Chapter 8 - Rumbling 3
"Why did you say such a thing?"
Takeshita whispered to Kosaka as they descended the stairs of the Isaka-gumi office.
Kosaka remained silent as he went down the stairs and outside, and only then did he finally open his mouth.
"I wondered if the reason the Senior Managing Director specifically met with the police had something to do with the interrogation regarding the disappearance eight years ago."
"Ho..."
Takeshita could only give an ambiguous reply, as if he understood but also didn't.
"They were suspected that much, so in extreme terms, since it's voluntary, don't you think it would have been enough to turn us away at the door, or normally just have a regular employee meet us?"
"But is there a merit in having the Senior Managing Director meet us?"
"They might have thought the police had grasped something about the matter from eight years ago and came to investigate using this time as an excuse. And they had the Senior Managing Director, who is an executive, probe the police's situation."
"In short, the Senior Managing Director, who has a deeper relationship than just a regular employee, was more convenient for probing various things?"
"That's it, in a nutshell."
When he acknowledged that Takeshita had grasped "his" true intention, Kosaka gave a slight smile. Takeshita was a bit relieved by that expression.
"You're still concerned about it after all. Even if the case itself is different from this one, I was a bit taken aback because you backed down quite easily."
"Because it seemed like nothing would come out even if we pressed further in this case... But yeah, after all, the matter from eight years ago is hard to forget."
Kosaka answered bluntly to Takeshita's question, but in contrast to that, Takeshita felt something from him like a predator chasing its prey, a glint in his eye. He likely hasn't given up yet. Takeshita felt the insatiable obsession of a detective—no, his instinct—to catch the culprit if there was even a slight chance, emanating from his senior detective.
And before getting into the car, Takeshita and Kosaka decided to check the cars in the parking lot. Since they were tires that were in circulation to some extent, there were about five cars with similar tires among the dozens of cars, so they took tire impressions with sheets and decided to head to the next inquiry target.
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After the interview with Chairman Matsushige was over, Nishida and Kitamura returned directly to the Engaru Station and began investigating the copies of the member list and the list of applicants for this time that they had received from Matsushige. The three people who applied after the article this time were one man and two women. Considering the "work" at the scene, the possibility that the source of the fireball is a woman is considerably low, but since the possibility that they were made to apply as a "proxy" for the person themselves cannot be entirely discarded, they decided to conduct an investigation into the women as well.
Matsushige said that all three applied by phone. The man's name is Shirakawa Youzou, 58 years old, and the women are Nagata Misako, 21 years old, and Tomioka Takako, 42 years old. All are residents of Kitami City. However, it was found that Shirakawa and Tomioka subscribed to the Tonden Times at home, but the circumstances of how Nagata learned about this survey were not well understood. Regarding their occupations and the like, since they hadn't confirmed them for the three new applicants at this point, they decided to divide the work with Kitamura and confirm by phone immediately.
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Since it was 4:00 PM when he called, Shirakawa Youzou had not yet returned from his place of work. According to what he heard from his wife who answered, he is a high school history teacher, and Nishida thought he was the type who would "naturally" be interested in such stories. At this point, he didn't feel any suspicious points, but he decided to confirm his place of work at the high school he was working at later and hung up.
Kitamura called Nagata Misako first but she didn't answer, so he immediately switched to Tomioka Takako. Since she answered when he called her home, Kitamura thought she was likely a full-time housewife given the time. Because she was initially suspicious of him for calling himself "police," he told her the phone number and told her to call back after checking, and hung up once. She didn't call back for a while, but the phone finally rang after about an hour.
She seemed to have called after investigating various things. While apologizing for the time it took, she couldn't seem to shake the question of "why the police called her," and Kitamura could tell as if he were holding it in his hand that she was probing his move. When Kitamura explained the reason for the inquiry in his own way, perhaps she became convinced that it had nothing to do with her, as she became quite talkative.
Originally, her father was from Ikutahara, and she had heard stories of tako-beya labor since she was a child, and since her child had become a junior high school student, she no longer required much care, so she apparently thought of participating this time. Kitamura also intuitively felt she was unrelated to the case, so he wanted to hang up quickly, but the middle-aged woman's chatter didn't stop, and he wasted nearly 20 minutes.
And Nishida called the high school of Shirakawa's workplace directly to confirm his workplace, and after talking with the man himself, he felt he was likely unrelated to the case. Only Nagata Misako remained, but she didn't answer the phone, so the two spent time on the task of washing out whether there were any suspicious individuals from the entire list.
"Still not connected?"
Nishida asked Kitamura, who had silently put down the receiver after trying for the second time during the task.
"No, she doesn't answer."
"It's almost time for the investigation meeting."
"Even so, it can't be helped if the other party doesn't answer."
While they were having such a conversation, the phone suddenly rang. When Kitamura took the receiver, it was from Nagata.
The voice on the phone was in a quite suspicious tone. As expected, she seemed suspicious, just like Tomioka. It's only natural for a young woman to take such an attitude. When Kitamura identified himself as a police official, she sounded relatively relieved; whether it was because she was younger and more naive than Tomioka or simply because she was easy to trust people was unknown, but the conversation proceeded smoothly from there.
According to her, the reason she thought of participating in this survey was because she was learning about the history of Hokkaido's development in a seminar at the Faculty of Letters of Kitami Seiyo University, which she attends. While Shirakawa and Tomioka subscribed to the Tonden Times at home, the reason Nagata wasn't on the subscriber list was because she had seen the article in the Tonden Times at the university library. Indeed, the subscriber list included the library of Seiyo University. When such stores and facilities where many people's eyes are on them take the newspaper, it was originally expected that it would be difficult to investigate how far it goes, and when such an example actually came out, he was made to re-recognize it.
As far as he interviewed her for about 10 minutes, no suspicious points could be found at all even after thinking various things, so Kitamura decided to confirm later whether Nagata was actually enrolled in the university, and for the time being, he had no choice but to reach the conclusion that the three were almost unrelated to the case at this point. After Kitamura explained the conversation with Nagata to Nishida, he let out a large sigh and leaned his upper body back using the back of the chair.
"Well, it can't be helped."
Nishida spoke to his partner, but
"Since there are no suspicious points at all for these three, it's going to be quite tough for the members of the investigation committee from here on," he could only manage to say as if squeezing it out.
"It might be tough for the investigation committee. But considering Nagata's example, the number of people who saw the article is quite wide, more than just those taking it individually. It's not the stage to give up yet," Nishida said as he sipped coffee while comparing the investigation committee and subscriber lists.
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And when it came time for the investigation meeting of the day, Nishida and Kitamura, and the pair of Kosaka and Takeshita who had just returned from Kitami, also gathered at the headquarters. At the meeting, it seemed that not only Nishida and Takeshita's groups but also other groups had not obtained results, and Case Chief Officer Kurano also admitted that the overall investigation progress was poor and gave a strong pep talk to the investigators. Kurano likely expected some difficulty, but the investigators also knew all too well that they couldn't say such sweet things in terms of time.
After the meeting in a harsh atmosphere broke up, Deputy Head Makita, the Station Chief, and Criminal Investigation Division Chief Sawai gathered the detectives of the Engaru Station, and their words of appreciation were at least a comfort to Nishida and the others.
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The next day, Nishida and Kitamura, who had obtained permission from Kurano and Station Chief Makita again and had been away from the inquiry roller operation for two days to wash out the member list by phone, were unable to list any particularly suspicious individuals. As expected, the reality that there were no people who applied after the article came out seemed to be quite harsh. Since it would be a nuisance to the other investigators if they were obsessed with this any longer, the two decided to cut it short and return to washing out the few remaining subscribers from the next day. As Nishida was about to leave the Engaru Station in the morning and was about to stand up, Kurosu, who had received a phone call just before, spoke to him.
"Kakarichou Nishida, it's a phone call from a Mr. Matsushige in Rubeshibe. He says you'll know if he says Matsushige?"
"Ah? ...Oh, Matsushige-san, huh. I'll take the call here, so transfer it."
Saying that, he took the receiver of the phone on his desk.
"I've taken the call. This is Nishida."
"It's Matsushige. Thank you for your help the other day."
"No, no, same here. So, did something happen?"
"Yes... Actually, there was something I didn't quite say the other day. But I was concerned after all. I thought it would be better to tell you."
At the other party's statement, Nishida braced himself a bit.
"Ho. So, what is it specifically?"
"It's exactly about the survey on the Ikutahara side... Actually, there was something concerning about that matter."
"Something concerning?"
"Yes. When I talked to you the other day, I think I remember saying that I contacted veteran members before the article came out, do you remember?"
"Yes, there was certainly such a story."
"So, I ended up talking about the history of the investigation committee and missed saying it, but among those members, there was someone who said, 'Isn't this survey unnecessary?'"
"Eh? Is that true?"
"Of course it's true."
Nishida suppressed the feeling of wanting to say, "Hey, hey, please tell me properly the other day," and continued the story.
"So, who was it?"
After a bit of silence, Matsushige said in a somewhat hurried manner,
"It's Mr. Tanaka."
"Mr. Tanaka is... Wait a moment."
Saying that, Nishida took the list on his desk, and after quickly scanning it,
"It's okay to assume it's the Tanaka Kiyoshi on the list I received?" he confirmed.
"Yes, it's Kiyoshi-san."
"Then... could you tell me a bit more about the situation at that time?"
"At that time?"
"It's about when Tanaka-san suggested the cancellation to you."
Nishida was perhaps a bit impatient and had spoken in a somewhat strong tone.
"So, when I told Tanaka-san, 'We've decided to investigate the Ikutahara side in detail and collect remains this time,' Tanaka-san said, 'The Ikutahara side was investigated in detail by someone other than the Jomon Tunnel Investigation Committee a long time ago, so I don't think much (remains) will come out even if you do it now.'"
Matsushige also seemed to be irritated by Nishida's tone and almost spoke in a grumpy way at the beginning, but he immediately corrected himself and explained calmly.
"I see. Tanaka-san said, 'It's been investigated before.'"
"Yes."
"Is that so. Understood. As I told you the other day, we also have a suspicion that the culprit, who felt a sense of crisis about your survey, did various things in this case, so in that sense, your story is very interesting. It was very helpful that you spoke to me."
When Nishida conveyed that, Matsushige asked fearfully,
"Does this mean Tanaka-san is involved in some kind of incident?"
"We don't know that yet. However, it is necessary to investigate in detail."
"Hmm, that's a problem."
Matsushige likely felt it would be a problem if Tanaka was troubled because of him.
"We will try to avoid causing as much trouble as possible for Matsushige-san, but even so, when we talk to Tanaka-san, the story with Matsushige-san will inevitably come up, so I'm sorry but you'll have to bear with it."
Nishida spoke frankly. In fact, there's no way to deceive that.
"Well, I guess it can't be helped... Since it's a case involving human life, I couldn't stay silent like that. And I don't think Tanaka-san is that kind of person..."
Matsushige's tone in replying to Nishida was heavy, and he sounded like he was trying to convince himself.
"Yes. In fact, we don't know well until we investigate. It's not that anything has been decided yet as to whether Tanaka-san is involved in the case. I'll say it many times, but it was helpful for us that you contacted us. You did well to speak up."
"If you say so, the lump in my chest (mune no tsukae) will go down a bit..."
"I sympathize with your feelings."
Nishida returned only one word to Matsushige's outburst of his feelings. No, it was more accurate to say that those were the only words he had.
And when he finished the conversation and placed the receiver quietly, he said to Kitamura in a powerful voice, as if he had changed completely,
"Kitamura! Change of plans. I'll get permission from the Case Chief Officer!"
Immediately after that, when Nishida went to get permission from Case Chief Officer Kurano, he stood up from his chair and said,
"Oh, is that so! That's interesting information."
He responded with a smile he hadn't seen lately.
"So, I'm sorry, but I'll have to put the inquiries here on the back burner."
When Nishida said that,
"No, I'll handle things here, so you and Kitamura focus on that matter. The investigation is honestly at a standstill. I'm counting on you, do your best!" he encouraged.
"That's a help. I'll leave the rest to you."
Nishida bowed and left the room with an almost running momentum, joined Kitamura, and jumped into the car.
"What did Matsushige-san say?"
Kitamura asked while starting the engine.
Since he had told Kitamura about the change of plans without telling him the details other than that he had received a phone call from Matsushige, it was only natural for him to ask what had happened.
"A veteran member named Tanaka apparently told Matsushige that 'the Ikutahara survey is unnecessary.'"
"Eh, is that so? When I called him two days ago, I didn't find any particularly suspicious points."
Kitamura tilted his head slightly and lightly stepped on the accelerator to start the car.
In fact, when Kitamura confirmed with Tanaka by phone two days ago, he only told him that he was a long-time member of the investigation committee, and no suspicious points were found. It could be said that the situation had changed suddenly and completely. While passing through the quiet Engaru city area, in contrast to the progress of the situation, the car picked up pace.
"Nishida-san, shouldn't we make an appointment beforehand?"
Kitamura suddenly confirmed as they came out onto National Route 242.
"It's better not to. If we say we're going to meet him suddenly, there's a possibility the other party will catch on. Besides, Tanaka has already retired and should be at home during the day."
"I see, that's true too... But is Tanaka actually involved in the case?"
"It's too early to conclude that, of course. However, if the survey isn't conducted, the possibility of the case being discovered is almost zero, so it's better than that. If we bring it in that direction, it's also a fact that it would be a help for the culprit or the person involved in the case."
"When did he say the story about the survey being unnecessary, Tanaka?"
Kitamura threw questions one after another.
"It was said when Matsushige contacted Tanaka, a veteran member, before the article came out."
"Ah, now that you mention it, he was saying something about contacting him before the article during the interview (with Matsushige). I remembered... If so, since Tanaka couldn't stop the investigation committee's Ikutahara survey, does it mean a scenario can be considered where a need arose for Tanaka himself or someone else to recover the body? But if so, unfortunately, the Kitami Tonden Times article would end up being unrelated."
"No, that's wrong. If Tanaka is involved, it's certain that the roller operation on the subscriber list will be useless, but in the first place, since we came up with the story that the investigation committee's survey was the key point of this case because of the Tonden Times matter, the fact that we learned about the existence of the article itself was an important discovery. If Tanaka is a person involved in the case, the outlook for the case should open up all at once."
The engine sound of the unmarked patrol car climbing the mountain pass sounded somewhat lighter to the two than usual.
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When they visited Tanaka Kiyoshi's home in the outskirts of Kitami about an hour later, an old woman who seemed to be his wife came to the entrance to answer.
"Excuse me, we're from the Engaru Police Station, is Mr. Kiyoshi? at home?"
When Kitamura said that, although he had identified himself as police at the time of the intercom, she indeed had a surprised expression with her eyes wide open when she saw the badge in front of her.
"Do you have business with my husband?"
"Yes, I asked him various things on the phone the other day, but today I have something I'd like to ask him more about."
Nishida spoke in a somewhat suppressed tone.
"Father, some police people are here."
At the wife's call, Tanaka appeared slowly after a while.
"Oh, the detective who called the other day about the murder case?"
Tanaka seemed to have quickly guessed about Nishida and the others.
"Yes, sorry for the other day on the phone. Since I have something I'd like to ask you more about regarding that matter today, I came directly, but do you have time?"
Kitamura asked in a deliberate way. Whether he had time or not, it goes without saying that he would have to "accompany" them.
"Ah, well, I'm always free, so that's not a problem, but did something happen anyway?"
The old man asked as if probing.
"Since the talk seems like it's going to be long, if it's okay, would it be alright for us to come inside?"
Nishida asked. It sounded brazen at first glance, but since there was a possibility that neighbors would think it suspicious if the police conducted a long interview in front of the entrance, it was also a statement made out of consideration for Tanaka.
"Well, I don't know what it is, but if that's the case, come on in."
Tanaka was dissatisfied, but saying that, he invited the two into the room.
When they were shown into a Japanese-style room of about eight tatami mats, since they hadn't shown it to Tanaka, they first introduced themselves after taking out their police badges. Just as that was over, the wife brought out tea and okaki (T/N: rice crackers). Kitamura seemed to be refraining, so Nishida shook his face vertically and gave a sign that it was okay to eat. Tanaka watched that and took a sip of tea, then started the conversation first.
"So, what's this talk?"
The fact that the other party started it was a godsend for the detectives, as they were "doubting" him.
"Actually, it's about the matter from the other day."
After saying that and pausing for about a beat, Kitamura continued his words.
"Tanaka-san, when you heard the story about surveying in Ikutahara from Matsushige-san, it seems you opposed it?"
"Opposed!?"
Tanaka said that, picked up the teacup he had placed down a bit, and put it back on the desk again.
"That's what I've heard."
Nishida followed up.
"Detective, did you hear that from Chairman Matsushige?"
"Well, yeah."
Kitamura replied in a somewhat awkward way. Since he hadn't explained the details of the conversation between Matsushige and Nishida to Kitamura, he didn't know specifically about Matsushige's "concern," but he seemed to be concerned about causing trouble for Matsushige.
"That's a problem. I didn't oppose it, though..."
Tanaka replied with a sense of 'oh boy' that he didn't hide.
"Tanaka-san, I'll be honest, we suspect that the culprit or a related person in this murder case wanted to stop the remains collection and survey if possible. And so, to be more specific, Tanaka-san, didn't you tell Matsushige-san, 'There's no need to do it because remains have been collected in a form other than the Jomon Tunnel Investigation Committee'?"
Nishida pressed.
"That's right. Exactly. It was quite a while ago, but I did collect remains on a fairly large scale. This is a true story, so it can't be helped."