hen Matsumiya got to the large room at the Nihonbashi precinct, he

found Kobayashi and Sakagami smoking just outside the door. They both

looked glum.

“Good morning,” Matsumiya greeted them. He’d left them late the

night before to grab a few hours of sleep.

“Just look at our faces. What do they tell you?” retorted Kobayashi,

grinning to reveal the yellowing teeth of a heavy smoker.

“That it’s not such a good morning after all?”

Kobayashi nodded and thrust out his lower lip.

“The guy’s still unconscious and there’s a good chance he won’t make

it. That’ll suck. There I was thinking we could solve this one nice and

easy.”

“You identified him?”

“Believe so. The local guys were handling that.”

Matsumiya nodded wordlessly and glanced at the door of the big

room. The staff of the Nihonbashi precinct were rushing in and out, clearly

under pressure to get the incident room up and running.

The notification about a suspicious person had come in while

Matsumiya and the other detectives were busy gathering information

around the area of Edobashi Bridge. The person in question fled when he

caught sight of a policeman on patrol and ran out onto the road, where he’d

been hit by a truck. They found a driver’s license in a wallet he had on him,

a wallet that belonged to Takeaki Aoyagi, the stabbing victim. The obvious

conclusion was drawn.

There was a general sense of relief among the detectives at the news.

Chances were that this was the man who had stabbed Aoyagi. He’d been

carted off to the hospital, but once he regained consciousness and they

could question him, the whole case could be wrapped up nice and easily.

That’s why they had been dismissed last night and Matsumiya had managed

to make it home.

“Him dying won’t be such a bad thing for us either, will it?” said

Sakagami, lowering his voice and glancing around. “The fact that he had

the victim’s wallet on him proves that this was a simple crime with money

as the motive. We can file it under ‘suspect deceased,’ and there we go,

over and done with.”

Kobayashi pulled a sour face.

“We need to assemble a certain amount of evidence even for that. The

paperwork’s got to be perfect. Figuring out how he got to the crime scene is

a whole job in itself. If he lives, however, all we’ll need to do is to confirm

the details of his confession. Let’s hope he pulls through,” said Kobayashi

as he stubbed out his cigarette.

The task of getting the incident room into shape was proceeding

smoothly. Desks and chairs had been brought in, and radios, monitors, and a

bank of dedicated phones were all in place. A raised platform had been

installed at one end of the room. The top brass would sit there when the

official investigation meetings were held.

Matsumiya and the other investigators were all assigned desks. When

he went to the one with his name on it, he found someone he knew very

well sitting at the desk beside his.

“Hey,” said the other man, without bothering to get up. It was

Kyoichiro Kaga.

Before Matsumiya could answer, Kobayashi came over.

“I just had a word with the unit chief. We’ve decided to pair you up

with Kaga. Got a problem with that?”

“Not particularly.” He shook his head, then looked down at Kaga.

“Good to see you.”

“Likewise.”

Matsumiya waited for Kobayashi to move off before sitting down.

“Well, Kyo, seems the top brass are convinced that putting us together

led to solving the case in Nerima.”

“Any chance you can quit calling me that? Most people here have no

idea we’re cousins.”

“What, then? Inspector Kaga.”

“Too formal.”

“How about just … Kaga?”

“That’ll do nicely,” said Matsumiya’s handsome cousin with a nod.

“Like I said when we were working on that last case, when TMPD

Homicide swings into action, it’s you guys who are the main act. Don’t hold

back: your wish is my command.”

“Like you really mean that!” Matsumiya was screwing up his face

sardonically when the atmosphere in the room underwent a sudden change.

Glancing toward the door, they saw Unit Chief Ishigaki come in, followed

by the top brass of the Homicide Division. The deputy commissioner and

the director came in; the last of the four to join them was the chief of

Nihonbashi Precinct.

When they had taken their places up on the dais, the investigation meeting got underway.

Ishigaki acted as facilitator and managed the meeting. The precinct

chief of detectives, as well as someone from Forensics and someone from

the mobile unit, delivered reports to bring the outlines of the case into

focus.

The victim was Takeaki Aoyagi, fifty-five years old. Aoyagi worked

for Kaneseki Metals, a building components manufacturer, where he was

head of production. The company’s head office was in Shinjuku; records

there showed that Aoyagi had left the office at six p.m. the day before. His

reasons for being in Nihonbashi, which was a good distance from both his

office and his home, were currently unknown.

Estimates were that he was attacked somewhere between a quarter to

nine and ten to nine in the night. Having been stabbed in an underground

passage near Edobashi Bridge, he had then managed to stagger all the way

to Nihonbashi Bridge. That was where Patrolman Yasuda of the Nihonbashi

Bridge police station had discovered him. He had subsequently been taken

to the hospital, but he was pronounced dead soon after arrival. The murder

weapon was a folding knife, eighteen centimeters in length, with an eightcentimeter blade. It had been thrust into Aoyagi’s chest up to the hilt and

left there by the attacker, perhaps because he found it difficult to extract. As

the handle had a cloth covering, they had been unable to lift any prints.

At around eleven fifteen p.m., roughly two hours after the crime

occurred, a policeman patrolling the neighborhood came across a man

hiding in Hamacho Green Road, a small park in Nihonbashi. The man made

a run for it but was hit by a passing truck and was rushed to the hospital.

The discovery of Takeaki Aoyagi’s wallet on him made it seem likely that

he was involved in the murder. In addition, Aoyagi’s briefcase was found in

the park where he’d been hiding.

They established the man’s name and address from a scooter license

he’d had on him. Fuyuki Yashima, twenty-six years old. At around eleven

p.m., Yashima had made a phone call to someone registered as “Kaori” in

his contact list. When an investigator called the same number, a woman by

the name of Kaori Nakahara, who said she lived with Yashima, answered.

When the policeman explained the situation, the woman hurried to the

hospital, but as she was in a state of shock, they hadn’t yet been able to

effectively question her.

They’d gotten Takeaki Aoyagi’s family members to identify both the

wallet found in Yashima’s possession, as well as the briefcase found in

Hamacho Green Road.

That summarized everything that they knew at this point. The

direction of the inquiry would be determined based upon this information.

There was the inevitable nervousness that accompanies the start of any

new case, but to Matsumiya, the mood of the meeting seemed mellower

than normal. The deputy commissioner and the director interspersed their

speeches with smiles, while the body language of all the top brass on the

dais was on the relaxed side. The detectives sitting around Matsumiya also

seemed to be quite laid-back. No one was expecting this case to cause them

too much trouble.

After the meeting, the detectives divided into teams according to their

different roles. Matsumiya was paired with Kaga under the supervision of

Kobayashi. They were in charge of investigating the victim’s personal

background. On this occasion, however, Kobayashi seemed to have

something a little different in mind.

“Matsumiya, I want you to investigate any link between Yashima and

the victim,” Kobayashi said. “I want you to go to the hospital where

Yashima is. The woman he lives with has been there since last night. With

luck, she’ll have calmed down a bit and you’ll be able to talk to her. The

evidence team are heading that way by car, so get them to take you.”

“Understood,” said Matsumiya.

“The quickest solution would be for Yashima to regain consciousness.

But there’s a good chance he won’t make it, so let’s do everything we can,”

Kobayashi added.

The evidence team heading to the hospital consisted of Sakagami and

a young investigator from Nihonbashi Precinct.

“I hope this case will sort itself out nice and easy,” said Sakagami as

soon as the car started moving. “We don’t want anything too complicated,

just a nice, simple financial motive. The old ‘I was just hunting for someone who looked like they had money; anyone would do.’”

“I think money was the motive. I mean, he had the guy’s wallet and

briefcase,” Matsumiya said.

“That’d be convenient, but there are problems with it. First of all, is it

really normal to attack someone in a place like that? There’s not a great deal

of foot traffic there, but it’s right in the center of Tokyo and it wasn’t that

late at night. There is always a lot of automobile traffic there and there’d be

trouble if anybody saw him. A normal person wouldn’t act like that.”

“What if the attacker wasn’t normal? Like if he was on drugs or

something?”

“If that were the case, we’d have heard about it at the meeting just

now. The guy must have had a blood test when he was admitted to the

hospital. Maybe he did lose control and assault the other man. As a theory,

that’s plausible enough. But then there’s the problem of the weapon. He had

to have had it on him, meaning we’re dealing with a premeditated crime, up

to a point at least. Damn it. We really need Yashima to pull through.”

Sakagami scratched his head irritably.

Matsumiya contemplated the back of Kaga’s head. He was sitting in

silence in the front seat, looking straight ahead. He obviously had no

intention of inserting himself into the homicide detectives’ discussion.

Saeki, a Community Police Affairs officer, had been stationed at the

hospital overnight. As of now, nothing had changed, he reported. Yashima

was in intensive care and not allowed any visitors.

“So where is this Ms. Nakahara?” Matsumiya asked.

“She was sitting in a corner of the waiting room. She said she was

going to the local convenience store a minute ago. She should be back any

minute.”

“Was she here all night?”

“Looks like it.”

“She can’t see her boyfriend, so what’s the point of her being here?”

“Technically, that’s true, but…”

Matsumiya sighed and exchanged a look with his companions.

“They said she was in a state of shock and that it was impossible to get

any sense out of her. She must be so shaken up that she doesn’t know which

way’s up or down,” Sakagami said, speaking under his breath.

They decided to have a word with Yashima’s doctor while waiting for

Kaori Nakahara to get back. The doctor was a thin man and appeared to be

in his late forties. After five hours operating on Yashima, he was now

monitoring him in between scheduled catnaps. He was clearly less than

thrilled to see them.

“I’ll spare you the technical jargon and explain things as simply as I

can. The most serious issue is a complex skull fracture. That’s affecting his

brain, which is the reason why he isn’t regaining consciousness.”

“Is there a chance of him regaining consciousness? If there is, when

might it happen?” Sakagami asked impatiently.

The doctor shook his head frostily.

“I just don’t know. The state that he’s in, frankly, it wouldn’t surprise

me if he never regained consciousness. At the same time, it wouldn’t be that

extraordinary for him to wake up now, right this minute. There are many

cases of people miraculously coming around after spending months in a

coma—but there are many more where people have simply drifted off

without ever waking up.”

Matsumiya saw the shoulders of his TMPD colleague slump suddenly.

Bet I look exactly the same, he thought.

When the detectives returned to the first floor, Saeki brought a young

woman over to them. She had to be Kaori Nakahara. Dressed in jeans, a

shirt, and a cardigan, she was clutching a rolled-up down jacket and a rather

large bag. Her face was pale and without makeup. Her hair was long and a

little messy.

There was a café in one corner, so they decided to take her there. They

explained the situation to the server and he let them use a couple of tables at

the far end. Sakagami started hunting around for an ashtray, unaware that

smoking wasn’t permitted.

“How are you?” Matsumiya asked Kaori Nakahara. “Are you feeling a

bit better?”

“A bit,” she replied, without looking up.

“Has anyone taken you through the details of what happened?”

No response. Matsumiya ran his tongue over his lips.

“Last night, there was an incident at Nihonbashi Bridge in Chuo Ward.

A man was stabbed. The police combed the area and located a suspicious

person. When the officer tried to question this person, he made a run for it

and was hit by a truck as he tried to get across a road. The person in

question was Fuyuki Yashima.”

Kaori Nakahara lifted her head, looked at all the detectives, then

finally fixed her eyes on Matsumiya.

“I saw something about it on the TV news just now. My boyfriend

would never do anything like that. He’d never stab anyone.”

“He had the victim’s wallet in his possession.”

Her eyes widened. “That’s got to be a mistake,” she said feebly, before

lowering her eyes again.

“We know you got a call from Yashima at around eleven o’clock last

night. What was the call about?”

“Nothing in particular … wasn’t anything important.”

“Can you tell us what he said?”

“‘I’ll be—’” she stammered, before breaking into a cough. Perhaps her

throat was bunged up. “‘I’ll be back soon. Sorry for staying out so late’ …

that’s all it was.”

“He didn’t tell you where he was calling from or what he’d been

doing?”

“No, he didn’t.”

“What time did Yashima leave the house yesterday?”

“I don’t know. I was at work till eight. About five, he sent me a text

saying that he was heading out for an interview.”

“An interview?”

“A job interview. He’d found a place he thought might have a job for

him and he was going to see someone there, he said.”

Matsumiya sat upright with a jerk. “Yashima was unemployed, then?”

“Uh-huh,” she said, before fixing him with a reproachful look. “That

doesn’t mean that he would attack someone and steal their wallet. He’d

never do anything like that. The whole thing’s a misunderstanding. Some

kind of mistake.” Her eyes were reddening visibly.

“All right. All right,” said Matsumiya soothingly. “I want you to tell us about Fuyuki Yashima. Whatever you can. Shall we start with how the two

of you met?”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Don’t worry. Even if all this is just a misunderstanding, we still need

to have all the facts in order to clear it up. I know you’re tired, but we’d

really appreciate your help.”

Matsumiya ducked his head. With a slightly sulky expression, Kaori

Nakahara began to explain their personal history. Matsumiya was surprised

to hear they had both been raised in an orphanage.

“We never had any money, but we lived happily enough. At least, until

Fuyuki got fired six months ago. He had no idea why he was let go; the

reasons they gave him simply didn’t make any sense.”

“Where was he working?” Matsumiya asked.

“I don’t know exactly. A firm that makes components of some kind.

For office buildings, places like that.”

“For office buildings?” A light bulb went off in Matsumiya’s head.

“What was the company’s name?”

She frowned with concentration. “Kaneda … Kana … Kanamoto,

maybe?” she murmured to herself.

“Kaneseki?”

“Yes, that’s it.”

Matsumiya exchanged a look with his colleagues. Sakagami

whispered to the younger detective. With a tense expression on his face, he

rose to his feet and left the café.

“What else did Yashima tell you about the firm? Did he mention any

names?” Matsumiya asked.

A doubtful look on her face, Kaori Nakahara racked her brain.

Eventually, she shook her head.

“I can’t really remember. All he told me was that they’d fired him out

of the blue. He’s not very good at explaining things. Anyway, why are you

asking? Has the firm got something to do with what happened?”

“No, nothing special.”

Matsumiya tried to make light of the whole thing. She glowered at

him, clearly dissatisfied.

“Tell me. It’s not fair if you get to ask all the questions.”

With Matsumiya clearly flustered, Kaga intervened. “You might as

well tell her. She’ll find out later anyway.”

Kaga had a point. Matsumiya turned and looked Kaori Nakahara in the

eye.

“The person who was stabbed on Nihonbashi Bridge was an employee

of Kaneseki Metals.”

Kaori didn’t seem to grasp the significance of what he said

immediately. She blinked, took a deep breath, and only then began to speak.

“You’re saying that’s why he … why Fuyuki stabbed him? That’s …

that’s completely irrelevant. Fuyuki would never do anything like that to

anybody.” The tears were streaming from her bloodshot eyes. She took a

handkerchief out of her bag and wiped them.

“How has Yashima been behaving recently? Have you noticed

anything different about him?”

“No, I have not. Nothing.” She shook her head, her handkerchief still

pressed to her eyes.

“Has anything changed in your personal lives? It could be a change for

the better or for the worse, doesn’t matter which.”

“No, nothing’s changed. Life is normal. Everything’s normal.”

She didn’t seem to be thinking straight anymore. The pressure seemed

to be getting to her.

“May I?” Sakagami broke in, placing a Polaroid in front of her. It was

a picture of the knife. “Have you ever seen this before?”

Kaori looked down at the picture, keeping her handkerchief pressed to

her cheek. The fear Matsumiya saw flash across her face had to be due to

the dried blood on the blade of the knife.

“Have you ever seen something like this in your boyfriend’s

possession?” Sakagami asked for a second time.

Kaori shook her head. “No. I’ve never seen it before.”

“Are you sure? Take a good look. Didn’t he carry one of these around

for self-defense purposes?”

“No, he did not. That’s not the kind of person he is.” Kaori moved to push the photograph away from her, but bumped her hand against the table.

She yelped and burst into tears again.