei felt his pulse quicken.

I wonder if she'll really be on the train
.

Saeko had said she couldn't get away from work until Sunday at the earliest, so they agreed to meet up in Morioka because to get to Kosaka one first had to go to Morioka and take the Hanawa Line, then change trains again at Odate. It was better for Ryohei, since he wanted to stop off at his parents' house in Morioka in any case. Still, he was a bit anxious about Saeko traveling separately. There was no telling if somewhere along the way she might suddenly change her mind about making a trip like this, alone with a man. Ryohei grew impatient.

At last the Shinkansen from Sendai arrived. A stream of passengers began descending the stairs from the train platform. Ryohei scanned the crowd looking for Saeko.

“The whole time on the train I was wondering what I would do if you weren't there,” said Saeko calmly, once they had sat down at a café inside the train station building. They still had a bit of time to kill before they caught the train bound for Kosaka.

“But of course I would come. This is
my
work, after all. As for you not coming… Well, that's another matter altogether.”

“I talked to my brother on the phone last night and got bawled out again,” said Saeko, smiling as she sipped her chai. “He said, ‘Remember, you're not a tourist, so don't spend all your popping into souvenir shops.' What does he take me for? ‘I'm not a kid anymore!' I told him.”

Despite her grumbling, Saeko was in high spirits. She wore a beige jacket with orange herringbone embroidery and a pair of matching corduroy slacks.

“By the way, what's up with that?” she said, looking at the large suit bag Ryohei had next to him with curiosity.

“I thought I better bring it just in case.”

“But we'll only be gone three days, right?”

“You never know who we might meet. I didn't think I could walk around like this all the time.” Ryohei was wearing a heavy gray cardigan over a while turtleneck. The color scheme was sober but it was a decidedly casual outfit.

“I see… I guess I was approaching this all wrong. I'd been thinking of it as a fun little excursion. Boy, you must think I'm totally clueless,” replied Saeko, playfully shrugging her shoulders.

“Not at all. You're doing me a favor. When I'm on my own I tend to jump to conclusions. You can help keep me on track. Plus you'll be able to sound out Yosuke's opinion.”

“Oh, speaking of which, I need to give my brother a call.” Saeko stood up and walked over to a red payphone in one corner of the café and dialed a number but Yosuke was not in his office so she soon returned to the table. Ryohei proceeded to ask her advice on their plans for the day.

“You've got me. I'm not familiar with this neck of the woods. I'll leave everything up to you.”

“At this rate we should get to Kosaka by evening. The question is, where do we spend the night? I talked to the brother of an old high school friend of mine who lives up in Odate. He said Kosaka has two or three old-fashioned ryokans. Since it's Sunday, we should be able to get a room, but I imagine that doesn't appeal much to you…”

“A ryokan, huh?” Saeko looked thoughtful.

“On the other hand, Odate has a number of modern hotels. Even if we left immediately, we wouldn't reach Kosaka in time to start our research today. Besides it's Sunday, so the town hall will be closed. It's probably best if we stay in Odate tonight and continue on to Kosaka early tomorrow morning—it's not far.”

“When you say ‘not far,' how long does it take?”

“My friend's brother said it's about thirty minutes by train. The trip from Odate to Kosaka is apparently quite scenic.”

“Is it? In that case, I think that's what we should do. I have to say, it
would
be rather fun to stay at a ryokan and lounge around in yukatas sipping sake…”

“Don't be silly. If Yosuke heard you say that he'd be
really
mad.”

Saeko giggled. Apparently Ryohei's earnestness amused her.

“So, it's settled then,” continued Ryohei, pretending to ignore her. “We'll stay in Odate tonight.”

Saeko nodded. Ryohei stood up, took out his address book, and walked over to the telephone. Saeko watched him, looking pleased with herself.

“Okay, I booked the hotel,” Ryohei said when he returned to the table. “I just spoke to my friend's brother in Odate who works for a travel agent. He's taken care of everything. It seems there's a hotel next to the train station, though I'm afraid our rooms will be a little far apart,” he said with as much nonchalance as he could muster.

BEING THE MIDDLE of a Sunday, the Hanawa Line train bound for Odate was fairly empty. Ryohei and Saeko sat down next to a window facing each other on a pair of cushioned benches designed to seat four people. The trip from Morioka to Odate would take three hours.

“Boy, we're going to be stuck on this train until four o'clock,” said Saeko looking up from her railway time schedule.

At Koma the train branched to the left away from the Tohoku Main Line and began running through paddy fields. Off to one side, across the fields with their cut stalks left over from the rice harvest, rose a range of mountains dyed the colors of autumn. The sun shone all around. Inside the train, warm air blasted out from the heaters beneath the seats. Some of the other passengers had pulled the blinds down over the windows and were resting, stretched out on the seats.

“That's strange…” said Saeko, frowning, as she pointed to far-off Mount Iwate. She had been staring out the window for some time. “That's the same mountain I saw from the platform at the station, isn't it?”

The first thing to greet one's eyes as one alighted from the Shinkansen in Morioka was the majestic peak of Mount Iwate rising in the distance. At six thousand seven hundred feet, it was the highest mountain in Iwate Prefecture and, like Mount Fuji, was an almost perfect cone-shaped volcano. Its beauty was slightly marred by the fact that one slope had collapsed long ago during an eruption. People sometimes referred to it as “Fuji viewed from the south.”

“You're surprised its shape looks so different, is that it? You see, the Hanawa Line skirts the side of the mountain. This side is called the ‘back of Iwate.' From Morioka you were looking at it from the opposite angle.”

The serene impression one got of the mountain from Morioka station had vanished. The “back of Iwate” was bare and rugged where lava had torn away the side of the mountain as it gushed from the mouth of the crater.

“Look over there.” Ryohei pointed about halfway up the mountain to three jagged overhangs. “That looks like an eagle, doesn't it? The rock in the middle is the head and the two outcroppings on either side are its outstretched wings. People around here sometimes refer to Mount Iwate as Eagle Rock Mountain,” Ryohei explained proudly. Ever since he was a child, the mountain had held a special place in his heart, and he had climbed to the top any number of times.

Though the fields down below were bathed in warm autumn sunshine, the peak of the mountain glimmered with newly fallen snow.

BY THE TIME Ryohei and Saeko arrived at Odate Station it was already getting dark, a thick layer of cloud having blocked out the setting sun.

For a city of some eighty thousand people, Odate's train station was surprisingly quiet. Though Odate was the meeting point for two train lines—the Hanawa Line and the Ou Main Line—the station was some distance from the center of town. The closest station to downtown Odate was actually East Odate, which they passed one stop back. Apart from passengers changing trains to the Ou Main Line, few people got off at Odate Station. Moreover, being Sunday, there were hardly any schoolchildren about. The station felt desolate and lonely.

The hotel, which was just visible from the station, was an imposing seven-story building which towered above the mostly two-story dwellings that lined the street in front of the station.

Inside, Ryohei approached the front desk and gave his name. Just then he heard someone call to him from the back of the lobby. He turned to see a young man, who bowed first to him and then to Saeko.

“Say, you didn't have to come meet us,” said Ryohei, raising a hand in greeting.

“I waited at the station for a while but it was too cold, so I came here. I figured this was where you'd end up anyway.” The man approached, and Ryohei introduced Saeko to him.

“This is my friend Kudo who booked our rooms for us.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Kudo. He had large clear eyes and wore his hair in a short perm. He was three years younger than Ryohei.

Saeko bowed and thanked him for his help.

“Boy, you really surprised me just now. Ryohei told me there were two of you, but he didn't say anything about one being a beautiful woman.”

“Is that so?”

“If he had, I certainly wouldn't have come down here to invite him out for a drink. I assumed he was just with some university pal of his.”

The three of them were seated in the lobby chatting. Kudo had come to the hotel intending to take Ryohei out on the town and show him a bit of the local nightlife. Working for a travel agent, he knew all the hot spots. But having met Saeko, he did not pursue the matter any further.
No doubt
,
thought Ryohei,
he's holding back because of her
.
Instead Kudo asked them about their plans.

“By the way,” he said. “I've got a drinking buddy who works at the Kosaka mine. I'll get him to show you around. How ‘bout I give him a ring and have him meet you at the station?”

“But tomorrow's Monday,” said Ryohei. “He must have to work.”

“Nah, he's free during the day. The mine has three shifts, you see. I went ahead and checked with him when I heard you were planning to visit Kosaka.”

“We shouldn't, really. I'm sure we'd be putting him to a lot of trouble.”

“He won't mind. In fact, he's looking forward to it.”

“Well, in that case, he'd really be helping us out.”

“So you'll be going to Kakunodate the day after tomorrow?”

“Yeah, we're planning to take the first train.”

“You know, I could take Tuesday off. I'd be happy to give you a ride there—that is, if you don't mind going by car.” Ryohei and Saeko looked at one another. “It takes about six hours by train,” Kudo added. “By car, it's a little over two.”

“We'd appreciate that a lot,” responded Ryohei. “But I'm not sure I want to be so indebted to you.” He gave Kudo a mischievous smile.

“Don't mention it. Wednesday's a national holiday so I'll get two days off. I hardly ever get an excuse to use up my vacation time, so you'll actually be doing me a favor,” Kudo replied, scratching his head.

Ryohei and Saeko decided to indulge themselves and accepted Kudo's offer gladly.

When they had finished discussing the details, the two walked Kudo to the hotel entrance and said goodnight to him. Outside it had become completely dark and the wind had picked up. Ryohei and Saeko abandoned the idea of going out and decided to eat in the hotel instead. It was still too early for dinner. Having left Sendai early that morning and spent all day riding trains, Saeko looked tired. They agreed to go to their rooms to rest and meet up again in the lobby in two hours.

The rooms were on the fifth floor. Getting out of the elevator, Saeko was about to head off in the direction of her room when Ryohei asked her to wait. Then he took a thick manila folder out of his bag and held it out to her. Before leaving Tokyo he had made copies of all the research material he had collected on Sharaku.

“What? All this!” gasped Saeko.

“Well, there's also some stuff in here about the Akita School… Anyway, weren't you the one who said you wanted to read up on Sharaku?” Ryohei asked with a sadistic smile. “This just covers the basics but it should be enough to be getting on with.”

“Well, if it's just the basics, I did my homework before coming, you know.” Smiling, Saeko took the heavy folder, put it under her arm with some effort, and turned and headed toward her room.

Ryohei took a shower, changed, and went down to the lobby a bit ahead of time. He had discovered there was a small café near the front desk. While alcohol wasn't among his vices, Ryohei was rather a caffeine addict.

Having ordered, he took a seat so that he had a clear view of the lobby. Then he took out the research notebook he was carrying with him and opened it before him on the table. He had planned to draw up the following day's schedule, but he suddenly found his mind was blank.

As an art historian, Ryohei was not accustomed to doing fieldwork. He felt somewhat at a loss. In the past, while working on various research projects, he had gone to visit the grave of some ukiyo-e artist or talked to one or another expert. But that was only to take pictures or confirm what he already knew. He had a clear idea of where he was going from the outset. This time things were different. He had absolutely no idea where to begin.