Chapter 197 - Name and Reality 120 {148 Solo} (351–352 Closing in on the Isaka Blackmailer 4: The Name)
"Hearing that, to be honest, I'm a bit relieved. Then after that, it just depends on the Boss... If possible, I want to avoid an arrest."
As he said, Yoshimura initially showed a look of relief, but then he added,
"But, while I think the stay during Obon in '87 was likely the first point of contact between the two, what kind of conversation could have taken place between two people meeting for the first time that would convey to the Boss that Sada Minoru was trying to threaten and blackmail Isaka Daikichi? ...Or was there further contact between Sada and the Boss after that? From Sada's subsequent movements and the testimony of his family, there's no sign of him coming to Engaru, but perhaps he stopped by Engaru just before going to see Isaka in Kitami."
He tilted his head as he spoke.
"Yeah. Certainly, I can't think of a trigger for such a deep conversation to come up at a first meeting, and I don't think Sada would easily reveal such a dangerous story to the Boss upon their first meeting. However, as long as we take that as a premise, I think it's also hard to imagine him revealing the details of the blackmail just by meeting a little after that, isn't it?"
Nishida harbored similar doubts. Considering the shortness of the period from mid-August '87, when they likely first met, to late September, when Sada was murdered, he felt that timewise, there was almost no room for them to become intimate. In the first place, considering Sada's movements at the time, it could be said there was almost no possibility of them meeting many times. On the contrary, if things went poorly, there was even the possibility they met once and that was it, which was a major headache for both Nishida and Yoshimura.
"There would have to be a considerable trigger, but it's hard to imagine such a conversation happening between a restaurant owner and a first-time customer at a first meeting anyway..."
When Yoshimura mentioned that, Nishida suddenly began flipping through his notebook in a hurry. Yoshimura watched Nishida's behavior curiously, and after staring at a certain page, Nishida murmured quietly.
"If there's a possibility, it's the name."
"The name?"
Yoshimura furrowed his brow as if he didn't understand the meaning, but Nishida asserted powerfully this time.
"Yes, the name! The name must have been the trigger for the conversation! I remembered hearing from his wife seven years ago that Sada Minoru was into things like onomancy (T/N: fortune-telling based on names) and had a habit of expanding conversations with people he met for the first time using their names as a starting point. I thought I had written it in my notebook when I looked earlier, and there it was. That's probably a major hint!"
He began to explain with vigor.
"Ah, now that you mention it, did she say something like that..."
Whether he actually remembered it or not, Yoshimura at least went along with Nishida's idea.
"But the problem is what comes after that... Let's say, starting from a conversation related to the Boss's name, Sada became convinced that the letters and bonds left by his brother Toru were based on fact and obtained enough proof to blackmail Isaka. Furthermore, though we don't know when between meeting at Yusen and Sada being murdered and officially disappearing, the Boss also obtained material—perhaps from a conversation—that made him certain Sada would blackmail Isaka. But I still don't understand how the development goes from the name. I don't understand how it leads from there... The Boss's name is Izumi. Izumi."
Nishida, repeating it like a mantra, began to read his notebook intently again.
"Then I'll help too!"
Yoshimura reached for a notebook Nishida wasn't reading.
"This looks like it's going to be long again..." he murmured, shaking his head slightly a few times as he began to read.
However, in the end, they learned nothing that day, and Nishida and Yoshimura ended up going home. Yoshimura said he would borrow some of Nishida's investigation notebooks and look over them again at home.
The two continued to think after returning home, and without having slept well, they reported for duty at the Kitami Regional Headquarters the next day, October 18th. However, seeing each other with dark circles under their eyes and dull expressions, they each sensed the situation.
"If only Takeshita-san were here at a time like this, we might understand something..."
Nishida intended to rebuke Yoshimura's grumbling as he sat in his chair and yawned.
"Stop wishing for what we don't have!"
However, even Nishida inwardly felt, at least a little, that if they had Takeshita's help...
"Now, how would Takeshita reason from here?"
As Nishida began to think that, he remembered that when he reunited with Takeshita earlier this spring, Takeshita had written something in Nishida's notebook about the origin of the Boss's name.
Based on that, he decided to look back at this year's investigation notebook and focused on the entry for May 8th. It was the day Nishida and Yoshimura had met up and drank with Takeshita, who had come to Kitami for an interview.
On that day, Takeshita had been visiting the Saroma Fishery Cooperative and Kitami Seiyo University to interview people about the Yubetsu Mine Accident. And at the Saroma Fishery Cooperative, he had encountered the Boss's "de facto cousin-in-law" and heard several stories about the Boss. Takeshita had personally written that anecdote into Nishida's notebook for the sake of Nishida, whose understanding had been lowered by alcohol.
The Boss was born between a Wajin (T/N: ethnic Japanese) biological father and an Ainu mother, Michi, but the biological father had apparently left Michi before the Boss was born. The cause seemed to be that Michi's father—the Boss's Ainu grandfather—had not looked kindly upon the marriage to a Wajin, and there had been a quarrel. And Michi, who still had lingering feelings for the man, had given the Boss a name derived from the man's surname so that the grandfather wouldn't find out, as the cousin-in-law had told Takeshita.
Since the Boss's real name is "Aida Izumi," Takeshita had speculated that the biological father's surname might have been something like "Koizumi" or "Ooizumi." On the other hand, the grandfather apparently wasn't fluent in Japanese, but Takeshita had also wondered if it wouldn't have been easily exposed that the name was taken from the man's surname if he knew it.
"I think there's a high possibility that he became convinced the contents of the bonds and letters were true from this story related to the name..."
However, he couldn't understand or imagine at all how that story about the name would develop into Sada Minoru being convinced that the letters and bonds written by his brother Toru were true, and how it would lead to the Boss finding out that Sada would threaten Isaka. Of course, there was the possibility that it was just a trigger for the conversation and unrelated to the subsequent development.
"'Izumi' should be a relatively rare name even for a woman in the Boss's generation. Let alone for a man. This must be the key point, but I just don't get it..."
For Nishida, rather than a detective's hunch, he wished to reach a logical conclusion here, believing this would be the deciding factor. However, at the present moment, it was a fact that it was nothing more than a vague, intuitive feeling.
From there, even after having lunch, taking a break, and entering overtime to check other investigation statuses, the matter never left his mind for a moment. However, the idea that would link the situation to a resolution all at once arrived unexpectedly early, while Nishida and Yoshimura were eating convenience store bento together for dinner in the Criminal Investigation Division room.
"I was checking the Team Leader's investigation memos from this year just now, and Takeshita-san wrote that the Boss's biological father was Wajin, his mother was Ainu, and that the Boss is consequently an illegitimate child. I remembered it just now, but according to the story Masamitsu heard from Isaka Daikichi and the story Oshima heard from Kuwano, there was a story that Mende Shigeyoshi's orphaned child was born to an Ainu woman, right? I wonder... if the Boss were Mende's son, wouldn't the stories connect? A scenario where Sada learns the Boss is Mende's long-lost son, giving credibility to those letters and bonds. If that's the case, it also tallies with the testimony from the person in charge at the detective agency Sada had asked to investigate, saying that Sada seemed to have grasped the whereabouts of Mende's son."
At Yoshimura's sudden suggestion, Nishida was surprised.
"Ah! Now that you mention it, the stories certainly fit if that's the case!"
He looked at Yoshimura, but then asked him,
"But even if that's so, the origin of the Boss's name... you'd know if you checked the notebook, right?"
"The part about the name 'Izumi' being linked to the father's surname, right?" Yoshimura answered hesitantly.
"Then I don't see any connection at all between the surname 'Mende' and the Boss's name 'Izumi'..."
Nishida felt a certain persuasiveness in his subordinate's story, but since he didn't feel some parts were consistent with Takeshita's information, he wasn't exactly enthusiastic.
"That might be true... But in the first place, we don't even know if the story Takeshita-san heard about the origin of the name 'Izumi' coming from the father's surname is even true... Takeshita-san himself didn't hear it from the Boss's own mouth... I haven't heard from the Boss that he has Ainu blood either, not once. I did think he had a chiseled face that didn't look typically Japanese... Well, I guess that doesn't have much to do with it..."
Saying that, Yoshimura fell silent for a while as if briefly looking back on his relationship with the Boss since they first met. However, Yoshimura, understanding that they didn't have the luxury of time for such things now, immediately continued.
"If the Boss really is Mende's son, and if Sada learned of the Boss's lineage during their conversation, I think it's possible he became convinced that Mende Shigeyoshi actually existed and that the contents of the letters and bonds were true. Since it wouldn't be strange for the ages to match. Of course, even if it requires the premise that the Boss knew the name of his biological father, Mende Shigeyoshi, since the story about the name being derived from the father's surname came up, it's in a sense natural to think he knew it, even if they were separated."
Yoshimura, for his part, was sticking to his idea.
"But still... at a first meeting, and in the positions of owner and customer, would the conversation reach as far as one's complex lineage? Based on Sada's habit, I think there's a possibility if it's just about the name."
"No, that's not true. If I use the Team Leader's idea as is, it's possible for me to hit it off starting from the name as an icebreaker and have it develop into various deep personal stories. Aren't you obsessing too much over the idea that something was understood directly from the name, Team Leader?"
It was a very Yoshimura-like answer, given his friendly nature, but it was also a fact that it wasn't a theory that could be completely denied. In fact, the idea Nishida was fixated on—that Sada became convinced the letters and bonds were undoubtedly based on fact just from the conversation related to the "name"—was also not something derived from absolute logic. Yoshimura's story also didn't contradict the possibility that the topic of the name functioned as a trigger for the conversation, albeit indirectly.
"But what can be said for certain is that, assuming Sada only obtained information from Toru's letters, Sada didn't know at all that Mende's son was born to an Ainu woman. If the Boss actually is Mende's son, the only way Sada could be convinced is if the Boss told Sada that Mende Shigeyoshi was his father."
Immediately after Nishida spoke, in the Second Investigation Division, which was another section in the same Criminal Investigation room, Team Leader Kanzawa's voice reached Nishida's ears: "Bear, you just got back! You're late! What happened to that report?" "Bear" was the nickname for Takekuma, and it seemed he had just returned from field work. At that same moment, Nishida found himself calling out to Takekuma almost unconsciously.
"Hey, Takekuma! There's something I want to check with you, come over here!"
Takekuma didn't know where the voice was coming from for a moment, and after looking around briefly, he finally noticed Nishida.
"Ah, yes! I'll come over as soon as I give the report to the Team Leader!"
He said, rummaging through his cluttered desk while shaking his massive frame.