Chapter 29 - Light and Shadow 8 (45–48: The True Identity of Isaka Daikichi; Motohashi Appears)
As soon as the two left the Sada house, they sped up toward the Hokkaido Police Headquarters. Nishida, looking out the window at the Sapporo Shindo where traffic flowed smoothly with good signal connections, contacted the mobile of Toyama, the Criminal Investigation Director at Headquarters. As expected, Toyama was off duty, but upon hearing Nishida's story, he promised to rush to Headquarters immediately.
Nishida lit a cigarette and took a puff in the passenger seat, then—
"However, through this matter, we've learned that Sada knew that site in Ikutahara, or at least had an interest in the location," he threw the topic to Yoshimura.
"Yeah, that's what it comes down to. It means all four people related to the cases of Isaka, Kitagawa, Shinoda, and Sada Minoru had a connection to that place."
"I spoke with Takeshita about that before..."
Nishida was remembering the time he went to show the photo of Tanemura to Priest Okada at Ko-on-ji in Engaru.
"I said, 'Maybe Sada went to the site where he was killed in Ikutahara on his own feet, of his own will?' Takeshita wasn't very keen on the idea, though."
"I see. I wonder about that... The place where he was killed isn't necessarily the same as where he was buried, right? At least for Kitagawa and Shinoda, who were likely involved in the disposal of Sada's body, there's a reason to bury him there. People hardly ever come there, except for near the tracks, and they had the knowledge of the land (kan) from the JNR era. It shouldn't be the case that Sada himself has to go there for him to be buried there."
"That's the thing. However, as I told Takeshita, even if they were just carrying the body, it's quite a walk from where a car can be parked. Wouldn't it be tough to carry it even with multiple people?"
"Dismembering it is also an option. This time the remains weren't found as a single whole body, so that point is unknown, but..."
"I see. Dismembering, huh. Certainly, that's a possibility. Takeshita also touched on the possibility that they threatened him and took him to the site while he was still alive."
"Is that so. However, if they were to threaten him and take him there alive, even though it's a remote place, there's no guarantee they wouldn't encounter another person at all while reaching the site, so that's subtle. It would be troublesome if he asked for help on the way. If so, I think my dismemberment theory is better."
The way he argued back was the same as Takeshita's back then.
"The dismemberment theory, huh. That's also persuasive, but..."
Nishida exhaled a large cloud of smoke and ground the cigarette into the car's ashtray.
"Well, I think there are various ways of thinking, but in the sense that Sada had knowledge of the site in Ikutahara, isn't it a step forward for your theory too, Team Leader?"
Like Takeshita back then, Yoshimura also seemed to be considerate of Nishida.
When Nishida and Yoshimura arrived at the Criminal Investigation Division after 3:00 PM, Toyama arrived slightly later.
"Is the story true?"
"Yes. This is it."
He handed the letter and the deed to Toyama. Of course, Toyama didn't grasp the details, so he couldn't understand much just by reading it, but after hearing Nishida's explanation, he seemed to realize it held quite significant meaning.
"So, I just need to investigate the relationship between Isaka Daikichi and this man Tasuke?"
"Well, there's a possibility that Tasuke doesn't actually exist, and considering the position the laborers (ninpu) of that time were placed in, it might be a pseudonym. Thinking that way, one can't say there's absolutely no chance of it being just a coincidence of the surname Isaka. However, if there were no relationship at all between this Tasuke and Daikichi, Isaka should have been able to just show Sada the door regarding his demand—which I think was close to extortion—so I think there's almost no possibility of those. Afterwards, please have Forensics check if this thumbprint is blood. I think the credibility will go up if it's a blood seal."
In response to Nishida's words, Toyama immediately called Forensics.
Meanwhile, Section Chief Sawai in Engaru, who had received the fax, was as surprised by its contents as Nishida and Yoshimura. He called Takeshita and silently handed over what he had finished reading. Takeshita's expression also changed with just a glance.
"This is..."
He said a single word to Sawai, then went back to his seat and began to read it carefully. When he finished reading to the end, Takeshita also seemed to deeply understand the magnitude of the meaning held by this letter and deed—
"Is this Isaka Tasuke who appears in this the key man?" he spoke to the Section Chief.
"Yeah. If this part is linked, won't the facts become quite clear? Even so, although I sent the two of them to Sapporo, I never thought it would develop like this. If something had been done four years ago, we could have pressed the then-living Isaka Daikichi."
He said regretfully.
"But it wouldn't have come to anything without finding Sada's body, right? Without that, it's not decisive. The explanation for the three bodies only holds up because Team Leader Nishida happened to hear the testimony of the old man Oku... It's a bit pitiful to say that the Kitami District Headquarters four years ago should have known something that even the Engaru Station hadn't made into a case in Showa 52."
Takeshita defended the oversight of four years ago, and at the same time—
"But I wonder how Sada reached Isaka Daikichi just because the surname was the same. We're convinced because we know the fact that Sada and Isaka were involved after the fact, but..."
He muttered and tilted his head.
However, it wouldn't be long before Nishida and Takeshita's defense of the Kitami District Headquarters' response four years ago became futile.
While leaving it to Forensics, Nishida and Yoshimura were chatting with Toyama in the Director's office. Naturally, the conversation turned to the fact that the investigation eight years ago had been thwarted by pressure from Oshima Kaiji.
"I only heard it as a rumor, but it seems the then-Chief of the Hokkaido Police, a man named Tannai, was someone under the influence of former Prime Minister Hakozaki, the leader of the Minyu Party's 'Hakozaki Faction'—the faction Oshima belongs to. Apparently, he went to the same high school as former Prime Minister Hakozaki and was a junior from the same University of Tokyo. Of course, since Oshima is elected from Hokkaido, there was also influence in that area."
"I see. No matter how much it's the police, for a story with elements leading to a major incident, they let it end quite sloppily, so I thought it was strange."
Nishida felt very indignant hearing the Director's story.
"And you guys from Engaru have brilliantly overturned that after all these years. I don't know if Oshima, who is in Tokyo, knows about it, but there might be another fuss. Of course, now that it's clear it's a murder case, it won't be permitted to yield to that pressure anymore."
"I hope so."
Yoshimura acted as if he couldn't believe it.
"It has to be that way!"
The Director emphasized the end of his sentence. As they continued such conversation, the phone in the room rang unexpectedly.
"Maybe it's from Forensics."
Nishida, who was watching Toyama's face as he picked up the receiver, confirmed that it gradually flushed as he listened to the story. Finally, when he put down the receiver roughly—
"Don't be surprised, you two! The fingerprint of that man Isaka Tasuke—it actually matches Isaka Daikichi!"
He rattled it off quickly.
"What!?"
Hearing that, the two stood up simultaneously as if on cue.
"We're going to Forensics right now!"
By the time the Director's instruction was out, Nishida and Yoshimura were already stepping toward the door to head for Forensics.
As soon as they arrived at the Forensics Division room, a middle-aged staff member who seemed to be the person in charge—
"Director! It's out," he called out, standing up.
"Yashiro! What do you mean!"
To the three who rushed over, the forensics staff member named Yashiro began to explain.
"Regarding whether it was a blood seal, we first checked for a luminol reaction, and as expected, there was a blood reaction. I think there's no doubt it's a blood seal."
"No, that can wait! The fingerprint, the fingerprint!"
Toyama hurried Yashiro.
"Ah, yes... So, since it's a pre-war item, honestly I didn't think it would be in the database, but I thought I'd check it against 'previous' (so-called criminal records and history) just in case, and when I put it in, something that hit came up. So just in case, I checked it carefully by eye just now for final confirmation, and it matched the fingerprint of Isaka Daikichi's right thumb. For the other three, there were at least no 'previous' records or collection examples remaining in the data."
"Wait a minute! Did Isaka Daikichi have a 'previous' record?"
Nishida voiced his doubt.
"No, not that; it seems it was collected when he became an investigation target eight years ago. And it wasn't exactly voluntary; I speculate it was something the investigators took secretly without permission during interrogation. It's not treated as a voluntary provision either (Author's Note: I am not sure whether fingerprints are classified in the database as being by warrant/compulsory, voluntary, or without permission. However, considering the fact that thumbprint data pressed when there is no seal on documents such as speeding tickets is also stored in the database like criminal history, it is a fact that at least most fingerprints collected practically illegally are treated as data)."
What Yashiro was saying meant that as so-called "evidentiary capacity," it lacked validity. Fingerprints lacking evidentiary capacity naturally cannot become legal evidence in a criminal trial, but they do influence the "degree of certainty" regarding a suspect in an investigation, and since the investigators eight years ago suspected Isaka's involvement, it wasn't strange to collect them just in case. Also, given that a Member of Parliament was behind Isaka, there was a possibility they were registered in this way because they couldn't even perform a fingerprint collection based on "voluntary consent" that was close to compulsory in normal circumstances.
"If he had refused to provide fingerprints voluntarily, did he want to avoid this happening..."
"I wonder. I don't know if he thought that far. You wouldn't normally feel like pressing a fingerprint anyway."
Toyama dismissed Yoshimura's idea, but Nishida didn't think it was so impossible as to be completely dismissed.
"However, now that it's come to this, I feel like we should have at least checked the fingerprints four years ago... The Headquarters Chief had already been replaced by the predecessor, Mr. Kayama... Certainly, regarding the pressure, even if the Headquarters Chief changed, it might have been haunting the field like a ghost. Even I can't clearly state that it had vanished. But we could have at least done a fingerprint check, right? Above all, both Isaka and the man named Shinoda were still alive, weren't they?"
Toyama said regretfully while "listing" things one-sidedly.
Certainly, if Isaka's fingerprint was on this deed, one can guess what Sada Minoru demanded from Isaka based on the murder Sada Toru wrote in his letter that Isaka committed before the war. However, unless Isaka talked, the possibility of reaching Shinoda and Kitagawa was not that high, and it could be said that it was considerably difficult to build a case four years ago without finding Sada Minoru's body. Nishida thought that depending on the skill of the interrogation, it might be different to say it was decisive evidence just by the matching of fingerprints.
"But was Isaka Tasuke a pseudonym for Daikichi?"
"I wonder. If so, wouldn't it have been fine to make Isaka itself a pseudonym?"
Nishida thought Toyama's answer to Yoshimura's question was accurate, so—
"I think so too. The possibility of him having changed his name might be higher," he agreed.
"I'll have it investigated here immediately."
The Director gave instructions to his subordinates at Headquarters from his mobile.
The next day, September 11th, the reason why Isaka Tasuke and Daikichi were the same person was easily revealed as a result of having the Kitami District Headquarters, which was in the midst of chasing the serial murders, investigate forcibly from the previous night. It was a simple story: Isaka Tasuke had changed his name to Daikichi after the war. In 1950, when Isaka started the Isaka Group, he had applied for a name change in the family register at the Kushiro Family Court Kitami Branch, and it had been accepted.
Generally, changing the family register itself is not that easy, but since it practically depends on the personal judgment of the family court judge, the reason for the permission of the name change at the time was not known. Whether it was to erase the past, simply a superstition at the time of founding, or another reason, the truth was now lost in the darkness.
In front of Nishida and Yoshimura, who had been called to the Criminal Investigation Director's office, Toyama was quite indignant. This was because both the matter of the fingerprints and the matter of Isaka's name change were at a level that would have been easily revealed if the Kitami side had investigated the minimum at the point Nagumo inquired with the Kitami District Headquarters based on the new information provided by the Sada family. Moreover, four years later, with the replacement of the Hokkaido Police Headquarters Chief, the Hokkaido Police itself would have likely become less susceptible to the influence of "pressure" than before, so Toyama felt that it had become a case of negligent investigation.
"Since it formally became a cold case four years ago, they must have treated the two newly found documents sloppily. Even though Isaka Daikichi was still alive... honestly..."
Nishida didn't know what words to offer as he continued to vent his anger alone, even in front of the two of them. However, since it would only be painful to have him vent his anger at others one-sidedly like this, he tried to soothe him somehow—
"Fundamentally, the content of this letter and deed is, how should I put it, otherworldly or unrealistic, and there was that aspect to it, so didn't they fail to feel the reality that it was linked to Isaka Daikichi and Sada's case? After all, it's a letter written about the share of some old 'treasure.' They might have thought the bereaved family had made it up on their own."
He said. However—
"If you look at the state of this paper, you'd know that's impossible! At the very least, it's not something made in recent years! There's no reason to think they'd go to such lengths to fake it!"
It conversely became a case of adding fuel to the fire.
"Either way, I know who the person in charge at the Kitami District Headquarters was back then, so I'm going to give them a piece of my mind!"
At the sheer intensity, Nishida and Yoshimura looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders slightly.
At the Engaru Station, the matter of the fingerprints had been reported by Nishida within yesterday, and the matter of the name change had been reported by the Kitami District Headquarters on this day. And by noon, the place matching the description in Sada Toru's letter where Senzaki's gold was buried was also confirmed again by Takeshita and the others. However, as far as they could confirm by digging easily, the gold was already gone. An investigation meeting was immediately held in response.
"I thought that once Sada's body came out, the pressure from above would finally stop having much meaning, and the story has moved this far in a flash. The development is almost too fast. The place where the gold was likely hidden has been almost identified, and the credibility of the letter has gone up."
Section Chief Sawai was satisfied that his expectations had been betrayed in a good way.
"It's now possible to explain the reason Isaka Daikichi killed Sada as being out of fear of the exposure of his past misconduct, or being threatened because of it, with almost no mistake. The rest is who the perpetrator of the murder was. Was it Shinoda and Kitagawa, or were there other accomplices? Or did a completely different person from those involved in the disposal kill him, and Shinoda, Kitagawa, and other accomplices disposed of him at the site... I think there are various patterns, but since it's tough to prosecute Shinoda at all and Kitagawa in his current state, I'd like to find an accomplice who can be prosecuted, whether for disposal or murder, either is fine. Though the possibility of that isn't very high."
Takeshita supplemented like that.
"Is it fine to go all out on this, with Yoneda's case already being Shinoda's solo crime and prosecution being impossible due to his death?"
Kurosu asked the Section Chief.
"For now, isn't that fine? Currently, there's still more possibility of there being an accomplice who can be prosecuted in Sada's case. However, clarification of the truth needs to be treated as a separate issue from arrest, so if new things are understood about Yoneda's case, we should proceed with them simultaneously."
"Really, just as the Section Chief says, it was good that we put our hands into the investigation of Sada's side at the stage Yoneda's case hit a dead end. If we had obsessed over Yoneda's side, we might still be stuck in a mess."
Kurosu flattered the Section Chief slightly.
"Rather than just as I say, it's that I went along with Takeshita's reasoning. Well, after that, we'll think about how Shinoda and Kitagawa were involved in Sada's murder, and if that part links up, we should be able to prove the reason Shinoda was involved in Yoneda's murder with more persuasion through Takeshita's hypothesis. For a while, we'll be searching for the movements of Shinoda and Kitagawa from the time Sada went missing. This time, we'll likely request a warrant for a pinpoint search and raid the Isaka Group. Especially, we want to investigate the work situation of the two of them eight years ago."
"The problem is whether those pieces of evidence have already been disposed of. The Isaka Group's response to us has been changing since a while ago."
At Takeshita's point, the Section Chief was hit where it hurt, or rather, he likely understood it too, but he limited himself to a wry smile.
"Excuse me, I'm Nishida from the Engaru Station who visited yesterday?"
In the evening, when the Criminal Investigation Division began to settle down, Nishida was calling Sada's wife, Akiko.
"Thank you for yesterday."
"Er, did you receive a contact from the police?"
"Yes, roughly from Nagumo-san."
"I see. If that's the case, then good..."
"Thanks to you, there seems to have been progress."
"No, it's rather a case of 'too late' (osoki ni shisshita)."
Now that the fingerprints and name change had been easily revealed, it was his unvarnished true feeling.
"So, if it's alright, could I also speak with Minoru-san's older brother—I believe it was Yuzuru-san?"
Nishida entered the main subject immediately and made the request to Akiko.
"Is it about the letter? My brother-in-law succeeded the husband's family home and lives in Otaru. If necessary, then I will check with my brother now."
"I'm sorry to trouble you."
It wasn't a social nicety, but Nishida's straight impression.
This time, after being made to wait for about thirty minutes, the mobile rang. He felt he had been kept waiting, but since he was asking the other person for a favor, Nishida, who thought it couldn't be helped, took a deep breath to calm his feelings and answered the phone without even looking at the screen. However, since the other person didn't say anything, unlike before—
"Hello? This is Nishida." He identified himself first.
"Ah, Detective Nishida-san?"
The voice was not Akiko's, but sounded like that of an elderly man.
"Yes, that's right, but who is this?"
"Er, it's Sada's brother, Yuzuru. I was asked by my sister-in-law."
Nishida understood the reason and hurried to change his way of speaking.
"I'm sorry to trouble you when you're busy. Have you heard the circumstances from Akiko-san?"
"Yes. That's why I'm calling. So, when will you come here? It's fine anytime for me."
Since the other person assumed a visit, it became easier to move the talk forward.
"It's helpful for us to have you say that. It's sudden, but how about after noon tomorrow, the 12th?"
"Ah, that's fine. If I may be selfish, I'd like it to be after I've had lunch."
"Then how about 2:00 PM?"
"That's just about right. Then let's go with that. I'll give you the phone number and address here."
He could tell the phone number by looking at the mobile (Author's Note: It is honestly unknown whether mobiles of this time had a number display element), but including that, he listened to and noted it down from Yuzuru, then Nishida said his thanks and cut the mobile.
"I didn't think we'd end up hearing from Sada's brother too."
Yoshimura seemed to have a feeling of "are we going that far?" but Nishida said calmly—
"If we can hear from him, of course we will. The brother is likely the one most knowledgeable about the letter now," he said while showing the note to Yoshimura.
Two hours later, as Nishida and Yoshimura entered a family restaurant along the national highway to have dinner before heading home, their chopsticks suddenly stopped at the 7:00 PM news on the television. It was about the dismissal of the Supreme Court appeal regarding the High Court death sentence of the hitman "Motohashi Yukio," who had been arrested four years ago in April '91 and whose existence had shocked the world.
Motohashi was a former yakuza member, and it was said that he had undertaken and executed a total of four cases and five murders over the four years until he was caught, mainly in the Kansai region. Although they were murders using the same handgun, because he had murdered unrelated people, the investigation had been difficult from the first murder as they couldn't narrow down the perpetrator profile. However, while fleeing from the fourth incident in Kobe, he happened to get caught in a robbery suspect escape checkpoint by the Okayama Prefectural Police Tsuyama Station and was arrested in the act for violating the Firearms and Swords Act. Because the rifling marks of the handgun he possessed matched those of the bullets used in the previous incidents, he was caught red-handed.
Immediately after the series of incidents, because of the lack of context in the murders, there was a theory of haphazard "pleasure killing," but from the fact that Motohashi had formerly belonged to the designated yakuza organization "Aoi-ikka" and from psychiatric evaluations, it finally settled on the line of a "hitman" who carried out murders presumably for money.
However, not only did he still not reveal who had commissioned him, but he also had not admitted his involvement in the murders to this day. Motohashi's "excuse" that he had just happened to pick up the handgun was quite forced (however, immediately after being taken in for the arrest in the act for violating the Firearms and Swords Act, because days had passed, there was no gunshot residue reaction, and it could not be concluded whether it was Motohashi who fired it), but the strict interrogation by the police did not make Motohashi change his mind.
On the other hand, the fact that the victims did not appear to have been particularly held in "grudge," which was one of the reasons the investigation was difficult, made the police's "hitman theory" itself precarious and caused debate, albeit among some, every time a verdict was issued.
The District Court, the High Court appeal, and the Supreme Court appeal all contested the factual findings of the murder itself, but a death sentence had been issued as per the prosecution's demand. Some people even offered a kind of praise for him as a professional hitman in the sense that he had protected his client to the end. In any case, Nishida thought that once the fact of the murder was recognized in court, it was a for-profit murder, and given the number of people killed, the finalization of the death penalty was only natural.
"This guy is amazing, isn't he? Even ordinary housewives and old people, anyone is fine as long as he gets money, and because he doesn't admit anything even when caught, the client is unknown. Except for being caught, it feels like a professional job."
Yoshimura, who as usual was quick to finish eating, looked as if he were even impressed in a way rather than criticizing while watching the news.
"A professional job, huh... It's not like he's Golgo 13; there's no professional or crap about a hitman. He's just a heinous criminal!"
Nishida spat it out as if groaning, but—
"Ah, that looks delicious. I want to go..."
As if he hadn't heard the talk, Yoshimura started talking about something else, so he looked at the screen again. Then, despite it being national news, the Autumn Seafood Festival at the Fisherman's Square in Abashiri, which could be called local, was being discussed. Fisherman's Square was a tourist commercial facility built on the site of a former large-scale fishery processing plant after it was demolished, consisting of a seafood market and a collection of multiple restaurants serving seafood. It was expected to be a tourist facility second only to the Abashiri Prison during the bubble era, but it didn't become as popular as expected (Author's Note: This is a fictional facility in the work based on the Fisherman's Wharf in Kushiro).
"Don't be envious of something like that; you can eat it in Engaru too..."
Despite the complaint to Yoshimura, Yoshimura remained staring at the screen intently.