The couple the storekeeper had noticed coming out of the railway station were passengers on the 9:24. The couple the young man saw at the Nishitetsu station was among the passengers who had arrived on the 9:35. Thus, there was a time lapse of eleven minutes. If it was the same couple in both instances, it had taken them eleven minutes to walk from the one station to the other.
What does this mean, Torigai asked himself. No matter how slow the pace, it had taken him only about eight minutes to cover the distance. How could they have taken eleven minutes? He remembered the young man telling him that the couple had passed him walking rapidly. If true,
Either alternative was possible. The first was probable enough while the second, equally acceptable, would account for the time lag of eleven minutes. Torigai had to admit there was no proof that it was the same couple seen in both places. The identification rested on the fact that in both instances the man wore an overcoat and the woman a kimono. No one had observed their faces or noticed the pattern of the kimono.
If there were two couples, then the one seen by the young man at the private railway station was very likely Sayama and Otoki.
The woman's exclamation had deeply impressed Torigai. On the other hand, he could not be certain that the couple seen at the railway station was not the pair in question. They could very well have stopped along the way. Torigai was not ready to give up the idea that the two couples were the same.
In the end, still undecided, he returned to his home in Hakata and went to bed.
Reporting to work the following morning he found two telegrams on his desk. He opened one: 'Kenichi traveled often to Hakata on business. [Signed] Sayama.' He took up the other one: 'Hideko had never visited Hakata.'
These were replies to the telegrams he had sent from Kashii Station the day before. The first was from Kenichi Sayama's brother, the branch bank manager; the other, from Mrs. Kuwayama, Otoki's mother. The implication was quite clear: Kenichi Sayama had made many trips to Hakata on business; therefore he knew the locality well. Otoki, on the other hand, had not been in Hakata before.
Torigai recalled the scene of a woman exclaiming, 'What a lonely place,' and of a man walking rapidly towards the beach without making a reply.
Torigai accomplished one task in the course of the morning. Leaving the police station, he took a streetcar to Hakozaki and from there walked to the Keirinjo-mae station on the Nishitetsu line. This line continues on to Tsuyazaki, a port on the north coast of Kyushu, passing through Kashii. It was a bright and unusually warm day for winter.
Torigai presented his card to the station master.
'What brings you here?' asked the stout, ruddy-faced man in uniform from behind his desk.
'On the night of the twentieth a train on this line arrived at Kashii station at 9:35. What time did it leave here?' Torigai inquired.
'Nine twenty-seven,' the station master replied promptly.
'I have some questions I'd like to ask the man who was on the gate that night. Is he around?'
'Let me see.' The station master ordered his assistant to check. The name was on the office record and the man was found to be on duty. The assistant went to fetch him.
'Has anything happened?' the station master asked while they waited.
'Yes, an incident.' Torigai took a sip of the tea that had been offered to him.
'You have a tough job,' the station master commented.
A station employee entered the office, approached the desk and saluted. 'This is the man who was on duty that night,' said the station master.
Torigai turned to address him. 'I'm sorry to trouble you, young man. Were you on duty at the gate when the 9:27 train left on the night of the twentieth?'
'Yes, sir, I was.'
'Among the passengers did you by chance see a man, about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, wearing an overcoat, accompanied by a woman, around twenty-three or twenty-four, in kimono?'
'Let me think.' The young man blinked his eyes. 'There were many men wearing overcoats. Can you give me the color of their clothing?'
'The overcoat was a dark navy blue and he was wearing brown trousers. The women's coat was gray and under it she wore a brick-red kimono.' Torigai was describing the clothes found on the two bodies on the beach. The young man tried to concentrate, his eyes looking into space.
'I'm afraid I don't remember. You see, most of the time we notice only the hands when we punch the tickets. Unless something unusual happens we seldom look at the faces of passengers. And anyway, since this is the start of the line, as soon as the gate opens passengers crowd through the wickets.'
'But surely there was no crowd at that hour of the night?' Tongai remarked.
'There might have been thirty or forty passengers; that's about average.'
'It's more usual for women to dress in western style these days, it seems to me. Not many wear kimono. Do think again; see if you can't remember.'
'I'm afraid I can't.'
Torigai was not easily put off. He insisted, but the station employee kept shaking his head and repeating that he could not remember. Jutaro suddenly had another thought.
'Well, then, perhaps some people you know came through the gate that night.'
'I believe there were.'
'There were? Do you recall their names?'
'There were three, as I remember, all three old acquaintances of mine. I know their names and where they live.'
'Excellent. Please let me have that information.'
Torigai took it down in his notebook. He thanked both men for their cooperation and left the office. The next few hours were spent largely afoot. The three individuals lived along the Nishitetsu line Torigai visited in turn Wajiro, Shingu and Fukuma stations.
The man residing at Wajiro had this to report:
'I was in the first of the two coaches and remember seeing two women wearing gray coats. One was about forty years old, the other about twenty-six or twenty-seven. Seated to either side of them were some young office girls. I don't believe there was a man in a navy blue overcoat.'
Torigai took Otoki's picture out of his pocket and showed it to him. 'Was she the younger of the two women?' he asked.
'No, the features were very different.'
The man living at Shingu said he had been in the second coach.
'A woman wearing a coat? I don't know. Maybe she was there. Actually, I fell asleep almost immediately. And I don't recall seeing a man in a dark blue overcoat either.' Torigai showed him the two pictures but he failed to recognize them.
The last of the three passengers, the one from Fukuma, had more to say: 'In the second coach, where I was, there was a woman wearing a coat. Yes, I suppose she could have been about twenty-five or twenty-six.'
'Was the coat gray?'
'I don't remember the color. But so many coats are gray, this one could have been also. She was talking all the time to the man seated beside her.'
'A man? What type of man?' Torigai was aroused. The answer was disappointing.
'They could have been a married couple. He looked over forty. He was wearing a kimono.'
Torigai showed him the pictures but the man saw no resemblance to the couple he had described. He added that he could not remember the color of the man's overcoat.
Torigai returned to Hakata weary and despondent. He had been unable to determine whether Otoki and Sayama had been aboard the train.
When he entered the police station the chief got up immediately from his desk, as if he had been waiting for him. 'Ah, Torigai,' he said, 'someone is here from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Board to see you.'
A young stranger, wearing street clothes, was sitting next to the chief. He looked up at Torigai and
