Chapter 106 - Name and Reality 29 {Combined 52/53} (122-124, 125-126: Identification of Collaborators — Maneuvering Toward the Raid on Oshima's Office — Wake for the Boss's Wife)
A little after 3:00 PM on Friday, July 19th, Nishida was smoking a cigarette with Yoshimura in the break room of the Kitami Regional HQ. Yesterday and today, the investigation headquarters had been steadily making preparations for raids and arrests. To be precise, although it was the investigation headquarters, in order to manage information, participation was limited to only some of the investigators (especially Nishida's team), so the other investigators who were cut off from detailed information might have been quite dissatisfied inwardly.
However, even if it were a mistake, they wanted to avoid information leaks at all costs, so they were aware of that. Mitani and Nishida were also facing considerable continuous stress, including the care of their subordinates.
Already as of yesterday, it had been confirmed through a photo identification with Higashidate that the person Higashidate called "the old man" was Nakagawa Tomio, who had been Oshima Kaiji's local right-hand man and veteran secretary since before that time. As expected, he was Oshima's trusted subordinate. And he was also the person who had been accompanying Oshima Kaiji on a trip with supporters when Nishida and the others were staying at the Hotel Shochikubai in Onneyu Onsen in '95 to get Oshima's fingerprints.
On the other hand, regarding the pair thought to be Isaka Group employees, a list had not yet been created, and the comparison was carried over to tomorrow or later.
Also, in the morning, Sudo from the NPA's Organized Crime Department, having been contacted, raided the home of the deceased Sunpu Group executive Ohara, who was Higashidate's Aniki, and also heard the circumstances from his widow.
Nothing in particular came out of the raid, and from the wife, they obtained testimony that in the year their daughter was born, he had indeed been away from home for more than half a month under the pretext of a business trip, but as expected, it seemed Ohara had not disclosed anything important.
However, since her husband had just died, they had been reported that the detailed hearing was avoided, and it was settled as just a "brief touch." Of course, there was no doubt that the feeling on the Organized Crime Department side that important testimony probably wouldn't be obtained was also a major reason. The Kitami side also accepted that.
*
"Assistant Section Chief Nishida! Are you free now?"
Suddenly, the large-bodied Takekuma, a junior detective, called out as he briskly entered the room, and the two stared at Takekuma, wondering what was going on.
"Huh? Oh, I'm just on a break, so it's fine..."
When Nishida said that,
"About the Ainu language matter from the other day, I found out after asking my sister!"
He started saying.
"Hey, you... Doing that kind of thing..."
Nishida restrained Yoshimura with one hand as he was about to stop him in half-amazement,
"Oh, I see! You went out of your way to ask. That must have been a lot of trouble."
He responded.
"I thought you were busy, but I thought now would be okay... Is it a nuisance after all?"
Perhaps sensing it from Yoshimura's attitude, he gripped the paper he had brought and distorted his face as if he had done something wrong, but
"No, no, it's fine. Tell me."
Nishida tried to make sure Takekuma didn't lose heart.
"Then, I won't hold back."
With that, he took the paper out of his pocket again and began to explain.
"Regarding the 'mu' in 'Memu' (T/N: Author's note: In the case of Ainu, 'mu' is originally written in small characters), which is the origin of the town name Memuro, it seems that unlike Japanese, Ainu has consonant pronunciations like English. Japanese is made up of combinations of consonants and vowels, like the 50-character syllabary, right? But in English, even just 't', 'm', or 's' can function as a sound. It seems the Ainu pronunciation form has something similar to that. To denote the pronunciation of those consonants, they use these small kana or katakana."
"Ho... Come to think of it, I heard that Ainu doesn't have a writing system, so what about that?"
"Yes, that's right. Therefore, this seems to be a notation method devised after the Ainu people began to learn—or rather, were made to learn—Japanese."
Takekuma's story wasn't exactly easy for Nishida to understand, but he had brought it down to a level that could be understood to some extent. However, he hadn't told him the essential part yet, so Nishida requested it.
"So, this small 'mu,' how should it be pronounced in the end?"
"Ah, I accidentally skipped the most important thing... About that... As written on the paper my sister faxed me, please think of it as almost the same as the 'm' sound in the middle of the English word 'member.'"
"Member? If it's the 'm' in the middle, does that mean it's the part that corresponds to 'n' in Japanese?"
"Yes! Moreover, even if it's the 'n' in the Japanese pronunciation of 'member,' it's apparently exactly the same as the single 'm' sound in English."
"Eh? The Japanese pronunciation of 'member' is close to the English pronunciation as it is?"
Nishida was surprised by the somewhat unexpected story.
"Yes. But the part about being close to the English pronunciation is only for the 'mem' part of 'member,' to the end. Since the initial 'me' part can be almost the same as in Japanese, it's along with that."
"Please explain that more clearly."
As Nishida listened, he became more interested than he had expected.
"Well. For example, there's the Hepburn system for romaji, and usually, the 'n' sound is assigned 'n', right? But if there's a pronunciation accompanied by a plosive like 'b' or 'p' before it, 'n' sometimes changes to 'm', right? For example, the dance samba is written as 'samba'."
Takekuma's words and actions were like probing Nishida's level of understanding one by one, but in reality, it couldn't be helped since Nishida was also listening to the explanation while tracing his suspicious memories from his compulsory education days.
"Yeah, well, I think it was something like that..."
He replied with the words that he somehow understood.
"This conversion happens because plosives are always emitted from a state where the lips are closed, so it's necessary to close the lips once at the point of the 'n'. However, when we normally pronounce 'n', we don't particularly close our lips. For example, try pronouncing the word 'santa', which is similar to 'samba', and then pronounce 'samba'. You should be able to see the difference in the pronunciation of the 'n'."
Nishida tried saying it as Takekuma told him, and indeed, while he pronounced the "n" part of "santa" with his mouth open, he pronounced the "n" of "samba" with his mouth closed.
"Oh! It's certainly different! I see, there was such a specific difference."
Nishida was honestly impressed. On the other hand, Yoshimura watched the scene with an indescribable face.
"In other words, even for Japanese people, the English consonant 'm' sound is actually at a level that can be done normally on a daily basis. However, in Japanese notation and listening, the 'n' with the mouth open and the 'n' with the mouth closed are treated as the same 'n'. But when actually pronouncing it, there are cases where they can be distinguished." (T/N: Author's note: For details on this area, please refer to the following sites: http://honmono-eigo.com/shiin/mn-hatsuon.html http://note.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/detail/n42557)
"That's quite easy to understand. ...Anyway, the conclusion is that the pronunciation of the small 'mu' is fine with the 'n' sound of 'samba', right? And the pronunciation of the Ainu word 'Memu' would be the same as the 'mem' part of 'member'? In that case, is it correct that 'Memu-oro', which is the origin of Memuro, is correctly 'Mem-oro' in terms of the Japanese notation of the pronunciation itself?"
Nishida also couldn't keep up with this pace forever, so he sought a quick conclusion.
"Yes. That's exactly how it should be. Furthermore, for a Japanese person, the normal 'n' sound is fine. It's more accurate to be conscious of the 'm' type 'n' if possible, though..."
Takekuma replied while slightly hunching his large body and peering at Nishida's expression.
"Yeah, I see. This was quite easy to understand. Sorry for making you go to the trouble of looking it up. Give my regards to your sister who even wrote the explanation in the fax!"
With that, Nishida lightly tapped Takekuma's large back.
*
"Is it okay, going along with this kind of thing..."
After confirming that Takekuma had left, Yoshimura complained to Nishida in a pointed way.
"It's fine, isn't it? Since he went to the trouble of looking up what I asked him the other day, I can't just treat him coldly, can I? Besides, we're on a break now. It's not a stage where we should be that concerned about time, is it?"
"That's true, but he should also understand the importance of the case we're handling to some extent, right? He should realize that this isn't the time to be doing Ainu pronunciations or whatever... Somehow, not to mention a certain someone, but smart people sometimes can't read the room..."
The target of Yoshimura's grumbling seemed to have turned toward Takeshita in Monbetsu, but Nishida swallowed the words "You also can't read the room sometimes" and just ended his break.
*
"Still, I can't get used to Marine Day no matter how many years pass. Oh, was today Saturday?"
Yoshimura, who was heading to the interrogation room in the Kitami Station for Higashidate's interrogation, spoke to Nishida unilaterally, but Nishida's head was full of what was ahead, so he only gave a half-hearted reply. Even so, as Yoshimura said, Marine Day on July 20th (from the following year, 2003, it became the third Monday of July instead of a fixed date; the so-called Happy Monday Law) was a holiday that Nishida still hadn't gotten used to. Marine Day had first been treated as a holiday in '96, the year after the two became involved in the series of incidents.
Needless to say, even if it had already been a holiday that year, the two, who were in the middle of staking out Managing Director Kitagawa separately, would not have enjoyed it. However, now, seven years after it was established, they were once again unable to enjoy the holiday due to the investigation of the incident. In the first place, there's no such thing as a holiday for detectives on a shift system...
On this day, they finally intended to have Higashidate confirm the list of Isaka Group employees. Although they thought the possibility was high, it was still just an investigative inference, and whether they could confirm it here or not would have a major impact on the progress of the investigation. Both Nishida and Yoshimura hoped that the two who had cooperated with Higashidate and the others were in this list.
And although the investigation team had already listed two people as having the highest possibility, they decided to check everyone from the beginning so as not to conduct the hearing with prejudice.
As they had Higashidate check the list in the interrogation room, in about 15 minutes, they reached the part where the two people from seven years ago were pictured, who had been listed in advance. As they watched while slightly bracing themselves, he reacted as expected.
"Ah, it's definitely these guys! It's them!"
He tapped his index finger on each photo several times and looked at the two interrogators in front of him.
"No mistake?"
Nishida confirmed in a deliberately suppressed low voice, but
"You're persistent! I'm telling you it's definitely these guys!"
He showed an attitude of "Give me a break!" Of course, Nishida and the others didn't doubt the testimony, but it was necessary to make sure.
*
The two were employees of the Isaka Group named Sakamoto Hisashi and Itagaki Hayato. They were currently 28 and 26 years old, respectively, from the same middle school, with Sakamoto being one year older.
Each had graduated from middle school and, after working as civil engineering workers at Isaka Construction, a subsidiary of the Isaka Group, they were promoted to employees of the parent company Isaka Group nine years ago. Currently, Sakamoto is a deputy senior staff in the Construction Department, and Itagaki is a deputy senior staff in the Materials Department.
They were rank-and-file employees at the time of the incident, but looking at their educational background and age, it was a fairly rapid rise, while on the other hand, their work performance itself seemed to be actually quite good. It didn't seem to be perceived by those around them as an extreme promotion like the appointments of Kitagawa and Shinoda as executives at the time of the Sada Minoru murder case. Presumably, Isaka Masamitsu had "learned" from experiences such as undergoing voluntary questioning for the Sada Minoru murder case.
However, there were plausible rumors within the company that their salaries were better than their positions, and in fact, there was no doubt that the two were well-off. They drove popular luxury SUVs, wore luxury watches, and there was eyewitness information that they were frequenting high-end clubs in Kitami City night after night.
And above all, the two had been quite delinquent since their middle school days and belonged to the same delinquent group. Given their age, they didn't have a criminal record, but they had been involved in numerous delinquency cases and seemed to have been quite marked by the juvenile section of the Kitami Station's Community Safety Division at the time.
That delinquent group also seemed to have had a long-standing connection with the Souryuu-kai, which was closely related to the Isaka Group, and if the two were involved in the series of construction company shooting incidents, based on Higashidate's testimony, they might have had some relationship with the Souryuu-kai for shooting instruction and such. Above all, it was seen as highly likely that they had such a connection when they joined Isaka Construction.
*
"Good! For the time being, that's that for those two... By the way, the detectives in Tokyo went to raid and hear from Ohara's bereaved family."
When Nishida switched to a new topic that he hadn't conveyed to Higashidate yet,
"To the Aniki's place? I knew it would come to this, but I've caused trouble for that family too... But, I couldn't just not take revenge for the Aniki, so it can't be helped, right?"
He squeezed out his feelings.
"For the time being, since that happened recently, they seem to be striving for a cautious hearing over there, so I don't think you need to worry too much about that. Also, looking at the results of the raid, I don't think it'll cause major trouble for the family, will it?"
Nishida spoke in a way that was somewhat considerate of Higashidate.
"Now, I think another son has been born, and there should be three in the family... Even so, the Aniki, the breadwinner, is gone; the wife must have been depressed, but was everyone doing well?"
Asked this, Nishida hesitated for a moment, but
"Yeah, so I've heard."
The words came out of his mouth before he thought. Nishida hadn't been reported on such details by Sudo, but for some reason, he felt like glossing it over.
*
"Why did you say something so half-baked? I heard they were being lenient, though."
On the way back from the interrogation room, Yoshimura questioned Nishida.
"I don't know myself. I just didn't want Higashidate to regret confessing..."
He tried to analyze himself that way, but
"That would be one thing if Higashidate was properly reflecting and repenting, but the main purpose of his confession is just revenge for his Aniki, right? Is there really a need to be that considerate?"
Returning with a gesture that was clearly skeptical, Yoshimura began to walk slightly faster than Nishida from there.
Afterward, an investigation meeting by the investigation headquarters leadership began. Now that the three who aided and cooperated in the hospital shooting incident had been identified, the remaining issues were what to do about the raid on Oshima's campaign office, the timing of the arrest of the three, and what to do about Isaka Masamitsu, the president of the Isaka Group.
Unless there were traces of accidental discharge left for sure, the raid would not only be meaningless but would also give the influential opponent a pretext for a "counterattack." The possibility of collecting other traces of Higashidate and the others' stay, such as fingerprints, was even lower, so for that reason, they wanted to grasp that there were traces of shooting before the raid. If it were immediately after the incident instead of seven years later, a normal "one-shot" raid might have been possible, but the wall of time made them hesitate.
Furthermore, they wanted to arrest Isaka at the same time if possible, to clarify his involvement in the series of incidents without giving him time to destroy evidence. That said, in the current situation, even if they could predict that he had given some instructions (as solicitation or conspiracy joint principal) to the two young employees regarding both the construction company and hospital shooting incidents, whether they could actually arrest them with the current "materials" was a fairly delicate line. A forced arrest wasn't impossible, but the other side would have Lawyer Matsuda, the consultant who had troubled them seven years ago, and they wanted to avoid an outcome that would result in an advantage for the opponent.
"What about the collaborator for the 'internal investigation' before the raid? Can't one be found?"
Criminal Investigation Director Koyabu looked around at the attendees to confirm, but not a single person raised their hand. Of course, he asked knowing that, but he had a gloomy face.
"To be honest, it's quite a difficult selection of people to find someone who has a relationship close enough to enter Oshima's office, yet will cooperate with the police and not speak out... It's unavoidable that it won't go so easily."
Tegoshi-kanrikan spoke for the frank impressions of all the attendees.
"That's the bottleneck after all."
Out of irritation, Koyabu wrote some characters on the whiteboard behind him that were indistinguishable to others. Perhaps realizing it was meaningless, he quickly erased them himself.
"What about the vendors who go in and out of the office?"
"We've considered that too, but it would be tough for the vendors to go against a local influential person. First of all, wouldn't we have to be quite careful at the point of requesting this from those 'targets,' just as when dealing with individuals?"
Nishida was also at a loss on this point.
"The current situation is that we can't search for collaborators across the entire police force, so our options are limited. After all, regarding the top secrets, even the other members of the investigation headquarters are doing it without the full picture being revealed."
Section Chief Mitani also didn't hide his attitude of giving up.
"We're so close. Can't we do something!"
Koyabu's frustrated roar only echoed hollowly in the meeting room.
*
Sunday, July 21st. Nishida and the others, who were searching for an arrest case for Isaka Masamitsu, received interesting information from Sanada, who was conducting an internal investigation. At several trading companies, there was information that about three years ago, Isaka occasionally received blank receipts without anything written on them. Sanada reported that he might be writing in the amounts himself to inflate expenses.
Originally, regarding tax-related matters, the Isaka Group and the Isaka family were clean, as the former Section Chief Kurusu had told Nishida during the investigation seven years ago, but has the wave of the construction recession finally swallowed them up...
However, for the investigation team, it was a godsend. A chance for a separate arrest for forgery of private documents had emerged. If they couldn't arrest Isaka, a case that seemed to involve taxes could be troublesome in terms of investigation due to the intervention of tax authorities, but if they could secure Isaka himself, there was no need to worry about that. Nishida instructed Sanada to proceed further with the internal investigation.
Monday, July 22nd. Nishida took the plunge and proposed to Koyabu in the Criminal Investigation Director's office to share overall investigation information within a certain range in the criminal investigation divisions of the Kitami Regional HQ and the Kitami Station. By doing this, the aim was to increase the "veins" for finding a connection that could enter Oshima Kaiji's office and would cooperate with the investigation.
Originally, the strict management of investigation information was what Nishida had advocated, but this was also a virtual withdrawal of that policy. Even though the collaborators of the incident had been smoked out by Higashidate's testimony, just wasting time would mean missing the opportunity for arrest. Reaching a conclusion on whether they could raid Oshima Kaiji's office at an early stage and, if possible, conducting the raid and the arrest of the three at the same time was the most sought-after investigation.
The problem was the information leak due to the expansion of the information-sharing targets, but they tried to overcome this by finding collaborators in a short period. In the first place, looking at the flow recently, Nishida didn't have the feeling that information was leaking outside, and he thought it might be okay to loosen the management a bit.
However, to repeat, it was naturally necessary to find them in as short a period as possible, preferably within a few days. Needless to say, it also had an aspect of a kind of gamble. Koyabu and Mitani showed a certain understanding of Nishida's proposal, but considering the reason they had supported Nishida's information management line in the first place, it goes without saying that they also showed concern.
"Can you find them quickly? The longer it drags on, the more difficult information management becomes, you know?"
Mitani seemed to be of the opinion that they should stick to the previous line if anything.
"But we can't just leave it like this."
"That's true, but even if there's no leak from the investigators, we'll be requesting someone we've identified as a collaborator in a state where it's not clear if they'll cooperate or not, and we'll be asking them to investigate certain things, and if they're told 'Keep it quiet,' the person requested will wonder 'What's going on?'..."
Koyabu was also certainly not enthusiastic, to say the least.
"First, after providing information to the investigators, if there's someone they can ask for a 'preview' of the raid, let's have them list who that is properly. And let's go in the direction of permitting execution only for those we can give the go-ahead to."
To such a claim by Nishida,
"That's true, but we've practically been trying to do that until now... It's just that until now, there was no selection process for collaborators by us."
Koyabu replied.
"If we do that properly, I think we can manage for a short period!"
Nishida didn't flinch and pressed the two for a decision.
"...Fine, if Nishida says that much, let's do it."
In the end, Koyabu reluctantly agreed after being pushed, but he didn't seem very convinced.
When they returned to the investigation headquarters, Yoshimura spoke to Nishida while holding the morning edition of the Hokkaido Shinpo.
"It seems the Boss's wife died yesterday."
With that, he showed the obituary column to Nishida. Obituaries for Engaru also appear in the Kitami area's obituary column.
"Ah, so she didn't make it after all..."
Nishida said that and sensed the Boss's feelings.
"That's right... You can go for just three hours. I'll manage to arrange that much time. We're in the middle of slightly revising the investigation policy, and there's nothing that needs to be done immediately right now."
Even though the investigation had stalled, leaving during the investigation of a big case for personal reasons would normally never be allowed, but Nishida made an exceptionally lenient judgment, thinking it would be fine to let him go if he was just going to be on standby anyway.
"No, is it really okay?"
To Yoshimura, who repeated the confirmation in a low voice many times,
"I said it's fine! Oh, and also, please take some condolence money from me too. Have the bank change it into crisp bills."
With that, Nishida took a 10,000 yen bill from his wallet and entrusted it to Yoshimura.
"Understood. Then, I'm sorry, but I'll head home quickly and go straight there."
With that, he dashed out of the room.
*
According to Yoshimura, who returned from the wake after 9:00, the Boss had actually been told by the doctor this spring to be prepared. That said, he couldn't hide the sadness of losing the wife he had been with for many years.
His son, who lives in Asahikawa and returned for his mother's death, apparently told him, "Why don't you come here on this occasion?" The shop's management also seemed to be struggling, and Yoshimura reported to Nishida that he seemed to be considering it quite seriously.
*
July 23rd. While searching for someone who could think of a person who would cooperate in the preliminary investigation of the raid after providing information within the criminal investigation divisions of the Kitami Regional HQ and the Kitami Station, they found a detective in the theft section of the Kitami Station whose father was in Oshima's supporters' association. The father himself had originally joined due to work connections, so he wasn't particularly a supporter of Oshima, and he would definitely cooperate.
That detective's name was Kagawa. His father currently resides in Tokoro Town (which became part of the current Kitami City Tokoro in 2006 due to a merger), but he used to work at the Kitami Chamber of Commerce office. Kagawa's judgment was that even if something happened, it wouldn't cause trouble for him now, nor would he be troubled, but of course, he hadn't confirmed it directly with his father, and the final judgment would be after that. However, it was certain that the view had opened up a bit.
July 24th. Kagawa conveyed his father's answer. Unlike Kagawa's preliminary judgment, he was quite reluctant. The reason was simple. For himself, who has now retired, there is no problem, but he still has to think about the people remaining in the Chamber of Commerce and such.
However, in the end, since no suitable person other than Kagawa's father was found, Nishida requested Kagawa again to persuade his father to cooperate. And on the night of that day, a call came from Kagawa in Tokoro saying that he had somehow managed to persuade him. He had gone all the way to Tokoro Town to persuade him directly. Just as Nishida was thanking Kagawa for his dedicated cooperation and the clue to resolving the case was clearly visible, he heard words from Kagawa's mouth that threw him straight into the depths of hell.
"My old man says, 'The next social gathering for supporters is on August 8th, before Obon, so then,' but is that okay? I'm not directly involved in the investigation, so I don't really know, but it's fine, right?"
"Wait a minute! He can't enter the office until that day?"
"Yeah. Even if he's a supporter, he's not the enthusiastic type who goes to the office frequently, and he says that if it's going to the 4th floor, he can only think of the social gathering."
At this point, the investigation leadership, led by Nishida, realized they had made a terrible mistake. Even if someone could enter the office, they couldn't enter at any time, nor could they go freely to any room. Unless they were a very important supporter or associate for Oshima, there would naturally be limits.
And there was an even bigger problem. The detention for Higashidate's murder was limited to 20 days including extensions, and the final day was August 3rd. No, to be precise, since August 3rd was a Saturday, due to the issue of the prosecutor's settlement, they had to decide whether to indict by Friday, August 2nd. Depending on the charges, it's not impossible to extend it for another five days, but it's not applied except for specific serious crimes such as insurrection, so it naturally cannot be applied in Higashidate's case.
If that's the case, it's necessary to indict Higashidate for murder by then, but as expected, unlike at the time of arrest, they couldn't help but leak the information "Indictment of the perpetrator of the Kitami Kyoritsu Hospital shooting incident" to the news organizations.
If that happens, it will inevitably be conveyed to the people who participated and cooperated in the hospital shooting incident at the time that "the hand of the investigation is approaching." In that case, it wouldn't be strange if they moved to destroy evidence or flee. That's exactly why it's necessary to finish the raid and the arrest of the target persons before Higashidate's indictment for murder.
"This is bad. Was the outlook too naive..."
Koyabu stood up regretfully and walked around the window of the Criminal Investigation Director's office, but since he himself was involved in that judgment, he couldn't blame anyone, and he sat back down deeply in his chair.
"Either way, time is quite limited, and we can say there's no possibility of more collaborators coming from inside. If it comes down to it, we may have to be prepared to burst in without an internal investigation."
When Nishida said that,
"No, no! If the opponent were an ordinary person, that would be fine, but since failure of the raid is absolutely not allowed, we have to confirm in advance that there are definitely bullet marks, right? If it's been remodeled, it'll all be for nothing. It's true that even without bullet holes, the involvement of Oshima's office can be proven with several disclosures of secrets, but if we raid it and no bullet holes appear, it will actually give the other side a pretext to cast doubt on the credibility of Higashidate's testimony to some extent... Not to mention the opponent is Oshima. A single ant hole can become a large hole."
Mitani strongly countered.
"But can we really afford to say such leisurely things? I don't think so."
In response to Nishida, who countered with heat, Koyabu said,
"It's not an ordinary case! If things go south, it could involve not only the head of the Kitami region but also the HQ, no, even the NPA!"
He scolded him clearly for once. Even so, Nishida did not break his attitude of not being convinced.