The Ginza Ghost Read online

  But then the supervisor hit upon an iron door of his own within the depths of his thoughts.

  With the murder of the engineer, the supervisor had quickly caught on the truth and had immediately started to investigate all those who might wish to take revenge for Minekichi. However, workman Furui had been killed in the same manner as the engineer while the four suspects were still in the middle of being questioned. Furthermore, the four suspects were all being held in the office at the time the workman was murdered, and had not set foot outside. Did that mean the murderer was someone other than these four people? But it was unlikely that among the simple-minded miners here, anyone would do something as dramatic and crazy as going around killing the men of the company on behalf of total strangers.

  The supervisor had thought he had the whole thing wrapped up, but now he’d hit upon this iron door of his own he felt completely clueless.

  Finally a ray of light hit the supervisor in his search in the dark. But it was also an indescribable ray of light and it pushed the supervisor deeper into the terrifying pit of fear.

  It was the custom at the Takiguchi Mine to perform the superficial examination of the dead, so typical of such places, at the aid station. While electric light was available throughout the mine tunnels, those lights were covered by coal dust, and were only set to guide the movement of the coal trolleys inside the mine, so it was all rather cramped there. The examinations were therefore held elsewhere so as not to obstruct the movement of the trolleys and endanger the coal output of the mine.

  When the supervisor got the message that the medical staff was standing by at the aid station, he ordered the two bodies to be moved there. A straw mat was placed in a coal trolley which had been brought over for the purpose, and the bodies were moved onto it.

  Just as the supervisor, the foreman and the constable were about to jump on the next trolley, a young miner came running from the back of the side passage carrying his own safety lamp, as well as another safety lamp without a flame. When the miner spotted the supervisor he stopped in his tracks, stood up straight and said: ‘Sir, I picked this safety lamp up at the drinking spot.’

  ‘You found a safety lamp?’

  The supervisor turned around with a scowl on his face.

  Inside a mine, a safety lamp meant life and never left a miner’s side. It was not just used to illuminate one’s surroundings, but the movement of the flame inside also served as a vital tool to determine whether there was any inflammable gas around. But, as mentioned earlier, these lamps could also be very dangerous depending on how they were used, so at this mine, each lamp had its own unique number and they were checked carefully at the guard station at the entrance to the mine whenever a lamp was brought in. It was the fact that a lamp like that was just lying around that caused the sour expression on the supervisor’s face.

  ‘What’s the number?’

  ‘C-121.’

  ‘C-121?’

  The foreman cocked his head. The supervisor stepped out of the trolley and pointed with his chin to instruct the transporter behind the trolley.

  ‘Go to the guard station now and ask which miner C-121 belongs to.’

  ‘And at a time like this,’ the foreman sighed, ‘we can’t have people around who are careless.’

  He turned to the miner. ‘Where did you find this?’

  ‘Right beside the drinking spot. It was lying there, as if somebody had forgotten it.’

  A drinking spot was simply a place where natural underground water was caught in a reservoir. The one in this side passage was located at the end of the tunnel. There was a little open space there, with some smaller caves and also a crude toilet. Whenever miners got thirsty, they’d go there to drink water.

  ‘Someone leaving his lamp behind? Once I know who it is, he’ll be suitably punished,’ bellowed the foreman angrily. The supervisor looked around to see if the transporters standing there were all carrying their safety lamps. But of course nobody had forgotten their light in this world of darkness. Forgetting the light was impossible. It had probably not been forgotten, but left behind on purpose. If it had been left on purpose, it meant that the miner didn’t need it, or that it was actually in his way, for some reason. As the supervisor thought about this, the female transporter he had sent away came running without a trolley, looking very pale.

  ‘C-121 belongs to the deceased, Minekichi….’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Yes, this is Minekichi’s safety lamp….’

  A surprised expression appeared on the supervisor’s face.

  ‘But how… how could Minekichi’s lamp…?’

  Who could have expected Minekichi’s lamp to appear now? There was no way to punish him now. But this wasn’t about punishment. How could the safety lamp of Minekichi, who had been working inside his tunnel and had died inside, appear here now?

  The supervisor scowled as he thought about these events. He lifted the safety lamp up and turned to foreman Asakawa, who was also visibly shocked. The supervisor said in a trembling voice: ‘Anyway, let’s go now. We need to think carefully about this. It’s just not making any sense any more.’

  4

  Engineer Kikuchi from the Tachiyama Mine was not yet forty and still in the prime of his life. He had been a brilliant student when he graduated from Tōkyō University’s Engineering Faculty, but despite that, he hated sitting still behind a desk in a dark room. It was said he went around chasing bears with a rifle in his free time. He had a suntanned face and a voice which could send all the plans on his desk flying whenever he laughed, shaking his broad shoulders.

  By the time engineer Kikuchi had received the notification and arrived at the Takiguchi Mine, the hired police constable had left for the district’s police station to get back-up. Meanwhile, the supervisor had forgotten all about the examination of the dead bodies and the smoke after the discovery of Minekichi’s safety lamp. He had been cooped up in his office, racking his brains about the extraordinary events ocurring.

  Once the supervisor saw engineer Kikuchi though, he brightened up again. He immediately started explaining the situation at the sealed-off tunnel, but as he related the details, he went into a digression, and the fire incident changed into a murder incident. Engineer Kikuchi too had come here expecting to deal with the aftermath of a fire, but as he listened to the supervisor’s desperate story, he got more interested in the murders. The supervisor explained everything in detail, starting with the murder of engineer Maruyama and the four suspects, to the murder of the workman and the mysterious appearance of Minekichi’s safety lamp. However, he did not address in so many words the great contradiction he was facing at that moment, nor the eerie suspicion that had risen from that contradiction, but simply laid the problem in front of the engineer.

  ‘This sounds as interesting as hunting for bears.’

  After the supervisor had finished with his story, Kikuchi grinned, even though it appeared he hadn’t fully grasped the situation yet. He remained silent and appeared to be thinking hard about the difficult problem.

  ‘I’m afraid even I can’t answer your questions if you ask me so suddenly about such strange murders out of the blue,’ the engineer began. ‘But, supervisor, you’re being a bit unfair. Why don’t you say clearly what’s on your mind right now? What’s the problem you’re facing? Of course I know what it is. I also understand how utterly childish, stupid, no, how utterly illogical the whole thing is. I see why you don’t dare name it. But you don’t even have the courage to laugh at this ridiculous situation. Please don’t get angry. Let me show you one way to help clear away your worries. It’s very simple. Just open up the sealed mining tunnel. Yes. I don’t know how hot it was in that tunnel during the fire, but there’s no way the fire would’ve been so hot as to incinerate the bones of a human being completely.’

  ‘You’re right,’ said the supervisor. ‘It didn’t take long to get the fire under control. But there’s smoke there.’

  ‘But you had the tunnel vented, d
idn’t you? The smoke won’t stay inside forever. And we can put on some masks. Oh, but before we do that, supervisor….’ The engineer seemed to have had a new idea. His eyes sparkled and he looked about him.

  ‘Where is Mr. Asakawa?’

  ‘Asakawa?’ The supervisor turned around. The office clerk standing next to him responded: ‘He went out because he had a phone call from the main office in Sapporo.’

  There had only been a short wait before foreman Asakawa returned. After a simple greeting, engineer Kikuchi quickly started talking again.

  ‘Mr. Asakawa, this might sound strange, but I believe there were at least three men involved in sealing up that miner in the tunnel. And you were one of them, correct?’

  The foreman turned pale. The engineer shot him a brief glance and quietly continued:

  ‘These murders might not be over yet. I fear you may be next.’ Here the engineer raised his head again and started speaking faster.

  ‘But you don’t have to worry. Listen, Mr. Maruyama and Mr. Furui were both killed using lumps of coal. That means the murderer is not in possession of a murder weapon. But you, you can carry a weapon with you. So if we’re lucky, we can catch the murderer. Exactly. No, this is not just a possibility. As you are being targeted by the murderer, you are in the best position to catch the murderer. He might hide from us, but he will definitely appear in front of you.’

  ‘I see,’ said the supervisor. ‘What a clever idea, as you might expect from a bear hunter.’

  But engineer Kikuchi continued in a serious tone: ‘I have a plan I wish to propose to the two of you. We’ll have Mr. Asakawa here carry a weapon, and have him go alone to the murder scene. We of course, will be right behind you. I don’t think we need to worry, if you’re carrying a gun on you. How about it? I think this is the quickest way to catch the murderer.’

  The supervisor agreed to it immediately.

  The foreman thought for a while and then stood up. He produced a dagger from somewhere which he had bought during the heydays of strikes. He tapped the floor with the tip of the sheath.

  ‘The rear is yours,’ he said as he boldly stepped forward.

  The supervisor and engineer Kikuchi waited for a while and then followed the foreman. After they had passed the main mine street and stood at the entrance of the side passage which led to the sealed-off tunnel, the engineer stopped and said to the supervisor:

  ‘How much is the production of coal held up if you forbid everybody to enter or leave this side passage for one hour?’

  ‘What, you want to seal off this part of the mine?’ The supervisor’s eyes opened wide.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Don’t make jokes about that. I can’t stop production….’

  ‘But what if the murderer slips by us and escapes through here?’ the engineer insisted. ‘How about it? This part of the mine is probably good for about thirty tons, I reckon? You’d only be losing out on that amount. Please stop the work. It’s an emergency.’

  ‘It appears you’re more interested in hunting after prey than profit.’

  The supervisor gave a wry smile. The engineer immediately stepped over to the large fire door at the entrance to the side street and explained the situation to the miners and the sub-foreman who had been watching them in suspense. He had the sub-foreman close the fire door from the outside and bolt it after he and the supervisor had entered the side passage. A row of trolleys coming from the left wing of the mine quickly ran into the obstruction, and, given that the sealing-up of Minekichi had just happened not long ago, everybody was on edge and started to cry out. But once everybody saw that the supervisor and engineer were inside too, they quickly realised they had not been sealed up because of some crisis, but there had been some reason to close the fire door, and the commotion slowly died down.

  The supervisor and engineer Kikuchi proceeded into the depths of the side passage as they explained the situation to the transporters they met on the way, but they had to face an unexpected situation when they arrived at the entrance of the tunnel where Minekichi had been sealed up.

  The decoy—foreman Asakawa—was stronger than the average man, had been carrying a weapon with him and had been on his guard. Also, the murderer did not have a weapon and had to have been hiding. Which meant there should have been no danger, but despite that, by the time the supervisor and engineer arrived at their destination, the foreman was already lying dead on the ground.

  He was lying face up, his arms and legs spread out and with a flat lump of coal, bigger than the previous ones and reminiscent of a stepping stone, covering most of his upper body. It didn’t appear as if the lump of coal had been brought here from elsewhere. It seemed to have been cut from the irregular surface of a nearby wall, leaving a spot that resembled a cave-in. Smaller bits of coal were lying around the body on the floor. Foreman Asakawa had first been sent sprawling on the floor, and then the cruel murderer had struck him with a weapon torn from the wall, dropping it on top of the foreman’s body.

  The supervisor didn’t say a word as he picked up the foreman’s dagger. Together with the engineer, they moved the clump of coal from the body. The head and chest of the body had been smashed to pieces, and it was such a hideous sight they could not bear looking at it.

  Because they had been just a fraction too late, their precious decoy had been taken from them, without them even catching a glimpse of the murderer. While this had been an unexpected turn of events by any standard, they could not have guessed their mistake would turn out to be so fatal. A furious feeling of guilt descended upon the two, but their minds were also relieved by what this incident also clearly indicated. Revenge had now been completed. But who was the man who could accomplish a task like this without even a weapon? Was it one of the miners in the side passage, or perhaps…? The supervisor stole a glance at the iron door of the sealed-off tunnel. He approached it and placed his hand on it. The door had cooled off completely. Engineer Kikuchi checked the ventilation pipe. The smoke level had reduced considerably and no longer posed any danger. The two clicked their tongues, and together, they started scraping away the dry clay from between the gaps around the door.

  After a while they had removed all the clay. The engineer lifted the bar and pulled the door open with all his strength. An unreal, warm breeze came blowing out from the darkness. The two held their dim safety lights in front of them and took their first steps in the now open tunnel which had been on fire. Once they were inside, they pointed their safety lamps to the floor and started searching for the remains of Minekichi. But eventually an indescribable fear caught hold of them.

  Minekichi’s bones weren’t there!

  No matter how much they searched, they couldn’t find them. The walls of both sides of this tunnel had been burned, leaving an irregular surface reminiscent of old cotton smeared with ink. The pit props, which supported the tunnel like a tori’i archway, had been heavily burned. The liquid that dripped here and there from the walls like coal tar was the source of a horrible smell. But no matter how much they proceeded inside the tunnel, they couldn’t find the remains of Minekichi, not even one little bone. The two kept searching the tunnel, as if they were possessed. The rails on the ground would sometimes make turns and go up and down, and ended in a distortion. There was a burnt pickaxe and a coal trolley that had been turned over. Here, where the air was still eerily warm, was where the centre of the fire had been. But at this spot, at the end of the mining tunnel, they still could not find any signs of Minekichi. They remained frozen on the spot when they finally realised the impossibility of the situation.

  This was the worst possible scenario. As mentioned earlier, a mining tunnel is basically like a well opened into a coal bed, so with the iron fire door closed, not even an ant could make an escape. Therefore, the body of Minekichi should have been sealed off inside this tunnel and been burned. Even if they couldn’t find his body, it was impossible that even his bones would have disappeared. Yet that is what had happened. The supervisor realis
ed that his suspicion had turned out to be the horrible truth and his whole body froze at the thought.

  It happened at that moment.

  Suddenly, without any warning, the walls above them, faraway, close by, all around them, started shaking, breaking the silence around them.

  …Boom….

  …Boom….

  They heard an ominous noise.

  The two held their breath and listened carefully. But before the noise became louder, it stopped and silence was upon them once again.

  But people who have spent a long time in mines knew exactly what that noise meant.

  That was the terrifying sound you would hear whenever the support pillars are removed after a coal mine has been exhausted. Once the support pillars are gone, the unstable walls collapse on each other and the pressure would bring the ceilings of the tunnels down. The earth settling down like that happened slowly, but once the pit props broke and cracks appeared in the ceiling, that’s when the spine-chilling rumbling would be heard. The sound was a sign of imminent cave-in, and in their fear, miners had dubbed the sound the cry of the mountain.

  And the sound they had heard now was exactly that cry. The pit props had been burnt by the fire in the tunnel, and because of the fire the pressure inside the tunnel had increased. This had caused weaknesses in the walls of the tunnel, and little by little, the ceiling was preparing for a cave-in.

  The supervisor turned pale and pointed his safety lamp at the ceiling. An even worse truth had been awaiting him.

  Large, dark fissures as big as crocodiles had appeared on the ceiling, which was slowly coming down towards their heads. Inside those fissures were smaller, burnt cracks from which water drops came falling one after another. They had hit water. The moment the supervisor saw the water, he put his hand out, caught a drop in his hand and gingerly brought it to his mouth. He jumped back aghast.