Chapter 134 - Name and Reality 57 {85 Solo} (200-202 Start of Oshima's Interrogation)
Wednesday, September 18th. Nishida and the others had gathered early in the morning in a meeting room at the Hokkaido Prefectural Police Headquarters' Criminal Investigation Department. They didn't go straight to the detention center because there was no room large enough for a meeting on-site.
For this case, the Hokkaido Police HQ would strictly provide support, and the interrogation was scheduled to be conducted by the Kitami team, centered on the Kitami Regional HQ. The reason was that unless the investigators, led by Nishida and Yoshimura, had a detailed grasp of the series of events, the interrogation of Oshima wouldn't go well. Nishida would naturally participate, but he intended to limit his involvement to the critical moments and basically have Yoshimura and Kusaka lead the interrogation.
On the other hand, since the opponent was a major Diet member of the ruling party, it was confirmed that Hoshino, dispatched from the NPA, and the upper management of the Hokkaido Police would be closely involved in the interrogation. Nishida was particularly wary of Hoshino, who had been sent as a watchdog to exert influence from the "center" directly onto the Hokkaido Police and the Kitami Regional HQ. Although he hadn't made any specific demands so far, Nishida viewed him as a dangerous presence who could potentially interfere with the investigation depending on the situation.
After a brief meeting, since there was time before everyone headed to Kotoni, Nishida munched on some rice balls his wife had made. He looked at his watch; it was just past 7:00 AM. He had left his house in the Fushimi district by taxi at 5:00 AM. Last night, perhaps due to tension, his eyes had stayed wide open and he had hardly slept, but rather than being hit by sleepiness now, he continued to be in a state of clear agitation.
He hadn't made any special requests to his wife, Yuka, but the rice balls she handed him as he left were not his favorite "salmon" flavor, but "okaka" (bonito flakes). His wife must have understood the significance of the interrogation starting today.
He remembered telling Yuka a long time ago, before they were married, with a pun, "In a critical moment, the rice balls should be katsuobushi (bonito flakes) for the meaning of a bushi (warrior) who katsu (wins)." Since then, although there had been several critical moments in his work, he hadn't had the opportunity to have rice balls made for him, so Nishida had completely forgotten about it, but it seemed Yuka had remembered that story well. Feeling a sense of happiness, he savored the somewhat firmly pressed rice balls.
In the car heading from the Hokkaido Police HQ to Kotoni, Yoshimura, who had been unusually silent next to him, spoke to Nishida in a low voice.
"Will we be okay on our own?"
"About what?"
When Nishida asked quietly, not understanding the meaning, Yoshimura said,
"I mean the interrogation. Of Oshima."
It was a bit late to be saying such things now.
"The interrogation is about to start, so it's a problem if you're in that state! I know it's not like usual, but still."
This weakness from Yoshimura was likely based on the warnings he had received from Hoshino and Gojou at the meeting earlier. In other words, they had been told to be properly polite, rather than using the usual language toward a suspect. Since they were in the car, he kept his tone low, but he honestly felt like giving him a good scolding.
"It's partly whether I can do it, but thinking about these seven years, I feel like it would be more satisfying if the Assistant Section Chief did it."
"I shouldn't say this myself, but if I'm the one leading the interrogation at this point, it's no good, given my position."
In short, a person in the position of Assistant Section Chief couldn't proactively stand out as the lead interrogator this time. Personally, he had a desire to face Oshima directly and interrogate him the whole time, but even if he could, it would only be after the situation became quite desperate or critical.
"I guess I just have to do what I can with Kusaka..."
When Takeshita said that, the Kotoni Detention Center, surrounded by the press at the entrance, came into view. To report the unprecedented news of the arrest of a major politician on suspicion of murder, the press seemed to be moving in earnest from today.
Seeing this, Kusaka, who had been sitting silently in the front passenger seat, suddenly turned toward the back seat where Nishida and Yoshimura were sitting.
"Anyway, we just have to do it. We can't let the Assistant Section Chief worry!"
He gave Yoshimura a pep talk.
At exactly 8:00 AM, the first interrogation of Oshima after his arrest finally began. That said, it was limited to one hour due to time constraints. And although it was the "first after arrest," they would need to request a detention by tomorrow before noon, so the interrogation from tomorrow onward would likely be moved to the Sapporo Detention Branch.
In the interrogation room, Yoshimura, Kusaka, and Mayuzumi as the scribe were waiting for Oshima to arrive. The interrogators were basically all from the Kitami Regional HQ team. Needless to say, they would also be the ones to lead the first charge.
Nishida, Hoshino from the NPA, Gojou, and the other Hokkaido Police upper management were watching the three through the one-way mirror, but surprisingly, they seemed to be exuding an even more bloodthirsty atmosphere than Yoshimura and the others. For them, they might have had a sense of crisis that their own careers might be on the line depending on the outcome. Even Nishida was unconsciously shaking his leg, unable to hide his irritation.
Appearing in the room about five minutes later than scheduled, Tadokoro Yasuo, alias Oshima Kaiji, was dressed in a sweatshirt and sandals, which felt quite out of place considering his age. It was likely a look that was quite different from the clothes Oshima would normally wear at home, not just in terms of age. Probably, the clothes he brought were not permitted as unsuitable for wear in the detention center, and the detention center had provided them.
If he were short, his appearance might have been even more strange, but since he was tall for his age, that wasn't a problem—or rather, the style actually suited him quite well.
However, even in such casual clothes, the dignity of a major politician was more than evident, and they felt the air tighten sharply the moment he entered the interrogation room. When the detention officer who had escorted him and Oshima faced Yoshimura and Kusaka, Yoshimura instructed,
"Please sit down," and the officer left the room after confirming Oshima was seated.
"Thank you for your hard work yesterday. Did you get some rest last night?"
To Kusaka's inquiry, Oshima replied,
"It was so-so. My physical condition is by no means good, but since the university hospital says there's no problem, I suppose that's how it is. However, I will point out that my mood is extremely foul."
He made a sarcastic remark, but his body actually looked healthy for someone who supposedly had a mild cerebral infarction. His complexion wasn't bad either.
"We'll have you checked by a medical institution here today as well, so please rest assured."
Kusaka said this without even looking him in the eye, then continued,
"Then, we'll be asking you various things, so we look forward to your cooperation," and gave a light bow.
"As you may know, a suspect has the right to remain silent, so you do not have to answer anything you do not wish to answer."
When Kusaka explained in a typical administrative tone, Oshima listened in silence, but then said,
"That said, I should deny your suspicions myself."
He spoke as if talking to himself and crossed his arms.
"From here on, may we call you Tadokoro-san, your real name?"
"Naturally, that is fine."
He answered clearly, if slowly, to Yoshimura's polite confirmation. The two interrogators exchanged a glance and finally cut to the main subject.
"To get straight to the point, Tadokoro-san. You are, of course, aware of the shooting incident seven years ago at Kitami Kyoritsu Hospital, which is the cause of this arrest?"
"Yes, of course I know of it. Matsushima, whom I knew well and could be called my younger brother, was killed. But I am uninvolved. I was in Tokyo at the time."
Oshima answered Kusaka's question smoothly, as if he had been waiting for it.
"The victims weren't just Matsushima Kotaro-san... A nurse, Momose-san, and a detective named Kitamura were also caught up in it and died. A total of three precious lives were taken... because of one person's self-preservation and ego."
It was an unusually dramatic way of speaking for Yoshimura, but Nishida felt the same way.
"I see... a detective was also killed in the line of duty, wasn't he? That was very tragic. However, that and my innocence are separate issues. I have no recollection of being told such things, and naturally, there is no reason for me to be arrested, so it is what you call an illegal arrest."
He spoke with a feigned indifference.
"Whether it's an illegal arrest or not aside. One of the two men who were the perpetrators of the shooting, who were members of a crime syndicate at the time... Kagami and Higashidate... stayed in your office in Kitami as a hideout until November 11, Heisei 7 (1995), the day of the crime, and further remained in hiding afterward. We have already obtained testimony as well as corroboration from the search of the office. We have also established that your chief local secretary in the prefecture, Nakagawa, was involved in this. Or rather, Secretary Nakagawa was not just involved indirectly, but was quite deeply involved at the time of the execution. We consider him almost a perpetrator himself."
Kusaka began to present the outline of the case to Oshima without leaving any room for counterarguments.
"Even if you say that, I left things in Kitami and Abashiri basically to Nakagawa. I trusted him that much, so while I will accept it if you say it was my lack of supervision that led to this, I think it's a bit much to be branded with the stigma of murder."
He spoke somewhat intimidatingly, but he remained within the bounds of a calm attitude.
"Given the relationship between you and your secretary, no matter how much 'authority' has been delegated, I find it hard to believe that Secretary Nakagawa was free enough to lend out your office to a yakuza hitman as he pleased. This isn't just the police's view; everyone who knows Secretary Nakagawa and your office has testified to that effect."
"Even if you say that, it's the truth, you people! I was in Tokyo the whole time and never had such a conversation with Nakagawa. What you should prove is the very fact that I actually gave such instructions to Nakagawa, shouldn't you?"
Perhaps because he was confident that this part hadn't been discovered, Oshima was emphasizing the police's burden of proof.
"Then, let us ask from a different angle. The two perpetrators were members of a crime syndicate in Tokyo. Furthermore, both were members of different groups, each under the Aoi-ikka. Naturally, we believe there were some kind of instructions from the parent organization, the Aoi-ikka. However, we see no point of contact at all between Secretary Nakagawa, who has been working in the prefecture the whole time, and the Aoi-ikka. Such people suddenly came all the way to Kitami and were hiding in your office for a long time. There are too many points that don't make sense for it to be Nakagawa-san's sole judgment and sole action."
This time, Yoshimura probed Oshima.
"Could you ask Nakagawa that, instead of asking me?"
Oshima replied briefly with his usual calm demeanor.
"He's quite something, Oshima Kaiji..."
Gojou muttered to himself through the one-way mirror, and everyone there likely had the same impression. However, Kusaka and Yoshimura didn't look like they were being swallowed by the other's pace at all. Their superior, Nishida, was very satisfied with that point.
In the end, they finished the brief interrogation in that manner and took a break. In an hour, they planned to send Oshima to the prosecutor in charge at the Sapporo District Public Prosecutors Office. Yoshimura and Kusaka, who had struggled with the interrogation, were being treated to katsudon by Nishida at the staff cafeteria for an early lunch, which also served as a reward.
"Well, that's about how it goes. The opponent is a sly old fox. There's no way he'd break easily in an interrogation."
Watching the two of them eat heartily, Nishida said something plausible.
"I thought he'd use the right to remain silent as a tactic, but he talked quite a bit, so that was unexpected, honestly."
Yoshimura, who had already finished eating and lived up to his reputation for being a fast eater, said as he picked up a toothpick.
"He places a lot of trust in Nakagawa. It's the trust between a yakuza boss and his subordinate."
Kusaka also repeated "it's" twice and looked like he had chewed on a bitter bug.
"Regarding the hospital shooting incident, with the arrest order from above and the favorable wind blowing our way, it looks like we'll manage everything from indictment to maintaining the public trial, but the problem is the Sada Minoru case."
"Setting aside the arrest order for information manipulation related to North Korea, is it okay without a clear proof of the chain of command in the shooting incident? In cases involving the yakuza, judges are quite lenient toward us, but..."
Kusaka raised a question at Nishida's words. However, Nishida suddenly thought that if Takeshita were here, he might have launched into a criticism of the prosecutors and the courts, which claim independence but are in collusion with politics.
"We have to use whatever we can use, or we won't be able to bring this case to light," he said, slurping his not-so-tasty miso ramen loudly.
*
In the evening, the request for detention was granted by the Sapporo District Court, and although the Sapporo-based Tsukada-bengoshi, requested by Oshima's advisory lawyer in Tokyo, resisted with an interlocutory appeal, it was dismissed at night and the start of detention was decided. He was then transferred to the Sapporo Detention Branch in the Naebo district of Higashi-ku, and after a medical check was performed just in case at the Sapporo Prison's Medical Center, he was incarcerated. Regarding the cerebral infarction, it was deemed not a problem at present, but because of his old age, it was strictly ordered that the interrogation be limited to four hours per day, which might have been a bit of a miscalculation for the investigators.