Inspector Imanishi Investigates

“It was a darkish gray.” Having said this much, the wardrobe mistress’s expression became puzzled. “We didn’t report it as a burglary; was it wrong not to?”

“No, that’s not a problem at all. This has nothing to do with any burglary report.” Imanishi smiled. “Was there a burglary?”

“No, we don’t think so. But it is certain that it disappeared.”

“Was it kept in the dressing room?”

“Yes, it was. At the end of a play’s run, we store things in the costume warehouse, but during a run we leave them in the dressing rooms.”

“That’s strange. Do you have burglars who steal from the dressing rooms?”

“I can’t say we never do, but I can’t imagine that a burglar would take a worn-out raincoat. Although sometimes money has been stolen.”

“It was the twelfth that you realized the raincoat was gone? That means the raincoat was there the evening of the eleventh and was used for the performance, but on the next day, the twelfth, you found that the raincoat had disappeared before the performance began.”

“Yes, that’s the way it was. Since Miyata-san was tall, I had a hard time finding a raincoat that was long enough.”

“What! It was Miyata-san?” Imanishi’s voice rose involuntarily. “That raincoat was for Miyata-san’s part?”

“Yes, it was.” The woman was surprised at his loud voice.

“You mean Miyata Kunio, of course?”

“Yes.”

Imanishi’s rapid breathing showed his excitement. “When he found out that the raincoat he was to wear was missing, what did Miyata-san say?”

“He said ‘What shall I do?’ He asked me to find something quickly. He kept saying, ‘I know it was here last night.’ ”

“Wait a minute. Was Miyata-san on stage until the last scene of that play?”

“Yes, he wore that raincoat in the last scene.”

Imanishi crossed his arms. The memory of Miyata Kunio’s death returned forcefully. “I’d like to ask you something else. There was a staff member named Naruse Rieko here, wasn’t there? The girl who committed suicide.”

“Yes, I knew her well.”

“It might be impolite of me to ask this, but were Miyata-san and Naruse- san on close terms?” Imanishi asked the wardrobe mistress.

“I don’t think they were especially close, but Miyata-san seemed to like Naruse- san.”

Imanishi had heard this before. He himself had seen Miyata standing under Rieko’s apartment window trying to draw her attention.

“That night, did Miyata-san go straight home after the performance?”

“I wouldn’t know about that.” The wardrobe mistress smiled. “Usually he seemed to go home alone after performances. He didn’t drink much and didn’t seem to have many friends.”

“What about Naruse-san?”

“I don’t know about her either. Probably the other office people would know.” She turned to look at the clerk standing beside them.

“I can’t be sure,” the clerk cocked his head in doubt. “I don’t remember if she went home right away on that particular day. Naruse-san was a very hard worker. She never left the office early.”

“Do you have a time card system here?”

“No, we don’t.”

Imanishi wanted to find out whether Naruse Rieko had left the theater during work hours on May 11. “Was Naruse-san’s work the kind where she could have left for a while during her work hours?”

“Well, if she had wanted to, she could have. Her responsibility was to make sure everything was orderly after the performance was over. During the performance, she wouldn’t have been that busy.” The clerk added, “But she never left the theater during a performance.”

“You said on that occasion the theater was the Toyoko Hall. So naturally, Naruse-san was at Toyoko Hall as well?”

“Yes. There’s no doubt about that.”

“Sorry for asking such troublesome questions.” Imanishi bowed to the two theater employees.

If the murderer had put the raincoat on over his bloodstained clothes, no one would have noticed. He could even have taken a taxi without difficulty. That raincoat was the one Miyata wore on stage. And Miyata had shown a special liking for Naruse Rieko. Rieko, in turn, was passionately in love with another man. A thread connected these figures.

Imanishi recalled a passage from Rieko’s journal.

Must love be a lonely thing?

Our love has lasted for three years. Yet nothing has been built from this love… At night, despair haunts my dreams. And yet I must be strong. I must believe in him… This love always demands sacrifices of me. I must feel the joy of a martyr as I make sacrifices. Forever, he says. As long as I live, he will continue to demand that I sacrifice.

The passage spoke of three years. Rieko had started to work at the Avant-Garde Theater four years ago. Her first move was one year later. That meant that for three years she had lived at an address she had kept secret from the theater.

“This love always demands sacrifices of me,” she had written. And she had actually sacrificed for her love. She had stolen a costume from the theater for her lover and had taken it to him. It was also she who had cut up her lover’s shirt into tiny fragments. She had had no regrets about these acts that were against the law. “I must feel the joy of a martyr as I make sacrifices.”

Imanishi had been wrong. Not only had he mistaken the identity of her lover; he had also made a great error in his surmise that her apartment had been used as a hideout. No wonder no hideout could be discovered even after so much investigation around Kamata Station.

Imanishi ruminated, putting his thoughts in order.

A certain man decided to commit a murder. He realized that his clothes would become bloodstained. He could not hail a taxi in such a state. Before committing his crime, he called the Avant-Garde Theater at Toyoko Hall from a public phone booth. It was late at night, but Rieko was still there. He ordered her to bring him something to wear over his clothes. He also told her where to meet him. On the spur of the moment, she stole the raincoat, which was a stage costume worn by Miyata Kunio. Perhaps she had asked Miyata to sneak the raincoat out. That’s it, that must have been it. Otherwise, even if it were just one raincoat, her conscience would have prevented her from stealing something from the theater troupe. By taxi, it was a short ride from Shibuya to the scene of the crime. If she had taken the train, she could easily have changed at Gotanda or Meguro to reach the site. She met her lover, who was standing in the shadows, and handed him the raincoat.

Imanishi felt that what had puzzled him for so long had finally been made clear. There were still many things he did not know, but he told Yoshimura what he had concluded.

“I agree with you completely,” Yoshimura said in response. “I’m impressed, Imanishi- san.”

“Don’t flatter me,” Imanishi said, embarrassed. “If I had figured this out right off, I might be able to accept your praise, but this is the result of having gone around in so many circles.”

Three people related to the Nouveau group in some way had died since the Kamata murder was committed. Miyata, Miura, and Rieko. Imanishi now believed the Kamata railroad yard murder case was linked with these three deaths.

At about three o’clock the next day, Imanishi realized he was hungry. Finding a break point in his work, he headed for the fifth-floor coffee shop. Many others were already there. He ordered coffee and a piece of cake and