The Ginza Ghost Read online

  A murder! Constable Hachisuka jumped up as if he’d been stung. He looked up at the clock. It was ten to three. He made a quick phone call to the police station and hurried out to follow the chindon’ya musician.

  At the crime scene, the three men had been joined by the maids of the Akimori household and a couple of onlookers. Yūtarō had been shooing the onlookers away, but once he caught sight of Constable Hachisuka, he stepped towards him and handed over a bloody knife. He explained he had picked it up about five ken to the west of where the victim had been lying, on the road next to the stone wall.

  Constable Hachisuka immediately started to question the witnesses.

  ‘…So what you’re saying is that… young Yoshida here started chasing after those two men dressed in yukata from this side. And at the same time, Mr. Togawa was walking down the path around the corner. Hmm, a sort of pincer movement... Yet there was no sign of the murderers. That means….’

  Constable Hachisuka went over to take a look at the narrow path for himself. He bit his lip and frowned as his eyes slowly scanned the length of the path. His gaze fell on the little wooden back entrance just north of the western corner of the Akimoris’ wall. He turned to look at the witnesses and smiled grimly. Both Yūtarō and house manager Togawa knew exactly what was on Constable Hachisuka’s mind and both nodded.

  ‘This is terrible,’ said Togawa with a troubled expression on his face. ‘It appears that is the only way they could have escaped.’

  Constable Hachisuka strode determinedly to the little door, opened it and went inside the grounds of the mansion. He returned quickly, looking triumphant.

  ‘I knew it. There are footprints here!’

  At that moment, a group of police officers arrived, led by a senior police detective. Constable Hachisuka handed over the evidence that Yūtarō had given him and proudly reported on his preliminary investigation. Further questioning of the witnesses quickly followed. The victim was Someko, the housekeeper of the Akimori household, and wife of the house manager Yaichi Togawa. As for the crime, both Yūtarō and the postman had witnessed the deed, and because it was beyond any doubt that cause of death had been a single stab wound, the body of the woman was soon released. Based on the testimonies of Yūtarō, the postman and house manager Togawa, the detective decided to proceed with the examination of the footprints Constable Hachisuka had discovered.

  They first opened the back entrance and stepped inside the grounds. Right opposite them, about five ken away, stood the entrance to the kitchen. To their left was the inside of the stone wall. To the right, beyond the planting in the wide garden, stood the main mansion. The engawa veranda[v] that gave access to the house was also visible from their spot. The ground was slightly moist, probably because the plants had been given water during this heat. Footprints of shoes and felt zori sandals were overlapping each other on the ground between the back entrance and the kitchen, presumably made by the household’s servants and tradesmen making their rounds. The footprints Constable Hachisuka had found, however, were immediately to the right of the back entrance and continued from there, through the planting of the front garden, all the way round to the front of the main mansion. They were footprints made by garden geta sandals and there were a lot of them.

  Examination showed that the footprints could be grouped into four sets, which meant that two persons with garden geta sandals had walked up and down in the area. Had they come here from outside, and gone out again? Or had they come from inside and then returned to the mansion? This question was later answered because with geta sandals you can clearly tell which way is the front. Two pairs of such sandals which perfectly matched the tracks on the ground were quickly discovered in front of the engawa veranda, at the place where people take their shoes off at the garden doors of the main mansion.

  This meant suspicion fell on the people of the Akimori household. The police officers became more excited. The senior police detective left Constable Hachisuka behind to guard the footprints, and entered the main building through the engawa veranda. Under the watchful eyes of Yūtarō, the postman and house manager Togawa, the investigation of the Akimori household began.

  The old master of the house, Tatsuzō Akimori, declined to answer any questions as he suffered from an illness which prevented him from moving around. The house manager and the maids all confirmed the existence of the illness, so the detective called for the two sons. When Yūtarō and the postman saw the two men, they turned pale.

  The two sons looked exactly the same in both build and appearance, and both were wearing white yukata with a kagasuri[vi] pattern and a black silk crepe waist band. They were called Hiroshi and Minoru, and they were both twenty-eight years old.

  They were obviously identical twins.

  For a moment there was an eerie silence. But the postman appeared to have had enough, and in a trembling voice he exclaimed: ‘These were the ones!’

  The senior police detective started questioning the two thoroughly. But the Akimori twins both claimed they had been taking an afternoon nap in the wisteria arbour in the back garden until moments ago, and knew nothing about what had happened. They both denied having anything to do with the crime, and both claimed they had not come out into the front garden.

  The two maids were called for again. Natsu, the older maid, however said that she was the one in care of the old master, so she hardly left the annex building in the back and knew nothing about what was going on in the main mansion. Kimi, the younger maid, said that the two young masters had indeed been sleeping in the wisteria arbour, but that she herself had also had an afternoon nap for about an hour after that, and that shortly before the incident had happened, there had been a phone call and the housekeeper Someko had asked her to watch the house during her absence. Kimi felt sorry she had fallen asleep again, as she was still drowsy at the time.

  The testimony of the maids showed the alibi of the twins was very shaky, but what really made things worse for them was that, every time Someko Togawa’s name came up during the questioning, the twins would look scared and start stammering, conveying a very bad impression to the officers in charge. The senior police detective sent one of his subordinates to the forensic department of the Metropolitan Police Department, in order to get a comparison of the twins’ fingerprints with those on the grip of the murder weapon they had retrieved.

  3

  Meanwhile, rookie constable Hachisuka, who had been given the task of guarding the footprints, was secretly feeling quite pleased with himself for having been of such tremendous help with his very first murder case since joining the police force. With everything going so smoothly, his job almost seemed like nothing more than a game. He locked his hands behind his back and strolled up and down along the footprints, nodding to himself.

  As he took a closer look at the footprints, he noted that they were quite interesting. That thought was still in Constable Hachisuka’s mind as he crouched down near the door of the back entrance and picked up a pink-coloured advertising flyer which had been stepped on by the footprints left by the garden geta sandals, in this case prints heading for the back entrance—which meant that the person who made the tracks had come from the garden planting and stepped on the flyer as they went out through the small door. Let’s see. Appears to be an advertisement for a café. Lupin… Lupin? Hadn’t he heard that name before somewhere?

  Constable Hachisuka stood up with a thoughtful expression on his face. Just at that moment, he spotted the maid Kimi exit the kitchen after her questioning, and walked over to her. ‘I’ve got a little question,’ he said. ‘Where do you receive the newspaper and advertising flyers in this place?’

  ‘Er, the newspaper?’ The maid wiped her hands on her apron. ‘The newspaper is always brought in through the back entrance and delivered here at the kitchen. The mail, too. But, as to the advertising flyers, they just open the small door slightly and throw them inside the garden from the back entrance.’

  ‘I see. Thank you.’

 
Constable Hachisuka nodded his thanks, but his face turned paler and he began to look distressed. The lively spirit he had shown previously had disappeared, and he started to bite his lip and poke his temple with a trembling finger.

  That’s odd. So someone had stepped on the flyers thrown into the garden from the back exit. Could that be right? Is that really what happened? No, no. It didn’t make any sense! Constable Hachisuka started contemplating the matter more deeply, standing there as if rooted to the spot.

  At that moment, the senior police detective and his men, having finished their investigation, came out of the house in high spirits, bringing with them the twins Hiroshi and Minoru. Constable Hachisuka suddenly became alarmed. In a fluster, he walked up to the senior police detective and said: ‘Please wait. I still have some doubts.’

  ‘What?’ The detective leant towards him. ‘Doubts? This is no time for jokes. It’s all clear. Forensics called. The fingerprints on the handle of the murder weapon were an exact match with those of Hiroshi Akimori!’

  With no way to refute that, Constable Hachisuka bit his tongue.

  The party left the grounds shortly thereafter. The Akimori twins were basically treated as the murderers and would be detained at the local police station. With that, the case appeared to have come to an end.

  Constable Hachisuka, however, was far from satisfied. When his shift ended that evening, he started racking his brains again over the problem and decided to return to the Akimori residence. The constable had the maid he had talked to earlier watch him as he once again crouched down near the spot at the back entrance, where the flyer which had been stepped on by the garden geta sandals had been found, and he started thinking it all over.

  This was a flyer for Café Lupin, and there could be little doubt it had been scattered there by the chindon’ya musicians. So had the chindon’ya musicians thrown the flyer inside first? Or had the two murderers passed by this spot first? The only possible interpretation of the facts in front of him was that the flyer had been left behind first, and that afterwards the two murderers had passed by and unknowingly stepped upon the flyer with their garden geta sandals. Exactly. That was an undeniable fact. And that meant the chindon’ya musicians must have passed by here before the murderers had gone out through the back entrance—and therefore before the tragedy had occurred. Wait a second. Was that right? That couldn’t be right: the chindon’ya musicians had only arrived after the murder had happened. It didn’t add up at all!

  Perplexed, Constable Hachisuka stood up.

  That’s it. He had to question the chindon’ya musicians. Perhaps they did pass by before the crime had happened. It didn’t seem likely, but he had to confirm whether it was true or not.

  Constable Hachisuka left the Akimori residence and turned to walk alongside the stone wall towards the east.

  What if, as he suspected, the chindon’ya musicians had thrown the flyer inside after the crime had happened? That would mean the footprints of the murderers…yes. It would mean it had been a horrible trap.

  Constable Hachisuka continued with his reflection on the facts. Little did he know that he was about to run into another impossible problem.

  He had just arrived at the crime scene, in front of the main gate of the Akimori residence, when he suddenly stopped in his tracks. He stared in front of him and cocked his head. He clicked his tongue in annoyance and continued on his way. On arriving at the apartment building next door, he went inside and said to the person behind the counter: ‘Please call Yūtarō Yoshida down.’

  Yūtarō was dead tired from the questioning and had been dozing off in his room, but he got up in surprise and descended the staircase. Once he saw Constable Hachisuka’s face, he asked: ‘Has something else happened?’

  ‘No, but I do have something I need to ask you. Please follow me,’ the constable replied as he walked off.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ Yūtarō asked as he followed the constable. But the policeman continued walking without uttering a word. When they arrived at the spot where he had been just before, on the pavement in front of the main gate of the Akimori residence, he turned and said: ‘The place we’re standing now is the crime scene, where the victim was lying, correct?’

  Yūtarō was surprised by this unexpected, yet very obvious question. He trembled as he nodded. Constable Hachisuka looked intently at young Yūtarō, as if he were fishing for something.

  ‘I believe you’re an honest witness, but I recall you said you were standing right next to the letter-box in front of your apartment building when you saw the victim lying here, did you not?’

  ‘Yes, that’s right,’ replied Yūtarō, then quickly added: ‘If you think I’m lying, ask the postman.’

  ‘Hmm, I see. Furthermore, since we’re standing here, we should naturally also be able to see the letter-box in front of your building, is that right? Well, can you see it?’

  Yūtarō suddenly turned pale. For there was no letter-box at the place where he was looking! The street lamp which was supposed to be standing a few ken before the letter-box was casting its dim light in the darkness of the early evening, but there was no sign of the letter-box, as if it had been swallowed up by the stone wall.

  Police Constable Hachisuka put his hand on Yūtarō’s shoulder and asked, with emotion in his voice: ‘How do you explain that?!’

  4

  Yūtarō had been caught completely off guard by the revelation, and had spent the whole night thinking it over, getting hardly any sleep. The next morning, Yūtarō was awakened early by the constable. He was in a very bad mood as he dressed and left his room.

  ‘I need your help with something,’ the rookie police constable said in a surprisingly friendly manner as they descended the staircase. ‘I didn’t sleep a wink last night, either. I spent all night looking for those chindon’ya musicians, you see. And you have to keep this a secret, but I discovered something very startling. You see, some time after the crime, those chindon’ya musicians left a flyer, and the two murderers apparently stepped on it with those garden geta sandals. But the geta footprints weren’t made during the crime: they were made afterwards, on purpose, to incriminate the twins. It’s a horrifying trick. I don’t know who the real murderers are, but they’re certainly not the Akimori twins!’

  They were leaving the apartment building. The constable, paying no attention to Yūtarō’s surprise, suddenly looked angry.

  ‘But nobody at the station will listen to what I have to say. They have witnesses, they have evidence, and what’s worse, during the questioning held later at the station, they discovered those twins and the housekeeper were having a liaison. Can you believe it? I don’t know whether the woman was given money for her “services,” or whether it was something that came out of that woman’s own curious desires, but in any case, their relationship is a very powerful motive for murder. And then there’s that fact we talked about last night. It’s all going bad now. But I’m not going to be defeated.’

  When they arrived in front of the main gate of the Akimori residence, Constable Hachisuka took a large tape measure out of his pocket and, with Yūtarō’s help, started to make very accurate measurements concerning the miracle that had occurred there at the stone wall. But no matter what they tried, it was impossible to see the spot where the victim was lying from the location of the letter-box, as the spot was hidden by the gentle curve of the stone wall. Similarly, one couldn’t see the letter-box from the spot where the victim had been lying, either. Constable Hachisuka stopped taking measurements and said: ‘Yoshida, I’ll ask you for the last time, so please help me out and answer honestly. Did you and the postman really see the crime scene while standing next to this letter-box?’

  Yūtarō was getting angry at the constable’s persistent questioning, but he remained calm and answered in the same manner as the previous night.

  ‘So you are sure. I’m sorry for doubting you,’ said the constable as he put the measure away. ‘That means that this long stone wall has moved close
r to the road by at least three shaku compared to when you two saw the crime. That’s obviously impossible, but thanks anyway.’

  As he thanked Yūtarō, the constable added: ‘But do note that this might become a matter of questioning the reliability of the witnesses, so beware: you might get asked about this again.’

  So saying, Constable Hachisuka went home, looking very downcast.

  ‘This has become a rather troublesome matter,’ thought Yūtarō. Could he perhaps have been mistaken? No, no, he was absolutely not mistaken. But still, it was very curious. And Constable Hachisuka had said the Akimori twins weren’t the murderers. But who could they be, then? Who was the murderer, and who was the accomplice? Was there another set of twins around? Or perhaps…?

  He remembered the parting words of Constable Hachisuka. A matter of questioning the reliability of the witnesses? Bah, that was something he really didn’t appreciate. Yūtarō kept on turning the problem over in his mind. But no matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t solve it. When Yūtarō finally realised he would never solve the case on his own, he started searching his mind for someone who could help him, someone he could trust.

  Ah! Kyōsuke Aoyama!

  Yūtarō recalled the curious man who of late had occasionally appeared at lectures at his school.

  That was it! That man claimed he had experience with criminal cases. If Yūtarō could explain the case to Aoyama, surely he would give him some advice.

  After school, Yūtarō went to visit Kyōsuke Aoyama.

  ‘Wasn’t that case already closed?’ asked Kyōsuke as he offered Yūtarō a chair. But once Yūtarō had confided the facts he himself had seen and heard as a witness, the new hypothesis of Constable Hachisuka that proved the twins to be innocent, the strange happening at the stone wall and the troublesome position he himself was now in as a witness, Kyōsuke Aoyama started to show more interest. He asked two or three questions during Yūtarō’s account of the events and closed his eyes to think, but at last he stood up.