Chapter 90 - Name and Reality 13 {Combined 25/26} (55–56, 57–58: Nishida and Yoshimura Visit Engaru Station After a Long Time)
At this time, Nishida thought it strange that Okuda's wife wasn't there. Whenever he had visited before, his wife had always been present, and the reason for her absence didn't click. However, when they were shown into the same living room as seven years ago, he saw the mortuary tablet and finally grasped the situation.
"Your wife?"
When he said just that one thing while signaling with his eyes,
"Ah, two years ago. It was quick... A myocardial infarction. Fortunately, it wasn't a long illness, so that's a blessing, if you can call it that,"
He replied matter-of-factly.
"I see... Then, may I offer some incense?"
Nishida had no choice but to say that.
"Of course. I'm sure the old lady will be happy that Nishida-san has come after a long time. Please do."
Since he said it with a smile, Nishida offered incense. Yoshimura hesitated since he had no acquaintance at all, but since Okuda urged him, saying "if you don't mind," he followed after Nishida.
In the meantime, Okuda, who had gone to the kitchen to make tea, returned and served yokan (T/N: sweet bean jelly) and tea to the two.
"Ah, I should have said not to trouble yourself."
Nishida apologized, but,
"Well, it's just for a short time, so don't worry about it. I know you folks don't have much time. Eat and drink quickly!"
He spoke in the same tone as before. Then, while watching the two start on them,
"By the way, about the convenience store robbery, the morning news said they headed north from Oketo, right? Did they come through the Kunneppu side?"
He asked.
"We don't know for sure yet, but it seems they headed north on Route 242 toward Rubeshibe, Kunneppu, or Kitami. To be honest, this area is a bit off Road 50, so you haven't seen anything, have you?"
Nishida performed something like an investigation for form's sake.
"If it was the early hours, I'd be asleep. However, I think I had a faint memory of a patrol car driving by in the middle of the night while I was half-asleep?"
"It might sound blunt, but since there's a possibility the culprit is in Kunneppu, this is a visit for the purpose of inquiries, though I half-knew it wouldn't mean much at your place, Okuda-san."
To the wryly smiling Nishida,
"Well, it's fine! If it weren't for this, I wouldn't have reunited with you, Nishida-san, right? In a way, it might be God's will,"
It was the usual "Okuda-style," but Nishida felt like asking about Okuda's recent situation in that flow.
"It's been seven years, but how have you been during this time? I actually have many things I want to talk about too."
When Nishida started like this, Okuda paused for a while and then,
"Let's see. Since the old lady died two years ago, my way of thinking has changed from before,"
He said something unexpected.
"Your way of thinking? Is it a change regarding your view of life and death?"
"That might be related too, but I guess it's like 'how to use the remaining time.' I don't think you folks can understand yet, but it's about things I want to tell and leave for the young people. Now I'm active as a volunteer storyteller for elementary and junior high school students in the town and nearby areas."
Saying so, Okuda stuffed a piece of yokan into his mouth.
"Things you want to tell?"
"That's right. Stories from when I was young... About when I went to war, and then, the stories of tako-beya labor I learned during the JNR era, which you, Nishida-san and the others, also know about. Though that's not something I experienced myself."
"You went to war too, Okuda-san. Well, given your age, it's not surprising..."
Nishida said this and glanced at his watch behind the low table.
"That's right. Where I went was Okinawa. I was drafted exactly in Showa 18 (1943)... You probably won't understand even if I tell you in detail, but I entered a unit called the 32nd Infantry Regiment of the 24th Division, and I ended up participating in the ground battles in Okinawa from Manchuria... In the unit, there were many soldiers from the same hometown as me. All Hokkaido boys... We were all still young and low-ranking, but after the American army landed, well, it was a living hell... That hardship is something you can't understand unless you've tasted it..."
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In the Battle of Okinawa, which began on March 26, 1945, and saw full-scale ground battles start from the US landing on April 1, over 180,000 Japanese people died. Among them, 28,000 were Okinawan military personnel and civilian employees, and 94,000 were general prefectural residents. It is all too famous for having produced many victims.
However, few know that the place that produced the most victims after Okinawa Prefecture was actually Hokkaido. Over 10,000 military personnel lost their lives in the far-off southern land. Many young men were dispatched from the northern tip to the southern tip and perished miserably.
Among them, the 89th Regiment of Asahikawa in particular was occupied by many people from within the prefecture, and at the same time, they were in a harsh situation where almost all died in battle. Also, in the infantry regiments of the 24th Division system, such as the 32nd Regiment and the 22nd Regiment, which became the main force in the Battle of Okinawa, there were many drafted soldiers from Hokkaido, which became a factor in the increase of war dead from the prefecture.
Also, the fact that many Ainu youths became victims in a foreign land far from their ancestral lands remains buried unknown in the darkness of history.
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"You participated in the Battle of Okinawa... I don't know the details well myself, but I've heard it was certainly harsh. I had no idea you had gone through such hardships..."
Nishida could only say that, but even as a detective, he hadn't sensed at all that such a shadow clung to the cheerful Okuda. Conversely, was that cheerfulness a reaction because of the shadow?
"For an individual like me, it's a problem of an era that can't be helped anymore, but I don't want the young ones to taste that kind of feeling. For that, I thought I should properly do the things I must tell before I die..."
"I'm sure the words of a witness to history will reach them, even the children."
After Nishida spoke like that, he looked at the expression of Yoshimura next to him, and Yoshimura also had an unusually serious face.
"By the way, when did you come back here, Nishida-san?"
Okuda suddenly shifted the topic, probably because he didn't want to make it too gloomy.
"At the end of March, due to a transfer. Since you helped me so much, I should have come to greet you, Okuda-san, but I didn't have much opportunity, so I'm sorry for that."
"No, no, it's nothing! Don't worry about me."
To Okuda, who showed he didn't mind by waving his hand, Nishida took the plunge and said,
"Actually, the reason I and Yoshimura here were assigned to Kitami this time is for Kitamura's 'revenge'."
He couldn't explain well even to himself why he felt like saying such a thing, but because he felt some sense of mission or responsibility in Okuda's words, he might have been inspired and wanted to show his own "resolve."
"Revenge?"
"Yes. I was given an opportunity for a re-investigation of Kitamura's case by the Police Headquarters, and I took it. While I'm at it, I'm also investigating the case I was asking you about with Kitamura back then."
Yoshimura, who was listening, had an expression like "Whoa, are you going that far?" but he remained silent.
"I see... So you came back to Kitami to investigate Kitamura-san's case. No, no, was it Engaru back then... Anyway, I'll certainly pray for your success too."
"Thank you. Although it's slight, I believe we are getting closer to an arrest step by step."
Nishida said this, then put the yokan he had left entirely into his mouth and washed it down with tea.
Then, when he checked his watch, exactly about 15 minutes had passed.
"Well then, considering the other investigators, I can't stay too long."
When he said that and stood up with Yoshimura, they proceeded to the entrance.
And in front of the entrance door, to the two who expressed their thanks,
"Make sure you catch them! For the sake of Kitamura-san, who died in the line of duty at that young age!"
The old man slapped Nishida's shoulder to encourage him. While thinking that it overlapped with Okuda's feelings for his comrades who had perished young, Nishida responded with a heartfelt smile,
"Understood. I'll do my best so I can give you a good report."
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In the end, Nishida and the others' "struggle" was not directly rewarded, but the convenience store robbery case was solved suddenly on the following day, the 7th. At the N-system near the Rubeshibe-Kitami boundary where the deceased Managing Director Kitagawa had been caught, they narrowed down the license plate from the car that passed during the likely time slot and its color. When detectives approached the owner in Kitami City directly, a young man who suddenly started acting violently turned out to be the culprit after all.
He was 22 years old. According to his quick confession, he couldn't find a job even after graduating from high school, and after becoming half-desperate, it was an impulsive crime for the purpose of play money.
Hokkaido was no exception—no, rather more than other regions—it had fallen into a recession since the failure of the Hokkaido Shokusann Bank (Author's Note: I will not use the real name of the model, Hokkaido Takushoku Bank) in November '97, and he seemed to be a youth whose age overlapped perfectly with the employment ice age.
The Shokusann Bank, which failed in the aftermath of the bubble's collapse, had its Hokkaido business transferred to the Hokumo Bank, a second-tier regional bank, even though it was one of the city banks. This processing method, where a Goliath was absorbed by a David, was unthinkable and sent shockwaves through Hokkaido in particular. Even several years later, the impact of the failure continued to slowly erode the prefectural economy.
The background of why the clearly lower-ranked Hokumo Bank became the transferee was that the management of the Hokuo Bank (Author's Note: Model is the North Pacific Bank), the number two bank in Hokkaido, and the Shokusann Bank were in a confrontational structure. The then Ministry of Finance, the supervisory authority, worried about the possibility that things wouldn't go well even if they merged (talks of a merger with the Hokuo Bank had surfaced and vanished before the Shokusann Bank's failure).
The Hokumo Bank was originally based on the Hokumo Sogo Bank and had become a commercial bank in 1993, renaming itself the second-tier regional bank, Hokumo Bank. Because the original founding family had originally practiced "solid" management, and after that, they had established a management system by former Bank of Japan officials, they were almost never swayed by the bubble and were not affected by its collapse.
In other words, the fact that the management state was sound was a major deciding factor for them to be the recipient of the Shokusann Bank, which was far larger in scale but riddled with bad debts.
As the name suggests, the Hokumo Bank was originally a bank managed mainly in the Kitami and Abashiri districts, but it had actively expanded throughout the prefecture since the Showa 50s (1975–1984), and in 1988, it had moved its head office from Kitami to Sapporo (Author's Note: The model for the Hokumo Bank is, of course, the North Pacific Bank, but the background of this novel is almost unrelated to the North Pacific Bank. If anything matches, it's just that former Bank of Japan officials were at the top of management for many years and it was relatively sound management without being swayed by the bubble, so please do not misunderstand).
In any case, it goes without being said that returning to a state where they could focus on their own case without being bothered by other incidents was a result Nishida and the others should be happy about.
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On June 8th, while watching the morning news filled with the Japan-Korea World Cup at home before work, Nishida remembered that he had been asked by Takeshita to check if the Engaru Station had any materials on the naval mine explosion accident.
Since it was possible they would become busy depending on the investigation status of the National Police Agency from now on, it didn't take long to reach the conclusion that it was better to handle what could be handled early. And while it would have been enough to request the business by phone normally, another thing he should do came to mind. He recalled that the investigation materials from back then regarding the case where the three bodies of Senzaki Taishirou, Mende Shigeyoshi, and Takamura Tetsuo were buried remained at the Engaru Station.
Without this matter and Sada Toru's letter, there was a high probability that even Motohashi's confession in the Sada Minoru murder case would not have come out (because it was highly likely that the Oshima side requested Motohashi to put an end to the case due to the sudden progress of the investigation), so there was a very strong possibility it would have ended in uncertainty.
On the other hand, most of the other investigation materials managed by the Engaru Station, which had not come to the Kitami Regional Headquarters before, had already been transported to the Kitami Regional Headquarters when it was decided that Nishida would be in charge of the dedicated investigation at the Kitami Regional Headquarters.
"If I'm going to pick up those materials anyway, I'll directly check if there are materials on the mine accident too..."
Nishida made that decision.
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"Even so, it's been too abnormal these past few days, hasn't it? It's like midsummer. No, it's more than midsummer..."
On the way to the Engaru Station, Yoshimura grumbled to Nishida around the time they entered Rubeshibe while loosening his tie with one hand.
Both of them had taken off their jackets before departing and placed them on the back seat. When they checked the outside temperature of the car with a thermometer, it already exceeded 30 degrees even though it was before noon. It's true that this temperature in early June is rare even for a basin (Author's Note: The temperature in Kitami on June 8, 2002, was measured at 32.9 degrees at 1:00 PM, and the maximum temperature probably went up to 33 degrees. Engaru seemed to be the same. Incidentally, the maximum temperature on the following day, June 9, was estimated to be around 21.7 degrees, and that was measured at 3:00 AM. The maximum temperature during the day was 16.5 degrees at noon, which was exactly the extreme temperature progress characteristic of this region).
"Really, it's been strange these past few days since we were doing door-to-door canvassing in Kunneppu..."
Nishida also nodded with an expression that seemed to embody the sultriness itself.
"Shall we turn on the cooler?"
"Yeah. There's not much wind, so let's close the windows and turn it on for a bit... Basically, I don't like the smell, but in this case, it can't be helped."
Nishida was the type to be bothered by the smell of car air conditioning, but as if giving up, he accepted Yoshimura's suggestion, and Yoshimura pressed the air conditioning operation button. Soon, cool air began to fill the car with a sound.
"Hyaah, feels good!"
Yoshimura was happy like a child, but since driving in the heat wasn't good for mental health either, he avoided complaining about every little thing.
They proceeded on Route 242, crossed the Kanehana Pass at the town boundary of Rubeshibe and Ikutahara, passed through Ikutahara, and when they arrived at the Engaru Station, it was already past noon. The thermometer along the national highway they saw on the way exceeded 33 degrees, and the outside temperature of the car was about 37 degrees. As expected, the top of the asphalt was like a frying pan. With this temperature in this season, it was to the point where children or the elderly might suffer from heatstroke because their bodies couldn't adapt.
"Ugh... I don't want to get out."
Yoshimura's expression became overtly unpleasant. While sighing as he saw the heat haze rising from the asphalt of the station's parking lot from inside the car with the engine stopped, the two went outside, but they were immediately surrounded by the muggy heat, and their discomfort reached its maximum.
They hurried into the station building. Even in this season, he thought the air conditioning would be on at this temperature, and as expected, the inside of the station was cold.
"Haa... It's heaven here... Assistant Section Chief, can I rehydrate for a bit?"
Yoshimura said that and dashed toward the vending machine in the break area before Nishida could give permission. Nishida also followed after him, albeit slowly.
After resting their bodies and rehydrating there for about 10 minutes, they felt quite revived and immediately went up the stairs to the familiar Detective Division room.
"Hello, I'm Nishida from the Kitami Regional Headquarters who called this morning."
As soon as he opened the door and greeted, a man who looked like a gray-haired old guy, who could be called salt-and-pepper, sitting where the Section Chief's desk was, stood up.
"I've been waiting for you. Boy, it must have been tough in this heat, right? I'm the Section Chief, Masui."
It was Masui, the Section Chief of the Detective Division at the Engaru Station, whom Nishida had told he would be coming to procure materials from the Kitami Regional Headquarters. His voice on the phone was relatively youthful, but as far as his appearance in person went, he was probably in his early or mid-50s.
"Are you Section Chief Masui? Thank you for your help. This is my subordinate, Yoshimura."
After exchanging standard greetings, he immediately brought up the business he had requested.
"This way, please."
Saying so, they were shown to a reception set. As far as he could see, it remained unchanged from when Nishida left Engaru in the spring of '97. The two sat quietly on the slightly old synthetic leather sofa.
"By the way, it's sudden, but did you prepare that thing?"
While lightly pressing the hardness of the sofa with his hand to check, Nishida asked. Then, looking a bit awkward,
"Since you contacted us this morning, I also requested the Administration Section to look for the old materials on the mine accident, but the current situation is that they haven't been found... How about this? This year was the 60th anniversary of the accident, so we made this for the memorial ceremony... It describes the flow of the accident and such, so I think it can serve as a substitute. I heard it was originally made using old materials, so the content should be the same."
When he told Nishida that, he placed a small booklet on the desk.
The cover of the booklet had a photo of the memorial monument for the mine accident, and the title was "Yubetsu Mine Accident: 60 Years of Progress."
Nishida received it and looked inside while flipping through it. The circumstances of the mine discovery, the situation at the time of occurrence, and the situation after the accident were recorded in detail. However, if one had seen the article Takeshita wrote, most of it was overlapping content, and even from Nishida's point of view, there were many parts lacking in novelty. On the other hand, even though it was about something from 60 years ago, because it was an accident caused by "one of their own" in a sense, it didn't contain as harsh criticism as the Doho article.
"Yes, I think this is fine. However, if there are old materials, I'd like to see those, so if you have time, could you tell the Administration Section to keep looking for them?"
While saying something that sounded like he was satisfied as a social nicety, Nishida surmised that Takeshita must have wanted the raw materials from back then, and he dared to ask for the troublesome thing again. Masui seemed to make a slightly unpleasant face, but perhaps considering that even if he was younger, an Assistant Section Chief of the Regional Headquarters was equal to or higher than a Section Chief of a local station,
"Understood. I'll tell them that,"
He answered unusually meekly.
"Next, about the materials on the discovery of the three bodies..."
Masui said that and had his subordinate bring a cardboard box. It was exactly as they had moved it from the original box to a clean cardboard box and added "Important" in marker seven years ago. The subordinate placed several cardboard boxes on the desk with a thud. While looking at them, Yoshimura asked,
"Were these found immediately?"
"Yes. These were in a place where they could be found immediately, thanks to Assistant Section Chief Nishida and Senior Staff Yoshimura taking good care of them when you were here."
"Ah, I see. I guess I was helped by my own actions."
Nishida couldn't help but smile at Masui's words. Even so, Masui seemed to know that Nishida had been in Engaru.
"Masui-san, how do you know we're Engaru alumni?"
Nishida asked like that, wanting to check the reason just in case.
"Well, since it was such a big incident, those of us serving at other stations have heard various rumors, and I was curious and looked at the investigation materials from back then when they were still here. There are also various rumors that Assistant Section Chief Nishida was assigned to the Kitami Regional Headquarters this time for the dedicated investigation because of the hospital shooting case. Well, I've heard there are various stories that can't be made public, but even so, things get conveyed somehow."
Masui grinned as he said that.
"Ah, I see."
Nishida scratched his head embarrassedly.
"Since it's the biggest incident since the Engaru Station was opened, those of us who were assigned later are naturally interested. However, the case of Sada Minoru's murder involving Motohashi is already solved, so it's a shame that it's unlikely we'll be directly involved in the investigation no matter what happens. As for other related cases (the Yoneda youth murder case), there's nothing to be done if the suspect is dead. However, it seems you suspected from back then that there was some connection between Motohashi's murder and the hospital shooting case?"
At Masui's words, Nishida reflexively straightened his posture slightly. For form's sake, it was not explicitly stated in the official investigation reports of the Sada Minoru murder case and the Kitami Kyoritsu Hospital shooting murder case that Oshima Kaiji was the existence connecting both. However, in the report of the Kitami Kyoritsu Hospital shooting case, he remembered that it was finally described that some kind of relationship was suspected between the Sada Minoru murder case and the hospital shooting case due to the relationship with Assemblyman Matsushima.
"Well, I suppose so."
To Nishida, who answered vaguely,
"Does that mean, just in case, if something resurfaces in that investigation, it's possible our side will cooperate in the investigation again?"
He turned a sharp gaze toward Nishida. Nishida's evaluation of Masui until a moment ago was that of a common veteran detective-type old guy, but now he was upgraded somewhat.
"Well, it's hard to say anything, but it wouldn't be strange if that happened. If it does, naturally we'll have you cooperate."
Nishida spoke like that, but certainly, depending on the investigation status, the Engaru Station might primarily have jurisdiction over the Sada Minoru murder case, so there was no harm in building a good relationship. He added further.
"We are also alumni of the Engaru Detective Division, so if we can work with those people again, that would be a joyful thing."
"That's right. We have young people who want to handle big cases, so if that happens, it'll be something to look forward to, though it's a bit of a strange way to put it. Peaceful days aren't bad, but just between us, I can't say it loudly, but it's the nature of a detective to want to hit a huge case once in a while. It's like an occupational disease. Hahahaha."
While watching Masui's loud laughter, Nishida felt that although he was a different type of Detective Section Chief from Sawai, this might be the type that is easy for subordinates to approach.