Chapter 129 - Name and Reality 52 {80 Solo} (185–187: Investigation Moves Following Weekly Magazine Article)
On Friday, August 23, detention on new charges was successfully decided, and full-scale interrogation had resumed. However, while the other three were one thing, Nakagawa still showed no sign of correcting his stubborn attitude. He was haggard, but as a man who had once prepared himself for death, Nishida felt his toughness had actually increased.
If Nakagawa's loyalty to Oshima unfortunately surpassed Nishida's own obsession with the investigation, it was a truly frustrating development. However, if he conducted a reckless interrogation to overturn that, there was a risk of a counterproductive situation. While tormented by a sense of impatience, the interrogation—a test of endurance—continued.
Needless to say, his subordinates must have been accumulating stress as well. However, thinking back to seven years ago, Nishida asked himself if there was any way that he or Yoshimura, at least, could find this unbearable.
In the midst of this, on Thursday, August 29, after the request for extension of detention for the four was made, Takagaki contacted Nishida directly. He said that Sensuku had judged it 'good to go' after their reporting and planned to publish the article in mid-September.
"I'm truly sorry for the trouble this time," Nishida apologized formally.
"Nishida-san, do you really mean that from the bottom of your heart? I'm pretty busy over here, you know!" Takagaki said with a laugh. Nishida broke into a cold sweat inwardly, feeling seen through—if he truly felt sorry for Takagaki, he wouldn't have so easily agreed to such a sudden idea, even if Takeshita had led it. However, it was also true that he couldn't afford to worry about Takagaki's circumstances.
"Setting that aside, how is it? Does it look like you can deal enough damage to the Keiyo Hospital side to make them retract the Director's appointment?" Nishida immediately got to the main point to cover his tracks.
"No, it's not like I did the reporting directly... I don't know the details, but from what I've heard second-hand from the guys who did, it's at a level where they might just be able to crumble the fortress of Director Sakuma's regime. You shouldn't get your hopes up too high, but if it's a question of whether there's a possibility or not, I think you can assume there is."
Judging from the tone at the start of the conversation, Nishida felt that Takagaki was actually quite expectant, contrary to his words.
"By the way, how's it going? The investigation. Putting aside the details, is Oshima's arrest feasible? Takeshita-san won't tell me the details either, but it seems he's heard various things and was hinting at it... There's also the matter of the press conference ten days ago... Even if we're both outsiders, my standing is different from Takeshita-san's for you, so it can't be helped, but couldn't you at least tell me the general atmosphere?"
It was rare for Takagaki to speak so humbly, as if gauging Nishida's mood, but Nishida thought he should provide at least some explanation of the situation since he was receiving so much cooperation.
"If the situation reaches a point where Oshima's medical certificate is retracted, I believe the Kitami Regional HQ side is becoming prepared to request an arrest warrant at any time. However, when it comes to maintaining the case from indictment to trial, there are still various issues. Ah, please don't leak this to the Sensuku side. I'm sure Takeshita has already warned you, but..."
"Yeah, I obviously understand that. The reason I went out of my way to pull strings while I'm busy is because I want Oshima crushed. I won't do anything stupid that might hinder that, so you don't have to worry about that. Anyway, hearing that much is enough. The rest will be what it will be!"
After saying that, Takagaki let out a laugh, displaying his usual boldness. Then he asked, "By the way, Nishida-san, do you remember the North Korea-related talk I mentioned during the office bombing?"
"Ah... yes."
"That, it seems it'll be announced soon that formal negotiations for normalization of diplomatic relations will take place."
"Heh, is that so? You've been doing various things since then, haven't you?"
"Yeah. I don't know what the route is, but word reached my ears that it's been officially decided. Well, it's not related to the investigation, but since I was involved a bit, I'm telling you just in case."
Indeed, for Nishida, it was something that no longer mattered, but it likely meant that even as a freelance journalist, Takagaki's information network connections were quite strong.
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Friday, August 30. After passing Saturday the 31st, the requests for extension of detention for each suspect starting from Sunday, September 1, were also successfully granted. Nishida returned to the investigation headquarters in the evening after confirming the interrogation of Nakagawa, who remained silent regarding the allegations as usual. Then Yoshimura, who had returned earlier, pointed at the television screen, saying only, "They're doing it." Prime Minister Takamatsu was on the screen, appearing to be in the middle of a stand-up press conference.
"Did something happen?" Nishida asked, not quite understanding.
"Look, that talk about diplomatic relations with North Korea that came up during the Shiun Association office bombing seems to have materialized," Yoshimura said. Nishida moved closer to the TV, focusing on the audio as well as the image. It seemed Takamatsu was announcing that he would visit North Korea on Tuesday, September 17, to hold a summit meeting with North Korean Chairman Kim for normalization negotiations. They would also discuss resolving the abduction issue and other matters.
"Just as Takagaki-san said yesterday..."
At Nishida's muttered words, Yoshimura remarked, "Heh! Takagaki-san had a handle on this story too. Impressive! But no matter how you look at it, after that incident, the route to Shiun and Sunpu through the Eda-gumi must have been cut even if it had been secured before then, and if it happened before it was established, it wouldn't have become a route at all. They must have been negotiating through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs route alone, presumably." Yoshimura spoke quite plausibly without even looking properly at the screen.
"As for what happened, we outsiders have no way of knowing in the end. It seems Takagaki-san hadn't heard the details about that area either," Nishida prefaced, but then sat down while uttering a half-despairing line: "The bombing perpetrators still haven't spilled the chain of command, so clarifying the truth will be impossible for the bombing case as well..."
"The world seems quite surprised that this talk came out so suddenly, but since we know the inside story, it makes us feel a bit like insiders," Yoshimura said, perhaps knowing Nishida's feelings or not, but this time his tone was upbeat.
"I suppose... Politics and diplomacy are originally completely out of our field, but since getting involved in this case, all sorts of things have happened," Nishida agreed.
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On September 1, an interesting email arrived from Takeshita. It said that Hiraishi, a restaurant owner who had already been arrested and indicted for stimulant use and who had accused Inspector Iwata of stimulant possession, had committed suicide at the Sapporo Detention Branch on August 29. Hiraishi had previously played the role of an 'S' (police slang for spy) working as Iwata's pawn.
Moreover, Hiraishi's method of suicide was quite unnatural, and rumors that he might have been 'erased' were being whispered plausibly among the reporters covering the police beat. Needless to say, Nishida thought that while Takeshita was quoting others, he likely agreed with that view himself. And if that were the case, he feared the situation might be more serious than he thought. However, for Nishida at that time, even though it was within the Hokkaido Prefectural Police, it was still a 'distant' story, and given his department, he strongly felt there was nothing he could do about it.
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On the news on the night of Wednesday, September 4, it was reported that with normalization negotiations imminent, a suspicious vessel believed to be a North Korean spy ship had appeared again in international waters off the coast of Toyama Prefecture, and the Japan Coast Guard and Maritime Self-Defense Force had pursued it. Fortunately, it left the warning zone (more accurately, the Air Defense Identification Zone), so they stopped the pursuit without anything happening, but it seemed they had no intention of stopping their clandestine activities even at this stage.
Sunday, September 8. It was decided that Nakagawa, who still wouldn't say anything important, would now be arrested and detained for incitement to violate the Swords and Firearms Control Law in the hospital shooting incident. If things continued this way, he would likely be arrested for incitement for each construction company shooting incident, so including extensions of detention, it could result in a considerable number of days of detention spanning several months. It was unclear how far the court would allow it, but there was no doubt it would be granted with a fairly high probability. To be honest, even for those conducting the interrogation, while it might be correct in terms of the pursuit of justice, from the perspective of effectiveness and humanity, this parade of detention extensions could not be said to be entirely without questionable points.
Monday afternoon, September 9. To arrest Nakagawa for incitement to violate the Swords and Firearms Control Law (use of handguns, etc.) in the Kutani Construction case—the first construction company shooting—and to arrest both Sakamoto and Itagaki for the violation in the Murayama-gumi shooting, and further to arrest Isaka Masamitsu for aiding and abetting murder in the hospital shooting, an arrest warrant was requested from the Kitami Branch of the Kushiro District Court.
It was expected to be granted by tomorrow morning, and they would be able to successfully imprison them within the detention period. It was a long-term battle, but to bring down Oshima, they had no choice but to do everything they could. Of course, indictments for the previous detention cases were also confirmed, and the charges against the four were steadily piling up, but if they couldn't indict Oshima for murder, it would lose much of its meaning.
In the midst of this, contact came from Takeshita. The galley (a trial print before proofreading; also called galley proof. Originally the frame board for setting type for letterpress printing called a galley) data for the exposé in Weekly Sensuku—the vanguard of the 'Hospital Conspiracy,' an approach different from the investigation—was ready, and Takagaki had faxed it to Takeshita, so he wanted to send it to Nishida's and Yoshimura's homes. Since he likely hesitated to send it to their workplace at the Kitami Regional HQ, he must have opted for home delivery.
According to Takeshita, the article was quite well-done considering the lack of time. However, he pointed out that the suspicions regarding the politicians who applied pressure were quite restrained. Considering the possibility of giving the other side ammunition if the background checks on the politicians were weak, they apparently focused the attack on the hospital side. Still, if Takeshita felt the article was promising, then it must be so, and Nishida looked forward to seeing it after returning home.
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When he returned home late at night and checked the galleys, he found that the stories likely told by Mitsuoka, the former Higashi Nippon Shinbun reporter, and the doctors were described quite specifically. Things that would normally require time for background checks were likely completed in this amount of time because they were already on the verge of being materialized as newspaper articles.
Needless to say, Takagaki's rushing them likely played a part, but this should make it in time for the latest issue to be released on Friday, September 13. He hoped this would have some ripple effect on the personnel matters at Keiyo Hospital, but he couldn't deny that there was some wishful thinking involved. With a prayerful feeling, Nishida folded it small and neatly and tucked it into the notebook where he had been jotting down the investigation status like a diary.
Tuesday, September 10. The indictment and re-arrest of the four were carried out. And it was confirmed that the trial of Yamazato, the Soryu-kai executive who had taught Sakamoto and Itagaki how to shoot, for incitement to violate the Swords and Firearms Control Law would open on October 1. They had interrogated him about various things, but since it was almost certain he didn't specifically know about or wasn't involved in the Kitami Kyoritsu Hospital shooting, they decided to bring him to trial early for the time being.
Because Higashidate's charges were heavy and he was involved with Nakagawa and the others, even though he was confessing honestly, it seemed his trial would be much later.
Wednesday, September 11. On this day, the government raised the ship believed to be a North Korean spy ship, which had scuttled itself at the end of the previous year, from within China's EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone). Although an agreement had already been reached with the Chinese government in June, the raising just before the visit to North Korea, along with the appearance of the North Korean spy ship on the 4th, could be said to be part of the maneuvering between Japan and North Korea. And the detention requests for the four made in the morning were granted that same evening, and detention began.
Thursday, September 12. Although it was before the official release date, Takagaki contacted him to say that the Weekly Sensuku article was already circulating in the Tokyo metropolitan area and was becoming quite a topic of conversation. It was still unknown what kind of impact it would have on the hospital's personnel matters, but there was no doubt that these two weeks until October would be the major key to whether outsiders could gain power.
On September 13, the three in detention who were confessing looked refreshed and relatively energetic, but Nakagawa was considerably haggard, and Nishida was worried that even if he didn't commit suicide, he might break down before then.
He even let his imagination run wild, wondering if this was what a samurai who committed seppuku in place of his lord for the sake of the house in the Edo period looked like. The detectives in charge of the interrogation couldn't understand at all where the obligation to show such loyalty came from. However, the time to ponder such trivial matters would soon vanish.
September 15 was a Sunday and also Respect for the Aged Day (as it was an era when the date was fixed), but unlike ordinary salarymen, Nishida was a detective, and since he was handling a major case, it had no relevance, and he had been at work since morning.
The previous day, he had enjoyed a full day off for the first time in a long while and felt quite refreshed. He hadn't intended to take a break during this busy time, but Section Chief Mitani had instructed him, "It's about time you took a break," and he had been almost forced to take leave. In fact, he hadn't rested for nearly three weeks, and in hindsight, Mitani's order could be said to be appropriate.
Perhaps because he had slept well until past noon during his break, he went to a nearby convenience store in a rare state of feeling well-rested, bought Sensuku, which was released a day late in Hokkaido, and checked the contents again. As expected, the article was almost exactly like the galleys, with no major changes.
Time rewinds to before noon on the 15th. Contact came from Yasumura to come to the Regional Headquarters Chief's office immediately. When he hurried there, Criminal Investigation Director Koyabu, Section 1 Head Mitani, and Section Chief Matsuura, the head of the Kitami Station criminal investigation section, had already arrived.
"Sorry I'm late," Nishida apologized while out of breath, but perhaps because the other three didn't know why they had been called, they asked him instead, "Have you heard anything?"
"No, I have no idea at all," he could only say, and the three who heard those words looked disappointed, as if to say, "What, you too?"
"I apologize for being late after calling you here," Yasumura said as he suddenly entered the room in a hurry.
"Did something happen?" Koyabu asked impatiently before Yasumura could sit down.
"To be honest, I'm surprised myself," Yasumura said as he pulled his chair back roughly and sat down.