The Ginza Ghost Read online

  ‘What? He set the fire?’ The supervisor asked, surprised.

  ‘Yes. You’re gravely mistaken if you think it was just an accident. He put Minekichi’s pickaxe on the rails on purpose. He embraced the woman in the dark and, by exploiting the couple’s love and her safety lamp, set fire to the coal dust. It put him in a very dangerous situation, but by so doing, he himself, as the foreman, would not be blamed for the fire even if there were an investigation from above.’

  ‘But why did he want to set fire to that mining spot?’

  ‘That’s exactly the question you should ask.’ Kikuchi spoke louder as he continued. ‘As I mentioned before, there was something in that tunnel that he absolutely did not want people to see until a specific moment in time. That’s why he set a fire, so people couldn’t enter the tunnel. And that’s also why he got rid of engineer Maruyama and the workman, who were working on opening the door again and checking on the smoke inside. Now, you may well ask, why did he allow the two of us to enter the tunnel when we did? That was because, by then the critical moment had already passed. Also, by that time everyone had already fallen for the foreman’s trap, but then I arrived and suggested that if these murders were committed out of revenge, that it would be the foreman’s turn next. Thus pushed into a corner, Asakawa pulled out Minekichi’s body from the cave where he had hidden it and made it appear as if he himself had been killed. He hid himself inside a coal trolley to avoid being caught, hoping to escape from the mine, which had outlived its usefulness.’

  ‘Hold on,’ the supervisor interrupted. ‘You just said that the foreman did not want others to discover the fissures in the ceiling and the seawater which had infiltrated the mine. But that has nothing to do with the murders. Also, at the time the fire was set in that tunnel, there was nothing wrong with the ceiling yet, isn’t that so?’

  ‘You can’t be serious! The seawater entering the mine and the murders are inextricably connected. And while the fissures in the ceiling were made worse by the fire, they were already there before it started. The crust there was probably weaker than we’d thought. Didn’t you notice it? Think back. The fissures were all burnt on the inside. That means the crust didn’t crack because of the fire: it had already cracked before the fire started. And there you have it. The foreman knew before anyone else about the fissures and the seawater dripping inside the mine.’

  ‘I see. But if he knew about that so early already, why did he try to hide it from us? And what is that critical moment you said he was waiting for?’

  ‘That’s the entire motive behind all that’s happened. The foreman was the first to discover that seawater had entered the mine and reported this to a certain party. He was probably offered a very handsome reward if he could prevent the horrible truth from coming out until a certain moment. And that certain moment was, well, you yourself already know. When I arrived in the mine, there was a phone call from Sapporo for the foreman, remember? He was waiting for exactly that. To confirm my own suspicions, I made a telephone call to the stock exchange in Otaru. Do you know what I found out? The stocks of Chūetsu Mining have been quite active since eleven o’clock this morning. Since eleven o’clock. An executive in the company already knew of the fate of the Takiguchi Mine hours before even we, the people on the scene, knew.’

  Less than ten minutes later, an unearthly rumbling made all the people who were running around at the entrance to the mine freeze to the spot. A rumbling roar went through the whole Takiguchi Mine. Soon after, muddy water came flowing out from the mine drains, covering the four overheating multistage turbine engines. And the water level rose and rose….

  First published in Kaizō, May Issue, Shōwa 12 (1937).

  THE HUNGRY LETTER-BOX

  Toki’s Great Mistake

  ‘I-I’m terribly sorry. My hand… just slipped like that....’

  A flustered Toki adjusted his grip on the razor as he bowed his head towards the mirror, where the furious face of a customer with a crookedly shaven moustache was reflected.

  Toki’s apprentice Minkō grinned to himself as he washed the face of his own customer.

  ‘Man, the boss has really been distracted lately. It’s his third mistake in a row. The first one was yesterday, when he mistook the scissors for the clipper. And this morning, he applied pomade to a customer’s face instead of shaving cream. And tonight, he’s just ruined that man’s moustache. I’m getting really worried about him….’

  Minkō was still chuckling as he went over in his mind what had happened lately, but then he frowned.

  Toki, young master of the barber’s shop Cotton Rose, was still single. After finishing his five-year apprenticeship last autumn, he had opened his own shop there on Benten Street. Since then, several people had suggested he get married. Toki was by nature a very introverted man, however, and even a simple mention of the topic was enough to make him withdraw into his shell, to the point that he was risking the opportunity to find a partner. But, of late, longings had begun to stir within him.

  The object of his affections was O-Sumi, his female counterpart over at Tachibana Hairdressing. She had wide, bright eyes and an alluring mouth. Toki had fallen in love with her just two months earlier, on a two-day group tour to Narita-San Temple organised by the Tōkyō Metropolis Barber’s Union.

  She was the reason why Toki’s actions had been erratic of late. Being such reserved person, two months had already passed without him expressing his feelings to her, although he’d been agonizing about it all that time. Finally, two or three days ago, he’d made up his mind and started to write a letter.

  It was by no means a long letter, but it had taken him so long because it was the first time in his life he’d written anything of the kind. That being so, it wasn’t surprising that Toki would occasionally slip up during his work, as his mind was preoccupied.

  He’d stayed up almost the entire night before and had finally completed the letter. He’d kept it in the pocket of his barber’s uniform throughout the day as he anxiously weighed his options, and it was all that worrying which had eventually led to his latest mistake that evening.

  But that was not what was uppermost in Toki’s mind. There came a point when there were no customers in the shop, and he decided to seize the opportunity to send his letter to O-Sumi.

  ‘Minkō, I’ve got to go out for a second. Watch the shop.’

  Yelling those words to his apprentice, Toki rushed out into the street.

  At the end of Benten Street was a major thoroughfare with a tram line down the middle. To the east the pavement was packed with the night stalls of street vendors with their backs to the tram line. The street was always bustling with pedestrians passing by.

  At the end of the line of night stalls, adjacent to the stall of a second-hand book dealer, stood a letter-box, partially hidden in the shadow of a tree in the adjacent side street. Toki had been lost in thought until he arrived in front of it. With a pounding heart, he inserted his letter and quickly pulled his hand back, as if his fingers had been burnt.

  When he thought the letter must have hit the bottom, Toki blushed and, in a strangely agitated manner, hurried back to Benten Street. As he was passing a tobacconist’s shop, however, he stopped suddenly in his tracks and cried out.

  He’d forgotten to put a stamp on his precious letter.

  Toki’s Shock

  What a stupid mistake.

  Toki hadn’t reacted strongly when he’d accidently cut part of the customer’s moustache off, but now he turned pale at the realisation of what had just happened.

  He’d really done something unbelievably stupid. The letter would be delivered to O-Sumi, and she’d have to pay double the amount of the unpaid postage: ten sen! He’d been nervous, no doubt about it, but how could he have forgotten to put a stamp on the first letter he’d ever written to a girl?

  ‘Well, there’s no sense in moping about it.’

  He started back towards the letter-box when a thought suddenly struck him. It would be locked up
tightly, of course!

  The only thing he could do was to wait for the postman to arrive, explain what had happened and have him put a stamp on the letter. He didn’t know when the man would come, but he’d just have to wait around until then!

  Having made his grand resolution, Toki started to pace conspicuously up and down near the letter-box, like a sentry in the Chinese army.

  The book dealer, whose stall was barely two shaku from the letter-box, and who didn’t seem to have many customers, kept staring at Toki’s suspicious behaviour. But the postman still hadn’t appeared.

  It seemed as though the only people who used the letter-box were the waitresses working on Benten Street and the young men living in the boarding house for the recently built military factory. A thought struck Toki.

  ‘Of course, instead of waiting here I should ask someone what time the post is collected.’

  He ran to the nearest public telephone.

  ‘Hello, is that the post office? I’d like to know the next collection time for the letter-box at the entrance to Benten Street, please.’

  ‘Please hold.’ For a while there was silence on the other end of the line, but then the voice returned. ‘Hello. The mail won’t be collected again until tomorrow morning, at eight.’

  ‘Tomorrow at eight? The letter-box won’t be opened before then?’

  ‘Absolutely not!’

  Toki stepped back out onto the pavement.

  Even though he could hardly contain his impatience, he really had no choice but wait until eight o’clock the following morning. Crestfallen, he turned to Benten Street.

  The next day, Toki arrived in front of the letter-box at half past seven.

  He waited until the clocks in the nearby shops struck eight, and sure enough that was the exact moment he saw the postman arriving on his red bicycle. The Japanese post office is very precise with time.

  ‘Excuse me, I wonder if you could be of assistance?’

  ‘What kind of assistance?’

  ‘Last night, I posted a letter here….’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘And I forgot to put a stamp on it….’

  ‘Oh, so you want me to put a stamp on it now? To whom is it addressed?’

  ‘Eh? To whom? Errr, she’s, I mean, her name is Sumiko Koiso. Hahaha.’

  ‘Sumiko Koiso….’

  The postman smiled humourlessly, opened the letter-box and withdrew a bundle of envelopes. He quickly scanned the names of the addressees, then turned back to Toki with a suspicious expression.

  ‘There’s no such letter here.’

  ‘Eh? Wha-what did you say?’

  ‘There is no letter addressed to Sumiko Koiso here.’

  ‘Tha-that’s not possible! I definitely posted it here last night at eight o’clock, addressed to Sumiko Koiso of Tachibana Hairdressing of XXX Ward, XXX-Chō. Please check again. Could it have got stuck somewhere inside the letter-box? It was a square, brown envelope.’

  The postman looked visibly displeased, but checked the bundle of letters again carefully, this time in front of Toki.

  ‘Look for yourself. There’s no such letter here.’

  And indeed, there were only a few letters in the bundle, and the important letter Toki had posted last night was not among them!

  He crouched down and peered inside the letter-box through the square opening. But there was nothing there!

  Toki was absolutely dumbfounded.

  Toki’s Prolonged Battle

  The more he thought about it, the more mysterious the incident seemed. That Toki had posted his important letter to Sumiko in that very same letter-box was an undeniable fact. However, that the letter he had posted had seemingly disappeared before it had been collected was also an undeniable fact. That meant that Toki’s important letter had disappeared while it was still inside the letter-box. Almost as if the box had become jealous of Toki and eaten his letter….

  A hungry letter-box. That’s the sort of thing you’d expect to see in a detective story.

  Toki put on a hachimaki headband and concentrated furiously on the problem. But he was unable to solve the mystery.

  He thought hard about it until the evening, and then decided that he would write a replacement letter, so he’d at least accomplish his original goal. This time, he would hang around the letter-box until the postman came, no matter how long it took.

  Toki decided to execute his plan immediately. After he’d finished supper at around eight, he left the shop in Minkō’s care.

  This time, he didn’t forget to buy a stamp at the tobacconist’s shop. He returned to the same place as the night before and posted his letter in all innocence. As it would look strange if he stayed standing next to the letter-box all the time, he decided to walk around the area, still keeping his eyes fixed on the letter-box.

  He was prepared for a prolonged vigil.

  As always, the street was lively with night stalls. The unsuccessful book dealer who had put up his stall right next door mistook Toki for a customer, as he kept walking up and down in front. In the beginning the dealer had called out to Toki two or three times, but when each time Toki would appear to be surprised and pay no attention, now the dealer just shot him the occasional distrustful glance.

  Toki, too, would cast sidelong glances at the letter-box from time to time as he walked up and down.

  But nobody suspicious passed by. The only people who came were the waitresses working on Benten Street. At one point an attractive waitress at one of the cafés finished saying goodbye to a group of people working with the military and discreetly posted a pink envelope.

  Ding…Dong…Ding…Dong…

  A nearby clock struck ten.

  Toki had not noticed until that moment that the number of people on the street had dwindled. Loudly, the nearby shops started to close up. The book dealer kept glaring at him.

  ‘I must be getting on his nerves. I’m probably standing outside his stall too much.’

  Toki decided to change his strategy and headed for the dimly-lit entrance of Benten Street, where he started walking up and down.

  The street was almost empty. By that time it was easy to count the number of pedestrians easily, and the night stall vendors started to pack up there too.

  But not the book dealer adjacent to the letter-box, strangely enough. He started to glare even more intensely at Toki.

  Toki didn’t like being scrutinised, so he tried not to look in the man’s direction. As it happened, he’d been feeling something in his bowels for some time, so it was a convenient moment to go into a dark alley and answer the call of nature.

  While he was busy breaking the law, Toki turned back to take a look at the letter-box, and what he saw took his breath away.

  Toki’s Great Adventure

  Once all the onlookers had departed, the book dealer suddenly began to dismantle his stall. He swiftly packed all his books together and, in a trice, the stall became a cart for carrying the books.

  Having cleared away his wares, the man removed the tent sheet from the bamboo poles and folded it up two or three times, like a mosquito net, and placed it nonchalantly over the letter-box Toki had been watching. The sheet covered the box completely. Next, the man started taking the bamboo poles apart.

  And, surprise, surprise! Right beside the letter-box being covered by the white tent sheet, and to the rear of where the stall had stood, appeared another red letter-box.

  There were two of them.

  Needless to say, Toki could not believe his eyes.

  ‘Am I imagining things?’

  Toki rubbed his eyes and opened them again. Even though there were indeed two letter-boxes in his line of vision, the first one was now covered by the tent sheet, so it appeared simply like some part of the night stall, under the cover of a sheet.

  ‘No, no, but I’m sure I didn’t imagine it….’

  But, as Toki was thinking the incident over, something even more curious happened.

  The dealer had finished taking
the bamboo poles apart and had placed them in the cart. He walked over to the first letter-box, with the apparent aim of collecting the sheet. But instead, the man picked up the sheet together with the letter-box inside, as if it weighed nothing. By the time Toki had realised what had happened, the man had already put the whole package on his cart and departed in the direction of the tram line, pulling his cart behind him. Toki was left behind in surprise.

  ‘Oh no!’

  Toki finally regained his senses.

  Desperately, he ran noisily after the man, who seemed to have noticed his pursuer, and had started to accelerate.

  ‘You there! Over there! Wait!’

  The man started to pick up speed but, since he was dragging a heavy cart behind him, there was no way he was going to win the race. Toki finally managed to grab the back of the cart near the foot of a bridge.

  ‘Yo-you, why are you stealing this letter-box?’

  The other man said nothing but kept tugging on the cart. In his excitement, Toki clutched at the letter-box wrapped in the tent sheet.

  ‘Ma-mail thief!’

  ‘Shut up!’

  The man finally turned around and hissed at him. At that moment, Toki slipped and fell.

  The letter-box flew out of Toki’s hands and landed on the road. It rolled over, making a noise like a large bucket. Finally, a policeman wielding his sabre arrived at the scene.

  Toki started to feel giddy because of his fall….

  Toki’s Exploit

  ‘Oh, that was a fantastic feat.’

  Two or three days later, inside the barber’s shop Cotton Rose, a student customer was listening to Toki’s story.

  ‘So the letter-box was made of tin plate….’

  ‘Precisely. It was a fake made of tin, painted to look like the real thing. It had stood there in a shadowy spot next to the night stall, and because people posting letters don’t touch the box at all, only the metal lid needed to be made with special care.’