Points And Lines

smiled.

5 Torigai and Mihara

The stranger who stood up to greet Jutaro Torigai was a man in his early thirties. He was short and sturdily built-so solid, in fact, he made the old detective think of a tree stump. Round eyes looked out at him from under heavy eyebrows, and an unusually clear complexion gave him a youthful appearance.

'You're Detective Torigai? I'm Kiichi Mihara, Assistant Inspector, 2nd Detective Section of the Metropolitan Police Board. I'm very glad to meet you.' He bared a row of even white teeth as he smiled and presented his card.

At the mention of the 2nd Detective Section, Torigai knew at once that the inspector had come to investigate the Sayama suicide. The 1st Detective Section dealt with crimes of violence, the 2nd Section was responsible for cases of deception and fraud.

The Tokyo papers were playing up the scandal that had been uncovered in government circles. Kenichi Sayama's section in the X Ministry was the principal target. In fact, a colleague of Sayama's, an assistant section chief, was already under arrest. Only a week before, two leading members of a private organization closely connected with this same ministry had also been arrested. It looked as though the scandal would spread further. The 2nd Detective Section of the Metropolitan Police Board was in charge of the case.

'I've come to check on Kenichi Sayama, assistant section chief in the X Ministry, who committed suicide here,' Inspector Mihara said as he settled back in his chair. 'The chief has given me the outlines of the incident. He also gave me these materials which are most useful.' On the desk were photographs of the scene of the suicides, the report of the autopsies and other documents. 'I understand, Detective Torigai, that you have your suspicions about this love suicide.'

'You remember giving me your opinion of the case the other day, Torigai?' the chief interjected, drawing nervously on his cigarette. 'I repeated it to Inspector Mihara and he was very interested. Please explain it to him in detail.' The chief detective's face betrayed his skepticism.

'That's right. I'm interested to hear that you have a different opinion of the Sayama case. I've been waiting to talk to you about it.' Mihara's manner had charm.

'Well, it's not really a different opinion. It's hardly more than an idea.' Torigai, aware of the presence of his chief, spoke with diffidence.

Mihara's eyes brightened. 'Ideas are fine. Please let me hear yours.'

Hesitantly, Torigai told him about the dining car receipt, made out for one person. As he spoke, his daughter's remark about love and appetite came to his mind but he refrained from repeating it.

'That's certainly an interesting fact,' Mihara remarked in a tone intended as flattery. 'Is the receipt on file?'

'Although the deaths were from an unnatural cause, since no crime was involved all the private effects were returned to the families of the deceased,' the chief explained.

'Is that so!' Mihara showed his disappointment. 'Are you sure the date on the receipt was January 14?' he asked Torigai.

'Yes.'

'That's the day Sayama and Otoki left Tokyo Station on the Asakaze. Let me see…' Mihara took a notebook from his pocket. 'I have the time schedule of the Asakaze. It leaves Tokyo at 6:30; Atami at 8:00; Shizuoka, 9:01; Nagoya, 11:21 and Osaka, 2 A.M. That would be the following morning, the fifteenth. Therefore, on the fourteenth, the date on the receipt, the last stop would have been Nagoya at 11:21.'

Torigai began to grasp what Mihara was trying to say. He realized that this man shared his views of the case. Despite the fact that Mihara had the manner and the appearance of an insurance salesman, it was evident that he came from the prestigious Metropolitan Police Board.

Mihara addressed the chief detective. 'I would like to visit the scene of the suicides. I know he's busy, but could I trouble Mr. Torigai to take me there?' The chief reluctantly agreed.

They took the streetcar. Assistant Inspector Mihara, standing next to Jutaro Torigai and holding on to a strap, leaned over and said to him in a low voice. 'The chief doesn't seem to be in very good humor.' Torigai smiled, little creases appearing around his eyes. 'It happens in every office. I am very interested in your ideas. I thought you might find it difficult to talk in front of the chief so I asked you to come with me.'

'We can talk when we get to the beach,' Torigai said. He was grateful for Mihara's thoughtfulness, unusual in a man of his age, he felt.

They changed to the Nishitetsu line at Keirinjo-mae and soon arrived at the Kashii station. Less than ten minutes later they were on the beach.

Mihara looked about him with interest. It was a clear day and the sea was sparkling. Mist obscured the distant islands and the horizon.

'Is this the famous Sea of Genkai? I was able to get a glimpse of it from the train window but this view from the beach is much better.'

Torigai showed him the spot where the bodies were found. He related the scene at the time of the discovery, describing the position of the bodies, their appearance, their clothes. While he spoke, Mihara studied the photographs he had brought along, nodding his head from time to time.

'The beach here is quite rocky,' Mihara presently remarked as he looked around.

'As you can see, nothing but rocks, almost to the water's edge.'

'Not the sort of place to find any traces,' Mihara commented.

Later, when they were seated side by side on a big rock, away from the scene of the suicides, Mihara said, 'Now let me hear what you have on your mind.' Wrapped in their overcoats and warmed by the late afternoon sun, they could have been taken for two men quietly basking in the sun.

'The first thing that struck me was the dining car receipt, which was made out to one person,' Torigai began. He gave the reason for his suspicion, this time adding his daughter's comment on the matter of love and appetite. 'That's why I believe Sayama was alone on that train,' he concluded.

Mihara listened attentively. 'That is interesting. I'm inclined to agree with you.' His eyes were alert. 'But aren't there witnesses who saw him board the train with a woman at Tokyo Station?'

'Certainly. But can't we assume that the woman-Otoki I mean-got off the train at some station along the way?'

'Yes, that can be assumed. If she did get off…' Mihara took the notebook from his pocket. 'The date on the receipt is the fourteenth, so it would have to be before the Nagoya station where the train arrived at 11:21. Of course, Sayama must have gone to the dining car before it closed at 10:00. So if Otoki did get off, it was either at Atami, which the train left at 8:00, or at Shizuoka, at 9:01.'

'Yes, that could be.' Torigai nodded soberly. Mihara was putting his own vague thoughts into words.

'Good. Since a great deal of time has passed it's hard to say what we'll be able to find at this point. In any event, I'll have the station and inns checked at Atami and Shizuoka. The movements of a woman alone are sometimes surprisingly easy to follow.' Mihara then asked: 'Do you have anything else on your mind?'

'Sayama stayed by himself at an inn called Tambaya in Hakata from the fifteenth to the twentieth. The fifteenth is the day he arrived at Hakata from Tokyo.' Torigai then related how Sayama had waited at the inn for a telephone call, and how the call had come through at eight o'clock on the night of the twentieth, a woman's voice asking for Sugawara, the name under which Sayama had registered at the inn, and how Sayama had left immediately afterward, and how it was assumed he had committed suicide that same night.

Mihara listened intently. 'The fact that the woman knew Sayama's assumed name proves that it was Otoki,' he remarked. 'The matter of the inn and the false name must have been arranged beforehand.'

'I believe so. That clears up one mystery.'

'How's that?'

'Till now I had assumed that Sayama and Otoki had arrived together at Hakata and that Otoki had then gone off somewhere alone. After this talk with you, however, I think we are right in believing that Otoki got off