Chapter 55 - Light and Shadow 34 (179–182: The One Caught in the Shooting Was...)
"Nishida... unfortunate news has come from Kitami. Please listen calmly... It seems the shooting occurred around 7:00 PM at Kitami Kyoritsu Hospital..."
The moment the words "Kitami Kyoritsu Hospital" came out, Nishida had a bad premonition.
"The ones shot were the aforementioned Matsushima Kotaro, the nurse Momose Yukiko, and... Kitamura."
By the time the name "Matsushima Kotaro" appeared, he had prepared himself to some extent, but at the words that followed "Momose Yukiko," spoken with a deliberate pause, Nishida couldn't even raise his voice. The nurse Momose Yukiko was likely the sister-in-law of Kitamura's girlfriend. He remembered Kitamura mentioning such a surname. Furthermore,
"Regrettably, it seems all three were killed instantly... An investigation headquarters has already been set up at the Kitami Station, and the Kitami area has begun to move."
At these words, which Sawai managed to squeeze out in a hoarse voice, Nishida's lips involuntarily trembled and he closed his eyes. The other subordinates were equally shocked, raising their voices.
"Why did this happen again..."
In any case, it was certain that no one had imagined, when reporting the contents of the call from Kitamura, that the expectations for him until just a moment ago would meet such an end. To put it grandly, it might have been a scenario that even God hadn't considered.
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Even on the local NHK news from 8:45 PM, the outline of the incident was being reported as breaking news, but Nishida remained in a state of confusion even after ten minutes had passed. Not only because the hope of a moment ago had turned into despair, but also because he was struck by a sensation that these seemingly unrelated and contrasting events were actually connected behind the scenes, though he couldn't explain it well. Nishida snapped out of it and called out to Sawai.
"Section Chief! Did you tell the Manager that Kitamura was questioning Matsushima?"
"What are you talking about! I told him properly just now!"
Sawai was likely on edge due to the emergency, and he was unusually indignant with Nishida. It seemed Nishida had been so stunned that his memory of the information being conveyed was hazy.
"I see... my memory must have slipped, I'm sorry. So, what did he say?"
"He was surprised, of course. He said he'd tell Section Chief Kurano immediately."
Sawai spoke with his emotions consciously suppressed, perhaps regretting his outburst at his subordinate.
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At 10:00 PM, a car believed to have been abandoned by the culprits was discovered in a vacant lot in Kitami City, less than a kilometer from the hospital. It was a stolen vehicle, and it was believed they likely switched to another car from there to escape.
No fire extinguishers had been sprayed, and at the same time, nothing seemingly left behind had been discovered on the surface, though it would naturally be scrutinized from now on. The reason they didn't use a fire extinguisher was either because they weren't professionals, or because the location, though a vacant lot, was in a relatively residential area, and they either didn't have time to spray it or avoided the possibility of standing out awkwardly.
And assuming they fled in another stolen vehicle from there, they would have been caught in the extensive checkpoints that were immediately set up, so it was thought that they either hadn't used a stolen vehicle from that point on, or they were still within the range of the checkpoints.
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The date changed, and in the middle of the night on November 12th, a call came from Team Leader Kosaka of the Kitami Station's Violent Crimes Unit to the Engaru Station for a status inquiry. It was that Kosaka who had come alone from the Kitami Station to support the investigation into the murder of the young man Yoneda and had paired up with Takeshita. Since the Kitami Station was the jurisdiction in charge of this incident, Kosaka was naturally standing at the forefront and participating in the investigation. After first greeting Sawai, he requested to be switched to Nishida immediately.
"It's been a while. Though I never thought I'd be hearing your voice again in this way..."
Kosaka uttered his first words in a low voice.
"When Kitamura told me in the evening that he was called out by Matsushima because he had something to talk about, I was hoping that new information regarding the Sada murder might come out, only for things to turn out like this a few hours later..."
He continued, speaking as if squeezing the words out.
"They say the future is darkness just an inch ahead, but no words apply more than those... However, thinking about it that way, the timing of that turn for the worse is suspiciously good..."
After stating his "ordinary" impression, he added the sense of wrongness that Nishida had been feeling until just now.
"You think so too? I also thought something was strange, but I was keeping it to myself."
"You were probably too surprised to be calm. I also think it's strange. However, another view is currently slightly more dominant over here."
"Another view?"
"Yes. You know that various shooting incidents have been occurring recently around here, mainly involving construction companies, right?"
"Of course I know."
"According to information from our Organized Crime Department, there's talk that the turf wars between construction companies are intensifying, and that this might be related. You know about the shooting at 'Taihei Giken' in Bihoro the other day, right?"
"I believe information reached us from the Kitami area that the cause might be the bidding war for public works with Murayama-gumi."
"I see, then this will be quick. That Taihei Giken is currently run by the son of Matsushima's deceased older brother—his nephew. There's also talk that the shooting at Murayama-gumi again on the 4th might involve the Gishin-kai of Abashiri, who were said to have been backing the Taihei Giken side previously, though their current relationship isn't clear. In other words, 'retaliation.' Murayama-gumi is a front company for the Nissho-kai, so the story is that it's becoming a conflict between the Abashiri yakuza of the Nissho-kai and the Gishin-kai. It's come to be thought that the Gishin-kai side also orchestrated the first shooting at Murayama-gumi. For that reason, there's a theory that this murder of Matsushima is also part of the Nissho-kai's retaliatory actions."
Nishida understood Kosaka's explanation logically, but there were aspects that didn't sit right with him.
"I understand what you're saying, but in that case, isn't it heating up too suddenly, considering there had been no shootings against people until now?"
"That's certainly unnatural. There's also various negative information, so of course it's only one way of thinking, but it's also true that it's a strong theory. Therefore, we'll have to investigate it separately from the connection to the Sada Minoru case. Anyway, I'm just letting you know that for now, the conflict-related theory is dominant. Also, I think a request for support will probably reach the Engaru Station tomorrow. If we're going to investigate the Sada connection as well, I think we'll be asking for your cooperation, Nishida."
Kosaka finally suggested the possibility of Nishida and the others being involved.
"Understood. I'll be prepared for that. We absolutely have to avenge Kitamura, after all."
Regarding the responsibility for his former partner's death, whoever the opponent was, they needed to be made to pay. Nishida felt this strongly.
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When the conversation with Kosaka about the investigation ended after about twenty minutes, the fatigue from the previous night hit Nishida all at once. And at the same time, the days he spent pursuing the case with Kitamura were brought to mind. At that time, he hadn't thought for a moment that they would meet their parting in this way. When he closed his eyes, Kitamura's energetic figure floated up.
"Just what the hell had to happen for it to turn out like this!"
Due to anger, what he intended as a monologue inadvertently became a shout that echoed through the room.
"Are you alright?"
Yoshimura called out with concern.
"Yeah, sorry. I just got a bit heated."
Nishida laughed weakly, but Yoshimura cast a sad glance at his partner and superior for a moment and said,
"I see..."
He turned his gaze away.
He pondered about Kitamura for a while, but his mental fatigue reached its peak, and he was suddenly overcome by an intense drowsiness. Seeing this, the Section Chief called out,
"Nishida, get some sleep."
"I'm sorry. To be honest, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed..."
Nishida said this and fell into a deep sleep all at once, slumped over his desk. Normally, it was his daily routine to properly summarize his investigation notes as a diary at the end of the day, but as expected, this day remained a complete blank.
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A little after 10:00 AM on November 12th, Nishida, who couldn't hide his mental fatigue, and Yoshimura, who was blinking frequently perhaps due to lack of sleep, were at the investigation headquarters set up at the Kitami Station. The two had been dispatched as support from the Engaru Station. Although it was called support, since there were two candidate factors—whether it was related to a yakuza conflict or the Sada Minoru murder case—it was more accurate to say that Nishida, who was well-versed in the Sada case, had been called as an important advisor in a sense.
Normally Nishida alone would have sufficed, but out of Sawai's consideration for Nishida's state of mind, Yoshimura was also participating in a complementary role. Although he was somewhat unreliable, it was certain that his advantage in having pursued the Sada case by Nishida's side was superior to that of the veteran detectives of the Kitami Area Headquarters and the Kitami Station.
In any case, given the situation where an active detective was killed while practically in the middle of an investigation—though the background of the incident was unknown at this point—not to mention the brutality of three people being shot dead, the conference room where the Kitami Station's investigation headquarters was located was filled with a quite bloodthirsty atmosphere. Since the support team from the Prefectural Police Headquarters was expected to arrive in the evening, the investigation meeting began for the time being with only the support team from neighboring stations, the Kitami Station which was the jurisdiction, and the Kitami Area Headquarters team.
In the meeting, Section 1 Head Kurano, who was also serving as the "Chief Investigation Officer" for this incident, explained the details of the incident.
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The incident occurred in the private room where Matsushima was hospitalized at Kitami Kyoritsu Hospital. A little after 7:00 PM, Kitamura, who had been called to the hospital room, the nurse in charge Momose Yukiko, and Matsushima were shot by probably two men who had suddenly intruded and were believed to have been masked. (No one saw them from the front; the information came from a patient in the adjacent private room who, sensing something wrong, came out of their room and saw their backs fleeing down the hallway, and they seemed to have been masked.) All three had been shot four or more times, receiving gunshots to the head and chest respectively, resulting in almost instantaneous death. Furthermore, the bullets had two types of rifling marks, indicating that each of the two individuals had held a gun. The type of handgun was likely "Tokarev" for both, but the rifling marks were believed to have no "prior history" (priors).
Also, while there should normally have been a series of quite loud gunshots, the fact that there weren't many led to the deduction that silencers were used. And due to several factors—such as the private hospital rooms being in a location isolated from other shared rooms, it being the time after dinner, and it being a time when outside visitors and companions had been sent home—there was an extreme lack of eyewitness information. Also, the fact that they intruded and simultaneously fled using the emergency stairs was confirmed from footprints, which was another reason the culprits were hardly seen. There was a high possibility it was a planned crime by someone somewhat familiar with the internal structure and circumstances of the hospital.
Since all three were killed instantly, the work of "professionals" was considered, but at the same time, the number of shots fired was high, so while they were "accustomed" to some extent, it was subtle whether they had trained or had "experience" from the start. The one thing that could be said for certain was that they were likely not mere "civilians."
About three hours after the incident, a stolen vehicle was discovered abandoned in a vacant lot in a residential area about one kilometer from Kyoritsu Hospital, and it was considered highly likely that they switched to another car here and fled. It was unknown whether they rode in a collaborator's car, drove themselves, or took a different means of escape contrary to the assessment, but in any case, there were no noticeable items left behind in the abandoned car, and there were almost no traces such as fingerprints for identifying individuals. According to the forensic scrutiny, there were only hairs (which were later found to at least not belong to the original owner) and clothing fibers, so they likely paid close attention to not leaving fingerprints at all by wearing gloves from the moment they stole the car. And the possibility that the checkpoints were completely bypassed had to be admitted to some extent by this stage when the investigation meeting was being held. Of course, the possibility that they were still lurking somewhere in the city was not zero...
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After the overview was explained by Kurano, the Section 4 Head of the Kitami Area Headquarters, "Kagawa Mitsuru," explained the investigation policy regarding the yakuza conflict direction.
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As for the assumed reasons why Matsushima was killed, the same content as what he had heard from Kosaka was told. However, as more detailed information, it was revealed through information from clients and banks that Taihei Giken had been hit by the recent construction recession and had defaulted once in mid-September, and it was almost certain they would default a second time within November, meaning they were in a state of effective bankruptcy. It was explained that this might have led to "retaliatory activities" against Murayama-gumi, who had "interfered" with the bidding.
However, there was also information that since the presidency of Taihei Giken changed hands, there was almost no relationship with the Gishin-kai, who had been their backers, so it could not be concluded whether yakuza were used for retaliation or whether the retaliatory actions were based on instructions from Taihei Giken.
On the other hand, regarding the assessment that it was an aftermath of the "Sada Minoru" murder case, it was explained by Kurano himself.
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It was a natural suspicion that arose from the fact that Kitamura was caught in it immediately after receiving the sudden call from Matsushima. As is known, Kitamura was told over the phone by "Momose Akane," with whom he was in a romantic relationship, that "a message came from my sister-in-law saying Matsushima wants to talk to you about the murder case," and he abruptly canceled his attendance at the karaoke party with Nishida and the others in Engaru and headed back to Kitami Kyoritsu Hospital. Regarding this point, corroboration had also been obtained from Akane. She seemed quite exhausted by the situation where her lover and sister-in-law were murdered, but she apparently gave her testimony properly, though while wailing. Nishida's heart ached when he heard this.
However, as for what kind of talk Matsushima wanted to have with Kitamura, Akane had heard nothing at all, and Momose's family had also heard nothing. In other words, now that the involved parties were all killed, there was no longer any way to hear it. It was speculated whether Matsushima intended to say something about the Sada Minoru murder case, but it was merely speculation, and even if it were correct, what exactly was said, or was supposed to have been said, was already in a state of being buried in darkness.
Matsushima himself had divorced thirteen years ago due to family discord and was estranged from his ex-wife and two daughters, so they hadn't heard anything about the case, and his relatives, including the nephew who ran Taihei Giken, seemed to have no idea in the police questioning so far.
Also, while the timing of the incident was quite suspicious, it was also true that if the timing was this good, the question arose as to how the culprit obtained the information that Matsushima was trying to call Kitamura and talk to him. Since the nurse in charge, Momose Yukiko, was killed, putting aside the idea of silencing her, it was logical to think that she was not involved in the incident according to common sense.
In this case, other hospital employees were also suspicious as informants, but Matsushima Kotaro himself was in a state where he was quite likely to die, and if it were hospital personnel, especially doctors or nurses, there should have been a simpler "way to kill" him without being caught, and the fact that there was no meaning in making it such a large-scale incident also made the "reading" difficult.
From these points, it was decided to conduct even more thorough questioning of employees who were not directly involved in medical care, such as cleaning or administrative staff. Also, suspicion arose that some kind of information-gathering act, probably wiretapping within the hospital room, had been done, but no traces of it were found in the investigation of the hospital room immediately after the incident. Therefore, the wiretapping theory remained within the framework of a mere hypothesis.
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For the time being, since Kosaka also had a deep connection with the Sada murder case, he was assigned to handle the lead related to the Sada murder case along with Nishida and the others. Kosaka himself had been involved in it at the initial stage eight years ago and had been investigating it halfway this time as well, but because he had no choice but to be occupied with the serial rape-murders, it also had an aspect of a loser's bracket comeback match in a sense. Regarding the investigation command of this group, Team Leader Narahashi of the Kitami Station's Detective Division was tentatively taking charge.
The first thing to do, which seemed to have already been started as of the previous day, was thorough questioning of hospital employees. They wanted information, and at the same time, if they proceeded with the investigation on this lead, someone might "slip up" during the talk. It was a quite important investigation.
However, in the large-scale questioning from the 12th to the 13th, no specific suspicious points had been found yet. Also, they tried talking in more detail to Matsushima Eita, the president of Taihei Giken and Matsushima's nephew. "It's true we lost the bidding to Murayama-gumi through dirty methods, but before that, our management status had deteriorated significantly due to the reduction in public works, and it wasn't a situation where we could be using yakuza to fire bullets," he denied with a great fury.
He claimed that in the first place, there were no problematic relationships with yakuza in his own generation. This point matched the information from the Organized Crime Department to some extent. He was also furious that he had been persistently marked by the police since the shooting incident, making it impossible to prevent the default.
However, he himself must have realized that it wasn't actually something that would cause a default because of that. He had already resigned himself to management failure, and he also said that if yakuza were involved in the death of his uncle who had taken care of him in the midst of that, he could forgive that even less. And he even spoke of a conspiracy theory, saying that someone might be trying to frame them.
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On the 13th, the wake for Kitamura, who had returned from the autopsy, was held at Jiso-ji Temple in Kitami City. Sawai also attended from Engaru, along with Nishida and Yoshimura, who had been stuck at the investigation headquarters. Nishida and Yoshimura had ended up having to rent mourning clothes in Kitami, as even returning to Engaru to get them had become a burden due to fatigue.
The situation where three people, including a young detective, were shot at a hospital naturally drew social interest on a national scale, and many people related to the Prefectural Police were coming to the wake of Kitamura, who was effectively "killed in the line of duty." The Deputy Chief of the Prefectural Police also attended from Sapporo, also to encourage the investigation headquarters. Other members who seemed to be Prefectural Police alumni also came, but according to the stories leaked from the attendees, his father had also been a police officer, which likely made it even more so. (Author's Note: This part was added on March 2, 2018).
However, even if he became a Captain through a two-rank promotion, it was all for naught if he was dead. Nishida felt this strongly as he watched the figures of the parents and a man who seemed to be a brother wiping their tears with handkerchiefs, and a young woman who appeared to be his lover, "Momose Akane," wailing and looking as if she might collapse at any moment. At the same time, he did not show his emotions on the surface and only strongly mourned the parting with his former partner, who had been lively until recently, within his heart.
Naturally, the media was also covering the wake of the "tragic hero" from a distance outside the temple. In the midst of such a "crowd of people," to put it exaggeratedly, Nishida discovered a familiar face within the temple grounds. The figure of the old man Okuda from Kunneppu, who had been of great help in the investigation previously and had provided several pieces of important information, was there.
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"Okuda-san!"
Nishida raised his voice within the allowable range while being mindful of his surroundings and chased after Okuda, who was leaving after finishing the offering of incense, threading through the crowd. Okuda noticed the voice and stopped, then turned around to confirm Nishida.
"Ah, Nishida-san... To think things would turn out like this..."
His usual vigor and smile that didn't show his age were nowhere to be found; he raised his hand weakly and responded to Nishida in a voice that seemed about to fade away.
"I never thought, even in the slightest, when you gave us information in the summer, that we would reunite in this way..."
Nishida gripped his prayer beads and could say no more.
"Truly... To think a young person in the prime of his life, who was so energetic just a few months ago, would end up like this... Yesterday morning, I saw it on the news and thought the name sounded familiar, and when I checked the newspaper... I felt I had to at least come and offer some incense after looking it up in the obituary section of the Doho..."
He spoke slowly, choosing his words.
"Due to the nature of the profession of a police officer, we are prepared for such things to happen on a daily basis, but when something like this actually happens close to us, we end up thinking about various things after all..."
"Is it related to the case you all were pursuing in the summer, after all?"
Okuda's intuition was as sharp as ever.
"We don't know for sure yet, but we haven't ruled out that possibility."
"I see... If that's the case, you absolutely have to solve it... Even so, for a promising young man to die before this old fogey, the world is unreasonable, isn't it? Don't you think so?"
Since Okuda said this with sudden emphasis, Nishida took his feelings into account and, though it was a somewhat rude content to simply agree with, he dared to nod while remaining silent.
"Anyway, now that it's come to this, you have to be careful too, Nishida-san. And make sure to avenge Kitamura-san. That'll be the best memorial service! Yes, well then, you must be busy with various things... I have a train to catch too."
Okuda said this, gave a light bow, and then turned his back and began to walk toward the gate of the temple grounds with tottering steps. Nishida just watched him go, while renewing his determination to solve the case.