Chapter 97 - Name and Reality 20 {Single 38} (81–83: Re-examining Matsushima's testimony in light of new facts)
Sunday, June 23rd. Nishida and his team were on standby from early morning as usual, but the murderous tension had already vanished from everyone. Since Higashidate's siege operation was confirmed, they had assumed that there would probably be no movement.
Also, the fact that nothing that seemed to be related to the case was found in the search of Higashidate's room, which was conducted at the same time as the arrest, was also a cause. Of course, even if they said they had relaxed, once he was brought to the Kitami Station, they would directly participate in the interrogation from now on, so it was only a short-time relaxation, and it wasn't that they had lost their motivation. Everyone was waiting for the regular report from Kusaka while reading newspapers or watching television.
However, Nishida had already been thinking since yesterday about one thing he should do during this time, and he decided to execute it. Now that it was almost certain that Oshima was Kuwano's cousin, Onodera, he decided to listen again to Matsushima's testimony, which Kitamura had recorded. He had been thinking about doing it, but things had progressed so quickly all at once that he hadn't had the chance.
Now, that recording tape had been imported as digital data and could be heard without deterioration due to rewinding the tape. He borrowed a CD-R containing the audio data from the forensics materials and listened to it carefully for the first time in a long while on his own computer. Leaving aside Yoshimura, since other investigators hadn't delved into this matter, he used headphones so it wouldn't leak.
The content of the first part was almost straight as it was, but eventually, parts that he still didn't understand well began to come out, so Nishida listened intently.
※※※※※※※ (Author's Note: Hereafter, excerpts from the content that was previously on the recording tape. The conversation starts with Kitamura.)
"I see... Understood... I was also curious about this in the Written Statement, but it says that when Sada was leaving after the discussion, he said, 'Regarding this matter, there is still a person who should receive the portion of the inheritance you took, and one of them has been found. My discussion with you ends here, but you will have to settle things with that person separately.' What was that about?"
"Even if you ask me what it was about, what should I say?"
"Specifically, what kind of reaction Isaka had after hearing that story from Sada, or if he said anything, things like that."
"Is that so... In that case, after Sada left, Isaka was laughing and saying, 'There's no way he can find them.'"
"By the way, regarding the person who should receive the inheritance, the 'one person who was found,' did a specific name or something like that come out of Sada's mouth?"
"Rather than a name, he should have said something specific, but I can't remember that. However, I only remember that Isaka was muttering and complaining, 'How can he find someone whose name he doesn't even know'..."
"Hmm? I don't quite understand... Matsushima-san, you can't remember the specific name, but you heard 'some words' specifically from Sada's mouth, right? Regarding that, did Isaka say 'I don't even know the name well'?"
"Yes, that's right. Even if I'm asked about that, I don't know the reason why Isaka said that."
"I see... I don't quite understand... Good grief... Well, whatever... I'll move on to the next important story."
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"Who on earth was the person Sada Minoru had apparently tracked down—likely the child of Mende Shigeyoshi..."
Nishida was recalling the question from seven years ago.
Even at the detective agency in Sapporo, Sada Minoru's statement that "I found Mende's orphan" was consistent. Probably, there was no lie there. In the dinner meeting in Kitami that included Matsushima, since it wouldn't have worked even if he suddenly said the orphan's name to Isaka, he might have spoken using the phrase "Mende's orphan" as it was written in the deed.
Since Matsushima also didn't clearly remember such a phrase specifically, did it become a very ambiguous and difficult expression like "not a specific name, but he said something specific"? Needless to say, that was only Nishida's speculation. He thought about it for a bit, but since a conclusion wouldn't come out in the first place, he gave up and resumed the playback.
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"Um, this is really important, but Isaka said, 'Oshima also cooperated with me in the past and got his hands dirty with evil deeds. And I also hold an even bigger secret of his. That's why he and I are in a relationship where we sink or swim together.' He certainly said that to you, Matsushima-san, after Sada left, just as it's written?"
"Yes, no mistake. He certainly said that. That's why he also said, 'Oshima has no choice but to cooperate with me.'"
"It's not written in the Written Statement, but in exchange for the contract from Sada, Isaka received something like a deed, and he showed that to me after Sada left."
"Ah, the one he received from Sada in exchange for providing management funds, although it seems it was a fake deed in the end..."
"That's right. He showed me that deed... Ah, I have to ask this... You know that the name Oshima Kaiji is just a common name for elections, right?"
"Yes, I've heard something like that occasionally."
"So, his real name is Tadokoro Yasuo, and this is something that people who know Oshima normally know."
"And Isaka said something unexpected while showing that deed. 'In this, his old name from when he and I stole the inheritance together, before he became Tadokoro Yasuo, is written'... At that time, I also understood the meaning of the 'evil deeds he cooperated in and got his hands dirty with.'"
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Regarding this part, it was the place Nishida and Takeshita had mentioned on the phone the other day when Nishida realized that Onodera Michitoshi, who later became Oshima, had impersonated his cousin Kuwano Kinya.
In other words, the reason he used the expression "old name" and didn't say "real name" was that since Oshima's real name and actual identity is Onodera Michitoshi and not Kuwano Kinya, the name he used when he was impersonating Kuwano Kinya could only be called an old name. Also, the "big secret" could be inferred to be precisely that Oshima's actual identity was not Kuwano Kinya but Onodera, who had impersonated him.
Here, Nishida remembered that Kurosu had also been strangely fixated on this point after the fingerprint collection from Oshima at the Onneyu Onsen seven years ago.
Against Matsushima's recorded testimony that "In this, his old name from when he and I stole the inheritance together, before he became Tadokoro Yasuo, is written," Kurosu had insisted that there was a part that bothered him.
According to Kurosu's thinking at the time, if Isaka Daikichi specifically mentioned "old name = Kuwano Kinya (on the deed)," then under the premise that Kuwano and Oshima Kaiji were different people in terms of fingerprints (actual identity) despite the flow of family register transitions, it would normally only hold true if Oshima Kaiji's actual person (which we now know was Onodera) took over Kuwano's family register, and it would be impossible for that to have held true at the time of the gold dust excavation (theft), which would be before the separation of the family register to Tokyo (if he was to take over the family register, it would be from this period = after October Showa 22).
Also, he thought that at the time of excavating the gold dust, there was no point in calling himself Kuwano Kinya.
In that case, Kurosu had insisted that if Isaka Daikichi had spoken to Matsushima immediately after the dinner meeting in '87, which also included Sada Minoru, as in this recorded testimony of Matsushima, there was a point that didn't make sense.
Against this statement of Isaka and Kurosu's opinion, Nishida and his team were dismissive from the start, saying:
"It's doubtful whether Isaka really used such a convoluted expression to Matsushima. It might just be Matsushima's misremembering."
However, now that it should be seen that Oshima, alias Onodera Michitoshi, had already changed into Kuwano Kinya without much time passing since the mine explosion accident, at the time he brought out the inheritance of the old man Senzaki from the mountains of Ikutahara after the war, Oshima should have already existed as "Kuwano Kinya," which is an "older name" than the name "Tadokoro Yasuo."
The reason he could be said to have "changed without much time passing" is that at the time the death notice for Onodera Michitoshi in the accident was delivered to the village office of Ryori Village, Iwate Prefecture—his hometown—from the Konomai Gold Mine where he worked, Onodera Michitoshi was a presence that was completely erased legally and publicly from the world, and at the same time, since the surviving Onodera himself fled while calling himself Kuwano Kinya, it can be said that Onodera was able to automatically move to his cousin Kuwano Kinya's family register.
At that time, they didn't use certificates with photos, and to avoid having his false claim of being Kuwano Kinya "denied" by Onodera himself, he left the scene before the Konomai colleagues arrived.
Also, the fact that Kuwano's belongings were probably mostly taken out by Kuwano at the time of the accident might have influenced Onodera's impersonation.
If Kuwano's belongings had been brought to the scene, and if some kind of identification-like thing was mixed in, there was a possibility that Onodera took what was necessary from it and fled from the scene. The Kuwano deed that Onodera probably presented at the Sada house in Otaru was probably also taken out in the same pattern. It should be seen that the deed was also mixed in the belongings.
And in the old days, even if you used Kuwano's identification and the like, if there was no photo, it would have been sufficient to pass as the person himself. Therefore, it could be said that what Isaka told Matsushima after the dinner meeting was likely the truth according to that convoluted expression. It means that Kurosu's question from seven years ago had hit the mark in the end.
However, at that point, it was completely impossible to deduce that Oshima had swapped with the dead Kuwano at the scene of the Yubetsu mine accident. Kurosu had also only pointed out the problem in the expression, and there was nothing that could be done about being blamed now.
On the other hand, since Isaka Daikichi should have worked together with the original Kuwano himself in the mountains of Ikutahara and known Kuwano well, there is no mistake that he knew that Onodera was impersonating Kuwano at the time he appeared at the Sada house in Otaru together.
On top of that, he probably acted together with Onodera, who appeared as the fake Kuwano in Otaru. Since Isaka himself had been refused the location by the parents when he appeared alone at the Sada house earlier, following the instructions in Toru's letter, he might have had a necessity to rely on Onodera even if he knew he was a fake Kuwano.
But Onodera's newly faced problem seemed to have arisen from there. Since he at least had his impersonation of Kuwano known by Isaka, he probably needed to erase the traces of the name Kuwano Kinya as much as possible on official documents—that is, on the family register—and become a "different person."
So, after going to Tokyo, he manipulated the family register one after another, and by finally making his name Tadokoro Yasuo, he succeeded in practically erasing the Kuwano Kinya identity unless it was investigated very carefully.
However, by returning to Hokkaido aiming for the successor of Kaito Takumi, it should be seen that he received the kind of blackmail from Isaka that he had feared beforehand.
Incidentally, as for the reason why Onodera was accepted as Kuwano in Otaru, since it is unknown how much the two looked alike when they were young even though they were cousins, nothing is clearly known except for the possession of the deed.
However, it was probably largely because in the letter Toru left for his parents, he wrote that "Kuwano's face doesn't have any particularly impressive features," and other than being tall, no major characteristics other than his intellectual inner self were written. Just in case, Oshima himself should have been quite tall for his age, considering his current appearance.
Furthermore, even though there were instructions in Toru's letter, since it was written that they didn't have to do it, the amateur old couple at that time wouldn't have compared the deed and the person's fingerprints. Just having the deed should have been enough to make them accept him as Kuwano.
And since Oshima, alias Onodera, also had the intelligence to pass the entrance exam for an old-system middle school and pass the entrance exam for the prestigious private Meiho University after the war, even if he didn't have as much intellectual power as Kuwano, he should have been able to play the intellectual in his own way.
The only problem is how Oshima, who impersonated Kuwano, and Isaka Daikichi met up after Isaka appeared alone at the Sada house once and was turned away by the parents who followed the instruction in Toru's letter: "Don't tell the location even if Isaka comes alone." Regarding this point, it was something Takeshita himself had mentioned as a question in the conversation with Takeshita the other day.
After Kuwano, Isaka, and Hojo escaped from Ikutahara, the fact that Kuwano was finally in Konomai was grasped as information, regardless of the process, but as for Isaka, it is not known at all what kind of footsteps he took until he appeared in Otaru afterward.
Did Kuwano and Isaka keep in touch with each other even after they escaped, and did Onodera, who was working at the Konomai Gold Mine together, also get that information? However, from the letter Hojo Masato sent to his younger brother Masaharu, it didn't seem like they were keeping in touch.
And if he was keeping in touch with Isaka, I think it would have been fine if they appeared in Otaru together at that point, but was Isaka already trying to outsmart the other comrades?
However, now that it's known that the many actions seen as Kuwano's personality breakdown were due to Onodera "taking over" after Kuwano's death, it was hard for Nishida to think that Kuwano, who undoubtedly possessed high intelligence and character, was only in contact with Isaka while setting aside Hojo, who was a fellow inheritance successor, after escaping from Ikutahara. The only possibility is that he only lost the contact information for Hojo...
Nishida organized those questions and took notes, then began to listen to the rest. Basically, many of the subsequent contents were things that had already been clarified, so he listened through them without any problem. However, there was something that suddenly caught his attention in the next part.
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"But Isaka also said something else that bothered me at that time. 'That guy Oshima'—um, was it Kuwano? 'Thanks to that name, he was certainly able to escape from the hell that I experienced'..."
"Um... I don't quite understand, but what does that mean?"
"I didn't understand either, so I tried asking. Then..."
"Then?"
"He said, 'Don't you understand even though you're the same age as me? You're slow on the uptake,' and he was about to say something, but just then the proprietress of the restaurant 'Furin' came to greet us. Since both of them were regular customers who used the place often, it was natural... After that, after chatting with the proprietress, Isaka said he had business and left first. That was the end of it..."
"Then we don't know... Well, that itself probably isn't a big deal... It can't be helped even if we worry about it."
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Even when he listened to it before, he didn't pay any particular attention to it because of the shock of other statements, but now that the facts have been largely clarified, this part has become a concern.
What on earth was the hell that Isaka experienced? And what does it mean that Onodera was able to escape from that hell thanks to Kuwano's name—that is, probably because he was able to impersonate Kuwano?
However, since a conclusion wouldn't come out suddenly even if he thought about it here, Nishida took a note of it again as a homework for himself and tried to think about it carefully later. And he proceeded further with the playback. It was already that abominable last part.
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"Hey, did you kill them all?"
"It's okay... No problem, they're dead."
"I collected the paper and the notebook he had. Hurry up and collect that!"
"Where was it?"
"They said it's at the outlet, hurry up!"
"Ah, there it is, there it is! Let's go together quickly!"
"..."
"Ah... that extra habit again... Let's go quickly!"
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Certainly, even listening to it now, coupled with the poor recording condition, the voices of the two sounded quite similar. If there was data that could analyze Kagami's voiceprint, he might have been able to compare it and find out which one was Kagami, and he might have been able to point out the contradiction with the 'Abe' statement, which was probably Higashidate's, but since there wasn't, it's too late.
In the first place, even if he could analyze it, it was doubtful whether he could have noticed that 'Abe' was an "Iwate dialect." He might have thought it was some kind of code or a pseudonym like a code name.
After Higashidate is transferred to Kitami, it goes without saying that he intends to properly perform the voiceprint analysis of his voice and the voice on this tape. If they match, it can be confirmed that Higashidate was at the scene at that time, and his involvement in the murder can be almost proven by the voice. It's sufficient as evidence.
However, needless to say, Nishida wants to prove whose instructions the shooting was carried out under, and that is only the entrance. Even if he can prove only that, it doesn't lead to a real solution. After that, he ordered Yoshimura to listen to the recording again and was lost in thought while looking out the window for a while.
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On this day as well, while nothing was known in Sendai, Kitami entered dinner time. While the whole team ate just like yesterday and came back and waited for the final report from Sendai, Nishida was somehow watching television with his subordinates and other investigators while simulating the flow after bringing Higashidate to Kitami.
Since he had heard from Kusaka that he would persist until around 11:00 PM today, there were still about two hours left until the final report came.
Shortly before 9:00 PM, a young detective named Takekuma, who was on night duty today and was the youngest among all the detectives of the first division in the second squad of the Violent Crimes Unit, asked other investigators and Nishida's team, "Is it okay to tune the television channel to NHK?" Since he was the highest-ranking person among those remaining, the final decision was left to Nishida.
Nishida was also just watching it for a bit of a distraction, so he said:
"If the other guys don't particularly mind, I don't care, so Takekuma can do as he likes."
Then he said, "Then I'll take the liberty of changing it," and changed the channel from the commercial drama that had just started. It seems to be a special program. While watching it blankly for a while, since today, June 23rd, was the day the ground battle in Okinawa ended during the war, it seemed to be a special feature on the Battle of Okinawa using plenty of film from that time.
"Does 'Bear' want to see something like this? As expected of a high academic background from Hokkaido University, it's different!"
He was being teased by other senior colleague detectives, not with sarcasm but with pure playfulness. Certainly, Takekuma was the youngest, but he was also the detective with the highest academic background among the general investigators of the Kitami Regional HQ.
As far as he had heard before, Takekuma, who was from Hakodate and a graduate of the Faculty of Letters of Hokkaido University, took the senior exam for local civil servants in Hokkaido but failed, and since he was originally in the judo club, he switched to the path of a police officer. There were parts that overlapped with Takeshita in various ways, but in terms of academic background alone, Hokkaido University was higher than Shoyo University, which is the second-tier private university in the prefecture in terms of humanities level.
However, although he felt intelligence in Takekuma, he didn't have the image of being as sharp as Takeshita, and he was a man with the image of a somewhat simple and honest good young man. Incidentally, as a side note, Takeshita gave up on Hokkaido University because he couldn't do math, but if his family had money, he seems to have also considered prestigious private universities in Tokyo.
To return to the story, Takekuma is over 185 centimeters tall and weighs nearly 90 kilograms, so his presence is outstanding, and he was also the type that you wouldn't imagine he was a graduate of Hokkaido University unless you were told. He was just like a "bear," and based on his surname and appearance, the nickname from the members of the squad he belonged to had become Bear.
Nishida also asked:
"I've heard Takekuma was in the Faculty of Letters at Hokkaido University, but did you major in something related to history?"
Then he answered yelpingly happily, "I majored in modern and contemporary history!" He probably felt that Nishida was interested.
When he asked further, "Do you like history?" he answered even things he hadn't been asked, saying, "Yes! Both my father and mother love history, and my younger sister is also researching Ainu culture and history in the graduate school of Shoyo University!" So Nishida said with a wry smile:
"The whole family likes history. With that, you can't possibly do a muddy profession like a detective, right?"
Then he suddenly became serious. And he confessed with force:
"That's not true! Because my mother was a policewoman!"
He is the type that jokes don't work on straight, but Nishida thought that such a background was also large, and instructed Takekuma that he could already concentrate on the television.
Nishida also continued to watch the program without any particular thought, as a distraction. However, while watching the documentary footage of the horrific events that many military personnel from both Japan and the US and civilians in Okinawa must have experienced, another detective from the second division said in a loud voice:
"I've heard that at that time, there were guys who drank soy sauce to make their complexion look bad in the physical exam for conscription because they didn't want to go to war, but they must have been desperate."
And Nishida agreed with that.
However, while Nishida was watching the screen with such feelings, the story of the old man Okuda's experience in the Battle of Okinawa in Kunneppu suddenly came back to his mind.
"That person actually saw this kind of thing before his eyes..."
At the exact moment he was rethinking the meaning of Okuda's words, "The experience of the Battle of Okinawa was hell," the keyword "hell" and the "hell" in Isaka Daikichi's statement, which Matsushima was testifying to in Kitamura's recording tape, began to merge within Nishida.