The Ginza Ghost Page 16

  Ukichi held the candle in front of him with trembling hand, and the doctor started rubbing the sole of the deceased’s foot with both thumbs. Despite his rubbing, the sole wouldn’t give and remained extremely stiff. It appeared to be covered with large calluses. The doctor raised the leg, and moved the tip of the large toe closer to the candle light. In the light of the flame, the toe looked swollen and dried up, resembling a pumice stone.

  Ukichi dropped the candle.

  Suddenly it became pitch-dark inside the room. And from within came that crying, wailing, that terrifying voice of Ukichi.

  ‘… Aaah… but that’s… Knock Knock’s foot…!’

  But Ukichi’s shriek had not even tailed off when it was followed by another, sharper one from Doctor Matsunaga, who had fallen over noisily in the dark as he darted for the door.

  ‘Lieutenant! Follow me!’

  From the hallway came the noise of frantic footsteps, something hitting a door, and the sound of glass breaking.

  The perplexed lieutenant rushed into the hallway as well. Two figures were fighting in front of room 3, rolling over on the floor. The lieutenant ran over to them. He hesitated for a moment, but then the twenty kan heavy body of the lieutenant lunged for the figure whose head was wrapped in white bandages.

  The Injured was quickly caught. Handcuffed, the man sat angrily down on the floor, and his eyes blinked with a grave look, as if he was having a bad dream.

  Doctor Matsunaga rubbed his waist as he got up and brushed the dust off his pants with his other hand.

  ‘This is the first time I’ve ever been in a fight.’

  The lieutenant could not contain his curiosity anymore.

  ‘But, what does this all mean?’

  The doctor looked at the Injured.

  ‘Heh. Still playing dumb? Let’s have an experiment to see if you are really dumb or just pretending.’

  He crouched down to the Injured and stared right into the man’s eyes, the only things visible from behind the bandages. The Injured tried to struggle again.

  ‘Lieutenant. Hold him down tightly.’

  With that, the doctor extended both his hands to the face of the Injured. The figure still tried to struggle with all its might. The lieutenant became angry and tried to pin him down. Eventually, the doctor managed to begin removing the bandages around the face. Despite the struggle, the long, white fabric was slowly removed, and from beneath appeared…a chin, a nose, cheeks, eyes! Ukichi, who had been standing behind Doctor Matsunaga, cried out in utter astonishment.

  ‘But…that’s the doctor!’

  Yes. There in front of everyone was the pale face of Doctor Akazawa, who had been presumed dead.

  Inside the car the police had sent, Doctor Matsunaga explained the case.

  ‘Never before have I heard of such a crafty crime. A patient, who was always being yelled at that he should get a replacement for his brain, obediently did exactly what he had been told…. This was how the case appeared to us, but in reality, the mad patient was the one who was murdered, and it was the doctor himself who pretended to be dead. Yes, if you perform a savage operation like taking the brains out, then obviously there’s little of the face left to identify the person with. So if you then exchange your clothes, you’re all set. But it was a really big mistake for the director to mistake the bodies of Knock Knock and the Injured. The man the hostess of that brothel saw was not Knock Knock, but the director. He performed that scene in front of a witness and fled to the railway tracks. He had murdered the Injured in advance, and then placed his head on the rails and had a train run over it, to make it appear Knock Knock had done it himself to replace his brains. He expertly used the psychology of these patients, as you would expect from someone in this field. After killing the Injured however, he wanted to bring this case to an end as soon as possible, so he dressed up as the Injured himself and allowed himself to be caught. That was a mistake. He thought we would automatically assume that the man who died on the railway tracks was Knock Knock. He would have been safe if I hadn’t noticed that there were no calluses on the soles of the foot of that fake Knock Knock, even though the real one wore tatami mats down with his tic. If he’d murdered the Injured first at the hospital, and then murdered Knock Knock on the railway tracks, then his crime would have succeeded. Then in two or three days, some person would arrive at the hospital to take the fake Injured away from the Akazawa Mental Hospital. Akazawa’s widow would then proceed to take care of the remaining business and sell the hospital for money. Oh yes, the life of that director was probably insured for a fortune. The widow would then meet up again with her husband who was supposed to be dead. That was probably the gist of their plans. That director must have felt quite cornered in his life, but I cannot approve of such a cruel deed, making use of those innocent people as his scapegoats.’

  The doctor looked at the lieutenant after he had finished. Then he remembered something, and with a grimace, added one last comment.

  ‘Yes, there’s much we can learn from this incident. Everyone has to be careful….’

  First published in Shinseinen, July Issue, Shōwa 11 (1936).

  THE GUARDIAN OF THE LIGHTHOUSE

  …Yes, they all ask me that. Why remain on this lonely small island, all alone at this age, without a wife, without a son, just keeping watch on a lighthouse while listening to the never-ending noise of the waves….

  Depending on how you look at it, this might appear like a monotonous way of living, but to an old man like me, this is a joyful duty, one I will never abandon as long as my body is willing to move and my eyesight remains intact.

  Mind you, ever since I lost my wife several years ago through disease, I too have realised that this task is a sad one. I had even considered having my son succeed to my job, with me moving to the town on the other side of the sea and enjoying my retirement.... I was having those sweet dreams when that incident happened with my only son Masayoshi. Everyone, please listen to this…. Allow this old man to explain clearly to you all what a noble work, what a noble task all lighthouse keepers perform, even a lighthouse on a small island forgotten by all.

  …This might sound like bragging, coming from his own father, but my son Masayoshi was a well-raised, reliable and outstanding son of a lighthouse keeper. Every time I think of the noble teaching Masayoshi left me, my heart hurts, and it really makes me feel lonely. Let me explain to you what happened ….

  …Oh, an awful wind has starting blowing now…. Yes, yes, there was a storm the night it happened, with a wind as strong as the one now blowing over the rough sea.

  These days, even lighthouses on an island like this one have some facilities, with several lighthouse keepers staying there. But back then, we only had a small household here, consisting of myself and my son, and lighthouse keeper Tonomura and the wife whom he had recently married. We lived in the old living quarters over there and, well, we lived a peaceful life. But you can’t fight fate, so one day, lighthouse keeper Tonomura, who was usually all energy, unexpectedly contracted appendicitis. So he was immediately taken across the sea to the hospital in town. His wife naturally also went to stay by his side. And while it was not ideal, my son Masayoshi and I worked in shifts to watch the lighthouse at night.

  Because Tonomura had been taken immediately to the hospital, his recovery had been rapid, and he was released quite quickly. Once I heard the news, I couldn’t wait anymore and went right away to prepare the boat to pick the Tonomuras up. We had a small motorboat which belonged to the lighthouse, so I loaded it with some extra oil, spread a straw mat out on the seat and went out on the refreshing June sea to the town on the other side, leaving the lighthouse in Masayoshi’s care.

  …Now I think about it, that was the last time I said farewell to my son. The sea was strangely calm that day, so I decided to try and return by evening and increased the power, speeding across the sea as if I were coasting downhill. But you know, you can’t trust the seas around here at all from the summer to autumn. I was carel
ess. I hadn’t thought about that at all, and there’s nothing I can do about it now, but after I had arrived in town, I picked the Tonomuras up and we headed straight back to the lighthouse. Just at that moment, a thunderhead cloud was raising its grey head in the southern sky like a mallet, and I could see how the head was growing larger in size…. It was too late by then. The waves started to roll higher and higher, the colour of the sea had changed in an instant and large drops of rain falling from the pitch-black sky were hitting us from the side. We had quite a lot of experience at sea, and we realised there was nothing for it but to turn back to town right away. As you know, there’s a customs office there and we’d always been friendly with the folks there, so they offered us a place to sleep. There was nothing we could do but wait for the calm.

  But, as they say, bad luck never comes alone. The sea became rougher and rougher and it wouldn’t calm down one bit. We started to become very worried. I had told Masayoshi to watch the lighthouse, but he was all alone and who knows what his duty would bring him? Back in those days, the old building had not been renovated yet, and every time we had a storm like this, we’d have some damage. Even if the lighthouse came out of the storm unscathed, just imagining my son all alone on top of a creaking tower swinging in the wind…. Oh, you didn’t know that? On stormy nights, the top of the lighthouse sways around. Just a little, of course, but when a strong gust of wind hits it right… But as long as the building swings, it means the iron reinforcements are still resilient, so that’s a relief in a way. Anyway, I was sure it wouldn’t be pleasant up there. I couldn’t stay put any more, so I went around trying to arrange for a large boat, but while there were boats coming in the harbour to find shelter, none of them would go out again to this island here with these heavy currents and reefs and rocks hiding beneath the sea surface. Amidst all this anxiety and impatience, night eventually fell. It was a stormy night. I tried to calm the pounding in my chest, so I went up to the first floor of the living quarters of the branch office and looked through the windows which were being lashed by the rain. I could have cried out in relief when I saw that, faraway, the light Masayoshi had lit was piercing through the dim, raging darkness at exactly the rate of once every ten seconds. It was like the sight of a firefly making its way through the rain. I could only pray the light would continue like that and, after we had finished our dinner, the people at the branch office were kind enough to offer us beds. But with the start of the night, the storm started to get more violent too. Tonomura and I didn’t manage to get any sleep at all. We’d wake up, go to the front window on the first floor, see if our prayers were being heard and check to see if the light from the lighthouse was continuing its flicker faraway across the sea, and then go to bed again.

  Yes, yes, Masayoshi was twenty-one back then. Younger than any of you. He had a florid complexion, which would shine during tide, but he looked a bit like his father too, and he had a courageous personality. He would never give up… No, I can’t complain about my son. Anyway, I hardly got a wink of sleep that night, as I’d wake up and keep watch from the window over the light from the island out there in the storm. My Masayoshi held on until the morning.

  The morning made it seem as if the night before had been nothing but a lie. The storm had disappeared completely, leaving nothing but a calm wind. Only the waves still had something left of yesterday, as the large waves come rolling here slowly. We thanked the people at the branch office warmly, and quickly left in our boat. It didn’t even take two hours for us to reach the island. But as we approached it, with that familiar sight of the lighthouse standing tall, I felt an undeniable anxiety well up from within me.

  Our return had been delayed for one night because of the storm, so Masayoshi must have been eagerly awaiting us, and I had imagined that by now, he’d have appeared from behind the lighthouse and be standing at the cliff in front of us, energetically jumping up and waving his hands and calling out to us to welcome us back. But as we neared the shore, my rising expectations were revealed to be nothing but mere delusions. I couldn’t restrain myself any more and I yelled out towards the island, but there was no answer. There was only the echo of my voice hitting the cliff walls, and disappearing in the rumbling of the waves at the shore.

  It was then that anxiety really began to take hold of me. With a pounding heart, I landed the boat at the simple pier in the bay and we quickly set out on the cliff path. As you can see for yourselves, once you climb this path, you end up at that open space where the living quarters are. There we started to cry out for Masayoshi, but no matter where we searched, in and outside the living quarters and all over the open space, there was no sign of my son anywhere. I first had the Tonomuras rest a bit, and I headed for the lighthouse on top of those large boulders over there. As I climbed the spiral staircase of the lighthouse, I called out Masayoshi’s name, but my trembling voice would only reverberate everywhere, and there was no answer from my son. I finally reached the top of the lighthouse: the lantern room which also served as the room for the lighthouse keeper on night watch. My son wasn’t here either, of course. But instead of my son, I did find something extraordinary.

  What I found was… You’ve all participated in the tour, so you know this lighthouse has a revolving lamp which emits a ray of light every ten seconds. The large lamp with the Fresnel lens at the centre of the lantern room is hooked up through a mechanism of gears to a large weight suspended inside the shaft—the large tube placed right in the centre of the tower, encircled by the staircase. It’s this mechanism that makes the lamp revolve so it only sends out a beam of light every ten seconds. At the time I jumped inside the lantern room, this lamp was still turning around. The pale fire running on acetylene gas was still burning, even though it was already day. This meant that Masayoshi had gone off somewhere before it was time to extinguish the light this morning. I trembled as I considered this, and I quickly extinguished the light, stopped the revolution of the lamp and went down the tower again. Down below, the tool storage at the foot of the lighthouse caught my eye and I entered it. But my son wasn’t inside the dimly lit storage either. I turned pale, and almost cried as I ran back to the Tonomuras.

  I’ve seen quite some things in my life, but even I was out of my wits by that time. My son had disappeared while leaving the lighthouse running. But I needed to clarify what had happened to my son, so even though Tonomura had not been able to rest much, the two of us went around the island searching every corner.

  The circumference of this island is about ten chō, so it’s not large enough to have real hiding places, but there are some bushes and grass fields and there are the uneven cliffs at the shore that go up and down, so it still took some time to search all the places. Considering we’d had to search this desperately, I knew that even when we did manage to find my son, he wouldn’t be all right. The thought of it made me cry. I climbed on top of a boulder near the shore and looked down at the sea, anxious he might have been drifting off shore.

  But listen, everyone. We searched the whole island, but we didn’t find him, and eventually it became night. Like the creeping darkness, my mind was slowly filled with suspicion, distress and frustration.

  Tonomura had already recovered sufficiently from his hospital visit, so he was kind enough to watch the lighthouse that night instead of me. The light went on in the lighthouse. And as always, the lighthouse performed its task. But even as the night passed by, my son Masayoshi did not return. Tonomura’s wife hardly slept, as she came several times to my living quarters to cheer me up. We were all exhausted by the time it became morning.

  I had regained some of my spirit in the morning, and while it was just a fleeting hope, I headed out in the boat to search the surrounding sea. But this, needless to say, turned out to be a futile effort. And then another night of despair fell. But I still had not given up and, the following day, joined by the Tonomuras, we searched every corner again both in and outside the lighthouse. My son had disappeared during his work, so it was unlikely he had comm
itted suicide. Something had to have happened on the island that night, and Masayoshi must have left his post because of that, and then through some accident, he must have fallen into the sea. I could not think of any other reason. The Tonomuras then said to me that we should give up and notify the police and my family. But I’m a father, and you don’t give up on your own child so easily. Masayoshi had been so full of energy and knew no equal when it came to swimming. I could not believe he would drown in the sea without leaving some clue to what had happened. Overcome with all these events, I spent the following day and the day after that wandering in a daze all over the island in search of Masayoshi, while the Tonomuras watched me with pity. Desperate to find my son, I started to have delusions and looked beneath the floors, and tapped on the concrete walls of the lighthouse, just to see if he wasn’t hiding there. But while my mind was completely off the rails, the lighthouse would do its work every night without any mishaps.

  My madness however did not stop there, and once it had reared its head, it started to get worse and worse. One night, I was climbing the spiral staircase in the lighthouse, when I imagined I heard my son yelling, sometimes from strangely far away, sometimes from very close by. I stopped in my steps and stared at the large concrete wall of the inner shaft, which was like a large cylindrical chimney encircling the spiral staircase. As I explained earlier, a weight of forty kan hooked up to the timing mechanism rotating the lamp of the lighthouse was suspended from a rope inside the shaft. The weight would be lowered down the shaft very slowly. As it was a very narrow shaft, anyone who would fall inside would definitely get caught by the weight, and the extra weight would make the lamp upstairs turn faster than it was supposed to. There was however nothing wrong with the lamp. When I realised that, I became scared of my own mind, and when I caught the pitiful eyes of Tonomura, who was just coming down from the lantern room, I ran back to my own living quarters.