Authors: David Peace

Tokyo Year Zero (24 page)

Never change
…

‘But the Victors must let the markets reopen,’ says Adachi. ‘This whole situation is a direct result of SCAP’s campaign against the markets. I know they want to stop the hoarding and the pilfering of goods meant for rations, to keep these goods out of the markets so they are free to be distributed as rations at the official prices…

‘But the markets and the vendors are only fulfilling a demand. By closing the markets and then failing to meet that demand, the Victors are only creating further hunger and frustration…

‘And then, by forcing the markets to change, by limiting the number of stalls, insisting on licences, then the Victors are again only creating frustration among the excluded minorities…’

‘Chief Inspector Adachi is exactly right,’ agrees Kanehara. ‘A colleague from Chiba was telling me about this large catch of sardines that was brought ashore. The regular rationing organization
was not properly equipped to handle such a catch. There was not enough ice to keep the fish from spoiling. There were not enough trucks available to bring the catch into Tokyo. Furthermore, the official price for the catch was so low that it couldn’t cover the cost of the boats, the fishermen, the storage or the transportation…’

‘So what happened to it all?’ asks Inspector Kai.

‘Well, this is my very point,’ says Chief Inspector Kanehara. ‘What would have happened last month, back when the markets were allowed to open, is that news of such a big catch would have caused a hoard of small stall-holders to descend on Chiba. They would have bought up the entire catch directly from the fishermen for cash. The stall-holders would then have brought the fish on their own backs into Tokyo in a couple of hours and would have had those sardines on their stalls within the day. Yes, the price would be higher than the official price but there would have been so much and from so many competing vendors that the price could not go too high…’

‘What happened this time?’ asks Kai again.

‘A very small proportion of the catch was sold at a very high price to one of the gangs,’ says Kanehara.

‘And the rest of it?’ asks Kai.

‘It was all allowed to rot,’ says Chief Inspector Kanehara. ‘And what could be salvaged was then turned into fertilizer.’

Things never change. Things never change
…

There is silence around the table now –

Never change. Never change
…

There is silence until Chief Kita says, ‘Chief Fujimoto wants us to keep out of the Shibuya and Shimbashi areas. Unfortunately, because of the Abe and Midorikawa cases, and because of the suspect Kodaira, we cannot keep out of the Shibuya area but we can refrain from using the Shibuya police station. Also, because of the proximity to Shiba Park, there is no way for us to avoid using the Atago police station. However, before you or any of your teams enter either Shibuya or the Shimbashi Market area, I want you to first request permission from Headquarters –

Things never change
…

‘I don’t want any of my men caught in the crossfire!’

I go to the bathroom down the corridor.
I do not vomit
. I go into a cubicle.
I do not vomit
. I lock the door.
I do not vomit
. I stare into the bowl.
I do not vomit
. I stare at the stains.
I do not vomit
. I smell the ammonia.
I do not vomit
. The insects and the heat.
I do not vomit
. I wait for fifteen minutes inside the cubicle.
I do not vomit
. Now I unlock the cubicle door.
I do not vomit
. I rinse my face in the sink.
I do not vomit
. I do not look up into that mirror.
I do not vomit
…

I go back down the corridor. I knock on the door to the chief’s office. I open the door. I step inside. I apologize. I bow –

‘I am sorry to disturb you again,’ I tell the chief. ‘But I would be very grateful if you could spare me a moment…’

But today the chief does not offer me a seat or any tea. Today the chief does not even look up. He just asks, ‘What is it now…?’

‘I didn’t have a chance to update you on our progress…’

Now the chief looks up. ‘You’ve made some progress?’

‘I feel we have a strong lead which I’d like to pursue.’

‘Go on then, detective, what is this strong lead…’

‘Well, as you know, we managed to locate Masaoka Hisae, who was one of Abe Yoshiko’s friends. Well, Masaoka told me that the description of the second body found at Shiba Park resembled that of another of her friends, Tominaga Noriko…’

‘Along with hundreds of other girls…’

‘But this Tominaga girl is missing…’

‘And who reported her missing?’

‘Her landlady,’ I tell the chief. ‘And the dates fit because, although the landlady didn’t report Tominaga missing until the first of this month, she said Tominaga actually went missing between the ninth and fifteenth of last month…’

‘That’s it?’ asks the chief.

‘Far from it,’ I tell him. ‘The landlady also confirmed that Tominaga Noriko wore clothes exactly like those that were found on the body at Shiba. A search of the missing girl’s room and possessions revealed that these clothes are also missing…’

Now the chief is interested. ‘Go on, detective…’

‘Masaoka has confirmed that Kodaira knew Abe Yoshiko. Masaoka also confirmed that Kodaira knew Tominaga Noriko…’

‘But that doesn’t make her the dead body in Shiba Park.’

‘Faced with this evidence, Kodaira will confess…’

‘Faced with what evidence exactly, detective?’ asks the chief.
‘A missing girl had the same dress as a murdered girl? A missing girl was an acquaintance of another murdered girl?’

‘But the dates are exactly right…’

‘Have the landlady view the body then,’ says the chief.

‘But there is no body,’ I tell him. ‘It’s just bones’

‘You have her clothes, don’t you, detective?’

I nod. I say, ‘They’re still up at Keiō.’

‘Well, if she can positively identify them, through a repair or through a tear or anything, then that will be the evidence, won’t it?’

‘Thank you,’ I say. ‘And there was one other thing…’

‘Quickly then,’ says the chief. ‘What is it?’

‘I’d like to know the name of the uniformed officer who was dismissed during the initial Abe investigation?’

‘Why do you want to know that?’

‘He might know where the rest of Abe’s friends have gone or he might even be able to assist in any possible identification…’

‘No,’ says the chief. ‘Now is not the time.’

‘I understand that,’ I tell the chief. ‘Then would it be possible for me to speak with former Chief Inspector Mori…’

‘You know where Mori is?’ laughs the chief –

The Matsuzawa Hospital for the Insane
…

‘Yes, but I thought he might still…’

I don’t want to remember
…

‘And I thought you would have seen enough of that place…’

The blood-flecked scroll on the wall behind his desk
…

‘Inspector Mori might know what happened…’

But in the half-light, I can’t forget
…

‘What happened is in the file. What he knew is in the file. There are no shortcuts, detective. Not any more,’ says the chief –

The best friend my father ever had
…

‘Now go back to your men –

‘Go back to your men,’ he shouts. ‘And lead your men!’

I do not take a different route back to Atago today. I take the same route I took two days ago. I take the same route past the bar in the basement of the three-storey reinforced concrete shell –

I don’t want to remember. I don’t want to
…

I walk down the stairs but the door is closed today. I turn the handle and the door opens. I step inside the bar but the room is pitch-black. I look around the place but everything is rubble and ruin. I turn round and I go back up the stairs. I stand at the top of the stairs in the harsh white daylight, finding my bearings –

But everything looks the same
…

The concrete shell, the blown-out rooms, the exposed girders. The young man still in his uniform who asks, ‘You lost something?’

‘There was a bar here,’ I tell him. ‘What happened to it?’

‘Can’t you guess?’ laughs the man. ‘A bomb fell on it.’

‘No, no, no,’ I say. ‘I was only here two days ago…’

‘You’ve got the wrong place then,’ he says. ‘This was one of those People’s Bars. More than a hundred people were trapped and burned alive in there when the building took a direct hit…’

‘But I was here two days ago,’ I tell him again.

‘Well, you were drinking with ghosts then.’

I stand in the harsh white daylight –

In the harsh white daylight –

‘Is your watch broken, sir?’

The daylight which looks like raindrops. The raindrops good upon my face. My face to the sky. The sky blue not grey, high not low across the city. The city standing tall and shining bright in a neon night. A neon night reflected on my face. My face wet with the raindrops. The raindrops nothing but my tears. My tears in the daylight. The city fallen and drab, the sky grey and low –

‘You were drinking with ghosts then…’

Fallen and drab, grey and low –

Now he shows me the watch
…

In that harsh white daylight –

It still says twelve o’clock
.

I am late, yet again.
I am looking in a mirror
. Detective Nishi is standing on the steps outside Atago police station.
I am looking in a mirror
. Detective Nishi is looking for me.
I am looking in a mirror
. Detective Nishi is waiting for me.
I am looking in a mirror
. Detective Nishi wants a word.
I am looking in a mirror
. Detective Nishi looks like shit.
I am looking in a mirror
. Detective Nishi looks like he
hasn’t slept.
I am looking in a mirror
. Detective Nishi telling me, ‘Kodaira Yoshio has a mistress. Near Meguro…’

‘How do you know that?’

‘Masaoka told me.’

‘Told you when?’

‘Last night,’ he says. ‘When I took her back to her room.’

‘Why didn’t she mention it before? At the station?’

‘She didn’t think it was of any importance.’

I look at him. I ask, ‘Did you fuck her?’

He looks away. He shakes his head –

‘You’re a bad liar, Nishi-kun.’

He starts to speak. He stops.

‘Did you pay her for it?’

‘I bought her a meal,’ says Nishi. ‘I bought her some drinks. I gave her a pack of cigarettes.’

‘And now that’s all your money gone until the end of the month,’ I say. ‘All your food and all your cigarettes…’

Nishi looks away again. Nishi nods.

I take out one hundred yen from my trouser pocket. I stuff it into his shirt pocket. I say, ‘And you got a screw and a break in the case. Well done, detective…’

‘Thank you,’ he says. ‘Are you going to tell Chief Inspector Kanehara and Detective Inspector Kai about this mistress?’

‘No,’ I tell him. ‘We’ll go and bring her in ourselves.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ says Nishi and then he adds, ‘There was one other thing; about the Miyazaki Mitsuko file –’

‘What about it?’ I snap. ‘What?’

‘I think I know who took it –’

‘Who?’ I ask. ‘Who…?’

‘I was thinking about that day,’ he says. ‘The day of the case, the day of the surrender last year. Only Detective Fujita and –’

‘You think Detective Fujita took the file?’

‘Well, I didn’t even go to the scene of the crime,’ he says. ‘And so I had no idea there was even a Metro file on the case. But Detective Fujita was there. Detective Fujita would have known…’

‘So you think Fujita signed the file out using your name?’

Nishi nods. ‘Who else could it have been?’

‘Detective Fujita’s face is well known,’ I tell him. ‘The duty officer wouldn’t record your name instead…’

‘Unless he had an incentive,’ says Nishi. ‘Or unless Fujita used a stooge to sign for it using my name.’

‘A stooge?’ I ask. ‘Like who?’

‘Detective Ishida, maybe.’

‘Have you spoken to Ishida about the Miyazaki file yet?’

Nishi shakes his head. ‘I wanted to speak to you first.’

‘Good man,’ I tell him. ‘Now leave it to me.’

But Nishi won’t leave it to me. Now Nishi says, ‘Yet I still don’t understand why Detective Fujita would want that file –’

‘I’ll find out,’ I say. ‘So you forget the file now.’

‘But you do believe it wasn’t me who took it?’

I nod. I say, ‘Only because you’re such a bad liar, detective.’

Back up the stairs.
Lead your men. Lead your men
. Back to the borrowed second-floor room.
I must see Ishida
. Back to the questions and the doubts in their eyes.
Lead your men. Lead your men
. Back to the dissent and the hate.
I must find that file
. But there’s no drop in temperature here.
Lead your men. Lead your men
. No change in circumstances.
No Ishida. No file
. This room is still an oven, their breakfast still
zōsui; zōsui
still their only meal.
Lead your men. Lead your men
. Unwashed and unshaven, they have not seen their wives or their children, their lovers or their bastards, in well over a week –